Chapter 161

Chapter 161

The moment Agnes extended her hand, Eve tensed, fully alert. Just as she prepared to evade, an overwhelming will, like a divine descent, abruptly froze Eve in place. She was then seized by the throat and violently slammed against the wall.

Two years had passed, and while Eve had made progress, Agnes's power had also surged. This woman seemed to possess limitless potential; already formidable, Eve now sensed that Agnes's Mind Control ability had grown even stronger than two years prior.

For most powerful individuals, increased strength typically brings greater stability. Yet, Agnes's anomalous progression felt less like growth and more as if she had always possessed this immense power, merely keeping it suppressed.

Until one day, she encountered a "toy" with a higher tolerance threshold, and with keen interest, she decided to elevate her level of suppression once more.

Since Agnes wasn't aiming to kill her, Eve only coughed a few times. After a dizzying display of stars orbiting in her vision, she finally regained her focus.

She tentatively moved her neck, and to her surprise, the slight flexibility she found hinted at a degree of leniency in Agnes's attitude. She then curled her lips, pointed at the porcelain-pale fingers still lightly pressed against her throat, and offered a placating smile: "Teacher, your restraint has certainly improved compared to two years ago."

"You flatter me," Agnes replied. Such refined politeness from a non-human was genuinely unsettling, yet Agnes herself seemed oblivious, maintaining her self-perceived gracious demeanor. "After we parted ways, I reflected on my own shortcomings. After all, you were just an ignorant child. Someone once told me that children always deserve a little more tolerance."

...These words came from Long Quan, stemming from an incident where an irresponsible student accidentally blew up a section of his laboratory. It was debatable which was more severe—detonating an alchemist's lab or taking their life—but to manage to explode a heavily fortified laboratory belonging to a Five-Star Alchemist suggested, in a way, that this young person had a promising future.

Out of appreciation for talent, Long Quan ultimately only had the student whipped until they were confined to bed for three days. Afterward, he calmly advised Agnes to be more tolerant toward children.

From his example, Agnes felt she had learned a great deal.

She had no intention of killing Eve, even though this rebellious student had nearly killed her before. But such a brilliant student was a rare find. After teaching for a day at what was hailed as the empire’s best university, Agnes became even more convinced of this.

Eve should not be easily killed, but neither could she be allowed to develop unchecked.

As a teacher, she had a duty to guide her.

Agnes’s fingers tightened, and the atmosphere around them abruptly shifted. Invisible threads seemed to permeate the air, seeping through, penetrating their bodies, and seizing control of their minds.

A sense of dread washed over Eve. Her right eyelid twitched violently, and she said hoarsely, "Teacher, what are you..."

"Shh."

Perhaps out of a faint sense of apology for what she was about to do to Eve’s mind, Agnes kindly didn’t restrict her movements too much. She pressed her free hand to her lips and said, "Stay still."

If she behaved any more, she’d soon be turned into a puppet!

Eve realized she had relaxed too soon. Understanding Agnes’s intention, she took a deep breath. Without hesitation, her hands, hanging at her sides, subtly moved, and simultaneously, a Luna Butterfly materialized.

The appearance of the butterfly-shaped Spiritual State immediately drew Agnes’s attention. "Heh, this thing is useless against me."

Eve cut her off: "So I never planned to use a Spiritual State against you."

Her hands, hidden under her robe, came together. Fortunately, the sleeves of today’s black robe were wide enough to completely conceal her subtle movements. In the darkness, her left hand pressed against the Space Button on her right middle finger.

The appearance of the Luna Butterfly caused a significant fluctuation in psychic energy, so it took Agnes two extra seconds to realize that the source of the psychic energy fluctuation emanating from the other party was not from just one place.

By the time her hand shot toward Eve’s waist like lightning, it was already too late.

Boom—

The entire medical department building seemed to shake.

"What was that?" Tachibana Maki, ascending in the elevator with his hands in his pockets, looked up in surprise. "An earthquake on the Capital Star?"

A classmate sharing the elevator also scratched his head in confusion. "The forecast didn’t mention anything."

With technological advancements, disasters like earthquakes could be detected three hours in advance. Moreover, given the sturdiness of the academy’s buildings, an ordinary earthquake wouldn’t make them shake.

The disturbance was too unusual. After a moment’s hesitation, Tachibana Maki got off at the next floor, opting to take the stairs the rest of the way.

The massive silver-white steel appeared and was immediately withdrawn by Eve. Of course, the office couldn’t accommodate the size of a mech, but Eve’s goal was only to forcefully push Agnes and the office apart. Since the doors and windows were sealed by Alchemy, she would find her own way to open an exit.

