"In Audience with Hell, it is written that six chains wrap vertically and six horizontally, entwined with gloom, transcending all things," the curse elf murmured. "So why do the chains seem incomplete?"
"Because several chains were stolen!" Yinzhi shouted in reply. She turned her head and yelled, "Yejian, don't let them get away!"
"All right."
Yejian suddenly spread his demon wings and said to Harvey, "In the name of Yejian, Transcendent Synchronization!"
The next instant, violent surges of sorcery power swept across the entire world.
Igola blinked, only to find that the riddled urban ruins had vanished. They were now in a space surrounded by countless corpses. The ground was a boiling sea of maggot-and-fly-infested bodies, and neatly aligned corpses in white garments floated in the air, forming walls. Everywhere the eye could see, there was only death.
Yet for some reason, Igola did not feel disgusted or oppressed. He even felt an inexplicable sense of refreshed delight, as though he were on a springtime excursion in the open country.
"Transcendent Magic."
A sinister, eerie, scalp-tingling voice slipped from Harvey's lips. Igola turned his head and saw that the little boy had disappeared at some point. Only Harvey remained, clad in a blood-red formal suit, chanting aloud, "Myriad Corpse Ghoul Samsara Formation!"
The next second, black roses suddenly sprouted on the curse elf, Lehuai, the Grieving Shadow Evil Dragon, and Longyuan. By now, the Grieving Shadow Evil Dragon was no longer teleporting—this massive formation very likely possessed a spatial anchor effect. However, the curse elf's Delay Magic was still active, preventing the black roses on her from blooming. Apart from them, black roses were blossoming on every single corpse in the ghoul formation. Moreover, the blossoming of the roses was not the end; from the hearts of the black roses crawled out white souls, one after another.
The white souls merged into a torrential flood, engulfing the four who were still putting up a stubborn resistance.
Seeing this scene, Igola suddenly recalled what Harvey had once said: *Death is merely a stage in a long life; upon the soil of death, new life will grow.*
No wonder he had felt no disgust—this was not a ritual of death, but a ritual of rebirth.
Under the pincer attack of the black roses and the white souls, the Grieving Shadow Evil Dragon quickly grew unable to hold on and reverted to a young sorcerer. Longyuan caught him in his arms and said calmly, "In the name of Longyuan, Transcendent Synchronization."
At the same time, Lehuai also reached out and pulled the curse elf girl into his embrace. "In the name of Lehuai, Transcendent Synchronization."
As the words fell, Lehuai and Longyuan vanished, leaving only the young sorcerer and the curse elf girl where they had stood.
"Don't think you can escape!" Yinzhi snapped immediately. "In the name of Yinzhi—"
"Wait!" Igola yelled. "I—"
"Transcendent Synchronization!"
The next second, Igola heard himself speak in an insightful female voice:
"Transcendent Magic: World Rhapsody!"
With his hands, he pressed his index fingers and thumbs against each other to form a frame, capturing the young sorcerer and the curse elf girl inside.
"The space here should not exist!"
When Igola lowered his hands, the space he had framed was severed, on the verge of being permanently banished from this world.
Even without an explanation, Igola guessed the effect of this Transcendent Magic—not only could he deceive all things, but now he could even deceive the world! If he said it should not exist, the world would delete it entirely!
"Transcendent Magic," the curse elf girl said softly. "Recall the Past."
The world's banishment, the flood of white souls, the rebirth of the corpse ghouls—every process ground to an extreme crawl. Even Igola and Harvey were not spared. It was as though the entire world had fallen into the curse elf girl's reminiscing, frozen solid within it, incapable of any further change.
"Transcendent Magic: Traverse Time."
By the time they heard that voice, the young sorcerer had already disappeared. Igola and Harvey watched helplessly as the curse elf girl stepped out of the banished space and broke through the Myriad Corpse Ghoul Samsara Formation before the magic of Recall the Past quietly lifted.
Casting Transcendent Magic had practically drained Igola and Harvey of their sorcery power. They had no choice but to fly over to a nearby skyscraper and land.
