Mage Manual-Chapter 1284 - 934: Contending for the World

"Finally made it in..."

The sound knowledge constructed from lilac light points gazed at the endless bubbles of collections, momentarily enchanted and dazed.

"The Dream Treasury of the Source Angel!"

She reached out to touch the bubble beside her. The seemingly fragile foam now displayed astonishing resilience and resisted fiercely, yet was still pierced by the sound knowledge’s hand, obtaining the golden collection within, "Radiant Seal."

"Two seconds, huh..." she pondered.

Don’t be fooled by how quickly she pierced the bubble; normal mages might not even be able to pierce it. The Dream Treasury of the Source Angel is not a paradise with a zero threshold; on the contrary, even Holy Sanctuary Mages find it extremely difficult to obtain spoils here.

All the collection bubbles here stem from miracle formulations conceived by countless mages over millions of years. Due to their high difficulty and lack of crucial Technique Spirits, these formulations were unable to be completed, buried quietly in the crevices of history, unbeknownst to all.

In dreams, the Source Angel retrieved these ’incomplete spells,’ using the power of dreams to complete them, and not just completing them—the Source Angel continuously perfects and modifies these formulations with the passage of time and the advancement of magic, adjusting them until the miracle formulations adapt to the current version.

Throughout this process, the Source Angel completes it unconsciously; it couldn’t do this consciously—it isn’t even a mage.

To use a metaphor, the incomplete spell is like the seed the mage casts down, the dream of the Source Angel is the earth, and the advancement of magic is comparable to abundant rain and ample sunshine. The earth allows the seed to germinate and grow, but can we say the earth intentionally makes the seed blossom and bear fruit?

Though the Source Angel unconsciously refines the formulations, it consciously hides them. It hasn’t hidden them far away, just within the inner dream layers of the Distant Realm—more accurately, within the inner layers of the Distant Realm!

Even humans can achieve layered dreams; how could the Source Angel not be able to?

As for why the Source Angel hid the formulations, the sound knowledge didn’t presumptuously speculate, but she vaguely felt that the Source Angel doing so indeed benefited mage civilization. Mages have already obtained too much from the Void Realm; if they could even use it to perfect spell formulations, their inventive abilities would inevitably shrink over generations.

Forget battle at your peril; supreme warriors suffer harm.

The most evident examples are none other than the Kingdom of Gospel and the Kingdom of Senluo. Gospel’s excessive leisure leads their high-level combat power to rank low among the six countries; Senluo’s excessive peril stunts the development of high-level combat power.

Having discovered the mechanism of the collection bubbles, the sound knowledge believes that the Source Angel does not intend to eternally seal these formulations, perhaps waiting for the right moment to update the Void Realm version and release the collection bubbles.

Because the collection bubbles can only be broken at the corresponding magic realm.

The "Radiant Seal" just acquired by the sound knowledge requires Holy Sanctuary Level of Space Faction and Light Magic Faction to break, this item must also be crafted using Space Technique Spirit and Light Magic Technique Spirit. Clearly, if the Source Angel didn’t intend for mages to obtain collections, it wouldn’t have needed to add such a mechanism to the bubbles.

Those able to break all the bubbles here should be only a few demons like them and the Ghost Prophet. As for other mages, being able to break two or three bubbles before the end counts as a full harvest.

But what the sound knowledge desires isn’t these collections.

She swiftly moved through the air, breaking bubble after bubble, continuously gathering the radiant splendor within the collections.

Once she broke through ten bubbles, she could faintly sense a weak connection forming between herself and the entire inner dream layer.

This is the true goal of the sound knowledge!

This is the true goal of the demons!

What she wants is the entire Dream Treasury itself!

The Source Angel lost its rainbow Void Wings and naturally lost control of the Dream Treasury. Now, the Dream Treasury has become an ownerless object!

Logically speaking, without the connection to the Source Angel, the Dream Treasury should collapse together with the Distant Realm, but the Dream Treasury relies not just on the Source Angel for support; these millions of collections serve as its anchor too!

Conversely, one could say if you plunder enough collections, you can plunder the permissions of the Dream Treasury, biting off a significant piece of it!

Thus, the demons care not for the collection formulations; what they vie for is the dream world left behind by the Source Angel!

"Luckily, Xiao Zhan is dead..." Sound knowledge mused while devouring collections: "If she were still here, we’d just surrender this round; even Fa couldn’t outcompete her, the dream is Xiao Zhan’s home turf, she even transformed her country into a dreamland..."

"Fa insisted on initiating the Angel Hunt only after Xiao Zhan had completely fallen, so cautious. That time when Xiao Zhan suddenly saved those mages from the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes, I thought she might experience a miraculous recovery, couldn’t help shedding a few tears of joy... but she still died, thank goodness."

"Without Xiao Zhan, I should be ahead of those guys; the only variable is the Ghost Prophet."

"Nonetheless, even if the Ghost Prophet can bite into this cake, how big can her appetite really be?"

...

...

"So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is... why am I only realizing now!"

When Vishi successfully absorbed the tenth bubble, she instantly understood why the demons wanted to kill her—if their roles were reversed, she too would want to kill herself swiftly!

This amounts to a whole layer of Void Realm world!

The Divine Lords of the six countries, even when they steal the World Secret Domain, might not be able to fill a layer of the Void Realm world!

