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Chapter 233: The True Devil

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

On the following Friday, after the arcanists finished their breakfast, they entered the hall in groups. According to Raventi's words, they would be able to see the result of the experiment today or at most tomorrow, which made them feel very curious.

During the past seven days, the arcanists did observe the reaction equipment through the magic imprints that they left. However, there was nothing specially new going on there. There was nothing new with the pure water evaporating, with the lightning striking the vapor and mixed gas, or with the vapor then condensed into liquid again.

Everything was just so simple and plain.

"What are we going to see? Honestly speaking, I'm very curious." a necromancer from the Hand of Paleness who just re-established his meditation environment was saying in a quite excited way.

Another female necromancer, who had blond eyebrows, compressed her lips a bit, "Jason, in fact, I'm not looking forward to anything, honestly. I don't see anything that's special in this experiment, and there's no way that a simple experiment like this can create an environment where life can be born. The truth is that, at that time, there were way more factors involved than we can even imagine!"

"Lily, I know… I've been staring at the lightnings for so long that I feel that they are right in front of my eyes right now," answered Jason humorously. His words were true, as many arcanists who studied discharging phenomenon also said the same thing.

Lily rubbed her eyes a bit as well, "I know, but that still doesn't mean anything special."

When they were chatting, someone that both of them were familiar with walked toward them. He had grizzled hair, deep wrinkles, and gentle, blue eyes.

"Morning, Jason. Morning, Lily," greeted the old sorcerer.

"Morning, Vern." Both Lily and Jason nodded and smiled.

"Dear Ms. Lily, may I have a request?" said Vern sincerely, "Would you mind changing your seat with me, as I want to talk to Jason about some of my thoughts over Life Force Theory."

"Why? It's something that has been overthrown already, isn't it?" Lily was confused, and she did not want to sit among a bunch of elemental sorcerers.

"Actually, I do not think so," said Vern seriously. "Can you deny the existence of life force and soul?"

"Of course not, those two things are fundamental in the school of Necromancy. Denying the existence of life force and soul is denying our own existence and values," Jason answered decisively. "It is only Life Force Theory that is overturned, and this does not have anything to do with our study of soul and life. We are re-directed in the past wrong practice of how we create human bodies, but for other theories in the school of Necromancy, especially those about soul, they are still fine and solid."

In their past belief, necromancers were convinced that humans, elves and dragons were superior to other elemental and alchemical creatures because the latter did not have life force that was stored in flesh. Therefore, they believed that only life ingredients could be used to create human bodies, until this theory was overturned by Lucien and Felipe.

Vern shook his head, "What have been synthesized so far are still far from being called 'the most fundamental ingredients of life', so I won't say that Life Force Theory is completely done for. You two must see the great beauty hiding within the human body, and how fascinating human bodies are structured. We are still facing lots of secrets of the human body that have yet to be solved, and if Life Force Theory is totally wrong, can I draw the conclusion that one can just live forever even without a life box, or separating one's soul, or looking for the next new body?"

"Oh… Arcana's above. I can tell that you're really into Life Force Theory, Vern. I'm not even close to you." Lily rubbed her forehead, as her mind was starting to get messy, "I need some time alone. I believe in the secrets of human body, but I also believe in Felipe's experiment outcome. Feel free to talk to Jason, Vern."

Arcana's above was an expression that sorcerers often used to show the impressiveness of something or to be polite.

Then she walked to the elemental sorcerers and sat down among them. After thinking to herself for quite a while, Lily drew her own conclusion: it was certain that Life Force Theory was wrong, but this did not mean that all the secrets of the human body had been solved, and much more needed to be done to further explore the field. Right now, Lily just wanted to keep her mind open, which she believed that was the best attitude.

Vern sat down on Lily's seat. When he was talking with Jason, his eyes focused on Felipe, who was sitting there three rows away to the left front of him.

Today or tomorrow would be his last chance. In order to defend the Lord's glory, Vern was ready to sacrifice himself. However, among all the necromancers he knew, only Lily's seat was the closest to Felipe's, but this seat was still not good enough for Nicolay to launch an attack on Felipe and kill him with one shot. Nicolay needed to, when the time was right, bear the risk of taking five to six steps further through the narrow gaps between the seats to kill Felipe.

"May the gate of Mountain Paradise open for me." Vern crossed in front of his chest in his mind.

…

Soon, all the attendee arcanists had shown up, and today, it was Larry who took the stage.

Larry's round face was filled with excitement, and he said to everyone in the hall with a higher pitch than usual, "We've discovered the wonderful relation between the concentration and conductivity of solution from Lucien's questions, thus I was thinking: what if we study something else rather than solution? What if we study pure water? I wonder how pure water's conductivity is like…"

Because it was a widespread fact that water was conductive, most arcanists ignored this direction. Although they could make pure water out of combining oxygen and hydrogen together, they never thought of doing this. Hearing Larry's words, they felt quite hesitant.

Larry began to make pure water to test its conductivity. When electric sparks kept appearing in the reactor, the magic circle at the bottom of the pure water for testing current actually detected nothing. Every sorcerer's face looked quite confused but also surprised, as what they thought as some kind of common sense was, again, overturned.

When the water started bubbling, Larry finished his experiment, "As everyone saw, before pure water is resolved into hydrogen and oxygen, it is not conductive, thus we can make an assumption that it is some kind of alchemical substance dissolved in water that turns water to be conductive. I'm not sure what it is yet, but we can first take a look at the new fourth-circle magic that I've created based on this experiment—Larry's Water Shield, which can effectively defend against the Lightning spell."

Then, Larry started to share the general structure of the spell and how he built its model. Although he was hiding the core part of it, most arcanists were still listening to it very carefully, hoping that they could build something like this on their own.

However, Vern was having a difficult time concentrating. He kept looking at those waiters who were serving the arcanists with black tea, water and warm face towels. When he saw that there were around five or six waiters who were serving around in the hall in different places, Vern raised his hand and beckoned to a nearby apprentice.

"Yes, sir? What can I do for you?" The apprentice hurriedly came over to Vern and asked in a very respectable manner, as he knew that every single one of the arcanists present was at least of middle rank!

Vern nodded in a nice way, "Good young fella, I need some black tea with sliced lemon to stay focused."

Jason was not paying any attention to Vern, not only because what Vern was doing was simply ordinary, but also because, as a necromancer, he was very interested in spells that could block electromagnetic wave spells like Lightning.

"Sure." The apprentice respectively took a few steps back and then walked toward a door.

At this time, Nicolay ventured to take two steps forward to stand in the front.

"A cup of black tea with sliced lemon for Mr. Vern over there." The apprentice just directly talked to Nicolay, as he did not care about the order of the waiters. And the other waiter who was now standing behind Nicolay was a bit confused, having no idea why this guy wanted to please that old sorcerer.

Nicolay went to the small room in the corner of the hall and got a cup of black tea. Nervous as he was, he told himself, "God is watching me, and this is my most glorious moment. The gate of Mountain Paradise will be open for me!"

Nicolay calmed down with his belief, and then he walked toward the row of seats where Vern was. When he came in front of Vern, Nicolay handed the cup to Vern respectively.

"Your lemon black tea," said Nicolay politely, as if he was totally strange to Vern.

On the other side, another middle-rank arcanist who was siting four rows behind Lucien also requested a cup of water.

Walter knew that this was not a very good distance to kill Lucien. However, he was decisive and certain that, when his partner Nicolay launched his attack toward Felipe, it would also be his best chance to kill Lucien Evans.

Putting down the cup, Nicolay slowly turned around. Staring at Felipe from behind, Nicolay felt that the distance between Felipe and him was the path the he needed to take to get to Mountain Paradise.

In Nicolay's eyes, the distance was long, but what was at the end of the path made him yearn for it so much.

Although what Nicolay had was only a replica of the Sword of Truth, it was still a level nine divine item, thus using the replica would still cost him a lot of power and strength, despite the fact that the full power of the replica sword could not be fully activated because of Nicolay's level. At the same time, as this was a sword, Nicolay could not use it from some distance away, instead, he needed to get Felipe with the sword in a very short distance to achieve the most ideal effect.

Therefore, Nicolay needed to have someone to distract Felipe at that moment when he launched his attack.

When Nicolay was moving to the isle, he was still calculating the distance. Before he arrived at the best spot for assassination, if Vern could not offer him further support by distracting Felipe, he had to take all the risk in a sink-or-swim way to kill Felipe, even if it meant that he needed to run through the narrow seat gaps to get closer to Felipe.

Nicolay was ready to sacrifice himself.

Meanwhile, Walter, while putting down the cup of water for the arcanist, was also calculating his distance from Lucien Evans, but he would not take any chances before Felipe was attacked.

Vern took a deep breath, and just when he was about to draw people's attention to himself, an arcanist in the front shouted in sharp voice, "The reactor! Something's changing in the reactor!"

All the arcanists looked at the reactor, including Larry.

In the glass bottle at the bottom on the right, inside the tube for condensation, something light red appeared in the pure water!

What was it?!

The arcanists almost felt that they didn't dare to ask, but their hearts were filled with the question. Several of the arcanists in the front even stood up to see clearer. Nicolay's vision was blocked, but he was encouraged – from the chaos, he could have enough time to kill Felipe. However, he was also a bit distracted subconsciously, wondering what the light red stuff was.

Raventi, who was sitting in the front, directly flew onto the stage, deactivated all the magic circles and took out the light red substance. He hurriedly activated the magic circle, Identification, to see what it was.

At the same time, more arcanists also used their own Identification magic circles to check the substance, including Felipe.

However, what they had all ignored was that Identification could only check things that were not unknown, as the spell was continuously improved by the congress.

Seeing that many arcanists were busy with casting the spell, Nicolay knew that this was his best chance to kill Felipe. Under his long robe, he grabbed the replica of the sword tightly, and then he took a solid step forward. He walked faster and faster. He did not care anymore if any arcanists had noticed him. In his eyes, there was only Felipe.

Within a few second, Nicolay had shortened his distance between him and Felipe quite a bit.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Walter also started to take action.

Nicolay was one step away from Felipe now!

He fiercely ripped off the amulet that he was wearing for hiding his divine power with one hand, and took out the sword with the other hand.

When he was about to hack the sword at Felipe, someone shouted in a hight pitch, "Aspartic acid… There's Aspartic acid in there! Something originally found in asparagus! Oh… Arcana's above… What I've found here…"

"And some other life ingredients! Although two of them have never been successfully refined yet, they are parts of the foundation of life!" On the other side, another level five arcanist was shocked, as if he just saw the real God.

"And lipid and carbohydrate…" Pesor and Tina-Timos all stood up. Although they were not some kind of followers, they still wanted to say that this could only have been done by God.

It was a miracle that an environment that was made up of several of the simplest factors, including lightning, gases, pure water and a mini replica model of a volcano, could just generate life ingredients!

Felipe was also astounded. In his eyes, they were now in the realm of God. He wondered who designed this model—was it Professor?!

Every single one of the arcanists knew what this experiment meant—it had revealed the fact that, even though it could not completely deny that the God of Truth could create life, at least God was not the only entity that could create life. In other words, Creationism was facing a great threat.

When the arcanists were exclaiming in front of the experiment finding, Nicolay, who was only one step away from Felipe, was still shocked.

He could not remove his eyes away from the reactor, which was surrounded by many different identification magic circles. The light of the tree symbol above the reactor representing all kinds of life ingredients was so pure and bright that Nicolay, when staring at it, had forgotten his purpose for being here.

He could not believe what was in front of his eyes. He could not believe that there was aspartic acid in the reactor.

Lots of thoughts flashed through Nicolay's mind. He recalled how the experiment was built up: high temperature and methane gas brought by volcanic eruption, magic lightning used to recreate natural thunder and lightning, pure water to simulate prehistoric ocean, the main gases including hydrogen… In the whole experiment, there was no intervention from God, but life ingredients were still created.

Nicolay was more than regretful that he had learned something about arcana before. He wished that he had never known what life ingredients were and how important they were.

Nicolay's head was buzzing with thoughts:

"Can natural environment also create life? So it isn't something that is only controlled by God?

"But… but life should only be governed by the almighty God…

"Creating life… is within the realm of God…

"Does God even exist? Does Mountain Paradise exist? After I die, where will I go?

"They are devils, true devils! They've made me doubt God!"

In a flash, Nicolay's thoughts shook the foundation of his belief, and thus his divine power started to go out of control. And as a quick reaction, Nicolay started to pray.

However, as soon as he started praying, his power directly exploded. From the inside out, the divine power devoured him with dazzling, beautiful light.

At the same time, Walter was overwhelmed by the same holy light.

Both Nicolay and Walter exploded with their power and turned into two beautiful beams of light, just like dreamlike firework.

Seeing the light beams, the arcanists were astonished but also confused.

Before the arcanists could figure out what was going on there, Vern's head exploded. White brain tissue and fresh blood scattered everywhere.

The rest of the arcanists hurriedly tried to stabilize their own mediation environments. They were too shocked to comprehend the whole situation, and they only shared one common thought:

"This was crazy!"

…

"So, the two experiment subjects have proved the great impact that the experiment finding can bring to the Church," said Hathaway emotionlessly. Her silvery-gray eyes were cold.

The grand arcanists knew the Church's plan from the very beginning, since Vern's suggestion of putting Nicolay and Walter into the meeting was actually made up by Thanatos and was put in Vern's mind.

Vaharall and Varantine never thought that the grand arcanists would show up for this meeting.

Chapter 234: Action

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

In the demiplane, seven fine silver chairs floating in the darkness formed a semicircle, and the five grand arcanists sitting on the chairs looked like Gods overlooking the mortals from high above.

A senior elf was right now sitting on one of the two chairs that originally belonged to the other two grand arcanists who did not attend the meeting today. Right now, he was staring at the reactor down there as if he had forgotten everything around him. The senior elf was staring at every single change happening in the reactor—lightning, vaporization, condensation… There was light in his pupil.

After a while of silence, Brook, the Emperor of Control, with his fingers crossing as usual, said to the rest of them in a voice that somehow mixed with calmness and excitement, "The experiment revealed a brand new possibility of how life was originally born and how life can be born, and this has provided us with a new direction in our research. Before this experiment, we arcanists tended to treat this topic in a too complicated way."

"Are you trying to say that we can synthesize a baby in a lab merely using carbon and some gases?" Fernando, Lord of Storm, disputed directly, "I admit the great importance of this experiment, but I also believe that the truth is way more complicated than this, maybe even more complicated than we thought? We have no clear idea how life ingredients managed to evolve into life foundations, how other life ingredients were born, how body and soul are connected…"

Brook was already used to Fernando's bad temper, so he pressed his hands downwards a bit to calm Lord of Storm down, "I did not make it clear enough. What I was trying to say was that the original environment pictured by us before, for giving birth to life ingredients, was too complicated. In arcana study, sometimes being simple and direct is also very important."

"Then, have you asked yourself, what is hydrogen? Why do volcanos erupt? Why are there oceans and the reason behind the tides? Why is there lightning and thunder? Before those things were born, how did the world look like? Why does the world look like this now?" Douglas, the president of the congress, looked around at the rest of the grand arcanists, "The experiment is surely simple, and the process of synthesizing life ingredients is surely not complicated, but what hides behind the experiment is not simple. We shall never take them for granted, and we shall always ask why."

"One hundred thousand whys…" Lord of Storm murmured.

Hathaway nodded slightly, "The ocean of arcana is boundless, and we're fishermen who have just set our sails. We are still far from understanding the essence of the world, and we must hold the world in awe."

"That's why arcana's so charming." Brook smiled, pushing his glasses a bit upward.

Thanatos also grinned, "Although we have just set our sails, the Church must be more than shocked. What we are watching now, in the Church's eyes, is something that is totally unacceptable and beyond offensive, in the forbidden zone of God and divine power. I'm looking forward to seeing how the pope and those cardinals will react when they hear about the experiment. I bet that they'd still find some excuses with something related to soul. But one day, when we thoroughly understand soul and divine power, it will be the end of them. What a pity that the experiment needs to take so long to reveal the findings, or we could directly show it in front of the Church… Think about it… How destructive that would be to those pastors."

Every grand arcanist present understood that not every cardinal or pastor from the Church would be destroyed by their own divine power when seeing the experiment. The reason that Walter and Nicolay were devoured by holy power right on the spot was that they had spent seven days staying here, witnessing the very beginning of the experiment when the reactor was being built, and after a long time of wondering and feeling insecure waiting for the final answer, the research finding was too shocking for them to keep adhering to their belief.

Without this gradual, building-up process, most of the pastor and cardinals would definitely first doubt the validity of the experiment, and they might even say that the experiment was fake. Then, they would find any possible reasons or pieces of evidence to fight back and to comfort themselves, so they could continuously stick to their belief.

However, of course, those grand arcanists would not waste this great chance to give the Church a hard time. Although the experiment, of course, could not completely wipe out the Church, many pastors would start to doubt their belief to some extent, and their chance of breaking through their levels would be slim to none.

"We've turned our blind eye to some people for quite a while, and now it's time to let them show their value," said Hathaway in a cold and ambiguous way.

Lord of Storm agreed, "The Church shall still suffer from this finding. I really wonder how many pastors and cardinals will be devoured by the light."

The grand arcanists soon reached an agreement, and Douglas started to give orders to the Affairs Committee.

At the same time, Hathaway turned around and looked at Thanatos, "Do not use Invade Brain to investigate who designed the experiment from the Will of Elements. I don't want them to be chased around by the Church, and thus not be able to go to other dimensions."

Although Invade Brain and Weaving Memory usually did not work well with senior-rank sorcerers, Thanatos, as a master of these two spells, once before managed to invade a level eight cardinal's brain. He read most of the cardinal's memory, and even changed part of it, leading the cardinal to hate the pope, in order to make the cardinal kill the pope. Unfortunately, the part of changing the cardinal's memory also changed his cognition of this world, and the cardinal's belief suddenly got destroyed, and, in the end, he was devoured by the holy light, bringing failure to Thanatos' plans.

However, the congress gained a lot from Thanatos invading the brain of the cardinal, and most of their first-hand materials of divine power came from this. This was why Thanatos ranked eleventh place on the Church's Cleansing List, even higher than Hathaway and Lord of Storm.

"All of your senior-rank aranists from the Will of Elements are on the list already. Why would this matter?" Thanatos was a bit confused.

Hathaway did not answer him.

