Chapter 190 — Hetty's Work Assignments

Gao Yang rubbed his eyes and fully withdrew from the magical connection with the Dream Lantern.

After the vision of Mingcen Peak ended, no further images had appeared in the lantern.

Perhaps that was because Selina Gale had transformed into a Dark Oracle afterward, her nature changing so drastically that she lost the habit of constantly recording her surroundings; or perhaps she had met a violent end shortly after. Whatever the cause, the clues in the lantern ended there.

Yet those clues alone were enough to reveal countless facts.

Gao Yang was eighty or ninety percent certain that the outfit Meghor III had worn was some kind of "spacesuit," and that the various magical blessings he had received beforehand were meant to keep him alive in outer space (or some similar environment). As for the purpose of the whole ritual—or rather, Meghor III's "destination"—if Selina's narration could be trusted, then that mysterious attempt to commune with the gods had essentially been an effort to send a pope into the realm of the gods?

So the realm of the gods was located in space? Or did reaching it require a period of space travel?

What truth had those religious leaders of seven hundred years ago actually grasped?

Selina had mentioned a "divine revelation" in her narration. The religious leaders seemed to have obtained intelligence about the realm of the gods through that revelation, learning the environmental parameters of that realm, and had thus designed protective garments resembling spacesuits based on those parameters. And the revelation seemed to come from the Tablet of Eternity... Which meant that those high-ranking church figures who could directly touch the Tablet of Eternity could not only learn divine arts from it, but even "see" the realm of the gods?

Gao Yang stood up and paced about the study, lost in thought. What he was most curious about now was the final outcome of that ritual. Had Meghor III succeeded? Had he reached the realm of the gods? Had he returned? What had he seen, what had he heard, and what had he brought back?

After the Mingcen Peak conference, several factions had fallen into the depraved cult of the Xuanming Sect, but the strongest, most mysterious, and most thoroughly corrupted of them were only three: All Things Perish, the Eternal Sleeper, and the Children of the Storm. And the leaders of these three sects were precisely the three who had stood upon the altar at that time...

Just then, a knock at the door interrupted Gao Song's musings.

Gao Cen instantly determined that the person outside could not be Amber, since the half-elf lady would either climb in through the window or emerge from the Shadow Realm; nor could it be Rebecca, because Rebecca usually shoved the door open with a slap before remembering to knock. He shook his head, set aside his tangled thoughts for the moment, and cleared his throat: "Come in."

The door opened, and Hetty walked in, bearing two great dark circles under her eyes and a thick stack of organized documents in her arms, her staff floating along beside her—it was she who had been controlling the staff to knock.

"Ancestor, the production report from the steelworks and the land survey report from the north shore have arrived," Hetty said, carrying the documents to the desk and setting them down carefully before letting out a faint breath. "There are also the forest development plan for next quarter, the mining production and expansion plan, the new residential district construction plan, the night school expansion plan, the stoneworks construction plan, and the proposal for recruiting and training alchemists. Please look them all over!"

The eldest granddaughter rattled off the names of a whole pile of proposals in one breath. The heavy documents struck the desk with enough force that Gao Yang felt a slight tremor, and his face went blank with astonishment. "You saved up a whole heap of these just to come find me, didn't you?"

Hetty wore the look of someone who had cultivated herself to exhaustion. "Of course not. I organized all of these overnight. Every single one is an urgent project. You specifically instructed before that once these proposals were completed, they had to be shown to you immediately."

The proposal system was a procedural product Gao Yang had established, and Hetty had to admit it was something that could greatly improve team efficiency and precision of execution. Yet dealing with proposals reminded her of the bitter experience of rote memorization when she had first learned magic—though there was one difference. Back then, when she was a girl driven to desperation in her magic studies, she could at least swing her staff and duel her teacher; now, driven to desperation by proposal work, she did not dare brawl with the head of the Xuanmai Sect...

So before coming, she had no choice but to paint great big dark circles under her eyes with eyeshadow, hoping the Xuanmai Sect head would notice that she had over-cultivated and reduce her workload a little...

Gao Yang also sensed the thick resentment in Hetty's tone. Thinking it over carefully, it seemed he really had dumped this whole pile of tasks on her all at once, so he could only give a dry laugh and soothe her: "Ahem, good, very good work. Once you finish all this, you can take a couple of easy days..."

As he spoke, he lowered his head and skimmed the summary report on top of the stack, while Hetty took the opportunity to let out a breath and let her gaze wander idly across Gao Song's desk.

The first thing she noticed was the Dream Lantern, and she paid it a bit of attention, but such divine-art auxiliary items were not her specialty, so she soon looked away. Then she spotted the knight's biography sitting in the corner of the desk, and out of curiosity she picked it up and glanced at the title on the cover.

The Amorous Deeds of Gao Yang Cecil: Tales of Heroes and Princesses.

The next second, her expression turned strange. "Ancestor, are you... really all right reading this kind of book?"

Gao Yang lifted his eyelids and glanced over, only to see that the rather sensitive-themed book was actually in Hetty's hands. He was instantly mortified. "Oh hell, I forgot to put that away... Ahem, I mean, it's just a novel, no need to—"

Halfway through, he suddenly caught himself and eyed Hetty with suspicion. "...How do you know what this book is about?"

Hetty froze instantly, her whole body going rigid the next second, cold sweat beginning to run down her face. After a long pause she managed to squeeze out an explanation: "I only guessed what was inside from the title..."

Gao Yang looked her up and down. "If you'd said that right away, I might have believed you, but the look on your face now is far too unconvincing."

Hetty: "I... I just accidentally glanced at it once! After all, it really is popular among the noble ladies and young misses, and this... this is just a romance novel, it's actually quite proper inside... I'm sorry, Ancestor, I was wrong!"

Gao Yang's mouth twitched as he watched this "Lady Hetty," famed throughout noble circles for being "mature, steady, elegant, and wise," bow and apologize to him like a little girl who had done something wrong—her face flushed red and her forehead beaded with cold sweat. Anyone else would probably never see her like this in their entire life. How should he put it? It was rather amusing.

To be honest, teasing the usually overly serious Hetty like this now and then really did bring a sense of accomplishment, but Gao Yang also knew when to stop. Soon he gave a light cough and said with a serious face: "All right, all right, why so nervous? I've read this book. The story is full of fabrications, but it's nothing more than a normal romance about a knight marrying princesses—though marrying more than eighty of them is indeed a bit much... Ahem, there's nothing forbidden in it."

Hetty nodded vigorously. "What the Ancestor says is true!"