The "Doctor," without turning his head, said: "The experiment is going smoothly; soon we'll witness the birth of a god."
The other researchers' weary faces gained some vigor, their eyes as if lit with light.
Creating a god! This would be the greatest undertaking of their lives!
Lucian, however, was noncommittal; creating what Dendro god? Letting the Wanderer ascend as a god would be easier as the Preservation god—much lower difficulty.
Insisting on ascending as "Erudition"—if they'd aimed for "Preservation" from the start, success would've come long ago; why make me wait so long?
"Alright, since it's almost done, have the others leave first." Lucian said to the Great Sage.
The Great Sage looked at Lucian puzzledly but didn't ask more.
Prophets always know some unknown things; perhaps he didn't want those lowly students to know—understandable.
During this period's cooperation, Lucian had shared many 'secrets'; the Great Sage enjoyed this monopoly on knowledge.
Using the Akasha Terminal to issue the command, the Sumeru researchers present left one after another, but the Snezhnayan researchers didn't.
The Snezhnayans naturally wouldn't listen to the Great Sage; Lucian turned his gaze to the "Doctor."
"You all leave too," the Doctor said.
The Doctor's underlings were very loyal; with just one sentence, they obediently left.
These underlings had been trained by the Doctor to be like Sumeru people dependent on the Akasha— their 'dependency' on the Doctor was exaggerated; truly worthy of Mr. 91.
The Doctor himself didn't leave; he stood up, stepped back two steps, and observed with great interest.
He seemed to have realized something but had no intention of pointing it out.
Lucian didn't care if he left or not and directly started unleashing.
"Azar, you've gotten stupider; dependent on the Akasha, now dependent on Snezhnaya too?"
The Great Sage was annoyed, "What did you say!?"
Calling him by name was one thing, but daring to call him stupid? He was Sumeru's best scholar, the forefront researcher!
You ask what he researched? Uh... anyway, the forefront researcher; not convinced? Not convinced, then ban all your Akasha knowledge!
But though Azar was annoyed, he wasn't impulsive; he'd already seen that Lucian was turning against him.
He just couldn't understand why Lucian would turn against him? No reason!
He had indeed done inhuman things in Sumeru, but Lucian wasn't Sumeruan!
Their cooperation clearly had many benefits; why turn faces?
Regardless of the reason, Azar wasn't panicked; this was his turf—he could make those people leave earlier, so he could bring in more!
"What do you mean by that?" The Great Sage calmed down and asked.
He naturally knew what Lucian meant; asking this was just to stall for time—the message had already been sent via the terminal.
"Literal meaning." Lucian sighed, "Sigh, truly dependency etched into the soul."
Lucian naturally knew Azar was stalling, but he was even less urgent than Azar.
You think I had them leave because I was scared? I just handed them over to the people outside to handle.
"You call yourself the forefront scholar, yet you're also trapped in the Akasha Terminal."
"Is a fenced-in scholar still a scholar?"
The Great Sage, or rather the Sumeru scholars under him, had no habit of proactively gathering intelligence; they preferred others to collect it and wait for the Akasha to query.
Their dependency on the Akasha made them lose their 'thirst for knowledge,' even the ability to discern truth from falsehood in information.
After cooperating with Snezhnaya, their intelligence source became the Fatui.
Unfortunately, the Fatui cared not for sentiments but benefits; no matter how you looked, Lucian had more cooperative value than the Akademiya.
So the intelligence Snezhnaya gave Sumeru wasn't all true; some were false.
Initially, the Great Sage would question Snezhnayan intelligence and send people to investigate, but just like deceiving a certain Electro Archon, the intelligence was true—just not entirely so.
Later, as the god-ascension research deepened, the Great Sage's energy was all drawn here, so he paid even less attention to intelligence veracity.
"Hmph, I, Azar, am the forefront scholar; how could you understand the Akasha's wisdom?" Azar scoffed.
"That's wisdom belonging to the divine! What use is a prophet? Worthless before a god."
Venti, hiding in the shadows, broke out in a sweat; hey, don't include me in your boasting.
Lucian spread his hands; prophecies might be worthless in gods' eyes, but I'm high-position observation—what's that got to do with me?
"What Azar? Better call you Pickled Filth."
"The Akasha is indeed wise, pity the user isn't up to it."
Azar was furious; Lucian's attacks were truly strong—academics, name, character, hitting every point without fail.
But he wasn't skilled in martial arts and couldn't, like Ei, just strike when words failed.
The Great Sage thought of a way: since he couldn't outtalk Lucian, then don't talk to him.
Azar looked at the "Doctor" watching the show aside; Azar stared at the "Doctor": "Dottore, you're betraying me too?"
"Betrayal?" The "Doctor" seemed to ponder, "Hm... indeed, that's correct."
"But not this time; haven't I already 'betrayed' the Akademiya long ago?" The "Doctor" smiled.
"And when did we become 'allies'? Did 'my' experiment give you some illusion?"
This was the Doctor's true words; what allies? No allies—just experimental materials, tools, and funding.
"You!" Azar was somewhat speechless; this was truly taking pride in what should be shame.
Calling him betrayer, and he got proud—not correcting if it was betrayal, but the timing of the betrayal.
Moreover, emphasizing 'my' on the experiment—what do you mean yours? What about me?
"Don't forget! This god-related experiment can't be completed without me!" Azar was truly angry now.
This was his proudest experiment; how could he let the Doctor monopolize it.
The "Doctor"'s lips curved in a smile, but in fact, his expression wasn't great.
"Are you questioning my abilities?"
Dottore spread his arms: "The one who completes this experiment is me."
"Only me! The indispensable one!"
Arrogant; Lucian didn't know which segment of the "Doctor" this was, but undoubtedly, this segment's personality was extremely arrogant.
He had absolute confidence in his abilities, even to a manic degree.
On this point, perhaps all segments of the "Doctor" were like this.
He was like a genius never slapped in the face, his heart filled only with extreme confidence in his talent.
But this was normal too; Dottore was indeed a top-tier genius, beyond doubt.
But he was also a top-tier scum, equally beyond doubt, on par with his genius level.
===✧✦✧===
Character Voice-Over · Lucian: About the Doctor and the Great Sage
"Both sides of the hand are full of shit."