The Sorcerer's Handbook

On the Virtual World’s Continent of Time.

”Left side! Break through from the left flank! Let me try one more time!”

”No! We’ve already lost our chance! The car is about to explode!”

Amidst the chaotic battlefield, a battered sports car desperately fled the area where purple, cyan, and green forces clashed in a tangled mess. A colossal Shadow Evil Dragon that blotted out the sky glanced down at the tiny insect scurrying away. It quickly shifted its gaze back toward the two opposing commanders in the distance, its eyes burning with murderous intent.

”Wanderer, Black Widow. Withdraw now, and I shall let bygones be bygones. Otherwise, when the Abyss of Departure raises the Forest of Mansus, all of you will be like a setting sun shattered apart, like blood dissolved in water, drained away in an instant, your True Names forever extinguished!”

Denzel let out a wild, arrogant laugh. ”We came here precisely to force you to activate the Forest of Mansus. The Silent Spiral has already ignited, and the Sky Garden has already fallen. Do you really think the Abyss of Departure can remain untouched? Come! The fractured Spider Tower started the Investiture War, and it will never allow anyone a clean and perfect ending!”

”Oasis is an ally of the Spider Tower,” the Wanderer said calmly.

”Stubborn fools!”

After letting out a shrill roar, the Shadow Evil Dragon chanted, ”Through the Wood, the Mansus is mirrored.” Its eerie voice brushed against the ears of every intelligent creature like a feather. At the same time, countless sharp, ear-piercing roars shook the entire Continent of Time.

The devastating sound waves struck just as Ashe and the others managed to escape the immediate battlefield. The distance did not save them from the impact. Their eardrums instantly ruptured, and the violent ringing left them temporarily dizzy. They only recovered after their soul energy repaired their bodies.

Ashe gasped heavily. ”Good thing we ran in time.”

Sonya glanced back. The monsters on the battlefield had become so dense that the golden rain curtain could no longer fully conceal them, leaving her with a lingering sense of dread. Beside her, Dia was even more frightened. Her hair had lost its luster as she instinctively hugged Sonya for support.

To find the Rainbow Tail and ascend to the Sacred Realm, they had to seek out the capital cities of other factions, lure the Spider Tower and Oasis into invading them, and then hunt down the commanders during the ensuing chaos. Up to this point, they had already dealt with five Virtual World factions, namely Star Hall, Blood Tomb, Spider Tower, Oasis, and Garden, and today, the time had finally come to confront the final faction.

Unlike the Garden, this faction’s capital city was not difficult to locate. Ashe and the others only needed an hour to find it. The Spider Tower and Oasis arrived right on schedule, quickly turning the peaceful capital city into a destructive war zone.

When Ashe and the others attempted to ambush the commanders and steal the rewards afterward, they discovered that this battle was far more troublesome than expected.

Unlike the other capital cities, the Abyss of Departure did not actually have a physical city. From the outside, the ground itself appeared to have collapsed into a bottomless hole. It was, quite literally, a massive abyss yawning open in the earth. Aside from the main crater, countless smaller holes pitted the entire territory. Legions of Heroes could emerge from these cavities at any moment, turning the battlefield into a grueling display of trench warfare. For a sports car, this was practically the worst possible environment to fight in.

More importantly, the Abyss of Departure’s troops were not humanoid. The armies of the other five factions varied greatly, yet they were fundamentally humanoid in shape. Even when Virtual World creatures were transformed into soldiers, they still became humanoid units. This was not necessarily because the humanoid form held any tactical advantage, but likely because their creators, the Divine Lords, were humanoid themselves and simply favored familiar forms.

The Abyss of Departure broke this mold entirely. After being armed as soldiers, the Virtual World creatures were enhanced into even more brutal and terrifying giant beasts. They seemed to trade away armor and certain troop abilities in exchange for pure power, resulting in individual combat strengths that far surpassed humanoid soldiers. With just the forces of a single city, they successfully resisted the combined assault of two factions.

