After Yaxiu finished explaining the effects of the Iridescent Resilient Tail, Weixi's expression turned exceedingly subtle.
"Weren't you with me the entire time?" Weixi pondered aloud. "When did you sneak off and slice off the White Bull's tail? ...Wait, you were separated from me for a while. Could this be..."
"This isn't Niya's tail!" One look at Weixi's face told Yaxiu what she was imagining. Exasperated, he said, "Don't let your imagination run wild. This thing comes from the same source as your Ruby Chains, so do you get it now?"
In the second Angel Hunt, the only time Yaxiu and Weixi had been apart was when each was trapped under the rubble. If Yaxiu suddenly pulled out a spoil of war she had never seen before, it would have been weirder if Weixi didn't assume it had fallen off Niya.
"I don't," Weixi said, shaking her head. "You never told me how you got the Ruby Chains in the first place."
"Exactly," Yaxiu said. "I'm not going to tell you anyway, so thinking about it is just a waste of time."
"Stingy." Weixi poked her tongue out at him, then headed back into the kitchen to continue preparing pastries.
"So do either of you want to change your feather colors?" Yaxiu looked toward Igola and Harvey. Naturally, both shook their heads in rapid succession.
Igola had warm gold mind feathers, and Harvey had dark green necromancy feathers, each matching their respective sorcery factions. Unlike Weixi, who cultivated two sorcery paths, they had no such need at all.
"What about you, Weixi?" Yaxiu turned toward Weixi as she emerged holding a plate of cream puffs. "Though you only have a single gloomy blue feather left."
Weixi raised her hand. "Can you turn my gloomy blue feather into an iridescent one as well?!"
"All you have left is the Knowing and Guarding Fire sorcery spirit, and you don't even have a soul body. What do you need an iridescent feather for? I could, however, turn your gloomy blue feather into a fiery red feather."
"But I'll definitely return to the soul and prophecy factions eventually. Rather than bothering you to change it again in the future, Master, wouldn't it be better to turn all my feathers iridescent now? That way you won't have to do the work twice!"
Weixi wore an expression that screamed, 'I'm thinking of your best interests.'
"You make a good point," Yaxiu murmured. "You can't possibly rely on Knowing and Guarding Fire for the rest of your life..."
"Right, right?"
"But I'm still not doing it," Yaxiu said. "Because I can't take back an iridescent feather, which means I'd lose my way of punishing you. If you were to brazenly mock me to my face then, I'd have no recourse. Now that I've finally found a weakness that can genuinely hurt you, you can forget about me giving it up—unless I've eaten myself stupid on Lalafells."
"It hurts when you spank my butt too, you know..." Weixi weakly muttered in protest. "Then I won't change it either. A soul feather helps nurture my consciousness."
"Then do you want to promote your sorcery spirits?" Yaxiu asked. "There's no problem promoting all of your spirits to Four-Wing. The 'Four-Color Contamination' effect doesn't cost anything. It'd be a waste not to dye them."
Igola and Harvey were visibly tempted. To tell the truth, after rushing from one perilous escapade to another, they had had zero time to settle down, promote their sorcery spirits, or construct a coherent system. Far from four-winged spirits, they didn't even possess many three-winged ones; most were still two-winged sorcery spirits.
The Country of All Stars had also severed every path they had to obtain new sorcery spirits. Thus, even if Hell's secret poison could cultivate their fourth void wings, their combat prowess barely improved. After all, sorcery power was merely an energy pool, whereas sorcery spirits were the output nozzles. No matter how vast the energy pool, it was constrained by the tiny faucets dispensing it.
"I'd advise you against promoting your sorcery spirits through such means, especially your key spirits."
Weixi handed a cream puff to Yaxiu, leaning against his wheelchair as she spoke. "I've seen plenty of miracles that forcibly elevate a spirit's wings. Miracles like 'Desperate Gamble,' which turns a spirit into a single-use consumable, or 'Super Fusion,' which forcibly fuses multiple identical spirits. Their costs are already exceedingly steep, not to mention their unpalatable failure rates. Yet compared to 'Four-Color Contamination,' those become downright acceptable."
