Chapter 9: The Great Existence From the Azure Blue Star
Delçois pointed at the illusory scroll and shouted excitedly, "See this? From now on, the Internet also has a school of magic!"
The sophomores' magical engraving class erupted into chaos as soon as he finished speaking.
"The Internet has a school of magic too? Where is it? How do I attend classes?"
"Damn it. My mithril ring was confiscated. Anyone still have one? Let's go and take a look now."
"My heavens. Instructor Young has become the Internet School of Magic's instructor?"
"What? Instructor Young?"
"It isn't just him alone. There are many instructors and they are all grand mage instructors according to their introductions!"
"Damn. The basic courses are all free. We can access the advanced courses as long as we pay with points and it isn't expensive. One period of the sophomore courses only requires 50 points. We can also apply for one-to-one consultation with an instructor using points, according to the introduction!"
"50 points isn't expensive? How many people do we need to promote this to so we can get 50 points? It's not easy to write a highlighted post."
"I bet you don't know… There's a new feature that awards points when you sign in. 1 point for the first day, 2 points for the second day and so on until the seventh day when 7 points would be awarded! This means you would be awarded with 28 points as long as you sign in for seven continuous days. And you can accumulate 50 points easily within half a month."
The classroom was in complete chaos by then.
Numerous students began to discuss among themselves without any regards for the ban.
Brad's facial expression instantly changed and he quickly activated the Internet Divine Skill to check.
His body began to shake the very next second and his face paled. He didn't even bother to lecture the students as he dashed out of the classroom to report to the principal.
Why was the Felix School of Magic banning the Internet Divine Skill?
It was because it had seriously challenged the school's right to explain magic and its ruling power!
There were only two possibilities to cultivate magic before the appearance of the Internet—
Inheriting the family's legacy; or cultivating in schools.
To a certain extent, the former was a branch of cultivating in school. It was simply spreading the gifted students around.
Thus, even the magical clans would send their members to cultivate themselves in schools of magic.
They sought good mentors, making firm friendships, form ties and networks so they could enter the Queville Empire's power circle and split magical resources among themselves after they graduated.
The Queville Empire controlled its territory by controlling the mages through all the schools of magic!
The school was already furious since the Internet was undermining the school's exclusivity to explain magic in the first place and had taken measures to ban it.
They didn't expect that it would set up its own school of magic directly. That act went beyond shaking the foundations of all the magic schools.
It was akin to digging out the ancestors of the Empire from their graves!
Internet Deity!
How dare you!
Before Brad could reach the Circular Tower of Magic, an invisible and sharp magical wave washed all over him and swept through the entire school of magic.
That was the alarm from the Tower of Magic, calling for an emergency meeting!
"Looks like Lord Dandell already found out about this!" Brad sighed as he continued to hurry on.
The Restricted Magic meeting room on level seven already resembled a bustling market when he arrived via a short distance teleportation array.
Numerous mages, looking either panicked, furious or solemn, had gathered. All of them were engaged in a heated discussion.
Some of them even jumped up and down as they shouted, without any regards for their image!
Due to the heightened emotions, an Element Storm was formed which hailed all over the meeting room.
Fortunately, none of those present was weak; otherwise, they would have been blasted by the Element Storm!
"Silence! Take your seats!"
Soon, Dandell arrived.
All the mages suppressed the mess and disorder in their hearts and sat down.
Humanoid holograms began to materialize on some of the empty chairs. Many mage instructors at other faraway locations were also participating in the meeting.
Apart from Dandell, two more holograms appeared at the four places of honor in the round table.
They were two of the Four Main Pillars of the Queville Empire—Zimmer the Magical Deity and Betty the Magical Deity.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I guess you already know what happened. May I seek your opinion about it?" Dandell got straight to the point.
The agenda for that meeting was to brainstorm for ideas.
The meeting room instantly erupted into a commotion.
"Lord Dandell, the Internet Deity is challenging our Queville Empire. We have to promulgate a national law to ban the Internet Divine Skill on all fronts. We shall exile the Internet's believers and suppress or even kill the Internet Deity together with the other deities!"
Some with a hot temper were calling for blood right away.
"That's right. The Internet Deity is preaching! He is preaching through magic. If we allow the Internet to spread in the schools, he will also become the Deity of Magic and magical freedom will no longer exist in the Queville Empire! We have to kill it in the cradle."
The mages were clamoring murderously.
One couldn't blame them for being so agitated.
Although the Queville Empire had many schools of magic, all of them had a fixed school address and there was also a limit on the number of apprentices they could recruit each year under the control of the empire.
Although they competed and even hated one another, that was simply an internal conflict which was triggered by different magical ideologies and uneven distribution of magical resources.
But, what about the Internet School of Magic?