Sure enough, as Agnes was knocked back by the suddenly appearing mech, several large cracks split open in the nearby white office wall. Without another word, Eve used her own body as a battering ram and slammed sideways into the wall. Agnes reacted with lightning speed, intricate Alchemical Cipher flowing from her lips. With a flip of her palm, bluish-purple arcs of electricity shot out from the ground on all sides, quickly climbing up to the ceiling.

"You really are unpredictable," Agnes laughed, though there was little genuine amusement in her voice. "But did you really think I’d come unprepared these past two years?"

Eve ignored her. If Agnes could truly anticipate all her methods, why hadn’t she guarded against the Space Button Eve was wearing?

The blue-purple electricity looked intimidating, but Eve repeated an old trick. She pulled a micro smoke bomb from her sleeve and threw it to the ground. Thick, obscuring smoke billowed up. In the dusty haze, a silver-white shadow flashed by again, crashing into the illuminated rubble of the wall before being swiftly withdrawn by Eve just as the electricity spread toward it.

Bang!

The building shook once more, and this time, everyone looked up in astonishment.

"What’s happening upstairs?" someone asked dumbfounded.

"The top few floors are all offices," another replied uncertainly. "Maybe a professor’s experiment went wrong and caused an explosion?"

"......"

Eve leaped out, somersaulting through the air without touching anything, and escaped the damaged office. Unexpectedly, Agnes did not try to intercept her again, a realization that made Eve’s heart sink.

The blue-purple electricity floated in mid-air, reverting to cipher form, attaching itself to the fabric on her back before quickly disappearing into the black material.

With a light tap, Eve landed on her feet and fled at top speed.

If she had turned around then, she would have seen a faint, confident smile spread across the golden-haired teacher’s face as she broke through.

There was plenty of time ahead. She would be teaching at the First Empire Academy for at least this entire semester. For the first time, she felt genuinely grateful to Long Quan for arranging this temporary job for her.

Meanwhile, Tachibana Maki felt like he had been climbing for an eternity before finally reaching the second-to-top floor. As an alchemist, his stamina was only average at best. If not for years of forging steel with his teacher, it would have been a question whether he could even make it this far.

"Whew, whew, let me see what floor this is," he panted, looking up. "The 34th floor?!"

The elevator had malfunctioned between the ninth and tenth floors, meaning he had climbed over twenty stories relying solely on his own two legs.

Tachibana Maki’s eyes rolled back, and he nearly fainted on the spot. "Incredible. To visit an old man’s friend, I’ve really gone all out this time."

In all these years, he had never known Long Quan to have any friends besides those from the Luo family and Gu Zhaoxi. If not for the genuine worry on the bald alchemist’s face before he left, he would have suspected this was revenge for the last lab explosion, deliberately sending him on this errand to torment him.

Otherwise, why would the building have shaken so inexplicably? Maybe it was the old man’s doing, tricking him into climbing the stairs like an idiot.

The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Tachibana Maki’s face fell, and he decided to blow up another one of Long Quan’s labs when he got back.

A dark figure rushed down from the top floor. Though it was described as running, the speed was hardly different from a fast walk.

From about ten meters out the door, Eve began to feel something wrong with her body. At first, it was just a dull pain in her back, which she assumed was from being slammed against the wall by Agnes. Given the force, she expected bruising had already formed.

But soon, she realized her head was hurting too.

......Could she have gotten a bruise in her brain?

She shouldn’t be that fragile.

"Hey," Tachibana Maki called out. Then he saw the black-robed figure look up, revealing a familiar silver mask. His voice instantly shifted in surprise. "Lu Qing?!"

As the department chair of the only department entirely eliminated in the final military training competition, he remembered all too well this department chair who had been absent the entire time yet ended up winning the competition.

"How'd you get down from upstairs?"

Who was speaking to her?

Eve turned and saw a familiar figure leaning against the wall, eyeing her suspiciously. Since they hadn’t met many times, it took her a moment to recall who he was.

Tachibana Maki, a member of the Luo Family.

"..." Ugh, just thinking about the Luo Family made her angry. If it weren’t for Luo Wenqing’s message, she wouldn’t have walked right into Agnes’s trap like an idiot.

Pissed, she opened her mouth to speak: "I—" she said.

"You what?" Tachibana Maki looked at her with a mix of suspicion and caution, especially noting the worn spots on her outer robe, as if she’d just been in a fight. Definitely not here for anything good. "What were you just doing— Hey, wait!"

Before the silver-masked girl could finish, her body stiffened, and she collapsed straight to the ground.

Tachibana Maki reacted quickly, catching her instinctively before his mind even processed what was happening. He stared in disbelief at the rival Department Chief, who had spoken just one word before blacking out, completely baffled by the situation.

Was she trying to scam him?

