Of course, that was a big fat lie. Baiyi planned to create a little diversion so that by the time the dust had settled, he would be back after December 5th. That way he would miss Grace Day completely; it should suffice, right?
It did not really matter that the kids wanted to celebrate the festive season. Grace Day celebrations would last 10 days, so with only one day taken out, they would still have 9 days left to play.
That way, he would not have to celebrate the festival alone, and the kids would get to join the celebratory gala. Baiyi had to admit that he was very pleased with his own plan.
However, before they hit the road, Baiyi had to finish two issues he had on hand. First, the issue regarding his Power Level Examination. The Association was going to take a break for the 10-day celebratory period of Grace Day, and after the holidays were over, it would be saddled with a heap of work, which it would have accumulated during the break. Because of this, Baiyi reckoned that it would be much better just to finish his theses as soon as possible.
That night, the Scholar-led group of Voidwalkers writing the dissertations finally completed them all. Baiyi copied them down onto papers and attached a letter, where he requested a speedy process, to the written dissertations.
The next thing Baiyi had to do was find a vacation destination. However, he had already taken care of this; he had found quite a location.
Back when Baiyi had just finished off Thaas, the Fifth Walker had directed his newly-smuggled energy — which was twenty percent of the total energy he had in the Void — to roam in and out of realms, slowly searching for undiscovered small, habitable realms, like some sort of scout.
However, quite amazingly, this stream of smuggled energy had recently returned to Baiyi with a report on a miniature realm for human habitation that had not been visited by humans!
Compared to other realms, this new realm could be considered a baby. It was only as big as five Arfin cities. It was also too small to host a country. These were probably the reasons why humans had not bothered to visit the realm. It was just too small an environment to act as the cradle to any hypothetical civilization with sufficiently high intelligence.
However, this did not stop the realm from being bewitchingly beautiful. The realm had every marvel that nature had to offer. Valleys, rivers, forests, meadows could all be found in the realm; it was a paradise.
This made it the perfect spot for the kids to frolic and explore. It had the scenic wonders of an adventure but possessed none of its uncontrollable risks. The returning part of Baiyi’s consciousness had already surveyed the realm and confirmed that there were no intelligent life forms there, neither were there any reactions that suggested the use of unnatural powers. The only lifeforms that it had detected some adorable critters.
All the Voidwalkers agreed that this realm was a good place to travel. This time, Baiyi was sure that he was not being subliminally persuaded.
Baiyi did not just consider this realm a perfect place to play. If everything went well, he would like to build his academy right there. After all, the nosy Church was not there, and the annoying hustles of the common folks did not exist there as well.
Baiyi would be free to do whatever he wanted. Would it not be awesome?
Naturally, the only way to be sure of that would be to go there in person. That was one of the reasons why Baiyi wanted to complete his Power Level Examination quickly. Another reason, of course, was because many materials that were needed to build the trans-realm transporter portal formation were controlled by the Association. Thus, in order to build his own portal, Baiyi would need to buy materials from the Association itself, and that would only be possible if became a member first and submit a detailed request report.
The next day, class was once again conducted by Professor S because Baiyi had to rush to the Association’s Arfin branch to submit his thesis, seeing as it was still early in the morning. Furthermore, he was in a hurry because Aya had sent him a letter telling him that she would be arriving at noon for a wholesome family reunion lunch.
Baiyi was not planning to disappoint his first full-time employee.
Hence, Baiyi soon returned to the very same building he had created a havoc in a few days before.
The front desk had already been replaced by a sturdier metal desk. The receptionist was gazing at with a strange look from behind her new desk, but Baiyi ignored her. He went straight into Fatty Joe’s office and stared at the branch manager with a weird expression.
“Can you submit these for me? These are my dissertations for the Examination,” Baiyi asked, waving the five papers in his hands.
Fatty Joe was stunned. He asked Baiyi to take a seat, then he began to address Baiyi’s request.
“Master Hope, you have your thesis already? I… I just heard the news of you joining the Exam yesterday! I myself made a small bet… The betting polls have not even closed and here you are, already done with your work!”
Baiyi replied, “I have a lot more time in my hand now, remember? This has enabled me to spend many nights working on this.”
With this, Baiyi was reminding the man that he was, after all, a Soul Armature who did not need to sleep.
Then, Baiyi asked, “Anyway, about that bet you mentioned…”
“Just some office entertainment,” Fat Joe replied, with a smile on his face. When Baiyi mentioned how he had managed to complete his dissertation so fast, there was no doubt on Fat Joe’s face, only bewilderment. He believed that it was possible for Baiyi to have already finished his dissertations. If a researcher wrote down a few key ideas everyday for the duration of his academic career, it would take only a little amount of time for the researcher to flesh out his ideas and use them to write a coherent essay. In fact, this was any easy method to write any thesis.
Fat Joe proceeded to explain to Baiyi why the betting polls were set up. Sorcerers enjoyed little thrills just as much as common folks did. Therefore, whenever there were big headlines making rounds, sorcerers would usually place bets on the parties involved.