Without a doubt, the Abyss of Departure’s strength had been a problem for the Spider Tower and Oasis. But this had nothing to do with Ashe. The real issue was that the commanders of the Abyss of Departure had also transformed themselves into giant creatures. The Shadow Evil Dragon that had dominated the battlefield moments ago was the supreme commander of the capital city. The other commanders were no less terrifying. Some transformed into Rampage Dragons that charged through everything in their path, while others became Storm Dragons that overlooked the battlefield from above.

Thanks to the Authority of Secrecy, Ashe and his companions could sneak close to the commanders and launch surprise attacks. However, killing a humanoid commander and slaying a massive beast were two completely distinct challenges. On top of that, this battlefield was filled with massive, wide-reaching attacks, making the chaos far worse than their previous encounters. If Ashe had not spent all his resources these past few days upgrading the Refractive Barrier, their car would have already been destroyed by a stray area-of-effect attack while crossing the battlefield.

After several near-death attempts that ended in failure, they finally succeeded when Sonya triggered her innate ability, Phantom of the Resentful Radiant Dragon, during a surprise attack. Behind her appeared a dragon resembling a tiger, burning with the blood flames of the Grudge Hell[1]. The phantom enhanced the power of her Sword Class Miracles nearly tenfold while adding burning and piercing effects to her strikes. With a single blow, she killed the Abyss of Departure commander, securing the Commander’s Handbook, a Conjuring spirit, and the map.

They still needed to kill the Oasis commander and obtain an Oasis map to complete the full map collection. However, both the Spider Tower and Oasis already knew they were hunting commanders. Worse yet, every commander was now heavily guarded by dozens of elite soldiers, leaving no opening for the Swordswoman and Witch to exploit. Even when they managed to launch a surprise attack, they were quickly forced back.

Returning to the battlefield was out of the question. Since the Abyss of Departure had activated a Divine Miracle, the Spider Tower and Oasis naturally responded in kind. The battlefield had become a forbidden zone for the living, where Divine Miracles clashed endlessly. The Refractive Barrier was already depleted. By now, even if the sports car entered that battlefield fully intact, it would be destroyed in less than a minute.

Ashe drove farther away, ultimately stopping beside the River of Flowing Gold. That way, if the Legion of Heroes chased after them, they could cross the river and escape.

Ashe let out a long breath and smiled. ”Thanks for your hard work tonight. Watching you two cross that battlefield was enough to make even me nervous.”

”We’re still one map short...” Sonya angrily punched the seat. ”Just one map away...”

”Let’s divide the loot first,” Ashe said, pulling out a Commander’s Handbook. ”Who wants it?”

”The Swordswoman!” Dia immediately answered. ”She fought the hardest just now. If she hadn’t killed the commander with that one strike, we wouldn’t have gained anything.”

Ashe handed the Commander’s Handbook to Sonya.

The village girl’s face turned slightly red. ”It was so dangerous. Of course I had to give it everything I had.” ℯℯ𝑙.

Dia muttered, ”If you weren’t trying so hard, maybe it wouldn’t have been that dangerous...”

While the Swordswoman and Witch teased each other, Ashe summoned his other reward. Six crystals shimmered with different colors, each containing a Conjuring spirit. He had not unlocked every advanced unit, but Ashe could now equip himself with soldiers from every faction. This included the Star Hall’s blue units, Blood Tomb’s red units, Spider Tower’s purple units, Garden’s orange units, Oasis’s green units, and the Abyss of Departure’s cyan units.

The unique Anchor unit had also evolved into the Six-Colored Anchor.

[Six-Colored Anchor: Features six layers of armor and a 100% Anchor chance. Each unit consumes 6 soul energy.]

100% anchoring meant that as long as Ashe and the others equipped this unit, they would not suffer any external damage whatsoever. During that period, however, they would also be unable to affect the outside world in any way.

It would be perfect for crossing the River of Flowing Gold, but it was practically useless for trying to steal rewards from the battlefield. After all, the Legion of Heroes would also loot the area. Unless they personally killed a commander and immediately claimed the spoils, the rewards would quickly be snatched away by other armies.

