The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Aurora was, without a doubt, the strongest expert in the ancient academy, and she knew it. Even if the other three pillars were stronger than her if they combined their strength, no two of them could confidently say they could beat her in a fight.     

As for the headmaster, although he was stronger than the other three pillars individually, any two of them could easily crush them by joining forces. The question of facing Aurora, therefore, didn't even need to be asked.     

However, Aurora was also well aware of the fact that she was taken seriously by neither the headmaster nor the pillars. They thought of her as a child, and thought that most of what she spouted was nonsense.      

It was only because of her strength that they still obeyed her. However, she knew that there was a limit to what she could do.     

Even earlier, the pillars had dared to interrupt her when she was administering punishment to Augury, right in front of all the students. It definitely did not feel good, but Aurora wasn't sure if fighting them over it would be a good idea.     

Especially since currently, none of them seemed satisfied with her, and perhaps a fight breaking out was exactly what they sought.     

Aurora knew she couldn't give them such an opportunity, because even if she could escape alive in the end, the academy might not be able to survive the aftermath.     

Despite all the complex feelings she had for her mother, the reason she still 'fulfilled' her last wish of helping the Lotus Throne's chosen was because Aurora knew that it was the only way for the academy to survive. And if her own actions led to its doom, wouldn't it all be pointless?     

After all, regardless of how they treated her, it was still her only 'home'.     

The foundation of the academy wasn't its teachers, or even the students. Even if they all died and no one but Aurora was left, it would only take a few centuries for people to slowly pour in from the outside, repopulating it.     

The foundation, and the thing which would attract these people… were the 'resources' that the academy was able to provide.     

In the old world, the highest grade of cultivation technique one could find outside of the academy would still be a low grade one. However, in the 'Tower of Solitude', such 'treasures' were like grains of sand in a desert, and not to mention the hundreds of mid-grade techniques, there were even dozens of high-grade ones!     

And unlike other resources, this crucial resource was inexhaustible. The only thing they had to make sure of was that they didn't lose the disks, and that they were returned to the tower on time, only being used by those they were lent to.     

It wasn't wrong to say that half the academy's foundation could be destroyed simply by taking away the 'Tower of Solitude'. This was why all four pillars had their residences surrounding that tower, including Aurora.     

This way, only once someone had managed to get hold of a high-grade cultivation technique through some other means would the academy lose its allure. And even then, they would have to have some means of acquiring cultivation resources that were superior to what the academy could provide.     

As for where these resources came from, most people, including the headmaster and the other pillars, assumed that they must be from the 'savings' from the past, subsidized by the students' and teachers' contributions, but Aurora knew the truth.     

What the students and teachers contributed to the academy was only a tiny fraction of what was given out to them, and the source of all these resources… was the academy's greatest secret, and the reason why Aurora's mother feared that one day, a throne would come knocking on their door.     

Aurora had yet to meet the two 'grown up' thrones personally, but from what she gathered, it was impossible for anyone but another throne to be able to resist one. At least, that is what her mother believed.     

Their rate of growth was too fast, and their skills too unpredictable.     

Having seen her own student raise her strength by at least twenty levels in just a few days, Aurora had already seen how terrifying a throne could be.     

But Evelyn was still a child, and she still needed a place that allowed her to grow before she would be ready to face another throne. It was a pity that she couldn't reveal such a thing to others, for she did not trust them. And they kept trying to hinder her growth, which was intolerable.     

Especially the Terrans! Not only were they already invading her student's home country, now they even dared to invade the wonderland of doom! How much more audacious can one get? Just what were they aiming for?     

There was no way she could just sit around and wait for the Terrans to make their move. Although they had always failed before, neither the academy's strength nor its unity was what it used to be. It was far better to either figure out or foil their plans in advance.     

Of course, the Wonderland of Doom was far too vast, even for her, to search through on its own before the Terran Prince managed to escape.     

She didn't need the other pillars to put in a hundred percent of their effort. Even if they scouted the area as a formality, it was far more effective than dozens of senior professors combined.     

And as she expected, even though the other three pillars didn't seem too interested in actually looking for clues, and only performed their surface-level obligations while entertaining themselves, they had already managed to dig out dozens of 'spies', and she was hopeful that the prince would soon reveal himself.     

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Aurora never expected, that at that moment, one of the pillars had already found the prince.     

"Ah, Craig, Dane. Here you are."     

The Terran Prince had already been in a terrible state when he had first been lost in the forest, and now, his condition was far worse compared to that day.     

With one of his legs no more than a stump, and his face pale and dirty, the prince looked no different from a pauper as he pointed a shaky finger at the cloaked man. "H-H-How—"     

He had been discretely hiding in that cave with Professor Dane, and had even used his most precious two consumable artifacts, completely abandoning any hope of saving them. One of them was to hide their presence almost perfectly, as long as the other party didn't know their exact location, while the other was to alert people with the 'Terran Seed' nearby.     

Of course, this was a last resort, since the chances of someone just stumbling upon them close enough for the artifact to trigger in this large forest… was laughably low.     

The cloaked figure chuckled. "Hoho… it was impossible for you to not be found. The wonderland may be large, but with four pillars searching together, it is not impossible for us to scour through it fully within a week. Ah, grade six artifacts… huh? Quite good. But you're 'lucky' I came here first. Ahahaha… Oh, I crack myself up!"     

Professor Dane gritted his teeth. "I-Is it you, Lord Mantis?"     

"Hoh, your memory is quite good. Did you recognize my voice?"     

The red-haired man nodded, still feeling a little unsure. Even if he couldn't recognize the voice, he would never forget that annoying way the man laughed. But wasn't Lord Mantis one of the academy's pillars, as well? If Aurora was hostile to Craig, and Mantis was not… just what the hell was going on? Was one of them a traitor?     

Dane soon shook his head. 'What the hell am I thinking? This has nothing to do with me anymore. Fuck the academy.'     

Craig still felt a little confused, squinting his eyes at the cloaked figure. "D-Did you talk to my father…? A-Are you here to save me?"     

The cloaked figure chuckled. "What kind of delusions are you having, boy? Did that wound make you lose too much blood, so you now think the Terran King can order me, a Pillar of the Ancient Academy? Ahahaha…"     

Craig and Dane suddenly shared a look of panic, but before they could react, a black veil covered them in an instant.     

The cloaked man gave a satisfied nod. "Hmmm… The effects are quite good. The headmistress sure planned to leave lots of good things for her daughter, huh. Did she plan to make up for her mistakes? Ahahaha… how funny. Good thing she entrusted it all to me. Mhm, it's definitely more useful in my hands."     

Once inside the veil, it was like time had stopped for Craig and Dane, and Mantis could safely store them inside a spatial artifact.     

He grinned while flying away. "I wonder how long that little girl will look for them before giving up to go cry in a corner, ahahaha…"     

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~ To be continued ~     

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