How should Alhaitham's plan be evaluated? One can only say, he is as wise as a demon!
Among the Thirty-Six Stratagems, Alhaitham employed 'Crossing the sea under camouflage', 'Making a feint to the east and attacking in the west', 'Advancing secretly by a hidden path', 'Beating the grass to startle the snake', 'Luring the tiger out of its mountain lair', 'Picking up a stray sheep in passing','Seizing the king first to capture the rebels', 'Muddling the waters to catch fish','Stealing a beam and replacing it with a rotten post', 'The stratagem of sowing discord', and 'The stratagem of self-mutilation', among others, in this battle plan.
Of course, using so many stratagems to achieve a glimmer of hope in the face of such overwhelming odds also means that one wrong move could lead to total defeat.
It was already difficult enough to regulate their own side's actions; the most crucial part was needing to anticipate the Akademiya sages' anticipations.
It must be said that Alhaitham, who could devise such a battle plan, is an academic proficient in human nature, with deep schemes, political acumen, and a ruthless heart. Such a person can be said to be a born power holder.
If he had ambitions for politics, his stage would be incredibly vast. It's a pity that precisely because he is overly rational, he has no interest in Sumeru's officialdom, which is fraught with deception and competing interests.
Just as Alhaitham's plan was proceeding in an orderly manner, deep within the Sanctuary of Surasthana, in the Divine Innovation Workshop, Grand Sage Azar and the other three sages were staring nervously at the masterpiece before them.
The body of the artificial god—shouki no kami, the prodigal.
This colossal entity before them was what the Akademiya had created by expending vast amounts of manpower, material resources, and financial resources.
That's right, to achieve the God Creation Project without being discovered, the sages directly built the Divine Innovation Workshop within the Sanctuary of Surasthana. After all, the Sanctuary of Surasthana is at the top of Sumeru City, and apart from the Lesser Lord Kusanali, whom they had imprisoned, almost no one would come here, and no one would disturb them.
This is what they call the most dangerous place being the safest, right?
And now, the most crucial step was about to take place: using the harvested dream energy to make Akasha operate at maximum power, forcibly mobilizing the immense power contained within the gnosis of electro.
Azar looked at everything before him with a hint of fanaticism, mumbling, "No matter how long I look, I find it incredible. We actually managed to use human wisdom to create a god, and having taken this step, I can't wait to witness it all."
The Doctor stood with his hands behind his back, looking at everyone present. A slight curve appeared on his face, which was adorned with a half-mask, and he said, "If it weren't for your Akademiya being so incompetent, failing to harvest enough dream energy, we wouldn't have needed to waste so much time."
Facing the Doctor's taunt, although the sages were indignant, they were powerless to argue. With the plan at this stage, the initiative was no longer in their hands. Azar cleared his throat and changed the subject, "Doctor, is the missing portion of dream energy ready?"
The Doctor glanced back. Even with layers of walls as obstructions, his gaze seemed to penetrate everything, directly seeing the small god who had lost consciousness in the birdcage.
The Doctor: "Don't worry, I never do anything that holds others back. Rather, what about the canned divine knowledge I requested from you all this time?
Without this, even if the Gnosis's power is successfully mobilized, it will only reach the level of a god in terms of power, but will be slightly lacking in the spiritual aspect, unable to truly connect to Irminsul, and even less able to possess the omniscient and omnipotent clearance of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata."
Azar heard this and hesitated, saying, "This... don't worry about this."
The Doctor: "Oh? Why do I detect a lack of confidence in the Grand Sage's words?"
Azar stubbornly retorted, "That's none of your concern, Doctor. Rather, you should first complete your assigned task of guiding the Gnosis. If you cannot successfully mobilize the Gnosis's power, everything we've done will be in vain!"
The Doctor snorted, then looked towards the core of shouki no kami, the prodigal, and said faintly, "Scaramouche, are you ready?"
Following the Doctor's gaze, at the head of shouki no kami, the prodigal, an inconspicuous round-headed youth was suspended, and behind him, dozens of mysterious conduits were connected.
This person was none other than the Fatui Harbinger, the Sixth Seat, Balladeer!
Balladeer heard the Doctor's question, opened his eyes, scanned his body, and looked down at the untamed Gnosis that refused to contribute any power, a not-so-pleasant memory surfacing in his mind.
Balladeer looked down at the sages, who were like ants beside him, and sarcastically said, "From the day I was born, my purpose has been to contain this Gnosis. I have waited for this moment for far too long!
Your progress is truly slow, so slow that it makes me question if you are truly worthy of becoming my followers?"
Azar's attitude towards this new god he was about to create was much better than towards the Doctor. He respectfully bowed and said, "My apologies, the bio-modification took a long time, and successfully linking your body with the machine required a great deal of effort."
The Doctor chuckled, "Scaramouche, I still hope you can show some respect to the researchers. After all, they put in a lot of effort to make you a new god. You know, becoming a god isn't that easy.
Never mind, since you are ready, then all our efforts during this time should finally bear fruit."
With that, the Doctor walked over to a mechanism with a very prominent button on it. The staff present, the sages, and Balladeer himself watched the Doctor with tension and anticipation.
As the Doctor decisively pressed the button, all the machines within the entire Divine Innovation Workshop began to operate frantically. A massive surge of energy, following the pipes inside the mechanism, poured into the body of shouki no kami, the prodigal—more precisely, it surged towards the gnosis of electro placed within the body.
Immediately, the entire shouki no kami, the prodigal, was filled with dazzling lightning. The gnosis of electro, driven by the dream energy, began to emit an astonishing amount of power.
The Gnosis, as a divine artifact bestowed upon the Seven Archons by Celestia, each Gnosis contained unparalleled clearance and power.
However, for true gods, such divine artifacts were merely dispensable backup energy sources, because for them, they were gods first, and then granted a Gnosis, rather than becoming gods because they had a Gnosis.
But for beings who were not gods, the power contained within the Gnosis was their hope for further advancement.
However, obtaining this power was not an easy task. Not to mention how one could obtain a Gnosis from the hands of a god, even if one obtained a Gnosis, one could not easily mobilize the energy within it.
To give a simple example, each Gnosis has a password. Only by entering the correct password can one use the clearance and power within the Gnosis. The Seven Archons, as official employees of Celestia, naturally knew the password to their Gnosis, but the Doctor, Balladeer, and the Akademiya sages did not.
And the work done by the Doctor and the Akademiya sages was to use the energy harvested from the dreams of Sumeru's people to drive Akasha, the supercomputer, at maximum power, using the simplest and most fool method, brute-force enumeration, to try out each possible password for this gnosis of electro.
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 70 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"