Sorcerer's Handbook

Chapter 484: Distant Land: Ruby Mountain

Virtual Realm, Sea of Knowledge.

A lone boat floated quietly on the water. Inside, a Bewitcher wearing an off-shoulder sweater lay lazily. She stared blankly at the sky shrouded in white mist, seemingly lost in thought, until a little bat landed on her shoulder to urge her on. Only then did she slowly start rowing away.

But soon, the boat stopped again. It was clear that the boat’s master had no interest in working. If she didn’t have to avoid staying in the same spot in the Sea of Knowledge for too long, she would have gladly slack off there until the end of the day.

“Sigh~” Freya hugged the little bat tightly to her chest and said gloomily, “Why hasn’t any sorcerer found me yet...? Ugh, why does it take two sorcerers to fly up into the sky to find the Golden Fish?”

At this point, the Bewitcher grew angry for the ninety-third time — she had been furious the entire night after reading Chapter 119, barely calming down after envisioning herself as the Sword Princess unleashing a Miracle water spell with incantations. She pursed her lips and hugged the little bat even tighter. “Why is the one soaring through the sky with Ashe that random woman from who-knows-where? That’s supposed to be my place, it’s supposed to be mine... Thief, bad woman, shameless vixen, boohoo

The little bat, struggling desperately to escape her oppressive grip, rolled its eyes — if we go by the timeline, aren’t you actually the third party here? Even I’ve been around longer than you... If we really wanted to be literal about it, forget eating or drinking, you barely get a lick of the sauce.

However, there was no reasoning with a woman blinded by love.

Anger came and went quickly for Freya. Fantasizing about flying with the silver wings, her face lit up with longing. “But that silly woman is so stupid. If it were me, holding hands wouldn’t be enough; at the very least, we’d be embracing. And at the moment we broke through the white mist and saw the Golden Fish, it would be like the entire Virtual Realm was witnessing our love! Nothing is more fitting for such a scene than a romantic kiss...”

While the Bewitcher was lost in her reverie, hugging tighter and rubbing her legs together, she suddenly noticed that the little bat had gone completely silent. Looking down, she realized she had accidentally squeezed it unconscious.

“Sorry, sorry,” Freya quickly loosened her grip. The little bat lay motionless on the boat for a while, then suddenly twitched and woke up, swiftly flying to the stern and staring at the Bewitcher in terror.

The Bewitcher gave an awkward, apologetic smile. Whether it was a complaint or an explanation, she gently lifted the two culprits that nearly suffocated the little bat and helplessly said, “I don’t know why they’ve gotten bigger again lately. My shoulders are so sore during the day. I’m already twenty, way past the growth phase...”

So it’s true that a Bewitcher grows again when she has a crush, thought the little bat. However, the direction of her growth often aligns with her beloved’s preferences, which means...

“When will I ever encounter another sorcerer?” The Bewitcher stretched and complained, “I thought convincing other sorcerers would be hard; I didn’t expect even meeting them to be this difficult...”

Freya had never doubted the authenticity of the Golden Fish’s Secret Toxin. After fully condensing her silver wings, she thought about finding other sorcerers every day to smuggle her to the Time Continent. But she was too lazy to search herself. In the vast white mist over the Sea of Knowledge, searching was akin to waiting for a rabbit by a stump, so she lay in the boat, touching fish and waiting for someone to find her.

As for why she didn’t follow the proper route and work hard to cultivate her Mental Sect to the Golden level — first of all, greed is a sorcerer’s instinct. Utilizing resources is a mental sorcerer’s professional ethic. Indulging in pleasure and avoiding hard work are Bewitcher’s excellent traits. More importantly, Freya yearned to be close to Ashe.

After dozens of breaths, Ashe, like a student forced to wake up on a winter morning, struggled to sit up and leaned against the wall, tiredly saying, “R-Rainbow Tail...”

“It’s not a Rainbow Tail.”

Sonya lay on the ground, her chest heaving continuously, barely able to maintain rational thought. “That was... spatial teleportation.”

Ashe looked behind him and saw an ordinary wooden door frame standing there. It seemed they had emerged from it. He then realized they were in a small alley, with bustling streets at both ends. The lively noise from the busy streets made him feel as if he were back in reality.

“Where is this place?” Ashe asked her excitedly, “Have we been teleported back to reality!?”

Sonya hadn’t yet caught her breath when Deya suddenly looked up at the sky and said, “No, we’re still in the Virtual Realm. Look.”

Ashe glanced up at the sliver of sky visible through the alley and soon noticed a streak of crimson on the horizon at the center of his field of vision. Curious, he asked, “What’s that red dot?”

Deya didn’t answer but pointed to another part of the sky. “Look over there.”

Following her finger, Ashe saw another streak of crimson appear in the center of his view. He was puzzled, “Why is it showing up again?”

“As long as you look at the horizon in any direction, you’ll see it,” Deya replied with a weak smile. “The fairy tale book The Dream That Can Never Be Touched introduces the Distant Sky Domain. The protagonist just needs to observe the sky to know if they’re still in the Distant Sky Domain. I never thought it would actually work.”

“The crimson you see is the fourth layer of the Virtual Realm,” Sonya added. “This is also the defining feature of the Distant Sky Domain. No matter where the sorcerer is, they can always see their ultimate goal—the Ruby Mountain—when they look at the horizon.”

Ashe was astonished, “The fourth layer of the Virtual Realm is inside the third layer?”

“That’s what it says, but just as no one can find the Golden Fish or the Rainbow Tail, no one in the Distant Sky Domain has ever found the Ruby Mountain,” Sonya said, grabbing Ashe’s hand and struggling to sit up. “I didn’t expect to become a Sanctuary sorcerer so quickly and haven’t really studied the related books... but my elder sister, the professor, once told me that the Ruby Mountain is a kind of torment for Sanctuary sorcerers.”

“You can always see it, but you can never reach it,” she said, clutching Ashe’s sleeve. “The ‘Distant’ in Distant Sky Domain refers to the ‘Distant Land’ of the Ruby Mountain.”