"Under normal circumstances, a sorcerer's void wings can only bear the first four layers of Hell," Weixi said languidly. "Except in one situation."
"What situation?" Yaxiu asked.
"Obviously when another force helps him bear the fifth layer," Weixi said, rolling her eyes at him.
Yaxiu looked bewildered. "Can outsiders actually intervene in the advancement ritual?"
"When the advancement ritual begins, the Path of Origin is completely sealed from the inside and outside. We might be able to watch, but we couldn't possibly affect the interior," Weixi explained. "Outsiders can't lend a hand, but he can find a helper himself."
"Sorcerers aren't the only ones with wings."
Yaxiu came to a sudden realization. "A sorcery spirit? Or... a god?"
"That is where the title of demigod originates," Weixi said. "Demigod carries two meanings. First, once a sorcerer advances, their individual combat strength is virtually equal to that of a god. The second meaning is that only a mortal in possession of a god can hope to pass the advancement ritual.
"However, aside from the exceedingly rare fortunate few capable of obtaining a god on their own," Weixi shot Yaxiu a sideways glance, "the sole path for most sorcerers to gain a god is winning the favor of a Divine Lord, having it bestowed upon them.
"Now you understand, right? Unlike layers one through four, climbing to the fifth layer isn't about your personal strength—what matters is whether you're willing to become a dog for a Divine Lord!"
Yaxiu suddenly recalled something. "A demigod angel..."
In truth, the term "demigod" was seldom used. When referring to Five-Wing sorcerers, most people thought of them as angels seated beneath the Divine Lords.
"When enough people become dogs, the dog's name becomes the title of a person," Weixi sneered.
"Then you certainly never played the dog. After all, you didn't have a single god in your temple," Yaxiu asked curiously. "How did you get past this hurdle?"
"The soul faction," Weixi replied calmly. "My soul was potent enough to bear the first layer of Hell entirely on its own, leaving my void wings to bear the second, third, fourth, and fifth layers. But to strengthen a soul to that degree while still a mortal... you should know from the Spectre Manual just how much effort I expended."
Slaughtering all living beings, preying upon the world.
A question that had long puzzled Yaxiu was finally answered. He had never understood why Weixi had gone on such an indiscriminate killing spree after becoming a Sanctuary Legend. She could easily have attained whatever she wanted through subtler means, rather than waging war against the entire world like a lunatic.
Yet if butchering the world was her primary quest all along, everything made sense.
"You mentioned earlier that he could create...?"
"Indeed." Weixi nodded slightly. "There are two ways a god is born: born of nature, or forged by hand. A sorcerer undergoing Four-Wing Balancing is the closest entity to nature itself. Drawing upon their enlightenment, it is entirely possible to directly sublimate an existing sorcery spirit into a brand-new god.
"And that is the most orthodox method of advancement—forge a god, shoulder Hell, and step into the divine domain."
"Wait." Yaxiu caught a discrepancy. "Aren't there six layers of Hell? Can a god shoulder two layers?"
Weixi blinked. "Ah, you didn't know? Although they speak of Six Hells, the sixth layer is just like the peak of Ruby Mountain—an area that seemingly exists yet can never actually be reached. Therefore, only five layers of Hell ever appear during the advancement ritual."
Only five layers in the Six Hells. That made sense.
Yaxiu looked up at the plunging fifth layer of Hell. "Is it possible for him to create a god?"
"I certainly couldn't," Weixi said calmly. "Back then, my consciousness was completely inundated by the flood of knowledge and the crushing weight of Hell. Merely staying lucid took everything I had, let alone creating a god.
"Still, the one thing sorcerers never lack is miracles."
With silent superposition, Rajesh's soul silhouette shattered once more! And when he condensed his soul body anew, he could do nothing to halt the accelerating plunge of the fifth layer of Hell!
Rajesh turned his head toward the far side of the city. He dipped his chin in a gentle nod, then looked back up at the falling fifth layer.
He was suddenly reminded of an event from long ago, during his three years in the cycle of reincarnation.
Between falling into reincarnation and truly grasping the Lord of Joy's intent, he had actually gone through a rebellious phase.
Simply put, because he was suffering the punishment of reincarnation himself, he had wished desperately for other Eternal Ones to commit sins and fall into error. That way, once their one-year free period elapsed, they too would be dragged into reincarnation to endure misery and torment.
*If my life is miserable, why should yours be wonderful?*
*If I made mistakes, how dare you answer correctly?*
That mindset was actually the mainstream among reincarnators. It was not merely that human nature leaned toward malice; it was also because sycophantic, flattering courtiers lived far more comfortably in reincarnation. Loyal officials who offered candid remonstrances to the Eternal Ones were almost invariably subjected to horrific executions by the infuriated rulers. From that angle, a loyal courtier might end up deepening an Eternal One's sins even more than a corrupt flatterer.
