Distant Sky Realm, a dream bubble.
On a bustling street, streams of light coalesced into four figures.
Unlike her conservative attire during daily work, Xifulin brazenly wore a blood-red dress trailing fluttering ribbons. Above her waist, she wore nothing more than a black corset; her long, straight legs left her fair skin completely bare, and the black arm guards covering her forearms were emblazoned with the blood-sigils of the Blood Weeping Research Institute.
If she dared dress like this in reality, she would have to write self-criticism reports until she threw up. Blood-red clothing, overt sexiness, and pale skin were all negative stereotypes outsiders held about the Blood Saint clan. For years, the two Blood Moon clans had striven to erase their racial prominence; if a Blood Saint dressed so ostentatiously, it would inevitably stir up ordinary people's resentment against them once again.
Unless it was an internal Blood Moon gathering, the standard uniforms of the two Blood Moon clans were those of ascetic doctors and priests. Yet even at internal gatherings, Xifulin would never dress so freely. Only in the Void Realm—and with teammates who were all female—would she dress up so beautifully.
Annan wore a ceremonial robe of white bordered with gold and a black shawl trimmed with golden tassels. Her purple hair hung down to her waist, making her look like a presiding Saintess, yet she held a submachine gun in both hands, combining an aesthetic of violence and holiness.
Tamashi still wore a tube-top miniskirt, short boots, and knee-high socks, looking like an energetic, sporty girl. She didn't care what she wore as long as it didn't hinder her movements. Something like a chest binder would have been nice—it would even reduce the target area for attacks—but for some reason, she could never conjure one in the Void Realm.
"Tamashi, the machines you wanted."
Annan took out an exquisitely wrapped wooden box. "Inside are ten of the Gospel's most miniature fully automated farming machines. The operation and maintenance manuals are already inside, but those miracle crops have requirements for soil and weather. If it doesn't work out, I'll get you modular greenhouses you can assemble."
"Thank you." Tamashi took the wooden box, then pulled out a pouch and said, "Selling books yesterday finally scraped together two source crystals. I bought all the sorcery spirits you wanted."
"Awesome!" Freya and the others took the pouch and proceeded to subdue and bond with the sorcery spirits inside. Every single one was an exceedingly rare sorcery spirit in the mortal realm, such as the gluttony faction spirit 'Blood Drinking' that Xifulin had always wanted, or the mind faction spirit 'Intuition' that Annan craved. Even though both of them belonged to the ruling classes of their respective nations, rare sorcery spirits were coveted by everyone; the moment one appeared, it would immediately be snapped up by others. If they wanted one, they still had to wait patiently for an opportunity.
Yet what was rare in the mortal realm was not necessarily so in the No-Hunting Zone.
In the Void Realm, Tamashi had inherited part of the Senluo Azure Lord's legacy. Among it, what held the greatest significance for them was none other than the 'No-Hunting Zone' sorcery spirit that could connect to the Angel's No-Hunting Zone!
The No-Hunting Zone was the largest—and perhaps only—free trade market for demigod sorcerers. Under normal circumstances, ordinary sorcerers had neither the ability nor the resources to trade there.
Yet Tamashi was not destitute. In fact, one could even say she was the wealthiest sorcerer in the No-Hunting Zone—she was the temporary ruler of the Kingdom of Thousand Wishes, and by her side was the Awakening God!
She would not touch the sorcery spirits in the Wishing Pool, but the pool's water was also a fairly precious resource. By selling Wishing Pool water, she had acquired vast amounts of resources to relieve the existential crisis facing the Kingdom of Thousand Wishes, though getting swindled by demigods also forced her to grow up quickly.
The moment many demigods saw the Wishing Pool water, they realized Tamashi came from the Kingdom of Thousand Wishes. Not only did they tacitly collude to drive the price of the Wishing Pool water down to rock bottom, but they also played the good cop, bad cop routine, manufacturing opportunities to send a seemingly gentle female demigod to befriend Tamashi and get close to her. She tried to convince Tamashi to let her enter the Kingdom of Thousand Wishes under pretenses such as 'lifting the Void Realm curse,' 'setting up manufacturing plants,' 'developing the kingdom's resources,' and the like, which sounded exceedingly tempting to Tamashi.
