As for the Spectre Prophet Weixi, she had stepped into the divine realm and achieved the status of demigod in her very first life. After living out a second life, she became a dual demigod in both soul and prophecy sorceries. In a world of sorcerers where even the legendary realm was so difficult to scale, it was little wonder that the Spectre Prophet, commanding two demigod-tier sorceries, had carved out an illustrious and terrifying reputation—one that made demigods retreat and divine lords wary.
Even ignoring the time after her death, her lifespan exceeded a thousand years. What was more, she rarely sought pleasure or indulgence. She was either on the road to murdering, plundering, and hoarding resources, or immersed in research to unravel the mysteries of sorcery. A tumultuous, perilous adventure like the one Yaxiu had endured could barely squeeze into her *Spectre Prophet's Top Ten Curated Adventures*.
In Harvey's words, Weixi was the highest-quality living specimen he had ever seen, and she would be even better dead.
What was even more terrifying was that her bottom line was repeatedly violating her principles, and her principle was repeatedly breaking through her bottom line.
In the eyes of any normal person, a millennial demigod being dominated and enslaved by a mortal like Yaxiu, who was barely in his twenties, was like a noble princess being held in the palm of a lowly beggar. Weixi ought to have felt humiliated and furious. Yet she flattered and fawned over Yaxiu as naturally as breathing. Had Yaxiu not fully understood her sinister nature, he might truly have lost himself in the pleasure of conquering a demigod.
Propriety, righteousness, shame, moral dignity, even her own body—she cared for none of it. There were no longer any shackles in this world capable of binding Weixi. She was a living demon: whatever failed to kill her would only make her stronger, and whoever thought they could control her would only end up corrupted and tainted by her.
The moment Weixi became an operator, Yaxiu had been pondering how he could restrain this demon maid.
Pain? She didn't care.
Humiliation? She would play along with Yaxiu's act, and might even propose a few more kinks.
Death? *Great, great! Master, I'll head back to the Stars to chat with Sword Princess first, and I'll tell her how many twisted games you used to humiliate me.*
She had no weaknesses, and could even slip past death. On the surface, Yaxiu dominated her, but in reality, Yaxiu was bound hand and foot by her.
Yet even the most brutal elf, the very incarnation of a demon, ultimately still had something she valued.
Power.
Having been reborn into a second life, Weixi could clearly have used her foresight to live a splendid, dazzling existence, indulging every pleasure to satisfy her desires. Instead, she chose the path of the Spectre Prophet.
To attain power at the swiftest possible speed, she had not hesitated to make the entire world her enemy.
Friends, renown, comfort... She laid every one of her desires upon the altar, sacrificing them all to power. She did not even truly pursue sorcery; to her, sorcery was merely a tool. What truly seduced her was power surpassing all else—a throne towering above all living beings.
She did not pursue political authority simply because she knew authority was merely an appendage of power, as proven by the principle that a divine lord was an entire country unto itself.
So the moment Yaxiu obtained the golden scale, he knew he finally possessed the means to discipline Weixi.
"What a pity I couldn't strip away all your wings."
Yaxiu glanced at Weixi's other wings, an expression of regret surfacing on his face. "Still, taking away your hope of reaching the supreme realm is enough."
Four small scales had appeared on the golden scale, clearly transformed from Weixi's knowledge feathers.
For an immortal demon chasing supreme power, nothing was crueler than stripping away the sole hope she had waited thousands of years to grasp.
Her eyes brimming with tears, Weixi stared at the golden scale in Yaxiu's hand. She wanted to reach out and snatch it back, yet the chains bound her, leaving her unable to make a move. She watched helplessly as Yaxiu pressed the golden scale against Igola and Harvey, causing the deceiver to sprout a mind feather and the necromancer to sprout a necromancy feather. With a wail, she burst into tears and buried her head against Yaxiu's thigh, sobbing uncontrollably.
In truth, having her spoils stolen by Yaxiu this time was a trivial matter; Weixi had suffered betrayal and theft countless times before, and had even experienced open robbery by a divine lord.
But the problem was that Yaxiu's possession of this golden scale meant that even if Weixi managed to obtain soul feathers again in the future, Yaxiu would simply take them away!
What belonged to the maid belonged to the master, and what belonged to the master still belonged to the master!
As long as Yaxiu lived, she would never have any hope of attaining the supreme realm!
Weixi lifted her head, her tear-reddened eyes glaring at Yaxiu with boundless resentment. Unfortunately, she was forbidden from projecting killing intent toward Yaxiu, so she ended up looking like a little girl whose lollipop had been stolen by a bully.
Not only did Yaxiu pay it no mind, his eyebrows even rose in delighted amusement. Turning his head, he asked, "How do you two feel?"
Igola pondered for a moment. "I couldn't choose which part of the knowledge to condense, but this time it happened to condense the 'Mind Reading' knowledge. Related sorcery spirits receive roughly a twofold boost, and that should improve even further in crowded places."
"Crowded places?"
"Just as the ocean is to a water sorcerer and a volcano is to a fire sorcerer, the mind faction has its own ideal environment for expression: places with heavy foot traffic," Igola explained. "However, that environmental influence usually just makes it easier for sorcery spirits to function, offering a boost of around ten percent at most. Now that I have this mind feather, I feel like I can make far more efficient use of the environment."
