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The disappearance of Sumeru City in the dream signifies the end of the "cycle of the Flower Goddess's Birthday Festival" and also the completion of the "God-Making Project".

According to the plan, this scene should have occurred after the "void" had absorbed enough "knowledge and energy," that is, what people call "willpower"... However, the "harvest" had only been going on for less than 24 hours, and the energy required for the "god-making plan" was not even half complete.

why?

Just as Hazard and Setare were filled with questions, the door to the Great Sage's office was pushed open.

"It seems you've run into trouble."

The person who walked into the office was a tall and thin young man with light blue curly hair. He was wearing a white stand-up collar trench coat, with a blue test tube hanging from his chest and earrings. He wore a black mask shaped like a bird's beak on his face. Overall, he looked almost like a personification of the word "eccentric".

The mask covered his eyes and nose, making it impossible to discern his expression, but Hazard knew he was mocking him because the corners of his mouth had turned up to a degree that even the mask couldn't hide.

Hazard glared at the uninvited guest: "What do you think this place is? Who gave you permission to come in?"

The man took a step back with an exaggerated gesture, then looked around in feigned surprise: "Oh dear, where have I come from? Oh, right, right, I should knock before entering the Dean's office."

He stepped back, banged twice on the open door, then strode into the office and found a seat.

"I've been away from here for hundreds of years, and I never expected the Council of the Church to still be so incompetent... Sigh, then again, if I hadn't been unable to tolerate your mediocrity, why would I have left?"

“‘Exile,’ you…” Hazard’s beard trembled with rage as he shouted, “Guards, throw this rude man out!”

The man known as "The Exile" crossed his legs, watching Hazar's trembling figure with amusement: "Put away your pathetic pride. You know very well that no power in this country can stop me. And you should be thankful that I'm here for an 'experiment,' not a 'mission,' otherwise..."

He smiled and flicked the test tube on his earring.

This action made Hazard flinch. He had witnessed this man display his power firsthand; the alchemical potion in that test tube alone was enough to reduce an entire building to ashes.

The Exile chuckled: "Heh, alright, let's get back to the main topic."

“My men tell me that the slumbering beings in Sumeru City are awakening, which means your plan has failed. Well, that’s not surprising; fools like you always fail. Fools can’t understand geniuses. Even though I’ve given you a perfect plan, fools always prefer to do things their own way.”

Hazard couldn't refute it, because the other party had indeed offered them a new proposal some time ago, which he had rejected.

The man continued, “Although this ‘dream of the Flower Goddess’s Birthday’ is under the control of the ‘Void,’ ‘dreaming’ is a human ability, and the ‘Void’ cannot create dreams out of thin air. That’s why I specifically reminded you that the choice of the dream vessel is crucial.”

"The entity that carries the will of the gods must have its self-awareness erased beforehand, otherwise its self-awareness will inevitably conflict with the consciousness of the gods."

“Even without any external interference, the dream vessel you chose, the dancer named Nilu, will inevitably awaken her self-awareness after several ‘reincarnations,’ causing the ‘reincarnation’ to fail.”

“If I’m not mistaken, Nilu already has the remnants of a certain demon god residing in her body. Otherwise, how do you think a mere mortal body could withstand the entire dream of Sumeru? I’ve conducted many experiments on ‘demonic god remnants,’ and I’m far more ‘authoritative’ in this regard than you are. Of course, fools will never wake up until they see the truth.”

"The adaptive tests you secretly conducted in her dream a few years ago using the 'Void Terminal' were too small in scale and not enough to trigger the remnants of the demon god within her... I even suspect that the demon god residing within her also possesses the power of dreams. It is disguising itself, suppressing its own power, and attracting you to 'harvest' dreams for it to strengthen itself."

"Use your rusty brains to think this through: a native rainforest girl who inherited the 'Dance of the Flower Goddess' from a desert oasis; she possesses the Eye of God, yet has almost no combat ability and can be manipulated by you at will; not only that, she is also a devout follower of the Newborn Grass God, with an extraordinary obsession with the 'Flower Goddess's Birthday Festival'..."

"Everything about her perfectly matches your needs... Faced with such a perfect vessel for your dreams, don't you have even the slightest doubt?"

“If you let this dream of the Flower Goddess’s Birthday continue, what will be revived will not be the ‘God of Wisdom’ you want, but another demon god—it’s laughable that you bunch of fools are still complacent and think you have everything under control.”

