Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

That's Patchouli Knowledge!

“It’s said that in ancient times, someone named that area of ​​the starry sky,” Ceylon smiled, a smile playing on her lips and amusement in her eyes. But Ming Yanwei, hidden beneath her black shell, seemed to sense a deathly giant star that instantly filled her senses—an invisible, intangible pressure washed over her, forcing her to snap out of her shock and regain control of her body. And after that…

“Andromeda.” Miss Ceylon held up a finger, still seemingly innocent and carefree. “The ancients named that area of ​​the starry sky Andromeda. It’s the name of a fairy, said to be the most beautiful goddess in the sea of ​​stars.”

She tilted her head slightly, shifting her gaze away from the starry sky.

“I’m starting to get a little interested, Black.” She turned her gaze to her trusted companion. “If only she could appear before me. I really want to see the most beautiful girl in the starry sea.”

She said with a light laugh. The next moment, the urgent knocking that had been scheduled from the beginning rang out.

“Is this Miss Ceylon? Please open the door! We are the friends you met during the day!”—This voice came from outside the door, which was well soundproofed but still had a gap.

Ceylon glanced at Hei, her expression questioning.

Hei nodded, went over and leaned against the door, paused for a few seconds, and then nodded slightly to her.

The door was opened.

The Yeti group, carrying the unconscious Frostnova, rushed in. They cast expectant yet nervous glances at Ceylon, who stood in the center of the room.

"What are you doing here..." Ceylon asked hesitantly. She looked like a young lady from a wealthy family.

With a thud, the yeti who had "invited" Ceylon during the day knelt before her, uttering a humble plea.

"Miss Ceylon! Please, please save my sister! My sister... my sister..."

"Don't do this, get up!" Ceylon called softly, quickly stepping past her to look at Frostnova, who was being carefully placed on the carpet. Black, standing in the doorway, closed the door and slightly lowered the weapon in his hand.

“This is… acute Originium poisoning? Why is this happening!?” Ceylon instantly understood Frostnova’s symptoms. Looking at the pale, unconscious white-haired beauty before her, she herself seemed somewhat tense. “I barely know how to handle this situation. But I can’t guarantee…”

"Thank you! Thank you!"—It was just a simple promise, but it brought the Yetis great joy.

When Black spoke to Ceylon, he had already pushed over the suitcase that was originally meant for him and taken out many valuable instruments and medicines.

Treatment begins.

The entire operation of the script is under the control of the strategist.

..........................................

Meanwhile, in the outer reaches of the Qin Empire.

The other part of Luo Ye opened its eyes.

"The entire script is still in my control." She opened her hands, unleashing her power. And the next moment, the catastrophic setting sun, symbolizing the end of the universe, suddenly appeared in the vast void!

Her planetary system withered in an instant, stars dimmed, and planets in orbit decayed and collapsed. Her gaze turned to the center of the Qin Empire, watching the cluster of stars awakening from within 'Qin'.

Hu Hai's true form is a supermassive celestial cycle composed of multiple star systems. It exists to protect Qin and will not tolerate any offense, whether benevolent or malicious.

The Andromeda galaxy's distribution area was located right in the heart of the Qin Empire!

Section Nineteen: Patchouli Knowledge - Part One

Long, long ago, on a distant land, there lived a wise, kind, and noble female scholar. Her name was Hypatia, and she founded a school called the 'Celestial School.' She developed and expanded her understanding of magic, using the distribution and movement of the stars as the core of her theory.

The school of thought grew in strength, and soon she became a significant force in her city, Alexandria. She took in many disciples and taught them diligently, whether they were untalented commoners, less gifted wizarding apprentices, or followers of a cult that had inexplicably arisen to worship mechanics and mathematics. She treated them all equally and imparted her knowledge to every outsider who was willing to come and listen to her lectures.

Is this a good thing? — Perhaps, at least for ordinary people who don't have access to knowledge.

Is this a bad thing? — Yes, it is a bad thing, because she broke the monopoly of knowledge and did not carefully examine all those who came into contact with the knowledge she taught.

Someone advised her, saying, "You need a successor, someone to inherit your will, to inherit your doctrines"—she listened and knew it was for her own good. Because a scholar with constraints will act cautiously, will understand what it means to advance or retreat, what balance is, moderation is, and class interests.

