Above The Sky
Chapter 541 - 541 511 He's Dead 34

541: Chapter 511 He’s Dead (3/4) 541: Chapter 511 He’s Dead (3/4) Ian’s tone was tinged with a hint of tension and solemnity, “And why tell me these things — although I do consider myself a genius too — but after all, I’m just a little guy at the First Energy Level?”

“Because for the past twenty-plus years, I have been patrolling the entire Empire with the Heart Light Body, personally raising pigs, feeding chickens, farming, and even baking biscuits and bread.

To be honest, I’d wager, Ian, that your cooking skills are not as good as mine.

I am proficient in seventeen regional cuisines of Terra and can even make a marching meal taste delicious.”

Michael crossed his hands behind his head, lying back comfortably, looking up at the ceiling with a smile, “Surprised?

Don’t think too highly of the royal family, we have brains.

The Sethar Dynasty has stretched for nearly a thousand years, longer than the Tara Calendar, and even produced an extraordinary emperor like my grandfather—A fool could not become a Sublimator, let alone reach the Fourth Energy Level.”

“As for why I’m telling you this…”

The blonde Prince repeated the phrase, his lips curling up slightly, his gaze relaxed, “Perhaps a bit narcissistic.”

“Because I see myself in you, I had this thought the first time we met, you and I are kindred spirits.”

“I am very clear that you are that kind of genius, you even have the potential to become a legend like Grand Artisan Friedrich.

Just let yourself go, you can change the world, I have this premonition, and I have complete faith in my premonitions.”

“But you’re going in the wrong direction.

Ian, the reason I came is to tell you that.”

“Do not continue to research ‘simplifying and popularizing alchemical potions.’ It looks promising, but the result is actually disastrous.”

“A dead end my grandfather went down, I hope you won’t walk it again.”

Speaking narcissistically, Ian, too, didn’t find it strange that the other party came to him with this.

After all, he was a First Energy Level Spirit Energy User under sixteen years old, an Elite Alchemist with courage, decision-making ability, achievements, and the ability to act.

With access to resources, his advancement to the Third Energy Level and becoming an Alchemy Master was almost certain — even the latter was probably only four or five years away.

It was quite normal for the Second Prince to come and remind him since it concerned the future of an Alchemy Master related to him…

After all, it wouldn’t take more than half an hour of his time.

Wasting half an hour of the Second Prince Michael’s time was something Ian was certainly qualified for.

“What dead end?”

At that moment, Ian’s eyebrows were tightly furrowed as he showed a suitably — and perhaps genuinely puzzled — expression of having his research direction denied, his tone growing somewhat intense.

Ian, like a true young prodigy, was spirited, “I’ve always found it odd that the raw materials for alchemical potions are not expensive.

What’s costly is the service fee of the alchemists.

My method allows alchemists to increase their service fees while making the products accessible to more people.”

“It should be a good thing.”

“It is a good thing.”

Michael turned his head and met Ian’s gaze, staring into Ian’s somewhat resentful eyes and calmly said, “So what I’m saying is, don’t continue researching.”

“Because if you carry on, you will leave the cutting-edge field of alchemy and step into the abyss of technology popularization and practicality.”

To be honest, at first, Ian did not understand what Michael was talking about — what abyss was there in technology becoming practical?

All technology should be practical.

But soon, he caught on and began to understand what the Second Prince truly meant.

— Sublimators do not need technology to be practical…

They can directly convert technology into power by themselves.

Only ordinary people, those who cannot use Origin Quality or Spirit Energy, those who cannot use their own bodies as tools to directly utilize technology…

need it to be practical.

“You mean to say…”

Ian’s tone was somewhat strained, “You hope that I will dive into more profound alchemy theories, to develop techniques for making potions stronger instead of more numerous…

to serve the powerful rather than ordinary people?”

Because he found this statement too direct to the point of not knowing how to phrase it more diplomatically.

But what Ian had not expected was that Michael, too, fell silent because of these words.

“…Grandfather was always concerned with grand ambitions.”

It took a while before the Second Prince slowly began to speak, embarking on what seemed to be a completely unrelated topic, “He had a very, very big dream which was the source of his Spirit Energy.

That incredible dream and desire made him one of the strongest Spirit Energy Users on Terra Continent at that time, with only the First Knight, Unyielding Fortress Heliade, privy to the entire dream.”

“For this nation, for all sentient beings who dwell upon this land, from the most ordinary people to the highest nobility and royalty, he made many decisions that were later criticized or secretly admired… How should I put it, even someone as talented as I am, having seen all that my grandfather did in his life, felt nothing but admiration for him, with no thoughts of comparing myself.”

“Where would I even stand, after all?

Almost everyone has some self-awareness, and those without it can’t even reach the Third Energy Level.”

“In any case, whether he’s called the Black King, Tyrant, or Great Emperor, none can encompass my grandfather’s heart.

He loved everyone so dearly, wishing for them all to be happy, that an ordinary person injured might find healing with an alchemical potion, and in danger be protected by an Anti-Damage Potion, that every family could eat meat, have houses to live in and fine clothes to wear, and that each family had dreams and aspirations.”

“And that Sublimators, too, might pursue their own dreams, becoming stronger and greater, to transform the world.”

Saying so, Michael and Ian locked eyes.

He uttered three words.

“He’s dead.”

Michael said this with a smile, yet Ian could only hear a sigh, “Many people helped him, the First Knight took down half of the Imperial Capital for him—don’t be skeptical, back then, the entire plains around the Imperial Capital were shaken by massive earthquakes, the Lower City District was almost entirely rebuilt in recent years, a quarter of the buildings in the Central Urban District collapsed, and a third of the Upper City District was blown away, with an Iron Mountain remaining to the north, which is the debris of the Imperial Capital cut away by the First Knight’s sword.”

“But Grandfather still died.

So powerful, invincible, yet I felt so small watching him… You understand, don’t you?

Having seen his manuscripts, you must realize how incredibly brilliant he was… but he still failed.”

“And decades later, those who once supported my grandfather now call him the Black Tyrant.”

Michael seemed to take it for granted that Ian was the inheritor of Inega II’s alchemy, as their thought processes were extremely similar.

For others, this might be uncertain, but to the prince who was the direct descendant of Inega II, Ian somehow brought back memories of those days.

Memories of his grandfather and the First Knight seemed to merge within this young man.

Of course, he simply attributed it to Ian inheriting Inega II’s manuscripts and did not think further—Michael’s strong intuition towards the truth was disregarded by himself.

Ian perceived the Second Prince’s slight lapse, and he, in fact, felt like sighing as well.

But in the end, he continued his pretense.

Feigning a confusion that was neither clearly true nor false.

“Isn’t this Imperial propaganda?” the white-haired youth inquired with confusion, “Isn’t this a propaganda strategy employed by the Empire to tarnish the Former Emperor’s reputation?”

Hearing this, Michael shook his head, stepping out of his gloom.

He laughed heartily, teasing, “See, even someone as smart as you thinks so, what about the ordinary people?”

“Think about it, Ian, the new dynasty in Yanjiang, in order to assert their own legitimacy, needs to prove the authority of the former dynasty.

Inega was my grandfather, my father’s father, and it wasn’t the Father Emperor who instigated the Dark Moon Uprising.

Would someone as clever as him do that, to undermine his own throne?”

“You don’t think the Dark Moon Uprising was just an internal affair of the Empire, do you?

Those who first called grandfather the Black Tyrant were not our own Imperial People… It was actually Steep Ridge Fortress and the Azure Sky Royal Court who began that name.”