Igor had become a figure of immense influence in the Empire over the past few days. The major media outlets lauded him with every flowery phrase imaginable, elevating him to the heavens. His achievement in inventing the new Awakening Potion easily secured him a lofty position in the Empire’s academic circles, and he now served as a professor in the Potion Division of the First Royal Academy.

Although there were always whispers among the academy staff that he was too young, that his success was merely the result of sheer luck and that he was unfit for a professorship, Earl Igor’s life was, by and large, quite good. Of course, the underhanded maneuvers targeting the formula for the new Awakening Potion had never ceased. Dozens of prestigious families among the imperial elite employed various means to pry information; some attempted bribery, others coercion. Some even dredged up questions about Igor’s background, suggesting his identity might be fabricated, using this as leverage to pressure Igor into revealing the formula and production process for the new Awakening Potion, threatening denunciation if he refused.

After all, how much scrutiny could an identification forged by a few low-status individuals truly withstand?

Yet, these nobles ultimately met with disappointment. Igor cared nothing for the potential forgery of his identity. He held the formula for the Age of Go’s new Awakening Potion in his hands. Even if accused of using a false identity and harboring some dark conspiracy, could they possibly halt the spread of the potion?

That was fundamentally impossible. The propagation of the new Awakening Potion could not be stopped, and as long as the potion spread, Igor, as its inventor, stood on unassailable ground.

Currently, the Imperial Family monopolized the right to manufacture and distribute the new Awakening Potion by law. The foundation of this lay in Igor having bestowed these two rights exclusively upon the Royal Family. If Igor changed his mind and directed those rights toward others, even the Empress would have no logical grounds to refuse before the Council of Elders.

Even if Igor’s fabricated identity were definitively proven, as long as he petitioned the Royal Family for a pardon and provided a plausible reason for using a false identity, the Royal Family, in order to maintain their stranglehold on the new Awakening Potion, would not refuse to issue a special amnesty.

Consequently, the various noble factions deployed countless stratagems, yet none succeeded.

Despite this, the noble factions maintained a degree of restraint; no one dared to attempt a direct kidnapping at the First Royal Academy.

Firstly, the Academy was a sanctuary of knowledge, a domain of wisdom, historically possessing an almost transcendental status. Any conflict involving force was strictly prohibited there—this was an Imperial tradition, and in the long history of the True Human Empire, the power of tradition was immensely strong; the vast majority of nobles dared not overstep.

Secondly, the Principal of the First Royal Academy, Duke Zuma, was an existence at the Fourth-Tier Limit. Setting aside his personal might, his former students and protégés were scattered across the entire Empire. Although he usually devoted himself to research and stayed clear of politics, no one could ignore his influence; no one dared to cause trouble within his Academy.

Incidentally, Duke Zuma was also one of the dozen most senior figures in the Council of Elders. However, unlike those elders who had been courted by Sandwor, Duke Zuma’s political alignment was not obvious, and he rarely spoke within the Council. But those familiar with him knew he stood firmly with the Royal Family. Thus, the First Royal Academy was widely regarded as the Empire’s talent reservoir; Empress Elimiya and Langton had both studied there.

Furthermore, Duke Zuma had been the Dean of the First Royal Academy since the time of Bai Bai’s great-great-grandfather’s reign. Bai Bai’s grandfather and father had both studied under him; Duke Zuma could be considered a teacher to three generations of Emperors.

In the period between the passing of Bai Bai’s father and Bai Bai’s return to the Empire, at least three-quarters of the Council members held the Imperial Family in low regard. Duke Zuma, though remaining outwardly neutral during this time, showed staunch support for the Royal Family in many subtle ways.

This earned the deep gratitude of the Royal Family, evident in the decision by the two Sovereigns to send Bai Bai to enroll in the First Royal Academy, showcasing their trust.

Or, viewed from another angle, by placing Bai Bai in the First Royal Academy, the Royal Family was also signaling that trust to Duke Zuma, further deepening their connection.

In the past month or so, several earth-shattering events had occurred among the Empire's elite. First, the Sandwor Group suffered a setback in the Sol System, followed by the return of the Eldest Princess to the Empire; then Yang Ying and Blade became Imperial Enshrined retainers and visited various noble houses; Duke Anker was miraculously revived, with Yang Ying providing vast amounts of revival agent materials; and finally, the appearance of the new Awakening Potion, with its inventor Igor granting exclusive authorization to the Royal Family—all these events had greatly boosted the prestige of the Imperial Family.

However, although the Royal Family managed to sway many elders to their side using these opportunities, they still failed to secure a majority in the Council of Elders, preventing the two Sovereigns from recalling Sandwor’s military authority.

Under such circumstances, pivotal figures like Duke Zuma still required the Royal Family to invest significant effort in maintaining their loyalty.

