Mage Manual
Chapter 517 - 421: A Sudden Turn

Chapter 517: Chapter 421: A Sudden Turn

Main City!

The headquarters of the Heroic Soul Army, the most dangerous mysterious region on the Time Continent!

Even the Sword Maiden was unable to find a single word about the Main City in her school; for the vast majority of mages, encountering the Heroic Soul Army was already the limit of their abilities, unless they could kill the Commander and obtain the map—otherwise, they would have no idea about the location of the Main City.

It was even more impossible to accidentally blunder into the Main City area—both the Blood Tomb Map and the Star Hall Map that Ash obtained clearly indicated that at least three legions patrolled outside the Main City area regularly, and the patrolling legions standardly included "flying" and "reconnaissance" attributes; ordinary mages would instantly be killed and bounced back to reality if they even stepped half a step over the Thunder Pond.

Knowing the location of the Main City, Ash’s team never once entertained the idea of exploring the Main City. Firstly, exploring the Main City, other than satisfying curiosity, offered no guaranteed gains; secondly, the risk was astronomically high, not to mention the Heroic Soul Army was still hunting them.

Exploring the Main City was no different from a petrol can voluntarily running into a fire to act as a firefighter.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just safely climb to the third level of the Void Realm, following the map and reaping its spoils? Why leave the comfort zone?

Hence, when Ash found himself in the unfamiliar Main City area, his mood was akin to that of a cancer patient—"Why did this happen?"

Under normal circumstances, he would have never ended up in this place, even without a detailed map, because the moment he saw the Heroic Soul Army up ahead, he would immediately turn back, just as you would avoid the rain when seeing skies heavy with clouds.

However, the random curse "Eye Contact" from the Shopping Book made it difficult for him to focus on the Void Realm Map. Under other circumstances, such a curse would pose no threat at all to them; at worst, they would just sit and gaze into each other’s eyes for an hour, possibly even increasing their Bonds Level.

And even if they encountered deadly dangers, at most they would die once—as although they could not voluntarily leave the Void Realm during the curse period, the random curse would automatically end once they left the Void Realm, effectively trading one death for a Blessing.

The problem was that Ash and his companions were constantly being hunted by the Heroic Soul Army!

And they had reasons they could not die!

And the speed of their sports car was enough to breach the patrolling defenses surrounding the Main City!

Ash didn’t know if this was "out of toilet paper" bad luck or the curse of Eternal Damnation striking again, or maybe even the Empress’ Soul cursing him by drawing circles—of course, this wasn’t a multiple-choice question—but by a series of intricate coincidences, Ash had miraculously made it to the unknown Main City area!

But the mages didn’t get the surprise of broadening their experiences; instead, infinite dread filled their hearts.

"Roar!"

On the giant wooden barricade walls, several pitch-black dragons spread their wings and roared forcefully, their voices almost solidifying into pitch-black thunderbolts that spread ceaselessly through space, nearly affecting even the sports car at the edge of the area, causing "Refraction Curtains" to ripple!

As though provoked, Ash’s Soul Summoning Technique Spirit suddenly jumped out on its own; its bicolored crystalline body suspended in midair emitted a dazzlingly bright purple glow, as if challenging the dragons, "Come at me if you dare! If you have the guts, come and kill my master"—and it couldn’t be retracted, frightening Ash into quickly hiding the Soul Summoning inside his coat.

Technique Spirits sometimes burst out on their own, most commonly when they’re hungry, but they would sneak out when interested in something like when Ash and Liss played "Mage Duel 14"; the Heart Sword and Earth Sword would unconsciously appear on his shoulder and watch.

"There’s actually a mature Evil Eye Shadow Dragon!" Sonia’s voice trembled, "Isn’t that an Upper Race that only appears in the Distant Realm? How could it appear on the Time Continent?"

"Beings from the Distant Realm?" Ash blinked, "That means..."

"Its juvenile phase already has the combat power of a Holy Sanctuary Mage, its growth phase is enough to contend with a Holy Sanctuary Mage, and the mature phase of the Evil Eye Shadow Dragon is even one of the ’Distant Realm’s Top Ten Disasters’!" Sonia gripped Diya’s hand tightly, "My professor once challenged the Evil Eye Black Dragon and couldn’t enter the Void Realm for half a year."

It wasn’t a Commander, it wasn’t a type of soldier, it was just a creature raised in theMain City, and it possessed the power to overwhelm the Holy Sanctuary!

Only a fool would approach the Main City!

Yet, chased relentlessly by the Heroic Soul Army behind them, Ash had no choice!

The sports car trembled and roared, desperate speeding through the olivine-green grassland, trying to circumvent the outer perimeter! The air was filled with the fresh scent of green leaves, the grassland unobstructed without any Rain Curtain, and the beautiful female operator looked at him with hopeful eyes—if one ignored the thunders and roars surrounding them, it could almost be a pleasant drive.

"I couldn’t help it," Ash spread his hands, "My Void Realm plan definitely did not include breaking through the Main City as a side quest."

"What should we do?" Diya asked anxiously, "If this continues, we’ll definitely be encircled... Huh?"

Diya suddenly paused, then adjusted her plain glasses, her hair turning completely white and her attire transforming into a silver-white armor.

"The White Queen?"

"Yes, it’s me," the White Queen nodded, "Sword Maiden, let me clarify one thing."

Sonia, who had been looking at Ash thoughtfully, turned toward her, "What?"

