Sorcerer’s Handbook

“What Tactile?”

Ashe was perplexed; these Sorcerers always came up with new terms he had never heard of before.

“It actually worked, Heath actually did it! How is this possible, how can this be!” Sylin hissed under his breath. Suddenly transforming into a master of desktop clearance, he violently struck the desk. With a push of his hands, he swept the Knowledge Screen off the desk and onto the floor, where it shattered into several pieces with a snap.

Ashe swallowed hard, “Calm down, calm down. Perhaps you’d like to explain the situation to me? I might offer some support—beyond the substantial, that is—Hmm!”

Abruptly, the trunk of the tree compressed inward. Ashe immediately felt an immense pressure from all sides, nearly crushing him to the point he could barely catch his breath, his breathing becoming extremely difficult as if he were about to be flattened into an Ashe pancake!

I can’t breathe!

“Aren’t you going to resist?” Sylin said coldly, his left hand gesturing a ‘gripping’ motion toward Ashe, “Your body is still so fragile; I might accidentally crush you. I’ll count to three. Three, two, one—”

Is this the end for me?

If only I had killed him earlier… If I hadn’t come looking for Sylin… If only…

Facing his potential demise, Ashe surprisingly found he was not as strong as he thought. He was filled with regret, having believed himself not to be too attached to life. It seemed that in reality, this was not the case.

Or perhaps, what he longed for wasn’t life itself…

Ashe instinctively clenched his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, bracing for the final agony before death.

However, when the countdown ended, the trunk didn’t crush Ashe to extract his juices; instead, it loosened somewhat, allowing him to once again enjoy the freedom of breath.

He opened his eyes and saw Sylin stumbling against the desk, falling down with tears streaming across his face, yet with a smile on his lips: “You really aren’t Heath, you really aren’t… Hahaha! He succeeded? He actually succeeded? How could he?”

Ashe watched Sylin cry and laugh for a long time before asking, “What were you testing just now?”

Sylin had no regard for decorum, simply sitting on the carpet by the desk. After a moment, he responded, “The real Heath possesses the ‘Key.’ No need for arcane energy, not even for words. As soon as Heath activates the Key, he can control any devotee—including me.”

A bone-deep fear appeared on his face: “It’s a contamination more terrifying than death itself, a complete deprivation of self-control! I tried to end my own life once, but death is no excuse for disobedience. An instant before the suicide attempt, I lost control of my body, only regaining the ‘right’ to use it after completing the tasks he assigned… From then on, I couldn’t resist any of his commands and could only carry out his will to the best of my ability.”

“From the moment you held the Heart Sword to my neck, I knew you were not Heath. But I dared not believe it, dared not take the risk—perhaps Heath was just acting, perhaps you were a personality split from him, or perhaps…” Sylin’s voice trembled, “I simply didn’t have the courage to believe that Heath could disappear.”

“I feared that you were just another one of his deceptions.”

Ashe glanced at Sylin’s right hand: “You mentioned the Eye of Awe just now…”

“You didn’t inherit Heath’s memories?” Sylin raised his right hand, the hole in the palm so round it was like a piece missing from a jigsaw puzzle, with moonlight passing through unobstructed.

“This hole was drilled by Heath himself, as the price of the Ritual.”

“Ritual… the Faction of the Ritual?”

“That’s right,” Sylin looked down at his hand, “To be fair, although the price was steep, the effect of the Eye of Awe is extraordinarily powerful. Anyone I gaze upon through the palm of my hand falls into a cognitive delay lasting several seconds. During this time, the person is completely incapable of action, not even able to blink.”

Forced control!

Ashe felt the horror of this Sorcerer’s controlling ability deeply—the experience of cognitive delay from just moments ago was irresistible, for at that time he couldn’t even muster the thought to ‘resist.’

If the thoughts of an ordinary person were like a waterfall, with countless sparkles of water churning every second, then Ashe’s thoughts just moments ago were like a quagmire, where only after a long time would a single bubble emerge due to decay.

“Of course, such a powerful effect is not without its Restriction,” Sylin said. “The Eye of Awe can only be effective once per person, because it only works the first time.”

“I was just subjected to the Eye of Awe, and you concluded I’m not Heath…”

“Heath has already seen my Eye of Awe,” Sylin said calmly. “He has seen the eyes of all within the organization who were granted the Eye of Awe. He would not allow his followers to possess a means to counteract him.”

Although there was no evidence, Ashe was currently stuck in a tree, and Sylin could do anything to him, even make him hang upside down if he wished. There was no reason for Sylin to deceive him.

However, Ashe still found it hard to believe—after all, Heath was nothing more than a nobody who wasn’t even a Sorcerer. If it weren’t for Ashe, Heath probably wouldn’t have been able to get past the newbie killer ‘Beautiful Beast’ Igor; he would have been robbed of all his Contribution points and ended up at the bottom of the Prison.

If Heath really was a big villain with a hidden trump card, then… where was the trump card?

I’ve come to substitute for him, and he didn’t even leave me the trump card!?

So Ashe still felt that Sylin was playing him for a fool. A two-hundred-year-old Two Wings Elf being controlled by a twenty-something-year-old non-Sorcerer Human? If Ashe were to tell this to the Swordswoman, she would probably respond with ‘Young man, don’t read too many of those revolutionary erotic publications.’

After a moment of silence, Ashe asked, “Why tell me all this?”

“Because I’m wondering,” Sylin looked at the floor, “what to do with you.”

“After all, the last task Heath left me with was to kill you.”

Ashe was taken aback: “Kill me… wait, but I am Ashe Heath, you mean—”

“That’s right.” Sylin stood up, leaning on the desk, “The last task Heath gave me was to do everything in my power to kill him. To completely eradicate the Heath after the Ritual.”

Ashe’s mouth twitched, his pupils suddenly constricting: “So, my capture by the Blood Mad Hunter… Valcas… the Blood Moon Tribunal… and Gerard’s visit, all of it was…”

“It was all ‘your’ will,” Sylin said. “I’m merely executing ‘your’ orders to the best of my ability.”

Was it Heath who wanted me dead?

Even as Ashe tried to determine if Sylin was lying, his heart betrayed him by pounding uncontrollably.

Malice and bitterness flooded his thoughts like the deep sea, a bone-chilling cold seeped into his entire being, and in a daze, he could almost hear the mockery of countless voices.

It turned out that from the very beginning, he was a chess piece, his placement meticulously arranged.

He couldn’t even discern who the real puppet master was, akin to a child watching bullies toss his backpack around, not knowing whom to hit, the sense of injustice nearly bringing him to tears.

But, for some reason, Ashe didn’t ignite with the fire of anger to dispel the cold within him.

He calmly accepted this truth of being fooled, even managing to dispassionately observe his own roiling thoughts, as if he were reading someone else’s Sorcerer Handbook, watching a scene of tumultuous waves.

When you can observe pain, you liberate yourself from it.

When you can observe yourself, you liberate yourself from Destiny.

Anger, resentment, regret—none solve any problems. Only absolute calm, precise judgment, and mechanical execution can uncover all secrets, comprehend the Truth of the world, and implement one’s will.

Do not let hormones secreted by the body cloud your thinking, do not let mundane societal notions constrain your imagination, do not let the unknown Destiny destroy your calm.

Ashe, you must watch yourself, you must transcend reality, you must ponder the correct next step, execute the strategy that maximizes benefits, use every resource at your disposal.

Just treat others as tools.

Treat yourself as a tool.

Then you can become the unburdened Observer, Ashe.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!