Thanatos put on a slightly embarrassed smile, as he did not want to speak against Hathaway in front of other grand arcanists, and then he nodded, "The mage who designed this experiment has combined belief and one's own cognition world together… quite interesting."

At this time, Malfurion finally sobered up from his tons of thoughts and said loudly, "Mind of Nature! This is the mind of nature!"

…

Down below the demiplane, staring at the holy light and the blood, all of the arcanists were shocked. They all of a sudden felt that the lightnings in the reactor looked fabulous but cruel.

The future of arcana was further lit up by the experiment, but behind the experiment, there was blood and darkness.

After quite a while, Timothy asked loudly and confusedly, "Is this holy light?"

"Are those people… from the Church?" Larry heard of something like this before, but he had never witnessed people being devoured by the light.

The crowd started to feel nervous.

"Be quiet!" Raventi looked quite pissed off, and he spoke to the crowded loudly, "Do not panic! Right now, we have to figure out why the Church's people were here!"

Hearing Raventi's shouting, the rest of the arcanists all started to look around alertedly.

Noticing that the person from the Church was only one step away from him, Felipe answered gloomily, "They came here to kill me. And the sorcerer whose head exploded… should be the traitor."

After the holy light disappeared gradually, there was nothing of Nicolay or Walter left, but a silvery-gray blade lying on the floor.

"This is the replica of the Sword of Truth!"

"This thing is of research value!"

The sword from Holm parish was so famous that most arcanists recognized it immediately.

Lucien knew that the Church's second target was him, but in the Church's eyes, he was not as important as Felipe at all. Lucien also wondered whether the Church would rank him the top fifty on the list if they knew that this experiment, the Miller-Urey experiment, was put forward by him.

Lucien felt lucky that, when he submitted this experiment to the Will of Elements, he requested to be behind the scenes.

Rogerio from the Affairs Committee came up to the stage and started to direct sorcerers to take different actions.

Those who did not get any tasks stood on the other side and were talking to each other, "It's unbelievable that a simple experiment designe like this can generate life ingredients…"

"And what's also unbelievable is that two pastors turned into holy light right in front of us! The light is even more beautiful than new year fireworks, ha."

"Those necromancers should feel lucky that the previous studies from Lucien Evans and Felipe had overthrown Life Force Theory first, or today's experiment would for sure be mind-bugging enough to explode their heads directly."

"If there wasn't those previous studies serving as a buffering thing at the first place, they would not just show this experiment right in front of us over the meeting. Those grand arcanists know how shocking this thing is and they know that they have to ease us into it."

"I know… I wonder who designed this experiment… It's seems like 'God' is revealing the truth in front of us."

"But making people's heads explode is still too cruel…"

In the corner, Lucien listened to their conversation silently, and at this time, Iristine's voice came into his ears, "Mr. Evans?"

"Yes, your highness?" Lucien turned around and asked.

Unusually, there was a sincere smile on Iristine's face, which made her look even more beautiful. Her faced blushed as she spoke to Lucien, "You people have proved the greatness of nature. And I think you guys are not all bad."

"Mr. Evans, please forgive my rudeness before. Sorcerers can see the greatness of nature as well, and you guys can use arcana to show the miracle." Arcelion also agreed, "After witnessing this experiment, I'm deeply shocked."

Although Lucien did not really understand why the elves could change their attitude toward sorcerers because of one single experiment, it was always not a bad thing to have allies, especially with druidic elves.

…

Radiance Church, Holm.

Three cardinals were waiting for the result of their assassination plan in Philibell's study.

At this time, a pastor came into the study, with a confidential letter in his hand, "My lord, here's the result. It's secretly sent by a sorcerer that we bribed from the congress."

Chapter 235: Impact

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Philibell jumped up from his chair and took over the letter with his slightly trembling hands. He wondered if the Congress had declared war against them.

In his mind, he believed that the assassination had succeeded, because this was the only explanation why the letter was sent by the sorcerer that they bribed, instead of their other channels. If the Congress managed to take over Holm, the fact that some sorcerers were working for the Church would be easily found out. For the sorcerers who wanted to gain as much benefit as they could, the best scenario would be the one where the balance between the Congress and the Church was maintained.

Casting holy light from his eyes, Philibell first scanned the letter to make sure that it was safe to open. He had been dealing with the sorcerers for so many years since he took over the Holm parish, thus Philbell knew how cunning and crafty those sorcerers were. For example, the letter could possibly contain some kind of medium for casting the spell, Invade Brain.

After making sure there were no magic traps in the envelope, Philibell finally opened it and unfolded the thin piece of paper in it:

"The Will of Elements presented a simple experiment simulating the pre-historic natural environment. Under the close watch of many arcanists and the two night watchers, and without the intervention of neither magic nor divine power, after a week of cycling, life ingredients were created in the reactor, including aspartic acid and more. The two night watchers and one old sorcerer who followed the God of Truth could not handle the research finding with their collapsed ontology, and thus they were devoured by their inner power right on the spot.

"God created the world in seven days… Cardinal Philibell, is this how it was?"

Then the letter briefly introduced how the reactor was built, how the experiment was conducted, and what the findings were.

"Life ingredients…? pre-historic natural environment" Philibell murmured the words as if he was dreaming. And he recognized the handwriting immediately—the letter was not from a random sorcerer that the Church bribed, but from Douglas, the president of the Congress of Magic!

Douglas mentioned every single step of the experiment. Philibell knew what this meant: Douglas, as an outstanding grand arcanist, was too proud to lie, and he was a hundred percent confident that the experiment was valid and correct.

Philibell's hands had senile plaques on them. Holding the letter, his hands started to tremble fiercely, "My Lord… What shall we do here? What are you trying to tell us? Why do you want mortals to enter your realm?"

His pure, crystal-like soul appeared in the air above his body, whose light lit up the study in a gentle way. The piece of paper gradually dropped onto the ground.

"Philibell, what's wrong?! Don't let your belief in the Lord be affected!" as Vaharall was shouting at him, black waves appeared and surrounded Philibell to stabilize his power.

"I'm okay… and I've never doubted God." Philibell calmed down a bit and slightly shook his head, "Don't worry about me. I'm not going to collapse. I did forecast this before when the sorcerers successfully synthesized carbamide and fatty acid, but I just did not expect that the result could be so shocking that it almost hurt my soul."

"What's on that letter?" Varantine picked up the piece of paper on the ground. He believed that he was already mentally prepared for this.

Philibell did not stop him, but stared at Varantine to see his reaction with a pair of meaningful eyes.

"Bastards!" Without even finishing reading the letter, Varantine swore aloud out of rage. He could not believe that those vicious sorcerers actually did this experiment to pry into the forbidden realm of God. He could not believe how disrespectful they were and how they dared do this!

Doing an experiment like this, in Varantine's mind, was enough to push someone into hell thousands of times. His core understanding of this world and fundamental belief in God was built on Creationism, and after reading this letter, something warm and sweet upwelled to his throat.

Golden blood gushed out from his mouth, and his body was covered with dim light. Despite the fact that his soul was injured, Varantine gnashed, "We shall declare war! An all-out war! We shall purify the Congress of Magic to defend the glory of God!"

Luckily for Varantine, he had already gone through the most difficult time when the previous two researches came out, so he didn't get severely injured when facing the words from the president of the Congress of Magic, Douglas. However, this was still the first time in the past a hundred and sixty nine years that Varantine spat blood like this since he had come to this level.

In contrast, when the bad-tempered Vaharall finished reading the letter, he was not too shocked, but his face still looked very gloomy. Slowly, he squeezed the words out of his teeth with great rage, "We shall not always focus this much on the heresy sect in the north anymore. It's time to pull back our attention and put it on those vicious sorcerers who are trying to reach their bloody hands to the exclusive realm of God!"

Vaharall was a legendary knight, and his power was from his own Blessing. Therefore, the great impact on his cognition might affect his belief in God to some degree, but could not kill him.

"What we shall do right now is to block the information, calm the pastors down, and then gradually modify their understanding of Creationism," Philibell said to them.

The pastor who brought the letter was standing in the corner. He dare not read the letter on the desk.

At this time, there came some hurried footsteps outside of the study, and cardinal who was wearing a red robe and long shawl rushed in the study, and, as a relatively powerful pastor, he still looked helpless and nervous, "Lord Philibell! A pastor in Radiance Church just got devoured by holy light! And many parishes have reported that most pastor, even cardinals, are experiencing great impact on their cognition of their belief! Although so far we only have two pastors who were devoured by their power, most of the pastors are feeling confused and desperate now. They're urgently begging you, Lord Philibell, to prove to them that the experiment which produces life ingredients in a pre-historic natural environment is fake!"

"What?!" Philip was even more shocked now. He had never expected that the Congress could spread the news so fast.

…

In the early morning, a bunch of newspaper kids were yelling on the streets energetically,

"Newspaper, newspaper! Latest Holm News! Earlier than usual!"

Hearing that, many people on the streets started looking for five Fells in their purses, as they knew that there must be something important in the newspaper.

Influenced by those magic schools, common people living here in Holm were more educated than the average people in other countries across the ocean, and they also more or less cared about the development of magic. Therefore, newspapers here, especially in Rentato, sold better.

Meanwhile, those nobles who did not need to rush to work were right now enjoying their breakfast while reading Holm News as usual, and those people included many pastors and cardinals.

