"Whether the main city of the Garden is taken down by the Spider Tower and the Oasis or not, the panic-stricken Garden Army is surely retracting its forces and would not dispatch Commanders to gather resources. This is our opportunity..."
Ash’s analysis was spot on; he followed the Garden’s map to scavenge resource points, which were filled with creatures yet to evacuate and a plethora of resources.
Moreover, he noticed that the resources in the Garden area were nearly two to three times that of other areas. There were two possibilities: either the Garden harvested resources at two to three times the cycle of other factions, resulting in piled-up resources; or the colonial creatures under the Garden’s control were two to three times more efficient in gathering, thus able to collect multiple times the resources in the same cycle.
After looting several resource points, the scales of truth gradually tipped towards the latter possibility.
Compared with colonial creatures from other areas, those in the Garden area didn’t show a clear enhancement in combat power, but their tactical insight and cooperative abilities far exceeded their counterparts. When Ash and his group tried to lure the colonial creatures into narrow terrain for an ambush, they instead hid in the mines and wouldn’t come out, even casting contemptuous glances at Ash, as if to say, ’How low are the tricks of beasts in comparison?’
Not only that, Ash also discovered that the mine tunnels in the Garden area were much more complex than those in other areas. They interconnected in all directions, and the group could easily be ambushed from every direction if they were not careful.
Although they were still victorious in the end, the danger level of these battles was several times more than at ordinary resource points. And keep in mind, they were three Mages who could defend in all directions back to back if necessary. If a solo Mage had challenged these resource points, they would’ve been overwhelmed and could even have been pummeled to death, their bodies torn apart and consumed by the creatures, taking at least half a year to heal their souls.
The most perilous moment came when, after Ash and his group had dispersed the creatures at the entrance and entered a side passage of a mine, the other colonial creatures actually tried to collapse the mine to bury them alive. If not for the Sword Maiden’s move "Blood Moon Shattered Lake" slicing straight through the debris, they likely would have met their demise within.
The intricate maze of tunnels could definitely not have been naturally formed. When Ash and his companions looked back, they could see the obvious marks of claws scraping the walls.
All signs indicated that the intelligence of the Garden area’s colonial creatures had become very close to that of a Mage. This intelligence could be applied to battle, and naturally, to production as well, which explained why the resource growth rate of the Garden area was several times that of other areas.
"...No wonder the ’Golden Rain Chronicles,’ ’The Second Secret Record,’ and ’Under the White Bull’ mention the hypothesis of ’Void Realm Civilization.’ They’ve most likely suffered heavy losses at the hands of Garden creatures, leading them to firmly believe that Void Realm creatures possess the intelligence to establish a civilization..."
While Sonia was confirming the connections between the Void Realm anecdotes and real information, she was also feeding ’Heartless Silver’ to the Slaughter Sword Technique Spirit. The Slaughter Technique Spirit was a dual-faction spirit of swordsmanship and psyche, with a ratio of about 6:4, so feeding it advanced psyche material ’Heartless Silver’ was also effective.
The red-dressed Technique Spirit with dual swords suddenly let out a burp, a second crimson wing sprouting from its back. A black and gold shoulder cloak was added to its red attire, and the dual swords morphed into more ferocious scimitars, its appearance shifting from a shady male to a delicate female.
"Slaughter Sword has evolved into Two-winged, huh." Sonia inspected the Technique Spirit before her and shook her head, "Not very like me, my eyes aren’t that cold."
Generally speaking, the original humanoid Technique Spirits independently summoned by a Mage are of the same gender as the summoner (exceptions for gender recognition errors exist), and would also feature traits of the summoner themselves.
When an external Technique Spirit evolves in the hands of a Mage, their appearance and gender will tend to converge towards that of the Mage. If a Technique Spirit continually evolves under Mages of different genders, then its gender might truly change back and forth.
"Congratulations, Sword Maiden!"
"Thank you," Sonia dismissed the Slaughter Sword and smiled warmly at them, "I’ve gathered all the essence I needed; I’ll go ahead and wait for you in the car."
Watching the Sword Maiden’s departing figure, Ash and Diya felt like adventurers witnessing a terrifying Evil Dragon falling into slumber, their heightened nerves finally allowed to relax as they let out a long sigh of relief.
They even felt their legs go weak, prompting them to lean against the wall and hide in a shadow that couldn’t be seen from outside.
Diya couldn’t help but ask, "Observer, do you have any clue why the Sword Maiden suddenly changed like that?"
"I’ve only met the Sword Maiden in the Void Realm the same as you have, so whatever clues you have, I have," Ash’s gaze flickered.
Diya did not suspect, although the Sword Maiden had suddenly become very intimidating, it wasn’t targeted at the Observer. And as the Observer said, they had only known each other in the Void Realm for a short time. Would she not have noticed if the Observer had angered the Sword Maiden? It couldn’t possibly be that the Observer had upset her in reality, could it?
"Then, Observer, do you have any solution?"
"I have a solution that will need your cooperation, Observer."
"Really!" Ash was so excited he wanted to grab the Witch’s shoulders, but he stopped himself halfway and said, "No problem, I’ll definitely cooperate!"
"Then there’s no issue," Diya said, "My plan is as follows. First, I’ll go sit in the front seat of the sports car."
"Then, you go sit in the backseat with the Sword Maiden."