Sorcerer’s Handbook
Chapter 638: By Any Means Necessary

“You must absolutely avoid any contact with the Four Pillars Cult.”

Ashe stared at Sonya, giving her a serious admonition, “No matter what they offer, do not be swayed. The true strength of the Four Pillars Cult lies not in their violence or resources, but in their ideology-a seductively sweet abyss of corruption.”

Ashe had always thought the Four Pillars Cult was up to no good; why else would so many fools believe in them? However, after witnessing the Cult’s rapid growth during his visit to the Senlo Kingdom, he realized that the fool was none other than himself.

The ‘bravery’, ‘rage’, and ‘bloodlust’ of the Lord of Myriad Glories are actually a rebellion against pain. He does not ask you to win people over with virtue or reason, to consider the greater good, or to mind societal norms. Instead, his creed is simple: kill the family of anyone who wrongs you and vent until you feel satisfied-after all, who hasn’t felt oppressed or thought about breaking free from their chains?

The ‘curiosity’, ‘knowledge’, and ‘thought’ of the Lord of Wind, Rain, and Snow represent the purest ‘desire to explore’ that every child possesses. He does not curb your thirst for knowledge, whether you’re curious about what happens if a ceiling fan falls, what it feels like to jump from a building, what it feels like to scoop out an eyeball, or what happens if you lock a group of people in a basement with aphrodisiacs… No experiment is too taboo.

The ‘life’ of the Eternal Fiery Heart and the ‘joy’ of the Dreaming Free Spirit are even easier to understand. Who doesn’t want to live without sickness or death, indulging in their desires, forever happy?

The doctrines of the Four Pillars Cult are not evil at all; every word directly targets the deepest desires of the human heart. Thus, Ashe knew that no one could resist the Four Pillars Cult because they genuinely have your best interests at heart.

Ashe was frightened when he heard that the Four Pillars Cult had tried to persuade the Sword Princess multiple times. Besides the Lord of Wind, Rain, and Snow, the ‘rebellion’ of the Lord of Myriad Glories, the ‘life’ of the Eternal Fiery Heart, and the ‘joy’ of the Dreaming Free Spirit were deadly temptations for her!

She was just the type to take things personally, vain and proud!

This realization made him understand why her classmate Felix had tried to persuade her multiple times-it was indeed a wise choice, considering how easily she could fall into their trap!

Upon hearing Ashe’s concern, Sonya rolled her eyes, “The seductively sweet abyss of corruption… No wonder you used to be the leader of the Four Pillars Cult.”

Ashe blinked, unable to see how she made that connection.

He became a bit anxious, “I’m not joking. If you underestimate them-“

“How could I underestimate those who have caused you so much suffering?”

Sonya snorted, “Don’t worry, I won’t let Felix get close to me again, but that doesn’t mean they’ll just give up… However, as long as I’m in Swordflower College, even if they have plans, they can’t do much to me. Besides, Felix doesn’t know that I’ve seen through them. If I keep an eye out, I might just be able to expose them.”

Ashe wanted to say something, but found himself at a loss for words-after all, evasion isn’t a solution. If you’re always on the defensive, how can you ever really be safe? If you wish for a peaceful life, your best bet would be to eliminate all those who threaten it, not live in perpetual vigilance and unrest.

When the Sword Princess ascended to the sanctuary, she was bound to face more challenges and storms. The Four Pillars Cult, the Stars Kingdom, the nobility… In this world, the greater your power, the greater the risks. If you want to stand at the summit, you must be wary of falling off the cliff.

In the Senlo Kingdom’s divine era, there were no conflicts of interest, and society was advanced and benevolent. Everyone had access to the best education and resources, but the price was the surrender of your ideological freedom.

Although Ashe wanted to advise the Sword Princess not to take risks or attempt to confront the Four Pillars Cult, he really had no right to say so-he himself didn’t want to take risks, but since traversing to this world, he hadn’t had a single day of peace.

Fate is never gentle; one can only find temporary refuge. The only true path forward is to face difficulties head-on.

“Well, then I’ll be waiting for you to avenge me,” was all Ashe could finally say.

“Who said I’m targeting them for you?” Sonya stuck out her tongue and made a face, “And I’m just going to keep an eye out, at most anonymously report them. I’m not going to put myself in danger… I really value my own safety.”

Vesser spoke up, “But if what they say is true, then you, Sword Princess, can’t continue looking for ways to traverse nations.”

At this, Sonya’s expression darkened, and she nodded, “Felix has no reason to lie about this, although I don’t know why the Stars Kingdom would be wary of it, but I really can’t investigate further. Moreover, not even the mysterious Four Pillars Cult has a method for traversing nations, so no matter how much I search, it’s unlikely I’ll find anything.”

Traversing nations undoubtedly requires a mastery of space, but with Sonya’s own Spatial Sect only at the silver realm, she couldn’t create her own Spatial Miracle. Hence, she had been hoping to find an existing method.

This was precisely why Sonya so decisively rejected the Four Pillars Cult-they didn’t even have a ready-made solution, expecting her to figure it out herself!

I came here to copy homework, and you’re telling me to do it myself?

Vesser looked at Ashe, “Observer, didn’t you go to the Thousand Island Lake controlled by the Bronze Law Cult the day before yesterday, in pursuit of the gray fox heritage that might traverse space? Did you find anything?”

Ashe shook his head, “Forget it, we hadn’t searched long before the Four Pillars Cult showed up. Their followers even leaked our information, making the Bronze Law Cult think we were with the Four Pillars… If we hadn’t voluntarily left, it might have turned into a fight.”

It had been half a month since that night in Dead City.

Ashe and his group had stopped pursuing the Silver Lantern and had lost interest in entangling with the Four Pillars Cult, focusing solely on tracing the heritage that could traverse nations. However, the Mercury Trojan Horse had no intention of letting them go-having completely turned against them, she was now unchecked.

Without capturing these two Half Tactile Senses, she could never rest easy.

Ashe and his group had barely escaped the sphere of influence of the Four Pillars Cult, but the Cult had also begun a major campaign, aggressively invading the Qinyi Alliance.

At first, Ashe thought this was the last madness of the Mercury Trojan Horse. After all, the Four Pillars Cult was down to a few sanctuary sorcerers and didn’t even have enough people to defend themselves-weren’t they courting death by attacking?

However, the result was a complete shock to them-within half a month, several sanctuary sorcerers had defected from their sects to join the Four Pillars Cult, including a legendary sorcerer from the War Temple!

That was one of only three legends in all of Senlo, the leader of the War Temple, even hailed as the strongest combat force in Senlo!

Almost overnight, the Four Pillars Cult had swallowed the War Temple, its overall combat power now surpassing the Qinyi Alliance. It was then that the Qinyi Alliance realized they needed to unite or be crushed. They began sending out divine hosts to resist the Four Pillars Cult, and even the Transcendent Cult, which usually stayed underground, started activating their production machines to support the front line.

Back in Dead City, Igor had anticipated that a holy war would soon break out in Senlo, but they all thought it would be the Qinyi Alliance crusading against a weakened Four Pillars Cult. Now, it seemed more like a unification war led by the Four Pillars Cult!

In this world war scenario, Ashe and his group, being ‘faithless’, had entered the Thousand Island Lake controlled by the Bronze Law Cult. No matter how they explained themselves, the Bronze Law Cult wouldn’t risk keeping them, especially since followers of the Four Pillars Cult had slandered them.

If they hadn’t voluntarily left, the Bronze Law Cult might even have let their divine hosts kill them.

The war of faith had intensified, and there was no room for any centrists to survive.

“However, the gray fox heritage of the Bronze Law Cult is probably just a large-scale teleportation device,” Ashe remarked, “It has nothing to do with traversing nations.”

Unlike the heritage in Black Robe Town, Blind Town, or Dead City, which affected everyone, the gray fox heritage at Thousand Island Lake was controlled by the Bronze Law Cult and only worked for their sorcerers. They didn’t know its exact name, so they called it “No Measure.”

Within the influence of “No Measure”, any sorcerer with No Measure privileges could teleport freely, with no cooldown time, no energy consumption, a mere thought, and the world had no bounds.

The day their identities were exposed, suddenly hundreds of sorcerers surrounded them. If they hadn’t immediately raised their sanctuaries, they would likely have been overwhelmed by countless spellcasting miracles.

Ashe strongly suspected that this heritage was the top-tier version of the Gray Fox sorcerers’ transportation tool-after all, zero commute time definitely increases the happiness of the working class.

“There are so many magical gray fox heritages, you’re sure to find one,” Vesser comforted, “Now that you mention the Qinyi Alliance and the Four Pillars Cult are fighting, they’ll surely bring out their treasured gray fox heritages, and maybe then some clues will emerge.”

Ashe smiled bitterly, his hopes not really high.

