Sonia curiously asked, “What is your Silver Blessing?”
Asho was slightly taken aback and looked at his newly acquired blessing.
“Silver Blessing: Observer’s Appearance. Your appearance is deceptive, and unless you do something unusual, others will subconsciously ignore your existence. In the Virtual Realm, this blessing is enhanced, and unless there is an intimate bond, others cannot see your true appearance.”
“Can you see my face?”
Sonia hesitated for a moment and said, “Yes, I can now.”
Asho blinked and briefly introduced, “My blessing makes others automatically ignore me when they see me… But I’m not an infiltrator, and I don’t plan to rob the rich to help myself. Why did I get this blessing? The Virtual Realm is really targeting me.”
Sonia giggled and said, “Or maybe the Virtual Realm sees through your true nature…”
“Don’t laugh. You should have felt it too. We now have another secret poison.”
When they saw the appearance of the Golden Fish Scale, a hidden knowledge flowed into their minds.
“Golden Fish Secret Poison”
“Number of infected people: 14”
“Degree of poison enhancement: 14%”
“Current effect of the poison: You can convert Silver Artificing into Golden Artificing at a ratio of 64:36. (When the enhancement degree drops to 10%, it will have a great benefit, but when it reaches 51%, it will have a negative effect.)”
It was only natural that the range of the Golden Fish Secret Poison was not widespread. After all, Asho and the others had deduced the truth, but they had to see the Golden Fish with their own eyes to be infected with the poison.
It was surprising to Asho that there were 14 infected people, which meant that besides them, six pairs of people had crossed from the Knowledge Sea to the Time Continent in the same way. But Asho was in a special team, while those people really relied on fate to meet!
“What a powerful secret poison,” Sonia exclaimed. “I have never heard of a miracle that can convert Artificing. Even if the exchange ratio is 10:1, it doesn’t exist!”
Generally speaking, Silver Artificing is Silver Artificing, and Golden Artificing is Golden Artificing. Low-level Artificing does not improve just because an Artificer climbs to a higher level of the Virtual Realm, as Artificing is the condensation of knowledge. It’s like learning addition and subtraction in first grade, which doesn’t automatically become multiplication and division in second grade.
Although low-level Artificing can activate high-level Sorcery Spirits, and high-level Artificing can activate low-level Sorcery Spirits, the former is highly inefficient, and the latter is too wasteful. Therefore, in order to maximize resource utilization, Artificers often use the corresponding level of Artificing to activate their Sorcery Spirits.
However, as Artificers obtain more and more high-level Sorcery Spirits, there is no need to use low-level Sorcery Spirits that cannot keep up with the versions, and even the low-level Artificing is despised.
Currently, Asho and Sonia didn’t have much need for this secret poison. After all, they only had a few second-tier Sorcery Spirits, and Silver Artificing was sufficient. But when they upgraded their Sorcery Spirits to the second-tier version, they would feel the preciousness of this secret poison. Even when facing second-tier Sorcerers with the same progress in the Virtual Realm, with the conversion of Silver Artificing into Golden Artificing, their mana bars would naturally be longer than others!
“After drinking with Senior Sister, crossing to the Time Continent, obtaining the Silver Blessing, being infected with the Golden Fish Secret Poison, and…” Sonia quickly glanced at Asho’s face. “Tonight is truly a lucky night.”
“The night is not over yet. Since we still have time, let’s explore the Time Continent. Maybe we can find some wild second-tier Sorcery Spirits—”
“We don’t have time.” Sonia said, “We are going to die.”
Asho was taken aback and opened the “Virtual Realm Map,” only to find that all 25 grid maps had the same message:
“Prepare to die. No salvation.”
“Haven’t you noticed the change in me?” Sonia rolled her hair with her finger. “My hair has turned black.”
Not only Sonia’s hair, but when Asho looked around, he found that the forest that was still a bit green had turned completely gray, and Sonia had lost all color, like characters in a black and white movie.
He looked down at his own hand, which was unnaturally white, without any flesh color.
“The footsteps of Artificers chasing the White Bull are not only for bathing in the golden rain, but also because there is no time outside the Flowing Gold River.” Sonia explained, “The Flowing Gold River moves with the White Bull, so once we fail to catch up with the White Bull, Artificers will be trapped in the ‘Still Domain’ without time. The specific manifestation is losing all color, leaving only black and white.”
“If we had just—”
“I saw the grass and trees around me turn gray as soon as I woke up. It means that the Flowing Gold River around us has dried up, and at that moment, we were doomed.” Sonia shrugged. “Even if we catch up, we won’t be able to catch up with time.”
Asho asked, “What about leaving the Virtual Realm now?”
Sonia smiled and said, “There is a huge time difference between the Still Domain and the outside world. Although we have been talking for a long time, it may only be a few seconds for the outside world. It will take us 20 seconds to exit the Virtual Realm in the outside world, but it will probably take several hours in the Still Domain.”
“Being trapped in the Still Domain and frozen by time is the second most common way for Artificers to die. The most common way is to be drowned by the Knowledge Sea.”
“How long do we have before we freeze?”
“The textbook says that if we don’t run away and wait in place, there will be a delay of about 10 minutes. It won’t be long.”
Asho looked at the sky and found that the golden rain was no longer visible. The whole world had become a silent black and white.
“Will we come back to this place the next time we enter the Virtual Realm?”
“Yes, we will. There is no turning back in the Virtual Realm, and Artificers are not allowed to go back. Even if I open the Truth Gate of a second-tier Sorcery Spirit, we will only come to the Time Continent.”
“That’s good.”
Asho stretched and lay down on the grass, plucked a blade and bit it. Surprisingly, it tasted a bit sweet.He suddenly thought of a question: “Does dying in the Virtual Realm cause harm to the soul…?”
Sonia nodded: “Yes, but we were neither defeated by the projection of an Artificer nor bitten to death by a knowledge creature, so we will only suffer minor damage and will not lose our Sorcery Spirits. Before our souls fully recover, we will feel a bit listless, unable to concentrate, drowsy, and our learning efficiency will decrease.”
“It sounds like being sleep-deprived… But not being able to enter the Virtual Realm is a big problem…”
“Anyway, you won’t be able to enter the Virtual Realm for the next few days, and I’m not interested in exploring the Time Continent alone without you. I can take this time to practice well, consolidate the knowledge I’ve just learned, and master the new miracles I’ve obtained. After working hard for half a month, it’s time to rest.”
“Rest… Speaking of which, I haven’t slept for a long time, now that you mention it, I feel a bit sleepy…”
Asho yawned, rubbed his eyes, and suddenly felt the back of his head being gently lifted and placed on something soft and elastic.
A gentle and melodious song, like the sound of wind chimes, slowly rang out.
It was like a lover whispering in his ear, and like the refreshing sound of ice cubes clinking in a glass in the middle of summer. It was pure with a hint of enchantment, demure with a touch of coquetry. Listening to it made him increasingly sleepy, his body relaxed, and he felt dizzy as if he were in a dream.
When the heavenly music paused, Asho was still half asleep.
“This is the lullaby my mother sang to me when I was a child. You’re the first person to hear me sing.”
Asho opened his eyes and saw Sword Girl looking down, her eyes full of laughter seemed to want to add color to this black and white world.
“I’ll wait for you in the Virtual Realm.”
The next second, they were frozen in time, like a painting.