The Sorcerer's Handbook

"A Divine Spirit?! That's impossible!"

While the "irredeemable murderers" hid in their tunnels watching the ranking, countless others across the kingdom were just as intently keeping a close eye on what fate awaited them.

***

In Montphera, one of the ten major cities of the Gospel Kingdom.

Like Azura, Montphera had completed its second-layer expansion, with inverted skyscrapers standing in dense formation. Unlike other cities, however, Montphera's second layer was not a public urban space. It was private territory belonging entirely to the elite families.

A single family here owned nearly five hundred thousand hectares of private land. Through the sheer power of Miracles, the private estate contained entire ecosystems, including lush forests, pristine pools, winter snowscapes, shifting lava fields, ancient graveyards, seas of clouds, and even miniature versions of hell itself.

The most absurd creation was the so-called Sea of Knowledge of Montphera, a mist-shrouded sea at the center of the garden where exotic Knowledge Creatures, such as Fish-Slaying Dragons, were raised. These creatures dropped no loot when killed and would vanish into thin air the moment they left the mist. They were purely ornamental, nothing more than living toys for the family's amusement.

The actual family members residing within could be counted on one hand, yet the maintenance of this private paradise required eighty thousand servants.

In the central manor overlooking the entire estate, a girl named Evelyn lay on her bed in her nightdress, idly swinging her legs. She opened one eye and stared intently at the Book of Gospel, her lips pressed tight with gravity.

For the ignorant, ignorance was bliss. But precisely because Evelyn understood the immense implications of the recording, she, like many others, could not remain calm.

Her family possessed wealth spanning an entire city, but in the face of a legendary Divine Spirit, they were nothing more than dust to be wiped away with a single gesture. According to ancestral records, Divine Spirits and spirits were fundamentally different existences. If spirits represented technology, then Divine Spirits were the manifestation of truth itself.

Every Divine Spirit possessed the power to distort reality, overturn laws, and rewrite the core parameters of the world. They were, in fact, walking natural laws. Wounding one could trigger continental disasters, while destroying one could destabilize reality itself.

The power of a Divine Spirit far surpassed the control of Legendary sorcerers. A mortal soul simply could not contain such authority. Only beings whose life forms had evolved to a higher plane, those who had ignited the divine flame of the soul and ascended to the highest layers of the Virtual World, like Angels or Divine Lords, were qualified to wield a Divine Spirit and command truth.

As she watched the countdown to the reward reveal, Evelyn felt her chest tighten.

If the Book of Gospel truly granted that Divine Spirit to Archibald Harvey, she was certain the entire Gospel Kingdom would immediately abandon their hunt for him. The Red Hats would stand down, and even the imperial family would revoke his bounty.

Ordinary people viewed Divine Spirits as nothing special, believing that with enough cannons and numbers, even deities could be bled. Among sorcerers, this hubris was even more common. In fact, the most elite, high-end discussion group within the Gospel's Curtain was proudly named the Omniscient Weaver Assassination Society.

It was a natural delusion. Under the stagnant peace of the Gospel, mortals rarely witnessed true Divine Miracles. Sorcerers failed to comprehend the chasm between themselves and Divine Lords. Even Legendary sorcerers tended to underestimate them. After all, from their perspective, if a Legendary sorcerer could destroy a city, then a Divine Lord could, at most, destroy a nation.

Only the families possessing angelic inheritances understood that the elevation of life was not a matter of quantity, but a qualitative transformation. The strongest Miracles of a Legendary sorcerer could not even scratch an Angel's defenses, while the weakest divine technique of an Angel could effortlessly crush a mortal's dignity.

To put it simply, Legendary sorcerers were like figures inside a painting, fighting one another with brushes and paint within the confines of the canvas. Angels, by contrast, stood completely outside the painting. They only needed to reach in to tear the entire world apart.

The phantom in the recording was not even a full Angel. It was merely the fading embers left behind by one, its strength perhaps not even a ten-thousandth of its former glory. Even so, its methods far surpassed standard Miracles, and ordinary Legendary sorcerers would have had no way to resist its erosion.

Harvey had only succeeded because he happened to be a specialized necromancer with the perfect countermeasures, allowing him to stage an epic reversal and completely bury the ancient Angel's chance at rebirth.

