He changed Tiwat

The village where the dancers lived was hit by a rare sandstorm. Their displaced people were stranded at the border between the rainforest and the desert, where they were blocked by the mercenaries under the Great Sage and unable to enter Kawan Post Station for refuge.

The dancers secretly came to the Church to plead with the Great Sage to show mercy and save her people.

Hazard saw the poster for "The Trial of the Great Sage".

It was posted on the bulletin board of the Zubair Theater, and everyone who passed by the theater would see the great sage, who looked like a green cube, kneeling on the ground and kissing the toes of a dancer...

"Smash it."

Hazard issued orders to the "30-man squad" of mercenaries around him.

The mercenary obeyed his orders and began to remove the wooden plank, while Hazard led Setare into the theater menacingly.

On the stage of the theater, the play "The Trial of the Great Sage" has reached its final act.

On stage, two dancers, one blonde and one red-haired, stood before the Great Sage and questioned him:

"Great Sage Azhar, why do you hide your history of studying in the desert? Do you still remember when you knelt before me, kissed my toes, and swore that you would never forget my kindness?"

"Great Sage Hazar, why do you break your promise? Do you still remember that all your knowledge comes from the desert, and that I personally wrote all your papers?"

"Good people here, please judge for yourselves: does such a shameless and treacherous person still deserve to sit on the throne of a great sage?"

The audience below the stage echoed, "They're not qualified!"

"The great sage is a fraud who deceives the world and steals fame; he should be the one locked up in jail!"

The Great Sage "Azar" was furious. He angrily rebuked his mercenaries: "These are two bastards spouting nonsense. I don't know them at all, yet they slander the Great Sage's reputation and threaten the Council! Guards, lock them in the bronze prison. I want them to die of thirst like in the desert!"

The blonde dancer looked at the Great Sage with her golden eyes and spoke for the last time, pleading with him to have mercy and let them go back.

"Hazar" rejected her and ordered his mercenaries to immediately bind the two swindlers and throw them into the death row.

Faced with this "Hazard," the blonde dancer finally fell silent.

She waved the ribbon in her hand:

"In that case, please return to your village."

The great sage was taken aback.

He found himself not in the magnificent ecclesiastical monastery, but in a small village in the desert, where he was lying prostrate on the ground, kissing the toes of a blonde dancer's shoes.

The blonde dancer smiled gently, her golden eyes reflecting his current appearance—he was still the same Tosata from the Rittal Academy who had not yet passed his thesis review.

"Alright, it's getting late."

Ying turned around and read her last line to the audience:

"Hazard, it's time for you to wake up from your dream."

When the true sage Hazard stepped into the theater, he heard this very sentence.

Chapter 74 The Flower Goddess's Birthday Festival of the Will of Reincarnation [4k]

"Hazard, it's time for you to wake up from your dream."

This was said to "Hazard" on the stage, but also to Hazard off the stage.

The performance of "Hazard" on stage has ended, but Hazard offstage has not.

"Nonsense, utterly nonsensical."

Hazard stared coldly at the blonde dancer on the stage.

He had seen this Mondstadt "Honorary Knight" in the database of the "Void Terminal," knew her name, the white sprite beside her, and some of her deeds, and also knew that this blonde adventurer seemed to be very interested in the "Flora Festival."

But he never expected that this "honorary knight" of the Knights of Favonius would not only sponsor the Zubair Theatre Company, but would even personally go on stage to play the role of a lowly dancer.

...Thinking about it, it makes sense. The Knights of Favonius are almost all uncouth and uncultured warriors. There's probably no difference in knowledge between warriors and dancers, so they're not worth his attention.

Hazard is not interested in fire.

Or rather, he's not particularly interested in anything outside of his goals. This is like error in experimental data—it can simply be eliminated.

He's already quite old and doesn't have the energy to pay attention to those pointless things.

The key was that "secret project," that great research that had been passed down for nearly five hundred years—it had to be realized in his own hands, and for this goal, he could disregard everything else.

Although he had not watched the entire play "The Trial of the Great Sage," just seeing the "scholar Azar" kissing the dancer's shoe on stage made him furious—it was not only damaging the image of the scholars of the Church, but also an insult to him personally!

Indeed, an "art ban" was absolutely necessary.

This group of fools has not only turned away from wisdom, but is also using so-called "art" to taint wisdom and slander the Church!

