Mage Manual-Chapter 1479 - 1079: Ash and Vishi

The largest commercial center in Jiale City, in the underground tunnels of Sunset Hall, Vishi walked gracefully through the crowd.

Sunset Hall is undoubtedly a public place equipped with timely heating facilities, where you can feel the nearly embracing warmth even when passing by the street shops. On one side is a cold home, on the other is an entertainment center with everything for eating, drinking, and playing. Any normal person who doesn’t have to work knows where to go. In this period, the turnover of Sunset Hall has multiplied nearly ten times. Originally, the business hours were from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., but now they have become 24-hour non-stop, significantly raising the per capita consumption level of Jiale City.

Whether it’s families shopping, couples dating, or friends hanging out in twos and threes, the underground tunnels are crowded with people heads jostling. Walking alone in it, the pink-haired maid is so conspicuous. Yet no one’s gaze lingers on her for a moment; she seems to walk the earth like a ghost, coldly scrutinizing the masses, arrogantly distancing herself from the crowd.

This is the special use of the "Wonder · Soul Scream Wave," releasing a weak ultrasonic field that makes all surrounding living beings ignore her existence. But this is after all an aggressive wonder; if mortals are long exposed to the ultrasonic field, their souls may weaken at best, or their spirits may become deranged at worst.

Vishi casually scanned the surrounding environment, occasionally reaching out to take whatever she wanted since no one noticed her—though she wouldn’t mind being noticed—but at heart she looked down on Dazzling Star’s crafts, only occasionally picking up some candies from sweets shops to taste, though even if she found them delicious, she wouldn’t carry any away.

She had no one to share with and didn’t want anyone to know her preferences... Exposing her likes and dislikes was to Vishi more serious than being naked.

She has always been a killing ghost hiding in the shadows, satisfied with the masses fearing her like fearing the unpredictable disaster. Unlike most people’s perception, Vishi does not enjoy fighting, much like the tyrant does not enjoy fighting; she enjoys trampling, plundering, and dominating.

"Soul Refining" is not only her cultivation method but also her code of conduct, for only by maintaining such cruel and violent style can she achieve the effect of ’slaughter one city to subdue ten cities,’ using fear to control the souls of millions.

But demons must be unknown and mysterious, once discovered to have joys and sorrows, they are no longer the unpredictable disaster but just a calculable mage.

However, upon seeing the cotton candy in her hand, Vishi thought for a moment and stuffed a handful into her pocket, walking briskly out of the candy shop.

As long as she finished eating before going back, she thought, tearing open a piece of cotton candy and savoring its soft burst of sweetness.

"You haven’t paid yet."

Vishi suddenly turned her head, seeing Ash appear behind her. She quickly hid her snacks, even swallowing the cotton candy in her mouth directly. Ash chuckled at this: "I’m not stealing your... hurry up."

Looking at Ash’s open palm, Vishi was somewhat puzzled: "Hurry what?"

"I didn’t bring money out!" Ash said matter-of-factly, "Give me the money, I’ll go pay."

"Idiot."

"Uh?!"

"I meant master you are very handsome." Vishi gave him a silver coin, "Here, there’s extra too."

Ash went into the candy shop and came out with pockets full of cotton candy.

Since she was already exposed, it didn’t matter anymore, Vishi took some from his pocket, "I thought you would just leave the silver coin and go."

"I’m not an idiot, if I pay I’d naturally take the stuff, I just paid for yours too."

"What did you tell the shopkeeper?"

"Just said my maid was hungry and snitched some stuff." Ash gave her a look, "Were you using a wonder?"

"Yes, it has an invisibility effect."

"I wasn’t invisible, why were you invisible?" Ash opened the cotton candy wrapper, munching as he spoke, "You make me look silly like I’m talking to thin air."

Vishi glared at him, her gaze shifting helplessly towards her master. She turned the packaging in her hand into ashes and lifted the "Soul Scream Wave," quickly allowing passersby to discover a super seductive and cute pink-haired maid suddenly appeared in the tunnels.

These sight lines of admiration without fear made Vishi somewhat annoyed, so she leaned slightly closer to Ash, those eyes turned twisting jealous and envious, fiercely entwining Ash as if wishing to replace him.

If it’s just having a girlfriend then fine, if the girlfriend is a beauty then fine, but the trouble is a beauty in a maid outfit accompanying you shopping—Beauty willing to play a master-servant game, treating you as master-serving, what better evidence is there of her completely falling for you?

Ash looked somewhat pityingly at these friends jealous of him, they only saw the surface, unsuspecting of the truth, if they knew this wasn’t some game but a real master-servant dynamic; Vishi wasn’t just a simple maid but the legendary Ghost Prophet, they surely would—become super jealous?

"Why did you come here? This isn’t your search area... huh."

