After completing a round of Technique Spirit exchange, the most exciting moment of the harvest review arrived.

"Even though we fell asleep just after entering the Heavenly Kingdom..." Ash opened the "Aurora's Mage Manual," "the Void Realm did not keep our blessings in the dark."

"Death Mad Sword Maiden"

"Human Race · Female · 18 years old"

"Bonds Level: 4 (75% experience sharing)"

"Silver Blessing: Festivity/Brutality: Each time an enemy is defeated, increase critical rate and critical damage. Different characteristics can be triggered depending on the operator's development path."

"Golden Blessing: Blazing Star/Moon Star: Each time a battle is fought, increase insight, willpower, and charm. Different characteristics can be triggered depending on the operator's development path."

"Rainbow Blessing: Serenity/Clamor: With each victory, enhance the sword flash magic technique."

"Extra Blessing Attribute: Serenity: The Sword Maiden wishes to guard her little happiness and lead a quiet life, becoming a cherished girl. This path triggers the 'Serenity' effect, enhancing the trigger rate of the sword flash. The more peaceful everyday life is, the higher the enhancement, reaching up to a 100% trigger rate (able to deflect all attacks not exceeding one's limit)."

"Extra Curse Feature: Clamor: The Sword Maiden cannot endure a peaceful life, yearning for a life of adventurous storms, becoming a trusted companion. This path triggers the 'Clamor' effect, enhancing the power limit of the sword flash. The more thrilling the adventurous life, the higher the enhancement limit, capable of defying divine decrees (able to deflect divine wonders)."

"Knowledge Curse: Vortex Secret Poison, Exile Secret Poison, Golden Fish Poison, Bronze Dragon Poison, Concept Poison, Seven-Colored Tail Poison, Faded Dream Poison."

When Ash finished viewing the Sword Maiden's new blessings, he looked up to see the latter already leaning over, eyes wide open and watching him.

"What?"

"Waiting for you to tell me what my blessings are," Sonia said matter-of-factly, "After all, you know my blessings better than I do."

Ash blinked, feeling a bit hesitant, and asked, "Do you know about the sword flash?"

"Eh? How did you know I just mastered the sword flash?" The Sword Saint, who had extended their claws, was a bit surprised, "This is a high-end technique that only a Sword Saint might master—without relying on any Technique Spirit, just with the sword and magic power enhancement, it can unravel any Technique Spirit miracle, and even reflect the miracle power back into one's swordsmanship."

"I only recently managed to successfully execute a sword flash once and am still far from mastering it. Unlike Professor Trozan, who can already easily deflect some two-winged miracles... your sword technique faction is almost at the Holy Domain level, right? I can teach you."

So that's how it is... Ash looked again at the Sword Maiden's Rainbow Blessing. Undoubtedly, the Serenity path is far better than the Clamor path, as the former can achieve a 100% deflection rate, whereas the latter, although capable of deflecting divine wonders, has a probability issue.

More importantly, to deflect divine wonders means being attacked by enemies above the demigod level. If you are being attacked by demigod enemies, what significance is there in deflecting one or two wonders?

Looking at it this way, the strengthening of different paths involves intricate considerations. In the Serenity path, the Sword Maiden is unlikely to encounter major troubles, and any trouble can be resolved with just the sword flash; in the Clamor path, once the Sword Maiden encounters trouble, it is significant trouble, and if she is attacked by a demigod, the sword flash allows her the leisure to flip the bird, and her optimistic attitude can then be passed down to posterity through the Mage's Handbook.

From both a cost-benefit ratio and personal bias, Ash hopes the Sword Maiden will take the Serenity path. After all, the Sword Maiden is now a Legendary Mage, having reached her life's pinnacle—in months past, she didn't dare even dream of the Holy Domain—now her task is not to continue reaching extremes but to maintain this advantage and enjoy life.

Frankly, even if the Sword Maiden were to just loaf around waiting to die, she'd still be a legendary figure at the peak of life.

Yet Ash couldn't help but wonder, does the Sword Maiden truly enjoy a tranquil, lavish life?

If it were the Sword Maiden of a few months ago, the answer would undoubtedly be no, quite like how a few months ago Ash wouldn't hesitate either.

Yet now they've climbed Ruby Mountain, inherited the Heavenly Kingdom of Thousand Wishes, experienced various adventures, and even Ash, who once saw retirement as his life's ultimate goal, can't help but wonder whether he should strive further, like feeling tempted to buy more shares seeing a mutual fund rise so much.