A young pastor left his room and came to the cathedral's dining hall. After his praying, there was buttered bread and sausages on the plates in front of him. Beside the plates, there was a pile of newspaper.

"Holm News?" the pastor was a little bit surprised, and he asked the pastor who was still in training sitting close to him, "Isn't this issue earlier than usual?"

"My Lord," the pastor answered respectfully, "I'm not very sure, but it's said that something big just happened in Rentato."

"Oh?" The pastor picked up the newspaper. As usual, the first page was about the old king, who just went for hunting the other day, followed by lots of nobles, but Prince Patrick was not there.

However, when he turned the newspaper to the second page, a striking black title appeared in his sight, "An Experiment Simulating the Pristine Natural Environment."

"Experiment?! Those sorcerers are on the newspaper now?" The young pastor was shocked. As he read it even further, he added, "Lie! Shameless lie! This is blasphemy!"

The other pastors in training were all scared. When they saw that the pastor started throwing plates and bowls onto the ground, they all took a few steps back.

After a long time, the pastor murmured to himself in a puzzled way, "Lie… This must be a lie! I'm gonna report this to the head Cardinal, and he will prove that it is a lie!"

The same scenario occurred in most of the churches and cathedrals in Holm parish, and almost simultaneously in churches in the Kingdom of Colette.

The Congress of Magic had shown its great influence!

…

"That's basically what happened." The other cardinal slowly calmed down a bit.

Philibell asked seriously, "But why would Holm News publish this experiment?"

"The headquarter and divisions of the newspaper are right now under the control of the Congress. They've printed out the latest issue of Holm News in every city," the cardinal explained. "However, all people involved in this had fled."

Philibell was still confused, "But how can they communicate with each other in real time? Sound transmission spells cost a lot and casting those spells means lots of work… How could they take action so fast?"

"So far, we have no idea yet, Lord Philibell," answered the cardinal.

Vaharall said to Philibell seriously,

"Philibell, you stay here and control the situation. I go to see the pope for his instruction."

When Philibell was left alone in the study after everyone got their own tasks, he signed slowly, "What is your true will, Lord?"

…

Lance, the Holy city.

Benedict II, the Pope, was right now calmly looking at the cardinals standing in front of him. Then, lifting his scepter, he said to them seriously, "Have you all forgotten the word from Lord? It is always the soul that goes up to Mountain Paradise, not one's flesh and blood!"

Chapter 236: Lucien's New Magic

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

After experiencing the great shock brought by the previous two experiences, the fact that Life Force Theory was overturned was not such a big surprise for those grand cardinals. However, they had imagined that the Congress was right now targeting Creationism, the realm of God.

The success of the experiment forced the grand cardinals and legendary knights to doubt Creationism, and they started to question themselves whether this was a true forbidden realm that only belonged to God. They did not know what to do, and showing their great anger seemed to be the only way right now that they could hide their inner fear and guilt.

Over the past hundreds of years, the several popes had all put emphasis on introducing arcana to improve divine spells, and thus all the grand cardinals were also relatively profound in arcana. If a grand cardinal went to the congress, within a year or two, he or she would probably be around middle-rank level. Therefore, despite the fact that they were all very angry, they still had countless ideas going on in their minds, using all their wisdom to find a loophole in the experiment. As long as they could find one, they would say that the experiment was a mistake, and so they could defend Creationism.

Before the Pope spoke, the Bright Hall was just as noisy as the market in Lance.

"This experiment is just a prototype of the prehistoric natural environment described by legends, and no one can say that this is the real environment where the God of Truth created the world," said the Pope, Benedict II.

"But that's also what Canon tells us… Lightning, flood, volcano…"

"What Cannon describes is only the tangible environment, but what about the gases? It is possible that the gases involved in the experiment are not the original ones when God first created everything. Did any of you notice that there was no oxygen used in the experiment? In the Congress' eyes, oxygen is the most useful gas to the human body."

"But… This is just our assumption…"

"We do not need to prove their mistake. We only need to emphasize the possible errors existing in this experiment," said the pope. "It is the sorcerers who should prove everything, not us. If they can't prove it, they can never overturn Creationism."

The pope's new perspective comforted the grand cardinals. They were less angry now, and they started listening to the pope in a relatively calm way.

The pope's tone was getting tougher, "Regardless of whether the experiment is valid or not, I admit that the experiment indeed has proved the fact that life ingredients can be generated by a natural environment. However, is it something that can just shake your belief in God? Can you just say that life is not bestowed by God?"

The cardinals remained silent.

"A body needs a soul, but a soul does not require a body. A soul without a body can be the Holy Spirit, petitioner, or life in other forms. So, let me ask you… What is the essence of life?

"It is the soul that ascends to Mountain Paradise, never the flesh. I think that the reason why you are feeling confused right now is that the first pope who started the composition of Canon did not make this point clear enough.

"So you tell me… Who created nature? Who created the laws of nature? It was God. God owns the glory for life ingredients being produced following the laws of nature!"

A series of questioning and answers had clearly established and interpreted a new Creationism. The great anxiety in the grand cardinals mind gradually disappeared, and then they became devoted again.

The saint cardinal, Sard, who moved through a magic portal directly from Aalto to Holm, was crossing in front of his chest. His eyes, which were often dim, right now were beyond clear,

"All glory shall go to God. Pope Benedict, please let all our pastors and cardinals hear the true will of God, so they can feel the might and glory of God."

Compared to the time when Lucien saw Sard in the Psalm Hall, Sard now looked even more aged and sophisticated, and his eyes appeared to be deeper and darker, as if they could absorb the light around him.

"This is the most important thing for us at the moment. We shall have all the cardinals and pastors in every parish feel Lord's true will." The Pope calmly commanded, "At the same time, send more people to Holm and Colette to help Philibell and Varahall with reassuring their people."

Although it was clear that the most important task in front of them right now was stabilizing the Church's belief foundation, and thus not a good opportunity to go to war against the Congress of Magic, Stone and other knights were still being quite restless.

"Your Grace, shall we just let those sorcerers go? They've insulted the Church to this degree, and they must pay the blood price. If we do nothing, those sorcerers would see us as being weak and timid, and they would keep attacking us."

"That's what they want. They want us to declare a war against them when we are not ready. And If we do, we will definitely suffer from great loss facing our north Church enemies and the heresy followers and dark creatures in the Dark Mountain Range. Although they will for sure also suffer a great loss, we've got more enemies than they do right now. Without we distracting them, the Congress would grow very fast," answered the pope calmly. "The sorcerers know that we will be having a great war sooner or later, so they always want us to start the war when we are in an unfavourable position, because defending is always much easier than attacking. We serve God, so we value the glory of God the most, not ours. We've permeated the Congress to some degree, and we will make them pay, but not now. However, of course, we shall start switching our major attention to the Congress side from now on."

Then, the pope turned around and started giving orders, "Stone, you lead the Knights of Grail to Holm to assist Philibell. Augusta, you go to the north and try to parley with the North Church to ask them to show their resolution in defending God's glory by facing the sorcerers as well. This is a tough task, and I hope your faith in Lord can help you with it."

After receiving their tasks, the grand cardinals started leaving one by one. In the end, only the pope was left in the Bright Hall.

When he dropped his scepter, the Pope looked just like an ordinary senior. The light surrounding him made him look very lonely.

…

The research project was over, and what they needed to do was just to wait for another four to five months until the crops turned ripe. So the druids were now about to head back to Stroop Forest by taking the magic steam train.

The druids felt that they had experienced and seen a lot in this trip, especially with the experiment. Although all those human being's creations such as the train were quite nice, they were still not even close to the greatness of nature, which could produce and nurture the miracle of life!

"Then, Mr. Evans, see you five months later." Iristine waved her hands toward Lucien through the train window with a sweet smile on her face, "I really hope that the alchemical product that you found can save the farmers from starving."

To some degree, both elves' and human beings' way of thinking could be quite strange. When an elf or a person hated someone, no matter what that the person did, everything appeared to be nasty. However, once they changed their impression toward that person, everything started to be more acceptable.

"Mr. Evans," said Iristine in a nice way, "honestly speaking, I feel that you're pretty thoughtful with your understanding of how we should protect mother nature from our recent conversations. The only thing is that you always take your human being's perspective."

Beside her, Arcelion turned around and slight nodded, "Mr. Evans, you are welcome to visit Stroop. I believe that when you're actually there, you'll appreciate mother nature even more. Of course, you'll find nice elven music there as well."

Lucien, with his one hand in his long jacket pocket, waved the other hand slightly, "Your highness, see you five months later. Actually, I'm more interested in the old books developed from the long history of elves."

Lucien' magic robe, Transformation, was already fixed, and the Hand of Paleness paid for it.

The train whistle tooted. Gradually accelerating, the magic steam train left the station.

Putting the other hand into the pocket, Lucien walked to the other end of the station to meet with other senior sorcerers from the Will of Elements, and there he saw a familiar face.

"When did you come back, K!" Lucien was quite surprised. Without K's help, Lucien would have never published his periodic table of elements paper on Element.

K did not change much in the past month. He was still strong and tall, wearing the same long, black coat, and he was still shy.

"I just came back. And I met Mr. Larry." K lightly scratched the back of his head.

"Was everything okay when you went back?" asked Lucien in a concerned way.

"The problem's been solved," said K mildly. "It was actually not a big deal. My parents got scared when a senior official from the city council was giving them a hard time. Since I'm a sorcerer, I'm also a member of the city council, and that was why they wanted me to go back."

