496 I Changed Into A New Outfi

The representatives of the imperial household, the major organizations in attendance, and the nobles were at a loss for words. The Sorcerers' Association's representatives, who did not consider the Church a hostile entity, looked even more astonished than the other attendees. I

To use a crass analogy, they suddenly felt poor native folks that had just watched the village pariah forcibly kidnap their wives. What was supposed to be an agreement between gentlemen had been tossed aside. Furthermore, the Church showed no signs of stopping.

Their first reaction was a clamor for retaliation, but that thought was quickly scrapped, as they remembered, with sinking hearts, that they would be pointing their swords at the Church. It was only natural that those who had never questioned the Church would fear it. Baiyi figured this to be the reason behind their blank and confused stares, and he did not blame them for that.

Wise people would have called for an adjournment of the meeting at this point so that they could hurriedly return and relay Baiyi's revelation to the factions that they represented, after which they could begin to deliberate on their next move. However, a prince that had eighteen children felt that he had not received as much attention as he was used to, so he decided to remedy that.

The prince stood up. "Sir Hope, pardon my candor: isn't the Church summoning these Angels just because of the feud between you two? I cannot help but think that some form of mediation could stop this war from happening, as well as put an end to the tragic events that have been occurring," said the prince matter-of-factly.

Baiyi said nothing. He raised his hand to his shoulder and undid a button that was holding his cape in place. Tisdale hurried forward and undid the button on the other shoulder before taking the cape, which she tucked neatly and retreated a few feet away.

A bright flash of light illuminated the hall as a big, black ball of energy encompassed Baiyi, right in front of the crowd. Meatball-mode Baiyi raised his hand, and the prince's feet left the ground as he began to float towards the former. When the prince's face was right before the meatball, he was forced to raise his head with the intention of looking Baiyi in the eye.

However, he could not see through the big ball of black energy, though, but because of his posture, the idea was there.

"Mediation, you say? Are you telling me to go over and parley with the Church, subjecting myself to their whims?" Baiyi growled in a low, raspy baritone.

"N-no! That's not… Not what I meant at all!" Beads of sweat dripped down the prince's forehead as he stared the fiery sparks emanating from the huge, black energy ball.

"No? What did you mean, then? That you have decided to go and persuade them to let me — someone they consider a demon — to continue living?" Baiyi asked, a trace of amusement evident in his voice.

"Wait! I…!" The prince's heart raced as he tried to come up with an answer, finally realizing that he had oversimplified the issue. For the Church to continue with its Angel summoning, despite the huge threat it could pose to the public, showed that it had long since parted ways with those it once considered its allies. All that just because the Church considered the destruction of the Voidwalkers a most righteous deed. The prince, who was frequently involved in secular politics, had let his habit of trying to mediate any troublesome situation kick in; however, Baiyi's fierce response had swiftly reminded him that the Royal Family, who depended on the graces of the Church and the Voidwalkers, could not afford to offend either entity.

Satisfied with the prince's reaction, Baiyi let him go. He canceled the Meatball mode and left the hall without another word, with Tisdale in tow.

Only when Baiyi was out of sight did the crowd wipe away the cold sweat on their foreheads. This all began because of the feud between the Church and the Voidwalkers. Since the Church was too huge an entity to battle, it made sense to, instead, pressure the Voidwalkers, whose social and political influence was less than the Church's. If they could force the Voidwalkers to submit to the Church, the war could be averted, and they will no longer have to suffer this tragedy.

The prince's words mirrored the thoughts in everyone's minds, but the others were smart enough to keep their mouths shut, unlike the prince. Baiyi seemed to have read their minds, though, which was why he made a scapegoat off the prince, indirectly warning the others not to incur his ire.

Not everyone was so easily convinced, however. The gazes of a few people in the hall quickly shifted to the strongest person present, and with a trace of incredulity in their voices, they asked, "Mr. Vice President, what is your honest opinion of this Hope? Do you think he had reached Demigod-level?"

Grant frowned and gritted his teeth; he seemed to be questioning the intelligence of the speakers, who had asked something very stupid. However, as he did not wish for these people to risk their lives by entertaining dangerously stupid thoughts, Grant replied, "Master Hope's power is way beyond the top of the power levels, gentlemen. I'll warn you: what you have just seen isn't his true power; it's just the tip of the iceberg."

"That's impossible! Is that monster really undefeatable!?" The prince scowled.

"Oh? Why do you think the Church was forced to such desperate acts, hmm? His power is overwhelming and over the top; mortals like us can no longer hope to contend with it!" Grant snapped. "My wise, esteemed guests, let me offer you a piece of advice: the war between Hope and the Church is something out of the boundary that us mortals exist in. We might not even be capable of watching them battle from afar, let alone interfere in the battle. So, if you know what is good for you, be smart and don't get involved."

