Angel paused for a moment, looking down in some confusion.
He saw that the bottom of his wand was suddenly entwined by a vine sprouting faint green buds.
The vine... Angel seemed to realize something and turned to look.
No one was behind him.
Only a long trailing vine, hanging down, extending all the way to the Hanging Jail Stairway.
Angel looked at the vine, the end of which was unknown, and raised his eyebrows slightly. Without hesitation, he turned around directly and headed toward the end of the vine.
As Angel moved away, the vine would tug his wand. Yet, when Angel returned, the vine retreated like ebbing water.
Leaving only a vine shadow with green buds, guiding Angel’s direction forward.
As Angel delved deeper into the Hanging Jail Stairway, his figure gradually disappeared into the darkness.
...
"Why hasn’t he come out yet?" Vay stretched his neck to look toward the door.
At this point, a minute had passed since the live broadcast’s closing ceremony. Even Kaier had been out for quite a while, but Angel’s figure had yet to appear, causing everyone to suspect something.
Did something unexpected happen to Angel? Or did the Wise Sovereign act secretly?
But the Wise Sovereign had said earlier that he wanted to communicate with Angel, so acting directly seems unlikely.
"Could it be that Angel’s computing power was overexerted, and he needs to adjust his state after closing the live broadcast?" It was Kaier speaking, his words were tactful, but everyone understood his real meaning—
Did Angel keep holding on until the live illusionary realm was closed, finally relaxed, and then encountered an accident?
For example, he fainted.
In other words, is Angel maintaining a facade to keep up appearances while suffering?
"Probably not." Though Dox hoped this was the case, from various previous details, Angel didn’t seem like someone who would insist to such an extent.
"From my understanding, he’s not the kind of person who would hold on unnecessarily. When he can save effort, he absolutely wouldn’t flaunt his strength." He might even purposely feign weakness to avoid certain troublesome matters, not caring at all about others’ opinions.
"Do you really believe what he said about computing power consumption?" Dox shrugged: "Anyway, I don’t believe it."
Actually, of the present apprentices, only two were still half-convinced, everyone else knew clearly that Angel’s claims of massive computing power consumption were problematic. If it was truly so high, would the structure of the Illusion Node be so smooth, and the energy transfer so stable? Remember, Angel was live-streaming across Other-dimensional Space, the illusionary realm was nearly flawless, even when Dox "died" twice and had to run two corpse-escapes, the illusionary realm during these escapes was extremely realistic.
Would Angel create an "escaping corpse" scenario as a cruel joke if his computing power was truly that depleted?
Thus, all Official Wizards present could see clearly. Angel might consume some computing power, but it wouldn’t be as substantial as he claimed, his statement was clearly exaggerated.
Moreover, Dox deeply suspected that Angel’s final "closing ceremony" and the phrase "What does the streamer’s affair have to do with me, Angel," were actually meant to convey: it’s all an act, everything was a performance intended to disclaim responsibility.
Though Dox and the Black Earl didn’t care, who knows whether the Wise Sovereign would care?
Angel’s disclaimer was preemptively used to block the Wise Sovereign’s objections. To prevent the Wise Sovereign from flipping out over trivial matters.
——Such situations where minor matters lead to flip outs are not rare in the Wizards’ Realm. Some cases are genuinely intolerable deceit, but more often it’s opportunistic, finding an excuse to reduce their dues, clearly gaining without losing.
"So why hasn’t he come out yet?" Vay wondered, "Also, there’s no response when calling him through the Mind Ribbon."
As Vay spoke, he turned to look at the Black Earl, because being the controller of the Mind Ribbon, he should be able to roughly sense Angel’s current status and location.
"He’s actively blocked the Mind Ribbon, and he’s not near the entrance of the 0th layer right now."
The Black Earl simply resolved the major doubts of the group.
Angel is alive, and his lack of response to Vay’s call was due to his active blocking of the Mind Ribbon. Furthermore, Angel did not leave but rather re-entered the Hanging Jail Stairway.
The first two pieces of information can be set aside, the most pressing concern now is why Angel hasn’t come out and instead delved deeper into the Hanging Jail Stairway?
This question couldn’t be answered by the Black Earl, who could only vaguely sense Angel’s direction. The answer to why Angel chose to re-enter the Hanging Jail Stairway currently lies only with the Wise Sovereign.
So the group shifted their gaze to the Wise Sovereign outside the Earth Ring Wall.
This sight left everyone stunned.
The Wise Sovereign was repeatedly taking out odd-shaped eyeglasses from his spatial artifact. Some had octopus arms for frames, others had small wings by the spectacles, and some had books opening below the frames... all of these were three-lensed glasses, their unique designs were rather surprising.
Yet, these external features weren’t important; what mattered was whatever the Wise Sovereign was doing?
They watched him put on a pair of glasses, all three lenses glowing, then discard them. He took out another pair, the lenses glowed, and he discarded them again.
Were it not for the Wise Sovereign’s solemn and somewhat serious expression, they might have thought he was simply showing off his spectacles.
Silently watching the Wise Sovereign change through nearly ten pairs of glasses, finally when he put on a heart-shaped pair, he halted, stood in deep contemplation.
This scene was quite bizarre, as the heart-shaped glasses were even pink.
A slender youth with three eyes, wearing glasses full of girlish charm, wearing a solemn expression... forget Vay, Kaier, Dox the "youngsters," even the Black Earl found it hard to look directly.
Though from the Wise Sovereign’s glasses-swapping speed and the direction he was gazing, it was evident that he likely wasn’t aware of which frames he had swapped to.
The heart-shaped glasses seemed to be swapped in unconsciously.
"Should we still ask the Wise Sovereign?" Vay asked in the Mind Ribbon.
Dox: "Cough... maybe wait a bit? Interrupting the Wise Sovereign now doesn’t seem like a wise idea."
Even Dox, who generally loved to watch a commotion or a joke, said so. Naturally, others understood that interrupting the Wise Sovereign now and making him realize what glasses he was wearing wasn’t a good idea.
All eyes were withdrawn, no one looked toward the Wise Sovereign’s direction anymore, silently praying that the Wise Sovereign would soon realize what glasses he was wearing... Also to not become embarrassed and angry due to this.