Rajesh's genuine turning point came from a specific cycle of reincarnation.
In that cycle, the Eternal One was a Curse Elf. She was not truly an evil person; she simply wished for the world to revolve around her, to have hordes of handsome men adore her, to have everything go her way, to obtain whatever she desired, and to be universally favored.
At first, she was polite and courteous, never making unreasonable demands. She cared about the feelings of others and treated everyone equally. Yet under the deliberate steering of Rajesh and the other reincarnators, she gradually untethered her desires. She began ignoring the dignity of those around her, becoming drunk on the thrill of power.
To drive her deeper into transgression, Rajesh had even attempted to cultivate her darker impulses, teaching her to relish the agonizing screams of others, the ecstasy of sadism, and the delight of trampling human dignity. Human nature could never endure such testing. Soon, the Curse Elf cast off all restraint, ceasing to view people as human. She even reached the point where she thought nothing of stripping naked in front of others—not because she lacked shame, but because shame existed only before one's peers. Would anyone mind being naked in front of a toy, a cat, or a dog?
The turning point came when someone died.
When the Curse Elf saw the corpse, she froze, sinking to her knees beside it in a daze.
The exclusive worlds granted to the Eternal Ones possessed everything, yet they were incapable of granting one specific request: resurrection. In truth, resurrecting someone was trivial. Those who died were merely reincarnators who could easily be remolded anew. Yet for reasons unknown, the Lord of Joy forbade resurrection entirely.
Rajesh had assumed she was merely terrified by her first encounter with death and would soon recover. But the Curse Elf locked herself away for days. When Rajesh finally saw her again, her very first words were, "I'm sorry."
From that day forward, the Curse Elf no longer demanded that the world revolve around her, nor did she need people to adore her. Instead, she apologized and atoned to those she had harmed, doing everything in her power to help them live happy lives.
The very first person she sought to atone to was Rajesh. He could easily have stayed far away from her, idling away the days in that cycle of reincarnation until his sentence expired. Yet on an inexplicable whim, he told her he wanted to stay by her side, to see if her desire to atone was genuine.
And so Rajesh accompanied the Curse Elf as she begged for forgiveness from one person after another, occasionally offering advice and lending a hand. By the time the Curse Elf's free period ended, Rajesh's heart had undergone a quiet transformation.
Pure saints and irredeemable villains were forever an extreme minority. They could not be educated, nor did they require it; they were finished products from the moment they were born. Yet the vast majority living beneath the heavens were stubborn stones and rotten wood containing both good and evil. They harbored shameful, vile desires, yet would occasionally burst forth with unadulterated kindness.
Neither scripture, family, schooling, nor societal education could ever fully eradicate the wicked impulses in the human heart; at most, they could suppress them. Yet from the instant of their emergence, sorcerers were free beings unbound by shackles. When a sorcerer's malicious impulses erupted, they invariably wrought catastrophic disaster upon the mortal realm.
The method of the Eternal Paradise was to have the Eternal Ones voluntarily unleash their wicked impulses, and then swap roles, making them the reincarnators who bore the brunt of those very impulses.
It was not suppression, nor was it redirection; it was realization.
To realize that one's wicked impulses truly existed. To realize that there would always be someone stronger than you, and always someone weaker than you.
To realize that sorcerers were mortals after all.
If you did not wish to endure the malice of those above, you should not inflict cruelty on those below.
From beginning to end, the Lord of Joy had offered no preaching, nor demanded anyone's faith. Even if you refused to repent after your sentence in reincarnation ended, nothing would happen to you. Yet when the Lord of Joy issued a mission in the Eternal Paradise for the very first time, even though it was stamped with a near one-hundred-percent mortality rate, every single legendary sorcerer who met the qualifications had signed up without hesitation. Rajesh had fought bitterly just to secure his spot.
The present world was an eternal paradise for sorcerers. Sorcerers took whatever they pleased from all living beings without the slightest shred of respect, letting malice run rampant, while the Divine Lords fostered this climate and endorsed rigid hierarchies.
Sorcerers ten thousand years ago were like this, and sorcerers ten thousand years later remained the same.
Blood Moon, Stars, Senluo, Abyss, Gospel—though the realms differed, in the end they did nothing more than urge people to become sorcerers, and urge sorcerers to become consumables. But the Lord of Joy was different. The Paradise Realm, enduring for one thousand six hundred and sixty-eight years, was different.
The strong could certainly exploit the weak, but perhaps it was time for a change.
Perhaps it was all an idle daydream, but the foundational faith of a sorcerer was to believe in miracles.
Just then, a voice rang softly in everyone's hearts:
"Even the faintest dust and mist may augment the mountains and seas. Even the meager glow of a firefly aspires to brighten the sun and moon."
An orange silhouette of light materialized beneath Rajesh's soul body.