"The Observer cannot die," the queen said. "In a few days, it’ll be the Spider Tower’s turn, and if he dies, he will definitely violate the Contract, and the Soul Summoning Technique Spirit must be handed over to the Empress. Without the Soul Summoning Technique Spirit, we can only hope for the Empress’s mercy—but clearly, even if the Empress hasn’t regained her emotions, even if she does, she probably doesn’t harbor such feelings."

Ash did not argue; even if he created several more bottles of the ’Blazing Soul Essence Special Drink’ to heal the soul, it couldn’t recover in just three days unless he could extract a more powerful item—however, he had just purchased a curse of decreasing luck.

Though Ash could use the Gospel Book to amplify his intentions and increase the chances of winning, it was merely a remedy like finding hand sanitizer when there’s no toilet paper. Rather than relying on the draw, Ash might as well count on the rankings to update tomorrow and immediately reward him with a promotion to the Holy Sanctuary and send him a few wives, which would truly solve all problems.

In fact, after losing the Soul Summoning Technique Spirit, logically, there should be no need for the Empress to continue chasing them, as there was no profit in doing so, but the problem was that the Empress couldn’t be described by conventional logic. Moreover, putting one’s life and death in others’ hands was too foolish; that was why Ash had escaped from the Shattered Lake Prison.

"Having three people violates too many restrictions," the queen continued. "But with two people, it’d be much easier, and we could even attempt to cross the Flowing Gold River."

"But the curse already exists," Ash said. "Even if we wanted to break this curse, we can’t..."

Ash stopped mid-sentence.

This curse could indeed be broken, and the method was very simple.

"Self-harm both eyes to break it," the queen said. "However, our Mage souls will automatically heal injuries, so we must continuously damage the eyes to maintain blindness."

"But what is more likely to happen is—the curse will help prevent recovery to ensure it lasts long enough for the Mage to no longer have the ability ’to see.’"

This ’mutual gaze’ curse was interesting as it essentially ’kept the Mage in the same unchanging state.’ Once a Mage forcibly changed his state through self-harm, the operational principle of the curse didn’t change, or rather, it couldn’t change back because mutual gaze requires two people. Therefore, it was likely to adopt a more cunning strategy: turning ’keeping mutual gaze’ into ’maintaining blindness.’

"If two people gaze at each other and then hold a third blind operator, we could indeed regain some mobility," Ash mused. "As long as we find a Flowing Gold River to cross, we will likely escape..."

Boom!

Meteoric blazing fireballs blossomed like fire lotuses on the ’Refraction Curtain,’ and the shrill shrieking of flying creatures drowned out their voices, while outside the main city in the rain, another group of Heroic Soul Army blocked Ash and the others’ escape route!

Faced with such a siege, the sports car had to dodge towards the direction of the main city, but this was merely a stopgap; their space for maneuver would keep shrinking, and at any time, a Commander could step out from the main city and catch them like a delivery directly to their door!

Just over half an hour ago, they were overjoyed at encountering the special mechanism of a ’Muddled Shopping Book.’

Half an hour later, the situation took a nosedive; even though they were driving on a vibrant grassland, death was eagerly rushing to embrace them!

Moreover, this death would directly lead to the Empress’s bet being lost, and after losing the Soul Summoning Technique Spirit, their future lives and deaths would depend on the whims of the Empress on that day!

Defeated like a crumbling mountain, the remnants were at their end!

"If we keep going like this, we’ll become the feces of intellectual creatures even before we encounter the Flowing Gold River," the queen said. "It’s time to make a choice."

"What do you mean?"

"Arm the blind with troops and let her stay behind to buy time," the queen said calmly. "It might only delay for a second, or it might successfully confuse the Heroic Soul Army, but anything’s better than sitting here waiting to die."

"The gains are too low!" Ash immediately said. "And staying behind to cover our retreat is certain death!"

"But this isn’t the Spider Tower, and they aren’t the Empress, who won’t specifically devour our souls. Those who cover the retreat, although their souls will be severely damaged, will at least keep their lives. If we do nothing, we will die anyway, and even a little gain now is not that bad of an outcome."

"That’s correct, I agree with the Witch’s analysis," Sonia suddenly said. "This is really the last resort, so..."

"Let me do it." "Let me do it."

The queen was a bit surprised. "Sword Maiden, you have been teamed up with the Observer longer and work better together; someone like me who just gazes at him can hardly exert much strength, so you should be the one to stay behind."

"No," the Village Girl shook her head. "Our combat power is nothing compared to the Heroic Soul Army; if it really comes to battle, we would just be struggling in death throes. But Witch, you possess a sharper Talent for time. Our last crossing of the Flowing Gold River was also thanks to the Witch’s help. If we must cross the Flowing Gold River to escape at the end, then it’s most fitting for Witch to be the one to stay behind."

"Sword Maiden," the queen said. "We are voluntarily staying behind; you don’t need to feel any burden or need to prove that you and I are equal. We already trusted you during our last crossing of the Flowing Gold River."

"I’ve never... Alright, let’s not discuss whether you can perform well, but just like you said, I must prove we are equal!" Sonia said. "I usually take the most spoils, consume the most Treasure Beads, and have been in the team longer than you, so I must take on greater responsibilities now. Otherwise, how can we be equal?"

"What you say about not minding is meaningless. You may not mind today, but what about tomorrow, the day after tomorrow? I don’t want to probe human nature because every probe turns into the Abyss, into an Evil Dragon! If it were someone else, I could take advantage and be done with it, but we still have countless days and nights to face together, I can’t let you look down on me!"

"Sword Maiden, your pride is too strong; I wouldn’t look down on you for that."

"I’m not just proud, I’m used to judging others by myself."