Chapter 817: Alistair’s Lies and Schemes
While the fall of the first-generation Red Phase had nothing to do with her, Christina felt a strong sense of excitement, pride, and strong identification.
“This is my backing! It’s really backing and backing! Do you have such backing!”
After Alistair left, Christina excitedly discussed Alistair’s greatness with the other students and how powerful she was to be able to defeat the first-generation Red Phase.
Her eyes seemed to sparkle with starlight, and her words were almost fanatical.
She was like a believer.
Meanwhile, on the other side, hearing that Alistair wanted to eat something, a somewhat nervous Adolf wanted to take Alistair to Leipzig to eat something good. The old lich was focused on finishing the experiment ritual.
Although the lord of Leipzig was frozen in the natural refrigerator on the roof of the Spirit Tower, it did not affect their visit to Leipzig.
To be honest, Leipzig was quite good as a tourist city.
It was clear that as the vice-principal, Adolf was not very confident in the quality of the Spirit Tower’s cafeteria.
Of course, the Spirit Tower definitely had a cafeteria.
After all, the Undead Academy did not consist solely of undead students.
Alistair remembered that during the Ascension Ritual… when Eivass and Beyad sneaked out of Crescent Moon Manor to eat, they encountered many Spirit Tower students who had just finished their evening classes.
It seemed to be around nine to eleven at night, and a large group of young Necromancer apprentices in withered leaf robes were going out to forage, obviously under a lot of academic pressure.
Back then, the Spirit Tower was still in the city center, and at least there was a street of snacks outside the school gate.
Now, the Spirit Tower was in the suburbs, or even in the mountains. It took Alistair more than half an hour to fly from Leipzig city center on Leviathan. The nearest inhabited place was a small fishing village that doubled as a port.
Setting aside what good food and fun there might be, just going from the mountains… walking would take at least two to three hours round trip.
This kind of boring, secluded, almost monastic life could also cultivate students’ affinity with the Twilight Path.
When students’ moods became as calm as an ancient well every day, without restlessness, without the desire to go out adventuring or seeking fun, completely unaware of the passage of time, and even without worldly desires, and wanting to just muddle through life… reaching this level of Twilight Affinity was almost enough for Ascension to the Third Tier.
But Alistair refused Adolf’s kind offer—although the Path of Love was full of gourmands, with hearty appetites and discerning tastes. But she actually just wanted an excuse to get closer to her students.
It was as if a leader had come to inspect the school.
But unexpectedly, the food in the cafeteria was actually quite good.
All sorts of smoked sausages, with seven or eight varieties alone, as well as fried pork chops, beef rolls, sauerkraut crispy pork knuckles, roast meat, fried patties, and sweet cakes, all kept warm in ritual arrays. There were also vinegar-braised beef, beef meatballs, and red-braised lamb simmering in pots…
—Meat, meat, meat, meat! As far as the eye could see, the entire restaurant was filled with meat except for bread!
This was much better than what the people of Avalon ate!!
Alistair was almost moved to tears.
If only there was a bowl of rice…
For a moment, she even had the thought of letting Eivass come and eat for a few days.
She had been living in Prince Xiardo’s manor these days, and the taste of the dishes there was quite good. But it was closer to the Iris Flower style, exquisite and beautiful. It was similar to the dishes Eivass ate at the Silver and Tin Hall back then—the dinner had about twelve to thirteen dishes, and more than ten of them were Iris Flower cuisine.
Even at Avalon’s Star Antinomy restaurant, Alistair always felt it lacked something. The taste was quite bland, and the portions were not large.
“This meat is fresh…”
Adolf explained hastily, looking at Alistair’s gaze, “It’s really pork, beef, and mutton…”
He was a little worried that Alistair would mistake this meat as the output of “teaching assistants.”
“…It looks quite good,” Alistair praised, “I like it very much.
“But… what about the students’ nutritional balance? And why is there so much meat here, yet the children still look so thin?”
Alistair chose her dishes and found a table. Many students who came with her also took a little food, their appetites so small that Alistair even suspected they were on a diet.
Alistair hadn’t seen many fat students along the way.
Instead, there were quite a few students who were emaciated and seemed to have developed anorexia.
However, as soon as she asked this question, she felt as if she had become a leader on an inspection.
But upon closer thought, there was no major problem—because Alistair had already intended to move the Spirit Tower to Avalon. Once the Spirit Tower was relocated, Eivass would indeed be their direct leader.
