Sonya realized something significant had occurred several days prior.

It was the night that the Meteor Trial had ended. She went to the secret garden to celebrate all night with the Stretch Paw Club. Even Professor Trozan and Professor Nidhogg made time to have a few drinks with her. Many people, drawn by her reputation or simply in awe of her, wanted to connect with her. There were even representatives from the business association seeking to negotiate. Sonya adeptly wielded her social skills, expanding her high-quality network exponentially in one evening.

She knew that her social skills were just the cherry on top-the strength of the Sanctuary was her real foundation. Because she already possessed the strength of the Sanctuary, her humble and polite smile was particularly praised, and her respectful and equal gaze made people feel honored.

In the secret garden, the Crimson Empress patrolled her domain.

Recalling the next day, the village girl thought she might have overdone it a little; Lois’s abrupt departure seemed only natural. Even though she planned to tone down her sharpness, she didn’t forget to report her achievements to Marsha. She knew her mother’s work hours, so she timed her video call strategically when her mother was in the factory, describing in the simplest, plainest words how remarkable she was, how she had earned so much money that her mother wouldn’t have to work anymore, and how she would soon bring her mother to settle in Galaxia.

If she didn’t express it a bit bluntly, the other workers in the factory wouldn’t understand.

However, her mother naturally refused her offer. Sonya had already sent the money from selling the spirit back home two months ago. With the low cost of living in the small village, her mother could have quit her job a long time ago. But since it’s the farming off-season, and factory work isn’t exhausting, her mother saw it as an opportunity to chat with her coworkers. As for Galaxia, she felt an overwhelming fear of the unknown in the big city. Having managed the family farm all her life, she was unwilling to change her lifestyle.

Still, despite Marsha’s reluctance, Sonya understood the value system in a remote village that admires strength and disrespects weakness. Naturally, she had to boost her family’s reputation, so she bought quite a few things over the months for the family to show everyone that her daughter had made great achievements in Galaxia. The next step was to build a new house, unmatched in the village, to teach Marsha that the world could be this kind.

Feeling refreshed, Sonya rarely found the opportunity to relax as she strolled through Swordflower College. The students she encountered along the way gazed at her with a mix of reverence and admiration. Though she had long decided to continue her studies and training, the village girl couldn’t help but feel a tad proud to bask in such wonderful attention.

Happy at heart, the young woman naturally wanted to share her joy with someone. However, as someone with a rebellious streak, Sonya began to calmly examine her feelings-yes, she very much wanted to discuss this happiness with the observer, but she also wanted to share it with her mother, Leoni, Trozan, and others.

She worried about the observer’s safety, but she also cared about the well-being of her roommates.

She wished to meet the observer, but she also longed to shake hands with Delarose.

The observer was important, but just how important?

As a sanctuary sorcerer and a promising sword saint, she knew she needed to handle her emotions carefully. She couldn’t be like the naïve heroines in romance dramas, foolishly giving away everything she had!

Besides, the observer had plenty of flaws too…

While analyzing the observer’s shortcomings to clear her mind, Sonya headed to the canteen for a meal. Not finding her usual nutritious dishes, she casually picked up a few plates of meat.

As she sat down and took a bite of the fish, she gagged instantly.

This is awful!

How could such good fish be made so poorly?

Little Trumpet, I need to remember to tell the observer about this; it’s awful!

Sonya disdainfully pushed the fish aside, finished her other dishes, and then proceeded to her swordsmanship training as usual.

During a break, she thought again of the terrible fish, determined to tell the observer about it-it was unforgettable in its awfulness…

Huh?

Wiping the sweat from her flushed face with a towel, Sonya blinked in confusion.

It was then that she realized.

She was in deep trouble.

Thus, she needed to be part of the observer’s life, just as the observer had become part of hers.

Because she couldn’t be the only one in trouble.

“If you encounter any puzzling problems, I might be able to look up some information to help solve them,” she said. “Besides, you’re in the center of things, and we bystanders might be able to offer better suggestions.”

“Exactly!” Deya quickly chimed in. “I can also go back and find someone to help analyze it!”

By “someone,” she really meant the Gospel system. Though using the Gospel system required points, even calculating exactly how many children she and Ashe would have in the future wouldn’t cost a fraction of the Royal Family’s points. Unfortunately, the Gospel couldn’t extend to the Kingdom of Senlo. Otherwise, they could’ve directly tailored a strategy for Ashe.

“We’ll have to start from the beginning,” Ashe said. “There was one thing I didn’t mention earlier-I became a Half Tactile in the Four Pillars Cult.”

“Half Tactile?”

Ashe briefly explained the concept. Sonya and Deya weren’t particularly reactive at first, but when Ashe mentioned that becoming Tactile usually led to significant personality changes, they grew serious-they could handle Ashe becoming the leader of the bad guys, but not Ashe being changed against his will.

“Speaking of which, when I became a Half Tactile, I saw something that seemed like a prophetic dream,” Ashe continued. “I saw eight things in the dark. The first died, lying in a pool of blood. The second died, lying on top of the first, and although it wasn’t bleeding, a small white soul emerged from a wound underneath it, propping up the second body.”

“Sounds like a fairy tale,” Deya remarked.

“Could it be some kind of mental contamination?” Sonya frowned. “You should stop thinking about that dream.”

At that moment, Vesser, who had been silent, suddenly had a flash of insight-a literal light flashed across her mind.

“The light spirit is pretty handy,” she said. “That wasn’t a prophetic dream; it’s probably the worldview passed down by the Four Pillars Cult.”

“Worldview?”