But he’d heard that Lu Qing was a rising star of the Oliver Family. If she were going to scam someone, wouldn’t it be someone on Luo Wenqing’s level?

He cautiously pressed his fingers behind Eve’s ear. Thankfully, her pulse was still beating—she was alive.

"Old man, don’t blame me for bailing on my task again."

Tachibana Maki picked up the unconscious Eve and reassured himself, "...This is a matter of life and death, after all."

-

While Eve was unconscious, the world kept turning.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself lying on a soft bed, the air filled with the bitter smell of medicine. She turned her head and saw half the room gently illuminated by the twilight glow from the half-open courtyard outside. Under a locust tree, a stream babbled softly, and a figure sat cross-legged on the wooden floor of the outer room, their back to her, the scene both serene and mysterious.

Eve inexplicably found the figure familiar. She opened her mouth to speak, startled by her own hoarse voice: "Where is this?"

"You’re up," the figure turned around and said softly, "It’s the year 985 of the Empire. You’ve been asleep for two years."

Eve: "..."

"Just kidding," he said. "You were only out for 30 hours. This is the Luo residence. I saw you collapsed at the medical department this morning and brought you back, worried something might happen."

Tachibana Maki rose with a grin, walked into the inner room, poured a glass of water from the table, tested its temperature, and handed it to Eve.

Eve took it and croaked, "Thank you."

Her mask was still on. She discreetly lifted a corner of it and sipped the water slowly, unsure if Tachibana Maki had taken a peek underneath while she was unconscious.

"Don’t worry, I didn’t sneak a look at your face," Tachibana Maki said casually, as if reading her thoughts, as he sat by the table. "But shouldn’t you explain why you passed out in the medical department building? I saw you coming down from the top floor, and everyone knows there’s only one teacher’s office up there."

When Eve remained silent, he kindly added, "You’d better fess up about your relationship with the person on the top floor. There’s a troublesome Alchemical Formula on you—otherwise, why would I go through the trouble of bringing you to the Luo residence instead of taking you to the infirmary? The old man is an old friend of that person. If you explain the situation, and it’s just a minor issue, he might even put in a good word for you."

"Who’s the old man?" Eve asked curiously. After a moment’s thought, she recalled Gu Zhaoxi mentioning that one of the Five-Star Alchemists was under the patronage of the Luo Family. "Master Long Quan?"

Tachibana Maki looked unsurprised. "So you do know the old man. No wonder he didn’t even scold me for ditching my task when he saw you—he rushed straight over to examine the formula on you."

No, her knowledge of Master Long Quan was just from what little Gu Zhaoxi had mentioned, and he likely knew just as little about her.

But judging by Tachibana Maki’s familiar tone, Eve asked, "Are you Long Quan’s student?"

"You didn’t know?"

"......" Eve wondered why she should know. She didn’t even know Long Quan, let alone his student. "Thanks for caring, but Agnes and I have old grievances. I’m afraid even Master Long Quan’s intervention won’t resolve it."

"How polite. After all, that lady was recommended by the old man. Everyone knows she has bad blood with Lord Louis, and you, as a student, got dragged into it. The old man bears at least half the responsibility."

"You’re saying Agnes was recommended by Master Long Quan?" Eve’s expression turned strange.

Tachibana Maki confirmed with an "Mhm." "He forgot you were studying in this year’s class and also forgot about the feud between those two. You know how it is—the one from the Oliver Family has always had a low profile."

Always locked away in a tower, who’d remember him?

Eve was speechless, suspecting that Master Long Quan might be getting senile due to old age. She hid an eye-roll by taking a sip of water. "Forget it. Just tell me what effects the Alchemical Formula on my back has."

After a moment’s thought, she guessed it was probably the Cipher she’d brushed against on the wall while escaping. Agnes was a master at applied formulas, so it wasn’t surprising she’d developed one that could affect both objects and people.

"That formula is extremely complex, fused from multiple ancient Alchemical Formulas called 'Confinement,' but surprisingly, it doesn’t really hurt you physically. It mainly restrains your spiritual power and other energies flowing through your limbs, preventing you from using any abilities related to the Spiritual State. Even your physical stamina will significantly decline."

A voice as gentle and clear as a breeze spoke up. Both Tachibana Maki and Eve turned to see a slender, elegant figure approaching from a distance. His steps were leisurely, yet he closed the gap with the subtle swiftness of a shifting shadow.

"Apologies. It was my oversight that led to you being accidentally harmed by that lawless Agnes. Unfortunately, the ink used for the formula has special ingredients, and I can’t undo it for now," Long Quan said apologetically. "If there is any way I can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to ask."

His plain white Taoist robe, his bald head shining like a lightbulb, and his unique blend of scholarly, Taoist, and monastic vibe were truly unforgettable.

