After reaching the maximum level, my "soft rice system" finally arrived.

"Tevez? Aren't you going to help stabilize the magic array? What are you doing here?"

"No rush, no rush."

With a serene smile on his face, Tevez handed the cardinal a rather exquisite porcelain cup: "Here, have some tea, be careful it's hot."

The cardinal looked at Tevez with some suspicion.

As the two behemoths in the Empire, the Black Tower and the Dawn Church, the Cardinal and Tevis had clashed countless times in various meetings, arguing heatedly over their respective interests more than once.

Based on the cardinal's understanding of Archmage Tevis, although the guy was sometimes a bit slick, he never let anyone down at crucial moments.

He is definitely not the kind of person who acts so inconsiderately in this situation.

Therefore, considering all the previous indications...

A logical guess naturally surfaced in the cardinal's mind.

"So, it was him?"

Tevez nodded: "It's him."

So the cardinal sat back down.

He took the teacup, took a sip, and found it was indeed a bit hot, so he quickly put the teacup back on the table.

Tevis said smugly, "You sorcerers are all delicate and tender."

In terms of delicate skin and tender flesh, wizards and sorcerers are about the same.

However, when Tevis picked up the teacup, he activated the second-circle spell "Mage's Hand," and the invisible hand constructed of magic naturally couldn't sense the heat.

The cardinal took another sip: "Wizards may have many tricks up their sleeves, but if they get injured, they still have to come to us for treatment."

Tevis also took a sip, and on a whim, used a popular phrase: "Aside from healing, your priests' combat ability is practically nonexistent."

"But we have money, so we can train our own guardian knights."

"Our Black Tower bookstores are located in four major countries around the world, and wherever we go, we have fans and supporters of our Black Tower bookstores."

"Our faith is spread throughout the entire Western Continent; any passerby in the Holy Kingdom is one of our believers."

……

Seeing that he was about to completely lose the debate, Tevez pulled out his trump card.

"Your Dawn Saintess has a crush on our Deputy Tower Master."

"..."

The Archmage Tevis killed the game, and the Cardinal could not recover.

Chapter Nineteen would have been a crime punishable by being burned at the stake hundreds of years ago.

Not far away, the nobles watched as the Cardinal and Archmage Tevis, the two most powerful near-legendary figures present, exchanged a few coded words as if they were secret agents meeting.

They actually calmly found a corner to drink tea, and even started chatting and arguing, leaving me speechless.

Among the nobles, there are certainly many powerful extraordinary individuals, including even a strongman like Duke Brunstadt who has one foot in the legendary realm.

However, this was not the case for every high-ranking nobleman.

After all, the path to transcendence is extremely arduous.

Whether it's the knights, warriors, or wanderers who train and hone their bodies day after day.

Or perhaps it's the result of spellcasters' long-term study of books, practice of arcane arts, and memorization of spellbooks.

To achieve anything on the path to extraordinary success, one must truly endure hardship.

A considerable number of nobles could not endure the hardship and ultimately chose to give up halfway.

Normally, they have enough power to use by relying on the retainers they hire and the connections they have with the power they wield in the nobility.

But at this moment——

Once the immense magical tide accumulated in this arena erupts, their bodyguards and retainers will not be able to save their lives.

However, before the nobles could even turn to another near-legendary Duke, Brunstadt, for help—

A fraction of a second later—

It was as if a drop of water had fallen.

Ripples spread across the astral plane.

next moment.

In the arena, all the instructors whose mental power was on the verge of going out of control suddenly felt as if an invisible hand was brushing past them.

As the invisible hand swept over, the instructors' mental energy, which had been in complete disarray and was almost on the verge of losing control, calmed down without warning.

The mentors even felt that their mental strength had increased compared to before.

Their minds became incredibly clear, and they could easily recall many things they had previously forgotten.

"Pushing one's mind to its limits is a shortcut to developing a wizard's brain and enhancing mental power."

"After this, the upper limit of your mental strength will be greatly improved."

"However, this shortcut to enhancing mental strength is dangerous. If there are no other legendary mages who have opened up their own mental oceans by your side, it is best not to try it lightly on your own."

Calm words echoed in the mentors' minds.

Almost at the same time.

The center of the arena.

The magical tide that had been rising and falling on the energy storage array, seemingly about to erupt at any moment, calmed down completely in an instant.

The overwhelming magical flames dimmed in an instant, flickering rhythmically within the crystals used to store magical energy.

To put it simply, the rampaging magic was like a hungry wolf with fierce eyes, about to explode at any moment, but under the influence of that invisible hand, the hungry wolf instantly turned into a silly husky with its tongue sticking out.

This sudden change in style left everyone stunned, as if the magical tide that seemed poised to erupt at any moment had been nothing more than an illusion.

"Look at the light screen!"

Someone in the audience said something that drew everyone's attention to the screen.

Within the light screen, the previously chaotic and disordered snowflake pattern suddenly paused.

Immediately afterwards, a clear and stable image slowly emerged on it.

When the audience looked up, they could only see a blue sphere.

There are some yellowish-brown areas on the surface of the sphere, while the rest is pure blue.

Then, the camera zoomed out again.

The original azure sphere became unusually small.

Instead, a crimson sphere radiating light and flames occupied most of the space of the light screen.

Beyond the two spheres lay areas of near-total darkness, occasionally illuminated by faint starlight.

"Could it be that the azure sphere is the land we stand on, the world we inhabit..."

"That so-called...planet?"

The cardinal adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and stopped drinking his tea.

If it were hundreds of years ago, someone would have dared to say, "Our world revolves around the sun."

If nothing unexpected happens, he will likely be burned at the stake.

However, over the years, thanks to Charles's tireless efforts in popularizing science through the Black Tower Bookstore, [the situation has improved].

It still allowed a significant portion of the inhabitants of the Western Continent to learn a few basic concepts—

The Earth is round and is a sphere that revolves periodically around the sun.

However, these are ultimately just theoretical understandings, mostly consisting of text and images.

Seeing the true picture of the universe, the cardinal was also quite shocked.

"That's right, that small yellowish-brown area on that azure sphere is a country on our Western Continent."

"And that crimson sphere is what we call the sun."

Tevez pointed to the sun overhead.

After all, he came from the Black Tower and had studied some of the popular science books written by Charles quite thoroughly.

So even though he was quite excited to see the cosmic landscape with his own eyes, Tevez appeared calmer than the Cardinal on the surface.

"And those dark areas are what we call the starry sky."

"Each of those twinkling points of light deep in the starry sky represents a star just like our sun!"

"In addition, His Majesty Charles once said in the book that the size of the sun and our planet has been adjusted for the sake of demonstration. Please refer to the actual objects for the true scale."

As Tevez spoke, he saw that even the cardinal, who usually maintained a priestly demeanor, was now completely bewildered by his explanation, and he couldn't help but feel secretly pleased.

The saying "learning changes destiny" is certainly true, His Majesty Charles.

The cardinal, seemingly understanding but not quite, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and asked, "But why is the sun in the light screen different from the illustrations I saw in the Black Tower science books?"