Chapter 530: Twisting Green

"What's out there in the darkness?"

Faint light leaked through the window, allowing Ashe and the others to barely make out the interior of what appeared to be a junk warehouse. Calling it junk was something of an understatement. Scattered throughout the space were peculiar Dawn Pink components, sheets of Obsidian Gold alloy, and Snowfield White engines. The extraordinary craftsmanship of these pieces remained unmistakable beneath layers of dust.

Without a doubt, this warehouse housed the shattered sweet souls of a bygone age. They were crystallized wisdom, the intricate details of a lost civilization, and greatness hidden within the ordinary. Now they lay abandoned inside a cold earthen building hastily erected with Earth Class sorcery, serving as nothing more than seats for Ashe and his companions while silently awaiting the erosion of time.

Faced with Iger's question, the crow-masked man did not answer immediately. Instead, he asked in return, "In your homeland, can people simply walk into the night?"

"Not only in our homeland," Iger answered, "but in most kingdoms. Night is merely a change in lighting. Darkness itself isn't something worth fearing."

"And how would you know what other kingdoms are like?"

"Because I've read quite a few Sorcerer's Handbooks," Iger said with absolute confidence. "Not an enormous number, admittedly. But if darkness were truly such a prevalent threat, there is a high probability at least one handbook would have mentioned it. I've never seen a single one that did."

Ashe found himself unconsciously frowning. At first glance, Iger's reasoning sounded perfectly convincing. Upon further thought, however, it made very little sense. Ashe himself had read plenty of Sorcerer's Handbooks, yet none of them had ever mentioned Bloodmoon's Bloodline Prohibition Act or the Gospel Kingdom's Gospel Rankings. To the people living in each kingdom, the things taken for granted simply were not worth recording. No one boasted about sunlight, peace, air, or having enough to eat. People rarely treasured what they had never lost.

Then Ashe noticed Iger subtly leaning toward the crow-masked man, and he immediately understood. The fraudster was working. Iger had once told him that knowledge was a fraudster's finest disguise, while confidence was their sharpest dagger. People instinctively followed authority, and most lacked the habit of independent thought. Sorcerers might have a higher proportion of intelligent individuals, but laziness was human nature.

When faced with someone appearing vastly more knowledgeable than themselves, even if it was merely a misconception, they naturally became dependent, like children waiting to be picked up after kindergarten.

Ashe and Harvey were perfect examples. Nowadays, Iger had been in charge of devising nearly every plan. If Iger ever wanted to betray them, doing so would be as simple as preparing a plate of Lala Fat. Harvey was not truly following Iger. He was more like a dead leaf resting on the ground, carried wherever the winds of Ashe and Iger happened to blow him. Once he settled back onto the earth, his end would arrive. As for Ashe, he had simply entrusted both his brain and his back to the fraudster.

The crow-masked man looked like a close-combat sorcerer, most likely a Brute Body Class practitioner. No statistical study existed, yet a common belief held that physical sorcerers found reading Sorcerer's Handbooks more difficult than scholarly sorcerers.

Physical disciplines referred to arts centered on the body, such as Sword, Fist and Claw, and Brute Body. Physical sorcerers were not unintelligent, but spending so much time honing their techniques left them reading less. Their values tended to be straightforward, viewing the world in clear shades of black and white. As one such example, sword practitioners rarely let a grudge sit overnight.

Scholarly disciplines, on the other hand, demanded extensive reading and academic research. Scholarly sorcerers consumed enormous amounts of written material, making their worldviews considerably more nuanced and their moral boundaries far more flexible. In theory, their breadth of knowledge far exceeded that of physical sorcerers.

Of course, these were only broad stereotypes, and exceptions always existed. For instance, the Witch could split off alternate personas solely to read handbooks. Beyond that, other sorcerers possessed bizarre methods of their own. Someone might have even invented a temporary spell to change their sexual preferences.

"Sorcerer's Handbooks?" The crow-masked man blinked before nodding thoughtfully. "Right... your people can acquire knowledge from other kingdoms through the Virtual World."

He actually bought it. Looks like this really is a Brute Body Class sorcerer with little reading experience, thought Ashe.

After a brief pause, the crow-masked man continued, "Perhaps the darkness in your homeland truly contains nothing. But the night upon this land conceals a color capable of turning people into monsters. Twisting Green."

The three of them froze. "Turn people... into monsters?"

The crow-masked man nodded. "Ordinary people almost always transform into grotesque green monsters. They are extremely aggressive, and exposure to sunlight grants them astonishing regenerative abilities.

"Those aren't difficult for sorcerers to deal with. The real problem is when sorcerers become monsters. They transform into green Virtual World creatures, like the Fish-Slaying Dragons, Foxlamp Dragons, Violent Slashing Dragons, and many others."

"Virtual World creatures aren't that hard to deal with, are they?" Ashe yawned lazily. "Out here in reality, you can just team up."

The crow-masked man asked calmly, "Don't creatures in the Virtual World form packs as well?"

Iger's pupils dilated. "You mean..."

"The Twisting Green creatures gather together to attack human settlements," the crow-masked man said. "Several smaller sects have been wiped out because of them. However, the moment signs of such a gathering appear, nearby major sects immediately move in to exterminate them. Otherwise, those Twisting Green creatures might eventually develop into civilizations of their own. When Twisting Green creatures gather in large numbers, we call them a Green Calamity. Right now across the Myriad Continent, there are already many Green Calamities roaming the wilderness beyond the reach of the sects."

"Can't someone use Mind or Control Class sorcery to control them?" Ashe asked curiously. "They are practically perfect research specimens. Maybe they could even be cured."

"I've heard someone tried." The crow-masked man's tone was strangely cheerful. "The result was that the sorcerer became a Twisting Green creature as well. One theory suggests Twisting Green creatures are already contaminated. Any sorcerer establishing a connection with them will simply spread the contamination. So, you must never walk into the unlit night. Twisting Green will transform anyone into a monster."

Why not just put up a lamp every ten paces and turn the whole kingdom into a city that never sleeps?

Ashe had barely formed the thought when Iger spoke, "Ordinary light can't drive back the darkness of night, can it? The thing protecting this camp is something else."

"Correct," the crow-masked man nodded. "Ideals, faith, the future, and hope. It has many names, but regardless of the title, it protects humanity in the same form. The Grand Laws. The Grand Laws shield mankind from the darkness, and those following them share in that protection. Losing a Grand Law does not merely mean losing hope. It means losing your life and losing everything."

Ashe suddenly recalled the Calamity Flame believers from earlier that afternoon. The moment the Grand Law of Eternal Calamity Flame was taken away, they immediately lost all will to continue fighting.

"But the Four Pillars Deities aren't Grand Laws," Harvey rubbed his eyes as he leaned against Alice, having spotted a contradiction. "They don't belong in the same category as concepts like reason or hope. So why can the Four Pillar Deities protect their camps as well?"

Before the crow-masked man could answer, Iger ventured, "Desire?"