"You've never dealt with bad-tempered sorcery spirits, so you have no idea how much damage such beings can cause. Let me put it this way: once, an organization attempted to bring me under its wing. That organization had two leaders. One was a mind demigod called 'Mind Flayer.' His most terrifying divine miracle, 'Thought Awakening,' induced intense self-awareness in enemy sorcery spirits."
"Once spirits gain self-awareness, they experience joy, anger, sorrow, and delight; they develop desires and cravings, dislikes and affections. They'll start forming factions, hurting each other, and even demanding conditions from their sorcerer. Moreover, it's an irreversible process. Any spirit struck by 'Thought Awakening' must be abandoned, or they'll tear down the demigod's temple sooner or later. That's why very few dared cross Mind Flayer. An injured soul body can still soldier on, but if your spirits fall victim to Thought Awakening, your entire sorcery spirit system is doomed to collapse."
"However, because Thought Awakening requires a bit of time to fester before detonating and cannot inflict instantaneous lethality, Mind Flayer often teamed up with the other leader, 'Restriction Demon.' Restriction Demon could generate a zone that disrupted the flow of sorcery power. Sorcerers caught inside couldn't channel their sorcery power directly and had to rely purely on their tacit rapport with their spirits to cast spells. But spirits undergoing Thought Awakening were almost never willing to keep serving their masters."
"Relying on this divine miracle combination, Mind Flayer and Restriction Demon intimidated many demigods into submission, carving out an influential power in Hell."
"Then how did you break it?" Igola asked.
Weixi shook her head. "I couldn't."
"So you joined their organization?"
"At that time, I wandered Hell under the guise of a prophecy sorcerer," Weixi said softly. "They had no clue I was a soul sorcerer. And the soul faction is one of the rare arts that directly enhances the soul body."
"What's more, I had mastered legendary close-quarters combat arts, whereas the two of them were orthodox ranged sorcerers."
"They thought I was locked in there with them against my will." She wove her fingers through Yaxiu's hair, brushing the back of her hand lightly against his chin. "When in fact, they were locked in there with me."
Yaxiu swatted Weixi's hand away and retorted tartly, "I have never once doubted that I was forced to be shut in with you. You don't need to emphasize it."
Weixi bent down to pick up another cream puff and continued, "Yet even 'Thought Awakening' only gives spirits personalities, which aren't necessarily bad tempers. Four-Color Contamination, on the other hand, guarantees they'll contract foul tempers. If this could be used on enemy spirits, it would make a splendid lethal curse."
Yaxiu's expression became conflicted as he listened. Trying to counter, he asked, "But can't a sorcerer control their spirits?"
"You can control me too, can't you?" Weixi pointed out incisively.
Enlightenment dawned on Yaxiu. "In other words, promoting a spirit through Four-Color Contamination is equivalent to giving it a personality like yours? When I'm not looking, it'll beat up other spirits, wreck my soul, and try every trick in the book to kill me?"
"...The second half is correct." Weixi blinked innocently. "Though a maid would never kill a master willing to reward her with feathers~"
Yaxiu had originally assumed Four-Color Contamination was the most useful effect of the White Bull's iridescent tail. After all, promoting all sorcery spirits for free without expending extra resources was practically a VIP express lane in the Void Realm. But now it seemed Four-Color Contamination was nothing short of a giant dye vat that hurled spirits headfirst into their rebellious phase!
Even though Weixi had warned them, Igola and Harvey still chose to promote their spirits. At this moment, neither possessed a single Four-Wing sorcery spirit. Even just one would bring a qualitative leap to their combat power; it was well worth taking the risk.
To put it bluntly, they were already at the very bottom tier of legendary sorcerers in the Country of All Stars. Even if their spirits went bad, it wouldn't lower their ranking. But if they could wield an unhinged Four-Wing spirit, they could at least put up a fight against other legends.
Seeing this, Weixi said nothing more, merely cautioning, "Yaxiu, you already have Four-Wing spirits, and my maid mode can promote your spirits into gods anyway. There's no need for you to subject your own spirits to Four-Color Contamination."
Yaxiu nodded. "Yeah, I know."