Yaxiu nodded thoughtfully. "Then Harvey, your optimal environment is a graveyard?"
"No." Harvey shook his head. "My optimal casting environment is also a crowded place."
Noticing the slight shift in their expressions, the necromancer sighed. "It's not what you think. Being able to procure materials on the spot and turn living people into casting components is merely one insignificant factor."
"One of the factors?" Yaxiu blinked.
"I've said it many times, but you still harbor misconceptions about corpses," Harvey said. "A corpse that hasn't been treated by a necromancer is no different from Lalafell luncheon meat—just a pile of rotten flesh. Humans are no nobler than other animals. A mass grave where many have died is no more suitable for a necromancer's craft than a slaughterhouse; at best, it serves as an amusement park for a necromancer.
"The essence of the necromancy faction is the direct and inverted manipulation of life. Therefore, crowded places make it much easier for necromancy spirits to cast. Death is not the opposite of life; it is merely another form of it."
"I see." Yaxiu nodded repeatedly. "I really wish I hadn't understood a single word of that... Then what is the optimal casting environment for the swordsmanship faction? Weixi?"
Weixi sniffled fiercely, her eyes locked straight onto Yaxiu as she choked back a sob. "Swordsmanship was merely an ordinary faction in my era. They were basically brutes who couldn't withstand soul miracles. The first sword sorcerer I ever killed was..."
She began employing malicious compliance once more to rebel against Yaxiu. Yaxiu had asked her about swordsmanship, so she was going to slowly recite every bit of knowledge she had on the subject, squandering Yaxiu's time.
Yet Yaxiu wasn't angry in the slightest. He could barely contain his laughter as he leaned his head back and said to the other two, "Her expression—furious, completely helpless against me, and reduced to trying to disgust me like this—isn't it entertaining?"
Weixi's voice faltered. She felt stuck, unsure whether continuing or stopping was worse, and could only gloomily suppress her voice as she carried on introducing the sword sorcerers she had slain.
Igola gave a strange look at Yaxiu and the maid slumped across his thigh. "Is it really wise to distribute the knowledge feathers to us? The others might have acquired a fair number of knowledge feathers by now. Shouldn't we concentrate the knowledge feathers to maximize our side's peak combat strength as much as possible?"
Yaxiu countered, "Leaving Feili aside, who is our peak combat strength?"
Igola started, immediately realizing he had spoken foolishly. The peak combat strength on their side was naturally the demigod Weixi!
Even if Weixi had only a single sorcery spirit left and was burdened with Yaxiu as her master, her immense combat experience still placed her at the pinnacle of legendary combat strength. From a purely rational standpoint, the knowledge feathers ought to have been given to her.
If Weixi were excluded, it was actually hard to rank Yaxiu, Igola, and Harvey, because their strengths and weaknesses were all very pronounced:
Harvey had his ultimate trump card in the Blood Moon Corpse King, whose burst damage could outshine all three of them, but his routine output was relatively low.
Igola's 'Visualization Superposition' was a miracle with no upper ceiling, and he possessed various crowd-control miracles, giving him well-rounded overall combat strength.
Yaxiu had 'Sword Retainer' for melee, 'Heart Pen' for ranged combat, and excelled at healing and defense, but lacked a decisive, life-risking miracle capable of ending a battle in one fell swoop.
Yaxiu's foundation in sorcery was still too shallow; he had only managed to develop the miracle 'Sword Retainer' thanks to the help of Sonia and the others. Although the swordsmanship faction was not devoid of desperate, life-risking miracles, any reasonable thought made it obvious that Sword Princess and Witch would never teach him something that hazardous.
Whomever the knowledge feathers were given to, it seemed to make little difference.
"We're different from the other squads. Aside from their demon, the other squads probably only have a single legendary sorcerer, whereas we have three full members. That's why we need to leverage our numerical advantage and elevate both of your combat capabilities as much as possible." Yaxiu's reasoning was well-structured; he had clearly thought it through beforehand. "In the next operation, even if an accident separates us again, you two will at least have the capital to operate independently, and our chances of seizing the angel remains will increase as well."
Igola nodded and held his peace. Harvey asked, "Did you find any clues regarding the angel's true form this time?"
Yaxiu shook his head. "The golden scale doesn't have that kind of effect. As for the silver holy chalice... Weixi, do you have any clues regarding the Prime Angel? Once we kill the Prime Angel, you might be able to snatch a few knowledge feathers. I might even allow you to hold onto them for me for a couple of days."
"No!" Weixi snapped through gritted teeth. "Do you think this is enough to rile me up?"
"Come, Weixi, hold out your hand."
Under Weixi's wary gaze, Yaxiu placed the golden scale in her palm. Immediately, she saw a soul feather sprout once more at the small of her waist. Just as her tears turned into a radiant smile and a sparkle appeared in her eyes, the feather dissipated again.
"Hahaha, I should have taken a picture! Your expression was priceless, Weixi! Best two source crystals I've ever spent! What fun!"
"Yaxiu, you... you demon! Give it back!"
While master and servant bickered, Harvey took a few steps back and signaled for Igola to join him, asking with some uncertainty:
"Is Yaxiu... perhaps...?"
"Yes." Igola nodded, murmuring in a low voice, "He's displaying a streak of sadism toward Weixi like we've never seen before."
Chapter 848