The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Aurora seemed quite surprised when she saw Evelyn take an immediate interest in the array disc containing the 'Searing Soul' cultivation technique.

She thought that she would have to at least nudge her in the right direction, or maybe even tell her outright for her to make the right choice, but this girl's instincts and luck were both incredibly good!

The platinum blonde was already familiar with all the cultivation techniques in the tower of solitude, and it wouldn't be wrong to say that 'Searing Soul' was the one that suited this little girl the most.

After all, to be the chosen of the Lotus Throne, a child had to be born with over a thousand points in soul value. It was an absurdly impossible requirement, which was why the academy had no hopes of such a person ever being born naturally.

Of course, as Aurora grew up, she realized that her creators were simply greedy. Greedy for knowledge, for power, and perhaps most of all, for having an actual right to speak in this world, on par with the other two thrones.

'Which is a foolish notion. If simply being picked by the Lotus Throne meant anything, would this little girl be so vulnerable? As long as the other two come to know of her existence, she's doomed. Even I can crush her effortlessly…'

Given that the two current thrones seemed to hate each other so much, there was no way they would allow a third one to grow when they could so easily prevent it.

But although she already knew all of this, along with the fact that this was the most suitable technique for the pink-haired girl, Aurora did not reveal it to Evelyn.

Instead, the platinum blonde tilted her head curiously. "Are you interested in this one?"

Evelyn thought that the teachers must have some way of knowing which array disc contained which technique even without activating it. After all, it wouldn't make sense for Aurora to be able to find all the best ones otherwise, right?

Of course, she had no intention of revealing her innate ability to see the status of both objects and people. The pink-haired girl smiled. "I just feel like this might be the right one for me?"

Aurora didn't probe her any further, simply giving her a nod. "Alright. Go with your 'feelings' then. Remember, you can only keep the array for six months at most, after which you will have to return it to the elder in the tower of solitude."

Evelyn kept nodding along as Aurora explained a few more minor details on how to use the array discs. Apparently, the higher the grade of the cultivation technique array, the more spirit stones it needed to be activated.

Of course, with Cecilia's 'Mister Chonkers', there was no need to worry about any funds for now.

Aurora's presence in the tower of solitude had definitely brought her a great deal of benefits. Evelyn didn't know if she would have been able to find a suitable high-grade technique within fifteen minutes if she had been alone.

And to make matters worse, among these tens of thousands of techniques, she could only realistically check a hundred and thirty or so, since each time she used her probe skill, it consumed one point of spirit power.

But at the same time, Aurora's help also made some matters complicated.

Evelyn had bet on the fact that she would be allowed inside the tower of solitude alone without a spatial artifact to steal a few of the discs inside. Even if they were discovered to be missing later, who could be sure who the thief was?

Of course, the best case scenario would have been if she found a technique that was suitable for both herself and Amara, but that was quite unlikely.

In the worst case, she could still let Amara learn the cultivation technique she got for herself, but that would mean greatly limiting her future growth. In that case, wouldn't it be better to simply wait a while longer and see if she could find another way?

Evelyn knew she shouldn't be too 'greedy', but looking at Aurora's attitude so far, perhaps… it wasn't impossible.

The pink-haired girl made up her mind as she clasped her hands together. "Miss Aurora, although I know we've only known each other for a while, and you've already shown me a great deal of favor, can you please let me borrow another array disc for my friend? She is—"

Aurora didn't bother listening to the rest of her explanation as she waved her hand nonchalantly. "Take what you like. You can give it back to me later, I'll make it so it's withdrawn under my name."

"H-Huh?" Evelyn blinked, shocked that the platinum blonde had agreed so straightforwardly. After all, Cecilia had made it clear that the Academy guarded their cultivation array discs with great zeal, and it was strictly forbidden to allow an outsider to even touch them.

Aurora smiled. "You silly, naughty little child. How old is the academy? Whatever little tricks you can think of, someone has probably already tried before. As long as an array disc is no longer inside the tower, the elder in charge will know. And when you get out of the tower, the elder will use a technique that would make it so only you can use the array disc."

Evelyn immediately felt deflated. She wasn't surprised that Aurora could see through her 'naughty' thoughts of stealing the disc after she had made such a request. But she was disappointed and terrified at knowing that her plan might really have backfired if Aurora hadn't been here.

If the elder in charge knew immediately when a disc went missing, and she was the only one in the tower at that time… She would definitely be investigated very thoroughly.

Although she might still be able to get off scot-free, since they probably won't be able to find her inventory, but it would be impossible to use that stolen array to teach anything to Amara after that. She would never be able to escape the academy's scrutiny then, rendering it all pointless, and making her life multiple times more difficult.

Evelyn gave her teacher a sincere bow. "Thank you, miss Aurora, I'll—"

Aurora didn't bother responding to her gratitude, and cut her off by grabbing her hand and proceeding to drag her out.

The pink-haired girl quickly pulled in the array discs into her inventory in a panic, and breathed a sigh of relief only after she managed to do so. Thankfully, her spatial treasure hadn't been confiscated as it should have been, or her ability to store items without it would have been exposed.

Although she felt grateful for her help, and Aurora seemed quite casual when dealing with most things, Evelyn couldn't help but feel uneasy deep down in her heart.

Among so many students, why had this mysterious teacher taken an interest only in her?

Evelyn didn't believe that there hadn't been any exceptionally outstanding talents in the hundreds or even thousands of years of the academy's history. If Aurora hadn't taken any 'students' in all that time, just what was it about herself that changed her mind?

==========

After getting out of the tower of solitude, Evelyn had wanted to immediately return to the White Lily Palace to celebrate with her friends and get started on learning their cultivation techniques.

After all, this was their first step to a brighter future.

Unfortunately, Aurora did not escort her away from the class, instead only patting her head and telling her to be a good girl from now, and not be too naughty.

Evelyn's lips twitched as she watched the platinum blonde walk away.

Thankfully, even with Aurora gone, the elder in charge didn't ask her to take out her array disk so he could put any restrictions on it. Evelyn assumed that he must have convinced himself that Aurora already must have put on the restrictions, and busied himself with explaining how to pick the cultivation arrays as well as how to use them to the rest of the students.

With Evelyn's previous incident of being expelled, and then coming back with a teacher to expel the teacher back, the students felt extremely curious about her, and many approached her to ask questions.

"What's your name?"

"How did you know that teacher?"

"What did you get from the tower?"

Though Evelyn didn't feel the need to answer them at all, there was no need to make enemies everywhere. As some of these students were spirit physiques just like her, they could also prove to be useful in the future.

Of course, there was no need to answer all their questions accurately either, except for her name.

"She found me while I was leaving the class and asked what was wrong, and then…"

"I don't know…"

"We'll only know which technique we got after we start the array, right?"

The children's excited discussions only paused when someone entered the tower or came out. Whenever they exited, the elder would cast some sort of technique on their array disc, making it briefly glow red before letting them leave to join the rest of the students.

It was almost evening by the time they were done, and Evelyn breathed a sigh of relief. 'It's finally over…'

She didn't know what Aurora intended by leaving her here to waste time, but she could only forgive her after thinking about all the favors she had already granted.

Evelyn rolled her eyes. 'She probably wants me to socialize and be a good girl, right? It's a bit too late for that, but fine, I'll pretend to be a 'good girl' if that's what she wants.'