“Ah, regarding this…”
Adolf smiled helplessly and explained softly, sitting opposite Alistair.
The Spirit Tower, as a specialized academy for Necromancers, was one of the four major forces in Star Antinomy, but there were no Extraordinary beings of the Path of Love.
Extraordinary beings of the Twilight Path valued detachment from all desires and extreme laziness.
Although there was a free cafeteria, students were too lazy to come unless necessary. A simple drink of “Number One” and “Number Two” was usually enough to fill them up. And the life-extending function of “Number Two” could prevent health decline due to long-term skipping of meals, at least preventing them from starving easily.
—If you are not lazy enough, it usually means your Adaptability to the Twilight Path is not high enough.
“So, generally, not many people come here to eat?”
Alistair was somewhat surprised: “It tastes so good…”
Such a waste?
“It’s okay, we have Preservation Technique,”
Adolf replied briskly, “Both finished food and fresh ingredients can be preserved using Preservation Technique to maintain their state. As for nutritional issues… potion can be taken regularly.”
“Preservation Technique is really useful…”
Alistair sighed.
There were simply too few excellent Preservers in Avalon. When Eivass’s painting needed to be preserved back then, it took a week to find someone to do it. Let alone the “wasteful” use of preserving ingredients.
But in Star Antinomy, the cost of one Preservation Technique was even cheaper than a pot of stewed meat.
Is this the effect of Extraordinary Power being popularized in society…
Adolf continued, “Because recently, those Alchemists have been oppressing botanists more and more severely… leading to botanists who depend on the Alchemy Association needing to provide more and more alchemical materials each month. This actually squeezes the vegetable yield, as vegetables and potion ingredients come from the same field. In big cities, the price of vegetables also rises with the price of alchemical materials.
“In addition, food is an important export for profit, and it is currently one of the few stable sources of profit in Star Antinomy. Therefore, grain production is indispensable… For these reasons, the price of vegetables in Star Antinomy has always been high. Farmers basically set aside a piece of land outside their wheat fields to grow their own food.
“After all, the difficulty of applying Preservation Technique to vegetables is far greater than that of applying it to meat—I think this is an important reason.”
“…Why is that?”
Alistair, who was eating, looked up strangely, “Is Preservation Technique harder to use on plants?”
She had never heard this before.
“I know…”
At this moment, Aurora quietly leaned over, “I want to say.”
She had been holding back Albert from a distance… Seeing that Alistair was actually eating human food, she was relieved.
After all, the Child of the Moon did not have a very good reputation in Star Antinomy.
Before, there was the Red Phase suppressing them, so no one dared to show it. But in the future, it would surely be different…
Vice-Principal Adolf saw Aurora and Albert approaching and understood their purpose.
It was likely related to their mentor, Little Fernando Bruzvik.
Little Fernando Bruzvik was, after all, Adolf’s student, and Adolf was very concerned about how to solve his problem.
So he enthusiastically introduced Alistair, “This is Aurora von Goethe… and this is Albert Lore. They are both disciples of my disciple, so they are my grand-disciples. These two children are geniuses who have reached the Fourth Tier at a young age… Albert is just in his early twenties, and Aurora is even less than twenty. They are the future of our Spirit Tower.”
—You might not believe it, but I’m actually eighteen.
Alistair thought to herself, appraising the two of them.
Aurora’s beauty even stunned her—a beauty like a platinum blonde doll, that lifeless feeling paradoxically giving off an unusual aesthetic.
That feeling… to describe it, it was “not like a living person.” She felt more like a 3D model; if she stood still, people would mistake her for a meticulously crafted 1:1 figurine.
Is this the successor of the future Master Amber?
And the other one… perhaps he was the true genius.
Albert Lore—the inventor of the Armed Gargoyle, the future Black Phase of Star Antinomy.
He looked a bit like a depressed Harry Potter… or a programmer who had stayed up all night without sleep for a month, forming a stark contrast with the girl beside him. Although he looked like he could collapse at any moment, his features were quite delicate.
Alistair gave them a friendly smile, “Hello, two… So, Miss Goethe, why is that?”
Called upon by Alistair, Aurora’s pupils trembled violently.
But her expression and voice remained unchanged, and she said softly, “Because plants are still ‘alive.’ And if Preservation Technique is used to preserve living things… it would be very difficult.”
“Alive…”
Alistair pondered.
