"Mages who have initially constructed their Holy Domain can typically pass through two Dream Bubble Shadows each night; as for someone like me, who has mastered an Upper Radiant Miracle, I can at most traverse ten Dream Bubble Shadows, usually around six."

"Huh? Why? Sister Trozan, you're so powerful, able to move about in the Void Realm for five hours, does that mean it takes only half an hour to get through one Dream Bubble Shadow?"

"Yes, because the battles in the Dream Bubble Shadows are unlike any you've faced before. Even with my Holy Domain and Hidden Hand Blade, I still need to spend more than 30 minutes gathering intelligence, and if a Shadow is particularly dangerous, I might even skip it altogether and move on to the next dream."

"What makes a Shadow dangerous?"

"Any Shadow where you can't find the first word suffix is dangerous."

*

Though Sonia was fully aware that "every warning from a Mage is a summary of countless deaths," she still underestimated the danger—without finding the clue for the word suffix of the sixth Bubble Shadow, she still agreed with the Witch and others' idea of "Break All Arts."

It wasn't surprising, after all, they had breezed through the first five Bubble Shadows with ease, whether they had clues or not, initiating fights and demolition after just a few minutes.

And the first five Bubble Shadows each had a single word suffix: "Bubble" (very easy to slip), "Resonance" (all Technique Spirit effects doubled), "Fear of Giant Objects" (all attributes grow exponentially with size); while they were challenging, under the protection of the Holy Domain, Ash and the others could quickly get a general understanding of the word suffixes, and even manage to deduce the true intention of the word suffixes—an early escape from class, so to speak. Indeed, as long as you can deduce all the word suffixes, you can clear the Dream Bubble Shadow without further combat.

Generally speaking, Dream Bubble Shadows are difficult, but still within the realms of manageability.

Additionally, after getting through the fourth Bubble Shadow, Ash had taken out the fourth item from the Dream Treasury—and it was a colored collection item!

"Colored Collection Item·Spiritual Light Glasses: The wearer takes 50% additional damage, but every unit within sight has a chance to trigger 'Flash of Spiritual Light' in combat, suddenly increasing the unit's Wisdom, and triggering one of three rewards: faction experience (90%), summoning a new Technique Spirit (9%), or inventing a new Miracle (1%). Each successful trigger also causes the wearer to experience a 'Flash of Spiritual Light.'"

This colored collection item had no impact on their current combat power, but Ash and the others wished they could preserve it forever—it was essentially an experience grinding artifact!

Technique Spirits and Miracles aside, faction experience was the biggest shortcoming for these smugglers, and yet faction experience was the hardest to increase. Ash could still share experiences through Bonds, Diya could occasionally have bursts of divine inspiration through "Gospel," but Sonia had no such luck, relying solely on her own Talent combined with Ash's forced growth.

But because of the negative effect of taking 50% more damage, neither the Witch nor the Sword Maiden could wear it. They had to choose between Ash and Weiser in the back row, but for Ash to wear it would be a waste—due to the shared experience from Bonds, the entire team would benefit 100% from him wearing it, while Weiser's wearing it leads to a 130% benefit.

Weiser gladly accepted the collection item, assuring that she would always include them three in her line of sight.

In fact, that's exactly what happened. In the fight of the fifth Bubble Shadow, all three experienced a Flash of Spiritual Light, and the intensely battling Sword Maiden and Witch even triggered it three times. For this reason, they even slowed down the pace of the fight, thoroughly enjoying their time thrashing the Violent Slash Dragon—until it, unable to bear the humiliation, self-destructed, interrupting their Brutality.

Everyone realized that their objective for tonight's Void Realm Exploration had changed. It was no longer about passing through Dream Bubble Shadows, but about engaging in as many battles as possible.

So when Ash mentioned "The next Dream Bubble Shadow might be a bit more difficult to fight," nobody felt fear, only greed. After all, according to the Spiritual Light Glasses, the harder the fight, the higher the chance to trigger a Flash of Spiritual Light.

The sixth Bubble Shadow resembled an Underground City, and after spending more than ten minutes fruitlessly probing for the word suffix, they resolutely initiated the fight.

