Sorcerer’s Handbook - Chapter 397: Unexpected

So heavy.

Even with the protection of “anchoring,” the moment Ashe stepped into the Golden Flow Water, a deep sense of powerlessness overwhelmed his soul.

It wasn’t because of the speed of the current or the weight of the water. In fact, “anchoring” literally blocked any external factors from affecting him. In this state, Ashe could wade through mountains of filth without getting stained.

But “anchoring” only blocked external influences on the sorcerer; it didn’t prevent the sorcerer from receiving external information through his senses.

When one is too weak, an overload of information can be poisonous.

The countless echoes stirred by the Golden Flow Water, the myriad reflections in the surging waves. Ashe seemed to hear the sighs of countless beings as they lived and died, and saw the intertwined images of all living things over long ages. Just processing this overload of information almost made his soul freeze!

With his limited information processing ability, it was impossible for him to digest so much information at once. It was like being a struggling student in a math class, only able to grasp the simplest concepts, while the advanced formulas on the blackboard were beyond comprehension and retention.

But now, it was as if the teacher was drilling into the student’s head, forcibly stuffing hundreds of gigabytes of study materials into the student’s brain!

Even if Ashe closed his eyes and covered his ears, he could still feel that what was flowing over him wasn’t just water, but the lives of all beings. When he moved his fingers backward, he swept through the pasts of millions of people; when he splashed his feet in the river, he inadvertently trampled on the glorious history of a city.

Suddenly, he had an epiphany: the so-called Time Sect didn’t refer to a force called ‘time,’ but rather the flow of all beings forming time. The essence of time is flow.

Each drop of water in the Golden Flow Water originated from reality, possibly from people, long-lived species like elves, ephemeral mayflies, or perhaps floating clouds, immobile rocks, and withering leaves. Understanding this, Ashe found that while he was still constantly receiving excessive information, it no longer affected his thinking. Moreover, his excellent forgetting mechanism kicked in, quickly throwing the new files crammed into his brain straight into the recycling bin for complete destruction.

No wonder the Golden Flow Water is considered the most terrifying natural phenomenon on the Time Continent. Even “anchoring” couldn’t fully protect a sorcerer. As Ashe couldn’t help but worry about his operators, he looked up and saw the two of them already swimming ahead of him.

The Witch swam the fastest, followed by the Sword Princess—there’s no sorcerer who can’t swim. Swimming is a basic requirement for crossing the Sea of Knowledge, so even a sorcerer from the desert becomes a swimming expert.

Faced with the informational onslaught of the Golden Flow Water, Ashe needed a second to update his mental processes, while the Sword Princess and Witch adapted to the river’s environment almost instantly.

Ashe couldn’t help but marvel: No wonder they were top-rated geniuses selected by “Aurora’s Sorcerer Handbook”. Ordinary people like him were indeed far behind them.

But they had only crossed the basic threshold of the Golden Flow Water. The real danger was yet to come.

The “anchoring” lasted only five seconds, and the moment it wore off, the immense pressure of time nearly crushed the three of them instantly!

Ashe felt his stamina plummet rapidly, his vision blurring as if he were viewing through an old phone camera, and his throat produced a broken, fan-like rasping sound. His thoughts slowed, like screws that had locked up.

Although Ashe quickly re-entered the “anchoring” state, in those brief moments exposed to the Golden Flow Water, he had almost aged decades!

This was to be expected. Simply approaching the Golden Flow Water accelerated aging, and they were now swimming directly in it. It was a miracle the river hadn’t dissolved them on the spot.

Because of the “anchoring” state, Ashe couldn’t expend soul energy to restore his aged soul body. He had no choice but to continue swimming. Although the river wasn’t wide, and it seemed like he could swim across with a burst of speed, Ashe estimated he could only withstand two or three more waves of this before he would be literally swallowed by the ‘tides of time.’

The “anchoring” effect of the Two-tone Anchor had only a 20% activation chance. Unless the activation chance could be raised to 100%, the Golden Flow Water would continue to be a forbidden zone for the living!

The Golden Flow was teeming with time spirits. Seeing Ashe swimming so bravely, they might have mistaken him for a new species of spirit and swarmed around to greet him. Among them, Ashe recognized more than a dozen rare spirits, including the precious spirit “Hear Day” that the Witch had lost in the Amnesia Cabin. However, he had no time to spare for even picking up trash, and he struggled desperately to swim forward.

Perhaps because this section of the Golden Flow was just a small tributary, Ashe and the others soon swam halfway across. When they were only one or two meters from the shore, the five seconds elapsed, and the anchoring deactivated once more.