"Great. Let's go back to Allyn together, then?" Seeing the train was arriving, Lucien asked him.

K took a quick look at Larry who was standing beside him a bit shyly, "Thanks for your invitation, Lucien. But from today on, I'll be following Mr. Larry around and doing research after him. I've heard your stories, and they were amazing. I could not believe that you not only won the Holm Crown prize but also led to the overturn of Life Force Theory within the past one month. You know… I feel like you're still a teacher in the school, measuring elements behind my back. Life's just amazing."

Shy as K, he was more talkative than usual as he was trying to express his great surprise.

"I'm going to stay in the Royal Magic Tower of Holm for a while." Larry joined their conversation, "Those questions put forward by you offered Mr. Gaston and me lots of ideas and great inspiration, and we are heading toward a new direction in studying the dissolution of some alchemical products. Thank you, Lucien. Your sharp way of thinking is really valuable."

Then, Larry quickly shook hands with Lucien.

"By the way," Larry continued, "the fifth circle spell, Fernando's Electromagnetic Message, which was inspired by your bat experiment, really helped us a lot this time. From now on, communication between middle-rank sorcerers and above shall be much easier. Of course, we can still improve the spell further. Right now, the way of communication is facing a few problems, such as its confidentiality issue, the fact that it can be easily interrupted by lightnings, and that it cannot go through the barriers between different spaces… But anyway, this is a great spell, especially when you think about how expensive casting a voice messaging spell can be."

Lucien nodded, "I'm sure that the spell will be further improved."

In his mind, Lucien was very impressed by this spell created by Lord of Storm after combining radio wave, cryptology and electromagnetic wave together. When two sorcerers agreed on a certain wave frequency, they could talk to each other directly. Even for those junior-rank sorcerers who could not learn this spell, they could still buy a magic item enchanted with this spell with their approximate ten-year's saving.

Lucien knew that there was still a deep and wide gap between Lord of Storm and himself. Although the invention of this spell was because of his bat research, Lucien was not going to be blindly proud of himself. He knew that it was time for him to study hard again, in order to create some of his own new spells, and one of them would be called Lucien's Infrared Eyes.

Gaston gave Lucien a sign to get him aboard the train, then he said to him, "Evans, because of your great contribution to the project, the congress and the Will of Elements have decided to give you a garden villa in Allyn as your reward, equipped with a magic lab set up by a senior-rank sorcerer, where most low to middle-rank experimental facilities are available. We hope that you can focus on studying arcana, so for the next whole year, you won't be receiving any tasks from either the Congress or the Will of Elements."

"That's great." Lucien nodded. After waving to Gaston, Larry and K, he boarded the train.

Chapter 237: Two Sides of the Land

Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Vermillion

The vibrant and colorful flowers were dancing in the wind. They made the pink-whitish buildings look alive. Inside the mansion, there were several platforms with complicated patterns engraved on the surface of them within a spacious room that was locked. Equipment like glass bottles, reaction burners, and connecting tubes were placed on top of those platforms. When compared to the normal lab equipment Lucien had seen on Earth, the equipment on the platform looked mysterious due to the enigmatic magic runes on them.

He had changed to a long lab robe from the black frock coat so he could move freely in the room. Lucien was focusing on the magic circles that could simulate the different parts of the spell models. A ball of red shadow appeared in the dark and it slowly stabilized after combining the models. Although it was a blurry shadow, he could see that it was a creature that looked like a rat with different colors on its body parts due to the difference in temperature.

Lucien deactivated the magic circles with a satisfied look on his face. He then whistled and turned on the arc lamps in the lab room. A palm-sized tiny house that was built with bricks and wooden planks appeared on the platform as the room was brightened up. Inside the house, there was an iron-eating rat with a modified bloodline, that was captured recently.

"Finally, Lucien's Infrared Eyes is completed but it seems the effect is weaker than I expected. Sadly, it's just a second circle spell, but I can use it as a way to check my surroundings." Lucien was familiar with the principles of the infrared thermal imaging technology but he was having trouble applying them to the patterns, runes, and incantations of the magic structure. He spent months studying the basics in the Congress of Magic and finally had the ability to create formal spells, as he could only create apprentice-level spells before that.

Lucien turned off the arc lamps after memorizing the spell model he created in mind.

The complicated and tongue-twisting incantation slowly echoed in the darkness as the shiny powder of the sun stone slid down Lucien's hands. His spiritual power vibrated and changed as he chanted the incantation, quickly constructing the core of the spell model under Lucien's control.

Lucien's left pupil turned from black to red, reflecting the image of the iron-eating rat in the cage, but the layering of the image was lacking.

Lucien turned his head to the window that was covered by the black curtain, he looked outside with his red left eye and saw a "red" bird flew by.

Lucien brought the light back to the lab room after making sure that the second circle spell was working. The redness faded away from his left eye and he could construct it in his soul when meditating during the night.

However, the strength of a sorcerer's souls was limited, and they could only construct a certain number of spell models at each rank. They needed to match their spells in a reasonable way, for example, supportive spells did not need to be constructed in the soul, they could just cast it with incantation, casting gestures, or magic materials when necessary.

There were many books like Spell Matching Technique in the Congress of Magic, explaining the knowledge of this specific field.

Although Lucien's Infrared Eyes was a supportive spell, it was very likely that he would cast it when being ambushed by an assassin. It would be important for him to cast it faster in that situation so he could track the assassin down easier.

Lucien rested for a while and opened his magic notebook, stopped at an extremely complicated image of a spell structure, closed his eyes, and started meditating.

The starry sky of destiny was surrounded by the wind, fire, and water elements. The elements were the ones which composed Lucien's meditation environment.

In the meditation environment, the colorful elements were moving following several specific paths. They looked like glowing fireflies moving in an endless night sky. They matched up with each other and then separated from time to time. It was a mysterious scene that was hard to be understood, and displayed the secrets and rules among the elements.

Lucien grabbed the quill and started drawing the paths that he sensed during the process after finishing his meditation. They quickly turned into magic patterns and runes.

Lucien stopped drawing as the spell model was almost completed. The model was built with straight lines, curves, and curved surfaces, but he was confused. He was trapped in the problem that had been bothering him since he started learning sorcery.

"Why can those magic patterns and runes represent some of the spell structure? Why can I cast the spell after they're combined with the spiritual power? Why did the structure appear after I completed the periodic table and the meditation environment resonated with the real world? K, Lazar, and Rock have already accepted the periodic law of elements and mapped them into the meditation environment but none of them resonated with the real world after I checked with them…

"What is the nature of the sorcery?"

Lucien put down the quill after writing down his questions and synchronized them to the magic notebook in the soul library. He started thinking about the third circle spell that was about to be constructed.

"The spell came from the periodic law of the basic elements. It basically involves controlling, switching their electrons, and returning them to their original positions. It can be used to decompose chemical compounds like alchemy products, magic items, human body parts, and some spells. The more unstable the compound status is, the easier it can be decomposed. However, the ability to control them will only improve as the sorcerer rank goes up. It's like the weaker version of the legendary spell from Hathaway, the Lord of Elements, Elements Resolve."

Lucien had already read some core information after joining the Will of Elements and the information introduced the ability, statuses, and the materials required for the advancing ritual of the two legendary classes: Lord of the Elements and Innovator. Also, the abilities of the legendary spells that came with the classes were also explained.

"It seems I'll be able to complete the third circle spell before I become a middle-rank sorcerer. If I can successfully advance to the next rank, the two spell models I'll construct will be this and the flying spell. So, how should I name it? Lucien's Elements Resolve? Evan's Elements Control? They either sound bad or repetitive." Lucien thought for a while and recalled the cool nickname Florencia gave him, "Alright, I'll just call it Elemental Order!"

A third circle spell with a name that was similar to those of a ninth circle and a legendary spell, Lucien's guilty pleasure was satisfied. It was a signature spell, just like his Professor's Oscillation Hand.

Lucien calmed down from the excitement and, when he was about to start the next magic experiment, he realized that he used up most of the magic materials, so he was disappointed.

In the last several months, Lucien purchased the White Glycerin, the Silver Pearl, and the Oak potions to help progress the meditation with the elemental rain. The three potions were very effective for junior rank sorcerers. The White Glycerin and Silver Pearl would help strengthen one's spiritual power and soul. The Oak and Florencia's Elixir helped him stabilize his foundation. Lucien's sorcery skills were increasing at an unbelievable rate with the help of those things.

However, potions with strong effects were expensive. The White Glycerin was ten arcana points per bottle, the Silver Pearl was twenty arcana points per bottle, and the Oak was eight points per bottle. He needed to purchase three bottles of each potion every month.

Lucien would get forty-five arcana points from the Congress of Magic every month after becoming a level four arcanist and second circle sorcerer, but he had to use some of the arcana points he saved in the past. Also, he needed to purchase materials for his spell practice, magic analysis, alchemy study, potion craft, and the magic experiment. In this last case, the required materials were extremely expensive. He needed to use high-rank material, like the sun stone, before constructing Lucien's Infrared Eyes in the soul. Lucien had more than 2670 arcana points five months ago but he only had about 1100 points left after all that.

