The next day, Yin Sha returned to the World Tree's Consciousness Space.
"Only the two of you today?"
Joshua floated above the small town Yin Sha had created yesterday, holding a paintbrush. He had spent the entire morning streamlining the buildings she had made.
Only two Ascendants had visited the Consciousness Space today: Matriarch Yin Sha and Patriarch Jin Ze... Joshua stared at the door behind Yin Sha, but even after she closed it, he saw no sign of any other Ascendants.
"Let me guess... the others refused to come because of something like, 'We barely have enough energy for ourselves, so why waste it on outsiders'?"
Joshua descended in front of the two Ascendants and mimicked someone's tone as he guessed why only the two of them had come today.
The grave expression on Yin Sha's face was replaced by surprise when she heard Joshua's words.
"Watchers, how... did you know?"
Jin Ze, the Patriarch beside her, looked somewhat exhausted. It seemed he had barely rested all day.
"Because your own people said so." Joshua floated in midair and formed a locking gesture with his thumbs and index fingers. "The little gift I gave you does more than just open doors."
"You're spying on us?" Yin Sha instantly understood what Joshua meant.
"My informants only appear in what you call public areas."
Joshua landed again. After asking Bai Yue about the Ascendants' energy crisis yesterday, he had been keeping watch over the situation in the Sanctuary.
The result was that after Yin Sha and Jin Ze returned to the Sanctuary, some of the Ascendants who followed Yin Sha chose to give up, while others publicly condemned Yin Sha for "wasting energy."
Ascendant society was more equal than Joshua had imagined... but that was also equality's drawback. During wartime, it