Chapter 63
Zzzz zzzz -
The Thunder Wielder recalled his flying nine-section whip, and by now the small boat had arrived at the shore, still within his attack range. He grabbed one end of the nine-section whip and swung it around, lashing dark scars into the sandy ground, then abruptly took a step back.
Seeing this, Sonya's face turned pale. She quickly hid behind Ashe and said, "Be careful!"
But it was too late. The Thunder Wielder strode forward and crossed his arms to swing the two nine-section thunder whips. Like scissors snapping shut, they viciously chopped towards Ashe!
This was the vicious move that had left psychological trauma on Sonya when she was nearly whipped out of her mind. Although it couldn't even be considered a miracle, because of the kinetic energy of the spinning and swinging whips and the special properties of lightning magic, its destructive power was enormous and extremely difficult to dodge. Getting hit by it would inflict pain that made the soul quiver, comparable to kicking a cabinet and shattering your toenail in the process.
"Quiet, you're disturbing my contemplation of the ultimate mysteries of the world."
Ashe raised an eyebrow and stabbed the small boat fiercely with his sword. The sword barrier enveloping them immediately glowed with faint golden light, directly clashing head-on against the Thunder Wielder's lethal thunder shears!
Zzzz zzzz zzzz!
The nine-section whip coiled around the outside of the sword barrier but was unable to break through the transparent shield. The long sword Ashe was leaning on, however, inexplicably cracked and broke in several places. But due to the properties of the virtual world, the long sword quickly restored itself to its original form.
"Adorned magnificence indulges the beauty, the dragon's selection and the phoenix's glory."
The blood vessels in the Thunder Wielder's eyes grew even more pronounced as he chanted unintelligible poetry. Lightning swirled around his entire body and his veins bulged as he seemed to enter a frenzied state. He whipped the sword barrier relentlessly with his nine-section whips.
Calming down, Sonya observed the sword barrier carefully and immediately noticed many details she hadn't paid attention to before. This transparent shield was actually composed of extremely sharp sword qi. Not only did it have defensive capabilities, it could even injure enemies at close range by reflecting attacks, breaking their weapons!
However, this would be difficult to demonstrate in the virtual world, because weapons there were products of the sorcerer's consciousness. As long as the sorcerer's consciousness persisted, weapons had unlimited durability.
Similarly, there was no distinction between superior and inferior weapons in the virtual world. Virtual world battles were contests between arcane energies, so even if Sonya materialized a wooden sword, she could still cleave mountains and crush rocks. On the other hand, artillery mages who were quite formidable in reality would see their manifested artillery's might plummet linearly if they didn't deeply comprehend their weapons.
This sword barrier that incorporated both offense and defense wasn't something a single spirit could conjure. It was a miracle composed of composite spirits!
Thinking of this, Sonya couldn't help feeling somewhat vexed. She had originally wanted to show off the power and potential of her Moon Reflection on Water miracle and demonstrate her combat power, while also warning the Observer not to manipulate her like that again. But now, not only had the Observer saved her, he had instantly used a miracle on par with Moon Reflection on Water!
Was he deliberately waiting until I was in mortal danger before popping out to mess with me mentally?
Sonya grumbled inwardly, while Ashe watched the familiar sword barrier with an inexplicable sense of irritation he couldn't put into words.
"Sorry, I'm in a really bad mood right now."
Ashe raised a finger.
"So what I'm about to do next to you is purely venting my emotions."
Clang!
When a sword cry drowned out the thunder roar, the Thunder Wielder immediately retreated, swirling his whips into two thunder shields to block the flash of light flying through the air!
"Heart Sword spirit!"
Sonya immediately recognized this signature spirit of the sword arts. Her eyeballs practically bulged out. "Where did you get a Heart Sword spirit? Do you know the Heart Sword forms? Please teach me, I'm begging you!"
She was like a child encountering their most beloved bubble gun, barely able to conceal her thirst for this spirit.
In the sword arts, there was a legend of the 'Peerless Secret Swords Five Spirits'. It meant that possessing any one of these five spirits would allow you to build a perfect sword art system with it as the core.
The Heart Sword spirit was one of the Peerless Secret Swords Five Spirits.
There were also the 'Arcane Swords Twenty-One Spirits' and 'Wondrous Swords Fifty Spirits'.
Sonya's Vibration Sword spirit was one of the 'Wondrous Swords Fifty Spirits'.
However, even the lowest tier of the 'Wondrous Swords Fifty Spirits' should not be looked down upon. The first Duke Vlozrada had relied on the Vibration Sword system to establish his status as the 'Swordsman Noble'. In Cailleach, the number of swordsmen who sold themselves to House Vlozrada just to obtain the Vibration Sword spirit was not small.
As a sorcerer who wielded the Vibration Sword spirit and personally experienced its power and potential, how much more powerful would the superior 'Arcane Swords Twenty-One Spirits' and 'Peerless Secret Swords Five Spirits' be?
Seeing the usually arrogant swordswoman so awed by him, Ashe felt quite smug. "Don't rush, let me get rid of this circus performer first before we slowly chat."
"Okay!"
Sonya watched the Observer display his prowess with great anticipation, watching the Heart Sword attack and be deflected, the Heart Sword thrust and be knocked away, the Heart Sword stab from behind and be parried...
"Your swordsmanship has much room for improvement."
"I've already worn him down and exposed many flaws for you. Go on, don't waste this revenge opportunity I specially prepared for you."
Sonya became more and more convinced the Observer was an ancient monster revived.
Without a few thousand years of tempering, how could anyone cultivate skin this thick?