Then they finally experienced the true difficulty of the Void Realm.

Crack.

As Ash fled to a rooftop, the Beastman Sacred Realm behind him suddenly let out a cackling laugh, pointing at him. Although it seemed like nothing had happened, the space where the fingertip pointed had already torn apart!

However, out of nowhere the Mist Ghost Dragon in the sky let out a sinister growl, its pupil, resembling that of a gigantic frog, locked tightly on Ash. Ash was instantly flooded with numerous dark and self-destructive thoughts, and he didn't even manage to raise his Holy Domain in time, leaving himself open to slaughter!

Sonia and Diya immediately rushed over to help defend, and Weiser also activated the miracle "Nothing Happened," freeing Ash from the mind control state!

Although they narrowly escaped a combined assault, there was not a shred of joy on Ash's face, for this was not the first time he had been saved.

He looked back at the Void Realm creatures pursuing them and sighed, "I never imagined that we would collapse midway on the first night of our Void Realm Exploration into the Distant Realm."

"This is just disgusting!" Diya complained, "We can only take hits without being able to fight back, what kind of battle is this?"

As soon as the battle was initiated, the mages quickly identified a problem—their attacks were automatically reflected!

Every attack launched would automatically rebound onto themselves!

But no matter, the Witch has "Witness," and the Sword Maiden has "Hidden Hand Blade," attacks that could ignore distance, surely those could harm the enemy?

Then the mages discovered that the Void Realm creatures, the Mist Ghost Dragon and the Beastman Mage, were invincible! They were unaffected by any damage, and the Witch's and Sword Maiden's attacks still rebounded back onto themselves!

Not only that, the attacks from the Beastman Mage and the Mist Ghost Dragon actually worked!

Ash even heard the Sword Maiden curse out "little loudspeaker."

How could they fight this?

If it were just the enemies being invincible, they could destroy the scenery to create deep pits to restrict the enemies' movement;

If it was just their attacks rebounding, they would all be in the same boat, and that would be the end of their exploration for the evening.

After all, when a Dream Bubble Shadow battle commences, all Space Gates become ineffective, and the mages can't leave the Dream Bubble Shadow until the battle is over. So, the mages would either not start a battle at all or have to kill the other side or be killed.

But now, with the enemies invincible, Ash's attacks rebounding, and the enemies' not, even the most shameless narratives about torturing the protagonist wouldn't dare to use such an exaggerated setup.

Had it been any other individual mage, they would have been instantly killed by the Beastman Mage and the Mist Ghost Dragon's tactics. Luckily, they were team fighting and still managed to rescue each other. Even so, all of them had been seriously injured, and should the enemies get another chance, they would likely meet their demise.

Ash and his team were becoming increasingly aware of the importance of the Holy Domain—the Holy Domain allowed them not only to pass through Space Gates, but more importantly, it gave them a margin for error when facing the enemy's first strike!

No wonder it is said that the Holy Domain is indispensable for the Distant Realm: without the protection of the Holy Domain, mages would have absolutely no reaction time and would be instantly killed by enemies enhanced by various world word suffixes!

While fleeing desperately through the Underground City, Sonia suddenly swung backward, silently activating "Hidden Hand Blade," but the Beastman Mage behind them burst into laughter, and it was her Holy Domain that was automatically activated to take the rebounded strike.

Seizing the opportunity, the Mist Ghost Dragon locked its gaze on Sonia, causing her to freeze in place. Ash quickly scooped her up and fled. However, there was no need for Weiser's healing because once Ash used the Miracle "Attack Me" on her, Sonia immediately snapped back to consciousness.

Thankfully, both Ash and Weiser had Miracles to purify abnormal states in the team; otherwise, they would've been wiped out long ago.

The Village Girl, though she had regained consciousness, was still not willing to give up and launched 'Hidden Hand Blade' two more times. Naturally, Ash's Holy Domain took the hits, and she ended up exhausting her magic power, leaving her weakly clinging to Ash.

"No choice then," said Ash, "Let's initiate the ultimate plan."