Hazard was speechless after being openly reprimanded and made to look worthless.

Although this person spoke bluntly, every word hit the nail on the head. Moreover, in terms of seniority, this "exiled one" was actually of the same generation as his grandmaster, and truly had the right to reprimand them, the "juniors."

The “Exile” was expelled from the Chanyutan by the then-wise monks for committing the “Six Root Sins” hundreds of years ago. At that time, the “Exile” was a novice tasata of the “Myo-sastra” school named Zandik.

Centuries ago, Zandik delivered a startling speech in the classroom of the Church of Christ. When Hazard unearthed that dusty manuscript of the speech in the "Palace of Wisdom," he was also shocked.

"The so-called 'human' is nothing more than a sufficiently complex machine. If you disassemble a certain part and modify a certain area, the performance of this machine can be easily and significantly improved. Regardless of whether they possess the Eye of God, regardless of their physique and martial arts skills, 'optimized humans' can exhibit power beyond reason..."

Zandik's ideas coincided with their "deification plan," and even predated their plan by a considerable margin.

Centuries later, Zandik returned to the Chancellery still looking like a novice tasata, proving his theory correct with his own body.

No matter how frustrated you feel, their achievements speak for themselves.

More importantly, the fact is that their plan failed.

Losers have no excuses, whether in academics or in any other area.

Previously, the Council of the Church had reservations about its cooperation with Zandik. As a high sage of the Council, Azar had always insisted that the Council should maintain its autonomy and not become dependent on other countries because of certain technical difficulties... But now, they have no choice.

Zandk looked somewhat dejected as he saw Hazard remain silent.

He waved his hand and said, "Forget it, I've always hated academic review meetings. Guiding idiots is just a waste of time. Just follow my plan—go activate 'God of the Right Machine'."

“Now? But… the energy needed to activate the ‘God of the Right Machine’ hasn’t been fully collected yet…” Setare, who had been ignored all along, spoke up timidly.

Zandik glanced at Setare, his lips curling into a smirk again: "I forgot to tell you, anticipating the idiots' failure, I left a little backup plan with the 'Void Terminal'."

Chapter 102 The City Awakens [4k]

Han Fulai opened his eyes.

The ceiling in front of him was neither familiar nor unfamiliar—this was the small courtyard that Huma's family had bought in the Grand Bazaar. It had been provided by Dina Zedai for them, the "sponsors" of the "Flower Goddess's Birthday Festival," to live in recently. He and Yingmei had been staying here for several days.

Han Fulai began to carefully recall his memories of "reincarnation," the last image of which was Naxida waving goodbye to him.

In their dream, they drove a "float" around the city, completing the "float parade," and the "Hall of Maya" successfully covered the entire city of Sumeru.

At that very moment, the dream of "the cycle of the Flower Goddess's birthday" completely vanished.

Han Fulai sat up in bed and looked at the clock on the wall.

The clock on the Sumeru side is a mechanical clock with a calendar function. The clock shows the time as "November 12th, 6:20 AM".

Clearly, he has successfully escaped the cycle of reincarnation.

However, the timing... seemed to be somewhat different from what he had imagined.

Just then, a very loud yawn came from the next room.

"Waaaaah..." Little Paimon, who usually loves to sleep in, woke up very early today, and the first thing he did was push the slime that was Radiant Girl around and complain, "My head is so dizzy, my whole body aches, and I'm so hungry...Radiant Girl, hurry up and make some food..."

Soon, Yingmei's complaints followed: "I'm hungry too, okay? Why aren't you cooking for me?"

Although she was also dizzy from hunger, complaining was a passive skill that she could activate subconsciously, and it was completely unaffected by her physical condition.

Paimon was unreasonable but confident: "Because I can't cook!"

Ying let out a "woof" and bit Paimon's chubby cheek, mumbling indistinctly, "If you can't do the replacement, then you can only consider it a replacement..."

Hearing this familiar everyday conversation, Han Fulai couldn't help but smile.

He knocked on the wall of the room: "Get up quickly, I'll treat you to breakfast."

During his meal, Han Fulai inquired about the situation from the food stall owner and gained a basic understanding of the current circumstances.

First, it can be confirmed that the "reincarnation" has ended, and they are now in the reality of November 12th.

As it turns out, time flows much faster in dreams than in reality. What they experienced in the cycle of reincarnation was only one day in reality.

Ordinary people do not inherit the memories of the first two "reincarnations", so the third "reincarnation" becomes "yesterday" in their memories.