She silently complained inwardly, then leapt forward to kill the Thunder Wielder. Ashe wasn't idle either, summoning another sword-wielding doppelganger. Along with his Heart Sword, the three of them surrounded and attacked the Thunder Wielder together.
In the end, the Thunder Wielder only had two nine-section whips. He could defend the front but not the back, defend the back but not the sides. Two whips were no match for three swords. The strong hero met an army, and with a final strange poem, he gave a mournful cry before dissipating on the spot into light smoke, leaving behind two spirits and a sorcerer's handbook.
「Thunder Departing」
「Single-Wing Spirit」
「Limitation: The medium used must have a certain degree of conductivity.」
「Basic Effect: Unleash a bolt of lightning.」
「Passive Effect: The conductivity of the body gradually increases.」
「'Fire is the enlightener of wisdom, lightning the defender of reason. So when you encounter an unreasonable fool, you know what to do, right?'」
「Glyph」
「Single-Wing Spirit」
「Limitation: Glyphs must first be drawn on the object with the spirit's excrement in advance.」
「Basic Effect: Cause most spirit effects to flow along the glyphs.」
「Passive Effect: The glyphs gradually become fixed, eventually becoming inerasable.」
「'The path lies beneath your feet, upon your body, within your heart.'」
'Thunder Departing' looked like a praying mantis, while 'Glyph' resembled a silkworm baby. Undoubtedly, these two spirits comprised a very simple miracle combination: first draw glyphs, then let lightning flow through them, turning disposable lightning bolts into a persistent empowered state. A very simple yet practical miracle idea.
No wonder that Thunder Wielder was covered head to toe in all kinds of chaotic tattoos - so he had etched electrical circuits into his own body!
However, compared to this miracle, Ashe was more concerned with a certain piece of information revealed in the spirit descriptions.
"Spirits can poop too?"
"Why wouldn't they? You've seen spirits eat gold and silver coins, right? The coins get consumed, so if spirits didn't poop, then a link would be missing from the circulation system and there would be fewer and fewer coins in the world."
Sonya said matter-of-factly: "It's precisely because spirits can poop that coins can keep circulating. The white silver coins you're feeding spirits now might be poop from some spirit thousands of years ago."
"Good thing I'm not a spirit." Ashe muttered. "So when do spirits poop? I should let them out in advance."
"How would I know? I don't have that kind of voyeurism hobby."
"Huh?"
"You don't need to prepare in advance either. Spirits will sneak out on their own to relieve themselves when you're not paying attention. Basically no one can discover it since their excrement blows away with a gust of wind. If you need to collect a spirit's poop, just summon it out, feed it, then cover it with something and wait."
"Sneak out... without the sorcerer's permission, how can they sneak out?"
"Spirits have their own thoughts and lives."
Sonya shrugged. "When you need them, of course they'll obey the sorcerer's commands, but when your consciousness isn't focused, like when sleeping, meditating, reading, they'll have some free rein and take the chance to sneak out for some fresh air when you're not noticing. Some sorcerers find their spirits very slow to respond after indulging in something for a long time - that's basically because the spirits have wandered too far to rush back in time."
Ashe understood. So this was just slacking off!
Although he had tried his best to view spirits as intelligent beings, he hadn't expected them to be this intelligent, even picking up human vices like slacking off. But seeing as they were using their slacking off time to poop instead of using pooping as an excuse to slack off, Ashe didn't mind.
After simple discussion, the 'Thunder Departing' and 'Glyph' combo spirits seemed able to fetch a high price at Sonya's school, so those two went to her.
Neither felt any desire to keep them for personal use - the lightning elemental branch was known as the most bitter, tiring, painful and frenzied system. The thought of starting from zero to cultivate lightning arts made one shudder instinctively.
As long as they sailed far enough in the sea of knowledge, opportunities to pick up complete spirit sets like this would arise frequently. If sorcerers tried to master every handy spirit set they came across, even endless energy wouldn't be enough.
Learning to prioritize was essential sorcerer training.
Naturally, the sorcerer's handbook went to Ashe again. Sonya took one look at the first page and outright retreated, even running to the side to retch.
In Ashe's opinion, it wasn't too bad, just a 'Heretical Cult's Sacrificial Records', though the methods inside were somewhat cruel.
It almost matched the evil once committed by Heath.
It seemed among heretical cults, the Four Pillars heretics were an especially ferocious batch.
After reading through the Thunder Wielder's sacrificial records, Ashe naturally learned a new skill - 'Skinning Mastery'.
Luckily there were no restrictions on targets, so it should come in handy for skinning small critters to eat when escaped into the wilderness.
After dealing with the spoils, Ashe sat at the prow of the small boat, utterly serene.
Sonya sat at the stern without a word.
Even when the Inheritance Isle completely sank away, silence still reigned on the boat.
After a long time, Sonya still couldn't endure it and squeezed out a few words from the corner of her mouth: "Where did you get those sword spirits?"
"Well, since you've sincerely asked, I can magnanimously tell you-"
I knew it, Sonya viciously thought to herself, gave him another chance to show off!
In fact, Ashe had been wanting to flaunt for a while too. Lightly clearing his throat, he extended a hand to summon three spirits. From left to right: a golden single-winged sword, a clay-sculpted dual-winged swordsman, and a light green single-winged bird.
"Heart Sword, Earth Sword, Wind Wall - these are spirits I just obtained. Heart Sword and Wind Wall are single-wing, Earth Sword is dual."
"Just obtained? Does that mean you were late just to get these three spirits?"
"You could say that."
Ashe gazed into the fog's depths, as if watching a fleeting phantom.
"After all, their original owner had just killed me once."
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