Azar gave the order in a disgusted and indifferent tone: "Guards, disperse the crowd and seal off the Zubair Theater. The troupe's performers are suspected of violating religious orders and defaming scholars of the Theological Seminary. Arrest them all and await trial."

The mercenaries of the "group of thirty" obeyed orders and began to disperse the audience, immediately causing a commotion in the audience.

As is customary in the theater, after the performance, the actors go on stage together to take a bow to the audience, especially Miss Nel, who often performs a dance in response to the cheers of the audience during the bow. Everyone is waiting for that.

Now, instead of the curtain call and the encore, we've been greeted by the Great Sage leading mercenaries to drive people away...

Suddenly, someone in the dispersing audience shouted, "Hazard, why are you hiding your history?"

Once the first one appeared, a second one followed, and countless echoes immediately resounded from the crowd: "Great Sage, what are you afraid of?"

Are you afraid that your secret will be discovered?

"Your papers were all ghostwritten by Setare!"

"Hazard is a traitor and a fraud!"

The lines the audience was chanting were actually from "The Trial of the Great Sage," but they were being used against the real Great Sage, Azar, and with surprisingly good results.

The great sage, now surrounded by the theater audience, truly felt like he was being "publicly tried."

Setare, standing next to Hazard, showed a hint of fear on her face and unconsciously glanced at Hazard.

It's not that she actually ghostwrote Hazard's papers.

When she entered the Faculty and became Hazard's assistant, Hazard was already a great sage, and of course he didn't need a newly arrived scholar from the desert to write his papers.

Moreover, as a desert dweller, she was specially recruited into the Order of the Church, and even recruited by the Sage to his research room. Later, she was promoted to the high position of Habantha, all of which can be considered as Azhar's kindness in recognizing her talent.

Of course, all of this comes at a price.

Although Hazard himself doesn't use her to write papers, he has children, relatives, students, and so on... there are many places where he might need her help. The second and third authors listed on Setaré's papers, as well as many "newcomers" in Hazard's field, are actually "Setaré".

Setare had no connections in the Confession House. No matter how talented she was, it was useless without a platform for her to showcase her abilities.

Even the best paper will go unnoticed if there isn't a wise reviewer to help it stand out.

The young students in the Academy were scrambling to get into the study rooms of the Sage and Habantha, all for this reason.

Hazard provided her with this platform, and she exchanged it for her research output.

In a sense, this can be considered an "equivalent exchange"... but such an exchange is merely an "unspoken rule," something that cannot be brought to light.

If these things are exposed, not only will Hazard's reputation be damaged, but her future will also be ruined.

Han Fulai, who was hiding backstage, did not miss the expression on Setare's face.

He had been hiding backstage observing the theater, more concerned with the audience's reaction than the actors on stage. Meanwhile, he was also trying to find a special audience member—unfortunately, Catherine didn't seem to have a day off tonight.

However, that special audience member might not necessarily be out in the audience.

Half of this play was rehearsed by him for that special audience member, hoping she would see it.

So far, the situation has been under Han Fulai's control, including the reactions of Hazard and the audience.

To put it another way, to use Han Fulai's words, it would be, "At this moment, it has become art."

The Grand Sage of the Church himself made a cameo appearance, which is the true final scene of this play.

After all, he was a graduate of a prestigious university. He had seen a lot about how those "academic families" and "genius children" in academia came about—if a big shot took you on as a disciple and gave you a future, wouldn't you reciprocate by helping the big shot's relatives and children get some extra awards or guaranteed admission papers?

Capital can be transmitted through blood, and so can academic capital.

If he had succeeded in passing the postgraduate entrance exam back then, he probably wouldn't have escaped Setare's fate either... So his adaptation of "The Trial of the Great Sage" is truly full of genuine emotion.

Although the story in "The Trial of the Great Sage" is fictional, the audience's anger towards "Great Sage Hazar" is real.

In fact, the power of "art" is far greater than people imagine.

Many "artistic creations" in theatrical performances, after becoming popular, have turned into conventional "stereotypes" and even "ideological imprints"—for example, Guan Yu must wear a green turban, and if you say that the "green turban" is actually sky blue, the audience will not agree; Lü Bu must carry a halberd, and if you say that Lü Bu historically used a spear, the audience will not agree...

His play, "The Trial of the Great Sage," created a treacherous and deceitful "Green Cube Hazard" for the audience, replacing the image of the real Hazard.

In addition, Hazard has always had a bad reputation in the Grand Bazaar and has been suppressing the people there. People naturally dislike this high-ranking sage and are more inclined to believe that "Hazard is a bad guy".

