Harvey pulled back the curtains and glanced at the street outside the inn.

Even though it was deep into the night, the entire town was shrouded in darkness. There were no candles or lighting, and one had to rely on the miracle of spirit to gain night vision and move around in the night. Despite this, there were many people on the streets, shopping and even doing business. In the darkness, countless whispers and footsteps could be heard.

Blind Town, the core stronghold of the Blind Sight Cult, was also one of the most famous trade centers in the Qinyi Alliance.

The most distinctive feature of this town was that everyone had to pretend to be blind and could not create any source of light. Even during the day, a barrier blocked the sunlight, ensuring that the town remained in complete darkness at all times.

Although it was dark and devoid of light, as the cult’s stronghold, it naturally could resist the Choking Green of the night. Due to the unique nature of Blind Town, even the Green Calamity dared not approach it. Despite the bustling streets, no sorcerer dared to fight here, making it one of the top five safest places in the Qinyi Alliance, second only to Black Robe Town in terms of prosperity.

The rules of Blind Town were unbreakable. If you revealed that you were not blind or created a source of light, you would become truly blind, permanently losing your vision. No miracle could restore it, and you would even forget what “eyes” were, as the area where your eyes should be would be smoothed over.

The reason for this was that Blind Town harbored a piece of the gray fox heritage. Unfortunately, it was also related to the Misty White Demi-God.

After all, the Misty White Demi-God had once pursued physical enhancement and conducted many experiments. One of these experiments was to determine whether losing one sense could permanently enhance other talents.

The results of the experiment are unknown, but the Blind Sight Cult was derived from this experiment. They pursued the idea of “completely losing all senses to become one with the world and achieve Immortality.” All their followers were residents of Blind Town who had willingly lost their sight. Moreover, every Blind Seer who reached adulthood would, without exception, become a sorcerer.

Without exception, not even a single one with a mental disability.

However, the Blind Sight Cult was not considered a powerful cult because self-mutilation was very common among its members. For instance, Harvey now saw someone grinding their hands on the street until the wrist bones were exposed, a sight that made Harvey feel a pang of pity.

The Blind Seers do not pursue pain; they seek to “reduce information.” As if to provide theoretical support for “losing all senses,” the Blind Sight Cult proposed the “Theory of Emptiness as Bliss,” which posits that human suffering stems from what one knows and obtains. If a person receives no information, they become “empty” and thus achieve “peace of mind.”

Simply mutilating their senses is meaningless. What they truly desire is to “forget their senses,” much like how Blind Town has made them completely forget their eyes. The Blind Seers are constantly searching for other ways to “forget their feelings.” They even regard “forgetting oneself” as the ultimate pursuit, calling it “forgetting both self and the world, achieving unity with the cosmos.”

Because of the Blind Seers’ inward-focused nature, they never pay attention to outsiders in Blind Town. As long as you don’t claim to see things or create light, they will ignore you. If you want to become a Blind Seer, all you need to do is produce some light.

Due to these rules, sorcerers in Blind Town dare not fight, as even a minor collision could spark a flame. As long as you don’t want to join the Blind Sight Cult, you must behave yourself in Blind Town. This fulfills the Senlo Wasteland’s key requirements for a trading hub, making it a natural choice as a trade center.

For Harvey, however, the greatest advantage of Blind Town is that he can keep Alice by his side without having to apply makeup every day. Harvey is actually a very meticulous necromancer. To care for his teammates’ feelings, he almost daily tends to Alice, as “corrosive aura,” “fear aura,” and “negative energy invasion” are innate traits of every necromancer. Only by applying makeup can these combat passives be nullified. Others who see Alice without makeup dare not speak up, though they may feel aggrieved.

As for Ashe and the others, they have gradually grown accustomed to it, to the point of indifference.

“Has he not returned yet?”

The sound of a door opening echoed in the darkness as Ashe and Igor entered the room, accompanied by the flapping of wings.

When they saw Harvey and Alice in the room, they instinctively shifted their gazes slightly, ensuring that the unaltered Alice was no longer in their line of sight.

They had grown used to averting their eyes just enough so that neither Harvey nor Alice would notice.

“Not yet,” Harvey replied. “Maybe he’s finally decided to become a Blind Crow.”

It had been five days since they left the Twinborn Cult.

After rescuing Ashe, the group of four fled at the first light of dawn, not even daring to stay for breakfast. The Dark Serpent Twins had shown Igor the cult’s core Nightfall control panel, and in return, Igor had caused the Twinborn Abyss to completely collapse. It was a case of repaying a drop of kindness with the destruction of an entire family.

Naturally, they rushed out of the city to dig up their motorcycle, wishing they could attach wings to it.

“Could it be that we’ve run into pursuers from the Twinborn Cult?” Ashe worried aloud. “Relying solely on Tamashi to gather information was probably too much to ask…”

Even with the Night Vision miracle, moving around in Blind Town still required immense courage. After all, even kicking a small stone and creating a spark could leave you permanently blind. Tamashi claimed he had undergone full darkness training before, so the task of gathering information outside was entrusted to him.

