According to Ash and Sonia's situation, asking the golden fish is undoubtedly the most cost-effective option.
Although they lack magic spirits, it is impossible for Destiny Answer to directly throw out a magic spirit. This is a question and answer system, not a wish-making machine.
Miracles, they are not short of this, and judging from the number of their answers, the Void Realm will most likely not answer with a detailed miracle formula, and at most will point out a specific direction for miracle research for them.
As for how to quickly improve the realm of magic factions, the fastest way must be to eat experience beads, and the source of experience beads is knowledge creatures. The virtual realm can at most point out where there are suitable knowledge creatures for them, and it is impossible to directly take out a bead from the body of a knowledge creature and give it to them.
After much thought, the three factors of magic spirit, miracle, and faction realm only serve to add icing on the cake. What really determines the magician's combat effectiveness must be the number of virtual wings and the level of magic power!
As long as you are promoted to the second wing, you can adventure in the time continent and obtain the second wing magic spirit!
As long as you advance to the second wing, your magical power will continue to grow!
As long as he is promoted to the second wing, Ash can use his golden magic power to fully activate the second-wing magic spirit "Earth Sword", greatly improving the defense of the miracle "Sword Body Barrier", and then escaping from prison will be more secure!
Isn't it because Ash was so eager to raise Sword Princess's swordsmanship to the gold level that he hoped she would take him to the Time Continent after she was promoted to the second wing? Now there is a better chance to sneak across!
However, if you ask directly about the situation of the golden fish, Xu Jing will definitely not be able to give a very detailed answer.
However, there is an obvious loophole in the fate question and answer: no matter how many correct answers the magician gives, if the questions raised by the magician are judgments of right and wrong, then the virtual realm will definitely give the correct answer!
For example, a magician encounters a bottleneck while researching a miracle magician. After trying all possible methods, only two research directions, A and B, remain. Then he asks the virtual world whether direction A is correct. The virtual world can only answer "yes" or "no", so it naturally knows whether direction B is correct or not.
If you are a master of logic, you can even construct a complex true or false question to let the virtual world eliminate multiple doubts for you.
For example, Ash is daydreaming and asking, 'One day ten years from now, when I wake up, will I see Fiora sleeping next to me?' The key elements are 'One day ten years from now,' 'wake up', and 'Fiora sleeping next to me'.
'Waking up' is a necessary element, Ash can't stay in the virtual world every night, sleeping in is a luxurious and wonderful enjoyment, Ash must experience it occasionally.
And 'Sword Princess sleeping next to him' is a controllable factor. Ash can completely remember this and ask her to act out and sleep next to him in the future.
The only thing that is uncontrollable is 'one day ten years later'.
If the answer from the virtual world is "yes", then there is nothing to say. Ash can just confidently call Fiora his wife.
If the answer is 'no', there are two possibilities. Either Ash had already broken up with Sword Lady at that time, so Sword Lady refused to even act; or the virtual world believed that Ash would not live ten years later.
Therefore, when the virtual world is stingy with the quality of answers, asking true or false questions is the most cost-effective option, at least you won’t get invalid information.
After a brief discussion, the two of them decided to ask different questions to the virtual world one after another:
"Does one need to go through a specific ritual to see the golden fish?"
Questions like "Where is the golden fish?" and "How can I find the golden fish?" will never get a detailed answer. The virtual world will most likely answer with correct nonsense such as "In the Sea of Knowledge" and "Find it with your eyes."
These two questions actually stem from the conjectures of Ash and Sonia. Sonia had asked Professor Trozan that the Time Continent was also a very vast place, not much smaller than the Sea of Knowledge. Logically, since the Time Continent was so large, the golden fish must also be very huge, but why couldn't the magicians see the golden fish in the Sea of Knowledge
With the two previous examples of "The Secret Poison of Whirlpool" and "The Secret Poison of Expulsion", they naturally thought that the golden fish might not exist in the sea of knowledge. Only when the magician activates the virtual realm mechanism through a specific ceremony, the golden fish will appear in front of the magician.
But the answer surprised them: "No."
The golden fish can be seen without any special rituals? Does that mean the golden fish also exist in the sea of knowledge at this moment
After a brief discussion, they asked the second question:
"When will the golden fish float up from the bottom of the sea?"
In any case, Ash and Sonia were certain that it would be impossible to encounter golden fish during normal sailing. After all, even Ash, who had the "Virtual Realm Map" in his hand, had never seen the golden fish, let alone other magicians.
Since it was not at sea, it must have sunk under the sea. In addition, the golden fish did not require a specific ritual to be seen, so they guessed that the golden fish might periodically float from the deep sea to the surface, so they directly asked the golden fish when it would float up, and then try their luck to find it.
Because it was not a true or false question, they were very nervous about whether Xu Jing would give some random answers.
The result still surprised them: "The golden fish kept floating on the sea surface."
The golden fish always floats on the sea surface and can be seen without any special rituals
Although this conclusion was completely contrary to Ash and Sonia's experience in exploring the virtual world, they had to believe it. If the "future" mentioned in the fate answer might not happen, the golden fish they asked about was information that the virtual world must have, and the virtual world was the authority in this regard!
"Is it really because we are unlucky that we haven't encountered any golden fish?"
Although it was unbelievable, Ash could only accept this conclusion. At this time, the paper turned into smoke and dissipated, and their chairs suddenly disappeared, causing them to almost sit on the ground.
Back on the boat, watching the island of destiny sink, Sonia said sadly, "I feel so bad. I didn't get any useful information at all."