"But the Church's actions are harming us! Are you really suggesting that we sit idly by and watch everything crumble around us? Is there really nothing we can do?!" asked a worried-looking Alchemist Association representative. The Alchemist Association was the first organization to invest in micro-realms. Most of its success was achieved thanks to rare raw materials unearthed from its realms. Of the organizations present, the Alchemist Association owned the most micro-realms.

Its entire operation rested on the existence and stability of its micro realms, and if the Church was allowed to continue its actions, the Alchemists' Association would crumble; it might even go bankrupt. This was why they were more scared than others.

Grant could only flash the man a helpless smile, which seemed to mean 'What do you want me to do? I'm just as desperate as you are!'

Without another word, he turned and left.

As the crowd in the hall nursed the resentment, the students that had gone to participate in the Trial of Parazonium slowly returned to Da Xue's realm, after the news of an 'unforeseen accident' broke. Some of them were smiling in glee, happy about their luck, and others looked confused and dissatisfied that their adventure had been stopped so suddenly.

For the rest of the week, Baiyi did nothing substantive. He chose to wait for those whose profits would be hurt by the Church's activities to rise up. At that time, the first batch of intel from Umbra reached him, so he spent some time pouring over the information.

The intel contained legends and folklore. These were not the high-level secrets that Baiyi had hoped for; they were of little strategic value. Every page he read seemed to describe how immaculate, beautiful, and indomitable Angels were. All Baiyi could learn from that was that Angels were not some ripped gym-bros with washboard abs and too much body hair.

Obviously, useful intel could only come from the Church's insiders.

Little Mia had been hard at work in a bid to become stronger. She was being spurred on by the understanding that Baiyi needed her. However, a lack of sleep and tasty snacks had turned her face gaunt. That face pained Baiyi so much, he asked her to take a break.

"Huh? I thought the situation was quite dire," Mia said.

"Er, it's not exactly as dire as you expected," Baiyi replied, ruffling her hair as he did so. "Just…take a break for the time being, okay? Go outside and have fun."

"Really? Okay! I wanna go out with you, Mr. Hope!" The eager Mia wrapped her arms around Baiyi.

Baiyi wanted to reject Mia, but before he could talk, he remembered that he had not spent time with her for a while. Deciding to take the chance to bond, Baiyi nodded at Mia.

Mia was over the moon as she dashed home. She could not help fantasizing about the fun they would have, and her thoughts turned to the unattractive sorcerer's robe. When Mia got to her room, Mia yanked open her closet in a hurry — revealing rows of clothes packed so together, anyone would be unable to tell where one dress ended and another began — and began taking her favorite clothes.

After struggling internally for a while, Mia decided to go with a small pink jacket, which she would pair with a tartan short skirt and black silk socks. After that, she wore her brown knee-high boots.

Afterward, she admired herself in the mirror, marveling at how quickly she had become young again. However, Mia felt that something was amiss. After pondering silently for a while, she replaced her black silk socks with a pair of white silk socks.

She then fastened a pair of rabbit-head hairclips to the end of her ponytails and changed her shoes to the classic, round-headed, leather mary janes. Mia grabbed the hammerhead shark and placed it under her arm.

Now she looked ten years younger than she really was and could be mistaken for a kid. This was deliberate; she knew Baiyi liked her much better this way.

As Baiyi waited for Mia to get ready, he tried to shrug off the sense of boredom enveloping him. Girls spent a long time dressing up and making up; this was something Baiyi, who now had many 'daughters', was used to, but he always found the wait tedious. As he waited, a thought crossed his mind. 'What if I, too, changed into a new suit?'

Baiyi took Mystique out of his storage pouch.

He had been spent a lot of time researching the armor but failed to learn anything important, so he had ended up temporarily suspending the research. Now, however, he decided to don it for the shopping trip with his favorite daughter.

Baiyi carved the Ember of Hope onto the armor and began to transfer his consciousness to it. When the process was almost completed, the door opened, and Mia, who was clutching her hammerhead shark plushie, entered the hall.

A strange shockwave burst out from Baiyi and spread outward. His unfathomable instinct kicked his excellent reflexes into overdrive, and the Soul Armature quickly cast a magical formation of vision on his new body.

When Baiyi finally came to, he found himself in a different place. This was somewhere he had not been to before!

Little Mia, meanwhile, laid at his feet like a corpse.

Baiyi picked her up and checked her pulse. She was only unconscious.

'What happened? Where are we?!' Baiyi thought as he tried to suppress the fear in his heart. He looked around, trying to spot something that would give him an idea of where he was. All he could see were unfamiliar people walking by him as he stood in the middle of an unfamiliar street.

Buildings with antique architecture were all around him, and the surrounding did not seem to possess the slightest semblance to the modern world that he was used to. Many of these buildings had on flags of different colors and long ribbons hung on them, while large banners adorned the streets. To his surprise, he spotted magical Rohlserlian formations on these banners.

Baiyi looked closely at the banners and realized that they really were Formation Script. It read: 'We welcome His Majesty the Nineteenth on his return after another victory!"