It seems that the Order of the Church started the "Reincarnation of the Flower Goddess's Birthday Festival" in the early morning of November 11th, when most of the residents of Sumeru City were sound asleep. Most residents did not know that they had actually slept for almost a whole day.

As the saying goes, food is as essential as iron; you'll get hungry if you miss a meal, let alone if you haven't eaten a single grain of rice all day and are having intense dreams... Most people wake up as hungry as Paimon, and the food stalls are doing exceptionally well.

As for why they were so hungry, everyone had found a reason.

The common explanation is this:

During yesterday's festival, the Little Lucky Grass King, who hadn't appeared for five hundred years, suddenly descended upon the Zubair Theater and performed miracles for the crowd, initiating a grand "float parade." Furthermore, to thank the devotees who celebrated her birthday, the Little Lucky Grass King granted everyone a sweet dream after the parade, so everyone fell asleep without having dinner…

Although Nasita was blamed for going hungry, people didn't blame her for it—after all, everyone knew that "the Sumeru people don't dream," and having a beautiful dream bestowed by the gods was far more important than a dinner.

The dreamlike "Flower Goddess's Birthday Festival" left a deep impression on people, and many people still have excited smiles on their faces when they talk about yesterday's festival.

This "manifestation in public" brought Nasida tens of thousands more believers overnight.

With more believers, the power of a deity will also increase accordingly. Nasita should have gained a lot of "wish power" through the "parade of floats" in this dream. Even if she has not yet reached the level of the "Seven Rulers of the Mortal World", she should at least have recovered to the level of an ordinary demon god.

If we want Nasita to become the true ruler of Sumeru, the first step is to enhance her power. Without power, all plans are in vain.

The first step of the plan was successful, which is a good start.

but……

"By the way, you haven't eaten much, and you seem a little unhappy?" Ying noticed the worry on Han Fulai's face.

Today, she ordered "date and sesame" for breakfast, which Nasida recommended. It's a dessert with a rich filling and a very simple preparation method: mix date and sesame syrup with Xumi's specialty sesame paste, add almonds and butter, stir well, and then put it in a mold to dry.

Although the preparation method is simple, the taste is anything but.

The honey melts in your mouth, and a single sip is enough to sweeten your heart, making you feel as if you are swimming in a jar of honey. The crunchy nuts in the syrup are like jewels wrapped in velvet, making every bite a delightful surprise.

According to Nasita, "one bite is enough to energize anyone." Little Paimon is already full of energy; after finishing his own portion, he's already eyeing the portion in Ying's bowl.

“Because the ‘reincarnation’ takes longer than I imagined.” Han Fulai pushed his dessert to Paimon. “The time flow in dreams is generally considered to be many times faster than real time, and the Church Council needs to ‘harvest’ a large number of dreams. I originally thought that each ‘reincarnation’ would not take too long, and that when we woke up, it would probably only be one night.”

"But the truth is that three 'cycles' took up a whole day..."

He pointed to Paimon, who was wolfing down his food, and said, “If we had spent more time in the ‘cycle,’ for example, until the tenth ‘cycle’ before finally breaking the dream, then three whole days might have passed in reality.”

"Even a healthy person would likely die of exhaustion after lying in bed for three days without eating or drinking, let alone those who are already ill or physically weak... Imagine the scene of an entire city of Sumeru, hundreds of thousands of people, lying in bed and starving to death..."

Ying suddenly felt that the "date and honey candy" was no longer sweet, and Paimon's candy block fell to the ground with a "thud".

"Hey, don't say things like that when people are eating!"

The thought of the people in the city nearly starving to death made them lose their appetite.

"The good news is that we successfully prevented this terrible thing from happening." Han Fulai smiled reassuringly, but his eyes still held worry. "The bad news is that our actions may not have been fast enough."

"What do you mean?" Ying asked, puzzled.

Han Fulai's reply was a rhetorical question: "Think about it, what would happen if Sumeru City were to fall into a full-day slumber?"

"To plunge an entire city into slumber... people will cease all activity, transportation and commerce will surely be cut off, and contact with the outside world will be severed..." Ying followed this line of thought and suddenly felt a chill, "This... this can't be hidden!"

Let alone a whole day, even a single night, no, even just an hour of collective sleep, would be impossible to go unnoticed.

