Had Enough

The Hell secret poison would continuously grow void wings; once four wings reached completion, it would immediately trigger the demigod promotion ceremony. Wherever you were, Hell would descend upon your head! After witnessing Rajesh's promotion, not a single sorcerer dared guarantee they could survive the ceremony—not even Weixi. The descent of Hell, balancing four wings, creating a god, and fending off attacks from demigod ghouls... If it were an exam, the demigod promotion ceremony was a hellish trial where you had to solve questions far beyond the syllabus within a strict time limit while juggling balls—and the moment you actually solved them, all your classmates would swarm in to tear your exam paper to shreds! In the past, Yaxiu and the others thought the Divine Lords' refusal to make the demigod promotion method public was a deliberate attempt to suppress legendary sorcerers. Only after learning the truth did they realize that the reason behind monopolizing the promotion path was truly heartwarming: young people should just honestly work in the mortal realm, competing over contributions where the more you give, the higher your moral ground is supposed to be; but the moment you tried to break through class barriers, the vested interests really would charge down to snatch away your achievements. In theory, unless a miracle actually occurred, Yaxiu and the rest of them should right now be asking Harvey to help them pick out patterns for their corpse spots. Yet in the sorcerer world, miracles were a commodity that could be bought and sold. "Mr. Igola, Mr. Harvey," Weixi said with a smile, "since you temporarily teamed up with demons from the other squads, didn't they try to recruit you afterward?" "They did," Igola admitted crisply. "Yinzhi told me that if I didn't want to die in the demigod promotion ceremony, she was the only one who could save me." "Is that all the rhetoric an envoy sent by the Weaver can muster?" Weixi scoffed. "I guarantee the other teams are willing to offer the exact same price to recruit you. Right now, every additional sorcerer on a side increases their odds of victory. As long as you're willing to be their dogs, the Divine Lords would never begrudge granting you an angel's seat! Of course, it's far more likely you'll just die in the Angel Hunt, saving the Divine Lord an angel's seat entirely." Igola was somewhat puzzled. "Lady Weixi, you've always despised joining the factions of Divine Lords, but isn't it entirely normal for lower sorcerers to seek patronage and shelter from higher sorcerers? Every realm operates by that logic." "Because a One-Winged Sorcerer serving as a dog for a Four-Winged Sorcerer won't hinder the One-Winged Sorcerer's hopes of advancement. But if a demigod submits to a Divine Lord, they will remain a demigod for the rest of their life." Weixi paused. "Do you remember the Nightmare Angel?" "The original master of the Dream Heaven?" "Have you ever wondered why, despite bearing the name of an angel, he usurped the Dream Heaven as a wandering demigod? And why he was so determined to elevate the Dream Heaven in order to ascend to Divine Lord?" Weixi said, "It's because he could not create a Kingdom of Heaven of his own. His sorcery temple had already been surrendered." After Weixi briefly explained the concept of a sorcery temple, Igola grasped it immediately: "A temple is the precursor to a Kingdom of Heaven?" "Exactly," Weixi said. "Though I don't know how it's done, a temple can indeed expand into a Kingdom of Heaven. That is also the most orthodox path for a demigod to ascend to Divine Lord. And while I may not know how a temple expands into a Kingdom of Heaven, how a Kingdom of Heaven continues to expand is common knowledge to everyone." Igola murmured, "By absorbing the temples of other demigods..." "That is the price of gaining a Divine Lord's protection. Your own temple must be merged into their Kingdom of Heaven. For all eternity, you can exist only as an appendage of that Divine Lord, without the slightest possibility of advancing ever again." Weixi sneered. "The Nightmare Angel rebelled and fled the Kingdom of Heaven back then because of a rift with the Divine Lord, but having already lost his temple, he could only usurp the Dream Heaven to make a comeback. "So surviving isn't hard for you. Just become dogs for the Divine Lords. Although the possibility of them turning on you can't be ruled out, if the side you back wins, helping you ascend to demigod will be as effortless as lifting a finger for them. "If Rajesh had undergone his promotion in the outside world, the Divine Lord of Paradise most likely would have helped, perhaps even dispatching a god to help shoulder the Fifth Hell for him. Those ghouls have discerning eyes, too—whenever a promotion ceremony is personally assisted by a Divine Lord, they never show up to cause trouble." Feili glanced at the silent Yaxiu and whispered, "But if it's to stay alive..." "I recommend you submit to a Divine Lord, but I would never do so myself," Weixi said. "I would rather gamble on passing the promotion ceremony than ever take the path of an angel. To me, that is a form of degeneration." The vilest devil in the world actually still had room to degenerate. Yaxiu suddenly said, "You wouldn't seek your own death." "In my eyes, there is no path of life or path of death, only which path brings me closer to the supreme," Weixi said resolutely. "If it's merely a temporary compromise, I don't care. But a sorcery temple is like void wings—a sorcerer's most vital foundation. Losing it means losing all hope of reaching the supreme. Compared to becoming an angel, gambling that I can pass the promotion ceremony is the most cost-effective option. "However, miracles don't come free." Weixi looked at them. "Once you bind yourselves to a Divine Lord, you must obey orders to fight for the power of the Prime Angel. Unless the side you follow is victorious, you will die in