It didn't belong to the empire and thus was not regulated by it; still, it was recruiting magical talents in the empire. This action was shaking the empire's foundation of governance!
One could obviously imagine that the people who couldn't enter into the schools of magic would definitely go into the Internet School of Magic, driven by the natural instinct to chase power.
The crux of the matter was, the Internet School of Magic wasn't restricted by its location. One teacher could teach up to hundreds and thousands of mage apprentices. That was a massive and unfair advantage that no physical schools of magic could compete with.
Those people would only hate the Queville Empire's schools of magic and thank the Internet School of Magic for giving them a chance to learn magic when they reached maturity!
If that wasn't stopped, the Empire would definitely collapse!
"It's already too late. No one is able to ban the Internet now."
A lamenting sigh cooled down the agitated meeting room like a pail of cold water.
Everyone looked toward the source of the voice. They saw the youngest grand mage instructor, Lucien, say to the three Magical Deities, "My lords and lady, may I suggest that we get in touch with the Internet Deity to discuss and negotiate?"
"That damned evil god is already bullying us so why would we still try negotiating with him?"
"Lucien, you traitor. Apologize for your sins!" someone scolded.
"Why are you suggesting that, Lucien?" Dandell the Magical Deity ignored the others' rants.
Lucien's gaze swept through all of them before revealing an intricate mithril ring with Internet Divine Skill's engravings on his right pinky.
Under everyone's gazes, he removed the ring and crushed it. Then, he began to pray in a low voice, "The great existence from the Azure Blue Star, you are the Master of language and words. You are the pioneer of the Internet. Under your protection, I shall connect with all sentient beings."
An illusory scroll slowly unfurled as soon as he finished speaking.
The meeting room was plunged into a terrifying silence instantaneously; many of them widened their eyes.
What Lucien chanted was a prayer.
Prayers were incantations that only could be created and used by a deity with a unique power of divinity.
It would point to that one and only deity.
That was the only way that the majority of the believers communicated with their deities.
Of course, whether the deity would reply was another matter.
But no one would have guessed that the Internet Deity would reply to the prayers automatically, and in such an unusual and… Efficient manner.
Lucien's gaze swept through his colleagues slowly as he asked, "So, how are we going to ban this?"
Dead silence reigned in the meeting room.
If the Internet Divine Skill would have needed a magical tool, even though they couldn't do a total ban, they could at least ban it for the majority of the people.
They, who held the Empire's power, could force an executive order and it would be difficult for the Internet Divine Skill to survive under the system of reporting and collective punishment.
By then, only a few magical carriers would be floating around in the black market.
The majority of the civilians wouldn't even know that the Internet Divine Skill existed. They would even deem it as an evil skill under their propaganda!
But what about now?
The Internet could be summoned through prayers, so how were they going to ban it?
The Internet Divine Skill itself didn't bestow power on its users. On the contrary, using the Internet Divine Skill consumed their soul power.
However, it would indirectly allow the users to gain legitimate power that could be used under the sun.
No one was able to withstand a temptation like that!
One could imagine how many people would be logging in to learn magic in secret.
It didn't matter if they didn't make it. But if they succeeded, they could simply come up with random excuses, such as having found a grimoire, meeting a wandering mage… etc., etc. Could the empire possibly raise up its weapons against them?
And if the empire really did that, it would soon collapse.
"We could assign people to watch over the forum…" a mage instructor shouted without thinking. But he shut his mouth before he even completed his sentence.
Lucien sighed, "Watching over the forum would only stop the people from posting! In fact, the Internet Deity has already covered up this loophole."
Under everyone's astounded gazes, Lucien clicked on his soul mark. Everyone could clearly see that there was a choice to be anonymous under the "Settings."
That additional information had completely broken through the psychological barrier of all the mages present in the meeting room!
"How could we allow that?"
"Is the Empire going to let him do as he pleases?"
"Kill him, we've got to kill him. Only killing him could solve all these problems!"
Some of them were bellowing, but the majority of them were looking at the three of the Four Main Pillars of the Empire—Dandell, Zimmer and Betty—instinctively.
They knew that killing a deity was not an easy task!
First, they would have to find the Internet Deity…
And even if they could find him, the Empire would have to pay an extremely heavy price.
It would be an unbearable price no matter which one of the Four Main Pillars was lost. The Empire could even collapse because of this.
And the Five Main Righteous Deities would not let the crumbling Empire escape from their grasp!
The three Pillars obviously understood that rationale as they descended into silence.
The white beard of Zimmer the Magical Deity trembled as he said, "We have never come across such an unbelievable method and power. I am quite worried. Is the Internet Deity… really a deity from our world?"
Everyone's expression changed after they heard his words!
Could this be… an inter-plane invasion?