"At least I know I can escape from the Blood Moon Kingdom alive." Ash looked relaxed. In his opinion, the fate question was an opportunity that came for free. It would be great if there was something to gain, but if there was nothing to gain, it would just be an eye-opener: "And in the future, I will break up with you for various reasons, and then I will get back together with you for some other reasons—"
"When we experience the Question of Fate, the future may not necessarily happen!" Sonia glared at him. "And there has always been a saying that many prophecies in the Question of Fate did not come true, but the people who knew about it died before the prophecies came true, so no one knew about these invalid prophecies, and naturally there was no record of them."
"If you die, I will report this valuable case of fate quiz to the school, maybe I can earn some credits..."
The survivor theory is okay... Ash spread his hands: "So do you hope the prophecy comes true, or do you hope the prophecy doesn't come true?"
Sonia snorted and said, "I only believe in prophecies that are favorable to me. Those that are not favorable to me are all lies."
"As expected of you."
"how about you?"
"As for me, how should I put it... I don't care about the prophecy itself, but I am looking forward to the confrontation between the prophecy and me."
"Duel? What do you mean?"
"Well, let me think about how to tell you... Sword Princess, do you think that you now and you thirty years from now will be the same in terms of personality, values, ideals, habits, etc.?"
Sonia thought about it and shook her head: "Should it be different? I'm not even 20 years old now. Thirty years is longer than the time from my birth to now. A lot of changes will definitely happen."
Ash nodded. "Then if the soul of you thirty years from now suddenly occupies your current body, can it be considered that you thirty years from now killed your current body?"
Sonia frowned slightly, looking a little uneasy: "Is this okay?"
"If you extend the 'occupation process' to thirty years, and you know through the prophecy that thirty years from now there will be a Sword Princess who is completely different from you in every aspect, and you still inevitably become the Sword Princess in the prophecy, can it be considered that the Sword Princess in the prophecy will slowly kill you over the course of thirty years?"
“…No one would think that, generally speaking.”
"But don't you think it's interesting?" Ash spread his hands. "It would be fine if you didn't know the prophecy, but now that you know the prophecy, it's like a 'future you' has appeared. Only one of you can survive. Either he kills you, or you kill him. There is no other possibility."
"The only difference between 'prophecy' and 'occupation' is the length of time. 'Occupation' is a moment, so you think it was the 'future sword princess' who killed the 'present self', while 'prophecy' is a long day and night, and the 'future you' uses time to carve the 'present you' into your own image."
Sonia's lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something but didn't, as if she was thinking about how to refute. And Ash then asked:
"Have you ever heard of that game where a kid writes a letter to their grown-up self?"
“I’ve heard it, and I’ve written about it.”
"Do you think that when an adult sees that letter, will he think it is a will?"
"Why do you think so?"
"Because they are completely different people, with completely different thoughts, habits, values, and ideals, yet they once lived in the same body. Isn't it the latter who killed the former?"
Sonia shook her head repeatedly: "But they are the same person continuously. This kind of change is called growth, not occupation!"
Ash smiled and said, "When a child writes a letter, it is equivalent to freezing him at this moment in the letter. The soul in the letter is separated from the continuous time and becomes an independent and unchanging individual."
"Isn't this very similar to a prophecy? A prophecy pulls your future self out from a certain point in time and shows it to you. Isn't that your future self writing a letter to your present self?"
“The self at a different time is not the same self.”
"So I don't care about the prophecy, but I am looking forward to the confrontation with the prophecy. Of course, things like me causing trouble for Xilin after escaping from prison are obviously not prophecies. But if we really break up in the future for those inexplicable reasons, it means that the observer in the prophecy killed me, and the sword lady in the prophecy killed you."
Ash suddenly pondered: "It's strange, why is love included in the reason for reconciliation, but emotional breakdown is not included in the reason for breakup? Could it be that love only sprouted after the breakup, and both parties realized that the other party was indispensable—"
Sonia came back to her senses, blushed and gritted her teeth and said, "That means it's not because of love at all, but because they got back together to resist a common crisis!"
"Okay, okay, don't worry."
"I'm not in a hurry!"
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. We should go kill a fish-slaying dragon to liven up the atmosphere."
After hunting two more knowledge creatures, not only did they not get any experience orbs, but Sonia was distracted and failed to intercept the escaping knowledge creatures. However, this kind of mistake was normal, and Ash didn't care. After saying goodbye, the two of them exited the virtual world at the same time.
... ...
...
After her consciousness returned to her body in the meditation room, Sonia took a long time to recover, and the words of the viewer kept echoing in her mind.
In fact, after they became closer, Sonia couldn’t help but wonder—was the viewer the powerful man she imagined resurrected
The main reason is that the viewer does not seem to be a legendary figure in any aspect. He does not pursue power, does not like to study, and even has no deep desires. If he were placed in Jianhua University, Sonia would not even look at this gray and inferior passerby with no potential.
But the viewer's words just now made Sonia realize that he was definitely not an ordinary person. Even if he was now, he would never be in the future.
Sonia had seen the madness wrapped in logic and the evil nature that was completely different from common sense many times in "Psychological Analysis of Criminals". Criminals are not all evil people, and many of them are even people who are content with a simple life and have families, but once their lives are broken unexpectedly, they will shed their "old self" like a cocoon turning into a butterfly, dare to trample on all the laws of the world, and chase the light in their hearts like moths to a flame.
She recalled the book's preface:
"They haven't changed, they've just woken up."