Though such comparisons are somewhat improper, Vishi truly cannot calculate the value of one layer of Void Realm world. In the face of this colossal treasure, even her knowledge from three lifetimes seems shallow.

As the blue light points constructing Vishi trembled and exploded intermittently, vibrating from joy and detonating from regret—if Vishi had discovered this Dream Treasury world earlier, she could have secretly claimed it, then raised her Divine Country high, becoming the Seventh Divine Lord!

She genuinely had this opportunity because the weakest connection point between the Dream Treasury and Distant Realm is Dream Heaven itself! If the Distant Realm is one layer, the Dream Treasury is the second layer, then Dream Heaven is the interlayer between the two!

To put it directly, as long as Vishi slept in Dream Heaven back then, she had a great chance to enter the Dream Treasury. Even if the Source Angel immediately kicked her out, she would have a long time to explore this world bit by bit, like a treasure mouse quietly stealing treasures.

But the problem is, which Mage ever sleeps!

Except for Ash, she really hasn’t seen any Mage who cares about sleep quality!

Moreover, when she was in control of Dream Heaven, she was already a Demigod, and Demigods have no physiological need for sleep. Even if a Holy Sanctuary Mage sleeps in Dream Heaven, their knowledge cannot comprehend the profound significance of the Dream Treasury.

The Source Angel’s trick of hiding things in plain sight was truly brilliant, leaving Vishi regretting so much that she wished to bite a handkerchief.

However, she quickly collected her emotions, darting through the darkness like a fish, swiftly piercing each bubble. She wasn’t relying on her Magic Realm to pierce the bubbles, but her seemingly intangible connection with Dream Heaven.

She had managed Dream Heaven for over a thousand years, even though she was no longer the master of Dream Heaven. To her eyes, Dream Heaven was almost naked, and she could easily spot the flaws and vulnerabilities, even altering the environment of Heaven to some extent.

Vishi had been able to single-handedly resist Long Yuan for so long because she depended on slightly altering the terrain of Dream Heaven to buy herself breathing space. Originally, after reuniting with Ash, she intended to use her old tricks again, but the sound could accurately pinpoint their location, directly nullifying her small advantage.

As for these bubble collections, the Source Angel did not create them out of thin air but materialized them with the help of Dream Heaven.

This means that these bubbles are a part of Dream Heaven!

For Vishi, the former master, Dream Heaven can firmly refuse her excessive demands, but when it comes to trivial matters like piercing bubbles, Dream Heaven cannot resist at all!

Theoretically, all masters of Dream Heaven can do this, but the current master of Dream Heaven still living today is only the Ghost Prophet Vishi!

Even the Divine Lord has never controlled Dream Heaven!

Therefore, Vishi doesn’t even need a Magic Realm to plunder all the collections!

Everything here is Vishi’s for the taking!

Vishi drew out a blue streamline, crossing bubbles in the darkness and establishing an increasingly deep connection with the Dream Treasury.

Demigod!

Divine Lord!

Supreme!

Her burning ambition almost ignited Vishi’s soul. She was eager to incorporate the Dream Treasury into herself, then undergo the Hell Ritual to ascend as a Demigod, raise the Divine Country to become the chess master, finally vying for the only throne, wielding the supreme scepter!

Supreme of Magic, eternal life!

Everything shall be as I wish, all things shall be painted by me!

By that time...

Vishi suddenly remembered she still had a master. Remembering the ’care’ and ’affection’ over the past few months, not only did her surface blue light darken in hatred, but thinking of that guy’s inexplicable expectations for her, she couldn’t help but let out a sneer.

I am a Demigod Mage who has been active for a thousand years, and a mere mortal wants to change me?

"However," Vishi’s blue light flickered, and she cheerfully darted through the darkness, "I shall abide by the agreement this once."

Thud!

Upon absorbing a collection, Vishi felt as though her soul had been struck by a heavy hammer, her entire being frozen in mid-air. Nearly a hundred complex Miracle Techniques churned in her mind, forcing her to comprehend and absorb knowledge far beyond her limits, causing her blue light to continuously dissipate. If not for her extraordinary endurance and ambition, she might have already completely collapsed!

She knew what had happened to her—she was too focused on absorbing Miracle Techniques yet forgot that these Miracle Techniques involved countless Magic Factions, many of which she hadn’t ventured into!

Forcibly absorbing them is tantamount to forcing an elementary student to master advanced mathematics!

One or two might be forgivable, even ten could be possible, but she was absorbing nearly a hundred collections now!

She indeed had the home field advantage surpassing demons, but her appetite... does have limits!

*

Sonia’s purplish-red light flickered in the darkness; she attempted to touch the bubbles, but none could be pierced, as her Magic Realm couldn’t pierce the bubbles.

"It seems I have to search for collections related to swordsmanship..." she pondered, scanning around, her gaze suddenly captured by a collection.

It was a ruby necklace, the bubble surrounding it rippling slightly, indicating high space faction proficiency was needed to pierce it.

Sonia’s space faction might only be at Golden Level, yet she flew over resolutely, reaching out and gently touched it.

The bubble instantly shattered, and the ruby necklace fell into her hand.

But Sonia wasn’t surprised at all.

Because this was the golden collection "Crimson Blessing".

It was on the first day they formally explored the Distant Realm, that Ash specifically adorned her with the collection.