Getting greedy, insatiable, is human nature, more so a shared flaw among mages.

While contemplating deeply, Ash noticed the Sword Maiden looking at him puzzled.

For some reason, he suddenly blurted out, "Sword Maiden, I'm sorry."

"Hmm?" Everyone—including the little fox spirit still listening to the earth's wails—looked at Ash immediately.

Ash was surprised at his own reaction, but since things had come to this, he didn't hide anymore, "In fact, I've never really told you the true blessing..."

He truthfully relayed the contents of the Silver, Golden, and Rainbow blessings to the Sword Maiden, saying, "Due to my own considerations, I previously only told you one of the paths. Looking back, I realize my behavior was indeed inappropriate."

Weiser said, "But Observer, you didn't intend to harm the Sword Maiden, just help her make a better choice—"

"Indeed it was wrong."

On that point, Diya surprisingly didn't side with Ash, earnestly saying, "The Observer certainly had no ill intent, but the decision should have been up to the Sword Maiden, not just given one path, hiding important information she should know."

Diya had spent more than ten years in a state of ignorant concealment, imprisoned in a tower, clueless. If she hadn't accidentally overheard the secret of the Armored Saint, which prompted thoughts of escape, she would've become Lady Diya by now.

Therefore, she is extremely sensitive to concealment and deeply detests 'arranging others' lives'. Even though Ash confessed proactively with a good attitude, she still felt a bit of annoyance towards Ash, which wouldn't ease for at least a few days.

However, the person involved, the Village Girl, also fell into thought. She pondered for a moment and asked, "The Brutality path is similar to the Festivity path, you only told me about the Festivity path because..."

"I didn't want you to feel bad," Ash said, "I also didn't want to explore with a companion in a bad mood."

"But isn't the Moon Star path clearly stronger than the Blazing Star?" Sonia asked, "Why did you only tell me about the Blazing Star path? Moreover, isn't the Moon Star path more... for you?"

"Because I thought that way was better for you," Ash said candidly, "You mentioned wanting to be dazzling, to be admired by tens of thousands, to be liked by everyone... Compared to being a Moon Star revolving around others, becoming a Blazing Star obviously better achieves your life's value."

"For my own good," Sonia narrowed her eyes slightly, "so you made decisions for me?"

"I apologize," Ash sincerely reflected.

"But why don't you make the decision for me this time, and why bring up the past?" Sonia asked, "If you hadn't said anything, I surely wouldn't have known."

Ash was silent for a long time before saying slowly, "I don't know either."

"If I have to say, perhaps it's because I subconsciously believe I have an obligation to protect you."

"Not only you, but also the Witch and Weiser. I can conjure a small boat in the Sea of Knowledge, drive a car on the Time Continent, summon the Dream Treasury in the Distant Realm, I can gather you all... I'm too important, even if your combat power exceeds mine, I still feel like I'm your guardian. I organize you, lead you, and also need to protect you."

"Helping you choose the blessing path is what I considered as a form of protection."

Weiser gazed at Ash. She vaguely sensed that the following discussion might be something she didn't want to hear, yet she still asked, "Now that you've confessed, does this mean you've given up on this idea of protection?"

"Yes," Ash said, "During our time in Dream Heaven, when we couldn't communicate normally and were divided to perform different tasks, facing the threat of death right next to us... although I played an important role in this adventure, your achievements were no less than mine. I realized completely that, in terms of strength, willpower, or determination, you're not inferior to me, and have even far surpassed me. In fact, you're the ones protecting me now."

"Though it sounds arrogant to say this, it seems only this wording can accurately express my feelings," Ash said, "You've earned my respect."

The flow of air changed.

Weiser looked down at the ground, sensing a slight shift in the group's atmosphere. Though in totality the team's combat power wouldn't increase much because of this, everyone's emotions had undergone a transformation.

Previously, the relationship between the Sword Maiden Witch and Ash was half romantic half friendly, with trust mingled with reliance. But now, a feeling distinct from love and friendship, yet more capable of uniting everyone and thoroughly tying the group together, was quietly developing, and it would rapidly sprout into a towering tree.

It was the kind of feeling Weiser had always longed for.

The commotion she could never attain in reality.

"I'll note this for now." Sonia folded her arms, "If I find out you're hiding something from me next time… hmpf."

"Oh, right." Diya suddenly remembered something, "Is the Sword Maiden currently on the Blazing Star path?"

Ash and Sonia's expressions suddenly became very strange.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.