"Don't!" Witch and Sword Maiden immediately rejected the idea.

The so-called ultimate plan was to commit suicide. After all, since it would be self-inflicted, the soul damage would be much less.

But even the slightest damage would require a Holy Sanctuary Mage to rest for at least ten days to half a month; how could Sonia and Diya possibly agree to this?

"As long as we come up with the word suffix, we can get through this Dream Bubble Shadow!" Sonia said, biting her fingernails, "Let's think of something here!"

Diya asked, "Sword Maiden, have you recovered yet?"

Ash: "There are at least two word suffixes here; the first one is attack rebound, and the second is invincibility."

Weiser: "And it's not just any attack that rebounds, nor is everyone invincible. Both the attack rebound and the invincibility have a trigger condition."

Sonia: "What exactly is different about them compared to us?"

Diya was getting anxious: "Sword Maiden, if you're recovered, just walk on your own. The Observer can't free his hands while carrying you."

"No rush, I want to observe exactly how they trigger these word suffixes."

"Then let me—"

Suddenly, the Beastman Mage chuckled coldly, pointing at Diya, space was silent, yet it shattered inch by inch. The Mist Ghost Dragon also growled, focusing on Diya and launching a Spiritual Shock.

However, nothing happened. Diya, who was running away, naturally dodged this combination attack without even realizing she had been targeted.

"Huh?"

Ash and Weiser were momentarily stunned, then they both triggered 'Spiritual Light' at the same time.

"I understand now," said Ash. "The trigger condition for invincibility is 'drama'; as long as you speak or act in a way that makes yourself seem very dramatic, you can trigger invincibility."

"The attack rebound is related to the attack itself," Weiser added. "Any physical attack will trigger the rebound, so Spiritual Shocks and Space Attacks won't. Sword Maiden, your Space Attack triggered the suffix because it has a faint shadow."

As soon as they finished speaking, two pieces of information flowed into their minds:

'Theater Premiere: The stage is sacred, and all performers on stage are gods and saints! All actors ignore all damage.'

'Word Suffix Recognition Reward: A small amount of Fate Faction experience and a small amount of magic power.'

'Limited Word Suffix Privilege: You can actively trigger Theater Premiere once, lasting for 5 seconds.'

/

'Civilized Audience: Don't throw things at the performers! All physical attacks will rebound to the attacker, and all formless attacks cannot be blocked.'

'Word Suffix Recognition Reward: A small amount of Fate Faction experience and a small amount of magic power.'

'Limited Word Suffix Privilege: The next attack aimed at you will rebound to the attacker.'

The group paused for a moment, realizing that the Dream Bubble Shadow had not solidified, indicating the existence of a third word suffix.

"It's okay," Ash said. "As long as we enter the state of Theater Premiere, we will be immune to damage, and then we can find a way to escape the Void Realm—"

"There's no need."

Weiser said, "Since formless attacks work, we can pass through this Shadow."

"But your Space Faction—"

"Formless attacks are not limited to the Space Faction."

"But they are in the state of Theater Premiere—"

"Then let's take them out of their acting state."

Weiser suddenly stopped; the 'Thousand Mechanism' Technique Spirit within her soul changed into a brand new Sound Technique Spirit, 'Sound Wave'!

With 'Illusion' and 'Sound Wave' as the main Technique Spirits, she formed a new Miracle, 'Silent Shock'!

The unseen and inaudible Sound Wave swept past, causing the building beneath the Beastman Mage to collapse. He could no longer maintain his cackle and fell, getting crushed by the Sound Wave. Then Weiser changed 'Thousand Mechanism' into the Wind Technique Spirit 'Gale,' blowing the dust toward the sky to obscure the Mist Ghost Dragon.

The moment the Mist Ghost Dragon showed confusion and stopped growling, the Gale scattered its form like sweeping away fallen leaves.

In a matter of seconds, the fierce enemies who had been chasing them for over half an hour were dispatched!

The Mages stood dumbfounded at the scene, with only Diya quickly coming to her senses, hurriedly setting down the Sword Maiden from the Observer's arms.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.