If Harvey obtained a Divine Spirit, even if he could only wield one percent of its authority, it would be enough to overturn the entire Gospel Kingdom. If that Divine Spirit possessed defensive properties, no Legendary sorcerer would ever break through it. Cannon fire, heavy bombardment, and area-level strikes would amount to nothing more than a tickle. If it possessed offensive power, then no matter how many protective Miracles a sorcerer stacked, they would be chopped through like layers of wet paper. Fortresses, no matter how reinforced, would be as fragile as building blocks.

Unless one fully understood a Divine Spirit's exact abilities and weaknesses, no one would willingly offend a near-divine existence.

Perhaps answering the silent prayers of countless terrified nobles, the Book of Gospel finally updated.

[Archibald Harvey receives the reward Ghost King Shackles.]

Ghost King Shackles

- Allows the sorcerer to freely shift between ten distinct undead forms: Mist Spirit, Machine Spirit, Soul Spirit, Shadow Spirit... Death Knight, Dragon Lich, Blood Moon Corpse King.

Constraint: The sorcerer must fully master the profound knowledge of each undead form in sequence before unlocking the next.

Current Unlocked Form: Mist Spirit.

Phew.

It felt to Evelyn as if the entire Gospel Kingdom had collectively exhaled a sigh of relief.

As long as it wasn't a Divine Spirit, everyone could accept it. Besides, this reward wasn't particularly valuable. In Evelyn's judgment, aside from the Death Knights, Dragon Liches, and Blood Moon Corpse Kings, the lower-tier undead units possessed at most Tier-Two combat power. Yes, they had their own unique traits, but those were barely enough to threaten a Three-Winged sorcerer. In other words, for a long time to come, the necromancer who sought to bury the entire Gospel Kingdom would lack the strength to overpower a Sacred Realm sorcerer.

In retrospect, it actually made sense that the Gospel would not bestow a Divine Spirit as a reward. The ancestral records stated clearly that every Divine Spirit was unique. Since the coffin-bound Divine Spirit within the Evil Soul path already existed, even the Gospel itself could not possibly fabricate a second, identical one.

Still, Evelyn knew the other families would now lose sleep over this.

If the Gospel had directly granted a Divine Spirit, there would be nothing more to say. Everyone could simply enjoy their final few years of life. If it had granted a fully realized Blood Moon Corpse King, most families would likely have backed off as well, since the Corpse King alone represented Legendary-level combat power.

While it was possible to besiege a Legendary sorcerer, the cost would be far too great, so immense that no single family could bear it. The financial conglomerates, skilled in internal politics but utterly inept at external warfare, would likely stand on the sidelines and let the imperial family and the Red Hats handle the mess.

However, the Gospel had instead granted a "Blood Moon Corpse King that still required a long time to unlock." This meant the financial families would all foolishly believe they held the advantage.

The Woven Festival never lied. Capturing Harvey meant obtaining the key to inheriting an angelic legacy. No organization could possibly resist such a temptation.

Yet, if they failed to capture Harvey while thoroughly offending him to the point of death in the process... well, then congratulations. They would become the historical joke of the ten great families for the next fifty years.

To act or not to act. Either way, sleep was out of the question. If they hesitated, they would lie awake in regret. If they moved, anxiety would keep them up. Hearing of a rival's move would leave them tossing and turning. And if they finally committed to the hunt... well, they would never sleep again. Still...

Evelyn sighed. Other families at least enjoyed the luxury of hesitation and wavering, but her family had only ever had one choice from the very beginning.

Allow me this night to play an old role,

Let me happily reenact a beautiful story,

My lord~

Her communication ring chimed sharply. The caller ID indicated the Bluebeard headquarters.

Evelyn frowned slightly and connected the call. "What happened?"

"Six individuals have suddenly appeared in Deep Abyss Zone Three," the voice on the other end reported rapidly. "No movement traces. They likely crossed over through a deep abyss passage."

"A deep abyss passage? At a time like this?"

If she hadn't recently ventured into the abyss for training herself, Evelyn might not have even recalled the mechanics of abyss passages. Ordinary people would never use them as an alternative route. The abyss of the Gospel Kingdom was notoriously unstable, and the only stable terrain was Vanmura...

Vanmura... an abyss passage... at this precise moment...

Evelyn quickly checked Vanmura's status through the Book of Gospel, and the origin of these little rats clicked instantly.

"Keep this information completely classified. Block all Red Hat intelligence channels. Assemble the Bluebeards and seal off the abyss immediately!"