She knew it, but she didn't believe anyone was worthy of her. So, one day, she prepared a ritual, a ritual using her own flesh and blood as a prototype, and employing the techniques of the celestial school to summon the spirits of stars from the heavens.

“My successor must be stronger than me. I will use the power of the stars to shape her so that she can go further and more smoothly than I have.”

She chose her favorite star system from among the stars. And because she was Greek, the source of the star spirit she chose was the most beautiful one in the Greek star system—the most beautiful of the stars, the ruler of Andromeda, or perhaps Andromeda itself.

“My successor will be more beautiful, wiser, and stronger than me. But I must protect her until she is old enough to stand on her own.”

And so, Hypatia initiated the ritual. After paying a heavy price, a girl with beautiful purple hair and eyes was born from her own flesh and blood on the ritual platform—after much deliberation, she decided to name the baby girl 'Knowledge'. The baby's given name was her favorite patchouli.

'Patchouli Knowledge'—that's the baby girl's name. She is the heir to Hypatia, and the daughter of the virgin Hypatia. After that, Hypatia destroyed all traces of the ritual. And after ten months of not receiving guests, she brought back Patchouli Knowledge, still a baby girl.

She offered no explanation, simply stating that the baby girl was her heir. Others, observing the deliberate yet incomplete traces she left behind, then proceeded to conjure up a logically coherent and convoluted origin story for the infant.

People are like that; they like to believe what they have deduced.

While these outsiders were conjuring up all sorts of dramatic scenarios in their minds, they also subconsciously accepted the baby girl's origins. They recognized her as the heir to the celestial school. They recognized her as—the 'Princess of Knowledge'.

The girl's growth was also extraordinary. She learned all the magic and all the secret arts with little effort. She would be troubled and anxious about all the difficulties and problems, but she would eventually be able to solve the puzzles.

She was an oddball posing as a genius. She always appeared to be struggling and working very hard, which made people underestimate her and fail to notice that she was never truly perplexed by a single subject.

She concealed herself well, causing everyone to underestimate her. The title of 'Princess of Knowledge,' originally hers, unknowingly became a title within the celestial school. Everyone, including many within the celestial school, believed Patchouli Knowledge to be merely a witch of some unusual origin. They respected her, treated her kindly, but never truly took her seriously.

Except for Hypatia.

Apart from her biological mother and academic mentor, no one noticed her unusual behavior.

Hypatia saw more than she had anticipated. She saw an ominous sign in her successor.

"Why are you so indifferent to everything, Patchouli?"—she asked her daughter more than once.

And each time, she saw her daughter looking at her with confusion and self-reproach—"I'm sorry, mentor. I haven't tried hard enough..."

The no-longer-young female scholar looked at her daughter, her apprentice. After several attempts, she finally obtained an answer.

Patchouli Knowledge is not a human being.

She possessed what appeared to be human intelligence, yet she lacked it, or rather, disregarded human morality. She had a human appearance, a human physique, human behavior, and human habits. But she lacked a human heart.

She didn't care about anything, not even her mother whose identity hadn't been revealed, nor her mentor on the surface. She didn't care about anything. She just pretended to care, pretended to be concerned, pretended to be a member of humanity, and pretended that she didn't even know she was pretending.

She was a born deity, a born star spirit. She is... Andromeda!

That conversation ended abruptly. Hypatia left her daughter, whom she had never acknowledged, with mixed feelings. She had a premonition that her daughter would sooner or later unleash a catastrophe that would sweep the world, or that she herself would become a catastrophe. She wanted to do something, but in the end, her heart was filled with pity, and she did nothing.

Days passed, and the signs of a changing era began to emerge. Just as the conflict between idealistic and materialistic wizards was nearing its end, a third force—the mortal papacy that worshipped mechanics and mathematics—had quietly expanded to a vast extent and wielded considerable military power. The conflict intensified, and many wizards, including Hypatia, noticed certain signs.

War is coming...

The war that will determine the changing of the times, the continuation of the old era, or the rise of a new one is about to begin.

As a crucial local conflict brewed, a storm that would later be described as 'Sarajevo' was gathering. Hypatia, the founder of the astrophysical school and a sympathizer and semi-neutral figure in the Mathematical Church, decided to throw herself into the fray. Before leaving, she saw her daughter one last time.

She saw Patchouli in the library—the Library of Alexandria, the heart of the astrophysical school's headquarters. When she saw Patchouli, Patchouli had just turned to the last page of her book.

