Going back to the story, after being exposed by the Traveler, Dehya's emotions stabilized quite a bit instead. She sighed and said:
["This job won't last much longer either, at least I hope to complete it properly..."]
The heaviness of this sentence instantly crushed the previous cheerful atmosphere, and everyone realized one thing.
It seemed that ever since meeting Dunyarzad, it had been emphasized that this might be the last moment of her life.
Could it be another case of meeting, getting to know each other, and parting? Don't come again!! Just let this kind of story become a specialty of Inazuma!!
How come the Sakoku Decree didn't lock 'this thing' inside the country!! Don't let it run to Sumeru!!
The readers had already started feeling upset, but they laughed again when they saw the person Dehya recommended to the Traveler in the story.
Asfand, the advisor of that thirty-man squad—unexpectedly, after searching around, they came back to him.
The Traveler had already looked for this person through connections before, so what use is there in coming again now?
It really was useful! Dehya had her own face, and under Dehya's introduction, Asfand revealed another matter, information about the 'canned knowledge of the gods.'
The Akademiya had lost this thing, and the current intelligence pointed to Port Ormos.
Port Ormos is a good place because the Akademiya is quite useless. Not only could they not manage the desert under their authoritarian rule, they couldn't even fully manage the rainforest.
There's a 'governor' in Daochenglin, and Port Ormos is even more free from Akademiya control.
It had gradually turned into a 'lawless land,' so Port Ormos had quite a few illegal items for sale.
[Asfand whispered in a hushed voice: "Here's a tip for you—if you say you're students of the Akademiya, it'll be much more convenient."]
The Sumeru people were dumbfounded—not that we mind you criticizing the Akademiya, but why expose our little secret!
You've ruined our 'Taobao' for buying 'graduation projects'! Shikikan, what will you repay us with for what you owe us!
Don't tell me you really want us to make our own graduation projects? Then by then, even the advisor would be shocked watching my project.
No, Shikikan is just a novelist; what does he know about the future? It should be blamed on Asfand.
Not only the Sumeru people in the rainforest were annoyed at Asfand, the desert people were the same.
Because Asfand explicitly expressed his disapproval of 'reviving the Scarlet King' in the story.
For desert people, this was touching their reverse scale. Most of those who read prophecy books are desert mercenaries, and almost all of them believe in the Scarlet King.
They just felt that Asfand had been a 'city person' for a few days and forgotten where his old home was.
Now Asfand might be the most miserable person in Sumeru—disloyal to the Akademiya, exposing students' secrets, opposing the revival of the Scarlet King; buffs stacked full, offending both sides.
But Asfand didn't think it would be a big deal; after all, lice don't itch when there are too many. He'd already offended almost all Sumeru people—what worse could it get?
His reputation had already hit rock bottom; anything after is an improvement!
No wonder he could become the advisor of the thirty-man squad—his mental resilience is exaggeratedly strong.
The reason Asfand opposed 'Scarlet King revival' wasn't about belief or disbelief in the Scarlet King; it was because the Scarlet King had been dead for over a thousand years—how could there be talk of revival?
Over a thousand years—others restore the Ming after overthrowing the Qing, you're restoring the Tang after overthrowing the Qing?
Besides Lucian this highly unconventional existence, reviving a god who's been dead for over a thousand years is indeed just a tiny bit unrealistic.
In fact, the difficulty of reviving the Scarlet King might be higher than creating a new god.
Creating a god at least has ideas—pile up power and stats.
Reviving a god is truly like grabbing a hedgehog barehanded—nowhere to start.
Anyway, the intelligence was obtained, and Lumine in the story arrived at Port Ormos as Asfand said.
This place was indeed a very prosperous port, and there were indeed some Akademiya students looking frowning for something.
The Traveler eavesdropped on their conversation, and sharp-eyed Sumeru people discovered that the students' badges were from Vahumana.
Now the faces of Vahumana people turned black, while people from other schools breathed a sigh of relief—good, good, we didn't run into it.
Lumine's investigation in Port Ormos made students from the six major darshans terrified, fearing they'd see themselves in the story.
And the three people who appeared in the book had already peacefully closed their eyes—this meant not only staying at the Akademiya for work was impossible, even graduating would be hard.
But for foreigners, they didn't care much about what faction they were from; they noticed something else more.
In Port Ormos, the Akademiya had no authority, and the thirty-man squad's words didn't work either.
But there was an exception: the Akasha!
Even in a place like Port Ormos, people's dependence on the Akasha remained absolute.
Sumeru people didn't think there was anything wrong with this, so they focused on the students' darshans.
But to people from other countries, this was extremely abnormal—after all, even in Liyue, there are people like Ganyu who would question whether the Geo Archon's words are correct.
But in Sumeru, even in the most lawless Port Ormos, no one would question the Akasha—this is too abnormal!
This is also because the Akasha is more reliable than search engines; the information is almost all true, saving Sumeru people the effort of judging truth from falsehood, so they naturally gave up thinking.
The problem is that the Akademiya uses the Akasha to release some fake news.
What comforts the readers is that a Sumeru person who doesn't rely so much on the Akasha finally appeared in the story—Alhaitham.
The Traveler eavesdropped on people from "Eye of Adhigama" talking, then spent 500,000 to inquire about intelligence and learned of "Greater Lord Rukkhadevata betrayed the Scarlet King."
Readers were skeptical about this 'betrayal' intelligence.
But they haven't forgotten the Geo Archon and the Salt Archon—back then, wasn't it said that the Geo Archon backstabbed the Sodium Chloride Archon?
Better not rush to take sides, or you might accidentally turn it into 'Do you understand the Dendro Archon or do I?'
That person's statement has now become a famous quote in Teyvat, constantly reminding everyone—a real 'good story.'
[Tariq (Gilded Brigade): "If you're trembling in fear, converting to Lord Scarlet King now might still be in time, hahahaha."]
Seeing this sentence, Tartaglia got excited and said to Rosalyne:
"You're trembling, is it because of fear? Hahaha, turns out you couldn't beat them, hahaha."
"He also said trembling—you guess if he can beat them? Hahahahaha!"
Rosalyne clenched her fist, "What are you laughing at? You couldn't beat them either! At least I can beat you."
Tartaglia: "Good, then come beat me!"
It was currently winter and already quite cold; Tartaglia keenly felt the room temperature drop.
For real? Tartaglia got excited—come on, what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!
===✧✦✧===
[Voice-Over · Alhaitham: About the Akasha]
"Tools are neither good nor bad, but people are."