Mage Manual-Chapter 1302 - 948: The Heavenly Kingdom of Souls

Vishi was quite satisfied with her harvest. Only someone like her, a soul demigod, could precisely tread the line of breaking willpower and absorb more than 1000 pieces of the collection, successfully incorporating 1.02% of the Dream Treasury into her soul.

In heaven and on earth, aside from the few Divine Lords, no one could do better than her. Her risky venture brought rich rewards—constructing the prototype of a Heavenly Position Temple in the soul of a mortal!

Although Vishi had explained it before, Ash and the others are ultimately just mortals. Having never been a demigod, they find it difficult to grasp the vast difference between temples, probably considering it akin to some conceptual qualification.

But with the development of mages, the significance of temples is extremely complex. A slightly larger temple can create a disparity of ten or even a hundred times.

The most fundamental reason is that a Technique Spirit can construct "Wonders" in the temple!

In the realm of mortals, no matter how complex a miracle technique is, it’s typically constructed by more than a dozen Technique Spirits, and a construction time of over 72 hours is already considered a large-scale miracle.

But upon stepping into the Divine Domain, every miracle technique of a mage involves hundreds or thousands of Technique Spirits, with construction spanning years.

However, demigod mages wouldn’t wait until they needed it to construct miracle techniques. Instead, they let Technique Spirits build grand architectural techniques in the temple, hence why they are called "Wonders"!

Indeed, demigod mages can skillfully use dozens to hundreds of miracles, but once demigods develop wondrous technology, past miracle technology is abandoned. The only thing that truly determines the outcome among demigods is the Wonder!

The larger the temple, the more grand Wonders can be constructed, and vice versa. The gap between Lower, Middle, Upper, and Heavenly Positions is like the leap from a village, town, city, to a province, with each step being an unimaginable leap.

Back when Vishi was reborn, she only managed to construct a Lower Temple at the mortal stage through world slaughter, and only after passing the Hell Trial did she acquire an Upper Temple.

She never ruled any Divine Being, but with the Soul Wonder constructed in the Upper Temple, she could even ambush and kill other demigods! Now possessing the prototype of a Heavenly Position Temple, even without ruling any Divine Being, Vishi is confident of stepping into the elite ranks of hell demigods!

But precisely because Vishi understands the significance of temples so well, upon seeing Ash’s soul, her ambition, unwavering for three thousand years, couldn’t help but feel a bit weary for a moment.

If Ash were an ambitious person, she might still harbor jealousy, but thinking of how Ash couldn’t even handle women, she felt exhausted, wanting to just give up.

She has only one province, but Ash has a whole country!

And there are six such countries!

The six combined form just one layer!

Seeing Vishi sporting an exhausted expression of ’how did this fat draught horse end up with a cabbage again,’ Ash scratched his head, "Do you have to be so sad? This is just a prototype of a Heavenly Kingdom, but I have a real Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes. You already thought of me as a Divine Lord candidate back then, so why are you so tense now?"

"Back then I also thought it was a waste for the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes to fall into your hands," Vishi sighed. "Moreover, this prototype of the Heavenly Kingdom is more valuable than the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes—even if it has a Wish Pool."

Ash was skeptical, "Really? Isn’t becoming a Divine Lord all about raising high the Heavenly Kingdom? Even if mine is a bit larger, the Wish Pool of the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes isn’t too bad either."

"The size of the Heavenly Kingdom and the value of the World Secret Domain, I can’t really explain to you," Vishi said. "Because I don’t understand it either—I have never been a Divine Lord!"

"So, I’m not going to say those complicated things. I’ll just point out one thing: You can take your own Heavenly Kingdom with you directly."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and Igula hesitated before saying, "You mean... a Divine Lord can carry the Heavenly Kingdom with them?"

"This only applies to the original Heavenly Kingdom born from one’s own soul. Heavenly Kingdoms acquired through other means, like the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes and Dream Heaven, don’t apply," Vishi said. "I’ve never witnessed a Divine Lord running around carrying their Heavenly Kingdom, but my deduction has a basis—because demigods can bring out their temple and take it with them anytime."

"An unclaimed temple after a demigod’s death can be inherited and used by other mages, but the temple’s position can’t be moved. In hell, these unclaimed temples are often important resource points contested by various factions."

"As for the significance of being able to carry the Heavenly Kingdom at any time, I believe you wandering mages should understand it well."

Ash and the others certainly understood. They currently have no property in any kingdom; is it because they don’t wish to control production resources? It’s simply because they didn’t have time to establish them, and once established, they couldn’t take them along.

A Heavenly Kingdom that cannot be taken away forces the Divine Lord to safeguard it wholeheartedly. Facing external threats, they can only hold their ground to the death.

But if a Heavenly Kingdom can be carried away, then at any sign of trouble, the Divine Lord can simply escape, standing in an invincible position.

Even if the quality of the Heavenly Kingdoms is entirely the same, the strategic advantage brought by an original Heavenly Kingdom already crushes a legacy Heavenly Kingdom!

Vishi said, "Among the current six Divine Lords, only Blood Moon Dazzling Star has been raising high the Heavenly Kingdom since my era. Of course, I’m not saying the other four didn’t exist during my time, but I might not recognize them, or they could have changed their titles after becoming Divine Lords."

"In my memory, Blood Moon Dazzling Star is notoriously fierce. I once witnessed two demigods attempt to become Divine Lords using a legacy Heavenly Kingdom, only to be slain by Blood Moon Dazzling Star."

"If Blood Moon Dazzling Star’s Heavenly Kingdom couldn’t move, there would be no reason for new Divine Lords not to retaliate against them. The only reason could be that the new Divine Lords couldn’t even find a target to hit after taking a beating, until they were utterly crushed."

