"In Azura there’s a Devil living in Liwan District. As long as you offer up a Sun Technique Spirit, you can make a wish-deal with the Devil."

Sesilia dutifully repeated the urban legend she’d heard. Ash rubbed his temples; the contents were basically correct, but for some reason the report had picked up a minor distortion along the way: "Isn’t the one who grants wishes supposed to be some nice being like a genie in a lamp? Why do you people all think it’s a Devil?"

"But I’m neither a genie nor a Devil. I can’t grant you any wish—at most I can try my best to meet your demands."

"Then... can I refuse the deal?" Sesilia hugged the box in her arms.

"No."

Seeing the expression on Sesilia’s face that clearly said ’and you still claim you’re not a Devil doing strong-arm sales,’ Ash couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed. But the Sun Technique Spirit concerned everyone’s injuries—so even if it was strong-arm sales, he’d do it without hesitation. It’s not like he was some morally upright Saint harsh on himself; a flexible moral baseline was an essential quality for any Cult Leader.

Besides, he was sure the price he offered would satisfy the girl. But before that...

"How did you get your Sun Technique Spirit? Is it actually yours?"

Why the hell do you care so much... Sesilia really wanted to snap back at him. Usually she was the type to pick fights with heaven and earth, temper explosive like chili peppers; if a stray dog dared bark at her, she’d chase it down three streets just to give it a kick. But faced with a Devil far above a Holy Sanctuary Mage, she chose to play it safe: "I-Is that... very important?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Very important to me, and to you as well." Ash extended a finger and pressed it to her forehead. "Talk."

As if some switch had been flipped, Sesilia honestly confessed the origin of the Sun Technique Spirit. The words bypassed her brain and came straight out of her throat, with zero embellishment or concealment. The Sun Technique Spirit obviously wasn’t Sesilia’s property; how could a Silver Mage like her have any channel to obtain a time-type Technique Spirit? But it wasn’t exactly ill-gotten gains either—Messenger Agency had ambushed five teams from Sand Fire Agency, and the team Sesilia hit just happened to be carrying a Sun Technique Spirit. She found it, claimed it as her own, immediately left the team, and rushed to Azura to make a deal with the Devil.

On the surface Sand Fire Agency sounded like the victim, but the problem was Sand Fire Agency was itself the "Nightblade God" of Gospel’s underworld—specializing in raiding other agencies’ teams and looting resources, purely a bandit gang made up of Evil Mages. Compared to Sand Fire, even a violent group like Messenger, who worked in the gray zone, seemed much more by-the-book—they at least put effort into running legitimate mage business.

"Why call them Nightblade God?" Ash cut in.

Sesilia: "Because the original, and also biggest, Evil Mage agency was called Nightblade God. They almost swept through the entire underworld. It’s said they had several Holy Sanctuary Mages sitting in town, and basically no other agency dared provoke them. But a month ago the government finally cracked down, and the moment they struck, Nightblade God was wiped out. The members who survived by sheer luck came crawling back from the ashes, opened a ton of small agencies and kept doing black-on-black raids. So we just default to calling that kind of bandit agency ’Nightblade God.’"

Ash listened in amazement. Dazzling Star had only opened the Permanent Void Gate connecting the five nations around four months ago, and in that short a time Gospel’s underworld had already gone through the rise and collapse of a major criminal power, even spawning industry jargon like "Nightblade God"... Give them a little sunshine and they blaze, give them a little river water and they flood; Life really does find its way.

The Sun Technique Spirit was, without question, something Sand Fire Agency had robbed off someone else. Then Messenger Agency robbed Sand Fire, then Sesilia betrayed Messenger. In short, it was black eating black in a matryoshka-doll chain.

Only after she finished talking did Sesilia realize her mind had just been toyed with in the palm of his hand. Terrified, her metal arm trembled, grinding out a squeaking sound. "I-I’ll give you the Sun Technique Spirit, can you let me go then?"

"Relax. Even though the Sun Technique Spirit didn’t come to you through proper channels, it still barely counts as your spoils." Ash pointed to Gregory, whose eyes had been pierced through beside them. "At least you’re not like them, bullying the weak just because you can."

In fact, Ash and his people had never intended to stir up any Devil rumors. They were merely lying low in Azura to recover from their injuries. But since they needed to collect Sun Technique Spirits and were too lazy to run all over the place, they released the news that anyone with a Sun Technique Spirit could come trade with them. After a few rounds of telephone, this somehow turned into "a Devil who can grant any wish." The fact that this sparked endless bloodshed outside was one thing; now there were even Holy Sanctuary Mages who, just to trade with them, were going all out to seize every Sun Technique Spirit entering Azura, trying to monopolize the market to "reach the Devil," as if they were some kind of Void Realm mechanism.

Ash couldn’t help recalling a "farmer hypothesis" he’d heard before: the farmer goes to feed the chickens every afternoon, so the chickens conclude that feed will naturally fall from the sky every afternoon.

This was exactly the sort of situation Divine Lords often encountered: some casually mentioned need of Theirs would be seen by countless people as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Legendary Holy Domains would race one another to treat it as their life’s work. Years later, the Divine Lord might have already forgotten that passing whim, yet the impact would be carved deep into social culture, becoming some unfathomable historical tradition or cultural custom.

Sesilia also remembered the infamous Holy Sanctuary Mage standing right beside her. Her eyes rolled, and she cautiously asked, "He offended you this badly, and you’re satisfied with just stabbing through his eyes?"