When Sonya and Deya stepped into the Golden Flow Water, they understood why Ashe hesitated.

While time hadn’t directly harmed them, it didn’t mean time couldn’t capture them.

Knowledge.

Every drop of the Golden Flow Water contained the essence of a mortal’s life. Just witnessing the river itself could rapidly enhance one’s Time Sect experience, otherwise, sorcerers wouldn’t endure the trials of aging to bathe in it in hopes of gaining entry into the Time Sect.

But this knowledge was now redundant noise for Ashe and his companions, much like looking at a hundred elementary arithmetic problems would no longer advance one’s mathematical realm. With a Golden level in the Time Sect, they could no longer draw any nourishment from it.

“Follow me,” Ashe simply said before diving headfirst into the Golden Flow Water, swimming downward.

The resistance was immense!

It wasn’t just the pressure from the water, but there was also an upward force pushing against him, making Ashe feel like he was swimming up a waterfall instead.

Indeed, the rain was Reverse Rain, so naturally, the river flowed in reverse as well.

Soon, the resistance reached a point where Ashe’s limited swimming skills couldn’t carry him forward. Apart from the physical resistance, the knowledge penetrating the Golden Flow Water also made Ashe incredibly uncomfortable. His mind was overwhelmed with these external pieces of information, making it impossible for him to think about anything else!

Suddenly, two streaks of color swam past him. Ashe looked closely and saw that the Witch and the Sword Princess had unfurled their golden and silver Twin Wings to swim, realizing with a start that he needed to do the same with his virtual wings.

Swimming in the air wasn’t much different from swimming in water; of course, the virtual wings could come in handy. Indeed, Ashe easily dove deeper, as the virtual wings consumed nearly no physical or mental energy, greatly diminishing the impact of the time knowledge.

But soon, a different, more powerful emotion, one of grandeur, loneliness, and profound pain overwhelmed Ashe’s mind.

Insignificance.

Faced with an immense river forged over millennia and eons of unimaginable time, Ashe felt as though he was not diving into the Golden Flow; he felt like a mere drop of water merging into the vast expanse. His past twenty-plus years were but a fleeting instant here, and everything he cherished or loathed would soon be washed away without a trace by this great river.

Give up.

In the face of the great river, so insignificant was he that it rendered his life meaningless. Every struggle and effort seemed insignificant, not even a ripple, and he felt it would be easier to just let himself be carried along, to merge into the greatness…

No.

A faint purple flickered in Ashe’s eyes, and he snapped out of the nihilistic void just in time to grab the nearly lost Sword Princess. The moment they touched, the six-colored armor on their bodies seemed to connect, and a faint golden light shone between their hands.

With their Golden level in the Time Sect, they gained a brief moment of clarity—

To resist the erosion of time’s great river, one must possess a length of life that is long enough. If one’s lifespan isn’t sufficient, then multiple lifespans could be joined together.

Ashe swam forward vigorously, grabbing the struggling Witch. The three of them connected, and Sonya and Deya’s consciousness gradually returned. Deya used the Water-born Thread to tie their hands together, and they swam even deeper with renewed effort.

Their ages were insufficient, their numbers inadequate.

Ashe then realized that, like the Golden Fish, the Rainbow Tail also required a certain number of people.

If they were two seasoned older sorcerers in their sixties, they could easily resist the erosion of time by holding hands.

However, aside from Ashe’s relatively rich experiences, the Sword Princess was practically a college girl fresh out of the ivory tower, and the Witch was an innocent girl who hadn’t received a proper education aside from fairy tale picture books. Their lifespans were too short; a brush with time left them as nothing but foam.

If only they had more operators, if only they were a bit older, if only Ashe had gone through a dozen more thunderous and fiery Prison Breaks… then they could easily grasp the Rainbow Tail.

But there were no ifs.

Seeing that they were on the verge of giving up, Ashe shook them awake. He wanted to speak, but sound couldn’t travel through the water, and trying to communicate through eye contact wasn’t effective either. Thinking quickly, he decided to write in the palms of their hands.