“I don’t think the Twinborn Cult will hold us accountable,” Harvey said.

“Why?” Ashe asked, puzzled. “We’re the ones who caused the collapse of the Twinborn Abyss.”

“Not us,” Harvey corrected. “It was Igor.”

Ashe frowned in dissatisfaction, his tone sharpening. “What’s the difference?”

“Even though the Abyss collapsed, the Twinborn System might not have been destroyed,” Igor interjected, glancing at Harvey. “They haven’t sent anyone after us, probably because they’ve turned misfortune into fortune and found a more efficient way to produce Twinborn Sorcerers.”

“That could be the reason,” Harvey said noncommittally. He closed the window and drew the curtains tightly, then turned to Ashe with wide eyes, his necromancer’s face showing a strangely human expression of longing. “Hurry, hurry, hurry.”

Ashe patted the Round Cicada beside him, and the cicada slowly emitted a golden light, illuminating the entire room.

On the walls, the floor, and every blank surface, blood-red words appeared: “Don’t tell them you can see,” “Don’t create light,” and so on.

Yet Ashe and the others were already accustomed to this environment. Their tense expressions instantly relaxed.

After staying in the darkness for so long, their bodies felt parched, desperately in need of light to nourish them.

In theory, nothing in Blind Town was allowed to emit light, including spirits, since spirits are connected to their sorcerers’ souls. It’s like how if your pet dug up someone’s ancestral grave, you, as the owner, would undoubtedly be held responsible.

But the Round Cicada was different.

Because strictly speaking, it wasn’t Ashe’s spirit.

Unless a spirit willingly submits, a lower-tier sorcerer simply cannot accommodate an upper-tier spirit. The Round Cicada clearly had no intention of becoming Ashe’s pet. It had merely used Ashe to escape from a Miracle Trap and hadn’t reached the point of pledging its life to him.

However, the Round Cicada didn’t abandon Ashe after using him.

In its naive, newly born mind, it likely developed a mental imprint that “leaving the sorcerer would lead to being sealed again,” which is why it chose to continue staying by Ashe’s side.

After several days of observation, Ashe had begun to vaguely understand the extent of his control over the Round Cicada. First, he didn’t need to provide spellforce to use it (his Prismatic spellforce couldn’t sustain the Round Cicada anyway). However, the Round Cicada could only cast spells for him three times a day, with the effect of “stealing the fate from three seconds ago and replacing the current fate with it.” Ashe called this ability the “Three-Second Cicada Lurk.”

In simple terms, it allowed him to escape any harm by reverting to a state three seconds prior.

This wasn’t exactly a healing ability, as it did nothing to address existing injuries. Moreover, it was highly time-sensitive-once the three-second window passed, it became useless. Therefore, Ashe had been training diligently with the “Three-Second Cicada Lurk” these past few days. If he could use it in a critical moment, it would be nothing short of a lifesaving miracle.

Ashe also knew that the Square Cicada, which Silver Lantern had taken, likely had the effect of “stealing the fate from three seconds in the future and replacing the current fate with it.” Compared to the Round Cicada, the Square Cicada seemed even harder to use. But Ashe was certain that with Silver Lantern’s intelligence, the Square Cicada would become a trump card capable of turning the tide at some point in the future.

The Round Cicada’s food was Golden Flow Water, which naturally forms as the world flows and changes. This meant the Round Cicada could sustain itself, which was a relief for Ashe, as he had no idea how to feed a Four-winged Spirit otherwise. If he had to continue using gold coins for its sustenance, the daily cost would have bankrupted Ashe in no time.

One-Winged Spirits are fed with silver coins, Two-Winged Spirits with gold coins, and Three-Winged Spirits can barely be sustained with gold coins. But for a Four-Winged Spirit, gold coins are far from sufficient. Fortunately, the Round Cicada was exceptionally easy to care for. If it had been any other legendary spirit, Ashe wouldn’t have been able to afford it at all.

Since it didn’t drain Ashe’s spellforce, only offered limited spellcasting, and didn’t require feeding, the Round Cicada couldn’t really be considered Ashe’s spirit. If anything, it was more like a stray cat that lived nearby-it occasionally let Ashe pet it and was willing to catch mice in the area, but it would never truly enter Ashe’s home.

Thus, when it emitted light, it was akin to a stray cat’s mating call. No matter how much the gray fox heritage of Blind Town might want to hold someone accountable, they couldn’t pin it on Ashe. And since there was no way to blind the Round Cicada, Ashe and his companions were able to enjoy the blessing of light within Blind Town.

The three sanctuary sorcerers squinted their eyes, gathered around the golden-glowing Round Cicada.

Only through loss can one truly understand how precious certain habitual things are.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay