Mage Manual

Vishi thought that Seven-winged was already the pinnacle of power and aesthetics, with the Supreme Light guiding the Silver of Knowledge, Gold of Time, Dream Color, Gemstone Oddity, Hell’s Darkness, and Brightness of the Secret Realm, all Magic Power flowing like rivers into the ocean, all techniques merging together, like a monarch ruling subjects, like the heavens controlling the extremes, naturally perfect and flawless. So much so that she had two greedy desires regarding Ash, one of which was to dismantle Ash’s Supreme Void Wings and attach them to herself, ascending to the pinnacle of magic.

Until she saw Eight-winged.

Goodness follows, evil adores.

Light desires, darkness hopes.

It is a presence that transcends all, the colors with which the Divine Lord paints all things.

You can see everything within the Eight-winged, as if it contains the truths of the world. Clearly eight independent Void Wings, yet Vishi saw a vague circle, death, entropy increase, space-time, all these insignificant forces encompassed by the circle. If Seven-winged is the supreme ruler of all techniques, then Eight-winged is the embodiment of great power, all is one, one is all.

Because the Eight-winged is too dazzling, Vishi could not clearly see its features, only vaguely perceive its familiar outline.

Before it was a tree, but upon closer inspection one realized it was actually a golden river, the river branching out into countless tributaries, each tributary dividing into new branches, appearing suddenly like a lush golden tree.

At the end of every branch of the golden tree was a point of light; it reached out to touch the light point, which disappeared, its Eight Wings seemed to flicker.

When it extinguished all the light points on the branch, the golden river tributaries dried up, and its Eight Wings seemed to grow brighter.

One point of light, two points of light... one branch, two branches... its speed increased, and in no time, over half of the golden tree’s branches had withered, yet the trunk’s river grew more turbulent, just as its Eight Wings became ever more perfect and flawless.

All tributaries will converge into the mainstream, all magic will integrate into one, the world is marching towards an end, yet destruction will forge eternity.

This time, it reached out to touch the brightest light point on the tree. As it touched, Vishi felt a hand pierce her chest, her Void Wings instantly broke, her knowledge melted and disintegrated, her consciousness plunged into loneliness, her whole being extinguished like a lamp, all shining flowed into the great Eight-winged, becoming the singular eternal—

...

...

"Ah!"

Vishi awoke with a start, with a fear that far exceeded death piercing her spine, shaking her soul, boundless cold eroding her body heat. But in the next second, she was embraced in a warm hug, a gentle voice whispering in her ear: "It’s okay, it’s safe here, you are alright, I’m with you."

Strangely, the first three sentences could not soothe the irrational fear within Vishi, yet upon hearing the last sentence, her trembling body slowly calmed down, fingers lightly pinching the other’s clothing, like a hook, with a soft nasal hum, curling up like a kitten, gently rubbing against the broad chest, as if greedily absorbing the other’s body warmth.

Until she heard a triumphant yet teasing chuckle, Vishi finally reacted, trying to push him away, but Ash had already embraced her tightly, refusing to let go, like a beast king resolutely clutching a wildcat, she had no room to exert strength.

After trying a few times, finding she couldn’t escape from this chubby hug, Vishi simply played dead, buried in his embrace, not speaking, obediently lying on the bed.

Ash suddenly said: "When I was reading ’Ghost Manual,’ my biggest impression was that the Ghost Prophet chose the most difficult, most lonely, yet strongest path. If it were someone else, even if they could reincarnate twice, they would absolutely not ’eradicate all,’ but rather use informational advantages to befriend yet-to-rise talents, building a force, enjoying life while methodically enhancing power... In fact, I saw several fanworks at Blood Moon like ’Ghost Manual: Third Cycle,’ and ’Ghost Manual and the Path of Reason,’ without exception the creators all despised the Ghost Prophet’s style, believing such a massive advantage with reincarnation was wasted into a position of enemy to all; they thought otherwise they could do it better."

Listening, Vishi subconsciously coldly snorted: "Information advantage... the fools who don’t even know the Prophetic Faction’s basic concept of ’unstable future,’ I’d lose if I cared about them."

Unlike most people understand, Prophet Mages cannot see definite futures, even the same matter may yield completely opposite prophecies. It’s not that Prophet Mages cause butterfly effects altering the future, but that the future itself is unstable.

From the micro scale magic reactions, to nation-level historical trends, all composed of series of random events, perhaps a single thought from a Legendary Mage can alter an entire nation’s fate, to Mages, so-called historical trends are meaningless, even Legendaries can smash the wheels of history, not to mention the Divine Lords above Heaven.

The Prophetic Faction is rarely used for precise prophecy, in most cases, it’s used for reconnaissance and gathering intelligence, while Vishi leaned more towards counter reconnaissance. The kind of rebirth leveraging information advantages step-by-step in fanworks is simply impossible since once entering the Second Cycle, even if Vishi did nothing, the future changes, she only has a very short window and a leading informational advantage.

"Though I don’t believe you’re right, the path you chose indeed aligns most with your ambition," Ash said: "Plundering from all mankind allows you to grow the fastest, yet also cuts off all unnecessary bonds. Actually, you didn’t need to maintain the Ghost Prophet mask later on, you could easily take over other factions, exploiting the world, but you still nearly masochistically forced yourself to always be in danger, never relaxing for a moment, never allowing a second of decadence, forging yourself into iron-hearted, emotionless abandon... You deliberately live as a lonely person, believing everything in the world may betray you, thus not relying on anything external. Even before I met you, I felt you were a villain filled with charm and evil, yet after meeting you, you’ve slightly weakened my impression."

"...Hmph." Vishi smirked, the corner of her mouth slightly upturned, eyes smiled with pride, as though her tail was about to rise. Though she wouldn’t argue on her behalf, she didn’t dislike others understanding her.

"But the Ghost Prophet wouldn’t wake from nightmares, would not need a hug to calm down?" Ash, with a mischievous grin, looked at Vishi and said earnestly in a provocative tone: "So, you are certainly not the Ghost Prophet I know, quickly, tell me who you really are!"

So you were waiting for me here!

Seeing Vishi with her face flushed red and her shoulders slightly trembling with anger, Ash felt as refreshed as taking a big bite of ice cream in the summer. His way of interacting with Vishi was different from others, but if you delve into it, Ash actually had a unique interaction mode with everyone; with the Witch, he was like father-daughter siblings, with the Silver Lamp, like a long-married couple, with the Sword Maiden, inseparable, but only with Vishi, he would become particularly mischievous, wanting to tease her.

Like a rebellious wildcat reluctantly but inevitably being petted by him, it was really... so much fun!

"I am..."

Because Vishi was speaking too vaguely, Ash couldn’t hear clearly, "What?"

"I am your super favorite Demon Maid..." Vishi lifted her head, with flirtatious charm flowing from her brows, her face red up to her ears, lightly biting her lips and saying in an extremely soft and low voice: "...Let go of me, will you?"

Ash blinked, stunned, instinctively loosened his grip, then Vishi decisively kicked him away, quickly sat by the bed, and stuck her tongue out teasingly: "Fooled you, right!"

"Fooled me!?"

"Otherwise? I am the Ghost Prophet, easily manipulating a rascal who climbed out of the trash can like you." Vishi walked to the window, looked at the azure sky outside: "When did you wake up?"

"Half an hour ago."

"Then why didn’t you wake me up?"

"Because the way you sleep is quite cute, without realizing it, I just got mesmerized." Ash scratched his head: "And you seemed tired, didn’t really want to wake you... How long was I unconscious?"

After merging with the Four Demonic Void Wings and battling the End Serpent, although Ash seemed unscathed on the surface, internally, he had exhausted all his potential, and upon reuniting with Sonia and the others, he immediately fainted due to soul body overload.

"Three days." Vishi said: "I wasn’t tired, the Six-winged God in his own Heavenly Kingdom could never be weary, just... Oh, I was the only one here because just raising the Heavenly Kingdom and merely constructing the world left us exhausted, naturally not everyone could care for you together, so everyone took turns, using it as rest during work... Let me notify them back now."

"I’m not arrogant enough to demand all you Divine Lords to be at my side constantly to care for me." Ash spread his hands: "But, notify them back so soon?"

"Huh? Otherwise?"

"I thought you might want to be alone with me for a while..." Ash stretched lazily, tilting his head to look at Vishi: "Could it be that you still haven’t recovered all your memories? I tell you, you used to be really infatuated with me—"

Before he finished, Vishi hit him in the face with a pillow: "Even the Witch and the Silver Lamp couldn’t seize the chance to modify your memory, yet you want to alter mine? Since you left Hell, all our memories fully recovered!"

"Really fully? Is there—"

"Are you underestimating me? I am the Ghost Prophet, would I not notice if there’s a memory gap?"

"Then you remember the Bride Night too?"

"Of course—"

As she thought of what happened that night, Vishi immediately closed her mouth, feeling like ants were crawling on her body, itchy. However, she saw Ash also turn away shyly, which was both infuriating and amusing, climbing onto the bed to hammer him with a pillow: "If you’re embarrassed, don’t bring it up! No, how dare you act shy, clearly you slept with us, and now pretend to be pure?"

"I just recalled realizing I might have done something incredible, so—"

"You should’ve realized that at the time!"

In their playful tussle, Vishi ended up on top of Ash, Ash grabbed her hands, the two gazed at each other for a moment, Ash gradually leaned closer, Vishi instinctively held her breath, heart racing, suddenly remembering she hadn’t bathed in days.

"What nightmare did you have just now?" he asked.