this realm long before Hell ever descends." A profound sense of absurdity spread through the sorcerers' hearts: refuse to follow a Divine Lord, and the Hell trial would be triggered as soon as the Angel Hunt ended; follow a Divine Lord, and there was an overwhelming likelihood of dying during the Angel Hunt. Yaxiu asked, "Weixi, do you recognize them? Lehuai, Yinzhi, Longyuan, Yejian." "I don't," Weixi shook her head. "Probably angels under the Divine Lords." Igola asked, "Is it possible they are the Divine Lords' wills?" Weixi pondered for a moment, then still shook her head. "The risk is too great. You can't imagine how important a will is. For instance, if I capture the will of another demigod, I can basically extract most of their trump cards. If the Divine Lord of Stars captured a Divine Lord's will, the intelligence advantage gained from pillaging it alone would be enough to crush the other Divine Lords." Igola nodded in agreement, then added, "The other demons all possess the ability of Transcendent Attunement, capable of elevating our sorcery into a whole new level once we're spiritized." With that, everyone turned to look at Feili, who was currently gnawing on a cantaloupe. Feili blinked, set down the melon rind, and repeated rather uncertainly, "Transcendent Attunement?" It was blatantly obvious Feili didn't know this skill at all. Yet Igola wasn't surprised. Compared to demons on the Divine Lords' official payroll, Feili was practically an uneducated wild demon. Perhaps, just as they had guessed last time, demons were merely vessels; only by finding a demon and stuffing a sorcerer's soul into it could other teams produce high-grade elite demons. "Harvey," Igola gathered his thoughts and looked toward the necromancer, "do you have any additional intel from your side?" Harvey, who had been spacing out the entire time, snapped back to reality. He pondered for a moment and asked, "Igola, why do you say you're going to die in the demigod promotion ceremony?" Igola was taken aback. "Because I'll be undergoing the ceremony." "Then can't you just not undergo it?" Igola stepped right over and smacked the dark-skinned, curly-haired head. "Snap out of it! Is that up to me? The Hell secret poison keeps growing my void wings, and once all four wings are complete, it will trigger the promotion ceremony immediately!" "Ah, right, the Hell secret poison." Harvey mused, "Can you repeat the contents of the Hell secret poison?" "A Four-Winged Sorcerer is an angel atop Ruby Mountain," Igola said, growing increasingly bewildered. "Didn't you see it too?" "Wait." Weixi looked at Harvey in astonishment and asked tentatively, "Mr. Harvey... could it be you actually don't know the contents of the Hell secret poison?" Yaxiu and Igola froze, staring at Harvey in shock. Harvey's expression was calm. "Now I know." "Impossible!" Igola yanked Harvey up by the collar. "When Rajesh underwent his promotion ceremony, you were standing right next to me watching! How could you not know?!" "I saw Hell descending, but I was researching the Billion Ghoul Samsara Formation at the time and didn't really pay attention," Harvey said. "Was I supposed to know?" "Of course you were supposed to know!" Igola roared, losing his composure. "Haven't you heard that legend before?! The method for a legendary sorcerer to ascend to demigod is to condense four wings and then climb to the summit of Ruby Mountain to find an angel and receive the trial—anyone seeing the scene of Rajesh's ascension would immediately connect it to that legend!" "I haven't heard it." Igola was utterly dumbfounded. He released Harvey, slumped blankly onto the sofa, and stared down at the floor. Weixi asked, "Then before you parted with Yejian, didn't Yejian say anything?" "I think he did, but I wasn't really listening," Harvey said. "Right now, I only remember the details of the Billion Ghoul Samsara Formation." Yaxiu had never imagined that Harvey's aloof nature—completely oblivious to others and absorbed entirely in his own world—would actually keep him away from danger at a crucial moment. Or at least, it had kept him away from danger until now. Yet on closer inspection, it was completely normal that Harvey hadn't heard of that legend—before entering Ruby Mountain, he was still just a Sanctuary Sorcerer! A Sanctuary Sorcerer had neither reason nor qualification to pursue legends about Ruby Mountain, just like an elementary schooler wouldn't pay attention to high school entrance exam material. "Wait, that's not right. That legend should be recorded in my *Spectre Manual*," Weixi said, somewhat confused. "Haven't you read the *Spectre Manual*?" "He said the Spectre Inheritance had nothing to do with the necromancy school, so he never challenged the Spectre Inheritance at all," Igola said suddenly. "Back then he was researching the dracolich from the Ghost King Shackles. What he knew of the *Spectre Manual* was just what Yaxiu and I told him in casual conversation." His shoulders trembled slightly. "He's always like this. Never listening to anyone, never caring about valuable information, constantly thinking about his undead, opening his mouth only to talk about corpses. Wherever we stay, the stench of death follows us. Even when we go out to eat, you can't smell the aroma of the food... I really... I really..." "I've had enough!" The normally elegant and calm blond deceiver suddenly smashed his fist into the glass coffee table, shattering it. Feili was so startled she snatched her cantaloupe back in an instant. Rose spread her skirt to block the glass shards spraying toward Yaxiu, and Weixi moved directly in front of him as a shield. Paying no mind to his bleeding fist, Igola pushed open the villa's front door and strode out without a word, leaving the others staring at each other in stunned silence. "Hey, my void wings really do seem to be growing on their own," Harvey said with some delight as he picked a glass shard out of his arm.