If the divine era of Senlo were a proper advanced civilization, that would be one thing, but the problem was that it was a civilization built on an idealistic world, a private server of a civilization!

Not to mention whether the Gray Fox sorcerers had studied traversing nations, even if they had, it would probably be ineffective. After all, the fantasy creations of traversing nations, like online artifacts, require a spatial channel to be established between Senlo and other nations.

And those absurd fantasy creations from Senlo only worked within Senlo!

While there might be exceptions, the chances were too slim, less likely than relying on virtual realm passages.

Deya remained silent, her expression quite downcast. Ashe wanting to traverse nations was naturally something she strongly supported, wishing he could return to the Gospel tomorrow. But when she asked the deities of the Gospel how to traverse nations, she only got one answer-under divine intervention, only the Virtual Realm.

Unless it was a divine intervention, to traverse nations, one must go through the Virtual Realm!

The Witch had also asked the Gospel deities if they could help with the traversal, but the Gospel could only provide one solution: it could search for virtual realm passages leading to specific nations. As for when this passage would appear, that depended on when the Virtual Realm leaked.

But this solution could only help her travel from the Gospel to Senlo, not help Ashe return from Senlo, unless she could provide precise coordinates of the virtual realm passage, and Ashe managed to reach it before the passage dissipated.

More importantly, virtual realm passages have level restrictions.

Like the Level 2 virtual realm passage from Blood Moon to the Gospel that only allowed two-wings sorcerers to enter, which was why White-haired Hunter Gerard, already a sanctuary sorcerer at the time, couldn’t chase into the passage.

In other words, for Deya to help Ashe return, she would have to wait for a Level 3 virtual realm passage that connected the Gospel to Senlo. According to the statistical data from the Gospel deities, in the past hundred years, there had only been seven Level 3 or higher virtual realm passages, and only one of those led to Senlo.

A once-in-a-century chance.

Unless Deya was willing to Fast Forward 100 years, there was no hope of getting help from the Gospel deities.

“Alright, alright,” sensing the somber mood of the group, Ashe chuckled, “No need to be so pessimistic. Even if we can’t find a way to traverse nations, it doesn’t matter. As long as we increase our strength, we’ll eventually find a way.”

“Our Rainbow Virtual Wings are already half-condensed. The current task is to fully condense them as soon as possible and then find a way to sneak into Ruby Mountain. Maybe becoming a legendary sorcerer will give us a way?”

In any case, increasing their strength was definitely the right choice. And now with the great war in Senlo imminent, instead of how to leave the nation, Ashe might first need to think about how to stay alive.

“Sword Princess, you better keep a low profile recently. If something happens to you in reality and you can’t come to the Virtual Realm, I’m definitely blaming you if I can’t ascend to legend.”

Sonya pouted, “You have more than just me as a teammate, why blame only me?”

“Because I don’t like reasoning either, so I’ll just blame you,” Ashe snorted.

Then he turned to Vesser, “Thanks for your help these past few days.”

Vesser had been helping them gather various pieces of intelligence and proposing possibilities for traversing nations. Ashe felt quite apologetic since this was his personal matter. It was one thing to trouble the Sword Princess and the Witch, but it was another to bother the new team member Vesser.

“It’s okay, I’ve also gained a lot from being in this team. Helping the team leader is my duty,” Vesser said calmly.

Ashe replied, “If you have any troubles, you can tell us too. Although we can’t help you in reality, we can think of solutions together.”

Vesser smiled faintly, “Alright.”

Ashe looked at Deya and hesitated for a moment before reaching out his hand to affectionately pat the Witch’s head, “Don’t be downhearted. I never expected you could help.”

The Witch sisters: “…Is that supposed to be comforting?”

“But seeing how worried you are about me, I’m quite touched,” Ashe sighed, “It’s like seeing a daughter grow up…”

Deya protested, “I’m not your daughter!”

“Alright, alright, let’s start our exploration tonight then. Let’s see what initial artifacts are in the treasury…”

To change the mood, Sonya brought up another topic, “By the way, the Stars Kingdom just issued a ‘Red Alert for the Time Continent’, saying that the Heroic Soul Legion has been waging wars recently, and all two-wings sorcerers are advised not to enter the Virtual Realm. Many sorcerers have already suffered severe soul injuries…”

Boom!

Suddenly, everyone felt a strange shockwave!

And this shockwave did not come from Phantom or the earth but seemed like…

The entire Virtual Realm was trembling!

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