At the Glacier Central Academy, during the standoff between the Royal Family and the Sandwor Group, Igor and Yang Ying had met once. Therefore, upon encountering each other on the path, neither feigned ignorance. Igor offered a greeting first: "Sir Yang Ying..."

"Earl Igor, things have been well recently?" Yang Ying maintained a neutral demeanor, neither cold nor overly familiar. Although the man before him was his avatar, the identity of Igor was not yet ready to be revealed. He did not wish for the Empire's populace to know that the appearance of the new Awakening Potion was his maneuver from behind the scenes.

This Igor avatar was a Fourth-Tier existence. Although the gathered spiritual energy it projected was maintained at the level of a Third-Tier Limit, protected by Yang Ying’s main body, even a formidable powerhouse like Sandwor could not discern Igor’s past or future.

To conceal this fact originally, Yang Ying had staged a performance, drawing several protective runes on Igor in front of the Empress and Empress Dowager to shield him from the scrutiny of other Fourth-Tier existences.

Because of this shared experience, Yang Ying and Igor appeared quite familiar to outsiders, but nothing more; no one detected anything amiss.

"Earl Igor, you should attend to your duties. We will take a walk around the campus ourselves," Yang Ying concluded their brief exchange after only a few sentences.

"Then, I wish all of you a pleasant day." Igor nodded to the group and passed by them.

Once Igor was sufficiently distant, Yang Ying turned to Bai Bai with a smile. "The main reason we came here today was to introduce you to Duke Zuma. When I was visiting the various noble houses, I didn't have the chance to call upon this old Duke, so today we will make amends."

Duke Zuma’s residence was situated within the First Royal Academy grounds, atop a small hill on the eastern side. Unlike the residences of other professors, this small hill and nearly ten hectares of surrounding land had been granted to the old Duke as his personal domain. This was in recognition of his countless millennia of contribution to Imperial education and was the only patch of private noble territory within the campus.

After entering this territory, Yang Ying's party first proceeded into a botanical garden. Though the garden was not vast, it housed a collection of rare plant specimens. Saplings valued in the hundreds of thousands or millions of Imperial Credits were commonplace, many being items that were priceless and unavailable on the market.

Yang Ying and his companions showed no particular reaction to these rare plants. While such a garden represented immense value, it was not uncommon in the capital star, where high-ranking nobles resided in abundance.

Moreover, whether it was Yang Ying, Katerina, Bai Bai, or Langton, all were frequent visitors to the ninety-ninth-floor gardens of the Imperial Palace, having seen flora ten, even a hundred times rarer than what lay before them. Naturally, they felt little impression viewing this botanical garden.

The party emerged from the garden to find a pavilion by the roadside. An old man was seated within, clearly having waited for some time.

"I am Zuma, I pay my respects to Her Highness the Eldest Princess," the old man rose and bowed to Bai Bai.

"Duke, please dispense with the formalities." Bai Bai was always exceptionally courteous in public; she had become proficient in the etiquette of the Imperial Family. She stepped forward and returned the bow. "You were the teacher of my Imperial Grandfather, my Father, and my elder sister; you are my senior. I dare not accept your bow."

Hierarchy and deference were also integral parts of Imperial tradition. The Empire's long history inevitably led to the emergence of meticulous and detailed rules of etiquette, and the more these rules developed, the more complex they became, now pervading every facet of the Empire.

Duke Zuma was an elder steeped in both academic rigor and noble bearing. His eye sockets were deep-set, his forehead broad, his complexion ruddy, and he possessed a long, snow-white beard that cascaded down to his knees, his eyes alight with wisdom.

Of course, this was merely the image he projected. A Fourth-Tier existence, if sufficiently advanced in cultivation, could achieve near-limitless transformation; altering one's appearance was a trivial matter requiring only a thought. Whether it was reversing age or turning beauty into a skeleton was effortlessly done.

Yang Ying had once heard from Langton that Duke Zuma was known to possess fifty-three distinct visages. The image of the long-bearded elder was his primary one, the face he adopted when serving as a member of the Council of Elders and the Principal of the First Royal Academy.

Additionally, Duke Zuma often departed the capital star to scour the Empire for talented, diligent individuals lacking opportunity, bringing them back to the Academy for advanced study. During these times, he would employ his other forms to avoid recognition.

Duke Zuma’s judgment in spotting talent was legendary throughout the Empire. Combined with his Fourth-Tier Limit precognitive abilities, discerning a person's life path was not difficult; few could truly hide from the old Duke unless they had reached the Fourth Tier themselves. Many students he selected later achieved immense success.

Stories circulated throughout the Empire about lucky individuals discovered by Duke Zuma who went on to achieve great things. The oldest of these tales were tens of thousands of years old, and even now, they inspired many, urging them toward diligent study and kindness, hoping that when good fortune finally arrived, they could grasp it firmly.