〖 How is the situation outside? 〗Shengnai asked Cade as he sat in his luxurious office drinking coffee brewed by his new assistant Akasha.
After becoming Shengnai's coachman, Cade and his Mud Water organization had pledged themselves under Shengnai. In truth, he had no other choice but to pledge them all under Shengnai.
Very unexpectedly, the Great Magus, who had been leading the House of Mages for the last thousand years, lost his life during this Mana Banquet.
This had completely turned Cade's common sense over its head. He knew that the only reason the Academic City had been able to operate as it always did was thanks to the Great Magus shouldering the pressure from the Seven Churches.
And so, as soon as news of the Great Magus' death became widespread, the entire Academic City went into chaos. For the last three days, numerous firms and companies had been preparing to move away, some of the students had already been taken home by their well-informed guardians as well.
"Many people are still waiting and observing the situation, but some have already gone mad with power. Furthermore, at least 5 supernatural battles had been publicly witnessed just today alone" Cade answered, feeling a bit frightened. The Academic City had always been chaotic, but that chaos was always covert and hidden; publicly, the city had always maintained a façade of order and even treaded lightly so as to not break it.
But after the Great Magus was dead, this façade of order was immediately discarded. For the sake of benefits, grudges, and their own desires, everyone began to openly resort to violence. The only reason why it hadn't become a full-blown war was as Cade had said: many people were still observing from the sidelines.
Cade silently felt lucky that he chose to follow Shengnai, otherwise, he would feel extremely unsure, whereas now he at least had confidence in the foreseeable future.
Observing the institute's courtyard through his window, Shengnai saw many people quickly moving about. Evidently, everyone who was well-informed had realized that the Academic City as a whole was growing abnormal.
Some of the clubs and circles within the institute had also turned unusually radical. For example, the various religious clubs within the institute, who had blatantly made their way to Shengnai and demanded that he add a mandatory class on religions, just like they had done to every other academy.
Other than that, some of the businesses that Shengnai took over from Michael had also received letters of 'collaboration', demanding Shengnai's businesses to cooperate with them.
Naturally, those who reached out to Shengnai demanding 'collaboration' weren't people in high positions, most of them were only companies that operated under the flags of the Churches. After knowing about the Great Magus' fall, they immediately began to borrow the power of the Seven Churches to profit with blood rushing to their heads. This wasn't particularly difficult for them to do either, as long as they offered a portion of these new profits to their corresponding Churches later on.
In the past, they had already done this numerous times to smaller companies, and even big companies without the Great Magus' support were smaller companies to them. Of course, they most likely didn't know about Shengnai's identity, otherwise, they wouldn't have tried to 'collaborate' with Shengnai.
All of this was insignificant. For a short while in the future, the Academic City would not be able to calm down as it would become a small warzone for the Seven Churches. These struggles between the Churches wouldn't affect the Seven Gods at all, but they were still influenced by the Seven Gods' Pathways; and to a smaller extent, the benefit of the Churches themselves.
Shengnai didn't care too much about this.
He currently had two main duties. The first was to repair the Grand Library, as this sub-space still had its uses despite being considerably ravaged; the second was to properly incubate.
In the forest, he had absorbed a large amount of biomass from mutated beasts to create a layer of flesh cocoon around himself. He might appear human right now, but that was only because he had hidden that layer of flesh cocoon in a different aspect of reality through a magical ritual in the form of vitality mana. He was, in fact, still wrapped inside the flesh cocoon, incubating his second Divine Embryo.
According to Shengnai's estimates, this incubation would require half a year, after which his body and soul would obtain the qualifications to obtain a Seed of Truth.
If the body and soul did not reach a certain requirement, suddenly obtaining a Seed of Truth would only cause the individual to undergo Origin Assimilation, or to be more accurate, Pathway Assimilation.
This was also the reason why it was necessary for the [Origin] to undergo three gradual releases. In reality, a [Origin] could be fully released all at once if there were enough resources, obtaining a Seed of Truth in the process, but if the individual couldn't handle the Principles and Ideals contained within it, they would simply be assimilated.
〖 Too slow 〗
Shengnai had such a thought. His rate of growth was definitely not slow compared to others, in fact, it could be considered abnormally fast. But speed was relative, and he was slower compared to Guangnai. During their previous battle, Guangnai was already qualified to obtain a Seed of Truth, he was simply unable to do so because he was influenced too much by the original Negary.
While Shengnai didn't have this issue, his rate of growth was much slower.
〖 There is only half a month left until Gods' Offering Day, which would be when Eternal Heat and Mequik clash against one another. Not to mention the will of the Moon Tree, Chromie going missing for the past while must have been to grow stronger at its influence 〗
〖 His [Protagonist Aura] might be naturally weak, but if the will of the Moon Tree had placed its last hopes onto him, it wouldn't be excessive no matter how high I estimate his strength to be〗
〖 At that time, if I still am not strong enough, I can only return to the original 〗
Shengnai wasn't against returning to the original. 'Negary' was only a way of thinking, so if his thoughts were more advanced and complete compared to the current Negary, his return to the original would be to take him over; otherwise, he would only return as one of many factors of Negary.
In reality, the will of Negary was always growing more perfect. If the original Negary was version 1, then the current Negary was already version 10,000; and it was this line of thinking to always complete oneself that created a powerful Negary.
〖 I need to speed up this incubation process. Before Gods' Offering Day, I need the second Divine Embryo, or even the third Divine Embryo to have already been born 〗
While thinking about this, Shengnai couldn't help but recall what Akasha talked about earlier.
〖 The Multitudes organization… 〗
…
At the same time, the original Negary inside his clock tower was also thinking about this matter. Although he hadn't synchronized with Shengnai and read his memories, he could observe the past. Shengnai's and Akasha's conversation wasn't obscure or hidden in any way, so it wasn't particularly difficult for him to see.
Come to think of it, ever since his beginning at the Flame world, continuing through the Disaster world, Moon Tree world, then SCR world, not to mention other minor worlds, Negary had finally received news about the System again.
From Wang Yuan to Negary, he had turned from a human who didn't know anything at all into a world virus that loved peace, respected life, and yearned for knowledge. Truly sentimental if you thought about it.
〖 After resolving matters in the Moon Tree world, I should make a trip back to that place 〗
As the disqualified king, Negary naturally carried the coordinates of 'that world' within his existence. He might not have been able to reach it in the past, but that was no longer an issue after he converted himself into the world virus. However, since he had always been busy, he didn't spend too much effort observing that world.
〖 I might even be able to find traces of that fellow as well, I'll have to give him proper thanks 〗
Recalling the crystal polyhedron, Negary's body slowly scattered into the air as golden beads. After all, his current existence was only possible thanks to that fellow's actions, such a great favor must be properly and fully repaid.