Staring at the Conjuring spirit radiating six different colors of light, a strange thought suddenly surfaced in Ashe’s mind. He quickly suppressed it. It was only six colors, not seven.

He recalled the spirit and opened the Virtual World Map. ”We already have five out of six maps, meaning we’re only one map short. If there really is any information hidden on it, we should be able to notice something.”

Sonya and Dia nodded, anxiously waiting for Ashe’s discovery.

Ashe carefully examined the map. Before long, his brows relaxed, and the corners of his lips curled slightly upward.

”Did you find something?” Sonya asked cautiously, a hint of excitement rising in her heart.

Ashe looked at her and smiled before shaking his head. ”No.”

”Then why are you acting so relaxed!?”

”What else should I do? Put on a face like I’ve suffered some great injustice?” Ashe spread his hands. ”If the Rainbow Tail were that easy to find, there wouldn’t be so many Two-Winged sorcerers trapped on the Continent of Time.

”Not finding any clues is the normal outcome. The Destiny Quiz only told us to obtain the complete map of the Continent of Time. It never said that doing so would definitely allow us to find the Rainbow Tail. At most, it might help us, and even then, it might not be direct help.

”When it comes down to it, using the Rainbow Tail to ascend to the Sacred Realm isn’t exactly the proper path. We can hope for it, but we can’t place all our expectations on it.

”Everyone’s exhausted tonight. Why don’t we stop here? Our Gold Wings have already formed, so there’s no need to keep staying on the Continent of Time—”

Sonya grabbed Ashe’s hand and spoke word by word. ”No. We can’t give up yet.”

Ashe looked at her, then smiled and nodded. ”Alright. Then we’ll continue searching for the Rainbow Tail. Swordswoman, you’ll definitely become a Sacred Realm sorcerer.”

”We’ll all become Sacred Realm sorcerers.” Sonya looked at Dia. ”Witch, do you still remember those theories about the Rainbow Tail?”

”Of course. I never forget any Sorcerer’s Handbook I’ve read. The White Ox and the Seven Sorcerers Hypothesis.

”The White Ox Hypothesis claims that the four hooves of the White Ox are the passage to the Rainbow Tail. When white light passes through a prism, it refracts into seven colors. Therefore, when a sorcerer’s soul enters the White Ox’s hooves, it will be refracted into the Rainbow Tail.

”The Seven Sorcerers Hypothesis states that once seven Gold Wings are gathered, sorcerers will transform into seven drops of rain and ascend together with the Ascending Golden Rain toward the Distant Sky Domain. The so-called Rainbow Tail actually refers to seven sorcerers.”

Sonya responded, ”We can analyze the clue given by the Virtual World, obtain the complete map of the Continent of Time, and look for similarities between these two hypotheses.”

The three of them fell into deep thought.

After a moment, the Witch quickly gave up. ”I can’t figure it out at all. What does obtaining the complete map have to do with the Rainbow Tail?”

Ashe said, ”Since I can’t find any clues from the map itself, we might as well assume it’s a smokescreen from the Virtual World. The Virtual World Map itself has no meaning, but the process of searching for it might bring us closer to the Rainbow Tail.”

The only way to obtain the map is by killing commanders...” Sonya frowned thoughtfully. ”Does killing commanders bring us closer to the Rainbow Tail?”

Dia added, ”The commander’s rewards include the Commander’s Handbook, the map, and the Conjuring spirit. The map is the bait the Virtual World provided. The Commander’s Handbook doesn’t contain any clues about this, which means...”

Under Sonya and Dia’s gaze, Ashe summoned the Conjuring spirit. The six-sided crystal radiated a different color from each side. ”I was wondering whether this thing had something to do with the Rainbow Tail. However, it only has six colors, and the Virtual World only has six factions.”

Since only one color remained missing, the Swordswoman and Witch immediately came up with countless possibilities.

