Ash drove farther away and stopped by the Flowing Gold River, so if the Heroic Soul Army pursued them, they could cross the river to escape.
"Thanks for your hard work tonight," Ash sighed with relief and smiled, "Watching you cross the battlefield was nerve-wracking even for me."
"But we still lack a map," Sonia grumbled, hitting the seat with annoyance, "Just one map short..."
"Let’s divide the spoils first," Ash took out a Commander’s Handbook, "Who wants it?"
"Sword Maiden should take it!" Diya immediately said, "She was the most desperate just now, and without her slaying the Commander with one stroke, we would have got nothing."
Ash handed the Commander’s Handbook to Sonia, and the village girl’s face blushed slightly, "It was so dangerous just now; I had to give it my all."
"If you weren’t so desperate, maybe it wouldn’t have been so dangerous," Diya muttered.
While the Sword Maiden and Witch were teasing each other, Ash summoned his other spoil—a Soul Summoning Technique Spirit, each of its six crystal faces shimmering in different colors.
Though not all high-ranking soldiers were unlocked, Ash could arm the soldiers of any faction by himself. Star Hall’s blue soldiers, Blood Tomb’s red soldiers, Spider Tower’s purple soldiers, Garden’s orange soldiers, Oasis’s green soldiers, Li Yuan’s cyan soldiers...
The special mixed-color soldiers also upgraded to the "Six-colored Anchor."
"Six-colored Anchor: 6 layers of armor, 100% anchoring, each unit consumes 6 points of Soul Power."
100% anchoring meant that as long as they were armed with this soldier type, Ash and his companions would not suffer any external harm! However, at the same time, they could not affect the outside world either.
Using it to cross the Flowing Gold River was perfect, but to gain an advantage on the battlefield was beyond their reach, as the Heroic Soul Army also scavenged the battlefield. If not personally killing and seizing immediately, the Commander’s spoils would quickly be collected by other armies.
Ash looked at the Technique Spirit emitting six kinds of colorful light and suddenly had a strange idea, but he quickly dismissed it—it was only six-colored, not seven-colored.
Taking back the Technique Spirit, Ash opened the Void Realm Map and said, "Although we still lack one map, we already have five-sixths of it. If there’s any intelligence on the map, we should be able to discern it."
Sonia and Diya nodded, anxiously awaiting Ash’s discovery. Ash studied the map intently, and after a while, his eyebrows relaxed, and his lips curled slightly upward.
"Did you find anything?" Sonia asked cautiously, feeling hopeful.
Ash smiled at her, shaking his head, "No!"
"Then why are you looking so relaxed!?"
"What else should I do, look as if I have a deep grudge?" Ash spread his hands and said, "If the Seven-colored Tail was easy to find, then many Two-winged Mages wouldn’t be stuck in the Time Continent."
"Not finding any clues is actually normal. After all, Fate Q&A only told us to ’obtain the full map of the Time Continent,’ not that this would definitely lead to the Seven-colored Tail. It might help, but not directly," Ash said. "Ultimately, ascending to the Holy Domain through the Seven-colored Tail is not a proper path. We can hope for it, but we shouldn’t pin all our hopes on it."
"Everyone’s tired tonight. Let’s end here, since we’ve already unfolded our Golden Wings, and there’s no need to linger in the Time Continent—"
Sonia grabbed Ash’s hand, emphasizing each word, "We can’t give up yet."
Ash looked at her, smiling and nodding, "Alright, then we’ll continue searching for the Seven-colored Tail. Sword Maiden, you will surely achieve the Holy Domain."
"We will all become Holy Sanctuary Mages," Sonia turned to Diya, "Witch, do you remember those hypotheses about the Seven-colored Tail?"
"Of course, I remember all the Mages’ Handbooks I have read," Diya said, "The White Bull Hypothesis and the Seven Mages Hypothesis."
"The White Bull Hypothesis posits that the four legs of the White Bull are the channel for the Seven-colored Tail; the white light entering the prism will refract into seven colors, so a Mage’s soul entering the White Bull’s legs will refract out the Seven-colored Tail."
"The Seven Mages Hypothesis suggests that once seven pairs of Golden Wings are gathered, Mages will turn into seven drops of rain, falling upwards with the inverse Golden Rain to the Distant Realm, and the so-called Seven-colored Tail is actually the seven Mages."
Sonia said, "We can analyze these two hypotheses together with the clue given by the Void Realm—’obtain the full map of the Time Continent,’ and see if we can find any similarities."
After a moment of contemplation, the Witch quickly conceded, "I can’t figure it out at all. What does obtaining the entire map have to do with the Seven-colored Tail?"
"If I didn’t see any clues on the map, then we might as well consider it a Smoke Bomb by the Void Realm," Ash said. "The map itself means nothing, but searching for the Void Realm Map could bring us closer to the Seven-colored Tail."
"The only way to find the Void Realm Map is by killing the Commander," Sonia pondered, "Can killing the Commander bring us closer to the Seven-colored Tail?"
"The Commander’s spoils include the Commander’s Handbook, a map, and the Soul Summoning Technique Spirit," Diya said, "The map is bait given by the Void Realm, and the Commander’s Handbook contains no clues, meaning..."
Under Sonia and Diya’s gaze, Ash summoned the Soul Summoning Technique Spirit, with each of the crystal polyhedron’s sides emitting a different color light.