Ashe was prepared to endure the time wash again, but perhaps the white bull had moved away, causing the current of the Golden Flow to suddenly accelerate. The churning waves splashed several drops of golden liquid, and one drop landed on Ashe’s ear, slipping into his soul like silky milk.

Even though Ashe immediately re-entered the “anchoring” state with his next breath, his ear still exploded with sound. But this time, what he heard was not the echoes of others’ lives, but the echoes of his own soul!

“Such an ugly baby, looks a lot like you.”

“No, more like you. I’m not this ugly.”

“I just gave birth; can’t you cut me some slack? Clearly, the baby looks ugly like you!”

“You two, all newborns look this ugly!”

“Brother, why are we different sizes?”

“Ashe, that’s normal. When you grow up… Σ(っ°Д°;)っWhat!? Wait, why?”

“(*/ω＼*) Shh, Ashe, keep your voice down. This is my classmate, here to study…””

“Mom! Brother brought a girl home!”

“Such an ugly baby, looks like your dad.”

“Do you have any manners? How can you insult my grandson like this? If you want to insult your brother, just say it directly!”

“Exactly, exactly!”

“I found an internship. If I’m lucky, I might get a job at this company.”

“Did you find a girlfriend?”

“It’s a mobile game company. They offer fourteen salaries and a year-end bonus, and they provide housing benefits…”

“Did you find a girlfriend?”

“Can’t you ask something else?”

“How much did your fund lose?”

“I didn’t find a girlfriend.”

“I told you there’s no need to come back. Dad just strained his back a little; I’ve got it covered.”

“You, you stay away!”

“What’s the matter, Igor? Didn’t you want to fight me ten times? Now you’ve won once, and I’ve won once. There are still eight more times to go.”

“Cough, cough, haha! What a pity, Valcas! You almost dragged me down with you, but thankfully the Executioner was faster… thankfully you’re an Elf despised by the people!”

“Freya, come with me. I need you.”

“Bewitcher, the Gospel Kingdom almost doesn’t have your kind anymore… But neither of you are sorcerers, so how did you cross the virtual realm passage? Never mind, from today onwards, you’re employees of my Funeral Firm.”

The Echo stirred memories, and the memories surged with emotion!

His ears were filled with these vague voices, and Ashe’s mind was almost instantly shattered by the noise. His soul was trapped in the past echoes, making it difficult even to keep himself afloat, let alone continue swimming!

The Golden Time Flow, a moment, a lifetime!

The Sword Princess seemed to notice something was wrong with him and struggled back to pull him along. However, this delay caused the five seconds to slip by quickly, and the third wash of the Golden Flow Water almost turned the two of them into withered corpses!

They had lost the ability to cross the Golden Flow.

“Alarpha Senhaeser,” Danzel said, “you have an armor specialty. Try to bring them back.”

The named heroic soul commander nodded silently, armed his troop type, and stepped into the Golden Flow region. The time power of the Golden Flow was just as effective on heroic souls, but the armor’s reduction effect was equally effective against time. For a commander like Alarpha, his maximum armor reduction reached an astounding 95%. Although soul power consumption was enormous, it could have a decisive tactical effect at critical moments.

Alarpha soon returned to the legion, empty-handed.

“They’re not at the shore,” Alarpha explained. “To cross the Golden Flow, you need to break through the Time Barrier. My Time Sect realm is insufficient.”

“Time Barrier…” Danzel bit her thin lip, feeling a wave of helplessness.

She had already maximized the resources at her disposal, but those sorcerers somehow had special troop types that could resist the Golden Flow and even break through the Time Barrier to cross the Golden Flow. The Golden Flow Water itself was toxic to sorcerers; only geniuses who understood the essence of time could utilize or even touch it. This was the so-called Time Barrier.

In simple terms, the Time Barrier was a mechanism for gauging a sorcerer’s potential. Only those with the potential to ascend to the legendary realm of the Time Sect could possibly pass through the Time Barrier.

Though it was merely theoretical potential, the fact that all three sorcerers managed to pass was outrageous. Then again, the fact that they could team up and drive through the Time Continent was already absurd enough. Compared to that, being genius sorcerers seemed almost insignificant.

Unexpected, unexpected, unexpected…

Although this was just their first pursuit, there were many more Spider Tower rounds to come, and these three sorcerers would undoubtedly stay in the Time Continent for many more turns. But Danzel’s one-sixth soul fragment was telling her—using the same trick on them twice would be ineffective.

She needed to resort to more underhanded tactics, she thought.