Chapter 888 — Omen

The acolyte accepted the teaching, immediately lowered his eyelids as well, folded his hands before him, and piously murmured a prayer offered to the god. His voice was low, slow, and steady, the sacred words flowing across his lips and tongue—but beside him, Pope Malum suddenly frowned. Amid the acolyte's phrases he had suddenly heard several strange gurgles, as if odd echoes had mixed into the human voice, as if an alien throat were uttering whispers no human could produce. Yet the noise lasted only a very short while; the next second the acolyte's brief prayer ended, and this pious priest opened his eyes, which were calm and clear, showing not the slightest abnormality.

He seemed to know nothing of what had just happened.

Malum Duniter withdrew his gaze from the acolyte and also calmed the extraordinary power he had just stirred up within himself. He said evenly, "Summon the bishops. We shall discuss the matters of the festival."

...

The Shield of the Guardian lay quietly on the table, the ancient Cecil emblem frozen into a blurred, rusted patch upon the shield. Gao Yang's fingers slowly brushed across the weathered, corroded metal surface, but Amber's voice came from beside him: "By the way, these past few days you've been zoning out at this shield whenever you have a moment—are you thinking about the old days? Lost in memories? Can't help but sigh over life? That's a sign of entering old age, you know..."

Gao Yang turned to look at the Empire's Shame, who was openly slacking off right beside him: "Running around during work hours just to come here and ask for a beating?"

Amber immediately waved a hand: "I'm not running around—I came to report official business to you."

Gao Yang set aside his attention to the Shield of the Guardian for the moment and frowned slightly at the half-elf before him: "What official business?"

Amber stepped forward and casually pulled some folded documents from his breast and placed them on Gao Yang's desk: "I've organized it all."

Gao Yang opened the papers bearing the mark of the internal security department, his eyes swiftly scanning the printed text. Once he had taken in the contents, he raised an eyebrow and a smile crept to the corner of his mouth: "So, our magic-shadow plays are quite popular among the citizen class of Aldernan?"

"Once the initial promotion problem was solved, this novelty effortlessly captured the citizens' appetites—even a very simple plot can leave the audience spellbound, and the magic-shadow theater itself happens to cater to the psychology of Aldernan's citizens," Amber said offhandedly. "The tickets are not expensive, but they do require a bit of extra money. Respectable citizens need to prove, through this cheap yet trendy entertainment investment, that they have the means to 'enjoy life'—and a magic-shadow theater is, after all, a 'theater,' which makes it a 'symbol' for the common folk of Typhon to display the refinement of their tastes."

"Of course, those reasons are all secondary. The main appeal of shadow dramas is that they are sufficiently 'interesting'—and on this invisible battlefield, 'interesting' is absolutely the most powerful weapon I have ever seen."

Listening to Amber's methodical analysis, Gao Yang couldn't help but glance at the half-elf with a smile—over these past two years, her growth had become more and more evident.

"This is a good thing. Our first phase is succeeding," Gao Yang nodded, casually placing the documents on the table. "What we need to do next is much simpler and more clear-cut."

"Rapidly and in mass quantities, churn out a large number of new shadow dramas. The production doesn't need to be polished, but they must be guaranteed to be interesting enough—this can draw more Typhonians to pay attention. There's no need to directly and openly promote Cecil, to avoid arousing the vigilance and resistance of the Aldernan side, but we must frequently reinforce the impression of Cecil's advancement within the shadow dramas...

"Increase investment in overseas newspapers and magazines, recruit some locals, and build up some 'academic authorities'—they don't need to be true authorities, but as long as enough newspapers and magazines declare them to be authorities, naturally enough Typhonians will believe it..."

Gao Yang laid out his conceptions one by one, describing the plan he would use to dismantle the Typhonians' sense of cohesion and shake the foundations of Typhon society, while Amber listened earnestly before him. Only after he finally finished speaking did Amber unable to resist exclaiming, "Honestly, I think this is more terrifying than killing on the battlefield..."

Gao Yang glanced at her. "Why do you think so?"

"Killing on the battlefield only makes soldiers fall, but the weapon you're forging will make an entire nation fall," Amber pursed her lips. "And the latter won't even realize it until it has already fallen."

After two seconds of silence, Gao Yang said, "The you of the past wouldn't have thought of something so profound."

"The me of the past wouldn't have come into contact with something so profound either," Amber shrugged. "If I've become cunning and treacherous, then it must be because you led me astray."

Hearing Amber's carefree teasing, Gao Yang was not the least bit angry. He merely fell silent for a few seconds in thought, then suddenly laughed at himself.

"Sometimes I also feel my methods are rather underhanded, but what we face is a Typhon that wants to take a bite out of us at any moment... I truly am somewhat wary of such a hostile old empire, so I can only keep increasing the dosage of 'poison,'" he said, shaking his head and glossing over the topic. "Let's not talk about this anymore. Next, I want to try a few things, and I'll need you to watch over me from the sidelines."

Amber immediately broke into a smile. "Hey, I'm good at that—guarding... wait, isn't the Evernight's mental network already nationalized now? There's no need to risk infiltrating it anymore, is there?"

Gao Yang realized she had misunderstood him and couldn't help but wave his hand with a smile. Then he curled his fingers and tapped on the Shield of the Guardian resting on the table. "It's not about infiltrating the network—I want to try to 'communicate' with this shield."

Hearing this, Amber's gaze toward Gao Yang suddenly turned a little strange. "...You want to communicate with a shield? Hey, I knew something was off with you staring at this shield every day lately, and you kept saying it was nothing. Have you been recalling the past too much recently, causing you to..."

Gao Yang looked at Amber quietly, then tapped the shield on the table again. "I don't mind using this to slap you onto the wall."

Amber immediately shrank her neck and glanced at that shield of legendary renown—it was clearly much broader than the Sword of the Pioneer. If she were slapped onto the wall with it, she would surely be embedded very evenly; forget prying her out, they probably wouldn't even be able to scrub her off...

"I was just joking," she said, shrinking her neck. "Don't always be so brutal..."

Gao Yang ignored the small muttered protests of this disgrace to the Empire and refocused his attention on the Shield of the Guardian before him.

After several days of hesitation and weighing, he had finally decided... to try contacting this "Legacy of the Starry Sky" before him, using the same method by which he had once come into contact with the Eternal Stone Slate.