“Demilo.”

The two of them were startled for a moment, recalling their first arduous battle on the Time Continent. Although Demilo was just a logistics commander, he had brought them immense pressure, and they had narrowly defeated this formidable enemy through a series of close calls and calculated risks.

“Legendary Library.”

Deya’s face flushed. That time, she had gotten too greedy and ventured up to the fourth floor, leaving empty-handed.

“Amnesia Cabin.”

Not only Deya, but even Sonya would blush when she recalled her own behavior in the Amnesia Cabin.

“Conceptual Incarnation, Empress Heroic Soul.”

The beginning of all their misfortunes in the Virtual Realm.

“Arena.”

The Witch and the Sword Princess remembered the two male sorcerers they had beaten up, and couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.

“Chaotic Shopping Book.”

Although they had accidentally entered the main city area of the Oasis later and prematurely triggered a war in the Virtual Realm, all of this had started because they had simultaneously fallen under the curse of needing to “make eye contact” with others…

“Fate Questioning.”

“Garden Battleground.”

“Dark Phantasound Miracle Park.” Sonya gave Ashe’s hand a slightly harder pinch here.

Under Ashe’s guidance, they gradually remembered their adventures on the Time Continent—the setbacks and triumphs, the perils and rewards, the formidable enemies and hardships. All of these had become their nourishment, making them anchors for each other.

Ashe vaguely guessed what the other six color mechanisms altered by the Divine Sovereigns might be. They were likely meant to ensure that sorcerers could stay alert and continue to pursue time through their “anchors” despite the grand narrative of long epochs.

Unfortunately, the colors had been stolen by the Divine Sovereigns. To obtain an anchor for their souls, they not only had to face life-threatening battles against commanders but also forge their own anchors of willpower.

Curse the Divine Sovereigns! The sorcerers’ grievances were endless.

With everyone’s combined will, they ultimately withstood the erosion of the long span of time. They continued diving deeper and deeper, as if trying to transform into dragons from mere Rainbow Fish.

Suddenly, Ashe and his companions saw a white light appearing from the depths of the Golden Flow. The three of them tightened their grip on each other’s hands, and their virtual wings flapped vigorously, leaving traces of the Rainbow Tail in the Golden Flow as they broke free from the shackles of time!

The moment they emerged from the Golden Flow, they felt an odd sensation of being flipped upside down and nearly fell back into the river. Fortunately, their mutual support allowed them to steady themselves instantly.

They had exited the Golden Flow.

This was a world of pure white and transparency.

Ashe looked down and saw four enormous pillars walking across the golden ocean, originating from their location at the tail’s tip. From his vantage point, he could see that the tail was snugly attached to the belly of a giant beast, with each tail hair extending out into a golden river.

The Golden Flow they had painstakingly dived into had now transformed into a suspended river waterfall.

As they swam upward wearing the “Six-tone Anchor,” their colors quickly spread, staining the entire tail. While the tail hairs at the end were less affected, the closer to the top, the more intensely colorful the tail became.

It wasn’t just the tail; they themselves were also stained with the colors of the Golden Flow, creating a splendid and dazzling array of hues.

The Rainbow Tail of the White Giant Bull.

The Golden Fish were not in the sea but in the sky, and the Rainbow Tail was not just above but within the river.

This was the true form of the Celestial Bull and the true essence of the Rainbow Tail!

“There,” Deya suddenly pointed out.

Ashe looked in the direction she indicated and saw the source of the Golden Flow not far away—a colossal door made up of purple stone tablets, green vines, red soil, blue ores, orange fruits, and cyan bones. At the base of the door, a continuous stream of Golden Flow Water was pouring out.

They walked up to the huge door. Although the other side seemed blank, they all knew that what awaited them wasn’t emptiness but a rainbow.

Sonya suddenly stepped forward and took their hands. No words were needed; a single glance between the three of them was enough. Together, they passed through the giant door within the White Bull’s body.

In the next second, they were disintegrated.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay