Chapter 2764: Chapter 2765: Atmosphere Destroyer
"So, in a way, you actually turned misfortune into a blessing?" Dox stared at Vay in disbelief.
Vay nodded, a faint blush creeping onto his face.
"I literally thought you were about to die just now," Doxâs face was full of exasperation. "Totally wasted my tears."
He paused, then suddenly slapped his own forehead, looking enlightened: "Ah, I almost forgot, the one crying wasnât me. I didnât cry at all. After all, you dying would be a kind of relief for me tooâat least no one would come to my tavern to freeload drinks anymore."
Vay eyed Dox suspiciously: "Thatâs not what you said just now. You were going on about the Road to Truth..."
Dox stroked his chin and said with a straight face, "What I said back then is still true. This road is long and endless; walking it alone is indeed boring. Having a companion I can have some fun with can at least relieve the boredom a bit."
Vay: "..."
Dox: "Of course, all of that is on the premise that youâre alive. If you die, then..."
Vay: "Then what?"
Doxâs gaze slid over to Angel at the side. He leaned in, slung an arm over Angelâs shoulder, and said, "Then Iâd have no choice but to find your idol for entertainment instead."
Facing the utterly shameless Dox, Vay forced himself not to roll his eyes: "You can only brag like that for now. Give it a little timeâmaybe within ten years, you wonât even be able to catch a glimpse of my lordâs back, let alone dream of using him for entertainment. You think youâre worthy?"
Dox wanted to refute him, but after thinking it over, he really couldnât find the right words to argue back.
Angel has been a Wizard for less than a handful of years and has already come into contact with the threshold of True Knowledge. Whatâs more, Angel has background, resources, and connections. Barring accidents, what Vay said has a high chance of coming true.
While Dox was silent, Vay added, "Also, my lord said earlier that he doesnât think you have a chance to set foot on that road... IâI believe in my lordâs judgment!"
After speaking, Vay looked toward the Black Earl floating in midair and cautiously asked, "Right, my lord?"
The Black Earl snorted coldly: "Youâre not believing in my judgment. Youâre trying to ask me, roundabout, why I made that judgment, arenât you?"
Dox and Vay may quarrel all the time, but when it comes to issues that cut to the core, they actually care a lot about each other.
Dox himself hadnât taken that earlier remark from the Black Earl to heart. But Vay, of all people, not only remembered it, heâs now twisting around to ask his lord about the reason. Whatâs âlove-hate relationshipâ? This is a love-hate relationship.
Dox gave Vay a long, deep look; Vayâs gaze drifted everywhere, refusing to meet his eyes.
The Black Earl sneered: "Why do I think Dox has no chance to step onto the road of pursuing truth? The reason is very simple... Isnât he pursuing freedom?"
Vay frowned: "Is pursuing freedom wrong?"
The Black Earl: "Itâs not wrong. But truth isnât something you can obtain just by relying on freedom."
Dox didnât say anything; his expression also showed complete indifference. They had already clashed on the topic of âfreedomâ before. No matter what outsiders say, Dox will carry through with the freedom he pursues.
The Black Earl: "The Road to Truth depends heavily on Talent, but it also needs a foundation of accumulated depth. Dox has no background. Where is he supposed to seek that foundation? Rely solely on his own research? The detours heâd have to take would be enough to burn through his entire lifespan."
"Rely on the Cross Headquarters? The Cross Headquarters does have some stuff, but that place is in essence also a giant sieve. Itâs labeled as the headquarters of Wandering Wizards, but in reality itâs a testing ground infiltrated by all the major Witcher Organizations. There is accumulation there, sure, but compared to a true large Organization, itâs still lacking. Even if the Cross Headquarters opened all of its accumulation to him, let him see everything, it still doesnât mean he could use that to step onto the Road to Truth."
Vay: "...So in the end, it still comes down to him being a Wandering Wizard?"
The Black Earl: "Yes. At least in the Southern Domain, thatâs the case."
He paused and then continued: "If it were in the Origin World, there might still be a sliver of possibility. But if you want to chase so-called freedom in the Southern Domain, then you might as well forget it and simply give up the pursuit of truth altogether."
Dox, who had remained silent ever since the topic shifted to freedom, finally couldnât hold back: "Why do you say thereâs still a chance in the Origin World?"
The Black Earl: "There are Wandering Wizards in the Origin World too. However, Wandering Wizards there can join certain factions, or work for certain factions. And as payment for those jobs, as long as your ability is sufficient, itâs not impossible to obtain the inheritance of accumulated depth. Thatâs why I said Wandering Wizards in the Origin World still have a chance."
Dox furrowed his brows tightly: "Join a faction? Work for a faction, risk your neck for them? And that still counts as a Wandering Wizard?"
The Black Earl: "Why wouldnât it? What those factions do is actually no different from the Cross Headquarters that you revere: take on missions, gain benefits. But the factions in the Origin World are much more âpureâ than the Cross Headquarters."
As for why the factions in the Origin World are purer than the Cross Headquarters, the reason is actually quite simple.
Their very nature is different.
Among the factions in the Origin World that Wandering Wizards can join, the mainstream roughly falls into two categories. One type is established upon a shared conceptâthe âUnionsâ. For example: the Orderly Guild, the Greenwald Institute of Magical Research, the Trudy Bloodline Research Institute, the Dreyer Alchemy Guild... and so on.
These are factions that unite because their philosophies are similar. Most of these factions allow you to come and go freely. They wonât forbid you from joining other factions; itâs even fine if you hold titles in several factions at once.
The other type is the âCentral Cityâstyleâ factions established on the basis of their own tremendous strength. They are like the City of Truth: the central city as the core, with satellite cities built by their followers forming their sphere of influence. The most representative among them are: the Illusion Tower, Forest Night City, and Kokoroaâs Milk Fountain Village.
This type also lets Wandering Wizards take on missions and grants rewards, but they impose certain hard requirements. For instance, Milk Fountain Village has a strict rule: all Wandering Wizards who are registered under Milk Fountain Village must not provide any direct or indirect assistance to the Dark Gourmets. If they violate this, they will definitely suffer the backlash of their oath.
Whether itâs the âUnionsâ or the âCentral Citiesâ, they all actually have powerful Wizards sitting in town, and there might even be a Miracle Wizard standing behind the scenes. Under such circumstances, they are only responsible for their own faction and will absolutely not allow other factions to interfere. Thatâs why theyâre purer.
The Cross Headquarters is a sieve riddled with loopholes. You and I meet and both claim to be Wandering Wizards, but the real Wandering Wizards may only be a small minority; the majority are stationed there by various Witcher Organizations. Their infiltration into the Cross Headquarters is largely to grab a share of the Wandering Wizardsâ dividends, thatâs all. You call that pure?
After finishing his explanation, the Black Earl let out a cold, mocking laugh: "Even in the Origin World, there is no such thing as the absolute freedom you pursue. I donât know who set you on this pursuit of absolute freedom, but whoever taught you certainly never told you that absolute freedom means absolute chaos. Is that the kind of freedom you seek?"
"There was a period when Wandering Wizards liked to prattle on about âpursuing freedomâ, but in truth, it was nothing more than a fig leaf to cover up what they couldnât obtain."
He paused again, then said, "Vay is a Noah descendant, so heâs not a suitable comparison. Why donât you ask this little guy next to you what he thinks about the freedom youâre chasing?"
The Black Earl pointed at Kaier.
Kaier was also a Wandering Apprentice. How would he view the freedom that Dox spoke of?
Dox turned his head to look at Kaier. Kaier kept silent for a moment, then scratched his head: "I-I donât really have much of an opinion... just... I respect it, I guess."
The Black Earl didnât comment on Kaierâs answer, but anyone could hear that Kaierâs response was already very tactful.
The notion that all Wandering Apprentices are in pursuit of freedom is, in itself, wrong.
Seeing that Doxâs expression looked a bit off, Vay quickly coughed twice, cutting through the somewhat awkward atmosphere: "Werenât we talking about truth? How did it turn into a discussion about freedom?"
The Black Earl let out a derisive laugh. "You donât even meet the basic conditions, how are you going to talk about truth?"
As for the soâcalled basic conditions, the Black Earl had actually already mentioned them... it was foundations.
Talent, foundations, opportunityâthese are all basic conditions. Maybe Dox has opportunity and talent, but when it comes to foundations, that he really lacks.
Right now, Dox is basically a guy so poor he can only treat âfreedomâ as dogma. In the Black Earlâs eyes, people like this, donât even talk about truth, whether they can even advance into True Knowledge is still up in the air.
...
Angel had just witnessed what it truly meant to be a destroyer of atmosphere.
At first Angel thought Dox already counted as someone who derails the mood; the full, emotional atmosphere could be pulled off course by him whenever he opened his mouth. But Angel also understood why Dox was acting like thisâhe regretted getting too sentimental earlier, then discovered Vay hadnât died at all, and now he couldnât hold it together, with a bit of tsundere flavor mixed in.
Only later did he realize that Dox was merely derailing things; the real atmosphere destroyer was still the Black Earl.
The Black Earl directly shattered what had been a pretty decent mood, letting an awkward air spread and spread over the scene.
If they werenât "best friends," Dox and Vayâs bond of friendship would probably have snapped right then and there.
Angel sighed inwardly and took the initiative to break the silence: "Things of the future can wait until the future to talk about."
When he finished speaking, Angel turned his head to look at Vay. "You just said your talent can be restored?"
Vay glanced at the Black Earl first, then nodded slightly and replied in a low voice, "Yeah... sort of."
"Sort of"? That was clearly a vague answer. In this kind of context, vagueness was almost equivalent to denial.
If Vayâs talent hadnât actually been restored, then where did the talent heâd just used come from? For this question, he didnât even need to think to knowâthere was only one possible answer: the talent must have come from the Black Earlâs nose.
In other words, Vay sacrificed his Death Sense talent, but the Black Earl grafted his own talent onto Vay.
However, from Vayâs ambiguous wording, although he could use this talent, it was not his own.
So did the Black Earl do all this purely as a pointless, redundant move?
No, the Black Earl would never do useless work; if he did this, there had to be another purpose behind it.
Combining this with what Vay had mentioned earlierâthat his older sister Aila had the same situationâdoes that mean the reason the Black Earl sent his avatars to his descendants was actually to graft his own talent onto his descendants?
Angel felt this possibility was very high, but as for why the Black Earl wanted to do this, that he didnât know. Relying on speculation alone, it was very hard to infer the answer.
"Since it can be restored, and the duel has been won, then itâs a happy ending for everyone." Angel said, "The other matters can temporarily be set aside. What we should focus on right now is the trial âSheâ is going to present next..."
He paused for a moment, his gaze sliding to the side. "And them."
Everyone followed Angelâs line of sight, and saw that on the other side of the arena, Grey Merchant and the others were walking toward them.
Clearly, Grey Merchant and his group still had things they wanted to say.
Only, they had just gotten halfway over when a resounding voice rang in everyoneâs ears: "The duel is over. You are about to return."
The speaker was the Wise Sovereign.
Though he said "about to" return, he didnât give them any time to react at all. He landed directly on the arena, placing both hands on its surface.
In an instant, the arena was like a disk being twisted, rapidly spinning counterclockwise as it shrank.
As the arena shrank, everyone seemed to be "shrinking" along with it.
But this shrinking wasnât biological; it was a spatial relocation, distancing them on the level of space from the current Void. If you used this patch of Void as a reference, then yes, they were shrinking; but if you used the Material Realm as reference, they actually hadnât changed at all.
The only thing that had changed was the outside world.
After a moment of darkness and a bout of weightlessness, they opened their eyes again. They had already left that Void swarming with Magical Creatures and returned to the Door in front of the Hanging Jail Stairway.
Once everyone had found their footing, the Wise Sovereignâs voice came again: "Those unrelated may leave now."
The soâcalled "unrelated" referred to the losers of this duel: Grey Merchant and his group.
Grey Merchant said, "Honorable Judge, could you grant us a little more time? I would like to speak further with Wizard Earl Mi over there."
The Wise Sovereign did not answer, merely closing his eyes, which counted as tacit permission.
Seeing this, Grey Merchant gave the Wise Sovereign a small bow, then quickly headed in Angel and the othersâ direction.
Grey Merchant had just approached, and before he could even open his mouth, he heard a cold snort.
The one who snorted was Dox. He wasnât in a good mood as it was; seeing Grey Merchant and the others come over just made his mood worse.
Grey Merchant glanced at Dox, then at the others. Almost everyoneâs attitude toward them had done a oneâhundredâeightyâdegree turn.
Even Wizard Earl Mi, who had seemed the most mildâmannered before, now looked at them with clear alienation in his eyes.
The reason really didnât need to be spelled out. As for that shrew handing the Ancient Gaze to the Magic Elephant, they couldnât be bothered to guess what her intent had been. All they needed to know was this: if Vay hadnât sacrificed his talent to save his life, he would definitely already be dead.
Even if there had been no intent to kill, the killing tool itself possessed such enormous, uncontrollable powerâat that point, did intent still matter?
Let alone... was there really no intent to kill?
Angel, for one, didnât believe that.
Angel had also given Kaier some Out of Discussion methods. But one of those was purely for saving his life, with no offensive capability at all; the other, Speedy, was very powerful, yet its abilities were controllable. Unlike the Ancient Gaze, a oneâoff consumption, its power overwhelmingâonce unleashed, it was no longer under anyoneâs control.
The only reason they were still holding themselves back now was purely out of regard for the fact that Grey Merchant had made a move to save someone earlier.
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