The elevator system of the deep pit City, although long since broken, still had its peripheral stone slab pathways in normal use, seemingly as an entertaining way to exercise through mountain climbing.

However, Ash and his companions were almost all Holy Sanctuary Mages, capable of conjuring their own wings. Even if they were not skilled in flashy air combat, flying forward was always something they could do—just directly crossing over the City from above was possible.

Except for one person.

When Ash carried Black Crow, he felt as though he was shouldering a slender, lightweight girl. The first time he had carried Black Crow, he was surprised at how light Tamasi was, considering not to mention Black Crow's own body weight, his clothing, weapons, accessories, and armor all together weighed over a hundred pounds, it naturally couldn't be that light.

Black Crow said he had martial arts that could counteract gravitation, capable of negating some of the weight.

When Ash and the others heard this, they found it hard to believe; how could a person resist gravity without a "Miracle"? Were you sneaking some of Harvey's candies? But according to what Black Crow said, the principle behind it was actually quite straightforward and simple.

First of all, he himself could achieve short bursts of stepping through the air, though not for long durations. His method of walking on the air was similar to treading water—he discovered that when treading water, as long as the frequency and strength were sufficient, he could use the reactionary force to lift his body out of the water. And when placed in the air, wasn't it similar to being in water? Only that air was slightly more elusive compared to water.

But Black Crow was a cultural heritage contender who could slice out shock waves with his bare hands; understanding one thing led him to understand a hundred. Since he could slap the air to slice out shock waves, naturally he could also slap the air to obtain enough reactionary force to counteract gravity.

"Compared to all the trouble I go through just to negate some weight, you all have Void Wings that let you fly directly without expending physical strength, isn't that much more impressive?" Black Crow argued in his own defense, and although what he said made sense, this 'ordinary person' became more and more mysterious and strange in the eyes of Ash and the other mages—Igula even suspected that Tamasi deliberately spoke such counterintuitive things to maintain a sense of awe among the team.

So, even though it seemed like Black Crow's entire weight bore down on Ash's back, his feet were in fact treading the air at high frequency, which was how he barely managed to counteract the hundred pounds of weight.

As for why it was Ash who carried Black Crow... When it came to the flying segments, someone obviously had to carry Black Crow. After Ash had carried Tamasi once during a night flight, it became customary for him to be designated as the exclusive mount for the ominous Black Crow.

The Mercury Wooden Horse, seeing Black Crow's hands resting on Ash's shoulders, lying down obediently and calmly, showed a glint of something strange in her gaze but said nothing.

"Have you already caught Silver Lamp?" Igula asked.

The Mercury Wooden Horse was a villain, fattening up her prey, the number one disaster of Senluo but also a trustworthy person.

Even though their stances differed, they had never received false intelligence from the mouth of the Mercury Wooden Horse, and such an easily debunked lie could bring her no benefit.

So when the Mercury Wooden Horse said they had already taken control of Silver Lamp, everyone's hearts sank—was this chase game finally coming to an end?

Ash and his company had not forgotten that they had two enemies in Senluo: Silver Lamp and Mercury Wooden Horse.

If Silver Lamp was their prey, then they were the prey of the Mercury Wooden Horse.

The Mercury Wooden Horse had always been wholeheartedly assisting them, but it was nothing more than a plan to use one to eliminate another, as well as the idea of gathering all the troubles together—in her plan, either both Ash and Silver Lamp would live, or both would die, but never one alive and one dead.

Because both Ash and Silver Lamp were Half-Touch, whoever died, the survivor would automatically receive all the favor of the Pillar God, not only becoming the new Touch of Senluo but also taking control of the entire Four Pillars God Sect.

And the Mercury Wooden Horse, the 'temporary agent', the 're-hired retiree' of the old love, would naturally have to step down and out of favor for the new beloved.

Ash, of course, didn't want to become the delighted sense of the Pillar God; he even cursed the Pillar God every day as four peddlers of pyramid schemes, hoping to lower his affinity in the eyes of the Pillar God. But just as money flows towards those who are not lacking it, and love towards those who don't need it, Ash, who never performed any antics, still continued to receive the ongoing sponsorship of the four gold masters.

Setting aside the power-hungry villain Mercury Wooden Horse, who would absolutely not yield the Four Pillars God Sect she had worked hard to manage, more crucially, Tamasi had always been chasing her, and if she lost the protection of the Divine Sect, she definitely wouldn't escape Black Crow's pursuit.

Hence, the conflict between the Mercury Wooden Horse and Ash was irreconcilable—a fight to the death. The reason they had been able to cooperate before was merely because Silver Lamp was still on the run.

Ash needed to capture Silver Lamp to resolve the issues with Blood Seed and Half-Touch;

The Mercury Wooden Horse needed to capture both Ash and Silver Lamp to thoroughly eliminate these two contenders vying for the affection of the Pillar God.

What was worse, Ash also had to let Silver Lamp become the complete Touch, only then could he rid himself of the threat of Half-Touch—not only because of the occasional "spell suffix", but also because if Silver Lamp died, he feared he would become a Touch with a warped personality—yet Ash had no idea how to handle it, only the Mercury Wooden Horse claimed she had a way.

But the Mercury Wooden Horse demanded that both Ash and Silver Lamp be present, in order to assist one of them in becoming the Touch while they were both alive.

On this point, the Mercury Wooden Horse might not have been lying, but her heart to solve both of them at once was no less genuine.

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