Who cares what kind of person Hazard really is?

When Hazard came over at this moment to disperse the audience and close the theater, it was obviously seen as "a stone thrown at a dog" – this guy must have had his dirty secret exposed and was trying to shut everyone up!

There was no need for Han Fulai to waste his breath and raise his voice; Hazard himself had already provoked public outrage, and the Zubair Theater had now become the courtroom for the "public trial of the great sage."

What Hazard despised most, "art," became a "weapon of criticism" in Han Fulai's hands, turning into javelins and daggers thrown at him.

"Dishia, it's our turn. Let's deliver the final blow to Hazard."

Han Fu looked at Dixia.

Dixia nodded silently and pulled on the rope in her hand—the other end of the rope was tied to five mercenaries like a string of candied hawthorns.

This is the true "final curtain call" that Han Fulai arranged for "The Public Trial of the Great Sage".

In this "public trial," evidence of the great sage's wrongdoings will be presented to "judge" Hazard.

Dina Zede looked at the two of them with a worried expression: "Won't this end badly?"

As the eldest daughter of the Humai family, Dina Zede was well aware of the power of the Order of the Church and was even more worried about its retaliation. Admittedly, Mr. Jiang Xue was a very capable person, and Dixia's skills were also quite high, but what if the Great Sage really got angry and ordered the "Thirty-Man Group" of mercenaries to suppress them by force?

Han Fulai smiled reassuringly at Dina Zede: "Don't worry about the Academy's retaliation, just trust me and Dixia."

During this "Flora Festival," he didn't reveal his true identity, so it's understandable that Dinazede was worried—otherwise, she would be worried that he might single-handedly overturn the Order of the Fathers...

Just as they were about to leave backstage, the clock on the wall pointed to 8 p.m.

Suddenly, Han Fulai heard a "beep" sound in his mind.

The theater lights went out.

The staff packed up the stage props and gathered backstage at the theater.

Backstage, there was a large round table and a dozen chairs around it—this was the troupe's lounge, which also served as their canteen.

After each performance, everyone gathers here to celebrate with barbecue and wine.

"Cheers to the successful conclusion of the performance!"

Everyone in the troupe raised their glasses in a toast.

Props engineer Ms. Nega downed the fruit wine in her glass in one gulp, then put down the glass and touched Nil's crown: "How are the props after the renovation? Are they easy to use?"

Nilu nodded with a smile: "Yes, it works really well, thank you, Sister Neja."

This is a prop they specially modified today for Mr. Jiang Xue's new play. Because it's not the "Flower Goddess" costume, Miss Neja and Anaye hand-sewed this new floral headdress—the headdress is very beautiful, and Nilu really likes it.

The juggler Kuros, seemingly drained of all his strength, collapsed onto the table, muttering, "Sigh, it's over. I finally don't have to get scolded by Mr. Zuber anymore."

He played a mercenary role in today's play, with only a few lines. However, this was Kulosh's first time playing a role with lines, and he kept forgetting his lines, for which he received a lot of criticism from director Zuber.

Zuber, busy toasting with Ghassani, didn't hear Kulosh's quiet complaints.

Nilu glanced at Mr. Zuber and lowered her voice to comfort him, "Mr. Zuber is just nervous. You need to cheer up, everyone really enjoyed your performance..."

Although it was a last-minute production, the performance was a great success. Everyone did their best, and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Moreover—for some reason, perhaps intimidated by the crowd, the great sage Azhar actually let the Zubair Theater go and left the Grand Bazaar with his men.

For the people of the Grand Bazaar, this was undoubtedly a victory in the "Battle to Defend the Grand Bazaar"!

...It's just that I wasn't able to properly perform the "Dance of the Flower Goddess," which makes Nel feel a little regretful.

In addition, Dina Zede, who was supposed to attend the celebration banquet, suddenly fell ill. Dixia, Mr. Jiang Xue, Ying, and Paimon took her home and were unable to have a meal together, which was also a pity.

"Hey, I told you not to run around like that!" a childish voice called out.

This is another prop engineer in the troupe, Sorin, the son of Ricard.

The girl next to him was Ricard's eldest sister's daughter, Abe.

Both of them wanted to join the theater troupe as actors, so they often visited the theater after performances. The person Thorin had just reprimanded was—

"Swan, you're here too!"

Nilu saw the big yellow dog frolicking around.