The sorcerers froze in astonishment.
Even the demons raised their brows.
Once the light dispersed, its form was revealed: ribbon-like orange skirts tied at the waist, a simple black corset over the torso, serpent-like locks of pink hair draping over the shoulders, submachine guns held in each hand, and five lightning-shaped wings fanning out behind its back.
Though breathtakingly gorgeous and magnificent, the mere sight of it sent tremors through the souls of the watching sorcerers, while the sorcery spirits within their bodies shivered in terror, not daring to make a sound.
"He actually..." Weixi's pupils shrank in utter shock.
"A gunplay god..." Yaxiu murmured. "And it's female? Was it like that originally, or did it change during sublimation?"
The Substitute sorcery spirit within his soul shook its head at his question, flopped over, and went straight to sleep.
Regardless, Rajesh had successfully forged a new god. With this, nothing stood between him and the divine domain—
"It's a gunplay god!"
"Die, anyone who gets in my way!"
"This god belongs to me!"
Right at that moment, a swarm of phantoms abruptly surged from the base of the first layer of Hell. From the moment they appeared, they began melting away like winter snow in early spring, yet that did nothing to dampen their resolve to attack the gunplay god!
Rajesh and the gunplay god were caught off guard. By the time they tried to retaliate, the gunplay god had already suffered grievous injuries, ensnared and immobilized by several tangled vines of shackles.
Simultaneously, the distant Lehuai plucked a second orange feather without hesitation and blew upon it. In the next instant, countless beams of light pierced into the Path of Origin, impaling those rapidly melting phantoms!
"It isn't a rootless weed?! Hey, wait..."
"Haha, far too weak, far too weak! You dare interfere with the Path of Origin with such petty tricks? This god is mine—I said it, and not even a Divine Lord can keep it!"
The orange beams of light formed by the feather could only scatter a small portion of the phantoms. Still more phantoms surged forward in endless waves to assail the gunplay god, bent on dragging it down into Hell!
Tightly bound, the gunplay god turned its head to look at Rajesh's silhouette of light. Rajesh smiled and nodded gently. An orange screen of light flared across the gunplay god, and with a sharp gunblast, countless rays of brilliance detonated!
"Tch, how decisive."
"Fall back, fall back!"
"Damn it! Give me just a little more time and I could have completely suppressed the god's consciousness..."
Amid a chorus of bitter complaints, the phantoms fled back into Hell like a murder of crows.
The entire encounter lasted barely ten seconds, far too fast for anyone to react.
Yaxiu stared at the scene in a daze, his lips trembling. "What were those...?"
"Wild dogs, crows, beasts, ghouls—or you could call them demigod sorcerers," Weixi said placidly. "Like I said, a sorcerer's greatest enemy is only ever another sorcerer."
Yaxiu could hardly keep his composure. "Didn't you say outsiders couldn't enter the Path of Origin?!"
"They can't," Weixi said. "Except those bastards are already inside the Path of Origin. They live in Hell.
"Of course, doing that doesn't come without a price. Merely stepping out of Hell into the Path of Origin continuously drains their Fifth Void Wings and even damages their divine souls. Suffering an injury is even worse; soul damage is far harder to heal than a mortal body.
"So unless there's an immense reward, they won't emerge without good reason," Weixi continued. "Snatching a newborn god, however, undoubtedly qualifies as an 'immense reward.'
"Originally, creating a god was all it took to advance to demigod. But as sorcerers multiplied, this hurdle naturally came to be. They lie in wait for a god to be born, striking before the sorcerer grows familiar with it. If a Divine Lord were protecting them, or if the sorcerer had already mastered the god, they would never dare act rashly. When all is said and done, they're just a flock of vultures that bully the weak and fear the strong."
She paused. "I played the ghoul like that for a while myself. But the efficiency was miserable, and I had no interest in lingering in one place for too long. After failing to snatch one twice, I gave up."
"I already detest you enough. You don't need to provoke any further disgust from me," Yaxiu said.
"Do you think I care?" Weixi replied flatly. "You wouldn't have a good impression of me no matter what I did anyway."
Feili and Niya turned around at her words, casting Weixi a peculiar look.
Yet the sorcerers merely watched the sky in silence, awaiting the loser's final curtain.
The five layers of Hell were still accelerating downward. Rajesh turned toward the direction where the orange light had flown, pressed his hands together in prayer, and murmured softly, "Lord of Joy, Rajesh prays that you may reach the supreme."
Yaxiu and the others watched as Rajesh was slammed into the earth by Hell. Yet no shockwave or colossal explosion occurred. In the next second, Hell vanished entirely, and the golden rain that had been blotted out returned once more.
Yet on the open ground in the center of the building's plaza, a miniature Ruby Mountain appeared.
Just like a grave mound.
Chapter 886