"Source: Caravan of the Emerald Cross.
"Method of Acquisition: The Holy Temple dispatched us to raid a caravan from the Emerald Cross. Unlike most caravans, they bore no banners whatsoever—meaning they enjoyed the protection of no faction. In this desert, that could only prove either an ardent death wish, or the strength to protect themselves.
"They were indeed formidable. Only after losing three Silver Fire Knights did we completely wipe out the caravan under the captain's lead. Escorted by the three Silver Fire Knights, their souls would surely be purified in the flames, ascend the sun's stairway, and attain eternal peace.
"While searching the spoils of war, I discovered an exquisitely crafted cylinder inside a tent, small enough to hold in one hand. Just then, I noticed a child hiding in the shadows, staring fixedly at the cylinder in my grasp.
"Perhaps the calamitous fire had bewitched my heart. I asked him what it was. He said it was a family heirloom, recording the secret to triggering a Vortex.
"Before the captain entered, I had already completed the child's purification. May his soul forever depart this land of disaster.
"I hid the cylinder. After some investigation, I discovered it was a treasure known as the 'Labyrinth,' imbued with the aura of a four-winged sorcery spirit. If not unlocked with the proper method, the mechanisms left behind by the four-winged sorcery spirit would automatically destroy what was inside.
"My intellect was insufficient to unravel this labyrinth, so I pursued the cleverest woman in the Holy Temple. After forging an unbreakable oath of unwavering fidelity, I handed the cylinder to her. It took her an entire month to finally open it and obtain the secret within.
"Relying on this secret, our sorcery power advanced by leaps and bounds. Owing to my dull wits, I triggered a Vortex only once, while she triggered it twice and fully unfurled her Silver Wings.
"Until one day, upon emerging from the Void Realm, I found the Temple Knights binding my body. She stood behind the knights, her expression solemn.
"She had turned me in; hidden in my clothes was a shattered cylindrical labyrinth. Having ascended to Two Wings, she no longer needed this secret, nor did she need me. What she needed now was an opportunity to win the Holy Temple's favor, and a way to alleviate the Vortex Secret Poison.
"For concealing and damaging vital spoils of war, I was sentenced to the ultimate penalty—forbidden from purification in the flames, condemned only to sink into nightmares amidst foul water. Until my final breath, I never revealed the secret within the cylinder. The oath of unwavering fidelity remained in effect; she had only unilaterally dissolved it through a miracle after ascending to Two Wings, yet the oath retained its binding hold on me.
"In truth, had I unleashed the miracle Burn the Crippled Husk, I could have temporarily suppressed every abnormal status on my body and broken through the oath to tear off her disguise.
"Yet looking at her, for reasons unknown, I gave up.
"Perhaps the calamitous fire had bewitched my heart.
"Final Destination: Destroyed."
Sonia folded her arms. "The Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire... I've never heard of such a faction."
"Logically speaking, shouldn't a normal person offer a sigh or two about this sorcerer's tragic romance?"
"Do you really want to hear it? I can't lie right now, you know."
"Then forget I asked."
"What about the method to trigger a Vortex? Why did you intentionally skip that just now?"
"I was wondering whether I should tell you."
Sonia froze for a moment. She wanted to keep her mouth shut, struggling visibly to hold back her words. Yaxiu had never seen the Sword Princess look like this before; watching her, he nearly burst into laughter.
Hearing him chuckle, Sonia completely lost her restraint and hissed through gritted teeth, "You're actually on guard against me like this, wanting to hog it all for yourself? Is my value in your eyes not even worth a secret about the Vortex?"
Yaxiu looked a little surprised. "So are you mad because I was on guard and wanted to hog it, or because your place in my heart isn't as high as you imagined?"
Fury practically flared visibly in Sonia's eyes. "I—"
"Sorry, don't answer that! My mistake," Yaxiu said hurriedly. "I wasn't guarding against you. It's just that this secret is poisonous—the moment you learn it, you're infected. I've already caught it, and since we can enter the Vortex together anyway, I figured there was no need for you to know."
"Poisonous knowledge? I don't buy it," Sonia said. "I think you're lying to me, you big liar."
"I have to say, dealing with you when you can only speak the truth is really straightforward," Yaxiu said. "Fine, I'll tell you, but don't blame me afterward."
"As if! If I get afflicted, I'll definitely blame you for not stopping me firmly enough; if nothing happens to me, I'll assume you were lying on purpose." Sonia spread her hands. "Either way, I won't ever think I'm in the wrong."
