Sonia asked curiously, "What is your silver blessing?"
Ash was slightly startled and looked at his newly acquired blessing.
"Silver Blessing: Observer's Appearance: Your appearance is deceptive. Unless you do something unusual, others will subconsciously ignore your existence. In the virtual realm, this blessing is strengthened. Unless you have a close bond, others will not be able to see your appearance clearly."
"Can you see my face?"
Sonia was startled, "Now I can."
Ash blinked and briefly introduced: "My blessing is to make others ignore me when they see me... But I'm not a lurker, and I don't plan to rob the rich to help the poor in the future, so why give me this kind of blessing? This virtual world is really targeting me."
Sonia chuckled and said, "Or maybe the virtual world saw through your true nature..."
"Don't laugh. You should have sensed it too. We now have another secret poison."
When they saw the golden fish scales appear, a secret knowledge flowed into their minds.
"Golden Fish Secret Poison"
"Number of people infected with the secret poison: 14"
"Secret poison enhancement level: 14%"
"The current effect of the secret poison: You can convert silver mana into gold mana at a conversion ratio of 64:36. (If the enhancement level is reduced to 10%, it will gain a huge benefit, and if it reaches 51%, it will turn into a negative effect)."
It is natural that the secret poison of the golden fish is not widely spread. After all, it is not enough for Ash and the others to deduce the truth. They have to see the golden fish with their own eyes to be infected with the secret poison.
On the contrary, what surprised Ash was that there were 14 infected people. That is to say, in addition to them, there were six other pairs of people who smuggled from the Sea of Knowledge to the Continent of Time in the same way - but Ash was forming a team with cheats, while those people really met by chance!
"What a powerful secret poison." Sonia exclaimed, "I have never heard of a miracle that can convert magic power. Not to mention the exchange ratio of 2:1, it's not even 10:1!"
Generally speaking, silver magic power is silver magic power, and gold magic power is gold magic power. Low-level magic power will not be improved just because the magician climbs to a higher level of the virtual realm, because magic power is essentially the condensation of knowledge. Just like the addition and subtraction learned in the first grade of elementary school, it will not automatically become multiplication and division when you advance to the second grade.
Although low-level magic power can activate high-level magic spirits, and high-level magic power can also activate low-level magic spirits, the former is extremely inefficient and the latter is too wasteful. Therefore, in order to maximize the use of resources, magicians often activate magic power corresponding to the level of magic spirit.
However, as the magicians obtained more and more high-level magic spirits, there was naturally no need to use low-level magic spirits that could not keep up with the version, and the low-level magic power was also disliked.
Now Ash and Sonia don't have much demand for this secret poison, after all, they don't have many two-winged magic spirits, and silver magic power is enough. But when they update their magic spirits to the two-wing version, they will feel the preciousness of this secret poison - even if they face two-winged magicians with the same virtual realm progress, their mana bars will naturally be longer than others with the gold magic power converted from silver magic power!
"I drank with my senior, sneaked into the Time Continent, received the Silver Blessing, was infected with the secret poison of the golden fish, and..." Sonia's eyes quickly swept across Ash's face: "Tonight is a really lucky night."
"Tonight is not over yet. Let's explore the Time Continent while we still have time. Maybe we can find a wild two-winged magic spirit—"
“We’re running out of time,” Sonia said. “We’re dying.”
Ash was startled, and opened the "Virtual Realm Map", only to find that all 25 grids had the same prompt:
"Just wait to die. There's no hope."
"Didn't you notice my changes?" Sonia rolled her hair around her ears with her fingers. "My hair has turned black."
It wasn't just Sonia's hair. Ash looked around and found that the forest, which was a little green just now, had turned completely gray. Sonia had lost all color, like a character in a black and white movie.
He looked down at his hands. They were frighteningly white, without any flesh color at all.
"The magician chases the white bull not only to bathe in the golden rain, but also because time does not exist in the area outside the golden river." Sonia explained: "The golden river moves with the movement of the white bull. Therefore, if the magician fails to catch up with the white bull, he will fall into the 'quiet area' without time. The specific manifestation is that all colors are lost, and only black and white are left around."
"If we had just—"
"When I woke up, I saw that the surrounding grass and trees were stained with gray. This means that the surrounding Golden River has dried up. At that time, we are dead." Sonia shrugged: "It's useless even if we catch up. People can't catch up with time."
Ash asked, "What if we exit the Void Realm now?"
Sonia smiled and said, "There is a huge time difference between the Silent Realm and the outside world. Even though we have been talking for so long, it may take less than a few seconds for the outside world. It takes us 20 seconds to exit the virtual world in the outside world, but it may take several hours in the Silent Realm."
"Being trapped in a realm of silence and frozen in time is the second most common way for magicians to die. The first most common way to die is being drowned in the ocean of knowledge."
"So how long will it take for us to solidify?"
"The textbook says that if you don't run away and stay where you are, the delay will be about 10 minutes. I guess it won't be long."
Ash looked up at the sky and found that the golden rain was too far away to be seen, and the whole world turned into a dead black and white.
"Then will we come here again next time we enter the virtual world?"
"Yes. There is no way to go back to the Void Realm, and magicians are not allowed to go back. Even if I open the Gate of Truth of a Winged Magic Spirit, I will only come to the Continent of Time."
"That's good."
Ash stretched out on the lawn, pulled up a blade of grass and bit it, and surprisingly it tasted a bit sweet.
He suddenly thought of a question: "Will dying in the virtual world harm the soul...?"
Sonia nodded. "Yes, but we were neither defeated by the projection of the magician nor bitten to death by the knowledge creatures, so we will only suffer minor damage and will not lose our magic spirits. Before our souls are restored to their fullness, in addition to being unable to enter the realm of emptiness, we will all be a little depressed, unable to concentrate, drowsy, and our learning efficiency will decline."
"It sounds like he hasn't woken up yet... But not being able to enter the virtual world is a big problem..."
"Anyway, you won't be able to enter the virtual realm in the next few days, and I have no interest in exploring the Time Continent alone without you. I can just use this time to practice hard, consolidate my new knowledge, and master the new miracles. I've worked hard for half a month, and it's time to take a break."
"Rest... Come to think of it, I haven't slept for a long time. I feel a little sleepy now..."
Ash yawned and rubbed his eyes, and suddenly felt the back of his head being gently lifted up and placed on a soft and elastic place.
The gentle and soft song, like wind chimes, slowly sounded.
It is like the soft whisper of a lover in your ear, and also like the refreshing sound of ice cubes colliding in a cup in midsummer. It is pure but also a bit charming, graceful but also a bit seductive. Listening to it makes people gradually sleepy, relax their whole body, and feel dizzy as if in a dream.
When the heavenly sounds died down, Ash was still half asleep.
"This is the lullaby my mother sang to me when I was a little girl. You are the first person I ever heard sing it to."
Ash opened his eyes and saw Sword Princess lowering her head. Her smiling pupils seemed to add color to this black and white world.
"I'll wait for you in the virtual world."
The next second, they were frozen in time into a painting.