Weixi froze, immediately catching the telltale signs in his demeanor. "You already used it?"
Yaxiu sighed helplessly. "I had to test it myself before telling you guys about it."
"Which spirit did you use it on?"
"Not a key spirit! I tested it on one that needed a promotion, but whose loss wouldn't hurt that much!" Yaxiu said hastily. "The Substitute sorcery spirit!"
As the very first spirit he had ever acquired, the Substitute spirit remained remarkably practical even now. However, after promoting it to Two-Wing back on the Time Continent, it had never received another upgrade, nor could Yaxiu's sorcery factions promote it. Thus, the first thing Yaxiu did upon obtaining the White Bull's iridescent tail was advance the Substitute spirit to Four-Wing.
"If I recall, the Substitute spirit is a humanoid spirit..." Weixi looked like she was fighting back laughter. "Has it already given you a surprise?"
Yaxiu smiled bitterly. "Yes."
Originally, the Substitute spirit took the form of a little figure clad in pajamas, clutching a pillow in slumber. After advancing to Four-Wing, aside from its pajamas becoming exquisitely luxurious, the biggest change was that it now had a large bed!
Inside Yaxiu's soul, the Substitute spirit had morphed into a brazen bully. Instead of sleeping peacefully, it went out, grabbed other sorcery spirits, and dragged them into bed to roll around together, swapping to another one after cuddling for a bit. Right now, it was sleeping while hugging the Heart Sword spirit, which flickered dimly in confusion, lying quietly beside the Substitute spirit.
At least it hadn't harmed the other spirits, Yaxiu could only comfort himself. If the Substitute spirit ever caused real trouble, he would have no choice but to bite the bullet and put his substitute out of its misery for the greater good!
Once that was settled, Igola asked, "Are we done? Do you have anything else tucked away up your sleeve?"
Weixi also teased with a smile, "Apart from her heart, what else did you steal from Niya?"
"That's all. Now get lost, all of you," Yaxiu said. "Rose and Feili, stay behind. I have something to discuss with you... Let's head to the study."
Feili looked a little bewildered. Rose gave a nod, stepped forward to wipe away the cream from the corner of Yaxiu's mouth, and pushed his wheelchair toward the study.
Watching the three of them depart, Igola turned to Weixi with a grave expression. "Could he be thinking of...?"
"Yes." Weixi sat down and crossed her legs, speaking languidly. "I was in a bad mood last night and took a few jabs at him. He probably took them to heart."
"Your Eminence Weixi, even if just for your own sake, could you stir up less trouble?"
"I already told you, I was in a bad mood yesterday, and I didn't expect him to care so much." Weixi tossed a cream puff into the air and caught it in her mouth in one bite. "They're clearly just shadows."
"Yet you're merely a piece of trash who should've gone to Hell long ago." Igola no longer concealed his anger toward the demigod.
"No need to rush. We'll all end up in Hell sooner or later." Weixi dusted her hands off. "Are you coming?"
"I am." Igola rose to his feet as well.
Harvey looked between the two of them, baffled by their unspoken understanding. "Go where?"
"Eavesdrop, of course," Weixi and Igola replied in unison.
"And another thing, Mr. Igola." Weixi finished the last cream puff and remarked leisurely, "I'm in a good mood today, so as for your disrespect just now, I'll merely take note of it for now without retaliating."
"Don't think those thousands of words of commands are truly airtight." She eyed Igola askance. Though she was slightly shorter than him, Igola felt as if she were looking down from above. "I'm just too lazy to bother with petty pranks."
"As for what goes on between Yaxiu and me, you have neither the standing nor the ability to interfere." She abruptly yanked downward on Igola's necktie, dragging the Deceiver's head down toward hers. "Don't kid yourself into thinking you can stand on equal footing with me."
With that, she strode toward the study door. Igola watched her back with cold eyes and straightened his tie.
"Sorcery spirits corrupted by Four-Color Contamination probably behave like this," Harvey remarked. "One way when the sorcerer is watching, and entirely another when they aren't."
"This world may very well meet its doom."
Inside the study, once Feili and Rose were seated, Yaxiu got straight to the point: "We don't have much time left."
Chapter 895