The moment we stepped into the Soulless Sanctuary, that strange tingle sharpened like a needle in the skin, and the air hung heavy with a blood-reek like rusted fog. Everywhere lay people torn and bandaged like wreckage after a storm, and corpses lay strewn like fallen leaves.
A chill crawled up my back; this place felt wrong, like a shrine turned grave. That pitch-black passage into the depths gaped like a maw to hell.
People on both sides started to crowd in like gulls toward a scrap of bread. Qianji Sister named our identity, and they parted like a tide drawing back, heads bowed like wheat under wind.
“Ugh, staying in here feels awful. The air and the place both make me sick.” Disgust pricked first; Lingxiao wrinkled her fine brows, voice thin as a cold draft. Most girls would hate a scene ripped from a ghost story.
“Same. This place is the worst,” Lingsaki said, eyes skimming the hall like a lantern tracing grime, her face twisted in disdain.
Oppression pressed like a stone lid; as she spoke, Lixue tightened her grip on her twin swords as if holding to two slivers of moonlight.
“The Soulless Sanctuary’s worse than we thought,” I said, the words tasting like iron dust.
“Yeah. I thought we could handle it easy, but this spells big trouble,” Heartvoice said, and Celia Maya nodded, both studying the map like a thorny web. “The terrain is a maze, traps lie like buried fangs, and Law Realm undead guard the paths.”
“By the way, didn’t the Dragon God and the Elven Queen come?” The thought flickered like a spark; Heartvoice said they wanted to probe this place at Saint Cole’s request, and the Elven Kind were in the same boat.
“The world’s turned choppy again since the Soulless Sanctuary rose from the sea,” Aunt Saintvoice answered, voice steady like a lighthouse in squall. “So the apex of the four races have to sit their own realms and keep watch.”
She smiled thinly, like a blade kept sheathed. “Besides, a small Soulless Sanctuary is well within our grip. Law Realm undead, no matter how strong, are mindless beasts. They can’t compare to us. And there are only thirty in here.”
“Saintvoice, what weird place have you wandered into this time… huh? Isn’t this the Soulless Sanctuary? Why’d you come to a haunted pit like this?”
“It really is! You should get out quick!”
Their voices chimed like silver bells, and two tiny, absurdly cute sprites popped into the air before Aunt Saintvoice like fireflies from a fold of night. Their pressure hit like a hidden tide; sensing with my Sword Intent, I realized with a shock they were stronger than Heartvoice.
“We’ve got several at the Law Realm,” Aunt Saintvoice said, puzzled brushing her brow like a passing cloud. “With you two, Wansheng and Wanling, we should be fine, right?” She gave us a quick introduction.
So they were the artifact spirits of the Allsaints Spirit Staff—like Xinuo made flesh from song—and both stood at the Zenith of the Law Realm, power coiled like a coiled dragon in a teacup.
After all, the Allsaints Spirit Staff was a Semi Origin Artifact forged by an Origin Realm existence. From Wansheng and Wanling’s aura alone, you could tell it was top-tier, like jade cut from the heart of a mountain.
They rarely showed themselves for a simple reason—they had no bodies, so manifesting burned energy like a furnace eating coal, the kind you fed with Supreme Divine Spirit Medicine or a Supreme Divine Elixir.
Keeping them present for a day would drain two or three bottles like rain down sand, and even Aunt Saintvoice felt that was wasteful, so they usually stayed housed inside the Allsaints Spirit Staff like swallows in a warm eave.
The staff itself carried a pocket world, a small, self-contained sky where the living was lush as spring.
“Ah, the Soulless Sanctuary isn’t as simple as it looks,” Wansheng said, her tone crisp as a bell over ice. “The undead are nothing—small fry you can flick aside. The real issue is what’s sealed at the deepest point.”
At that, Aunt Saintvoice leaned in like a flame to oil, and we all fixed on Wansheng and Wanling, curiosity rising like mist. As artifact spirits who’d seen years pass like migrating geese, they had to know what we didn’t.
“We aren’t exactly sure either.” Wansheng paused, traded a glance with Wanling like two stars crossing, then swept the area with her gaze and cast an isolation barrier, a thin skin of light pooling like still water.
“When our Master taught us, she also told us little secret histories of the world,” she said softly, “and that included the Soulless Sanctuary.”
“By ‘Master,’ who do you mean?” Curiosity tugged at me like a thread; how many wielders had the Allsaints Spirit Staff seen, and which one told them these tales?
As if reading my mind, Wanling smiled, a petal-turn of lips. “The Allsaints Spirit Staff has only had two Masters. The first is the great existence who created the Allsaints Spirit Medicine—our true Master. The second is Saintvoice.”
“I see. Then how did Aunt Saintvoice come to have the staff?” I asked, interest catching like a fishhook. “It’s not like some ancient relic left behind after the previous era.”
“We don’t know,” Wanling said, voice helpless as a sighing reed. “We only know our Master always carried the staff. After the Mizumi Clan was founded, Master suddenly left it in a ruin somewhere on the Central Continent, and then… she vanished like dew at dawn. No word since.” Their expressions turned wistful, missing her like a lamp misses night.
“So which Origin Realm existence is your Master?” Even Aunt Saintvoice’s curiosity stirred like wind through chimes.
“That’s inconvenient to say. When fate ripens, you’ll meet her,” Wansheng said, then added, “But we can tell you one thing.”
She gathered her thoughts like gathering silk. “Master seems to be the founder of magic.”
“Founder?” The word hit like thunder behind cloud; for a beat, we all froze.
“Mhm. Master is the progenitor of all mages in this world.” Wansheng and Wanling smiled, pride blooming on their small faces like sunrise on snow. With a Master like that, who wouldn’t be proud?
“The progenitor of magic… sounds even stronger than my teacher,” Lixue murmured, awe flickering like moonlight on ice.
Lixue, that’s what you took from this? I could only groan inwardly, though all I knew of FrostyLily Dream was that she stood at the Origin Realm and taught Lixue.
“Of course… wait. Your swords…” Mid-sentence, Wansheng and Wanling’s gazes snagged on the twin blades in Lixue’s hands, and they darted over like swallows to a branch, peering close.
“It’s an Origin Artifact, for sure! Didn’t expect to see Ice Illusion Moon here—just as beautiful as the legends say.” Their eyes glittered like stars. “Your name’s Tianyu Lixue, right? Could your teacher be Lord FrostyLily Dream?!”