Filly murmured, "How terrifying."

"The only reason the Six Divine Lords can coexist peacefully for over a thousand years is that they are all native to the Heavenly Kingdom, sharing the same strategic advantage," Igula mused. "But since you know the dangers of the Legacy Heaven, why do you still dabble in Dream Heaven? Are you also hoping to elevate Dream Heaven to become a Divine Lord?"

Vishi chuckled, "Firstly, Dream Heaven is also a World Secret Domain. I can leverage its power, even construct wonders within it. Secondly..."

"Even knowing that elevating Heaven would lead to attacks from other Divine Lords, I have no choice."

She lowered her eyelids, "Compared to being forever stuck in Hell, I’d rather die on the path to Heaven."

"I am indeed afraid of death, because only by surviving can I do more. But if surviving means just going with the flow and stagnating, what’s the difference from an unburied corpse?"

"Don’t insult corpses," Harvey said, finishing his last glass of wine. "Corpses diligently enter the cycle of nature and don’t stagnate... Ash, hand me the Dull Holy Grail."

After a brief silence, Ash suddenly said, "Don’t you guys find the distribution of my six-layer soul more interesting?"

"Isn’t it just an imitation of the Void Realm?" Vishi raised an eyebrow, "Above the sea is fish, above the fish is cattle, above the cattle is Ruby Mountain, above Ruby Mountain is Hell, above Hell is Earth, and above Earth is Heaven... Moreover, because you’ve never seen Hell and Heaven, they never fully formed, so what is there to discuss except for your lack of imagination? Did you not take it seriously?"

Ash blinked, vaguely remembering that he was indeed asked for advice when the prototype of Heaven was born, but he was busy meeting with the Silver Lamp, not paying attention to the changes in his soul.

Harvey took out a metal bottle and poured it into the Holy Grail while drinking, asking, "Why isn’t there a Distant Realm?"

Igula speculated, "Because Ash doesn’t even know the physical location of the Distant Realm in the Void Realm, and he witnessed its collapse and hasn’t seen the new three layers of the Void Realm, so he just deleted it."

"Master, you wouldn’t happen to think your prototype Heaven is similar to the real world and believe you can reshape the world and replace the Void Realm to recreate reality, would you?" Vishi’s mouth slightly twisted into a smile. "Do you think other Heavens are normal? Heavens are designed by the Divine Lords themselves. Even if they wanted to perfectly recreate the Void Realm, they could, but there’s no significance other than fun."

Ash blushed; he indeed thought that way.

"Your prototype Heaven will eventually change too, such as merging multiple layers to construct a wonder. Having six layers is simply impractical," Vishi continued with a hint of jealousy, gritting her teeth. "If I had acquired a prototype Heaven..."

"You actually have a chance to manage such a large Heaven," Ash said leisurely. "When I become a Divine Lord, you can be my Angel instead of a maid. Entrusting my Heaven to you wouldn’t be impossible..."

Vishi stared blankly at Ash, "Then I might as well remain your maid. After all, I’m just a silly one that only knows how to call you Master, right?"

While drinking, Harvey asked, "So, can Ash pass through the Hell Trial now?"

Ash slapped his own forehead, realizing he’d been so focused on the distant dream of becoming a Heaven’s Divine Lord that he had forgotten the pressing crisis at hand.

"His soul can definitely withstand one layer of Hell on its own," Vishi confirmed. "Whether he can use Void Wings to endure the other four layers of Hell depends on his abilities."

Upon hearing this, Igula and others breathed a sigh of relief. The most perilous and unstable factor in the Hell Trial was that the mage could not independently create new divine beings to endure the fifth layer of Hell. Now that Ash can independently endure one layer of Hell, at least the biggest problem is solved.

What’s more, as long as Ash doesn’t create new divine beings, there’s no risk of Demigod Ghouls daring to attack him!

"That’s great, Ash!" Filly clasped Ash’s hands tightly, "You’re finally safe!"

"Actually, not yet. Enduring four layers of Hell is still quite a challenge," Ash said with a deep sigh. "But at least there’s some progress. Vishi, your soul can surely endure one layer of Hell too, right?"

"I could pass the Hell Trial at any time," Vishi said lazily. "But I will stay. Not to compete for the last piece of Angel inheritance, but because I’m Master’s maid and will never leave him."

In a sense, Vishi wasn’t wrong—on the second day of being affected by Hell’s Poison, Igula reminded Ash to give Vishi a new command, requiring her to contact Ash when her Void Wings recover to the fourth layer and then quickly go to Broken Wings.

Using the Hell Trial as an escape route, Ash had already blocked it for her.

"Then I won’t concern myself with you," Ash said. "The next goal is to enhance Igula and Harvey’s foundations as much as possible, hopefully securing Angel inheritance for them, and..."

"To rescue the Kingdom of Allstars."

Those words only left Igula and Harvey with calm looks, as if they had already anticipated this response; Rose continued to massage Ash’s palm unconcernedly; Filly was stunned, and even Nia raised her head sharply, staring directly at Ash as if trying to discern signs of deceit in his words.

"I’m actually delighted, Ash, that you’ve finally learned to use rhetoric to win over Filly and Nia. I bet if you wanted to share a bed with them, they wouldn’t be unwilling now."

Vishi’s expression turned serious, and she coldly said, "But I’m also worried, are you serious?"

"Not only am I serious, but I also have a direction already," Ash declared. "If the Kingdom of Allstars is destined for destruction, then why not relocate its people to a safe kingdom in advance?"

He pointed his thumb at himself, "And right now, I just happen to possess a vast Heavenly Kingdom of Souls."