Ch 125: My Multiverse Supermarket

An Fengxuan noticed something wrong with the Emerald Wasteland even before Zhou Li did.

Zhou Li had only sensed that the fog outside was unusually thick.
But An Fengxuan realized immediately—it wasn’t ordinary white fog. It was black.

And that kind of black mist definitely wasn’t natural.

Just as they began to wonder if another group of idiots was about to attack the supermarket again, a familiar figure emerged from the haze.

Zhou Li narrowed her eyes. “Natisha?”

“Good evening, my lady boss,” said Natisha.

Zhou Li froze for a moment—she wasn’t entirely sure it was really her.

An Fengxuan asked, “Didn’t you used to stutter? Uh, I mean—you look really different now.”

She’d spoken what Zhou Li was thinking, and Zhou Li nodded in agreement. “Yeah. You dyed your hair black, too.”

Natisha smiled. “I am indeed Natisha. But now, I am the version of me blessed by the Goddess’s power.”

Zhou Li thought to herself: …if she remembered correctly, shadow mages worshipped the Goddess of the Nethermoon, didn’t they?

“I don’t really get it,” said An Fengxuan.

Then, a new voice carried through the fog:
“The Goddess of the Nethermoon rules over the night and the moon, death and shadow. Her favored followers gain strength in those domains—night, moonlight, death, and shadow. But under daylight, their power wanes. The deeper one is corroded by shadow energy, the weaker they become under the sun.”

Natisha turned toward the speaker in surprise. “Master Lamanda!?”

Lamanda studied her student for a moment, her expression complicated. “Natisha… you’ve grown stronger.”

The unspoken meaning: stronger in darkness, weaker in light.
And that was not a good thing.

The reason shadow mages differed from necromancers or death knights was that they were still human.

Once completely consumed by shadow energy, they would become “Abyssspawn”—creatures that could no longer walk beneath the sun, bound entirely to darkness and ruled by shadow, no different from shadow beasts themselves.

Zhou Li asked curiously, “Aren’t followers of the Nethermoon Goddess all crazy death cultists?”

Natisha didn’t seem particularly crazy.

Lamanda explained, “Shadow mages are divided into different schools. Their paths vary depending on what they pursue. Some spread plague and death; others, bloodthirsty fanatics, revel in slaughter and sacrifice. Necromancers feed on the pain and despair of lost souls. Then there are those who seek pure shadow energy—that path leads closest to the Goddess, but also most easily leads to corruption.”

Natisha said softly, “Abyssspawn… only by becoming one can we enter the Goddess’s divine realm and serve as her attendant.”

Zhou Li: …you know, anything with “spawn” in the name usually doesn’t have a good reputation.

Lamanda suddenly turned to Zhou Li. “Tell me, do you also sell shadow-elemental gemstones here?”

At that, Zhou Li’s stomach tightened. The last time, Natisha had bought all the deep-purple sea fluorite—could that be what caused her transformation?

Zhou Li glanced at her. “Yes. There were five of them—and they’ve all been sold.”

In fact, the shipment of sea fluorite from Councilor Su had also contained a few deep-purple stones, though Zhou Li hadn’t yet processed them individually. They were still tucked away in her dimensional storage system.

When Lamanda heard there had been five, she sucked in a sharp breath. “Natisha… don’t tell me you absorbed all the shadow power from five gemstones in such a short time? No wonder you’ve turned out like this!”

Natisha said nothing.

An Fengxuan scratched her head. “Is five really that many?”

Lamanda said, “Of course it is! A single elemental gemstone contains enough energy to raise an apprentice to a full mage—and it takes at least a month to absorb one safely.”

Natisha had consumed five in barely twenty days. Like someone starving for months suddenly gorging themselves, she might look satisfied now, but the backlash could strike anytime.

Lamanda’s concern was plain, but Natisha replied coldly, “This has nothing to do with you, teacher.”

Zhou Li could tell at a glance there was history between them.
But she wasn’t here for drama—and she certainly didn’t want a fight breaking out inside her store.

She asked Lamanda, “Ma’am, are you also a shadow mage?”

Something about that name sounded familiar.

Lamanda smiled faintly. “I’m an alchemist—a follower of the Goddess of Wisdom, servant to knowledge itself.”