The name "Bai Shui," which she’d once heard at a Luo Family banquet two years ago, now struck her—when combined, didn’t those two characters form "Quan"?

The writing of interstellar characters and Old Era Chinese characters differed greatly. Although human language habits hadn’t changed much, Long Quan’s use of such an old-school way to conceal his name was no wonder Eve hadn’t made the connection back then.

Eve was speechless for a moment before she said with a sigh, "So you are Master Long Quan."

Long Quan replied gently, "Old Era culture has declined. Since you weren’t born into the Luo Family, it’s natural you wouldn’t make the connection."

Since the master was being so nice about it, what else could Eve say? She was still using the fake name Lu Qing herself, so accusing him of not using his real name seemed hypocritical.

Eve thought about the formula Agnes had imposed on her. It was troublesome, yes, but it was also merciful. Given Agnes’s temperament and their history, Eve wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d used a "Lingchi Formula" or a "Seven-Day Withering Formula." The fact that it was so mild actually creeped her out.

...How was this any different from a strict parent cutting off their child’s allowance to force an apology?

Eve was totally weirded out by her own analogy. She wanted to take a sip of water but realized she’d already emptied the cup earlier to ease her embarrassment. She set the empty cup down and sighed. "It’s not that I’m uncomfortable troubling you, but this is something you probably can’t help with. Why bother you unnecessarily?"

"Then is there anything else I can do for you? Since this happened because of me, I won’t feel at ease unless I make some form of compensation."

Long Quan remained insistent. Eve ventured, "But there really isn’t anything... Could I perhaps owe you a favor for now?"

Owing the Luo Family’s top weapons master a favor could come in handy later—even just getting a discount on a mech purchase would save her a lot of money.

Tachibana Maki clicked his tongue repeatedly. "You can even owe favors like this? You must be quite the talent in the Oliver Family."

It fit perfectly with his stereotype of the Oliver Family.

"Orange, don’t be rude!" Long Quan scolded him disapprovingly before turning back to Eve and speaking softly, "Of course. Since you’re the one who suffered, it’s only right that you decide the compensation."

Though Eve’s expression was hidden behind her mask, Long Quan could guess her inner turmoil from her still posture on the bed. "Are you afraid Agnes will demand heavy concessions from you when undoing the formula?"

Eve mumbled 'yeah' in agreement. It wasn’t fear—she was certain Agnes would do exactly that.

Keeping her alive for no reason meant Agnes had other plans.

Long Quan pondered for a long moment before finally making up his mind. "I have another way to help you. There’s a potion that can counteract the formula’s effects, temporarily restoring all your spiritual power and physical stamina. But you must think carefully before using it. The potion really messes you up. After using it, you’ll be out cold for at least three days."

"Three days!" Eve exclaimed in shock. "How long does the potion last?"

"Three to five hours."

Three hours of vigorous energy in exchange for three days of unconsciousness sounded like a terrible deal, but in a life-or-death situation, those three hours could be life-saving.

Eve had no other choice and said wryly, "Then I’ll have to trouble you, Master."

Long Quan nodded slightly, gave a few more instructions, and then left gracefully. Once the teacher was gone, Tachibana Maki perked up, leaning close to Eve with a puzzled expression. "Why is the old man so nice to you?"

"Maybe because homegrown flowers aren’t as fragrant as wild ones," Eve replied casually. "The same goes for students."

This explanation, rich with ancient wisdom, was accepted by Tachibana Maki, but he had another question. "How’s your relationship with Lorca Oliver?"

"...Why are you suddenly asking that?" Eve felt a sense of foreboding.

"After we brought you back, the old man notified the Oliver Family. But they’re dealing with some trouble over there and only had time to hastily reply with 'take good care of her' before hanging up. However, Lorca later sent a separate message with several detailed instructions. Otherwise, do you think that old man, who’s been out of touch with everyday life for so long, could come up with such practical advice?"

Eve’s eyelids twitched. Before she could ask what exactly was happening with the Oliver Family, Tachibana Maki added:

"Right now, all your abilities are sealed by alchemy, and the Oliver Family isn’t safe. You only have two options."

"First, stay at the Luo Family and rest. If you need to go out, you can come with me. We can even practice alchemy together."

Tachibana Maki let out a dry laugh, as if recalling something unpleasant, and snorted, but still held up a second finger. "Second, follow Lorca’s request and go back with him. Even though Lorca knows nothing about alchemy and is rude, he’s probably a bit stronger than me. So, for safety’s sake, if you choose him as your bodyguard, it’s... understandable."

"Um, can I choose neither?" Eve scratched her head awkwardly. "Actually, I get along pretty well with our department’s Vice Chief."

*Why choose between two outsiders when there’s someone from my own family available?*

Tachibana Maki: "..."