"Arcana points are so hard to earn, but I can't do anything without them," Lucien looked at the empty glass bottles that previously were filled up with magic materials and sighed. Lazar heard him saying something like this several days ago and he was jealous. It was nearly impossible for a normal second circle sorcerer to use magic potions and materials like Lucien. They would spend about fifty arcana points when they were about to advance, but only fifteen points per month under normal circumstances.

In Lazar's words, Lucien was living the life of a forth or fifth circle sorcerer, and that was why he spent so many arcana points. Also, Lazar admitted that it was normal for a level four arcanist to use so many points.

Lucien calmed down and cleaned the magic lab.

He smiled and shook his head. "No pain, no gain. I can try to advance to the third circle and become a middle-rank sorcerer before I use up all my arcana points. I'll be able to fly in the blue sky using my own will.

"Well, I need to go to the magic tower of the headquarter and the Allyn division of Will of Elements to purchase materials and potions again. The good thing is that I can get a 20% discount as a level four arcanist and it'll make me feel better…

"July the 30th again…"

…

The City of Psalm, the ground level of an abbey in Aalto.

Natasha was wearing a long linen robe with her feet bare. The long purple hair trailed over her shoulders, and her silver-purple eyes were deep like an endless sea. It felt like the danger was hiding under the peaceful surface of the sea. Natasha had not left the place for over a year and she successfully cured the consequences of the surge force in her bloodline power. She was getting closer and closer to level seven without any problem.

The room was dark but Natasha's eyes could see everything clearly. She sat on the floor on her knees and was reading a letter from somewhere far away.

"Haha, this guy will stand on the center of the stage and bring chaos to the land no matter where he is. I'm glad that he safely arrived at Allyn." It would take about half a year for a letter from Holm to be delivered, but Natasha already learned that a genius sorcerer named Lucien Evans X artificially synthesized the carbamide from the intel department of the Church and the Republic months ago. The discovery forced the Church to redefine the Creationism.

The Church focused on dealing with Felipe and they did not pay too much attention to this genius sorcerer. Although Natasha assumed that it was Lucien, she was worried until the letter that was written in special codes arrived. Also, she started arranging a plan for John so the Church would not retaliate after they found out who Lucien really was.

Natasha bit her lips with her clean teeth and talked to herself with mixed emotions, "Are you the reason why they modified the Holy Canon?"

Natasha was a relatively devout believer. She trusted the Creationism a lot in the past, and it was an unpleasant experience when what she believed was proven wrong.

She had a strong mind and that was what helped her finish the letter. Natasha's expression loosened as she was attracted to the events that unfolded during Lucien's trip. The story was much better than the operas or the ones told by the bards.

Natasha was a bit surprised as she read through the letter, "He was awarded the Holm Crown Prize as well?" She spoke in a caring tone, and a gentle expression appeared on her face as she thought about her mother.

Natasha chuckled after thinking for a while. "How long has this guy been studying arcana? How did he get the prize? Don't tell me he's more talented in arcana than in music.

"Anyway, he's definitely not talented in communicating with girls, ha, he's still alone, and I should probably teach him the way of dealing with girls. Hmm, Lucien will cooperate with the elves and druids? Will the music of nature from the elves inspire him? Rhine? Haven't heard about him for a while…

"I sent him a letter last month but I don't know when he will receive it."

The dark room was quiet and the atmosphere in there was light.

Chapter 238: Partner

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Sorcerer Administrative Department.

Eric took out Lucien's arcana badge from the magic cage. On the badge, the four shining silver stars looked beautiful and mysterious against the black background, as if there were innumerable secrets behind the stars.

"Seven hundred and eight arcana credits in total. Even if you stop publishing arcana papers for a while, you would have no troubling upgrading to level five in one year or two." Eric, being quite emotional, handed the badge over to Lucien, "You'll be the youngest level five arcanist ever in history, but also, among all the level five arcanists, your magic level is the lowest."

Eric, a level three arcanist, still had hope in upgrading to level four since there was only a difference of two-hundred arcana credits between the level three and four, and with his years of efforts, there were only more thirty-six points to go before he could move forward to the next level. However, level five, in Eric's eyes, appeared to be so inaccessible. Thus, when he saw this young man who just joined the congress less than a year ago and was already on his way to become a level five arcanist, Eric inevitably sighed in his mind.

As long as this young man could keep working hard and avoid being arrogant, Eric was sure that sooner of later, Lucien's magic level could catch up, and, for sure, the congress would help such a young, talented sorcerer with further upgrading to senior-rank. So, in Eric's mind, Lucien was right on his way to become a senior-rank sorcerer.

Lucien took the badge over and shortly played with it in his hands, then he smiled, "Mr. Eric, thank you for you nice words, but the past two months have shown that the sweet time of sitting there and gaining credits won't last any longer."

Due to the heated discussion over Life Force Theory, at the end of the Month of Dormancy, the second of the year, Lucien gained a hundred fifty-eight credits, and only forty-two credits were from other people citing his periodic table and atomic weight re-measurement paper.

However, after that month, because Felipe's experiment and the experiment simulating pre-historic natural environment—people called it the Experiment of Miracle now—clearly overweighed Lucien's experiment with synthesizing carbamide, way less credits went to Lucien. Instead, as more arcanists started putting forward their research findings based on his periodic table and atomic weight re-measurement paper, Lucien gained a hundred forty-three credits on this side, and his paper on using alchemical products for increasing crop yield also made a contribution of almost ten credits.

Then in the recent two or three months, there was a sharp decline in the number of times his papers were being cited, and then it got more steady—around ten times every month. This was why Lucien could draw the conclusion that, if he did not come up with something else new, it might take him around two years to become a level five arcanist.

"Your paper on the periodic table of elements is part of the foundation of the school of Element, so I'm sure that it will consistently bring you a good ammount of credits every month. When your arcana and magic level reach level five and fifth circle, you can come to me and apply for the magic rites to help you upgrade further." Eric nodded, "And… you don't have to call me Mr. Eric all the time, after all, your arcana level's already higher than mine."

Then Eric handed Lucien his magic badge, "Two points from other people learning your new spell, and forty-five from the Congress, as your subsidy."

According to the congress, a level one arcanist could get a subsidy of one Thale or point every month, or magic material of the same value; level two would reward five points; level three was twenty; level four was forty; level five was eighty; level six was three hundred; level seven was five hundred; level eight nine hundred; level nine, two thousand. This was the same with one's magic level, and they could overlap.

Before taking over the magic badge with the same two black circles on it from Eric, Lucien first put his arcana badge on his left chest, and instantly, he felt very refreshed. This was a new magic buff enchanted in the arcana badge when the badge was upgraded to middle-rank. When Lucien became a senior-rank arcanist, he could get one more buff, which was the same with magic badge.

"Thank you, Mr. Eric. I think I gotta go now." Lucien picked up his top hat from the chair and slightly bowed, "I need to go to Exchange Zone to get some materials."

As soon as Lucien left Eric's office, he saw Felipe walking out of another office. Still, both of Felipe's hands were in his pockets, and his face always had a sickly look.

Felipe also saw Lucien, and he was a bit surprised. After nodding to him slightly, Felipe took a quick glance at Lucien's left chest, and then there was a gloomy smile on his face, "Still the same, uh? The two badges…"

Hearing that, Lucien quickly looked at Felipe's badges in front of his chest. There were five mysterious stars on Felipe's arcana badge, surrounded by countless little light spots, and even more surprisingly, on his magic badge, there were six black circles on it!

That meant Felipe was a senior-rank now.

Finally, Felipe became the first senior-rank mage among the younger generation, and that was to say he was one of the leaders of the Hand of Paleness now, since they only had a bit more than forty senior-rank sorcerers, including those lich masters who had been existing for a very long time.

Before Lucien said anything, Felipe directly walked past him. Beside his shoulder, Felipe said to Lucien in a low voice, "Don't fall behind too far."

The corner of Lucien's lips twitched a bit.

…

When Lucien walked back to the hall along the corridor, Cindy first winked at Lucien, then she said to him in a professional tone, "Mr. Evans, someone's waiting for you over there."

Lucien was confused, having no idea who it was. Then, when he looked at the other side of the hall, Lucien saw a middle-aged man, as chubby as a ball, sitting on the couch beside the bar. Right now, he was tapping his forehead to remove the beads of sweat on it with a piece of handkerchief. The hot weather has been like that for a while.

"Mr. Arthur Doyle?" Lucien did not know why the president of Union Bank of Holm Mining wanted to see him.

Seeing Lucien was there, Arthur hurriedly left the handkerchief to his beautiful secretary, and then he came to Lucien, followed by his two strong safeguards. He grabbed Lucien's right hand enthusiastically with both of his hands and said, "Mr. Evans, I first went to your place, and your steward told me that you were here. I was in such a hurry coming over here, so I'm right now covered with sweat. And I think it's better for me not to hug you, haha."

The chubby president was quite polite. Lucien's impression on him was not bad.

"Mr. Doyle, what can I do for you?" asked Lucien.

There was a friendly smile on Arthur's chubby face, "Mr. Evans, let's get something to drink first."

Cindy brought two glasses of Rentato's well-known drink, Sky Blue, to them, and out of curiosity, she did not walk away. She wondered why the famous businessman, and also one of the most wealthy people in Rentato, wanted to talk to Lucien.

