Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

”I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer most of your questions unless you agree and swear an oath not to reveal anything we teach you until such time that secrecy is no longer essential,” Celestina shook her head decisively.

Elizabeth frowned deeply hearing this.

Was she temped?

Certainly! How could she not be?

She was on the very cusp of reaching the Adept Realm, which would restore some of her youth and extend her life significantly. It would also be a critical milestone in the history of the Carlson Family, as she would be the first to have ever ascended to that level of strength.

Elizabeth thought she had made peace with never breaking through again after over 100 years of trying and failing to, but the instant hope was dangled in front of her again, it stirred that deeply buried desire in her heart once again.

The problem was, Celestina, her old friend who was offering her this chance, was essentially asking her to take a leap of faith; to trust her completely, without any substantial explanation or guarantees.

That was a bitter medicine to swallow, especially for someone like Elizabeth who was used to having the final say in almost all matters.

Reason and desire fought a silent war inside the old woman’s head, but no matter how poised, refined, and noble Elizabeth was in her day-to-day life, she was still only human.

”Fine,” Elizabeth let out a long sigh, ”I swear on my Soul and to the Heavens that I shall not disclose any information I obtain in the pursuit of... Project Ascension, was it? Until such time that you or your First Disciple deem it acceptable.”

”Good,” Celestina nodded seriously before reaching into her Space Bag and pulling out a Memory Jade.

Placing the blue crystal onto the table between them, Celestina injected a bit of her Spirit and Soul Qi into it, causing a few runic patterns on its surface to shine and shift. She then motioned to Elizabeth, ”Take a look at this, and I believe you will understand that you’ve made the right choice.”

Raising her brow, Elizabeth confirmed once more how seriously Celestina took this matter, even going so far as to use an extremely expensive Encrypted Memory Jade to store the information about it.

Ordinary Memory Jades were Grade 0 Spirit Tools and didn’t have any kind of protection on them. Even if someone didn’t have a Soul Sense, as long as they picked one such a Jade, they could read its content freely.

Encrypted Memory Jades, on the other hand, were at minimum Grade 2 Spirit Tools, making them much rarer and more expensive. Just as the name suggested, these Memories Jades could be locked and coded so that no one other than those authorized by their owner could see what was recorded inside.

Picking up the Memory Jade, Elizabeth held it to her forehead, closed her eyes, and sank her Soul Sense into it.

While it was completely possible to read this crystal while simply holding it in one’s palm, holding it to one’s forehead, where the Soul Sea was located, sped up the process.

Silence filled the room for the next 10 minutes or so before Elizabeth let out a long breath and opened her eyes.

In such a short time, it was naturally impossible for her to have gone through the Memory Jade’s full content as it was the equivalent of several hundreds of pages of dense text, diagrams, charts, and illustrations, but Elizabeth had seen enough to understand why Celestina was being so careful about even letting her see it.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that what was contained in this Memory Jade, Project Ascension, could flip the entire cultivation world on its head.

If it worked, that is.

Elizabeth was tempted to ask what kind of progress they had made on this secret project, or what the chances were that it would succeed, but she knew better than that.

Clearly, this entire thing was a work in progress, one that they were asking her to participate in as not just a test subject, but as a research partner.

Honestly, it was a bit exciting, in a completely terrifying kind of way.

Clenching the Memory Jade tightly, Elizabeth felt extremely reluctant to return it. In fact, right now, there was nothing she wanted more than to lock herself in her room and study these research notes.

Still, 300 years of tempered willpower wasn’t to be underestimated.

As she accepted the Memory Jade back, Celestina smiled knowingly and comforted her old friend, ”Don’t worry, since you’re now an active participant in this, I’ll have a copy made for you. We’ll need to key it to your Internal Qi, but I assume that won’t be a problem.”

”Naturally,” Elizabeth nodded, doing her best not to let her lips curl upwards into a grin.

She wasn’t very successful.

With the secretive part of the discussion finally over, though, Elizabeth called out, ”Audrey!”

A moment later, the young girl returned to the kitchen, curiosity apparent in her expression.

Unfortunately, no one was going to answer her questions; the only thing Audrey would be receiving now was more confusion as her grandmother abruptly announced, ”I will be remaining here in Misty City for the time being.”

”Uh...” Audrey was taken aback, wondering just what had happened in the short time she was sent out for such a dramatic change in plans to have occurred.

However, as the favoured granddaughter of a Count, Audrey had received the finest of educations available in the Rockwell Kingdom and knew when she was allowed to ask questions, and when she was not.

This was definitely a case of the latter, at least regarding her grandmother’s reasons.

That said, the young girl still needed to know a few things, ”May I ask, for how long will you be away, Ancestor?”

”I’m not certain,” Elizabeth shook her head gracefully, ”But at least a year.”

This was little more than a random guess by the old woman, as there really was no way to know how long she would need to work together with Lucas and Celestina on Project Ascension before there was a result, either way.

It could be a few months, or it could be more than a decade, there was no way to tell.

”Is there anything you would like me to inform the Count about, Ancestor?” Audrey continued, carefully avoiding being too specific with her questions.

Thinking about it for a moment, Elizabeth decided to cut her favourite great great granddaughter a bit of slack, and to spare her cute grandson back in Iron Rock a small amount of headache by giving them a hint.

Flashing a smile, one that was quite different from her usual calm, composed one, Elizabeth said cryptically, ”Tell Mathias that I have encountered an opportunity, and intend to seclude myself in order to grasp it.”

She couldn’t say much, as she had just sworn an oath of secrecy, but this much should be fine, right?