For example, there are students in the Academy who stay up all night writing papers until they go bald, taverns that are open at night, mercenaries who guard the city gates at night, and lighthouses that guide merchant ships at night, etc. Not everyone in Sumeru City works from sunrise to sunset. Without people on night duty, the normal operation of the city will definitely have problems.

Moreover, Sumeru is a large city, possessing a major commercial port and the most famous academic center in Teyvat, the Order of the Church. Tens of thousands of merchants, tourists, and students enter and leave Sumeru every day. If such a large city suddenly shuts down for a whole day, how will cargo ships at sea enter the port? How will merchants from outside the city enter? What will happen to the stranded travelers?

Even if Hazard sends a "30-man squad" to seal off the city, what reason will he use?

Seeing everyone in the city sound asleep, wouldn't the mercenaries themselves be terrified?

In the dream, Hazard also sent people to seal off the city, but the "thirty-man group" alone could not truly seal off the entire city. Ying and Han Fulai easily climbed over the wall and went out.

If you can climb over the wall to get out, you can certainly climb over the wall to get in.

What if some curious tourist sneaks in and sees everyone in the city asleep? Wouldn't the news leak out? Even if everyone in Sumeru City loses their memories of "reincarnation," people outside the city will still notice something amiss.

There's no way such a major event as "putting an entire city to sleep" could be kept secret.

This is only for one day. What if the "reincarnation" lasts for a longer period of time?

How will the Church of Jesus conceal the fact that the "city is in a deep sleep"?

Furthermore, the person in a coma might die from exhaustion, and if people learn the truth afterward, they will definitely hold the Order of the Church responsible… Thinking of this, Ying felt goosebumps rise on her skin—

"Don't the great sages... consider the consequences?"

“I’m afraid they don’t need to care about this ‘consequence’.” Han Fulai nodded somewhat heavily. “This ‘cycle of the Flower Goddess’s Birthday’ may not need to be repeated too many times. Sumeru City has hundreds of thousands of people. Just one ‘cycle’ is enough to help ‘the Void’ collect the ‘wish power’ of hundreds of thousands of people. After three ‘cycles’, that’s the ‘wish power’ of millions of people.”

"Such enormous energy might be enough to make Hazard 'god-like'."

"The Order of the Church never intended to hide the matter of 'reincarnation.' They launched this plan as a 'one-shot deal'—as long as the plan succeeds, they don't need to worry about the consequences because they will have the power to fear no one."

"Also, do you remember why I came to Sumeru to find you?"

"Ah... I remember you said it was because Wendy's communications were being interfered with, and she couldn't contact us, so she suspected we were in danger..." Ying recalled the reason Han Fulai had told them before.

“Yes, the Order of the Order has long since activated a large barrier that can block elemental communication. I initially thought it was to enhance the influence of the ‘Void,’ but now it seems to be more than that…” Han Fulai nodded.

"The purpose of the Council of the Faith in deploying such a large barrier is similar to that of A-Ying's 'Isolation Order'. From the beginning, their 'hypothetical enemy' was the other 'Seven Rulers of the Mortal World', in order to prevent interference from the gods of other countries—in other words, they may have obtained power that is comparable to the 'Seven Rulers of the Mortal World'."

That's why he felt so heavy-hearted.

He originally thought that his actions to break the "reincarnation" were fast enough, and that he should have been able to stop it before the Church Council's "God-Making Plan" succeeded.

According to his original plan, the next step was to reunite with Narcida, go to the Council of the Church to hold the Great Sage accountable, and help Narcida regain control of Sumeru. With three demon-god level warriors, suppressing the Council of the Church was a sure thing.

But now he's a little uncertain.

At that moment, the "Void Terminal" on Ying's ear suddenly lit up, and Narcida's voice came from it: "Ying, Paimon, and Master, good morning. I'm waiting for you at the Adventurers' Guild."

The three arrived at the Adventurers' Guild on Baoshang Street, where Miss Catherine was waiting behind the guild counter as always.

Upon seeing the three, Catherine gave a very formulaic, business-like smile and uttered her usual lines: "Towards the stars and the abyss, we meet again, gentlemen. The association happens to have a commission that would be very suitable for you. Shall I introduce it to you?"

Accustomed to accepting quests, Paimon casually replied, "What quest? How many Mora?"

Catherine took out a request form and solemnly read out the task description: "Please go on stage at the academic report sharing session of the Faculty this afternoon and recite a love poem. Note: It would be best to take a picture of the audience's reaction after the recitation."