When Igola looked up, he saw Yinzhi sitting beside him, and he finally regained control of his body.
"What just happened?" he asked, his breathing shallow and rapid.
"Well, pretty much like hiring an account pilot in a video game." Yinzhi rested his head on her lap. "If I think I can do better, I can temporarily take over your account and play for a bit. It was an emergency just now, but I'll let you know beforehand next time. And just as I expected, Igola, your magic's upper limit is crazy high! Super awesome!"
Facing Yinzhi's flattering tone, however, Igola showed no reaction.
The thing he could least tolerate in his life was being controlled by others. Furthermore, the decisiveness and cunning Yinzhi had just displayed finally served as a wake-up call for him.
If you felt utterly comfortable around someone, it meant their emotional intelligence far exceeded your own. Igola clearly realized that with his meager abilities, it was fundamentally impossible for him to control Yinzhi. How could a child ever hope to control a mature older sister? He immediately tossed the stray thought of following Yinzhi into the trash, firmly resolving to stick with those two honest fools, Yaxiu and Harvey.
Why was it so uncomfortable being around the two of them? Because their emotional intelligence was too low! But that also meant they were easy to handle!
Seeing Igola's quiet demeanor, Yinzhi knew she had inadvertently ruined her chance to win him over. However, she was not discouraged and effortlessly shifted his attention. "Do you know why they suddenly fled?"
In the decisive battle that had erupted just now, Longyuan's and Lehuai's factions had not been helpless. In particular, Lehuai's Transcendent Magic, Recall the Past, was practically on par with a time freeze. Had they chosen to counterattack, Igola and Harvey would have had no way to resist. Yet they had chosen steadfastly to flee.
Furthermore, the reason everyone had resorted to Transcendent Magic in rapid succession was that Yinzhi had sensed the enemies intended to run, so she had stopped at nothing to detain them, acting as the ultimate initiator of the clash.
Yinzhi pointed into the distance. Igola looked over and was instantly taken aback.
He saw both the curse elf and the young sorcerer collapsed unconscious on the ground, while Longyuan and Lehuai were busy clearing out the Six Nations legions near them. However, Longyuan and Lehuai now had only three demon wings left.
Yet both the curse elf and the young sorcerer were clearly peak legends with four complete wings. Through demon resonance, Longyuan and Lehuai should have had four wings as well. Why were only three left?
Igola faintly grasped something. "Did they run just to..."
"Igola is so smart," Yinzhi praised. "They were in such a hurry to flee so that they could trigger the mysterious chains to snap their sorcerers' virtual wings. After all, their sorcerers were only one final step away from becoming demigods.
"Otherwise, the moment their sorcerers reacted, they would have been forcibly dragged into the advancement ritual, and by then, no one could have interrupted it. Fortunately, the Country of All Stars just happens to have this mechanism for snapping virtual wings; otherwise, those two sorcerers would have had no choice but to wait for death.
"As for you, since your four wings aren't complete yet, you won't be in danger," Yinzhi said with a smile. "At least, not for now."
"For now?" Igola's brows furrowed.
Yet Yinzhi turned her head and whispered, "It's about to begin."
Igola looked across and saw that on the other side of the city, a Four-Winged Sorcerer had taken to the sky. The turbid gloom of Hell served only to accentuate the dazzling purity and brilliance of the four virtual wings—silver, gold, rainbow, and anomalous.
*Four wings, angel, Hell, demigod, trial...*
Just as Igola was piecing together the answer from these keywords, Harvey was looking at Yejian in utter shock.
"What? That incredible Transcendent Magic just now wasn't cast by me? But the Myriad Corpse Ghoul Samsara Formation fits my style so well—it's practically something I would come up with... Are you lying to me? That had to be mine, right?"
The young boy, Yejian, looked at the older man. "Do you still want to know why they ran away?"
"No." Harvey shook his head. "When we have time, let's cast the Myriad Corpse Ghoul Samsara Formation again, okay?"
Yejian pondered for a moment. "How about you treat me to ice cream? Tiramisu limits my sweets."
"Deal."
Chapter 882