“Oh! You’re Alchemist Master Lamanda!” Zhou Li suddenly remembered. Rebecca had once traded a potion of Oath of Truth for supermarket points.

But wait—how had a follower of the Wisdom Goddess produced a potion blessed by the Goddess of Oaths?

Lamanda raised an eyebrow. “You’ve heard of me?”

“Rebecca mentioned you,” Zhou Li said.

“Ah, that explains it. I came here for the same reason.”

“What do you need?” Zhou Li asked.

“My cauldron and philosopher’s stone are damaged,” Lamanda said. “I need elemental gemstones to repair them.”

She opened her bag and laid out several bottles of alchemical potions.

Zhou Li scanned them through the auction interface:
【Transformation Potion】—turn into any animal for 3 minutes.
【Invisibility Potion】—grants invisibility for 30 seconds.
【Wisdom Potion】—enhances focus and learning for 30 minutes.

Zhou Li’s eyes lit up at the last one. Drinking that would double her learning efficiency!
Parents of students would buy these by the crate.

“Do you have more Wisdom Potions?” she asked, returning the dangerous ones that could cause havoc if misused.

Pleased with her choice, Lamanda smiled even more warmly. “Of course I do.”

Zhou Li caught the look in her eyes—it practically said: Join us. Become a servant of knowledge too. Let the Wisdom Goddess bless you with intellect and understanding.

Zhou Li hesitated, unsure how to respond.

Lamanda had brought over thirty bottles of Wisdom Potion.
Each was worth about 300 points, and after transaction fees, she earned a total of 10,000 points.

Lamanda was delighted—it meant she could buy ten or twenty elemental stones!

Zhou Li didn’t have the heart to tell her that Natisha’s potions had fetched over fifty thousand points in comparison.

“Please wait a moment,” Zhou Li said, and went to the storage area.

She needed to unpack that mountain of sea fluorite.
She also called An Fengxuan to help.

Once they were gone, silence fell over the store.

After a while, Natisha said, “Teacher, please come outside. I have something to tell you.”

The Emerald Wasteland at night was a paradise for shadow creatures—and Natisha’s home turf. If she’d wanted to harm Lamanda, she could’ve crushed her with a gesture.

But that wasn’t her intention.

Lamanda followed her outside without hesitation.

The black mist enveloped them both. Lamanda felt a faint unease, but she realized the haze was meant to prevent eavesdropping.

Natisha said quietly, “This is the Goddess’s guidance. You may find here the truth behind the coming of the Age of Waning Magic.”

Lamanda’s eyes widened. “But… wasn’t this shop only recently established?”

The Waning Age had begun centuries ago. At first, the decline of magical energy was subtle, unnoticed.

Only in the last two hundred years had the loss become clear.

Finally, at a joint conference of the Alchemy Guild, the Knowledge Order, the Holy Light Church, and others, mages, priests, and alchemists reached a consensus and proclaimed: The Age of Waning Magic has begun.

That declaration sent the world into panic. Many blamed the rise of the steam industry for the decline of magic, giving birth to the Magic and Steam factions.

The divide deepened into outright hostility—
the Magic faction rejected all technology and industry,
while the Steam faction branded mages, priests, and alchemists as heretics to be executed on sight.

As a follower of the Wisdom Goddess, Lamanda loved all knowledge, whether magical or industrial.

Unfortunately, as a member of the Alchemy Guild, she was caught in between.

The Steam faction’s scientists were developing chemical medicine but regarded alchemy as heresy—so the entire Alchemy Guild was blacklisted as a cult.

In retaliation, the guild forbade its members from studying industrial sciences, including medicine.

Lamanda believed the truth of the Waning Age must be tied to the rise of industry—but under the ban, she’d found nothing so far.

Now, Natisha had given her a new lead.

“This is the domain of shadow mages—my domain,” Natisha said. “Nothing that happens here escapes my sight. This shop appeared out of nowhere, with no trace of teleportation magic, not even a fluctuation of magical elements. And yet… it’s surrounded by a strange energy field, like the power of rules themselves. Those who violated them—bandits—were erased instantly.”

Lamanda pondered. “The power of rules… Could it be the Goddess of Order? But that can’t be right…”

The Goddess of Order was one of the new deities worshipped by the Steam faction.