The Witch said, ”Could there be a seventh faction in the Virtual World, and we can only discover it after collecting the complete map?”

Sonya suggested, ”Or maybe the final color is hidden inside the White Ox’s hooves?”

”Does the black and white in the Static Zone count as colors?” Dia asked. ”Could it be that we need to take the Conjuring spirit into the Static Zone ourselves?”

Ashe shook his head after hearing their ideas. ”Do you remember the Golden Fish? One example isn’t enough proof, but I think the Rainbow Tail is probably similar to the Golden Fish. What limits your ability to find them is your strength, your numbers, or even your imagination, but definitely not location.

”No matter where you are in the Sea of Knowledge, as long as you fly upward, you can find the Golden Fish. The Rainbow Tail is probably the same. No matter where you are on the Continent of Time, if you want to find it, you should be able to find it.”

Strictly speaking, Ashe’s theory did not have much logic behind it. Nevertheless, Sonya, having personally witnessed the Golden Fish herself, immediately accepted it.

It was like reading two novels written by the same author. Once you had witnessed an ingenious narrative trick in the first book, it became difficult to believe that the second book would suddenly contain nothing more than a cliché story with no reasoning behind it.

Yet now their thoughts had reached another dead end.

Dia hugged her head and muttered, ”Anywhere... the Rainbow Tail...”

Sonya bit her fingernail and looked around. ”Resource Points? Special structures? Miracle Paradises? Where exactly is the final color?”

Compared to them, Ashe looked completely relaxed. He leaned back in his seat and gazed at the sky soaked by the Ascending Golden Rain. ”Don’t rush. You two becoming Sacred Realm sorcerers is only a matter of time. Don’t waste too much effort on the Rainbow Tail.”

Sonya rolled her eyes. ”But I want to advance to the Sacred Realm right now!”

Ashe smiled faintly. ”Thank you.”

Looking at the sky, Ashe suddenly realized he had been rushing through the Continent of Time too quickly. He had never properly appreciated the scenery around him. Only now, after completing this journey through the Continent of Time, did his delayed curiosity finally emerge. ”Swordswoman, why does the rain on the Continent of Time flow upward?”

”Because the rain comes from the River of Flowing Gold.”

”Why does it have to flow upward?”

Sonya clicked her tongue. ”That’s how it has always been. Stop staring at the rain. Come help me think about where the Rainbow Tail is.”

”Alright, alright...”

Ashe had given a perfunctory reply. His mind was still occupied with the question of why the rain flowed upward. He had always been like this. Whenever he encountered a difficult problem he didn’t want to solve, his mind would wander toward random thoughts to avoid reality.

Because time itself flows upward? That makes no sense. Because the golden rain is actually a gas? It doesn’t feel like one. So why exactly?

Suddenly, a conversation from not long ago surfaced in Ashe’s mind. My entire body was swept away and washed through by a river made of seven-colored light. By the time I came to my senses, I had already arrived at the Distant Sky Domain.

Ashe suddenly sat upright. ”Right... why does the rain flow upward?”

Sonya was genuinely annoyed this time. ”We’re seriously thinking about the Rainbow Tail. Could you stop—”

Ashe stood up and pushed the Swordswoman and Witch back into their seats. ”This is the answer to the Rainbow Tail!”

His face was filled with the excitement of sudden realization, like someone showing off a grand discovery. ”Why does rain flow upward? Because rain is supposed to flow upward. Because the sky isn’t the sky, and the ground isn’t the ground! The entire world is inverted! The Continent of Time is actually the sky above, while the real sky is below! The golden rain of time isn’t flowing backward! We are the ones flowing backward!

”The Rainbow Tail isn’t above us. It’s right beneath us! The River of Flowing Gold... That is the final color we’ve been searching for!”

1. Grudge Hell refers to a hellish realm filled with resentment and suffering, where souls are driven by hatred, regret, or unresolved grudges. It can be compared to parts of the Chinese underworld (地狱) that punish restless or vengeful spirits, but with a stronger emphasis on emotional torment. ☜