It was true… even after vegetables were removed from the ground, they could still continue to propagate. In a sense, they might not have truly died before being blanched.
However, meat, corpses, artworks, and buildings all lacked “life.” Therefore, applying Preservation Technique was much simpler.
“The Preservation Technique used to rescue the students before… was it used by the Principal?”
“It was me. Preservation Technique applied to living things can preserve them from ‘dangerous situations.’ I used this method to transfer the children to my side.”
Adolf, the current Black Phase, replied, “The Preservation Technique that protected the entire Spirit Tower and separated it from the Material Realm was the Principal’s.”
“Applying Preservation Technique to living people…”
Aurora whispered, “can also turn dying people into stone statues, thereby suspending the ‘progression of death.’ It can also save lives.”
“That’s right, esteemed Miss Alistair…”
Albert had learned Alistair’s name from Christina before, so he asked directly, “Our mentor… almost died during the previous Ascension Ritual. Aurora and I preserved his soul.
“But he is still in a state of ‘imminent death,’ and I just heard your prayer… include Eivass.
“May I ask, is that ‘Pope’ Eivass?”
“Yes.”
Alistair smiled and nodded slightly.
She had no level of prayer, so praying was in vain. The reason she said this was to spread the word—others might not understand, but at the Spirit Tower, where the Ghoul Shepherd was the primary Ascension profession, students generally had some research into divine arts.
And Albert was relieved and continued, “I also wanted to become a Ghoul Shepherd back then, so I studied prayer art for a while. Although my research on prayer art is not deep, I remember that ‘Respectfully’ is a term used for Heavenly Envoys. Even Apostles are not qualified to use such a prayer to summon…
“…But you actually borrowed divine power. Is it because… Pope’s power has transcended the Material Realm?”
“—Yes.”
Alistair smiled and nodded, “I am not a ‘Perfect Being.’ This divine power is a miracle he bestowed upon me. Without Eivass’s seal, I absolutely cannot wield the power of a Perfect Being now.”
This was the truth, and also a lie.
This was also one of Alistair’s goals.
When she had previously heard that Eivass intended to dispatch the Church’s power to help Star Antinomy overcome the chaos… she had vaguely formed an idea, and now this thought had become even clearer.
—She wanted to establish faith in Eivass.
Although Eivass himself would not think too much about it, for Alistair, who had transcended her Avatar… Eivass would eventually ascend to the Dream Realm.
If he were an Apostle, it would be fine. But to become a Heavenly Envoy, he must have his own believers in the Material Realm.
Although Pillar Gods and Heavenly Envoys do not need “faith power,” after ascending from Apostle to Heavenly Envoy, they can no longer descend normally. They must have their own spokespersons in the Material Realm to expand and sublimate their own concepts.
If a Heavenly Envoy is forgotten by everyone, even the concept he belongs to may be forgotten. To expand a concept, it cannot be done from the Dream Realm; it must be done in the Material Realm.
This was why the Silver Crown Dragon had established his path of authority in the Material Realm back then… and only then could he rebel against the Path of Power in the Dream Realm.
Originally, this could still be considered a “fantasy.” But now, it was getting closer and closer to the “future”—
—[Killed a Fifth Tier Extraordinary being, obtained 4500 Free Experience].
The experience gained from the first-generation Red Phase was four times that of Count Dawn.
Both were Fifth Tier, yet the experience was on entirely different levels…
Alistair herself was only Fourth Tier, yet she had killed the first-generation Red Phase, a formidable opponent among the Fifth Tier, by a margin of one and a half tiers, relying on external forces based on the Path of Transcendence, contract, and Great Sin.
This was an act consistent with the Path of Transcendence.
The practice of this act made Alistair feel as if she had touched the wall of the Fifth Tier with utmost clarity.
At most, investing two thousand experience points, she would be able to participate in the Ascension Ritual by the end of this month!
And her current experience reserves were already sufficient.
If all went well, next month she would be a true Fifth Tier Extraordinary.
At that time, she would touch upon matters of the Dream Realm, Heavenly Envoys, and Pillar Gods… Planning ahead for Eivass’s deification was not too early. In fact, it was a bit late.
“We want to borrow the power of the great and holy Eivass to save our mentor…”
Albert said, “For this, I am willing to pay any price.”
“—Me too!”
Hearing that Albert only considered himself in the “price,” Aurora quickly followed.
And Alistair just smiled and nodded, “Okay.”
(End of this chapter)