Had Tamashi not had the presence of mind to consult Annan and Xifulin first, the Kingdom of Thousand Wishes might have already changed hands by now, and Tamashi would have descended to Hell to reunite with her younger sister.
Yet even with all four of them racking their brains, they were no match for demigods as cunning as devils. Therefore, Tamashi stopped selling Wishing Pool water—firstly, because the water needed time to replenish, and secondly, because she feared underselling Yaxiu's property.
After months of trial and error, they finally found a commodity they could sell: entertainment products.
The mortal realm and the No-Hunting Zone were not directly connected, but mortal resources were extremely common in the No-Hunting Zone. For instance, resources like 'Blood Saint clan blood' and 'Moon Shadow clan pelts' had official brand storefronts—run by none other than the Blood Moon Supreme Lord!
Moreover, they were sold systematically in bulk. Blood Saint blood was categorized into Legendary, Sanctuary, Gold, and Silver, with the minimum purchase quantity being one jin, and for Silver blood, they wouldn't even bother selling anything less than a ton!
Divine Lords did business in the No-Hunting Zone as well, and every move they made was a monopoly. As long as one could pay in source crystals, even national resources were sold with clearly marked prices!
Thus, the only things they could resell were entertainment products. Perhaps because the profit margins were too thin, the Divine Lords' brand stores did not dabble in such industries. However, demigods had spiritual and entertainment needs as well, and these desires were bottomless—after all, even if you had read a hundred books, you would still be willing to read a hundred and first.
All kinds of entertainment found an audience, though the best-sellers were serious literature. Everyone found it quite peculiar: why would demigods who had lived for hundreds or thousands of years be interested in the inner worlds of mortals whose lifespans were merely several decades?
Regardless, as long as it sold, that was all that mattered. Although the profit margin was razor-thin, its virtue lay in being a steady, long-term business; mere crumbs dropped by demigods were more than enough to feed Freya and the others well. The wooden box and pouch that Tamashi and Annan used to exchange goods had both been purchased in the No-Hunting Zone—spatial items crafted entirely from 'Unrememberable Wood,' which allowed sorcerers to carry them via their souls back and forth between the Void Realm and reality.
"Speaking of which, Freya, why did you want that sorcery spirit?" Xifulin asked curiously. "It doesn't match your sorcery spirit system at all, does it? Besides, it's a Four-Wing sorcery spirit. How are you planning to use it?"
"I just wanted it for my collection," the Veela mumbled, transferring the sorcery spirit from the pouch into her ring.
They had three Void-reality items made of Unrememberable Wood in total. The one with the smallest capacity was the ring on Freya's hand, which was also the only Void-reality item excluded from the circulation of goods. The Veela had always wanted a Void-reality item as her private vault. While such use was exceedingly extravagant, she rarely indulged in whims, so Annan and Xifulin were both happy to let the Veela have her fun.
"Although collecting sorcery spirits is a pretty common hobby, it's been less than a year since you entered the Void Realm, and now you already want to collect Four-Wing sorcery spirits?" Xifulin grumbled. "You spend every coin of the salary I pay you on buying sorcery spirits, and you're always mooching off my food and supplies."
"But whenever I see a sorcery spirit I like, I just want to buy it! The money didn't disappear; it just changed form to keep me company," Freya said, linking arms with Xifulin and pouting affectionately. "Just like how I love Little Bat and Selina. I spend all my time on the two of you, and that time hasn't vanished—it's just turned into you and Selina continuing to love me back."
Even though she was in her soul form, Xifulin felt a wave of goosebumps wash over her. "Don't call me Little Bat!"
"But you were clearly a little bat at the start," Freya said, aggrieved.
"Alright, alright," Annan said. "Let's hurry up and start tonight's adventure. I'm full of rage today and need to shoot something to pieces to blow off steam, and test out my new sorcery spirit while I'm at it."
"Is your work still very busy?" Tamashi asked.
"What do you think?" Annan sighed. "Lisidiya has been gone for months. Even though the Gospel system is still running, it could blow up at any moment. I live on edge every single day, terrified the whole country will grind to a halt.
"And if I ease up on the Gospel system even a little, all sorts of chaos breaks out down below, and those cowardly, double-dealing rats start clamoring to tighten the Gospel again. I have to deal with them while keeping up the pretense that Her Majesty the Empress is still holding dominion over the mortal realm... She might as well have taken me along to Bright Star!"
"I want to go to Bright Star too!" Freya chimed in with longing. "Yaxiu is there, fast asleep!"
Xifulin blinked. "What do you want to do?"
"Hm? Just sleep with him, of course." Freya blinked. "Back when we lived together, I'd often sneak over after he fell asleep to hug him in my sleep. He's super cute when he's asleep—his eyelashes flutter, and his body is firm and warm. It feels so nice to cuddle him."
Annan and Tamashi nodded repeatedly, thoroughly endorsing Freya's product review.
"That wholesome?" Xifulin was deeply skeptical. "I thought you'd take advantage of his sleep to commit violations that wouldn't even pass censorship on video sites. There's no one else here, and we all know your true colors. You don't have to pretend."
"How could I?! Even a Veela wouldn't lay a hand on someone who's unconscious!" Freya waved her hands, declaring earnestly, "Only perverts who have no respect for the other person, who view them as personal property, and who twist love into possessiveness would ever violate someone they like!"
Xifulin tilted her head. "I can't shake the feeling you just insulted someone."
"Well, she wasn't insulting me," Annan remarked casually.
Tamashi was still pondering what 'violations that wouldn't pass censorship on video sites' meant.
As they spoke, Freya took out three initial collectibles from 'Aurora's Dream Treasury.'
Indeed, just as Freya had obtained a sports car upon reaching the Time Continent, arriving at the Distant Sky Realm unlocked gifts left behind by Yaxiu.
This was also why the little bat hadn't resolved to interfere with the Veela's infatuation. Ordinarily, when someone harbored feelings for someone they had lived with for merely a few days, especially when that person was separated across worlds in another nation, Xifulin, as her friend, should have done everything possible to help Freya forget this bizarre romance. Yet in the Void Realm, Freya repeatedly received Yaxiu's help, met his female friends one after another, and even obtained a copy of Yaxiu's diary...
It felt as though an inexplicable force was attempting to guide Freya's and Yaxiu's destinies.
Perhaps the parting that day was not their end.
One day, everyone would meet, and everyone could find happiness.
Freya finished distributing the collectibles and was just about to explore the dream bubble when Tamashi suddenly spoke: "Above."
The others looked up. After gazing for a moment, Annan asked blankly, "What's up there?"
"It's not what is there, but what isn't," Tamashi said. "Ruby Mountain is gone."
Everyone froze, then quickly caught on—where was Ruby Mountain on the distant horizon?
In the Distant Sky Realm, no matter which direction you looked into the sky, you would inevitably see Ruby Mountain in the far distance—the holy land of sorcery that Sanctuary sorcerers yearned for! Many sorcerers assumed they could fly straight to Ruby Mountain, but having read Yaxiu's diary, Freya and the others knew the Distant Sky Realm was the Prime Angel's dream, and the Ruby Mountain they saw was merely a projection of the real Ruby Mountain inside that dream.
Yet now, the projection of Ruby Mountain had vanished!
They immediately exited the dream bubble. Stepping back into the Distant Sky Realm and looking out, they realized that another world-class event had occurred—
The Kingdom of Dreams, which should have completely collapsed, had reappeared.
The breaches and scars torn open during the Spectre Legacy War were now filled and repaired by rubies. It was so colossal that it occupied the vast majority of the Distant Sky Realm, its entire form radiating a dreamy rainbow radiance that flooded every inch of the realm. The ruby glow emanating from it offered Sanctuary sorcerers boundless reverie and subtle hints.
Freya and the others sensed it briefly and knew that as long as they wished, they could follow the rainbow streamers straight into the Kingdom of Dreams.
They exchanged glances and, hand in hand, entered the Kingdom of Dreams.
The next second, they were teleported to a vast open arena. Before them stood a gigantic mirror, crisply reflecting their appearances.
Crack!
Before they could observe their surroundings, a sharp fracture sounded from the mirror as web-like cracks spread across the entire mirror surface!
At the same time, they heard gasps coming from the other side of the mirror—opposite them stood another team of sorcerers!
With a crisp shattering sound, the mirror completely fractured to pieces, leaving no barrier between Freya's party and the sorcerers opposite them.
Chapter 901