Sovereign of the Ashes

After Leena and Faye left, Sein’s life became quieter and emptier.

A sense of “loneliness” gradually settled over him.

However, mages were no strangers to solitude; they embraced it, grew accustomed to it, and immersed themselves fully in its depths.

With a small sigh, Sein threw himself back into his experimental research.

***

Two years later, at the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Academy...

Sein had just finished giving a lecture when he spotted Eileen emerging from another classroom nearby.

The brutal and intense interplanar wars had taken a heavy toll on Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s elite mages.

To rebuild its strength and cultivate the next generation of exceptional mages as quickly as possible, the divine tower had implemented a mandatory teaching requirement—even for Rank Two mages like Sein.

Compared to when Sein first arrived at the Divine Tower, the most recent initiate intake, enrolled just last year, was nearly double the size of his cohort.

The divine tower had also temporarily shortened its enrollment cycle from ten years to five.

This accelerated growth was also partly due to the influx of native Viridescent Land mages, which had significantly smoothed the divine tower’s initiate recruitment efforts.

Watching the throngs of young initiates making their way toward the cafeteria or library, Sein felt a flicker of optimism. It was as though he could already envision the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring reclaiming its former glory a few centuries down the line.

“Where to next? Back to the lab first, or...?” Eileen asked casually as she walked up to him.

Since they communicated through mental focus, their conversation remained inaudible to anyone else. Around them, young initiates sneaked glances, their faces alight with admiration and respect.

“Let’s go to your place first. I heard you recently got a rare Black Jade Bamboo?” Sein replied.

Black Jade Bamboo was a special dual elemental plant. The dendro and geo elemental properties in it made the bamboo a good raw material for alchemy.

At Lorianne’s request, Sein had recently started studying dendro elemental knowledge, so a specimen like this naturally piqued his interest.

“Ah, Selina must have told you about it,” Eileen said, smiling.

“That Black Jade Bamboo was quite expensive. I won it in an auction for a hundred magicoins. If you want to use it, you’ll need to pay me at least fifty magicoins,” she added, extending her hand toward Sein shamelessly.

Eileen had acquired her Black Jade Bamboo at a prominent auction house named “Lodenzers”, located in Jewel Bay just outside the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

In recent decades, as the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring experienced rapid development, an increasing number of divine towers, knightly orders, and other entities sought to establish strong cooperative ties with it.

As a result, numerous chambers of commerce and auction houses sprang up around the Divine Tower, with their numbers increasing significantly after the conclusion of the Wild Gorilla World War.

Many influential merchant families, aware of the immense wealth Divine Tower of Verdant Spring had amassed during the war, flocked to the area like bees drawn to nectar, eager to capitalize on the opportunity.

Even the rental fees collected from the outskirts of the divine tower alone were enough to leave Lorianne delighted.

Sein was particularly astonished when one affluent chamber of commerce from the Marmett Union Alliance offered to construct a floating port in Jewel Bay entirely at their own expense.

Building even the simplest floating port required an investment of no less than one million magicoins.

The costs included not just construction but also purchasing airships, installing spatial teleportation arrays, establishing trade routes, as well as hiring knights and mages to oversee its operations.

Originally, Lorianne had planned to finance the construction of a floating port herself. However, with the offer from this merchant family, she managed to save a substantial amount of money.

As the dominant power in Viridescent Land, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring required the merchant family to hand over at least half of the floating port’s profits.

During the port’s construction, Lorianne also strategically invested in the project under the name of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, ensuring she retained majority control over the port and its surrounding territory.

The completion of the floating port, coupled with the ensuing economic boom, significantly enhanced the Divine Tower’s image and reputation in the aftermath of the interplanar war.

The divine tower’s successful recruitment of initiates in recent years further revitalized the economy, not only around the Divine Tower but across the entire Viridescent Land.

Additionally, the settlement of nearly a hundred thousand high-level magic beasts in Viridescent Land greatly enriched the resources in this region’s magic beast forests.

For the initiates, whether still studying or recently graduated from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, there were abundant opportunities waiting for them.

They could pursue livelihoods in the bustling Verdant Wave Canal or Jewel Bay near the divine tower, or venture further to the thriving magic beast forests—all were excellent options.

As Sein flew alongside Eileen toward the building where the full-fledged mages resided, his gaze lingered on the two imposing five-meter-high metal statues flanking the lobby on the ground floor of the divine tower, wielding steel forks.

However, these were far from mere decorative statues. They were alchemy puppets, and formidable ones at that.

When activated, each puppet possessed a combat capability that could rival a peak Rank One creature.

From Sein’s perspective as an alchemist, these puppets—with their nearly indestructible magical alloy shells and complex magic arrays engraved into their surfaces—could even hold their own against Rank Two creatures for a short time.

Their durability made them especially effective against extraplanar creatures like Wild Gorilla soldiers, who relied heavily on brute strength.

Unsurprisingly, these alchemy puppets were purchased by Sein’s mentor.

They were not only spotted in the divine tower lobby, but also across the important areas in the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, including the academy buildings, the library, the quest hall, and more.

In total, there were twenty of these puppets!

While their combat capabilities were useful, their presence was more symbolic than practical. After all, the Magus World rarely saw any creature bold or foolish enough to cause trouble within a divine tower.

What Sein didn’t know, however, was that Grandmaster Feylis’ Divine Tower of Verdant Flame housed an even more impressive collection of alchemy puppets, including dozens of Hellfire models, each with combat power on par with Rank Three creatures.

Lorianne had long envied her mentor’s collection, as well as the lavish displays she had seen in other prestigious divine towers.

Now, having finally amassed some wealth from the interplanar war, Lorianne had decided it was time to decorate her divine tower to make it look more grand.

Sein’s fascination with these metal golems stemmed solely from the mysteries of alchemical craftsmanship they embodied.

If not for his tight experimental schedule during this period, Sein would have asked his mentor for permission to borrow one of them so he could dismantle it for study.

Unlike Sein’s purely academic curiosity, most of the other divine tower mages were thoroughly satisfied with the towering metal golems purchased by the tower master.

With twenty metal puppets, each as powerful as a Rank Two creature, “guarding” their doors, the divine tower mages felt far more at ease when they were conducting their experiments.

The addition of these alchemy puppets also caused changes in the number of full-fledged mages required to monitor the divine tower’s entrance.

Previously, two mages had been assigned to this task. Now, a single full-fledged mage, accompanied by a group of initiates, was sufficient for the task.

The alchemy puppets, preprogrammed with specific elemental commands, could accurately identify the badges carried by all mages entering or exiting the divine tower.

For the magic initiates, still uncertain about their futures and elemental studies, the sight of these imposing alchemy puppets evoked both awe and a sense of confidence in them.

Their presence also led to a significant increase in attendance at Sein’s alchemy public classes over the past six months.