“A pool of blood with a first corpse, a white soul on the first corpse, and the white soul propping up a second corpse… Doesn’t that sound familiar?” Vesser said. “I wouldn’t have understood it before, but after hearing about the Rainbow Tail’s secret toxin and then making connections using the light spirit, I realized everything matches up.”

Everyone paused, and Sonya immediately responded, “The Virtual Realm!”

Deya exclaimed in amazement, “The sea has the Golden Fish, the Golden Fish is on the white bull, and above the white bull is the Time Continent… It’s exactly the same!”

“So, is the Virtual Realm actually a world formed by corpses?” Ashe couldn’t fathom it. “Is the entire Virtual Realm made up of corpse remnants?”

“This is just the worldview of the Four Pillars Cult and might not be the truth,” Vesser replied. “There are far too many sorcerers trying to decipher the Virtual Realm. Other cults might have even more outrageous interpretations, like claiming sorcerers are the Virtual Realm’s bacteria, and that reality produces sorcerers to destroy the Virtual Realm, making them pawns of reality… There are countless such speculative theories.”

Ashe nodded. The truth of the world wasn’t particularly significant to a sorcerer at his level, nor could it help him time travel across Kingdoms. He continued, “We almost caught the Silver Lantern a couple of days ago, but unfortunately, she got away. It’s going to be tough to catch her now.”

“Why?” Sonya asked. “If you managed to catch her once, you should be able to do it again.”

“We were able to set a trap for her because that small town had been infiltrated by the Four Pillars Cult, allowing me to use the Cult’s intelligence to get a lead on her,” Ashe explained. “But now she’s not only more cautious, but she’s also entered the Qinyi Alliance’s territory. The Four Pillars Cult hasn’t extended its reach there, so we’ll have to pursue her on our own.”

“The Qinyi Alliance?”

Ashe replied, “It’s a religious coalition that rapidly formed in response to the rise of the Four Pillars Cult. Their alliance has slowed down the Cult’s expansion. So not only can we not get any assistance there, we’ll be seen as outsiders and face hostility. On the contrary, the Silver Lantern, with her ability to manipulate minds, can move more freely than we can.”

“We’ve tracked her to an Underground Building, but we don’t know exactly where she is inside.”

“There can’t be many people in the building, right?”

Ashe sighed, “There are twenty thousand people living there-it’s a hundred-story high structure, a relic from the Gray Fox Divine Era, with all necessary living facilities inside, and nothing built above ground.”

Deya immediately caught on, “So it’s like a complete version of the Senhaeser Building. In the diverse Gospel Kingdom, it’s really hard to find a societal system that the Gospel hasn’t touched.”

“This building is the main base of the Transcendence Temple of the Qinyi Alliance. We’ve barely managed to disguise ourselves as merchants to settle in, but we’re under surveillance day and night. Now, we can only wait for the Silver Lantern to make a move.”

Sonya shook her head. “That’s too passive. Can’t the Four Pillars Cult help you with a prophecy?”

“The Four Pillars Cult can indeed help with a broad prediction, but the Silver Lantern is cunning enough not to leave even her real name, and her appearance is fabricated. The Cult still requires other sources of intelligence to pinpoint her location,” Ashe explained, spreading his hands. “Before we even made contact with the Prophecy Sect, the Silver Lantern had already taken precautions against the intervention of these mysterious sects… She was prepared for betrayal, whether it was against the Tribulation Fire Temple or the Four Pillars Cult.”

He sighed. “Moreover, the appearance she projects seems to be so endearing. Everyone other than us, her pursuers, has a good first impression of her. When we made our move, she immediately hid among the crowd to mask her presence, attacked nearby buildings to create chaos, blew up a gas station, and caused a collapse to obstruct us… It’s precisely these acts of destruction, which we wouldn’t dare to commit, that allowed her to narrowly escape our ambush.”

“In the end, we were the ones accused of causing all the destruction. If it weren’t for the Four Pillars Cult’s help, we would only have been able to fight our way out of the town.”

“Heartless, fearless, and relentless. You can’t really call her cruel, since we are the pursuers and she has no obligation to cooperate with us. It’s just that…”

“Have you ever played virtual games?” Ashe asked. “Players know that everything in a virtual game, including companions, bystanders, and enemies, is fake. So some players are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their objectives.”

“The Silver Lantern gives me the impression that she treats reality like a game. To achieve her goals, she doesn’t care about anything else, as if everything is fake.”

“Rather than calling her evil, it’s more accurate to say she’s a disaster. At the level of a sanctuary sorcerer, she’s practically a natural disaster.”

Vesser couldn’t help but glance at him.

Even with the intelligence provided by the Four Pillars Cult, Ashe had managed to accurately assess her character based on just a few encounters. No wonder he had the potential to become Tactile.

“She’s just a venomous woman, rotten to the core,” Sonya remarked.

“I think she’s more like those evil mad witches from fairy tales,” Deya huffed. “Maybe her true form is a hunched crone with a hooked nose, leaking pus, and missing most of her teeth.”

The sword Princess’s eyes flickered with a bloodthirsty gleam. “If I were by your side, I could take her out with a single Blood Moon Shattered Lake strike, leaving her dragging her intestines for several meters.”

“No, killing her in one blow is too merciful. Let me handle her,” the Witch’s voice echoed, “I’ll use the Water-born Thread to tear her into hundreds of pieces.”

They exchanged a glance, realizing that after so long, they finally found common ground again.

Ashe remarked curiously, “I never knew you two were so full of righteous indignation.”

Sonya didn’t burst Ashe’s bubble of idealism and instead turned to the silent Vesser. “Vesser, with all your cleverness, do you have any suggestions?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay