Weixi had originally been extremely satisfied with her gains. Only a Soul Demigod like her could walk the razor's edge of mental collapse so precisely, absorbing over one thousand collections and successfully integrating 1.02% of the Dream Treasury into her soul.
Between heaven and earth, aside from the few Divine Lords, no one could have done better than her. And her gamble had yielded rich rewards—within a mortal soul, she had constructed the embryonic form of a Celestial Temple!
Although Weixi had explained it before, Yaxiu and the others were still only mortals after all. Having never been demigods, it was hard for them to understand the vast gulf between different tiers of temples; they probably only thought of temples as something like an innate aptitude.
Yet through the evolution of sorcery, the significance of a temple had become exceedingly complex. If a temple was slightly larger, it could create a generational gap ten or even a hundred times greater.
The most fundamental reason was that sorcery spirits could construct "wonders" inside a temple!
Within mortal boundaries, no matter how complex a miracle art was, it was only a combination of a dozen or so sorcery spirits, and a construction time exceeding seventy-two hours was already considered a super-large-scale miracle.
But after stepping into the divine realm, every divine miracle art used by a sorcerer easily involved hundreds or thousands of sorcery spirits—a protracted undertaking with construction times measured in years.
Naturally, demigod sorcerers wouldn't wait until the moment of need to construct a divine miracle art. Instead, they had their sorcery spirits build magnificent structural spell constructs inside their temples on ordinary days—which was why they were known as "wonders"!
While demigod sorcerers could skillfully wield dozens or hundreds of miracles, once demigods developed wonder technology, past miracle technology was destined to be discarded. What truly decided victory or defeat between demigods was wonders alone!
If your temple was larger, you could construct more and bigger wonders; conversely, the smaller it was, the weaker. The gap between Lower, Middle, Upper, and Celestial was akin to that between a village, a town, a city, and a province. Each step forward was an unimaginable leap.
Back when Weixi was reborn, even after slaughtering across the realm, she had only managed to construct an embryonic Lower Temple in advance during her mortal stage, only obtaining an Upper Temple after surviving the Hell trial.
She had never controlled any god, yet relying on the soul wonders constructed in her Upper Temple, she could even ambush and slaughter other demigods! Now that she possessed the embryonic form of a Celestial Temple, even if she still couldn't control a god, Weixi had the confidence to step into the ranks of Hell's top demigods!
Yet it was precisely because Weixi understood the significance of temples so intimately that, the moment she saw Yaxiu's soul, that ambition of hers—unshaken through three thousand years of tempering—couldn't help feeling a wave of exhaustion.
If Yaxiu were also an ambitious schemer, she might have felt jealous. But the thought that Yaxiu couldn't even manage his women just made her feel exhausted. Let it all burn; she didn't want to play anymore.
She only had a province, but what Yaxiu had was an entire country!
And there were six such countries!
And six of them combined were still just one single tier!
Seeing Weixi's exhausted expression that practically screamed, "Why is it always you, a damn Lalafell rooting up the choice cabbages?", Yaxiu scratched his head. "Do you really need to look so tragic? This is just an embryonic Kingdom of Heaven, whereas I actually possess a real Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven. Back then you already thought of me as a Divine Lord in reserve—why get so worked up now?"
"Back then, I also thought the Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven falling into your hands was casting pearls before swine," Weixi sighed. "Besides, this embryonic Kingdom of Heaven of yours is far more valuable than the Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven—even though the Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven has the Wishing Pool."
Yaxiu wasn't entirely convinced. "Surely not? Doesn't becoming a Divine Lord just require raising a Kingdom of Heaven? Even if mine is bigger, the Wishing Pool in the Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven isn't bad either."
"The value of a Kingdom of Heaven's size versus a world secret realm isn't something I can explain to you," Weixi said. "Because I don't understand it either—I've never been a Divine Lord!"
"So I won't bother with fancy theories; I'll just state one single point: your own Kingdom of Heaven can be taken with you directly."
Everyone was stunned for a long moment before Igola asked hesitantly, "You mean... a Divine Lord can carry their Kingdom of Heaven around with them?"
"Only a native Kingdom of Heaven born from one's own soul; legacy Kingdoms of Heaven obtained through other means cannot do this, such as the Thousand Wishes Kingdom of Heaven and the Dream Heaven," Weixi said. "I haven't actually seen a Divine Lord running around carrying a Kingdom of Heaven, but my inference has basis—because demigods can manifest their temples and take them away at any time.
"When a demigod dies, other sorcerers can inherit and use their unowned temple, but they can no longer move the temple's location. In Hell, these ownerless temples are often vital resource points fought over by various factions.
"As for what it means to be able to take a Kingdom of Heaven with you at any time, I imagine you displaced, wandering sorcerers should know all too well."
Yaxiu and the others naturally understood. Currently, they had no assets in any country—was it because they didn't want to control productive resources? It was simply that they had no time to acquire them, and even if they did, they couldn't take them along.
With a Kingdom of Heaven that couldn't be moved, a Divine Lord had to devote their entire being to guarding it, forced to hold their ground whenever external enemies attacked.
But if the Kingdom of Heaven could be taken with them, the Divine Lord could simply pack up and slip away at the first sign of trouble, standing invincible from the start.
Even if the quality of the Kingdoms of Heaven were identical, the strategic advantage brought by a native Kingdom of Heaven thoroughly crushed a legacy one!
Weixi said, "Among the six modern Divine Lords, only Blood Moon and Many Stars had already raised their Kingdoms of Heaven back in my era. Of course, I'm not saying the other four hadn't appeared yet in my time, but I might not have known them, or they changed their honorific names after becoming Divine Lords.
"In my memory, both Blood Moon and Many Stars were notoriously ruthless. I once witnessed two demigods attempt to become Divine Lords with the aid of legacy Kingdoms of Heaven, but both were slain by Blood Moon and Many Stars.
"If Blood Moon and Many Stars' Kingdoms of Heaven couldn't move, there would have been no reason for the new Divine Lords not to counterattack. The only explanation is that the new Divine Lords took a beating without even being able to find a target to strike back at, until they were utterly crushed."
Feili murmured, "How terrifying."
"The six Divine Lords have coexisted peacefully for over a thousand years; the only possible reason is that all of them possess native Kingdoms of Heaven, sharing the same strategic advantage." Igola mused, "Yet since you knew the perils of legacy Kingdoms of Heaven, why did you still reach for the Dream Heaven? Weren't you also trying to raise the Dream Heaven to become a Divine Lord?"
Weixi chuckled. "First, the Dream Heaven is also a world secret realm; I could borrow the power within it and even build wonders inside. Second...
"Even knowing I would be attacked by other Divine Lords after raising the Kingdom of Heaven, I had no other choice."
She lowered her eyelids. "Compared to remaining halted in Hell forever, I would rather die on the road to Heaven.
"I am indeed very afraid of dying, because only by surviving can I do more and more things. But if surviving is merely to drift with the tide and stagnate forever, what difference is there between that and an unburied corpse?"
"Don't insult corpses." Harvey finished his last cup of wine and said, "Corpses earnestly re-enter nature's cycle; they don't stagnate... Yaxiu, give me the Colorless Holy Grail."
After a brief silence, Yaxiu suddenly spoke up: "Don't you think the six-tiered layout of my soul is much more interesting?"
"Isn't it just copying the Void Realm?" Weixi raised an eyebrow. "Above the ocean is the fish, above the fish is the ox, above the ox is Ruby Mountain, above Ruby Mountain is Hell, above Hell is the earth, and above the earth is Heaven... And because you've never seen Hell or Heaven, neither has fully formed. Aside from saying your imagination is feeble, what else is there to discuss? Did you not put any serious thought into conceiving it at all?"
Yaxiu blinked. He vaguely recalled that when the embryonic Kingdom of Heaven was forming, it seemed to have consulted him for input, but he had been in a rush to meet Silver Lantern and paid no attention to the changes inside his soul.
Harvey took out a metal flask, poured its contents into the grail, and asked as he drank, "Why isn't the Distant Sky Realm there?"