"...That's completely unreasonable." Yaxiu let out a sigh. "Well, the poison isn't severe right now anyway. Since we're in the same boat, it felt like a bit of a raw deal being the only one poisoned..."
"The method to trigger a Vortex is: find an ichthyosaur-species knowledge creature, wound it severely, and pursue it once it flees. Do not kill it; let it naturally collapse and die of exhaustion. A Vortex passage will form where its corpse rests. This is because..."
Sonia and Yaxiu spoke in unison: "The Sea of Knowledge embraces its slumbering child."
Having said that, Sonia looked at Yaxiu in shock.
Those words had slipped out of her mouth almost instinctively, as though after listening to Yaxiu's explanation, that knowledge had bred new knowledge of its own and surged uncontrollably into her mind!
At the same time, Sonia felt a strange sensation. Clearly nothing had changed, yet the entire world felt different!
She looked around to search for differences. Soon, her gaze settled on the seawater outside. After staring at it for a few moments, a wave of nausea welled up in her chest.
"The effect of this secret poison is to make us feel revulsion toward water," Yaxiu said.
He opened *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook* - Operator Management, and saw that both 'End Watcher' and 'Death Frenzy Sword Princess' had gained an abnormal status.
"Vortex Secret Poison"
"Number of Infected: 131"
"Secret Poison Intensification: 131%"
"Current Effect: Revulsion toward water (Enhances upon reaching 300% intensification, alleviates when reduced to 100%, converts into a beneficial buff when reduced to 50%)."
A bizarre poison indeed—it was not an injury to the physical body, but a distortion of the soul. Most terrifying of all, the more people who knew the secret, the higher the poison's intensification grew, and every single person who knew would be dragged down with it!
When Yaxiu shared the details of the secret poison with Sonia, her face instantly soured. "Why didn't you reject me more firmly just now?! You blabbermouth!"
She truly was a woman of her word—when she said she would blame him, she blamed him without hesitation. While this version of the Sword Princess was much simpler to deal with, she had also become far more annoying, acting just like an outspoken, double-standard brat.
"Wait. You just said that if the number of infected falls below fifty, the secret poison turns into a buff?" Sonia said suddenly. "Then what if we take all the other people who know the secret and..."
She made a throat-slitting gesture. Yaxiu shrank back immediately. "Are you the wife who betrayed the slash-axe sorcerer in that story?"
"Until you wrong me, I won't betray you rashly."
"Hearing that as an absolute truth doesn't make me feel any safer..." Yaxiu mumbled.
After this exchange, the two also understood why someone had gone out of their way to hide this secret inside a cylindrical labyrinth, as well as why the slash-axe sorcerer had been betrayed—because even if you could guarantee your own silence, you could never guarantee that others wouldn't leak it.
Once leaked and spread, the secret poison would eventually reach a critical threshold, likely intensifying into a virtually lethal poison—such as rendering someone entirely unable to touch water, or even causing them to go into shock and die upon contact.
Once that threshold was reached, the weak lacking survival means would perish, and the number of secret-knowers would rapidly drop back to a safe level.
Thus, those who knew the secret were natural enemies. Every knower had to eliminate as many others as possible to reduce the risk to themselves. It was precisely for this reason that the slash-axe sorcerer's wife had decisively turned him in after unilaterally dissolving the oath upon ascending to Two Wings, whittling down the infected count.
Yet even if every knower proactively kept quiet, the secret would still slip out—just as Yaxiu and Sonia had encountered, other sorcerers could acquire similar information from sorcerer manuals.
The Void Realm was the graveyard of sorcerers; death could not keep a secret.
Therefore, the moment he learned this secret, Yaxiu had effectively swallowed a lethal poison, embarking on a path of no return.
If he did nothing, and the number of infected suddenly spiked one day, intensifying the poison to an unbearable degree, he would be left with nothing but futile grumbles—'Why me? Why did it turn out like this?'—before ending his journey in this other world under the torture of virulent poison.
Yet surprisingly, Yaxiu felt very little dread.
Because he knew that every trial the Void Realm presented could be solved by a single method.
From beginning to end, there was only one way out for a sorcerer.
"Then our next step is to find an ichthyosaur-species knowledge creature," Yaxiu said. "Only by growing stronger can we possibly mitigate the secret poison's potency, or even eradicate it altogether—by forcefully erasing this piece of knowledge, for instance. In short, we must make good use of this intelligence bought at the price of being poisoned, convert it into our strength as much as possible, and keep pressing forward. We cannot stop!"
"Isn't that obvious?" Sonia said, leaning against the small boat. "Aren't we sorcerers greedy creatures by nature?"
Chapter 90