“Mentor.” Patchouli quickly stood up and bowed to greet her when she saw her.

—And her inner thoughts were complicated.

Because she remembered that it had been many years since she last left, and Patchouli had been reading in this library ever since. When she casually tested her knowledge on a few obscure books, she was surprised, even horrified, to discover that Patchouli knew them all by heart!

Her daughter memorized the entire library of Alexandria. Whether it was the inscriptions on the cursed stone tablets, the text on ancient paper, or the electronic messages inscribed in metal… her daughter memorized everything, the location of every punctuation mark and every detail, important or insignificant!

Knowledge is power, and this is no lie in the world of magic.

The knowledge accumulated in the Library of Alexandria is equivalent to one-quarter of the total knowledge in the world today. One could even say it is a quarter of the world!

No wizard could accomplish such a feat; it's not something that can be achieved simply by stuffing electronic documents or taking photos and packing them away. Because knowledge itself is power, and some knowledge is contradictory, some is corrupting to behold, some can conjure spells out of thin air, and some reading is tantamount to a step towards trauma. The more power one wields through the acquisition and application of knowledge, the more one must bear the cost of the conflicts, clashes, and struggles between these different pieces of knowledge.

No one can do this; in other words, if someone could, it couldn't be a human.

Hypatia looked at her daughter for a long time, remaining silent for a long time. She didn't know what would happen if Patchouli continued like this. She didn't know what she should do either.

She looked at Patchouli, who gradually became uneasy and frightened under her gaze.

However, she knew that Patchouli's unease and panic were just an act. Because Patchouli... she didn't care about any of it.

She didn't care who would live, who would die, what the world would become, or whether humanity would decline.

She was merely pretending to be human, pretending to be part of the world. But none of this meant anything to her.

Just as fireflies are meaningless to the sun, just as grains of sand are meaningless to the universe—they are not on the same level, nor are they of the same kind. There is absolutely no need to compare them.

Hypatia, at that moment, may have made a tragic decision.

However, before she did that, something suddenly occurred to her.

That was… her daughter, her only bloodline being her daughter. Why pretend to be a human being?

Is it for some personal gain? Or to uncover some secret?

No, no, none of that. Hypatia knew perfectly well what kind of strangeness lay hidden beneath her daughter's pretty exterior. She knew the extent of the power that would erupt if she were to peel back that disguise. And under that power, everything in the world would probably no longer function as it had always.

Therefore, there is only one answer left.

—The reason her daughter, Patchouli Knowledge, disguised herself as a human was because she obeyed her, her mother and mentor. Because she herself intended to bide her time, Patchouli learned to conceal her true talents and powers.

So why would she listen to him?

Ah, after eliminating all the impossibilities, isn't there only one conclusion left?

That's because of the karmic connection between us that created our physical bodies. Because of us, we've formed a 'karmic bond'!

The no-longer-young female scholar knew what she had to do at that moment.

She took Patchouli's slender hand in hers and gently placed it on her chest, feeling her own heartbeat and the flow of blood beneath Patchouli's skin. Her voice gradually became solemn and dignified.

"Patchouli, will you promise me something?"

"Yes, yes?" Patchouli still looked timid, as if she was frightened by her mentor's unusual behavior.

Go find someone you like.

"Eh?"

"Go find someone you like, and who likes you back. Then accompany each other and walk together all the way. Because people... can't possibly walk to the end alone."

Patchouli fell silent.

Then, in silence, they inquired.

"But then I won't be able to focus on studying magic..."

“It’s okay if you don’t work so hard.” Hypatia looked at her daughter, her apprentice. She suddenly opened her arms and hugged her amidst the latter’s gasp.

Go, find someone you want to spend your life with. Grow together, work hard together, struggle together, grow old together... and spend your long but ultimately finite life together.

She saw the unusual silence in Patchouli's eyes fade away, and saw her only apprentice transform from an unknown oddity into a real person.

The constraint took effect; she had used up all her "fate" to make a wish that could change the future and also change Patchouli. In the future, she would find a partner who might be outstanding, mediocre, or exceptionally talented, but who was undoubtedly still within the realm of ordinary people. And as long as her partner did not cross his own boundaries, she would wait silently at the same level.

There aren't that many weirdos in this world. And even if there were, it would be very difficult for two weirdos to get together.