Igola guessed, "Because Yaxiu had no idea of the Distant Sky Realm's physical location in the Void Realm. Plus, he witnessed its collapse and hasn't seen the new third layer of the Void Realm, so he just cut it entirely."
"Master, you don't actually think that just because your embryonic Kingdom of Heaven resembles the real world, you can remake the world, replace the Void Realm, and recreate reality, do you?" The corners of Weixi's lips curled up slightly. "Do you think other Kingdoms of Heaven are any more normal? Every Kingdom of Heaven is personally designed by its Divine Lord. If They wanted to recreate the Void Realm with one hundred percent fidelity, They could, but doing so would have no purpose other than novelty."
Yaxiu blushed. That was indeed what he had been thinking.
"Your embryonic Kingdom of Heaven will change sooner or later anyway. For instance, you might merge multiple layers to construct wonders; dividing it into six tiers is completely impractical." As Weixi spoke, her jealousy finally flared up, and she ground her teeth. "If only I were the one who got an embryonic Kingdom of Heaven..."
"You actually have a chance to oversee such a massive Kingdom of Heaven," Yaxiu said leisurely. "Once I become a Divine Lord, you can stop being a maid and become my angel. Handing my Kingdom of Heaven over to you to manage isn't out of the question..."
Expressionless, Weixi stared straight at Yaxiu. "Then I'd rather stay your maid. After all, who made me into a little idiot who can only call you 'Master'?"
Harvey asked while drinking, "So can Yaxiu pass the Hell trial now?"
Yaxiu slapped his own forehead. Caught up in fantasizing about such a distant future as a Divine Lord in heaven, he had forgotten they hadn't even resolved their immediate crisis.
"His soul can definitely endure one Hell on its own," Weixi stated with certainty. "As for whether he can endure the other four Hells with his imaginary wings, that will depend on his own ability."
Hearing this, Igola and the others breathed a sigh of relief. In the Hell trial, the most perilous and volatile factor was that a sorcerer could not independently create a new god to bear the fifth Hell. Now that Yaxiu could bear one Hell by himself, at least the biggest obstacle was solved.
More importantly, as long as Yaxiu did not create a new god, no demigod ghouls would take the risk of ambushing him!
"That's wonderful, Yaxiu!" Feili gripped Yaxiu's hand tightly. "You're finally safe!"
"Not quite yet, honestly. After all, bearing four Hells is still somewhat difficult," Yaxiu remarked faintly. "Still, at least there's some progress. Weixi, your soul can definitely bear one Hell too, right?"
"I can pass the Hell trial anytime," Weixi said lazily. "Yet I will still stay behind. Not to compete for the final angel legacy, but because I am Master's maid, and I would never, ever leave Master's side~"
In a sense, Weixi was not wrong—on the second day after they were infected with the Hell secret poison, Igola had reminded Yaxiu to give Weixi a new command, ordering her to contact Yaxiu the moment her imaginary wings recovered to the Fourth Imaginary Wing, and then promptly break her wings.
The escape route of using the Hell trial to slip away had long since been blocked off by Yaxiu.
"Then I won't worry about you," Yaxiu said. "Our next goal is to bolster Igola and Harvey's foundation as much as possible, ideally securing angel legacies for them, and..."
"...saving the Country of All Stars."
At these words, only Igola and Harvey looked calm, wearing expressions of having expected this all along. Rose didn't care in the slightest, continuing to massage Yaxiu's palm. Feili froze, and even Niya jerked her head up, staring intently at Yaxiu as if searching for any hint that he was lying.
"I'm actually quite pleased that you've finally learned how to use rhetoric to win over Feili and Niya, Yaxiu. I'd bet good money that if you wanted to share one big bed with them right now, they wouldn't object."
Weixi's expression hardened, and she asked coldly, "Yet I worry: you couldn't actually be serious, could you?"
"Not only am I serious, but I already have an approach," Yaxiu said. "If the Country of All Stars is doomed to destruction, couldn't we simply relocate the people of All Stars to a safe realm in advance?"
He pointed his thumb at his chest. "And right now, I happen to possess a vast Soul Kingdom of Heaven."
Chapter 947