Vishi spoke, suddenly looking down at the ground, her tone somewhat surprised: "I only noticed now, is your Space faction realm way higher than mine?"

Ash was startled, then keenly detected the anomaly in the space ripples, discovering they had an additional twisted angle, indicating a source of space distortion nearby.

Permanent Space Gate!

No one would have imagined that Dazzling Star actually constructed a permanent space gate near a densely populated commercial center!

Ash couldn’t afford to stick to his original thoughts; the two of them snacked on cotton candy while trying to trace the origin of the ripples. When their pockets were emptied of cotton candy, they finally deduced the precise location of the space gate from the direction of the ripples—below!

"How do we get down there?"

"Follow me."

Vishi, in high-heeled boots, quickly led the way to the nearest fire escape and down to the parking garage on the basement second level. Here the space ripples were more pronounced, but there was still some distance from the source, and Ash judged from the change in the angle of the twists that the space gate was at least a hundred meters underground.

"Sky Gates are indeed more stable the deeper they are, but how did they dig an underground passage so quickly?" Ash was puzzled. "Even for an Earth Mage, such large-scale construction couldn’t possibly go unnoticed, especially with the Sunset Hall still operating normally."

"That suggests this isn’t a newly constructed underground facility," Vishi surveyed the parking garage: "It’s likely an abandoned Abyss."

"Abandoned Abyss?"

"Though there are endless abysses, most of them have an endpoint. Once the last layer of an abyss is breached, it temporarily becomes abandoned. If Mages can create another abyss before the abandoned abyss resumes normal operation, the old abyss will fall into permanent silence."

Vishi explained, "Though not common, abandoned abysses aren’t particularly rare. They have existed throughout history because some abysses are situated in strategically important locations. Those must be forcibly breached to halt their operation, and new abysses are opened around them. Since the total count of abysses is limited by the number of mages, once new abysses are born, old ones often lose their energy and become abandoned."

It’s like a company with limited budget; when a new project starts, the old project can only operate in a semi-alive state... Ash nodded, then asked, "So although the abyss is formed by Mages, what’s the relationship between them?"

"You could write hundreds of pages on that topic. Save it for halftime discussions with the Sword Maiden and the others." Vishi squatted down to touch the granite-hardened floor of the garage, glanced around, and headed to the darkest corner of the garage.

Ash followed and immediately noticed the anomaly: a dust-covered regular car in the corner. But this is a commercial center parking lot, with no dedicated parking spaces. The car was so dusty that the parking fee might have exceeded its value.

"This is a placeholder car," Ash turned his head and found Vishi looking at a concrete pillar not covered by the light, "Is it inside?"

Vishi tapped the concrete pillar, producing a crisp sound. She nodded thoughtfully, grabbed Ash’s wrist, "Close your eyes and follow me."

Ash obliged and suddenly felt a strong pull on his wrist, yanking him forward. He remembered the concrete pillar was ahead, and if he recklessly crashed into it—

But not only did he not stop, he accelerated, suppressing his body’s instinctive crisis response, eyes shut tightly as he charged!

Smack.

He did collide, but not with the solid concrete—rather, he hit a soft body. Ash opened his eyes to find a pink-haired maid in twin braids pinned against the wall, looking at him as if he were an idiot.

"I don’t mind if you suddenly unleash your beastly nature," she pointed upwards to the right, "But there’s a surveillance camera there, you know."

They were in a circular enclosed space, right next to an alloy elevator door. Ash was startled, but Vishi tilted her head slightly, a faint smile playing on her lips, "But my Technique Spirit is constantly interfering with all the electronics around us, so no one will see. Master, you can continue."

Ash turned to look at the spot where they had entered, finding only a blocked wall, perplexed, "We didn’t use Miracle, how did we get through the wall?"

"This is a permanent Barrier Miracle with pass-through conditions," Vishi said: "As long as you close your eyes and rush through at high speed, the wall allows passage. If you open your eyes or slowly tap it, it only behaves like a concrete pillar."

"Not especially sophisticated as far as Barriers go, but certainly practical for secret entrances and exits."

Vishi approached the elevator door, inspecting the fingerprint and iris scanning equipment next to it. After a moment, she shook her head, "No way to go down using normal methods."

"We could wait for someone else to come along and coerce them to open it—"

"A hidden facility like this would never rely on fingerprints or irises for identity verification. Too easy to fake." Vishi shook her head, "This is just a decoy for the unimportant. If I’m not mistaken, the real verification is inside the elevator, probably detecting our magic power signatures. Each person’s magic power is unique and can’t be disguised. If all entering individuals are mages, then magic power signature is the safest verification method."

"Should we call the Silver Lamp Witch and the others to help?"

"No need," Vishi said, "I can take you in right now... follow me!"