Behind the counter on the other side, Dona was very curious, too. However, she could not just leave the reception desk at her own will. Right now she was staring at Cindy, who was playing the role as Lucien's secretary, in a slightly unhappy way. However, Cindy just looked away and pretended that she saw nothing.

Arthur shook his glass slightly and took a sip, "This is really refreshing."

After taking a glance at Cindy, Arthur continued, as there was nothing to hide, "Mr. Evans, I'm here today seeking for a partnership with you."

"I see…" Lucien gave the liquid in his glass a swirl.

Arthur's secretary took out a thick pile of documents and handed them to Lucien, and Arthur continued, "I've been to Sariva already, and the yield of crops in your experiment plot is beyond my imagination. I can't see anyone, nobles or farmers, say no to the alchemical product that you found. From Prince Patrick, I know that you guys've already got a mass-production plan. Mr. Evans, because it was you who first found those products, according to law, you can make the decision regarding who you want to work with. And according to the Congress, if we can set up a company together, the Congress shall get fifteen percent of the share, and you have fifteen percent as well. Let me put it this way… I hope that we can work together to promote and sell these alchemical products. Neither the Congress or you need to spend even a single Thale on this, as our bank can pay for everything. So I can assure you that we are the best partner."

Lucien quickly leafed through the documents, and he knew that the mass production of some of the alchemical products also required the assistance of Mining Association. Thus, Lucien was quite opened to the offer.

"Honestly speaking, Mr. Doyle, I'm interested in it, but I still want to take a closer look at the articles in the contract." Of course, Lucien would like to have a steady income, but there was no way that he would not agree with Arthur right away.

Arthur grinned, "Mr. Evans, you're a talented sorcerer, valued by both the Congress and the Will of Elements. I'm just an ordinary businessman, well… noble businessman… but so what? The last thing I would do is to lie to the Congress and you. Honestly speaking, I don't want to die yet right now."

It was clear that, in most ordinary people's mind, sorcerers were intimidating. Although many people would like to be a sorcerer, they did not really like those people who could easily decide their destiny.

After negotiating with each other for a while, Arthur lowered his voice and whispered beside Lucien's ear, "Actually, I'm sent here by Prince Patrick. If you agree on working with us, Prince Patrick will provide you with another extra five percent of the share, as a gift from His Excellency."

Lucien grinned as someone he knew in Aalto jumped into his mind, but then slightly shook his head, "Actually, because of His Excellency, I'm willing to give up my original insistence, which is thirty percent. Then, I hope we have a pleasant cooperation."

"Great! Thank you, Mr. Evans." Arthur Doyle was so happy that his smile lifted his cheeks almost to the point where his eyes disappeared.

After checking and signing the contract, Arthur asked Lucien, partly to please him, "Mr. Evans, can you come up with a product name for us? You know, a simple and good name for promoting the products…"

Lucien searched in his mind for a while, and offered his name, "Jinkela¹."

________

¹Jinkela: The author played a joke here. Jinkela is a brand fertiliser produced in China. Because of the company's exaggeration and super fake way of advertisement, in China, the fertiliser brand is regarded as a joke.

Chapter 239: The Elves' Second Visit

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"Jin… ke… la…?" Arthur was very confused. He even repeated this word to himself a few times to feel the possible meaning of it, which almost made Lucien burst out laughing.

"Well…" Lucien rubbed his cheeks a bit to stay serious, "Because soils are different, sometimes we have to use those alchemical products separately. When they're all mixed together, lets call it Jinkela. Then we have Jinkela No. 1, Jinkela No. 2, things like that…"

Seeing that Lucien was being quite "serious", Arthur put on his typical businessman smile, "Great name, Mr. Evans. Great name! Let's call it… Umm… Jinke… la."

Lucien, in fact, never found any of his talent in naming, just like Mr. Victor and Rhine.

After having the product name, they together named the new company Holm Mineral and Harvest.

Mr. Eric being the witness, Arthur and Lucien signed another contract, and Mr. Eric also signed it, representing the Congress of Magic.

"Cheers, Mr. Evans, Mr. Eric." Arthur lifted his glass.

Lucien smiled and drank all the liquor in his glass, "Hope we can work well together, Mr. Doyle. When you promote the products, make sure that you put the dosage clear, because overuse can do damage to soil."

"Of course, we always respect an arcanist's opinion." Arthur nodded, and then he asked the secretary to take out another thick pile of documents and handed it to Lucien.

"This is our mass-production plan. Please take a look at the magic circles design, Mr. Evans, to see if there's anything that should be improved. After all, you're the one who's professional." Arther tried to flatter Lucien in the end. After all, Lucien was a level four arcanist, and the winner of Holm Crown prize.

Lucien quickly leafed through it and recognized that the plan was basically based on the paper about how to minimize energy consumption and cost of large-scale alchemical magic circles by transferring energies into different forms, published on the latest issue of Alchemy. In other words, according to the paper, the author suggested to build magic towers over rivers of great runoff volume to collect potential energy, and then transfer it into electricity through magnetic field.

"Magic hydropower station…" Lucien murmured.

Lucien knew that no matter how those alchemical magic circles were arranged, they were going to be very expensive, because they would need high quantities of special magic gems, which could continuously gain power from sunlight, moonlight or shadow to function properly, and even if those magic circles were not set up for permanent use, replacing parts would still cost a lot.

Either way, Lucien smiled and handed the proposal back to Arthur, "This is the best plan, and the extra power might still be used somewhere else."

"Great. I'll keep in touch with those alchemical arcanists, and, please, Mr. Evans, give us your suggestions when you come up with anything." Arthur nodded, "The first year of setting everything up might not be able to bring you any profit, but you should be able to see the money in the second year, Mr. Evans."

After Arthur Doyle left, when Lucien turned around to say goodbye to Eric, he saw that the two receptionist girls were staring at him with their hands supporting their chins, and their eyes were shining.

"It's so nice to be profound… Mr. Evans." Cindy sighed with mixed emotions, then she waved her right fist a bit, "I must become a sorcerer! I want to earn other people's respect like you, Mr. Evans! And I want to have the wealth that I deserve!"

Born in a common citizen family in Rentato, Cindy, when she was still a little girl, heard the name of Arthur Doyle all the time, from adults and Holm News. When she saw how Arthur Doyle talked to Lucien, she really realized what being a sorcerer meant in this society. She now deeply believed in the power of knowledge and hard work. She believed that as long as she worked hard, her efforts would pay off.

Dona also grinned, "Mr. Evans, we all should learn from you. Your story keeps telling us that hard work really matters. By the way, are you still taking more students with your arcana tutoring class? Can we also be your students?"

In front of Mr. Eric, Dona chose to call Lucien by Mr. Evans, however, in her mind, she was also a bit in awe of Lucien although they were friends, especially when she saw Lucien's arcana and magic badges. Lucien was making such an amazing progress that all of his friends felt that they were left behind.

"If you've got time, feel free to come on Saturday," said Lucien, he wondered if the arcana tutoring class was going to grow bigger and bigger, and maybe in the future, the class could turn into a group like the Hand of Paleness or the Will of Elements.

Eric looked at Lucien, trying to say something, but in the end, he just tried to comfort him, "Evans, did you just run into Felipe? Don't mind him… He's always like that."

He heard the first part of Felipe and Lucien's conversation in his office.

Cindy and Dona suddenly quieted down, because of one thing. Felipe won the Immortal Throne prize again because of his experiment overthrowing Life Force Theory, and besides, he also won Holm Crown prize together with another anonymous leader of the Will of Elements, being now the twenty-seventh winner of the prize. Felipe's reputation and fame just peaked.

However, in the eyes of Hand of Paleness, the experiment synthesizing carbamide was not important enough, and the experiment of miracle required further investigation for specific purpose of use, this was why they did not offer Lucien the Immortal Throne prize.

Therefore, both the two girls and Eric believed that Lucien did not want to see Felipe.

This time, Felipe won a magic robe as the Immortal Throne prize, and last time it was an amulet. The name of the robe was Life, and the name of ring he received for winning the Holm Crown prize was Sager Acid, from the fatty acid that he synthesized.

And of course, facing the fact that Felipe got another two level seven, perfect rank magic items, he was jealous.

…

Sariva.

Holding his farm tools, farmer Roy walked past the pilot field. He knew that he'd been doing this for so much time, but he still could not stop himself from staring at it.

How beautiful and full those grains were! How beautiful the harvest was!

"I wish I had those…" Roy murmured to himself, and his heart was filled with hope. He wished that one day his crops could be like this, so after paying all the taxes, he could still be able to feed the kids, and so they would not be so starving that they could not fall asleep at night.

And if he could have crops like this for a few years consecutively, he could save some money, then he could send his son, William, to knight training.

As a father, all in Roy's mind was his kids. However, soon, with a second thought, Roy looked frustrated.

At this time, a group of beautiful males and females with long ears approached him. And the leading girl asked him, "Can I ask you why you don't look happy when you see the harvest?"

Seeing that the girl was even way more beautiful than the town mayor's daughter, like an angel, Roy answered nervously, "…Lord… I'm… I'm not being unhappy. I'm just thinking that… that something that can make crops grow like this must only belong to masters… I… I mean…"

Roy was not educated. He did not know how to put it.

This time, taking the magic train, Iristine and Arcelion came back secretly without letting the Congress know, since they wanted to see what was really going on here, with their own eyes.

Seeing the harvest, they were beyond cheerful.