This time, Baiyi made the news, and the sorcerers set up a bet on whether or not Baiyi could pass the Immortal-level power examination.
Surprisingly, a lot of sorcerers actually bet against Baiyi success because, to them, the odds of him failing was more plausible than the other outcome.
It seemed like there was only so much a reputation fueled by the Church’s claims could amount to.
“As you already knew, sorcerers are a proud bunch. Sometimes, that pride can turn into outright complacency and overconfidence.” Fat Joe explained, feeling embarrassed.
“I hope that there would no dirty ploys in this exam.” Baiyi could not care less about what others thought of him; instead, he dryly commented on another issue.
“Don’t worry about that. When the Examination is conducted for those with a power level equal or beyond Legendary-level, the entire process became quite strident. It will be completely fair, transparent, and balanced. No one will be able to rig the outcome just to win some minuscule bet,” Fat Joe replied reassuringly.
Then, the branch manager picked up Baiyi’s thesis which had been sitting neatly on his desk and asked, “May I?”
“Oh, sure. Please. You can correct me if you spot any errors,” Baiyi said, feigning humility.
Fat Joe flipped through Baiyi’s first thesis which was titled “The Efficiency, Accuracy of Formulation, and Malleability in the Practical Usage of Rohlserlian Formations and Modern Runes: Differences, Strengths, and Weaknesses.”
Just that mouthful of a title made cold sweat drip down Fat Joe’s forehead. When he opened up one of Baiyi’s dissertations, Fat Joe felt that he was reading something that had been written in some sort of proto-language. Despite knowing the individual terms used in this paper, he still found the entire content unrecognizable.
‘This thesis is way over my head…’ With no choice but to give up on that dissertation, Fat Joe shifted his focus to the next one: “A Discourse on the Application of Simplified Runic Magic in Battles by Modern Sorcerers.”
‘The hell is a “Simplified Rune”?’ Fat Joe had to dig deep into his memory to remember that simplified runes were runic magic used by a bizarre sect of sorcerers who called themselves the “War Druids”.
This paper, however, did not require an understanding of intricate formations, so Fat Joe could still understand parts of the essay, albeit with great difficulties. More importantly, just the first few paragraphs made him feel like his mind had been blown wide open.
Finally, he finished the paper and exhaled with fulfillment. “Such a marvelous way of utilizing the technique; who knew! Although these war druids have different philosophies, unlike we sorcerers, the ways by which these simplified runes are applied are very interesting. Many parts of this dissertation were particularly enlightening…”
Fat Joe had already decided to use his privilege to make a copy of that dissertation for himself so that he could learn even more from it. He had reasons to believe that if he could completely understand the wisdom embedded in it, his own power would most certainly see a marked improvement.
Baiyi did not say anything. He only waited for the branch manager to finish reading all the dissertations.
The other three dissertations were about alchemy, engineering, and astrology, which inevitably made Fat Joe feel like he was reading ancient texts. Although he had not studied any of these three subjects, he could still easily detect the professional countenance of the author who used these jargons. He was sure that Baiyi’s knowledge in these subjects was second to no other person.
“I did not expect Master Hope to possess such deep understanding on these subjects. Your perspectives in many aspects of these subjects are unique,” Fat Joe said coyly.
Baiyi could only laugh internally. He was sure that Fat Joe had not understood a single word, but he chose not to blow the branch manager’s cover. Instead, he replied courteously, “If it is alright and does not require any corrections, then please help me submit them.”
“Rest assured, I will get on it right away!” Fat Joe replied reassuringly. Then, he leaned into his chair and said to Baiyi, “After reading your thesis, I’m sure that those hundred gold coins are as good as mine already!”
‘The fella didn’t hold back at all, did he? But then again, he is the Branch Leader of a city, so betting a hundred gold coins should be considered as small entertainment.’
As soon as his matters were taken care of, Baiyi saw no reason to stay any longer, so he stood up. However, at that very moment, Fat Joe asked, “Um, Mr. Hope? Forgive my curiosity, but you can’t possibly be… the Great Unmoving Sage himself, right?”
“He was considered the most knowledgeable Great Sage in the history of the Doors of Conundrum — a man who had dyed the pages of academia with his pen, and a man who had inscribed his name and prestige into history. From what I heard, from the moment he joined the Doors of Conundrum, he never stepped outside of their libraries again. Not many saw his true face. We only recognized him through the thesis stamped with Great Sage’s Mark. No one even knew his real name! Sir Hope, it was you, wasn’t it? Only a man like that would match your prestige,” Fat Joe finished.
Baiyi shook his head sideways and replied, “There are way many people like me in the Doors of Conundrum, you see. It’s just that everyone has always been so engrossed in the ocean of knowledge, that they had not given much care for other things. The mundane could not possibly best the wonders that lay between the pages.”
However, on the inside, Baiyi cried, ‘Open your eyes and look at me. What part of me looks like a fossil-aged hikikomori now?’