The next morning, Adam encountered David, who handed him a letter. Inside the envelope was a list, detailing individuals who would follow Adam's commands. The list also thoughtfully noted the relationships each person had with Matt, as well as whether Matt trusted them.
As Adam scanned through the names, he noticed that Macallan was not included.
Clearly, the coachman had been abandoned.
After rising, Adam met with Doug, but their exchange was brief and uneventful. After a few pleasantries, Adam left, and Macallan was once again the one assigned to drive him.
With his head lowered, Macallan avoided meeting Adam's eyes, leaning against the carriage, the reins held firmly in his grip, listening to the steady breaths of the horse. He could almost hear the sound of life ebbing away.
Adam climbed into the carriage, leaving the curtain drawn back instead of closed, and began speaking to Macallan.
"I praised you to Lord Doug," Adam remarked, following through on his words, though he added a bit more than expected.
"Thank you, Master Adam! Thank you!" Macallan hurriedly expressed his gratitude, a sense of disbelief and joy in his voice, his posture straightening once more.
"There's no need," Adam replied with a smile. "But I may need you to continue transporting me for a while. It's not ideal to always borrow the Rom family's carriage. I might purchase my own one soon."
Then, jokingly, he added, "How about you become my coachman when that happens?"
"Master Adam!" Macallan's voice rose, but he quickly calmed himself and said, "My family has served as the Rom family's coachmen for generations. It was so in the past, and it will continue to be so in the future."
"Is that so?" Adam responded, a playful glint in his eyes. "Well, for the time being, you may need to follow me. Lord Doug and I have a bit of a collaboration, and until I hire a new coachman, it will be you taking me around."
"Yes... of course." Macallan seemed flustered, and after that, fell silent.
The journey to the Central Clock Tower wasn't long, and they soon arrived.
"As before, come by around four or five this afternoon to pick me up," Adam instructed, handing over a gold coin before turning and walking into the Reflection Tower without a further word to Macallan.
Inside the dim corridor, Adam didn't encounter Cyrin this time. He made his way straight to the tenth floor, where he found Anthony already waiting.
His complexion appeared fairly good, though his expression wasn't pleasant.
"Master, did anyone visit the tower last night?" Adam asked, knowing full well that with Anthony's abilities, even from within the Reflection Tower, he could observe the outside world. However, for reasons unknown, Anthony rarely did so.
"Hmm? You know?" Anthony's face darkened slightly, though it wasn't due to anger at Adam.
"Recently, a noble has been bothering Master Alva, and it seems he didn't get what he wanted from him, so now he's turned to me," Adam explained, recounting everything, even admitting to the favors he had received.
"Even the carriage I've been using these past few days was sent by Lord Doug."
Having interacted with these powerful figures, Adam realized that lying or hiding things had little use.
Most practitioners begin with heightened perception, which influences every aspect of their existence. Thus, the first extraordinary attribute most practitioners acquire is extraordinary perception.
The more powerful the practitioner, the more acute their perception becomes—dare to lie, and they will see through it.
"Is that so?" Anthony observed, though he didn't seem to catch Adam's lie. "You're curious too, aren't you?"
"Indeed, as a student, I'm quite curious about what nobles would covet," Adam admitted. Since Alva had likely shared his circumstances with Anthony, it was better to be open about it.
"What they seek isn't something good," Anthony said, his voice tinged with nostalgia. "Alva used to be much like you—always trying to prove something, always wanting to change things. That hasn't changed since he was young."
"When his abilities were limited, it was fine. But as he grew more powerful, he couldn't suppress it anymore. He's in his forties now, not so young. Perhaps, with the increasing power of the nobility, especially among the younger generation of the Church, Alva began questioning why a cultivator must follow the cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death."
"And so, that year, we obtained the immortality elixir," Anthony said, his gaze locking with Adam's. "We caused a great disaster, committing an unforgivable sin."
"The side effects of the immortality elixir were far worse than any other method of immortality. To achieve longevity without altering the bloodline—the more you desire, the more you must pay."
"Perhaps the consequences were so severe that Alva began to regret it deeply. He reflected on his past and began to despise who he had become. That's likely why he sent you to me."
"As for the immortality elixir, there was only one batch. Alva won't create a second. He'd rather die than let it circulate again. If there's no more, tell that noble to stop pursuing it when you next see him."
Anthony's words left Adam stunned. The implications were enormous.
If, as Anthony claimed, there was only one batch of the immortality elixir, then Alva himself had not used it to maintain his immortality. So where had Ai's "immortality elixir" come from?
Or had Anthony misjudged Alva, and had he resumed his old ambitions?
Considering the information he had gathered from Doug, Adam didn't dwell on it long, for Anthony's lesson had begun.
There was much to learn in the mage's path—meditation methods, advanced meditation techniques. But these were not simply learned through practice.
"The palm prints of humans differ, so too do their souls. Thus, even the same meditation method must be adapted to each individual's soul," Anthony explained.
"No one would trust another to observe their soul, and with the physical body in the way, it's hard to study it," he continued.
"Thus, these adjustments must be made personally."
"That requires knowledge. The mage's path is to understand—understand oneself, understand nature."
"The soul is elusive. To understand it deeply, one must rely on a medium. That medium is mental power."
The nature of mental power, its inner control, the significance of structure, the corresponding forces of nature—these were all subjects of study.
Only by understanding these could a practitioner successfully cast a spell. With a spell, they could construct a ritual; with a ritual, they could enter the return phase and gain a deeper understanding of their soul.
"Originally, the concept of a spell didn't exist. It was called a ritual back then," Anthony explained. "A ritual is a specific way of interacting with nature."
"Rituals don't have to be performed by mages; cultivators, knights, even ordinary people, if they meet the conditions, can perform rituals to manifest miracles."
"But rituals are often complicated. A short ritual can take ten minutes, while some last years."
"As mages rose in prominence, people began studying why rituals could influence natural forces. It started with imitating them using mental power, then gradually understanding the principles, and from there, creating miracles. This is how spells were born."
"You've made fast progress. Your Netherworld has reached a considerable scale, and you've already begun semi-solidifying spells."
Meditation methods maintain the operation of one's mental power. Semi-solidification refers to using special techniques to mutate part of the mental power, then forge it into a model, embedding it into the operational pattern, transforming a spell into an innate ability.
"Today, many spells focus on harm, but spells should be tools—tools to explore the soul. If one tool isn't enough, then stronger spells must be developed. If a spell can only be cast once, then semi-solidification techniques are created. If one spell is insufficient, chain spells are formed. If that's still not enough, rituals are forged, and mental power is honed to its strongest state, to further explore the soul."
"Different personal rituals exist—some succeed, others fail. Even those who succeed don't all discover the same truths. Successful individuals pass through the return phase and reach the ascent phase."
"Those who fail find their own paths."
Anthony, who had always been clear and thorough in guiding Adam, left him to choose the path for himself after giving a few hints.