"Don't worry." Iristine smiled, "Those alchemical products are invented for you, for all farmers. You'll have the same harvest very soon."

"But… I've got no money." Roy's body twisted slightly out of his stress. He was worrying that they were going to be forced to buy those products, like taxes.

"The products are cheap." Iristine tried to comfort him, "Those rich people know how to do math."

Hearing that, Roy cheered up a bit, then he asked a bit urgently, "Can we use them first, and then pay?"

"Maybe." Iristine had no idea how this worked. So she left in a hurry with her group.

Seeing them leaving, Roy thought to himself, "Are they… elves? Long ears like that…"

But soon when he looked at the harvest field again, his heart was filled with real joy.

When he was about to thank God, he suddenly realized that those products were invented by sorcerers.

Soon Roy found a way to comfort himself, "Anyway… I work for my master. If he uses it, I'll follow."

Roy was not really such a devout follower. He cared more about his kids' future.

…

When Iristine and Arcelion were heading toward the alchemical factory, soon they sensed some pungent smell.

They were confused, so they walked faster. Then, they saw the big factory.

The factory was huge, like a great magic tower. Besides the great noise and the horrible smell, the water beside the factory was slightly black, and there were dead fish floating on it.

"Demon… We've released a… demon…" Iristine murmured like she was in a nightmare.

Chapter 240: The Elves' Good Impression

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Southwest of Allyn, in a beautiful garden villa.

Two maids were serving tea in fine porcelain cups to Iristine and Arcelion. Although they were well trained, they still could not help stealing a look at the two elves, because they were pretty and charming, and their long ears looked very unique.

In the living room, the apprentices were doing their arcana exercises on the big dining table. Sighing over and over, they felt overwhelmed, but at the same time, they were also peeking at Mr. Evans and the two elves, feeling very curious about what was going on there.

Although it was not the first time that the apprentices saw smart creatures of other races, such as elves, dwarves, and giants, they were still very impressed with Iristine and Arcelion's appearance, who looked gorgeous and elegant.

"That's what we saw, Mr. Evans, and may I know your opinion?" Iristine described what she saw beside the factory with a bit of an exaggeration. Right now, she was looking at Lucien, expecting his answer.

Although they were noble Sun Elves, this was only their second time leaving Stroop forest, and last time they had Malfurion, the grand elder, with them. This time, Iristine and Arcelion needed Lucien's help. They were hoping that Lucien, the winner of Holm Crown prize and the author of the alchemical product paper, could help them negotiate with the Congress.

"Mr. Evans, last time we came here we got along well… Well, I mean… in the end, we got along well with each other," said Arcelion sincerely. "I know that you're a nice human being who cares about nature a lot, despite the fact that, as a human being, you have to speak for your own race, but I also know that you're aware of the severity of this thing, Mr. Evans. You don't want to see human beings dying like those fish, right? I hope that you can propose to the Congress to shut down the factory, and probably more factories alike, to protect mother nature for all races."

Lucien took a sip of his tea and said slowly, "First of all, I want to say that… we cannot shut down the factory."

"What?" Iristine and Arcelion were obviously very disappointed.

Lucien used his hand gestures to let them cool down a bit and then he continued, "Without those alchemical products, most human beings would keep living in famine, and they'd die because of poverty even before they could see the consequence of doing damage to nature. And from a sorcerer's perspective, I'd like to see the development of human beings, since we always need money to grow. Therefore, either as a human being or a sorcerer, I would not agree on shutting down the factory."

Before Iristine and Arcelion went off on him, Lucien continued, "But, of course, we cannot deny the detrimental effects brought by the industry. We can design and set up more new magic circles to break down those contaminants to minimize the adverse impact on nature. We cannot just shut down all the alchemical factories simply because of the side effects and completely ignore their value."

Honestly speaking, dealing with pollution was way easier here than on Earth. Many elemental spells, such as Elements Resolve, Elemental Swirl, or Elemental Order, which was owned exclusively by Lucien, could handle the pollution perfectly. Moreover, Elements Resolve and Elemental Order could even recycle pure elements for further experiment use. The only two things that Lucien was thinking of now was the cost and the fact that he did not want to reveal his own exclusive spell right now, and thus he needed to redesign a fourth or fifth-circle magic by combining Elements Resolve and Elemental Order.

Hearing that, Iristine was relieved, and a smile appeared on her face, "Mr. Evans, we knew that you'd never disappoint us. We were basically shocked just now… You know, seeing the factory… We're sorry, Mr. Evans. We were not being reasonable. As long as the Congress is willing to increase the amount of magic circles, I believe that we'll be having more cooperations in the future."

Both Iristine and Arcelion learned a lot and grew more mature by dealing with human beings, and they started to understand the value of compromise and negotiation, as well as the necessity of keeping a balance between nature and human society. Of course, this kind of change was based on their overall good impression with sorcerers who proved the greatness of mother nature.

"Your Excellency, things are more complicated than this. I'm sure that we'll be expecting more factories in the close future, and we cannot just keep adding more magic circles after those factories are built. What's also concerning me is that, most people who run those factories might not want to listen to me, since adding magic circles increases their production cost, and things will thus go out of control. I'm planning on propose to the Congress that both the Congress and Holm should introduce laws and regulations forcing those factories to have cleansing magic circles integrated beforehand," said Lucien, and this was his original plan as well.

Arcelion jumped up from the couch and said to Evans excitedly, "Mr. Evans, thank you so much! You're a great friend of nature, elves and druids! You're way more thoughtful than us!"

"Mr. Evans, please stick to what you just said, and I'm sure that you're influential enough for this," said Iristine gratefully and sincerely. "If you need us, please feel free to ask. If things work out well, we can…"

Iristine was about to make some promises, but she stopped herself because she was not the one who could make decisions.

Lucien put down his cup and stood up, "Let's go to talk to the members of Affairs Committee."

There were three committees under the Highest Council:

Arcana Review Board: responsible for reviewing papers, evaluating spells, giving credits and assessing journals. The fifty-two sorcerers who worked there were all authorities in arcana, and they were respected the most among the three committees. Most of them were not busy at all.

Magic Research Board: responsible for examining and approving arcana and magic research projects, and sometimes the board released its own projects as well by establishing their own research groups. Besides that, the board was also responsible for managing magic labs and libraries. The board only had twenty-three members because they were also not very busy, and most of them were senior-rank arcanists who did not like fighting or adventuring. Some of the members also worked for Arcana Review Board.

Affairs Committee: responsible for day-to-day management of sorcerers, including apprentices, punishing, defending the Congress, intelligence, regulations making, Task Zone and Exchange Zone management. In other words, it represented the Highest Council, and it was the most powerful one among the three. The committee was further divided into different departments, and each department took care of one section. Forty-two committee members worked there, and most of them were outstanding battle sorcerers or senior-rank sorcerers who were good at handling affairs.

Six out of ten members of the three committees were from the senior level of the six magic groups, say, the Will of Elements or the Hand of Paleness, and the rest of them were either with the Congress or had their own smaller groups.

…

On the thirteenth floor of the magic tower, Lucien, Iristine and Arcelion were stopped by the gold golem guard.

"Three guests," said the golem in its low voice, "What's the purpose of your visit? Which committee member are you looking for?"

The fifteenth floor of Allyn Magic Tower belonged to Arcana Review Board, the eleventh floor to the Magic Research Board, and the floors between them all belonged to Affairs Committee, which had a lot of stuff to deal with every day.

"Hello. We're looking for Ms. Florencia," answered Lucien. He was only acquainted with two people here in this committee, and the other was Rogerio, who he met in Aalto before. Rogerio was from the Hand of Paleness, and there was no way that Lucien would go for him. Lucien was already lucky that Rogerio did not reveal his musician identity here.

The golem pointed at the couch, "Please wait here. I need to check if Ms. Florencia is available."

At this time, the elevator door opened. Felipe walked out of it. When he saw Lucien, he was a bit surprised.

"Dear Mr. Felipe, anything I can do for you?" The golem bowed toward Felipe, a senior-rank sorcerer, very respectfully.

"I'm seeking Mr. Carrol." Felipe slightly nodded. Carrol was another committee member here from the Hand of Paleness.

"This way please, sir," responded the golem.

Felipe just took a quick look at Lucien, and then he walked away with his hands in his pockets.

"Mr. Evans, do you think we shall contact Trumanri and the grand elder?" Iristine whispered in Lucien's ear. What just happened made her realize that Lucien was not as influential as she thought. However, both Iristine and Arcelion were still very grateful toward Lucien, or even more.

Lucien did not mind Iristine's suggestion, and he answered, "Let's first see what we can do here. If it doesn't work, I guess we have to have Mr. Malfurion here."

Facing the North Church and the South Church, the Congress of Magic was more than willing to work with elves and druids, but Lucien was not sure how much effort the Highest Council and the druids would like to put into this, so he wanted to try to do this himself first.

And gaining approval from the elves and druids was just a windfall for Lucien.

After a while, the golem came back, "Mr. Florencia is in her personal lounge, and she wants to see you there. Room 1314."

Lucien was surprised that Florencia was also here on Saturday. He really hoped that he could persuade her, as she was not only a leader of the Will of Elements and Holm Royal Magic Academy, but also the wife of the Hand of Annihilation.

However, to be honest, Lucien was not really confident, as they had only met each other once. Lucien really wondered how he could make Florencia agree with him.