Chapter 281: Fountain‑Like Surge of Talent (13)

"Your Majesty, over the past year the Empire's magical academies have surged again."

"At present we have 75 advanced magical academies, a 50% increase over last year."

"There are 828 elementary magical academies, up 180% from last year."

"There are 13,028 enlightenment academies, up 332% from last year."

In the Emperor's lakeside study, the Natural Empire's Minister of Education is concentrating on reporting the latest academy data.

The Minister of Education is none other than Aaron's original guardian Sage Sang Qiesi Te.

In the past three years Luosen has gradually promoted him to an Eight Rings Mage and has also made him youthful again.

Today Sang Qiesi Te looks like a robust man under forty.

Sang Qiesi Te also places great importance on the position of Minister of Education, believing he bears a sacred duty for the Empire's future, so he works extremely hard.

He continues his report.

"According to statistics, the Empire's citizens' right to education has reached 90%."

"In the past year about 7.6 million school‑age children entered enlightenment academies to study basic knowledge for five years."

"After completing their studies the children can achieve basic literacy and arithmetic, complete the magical enlightenment, and develop a fundamental understanding of the world, the Empire, and magic."

"If they meet the promotion criteria they will enter elementary academies for further study."

"Currently the promotion chance is not high, only 15%."

Luosen listened attentively and asked, "What reasons cause the low promotion rate?"

"The root cause is development speed being too fast. Facilities and staff cannot keep up, and the populace cannot adapt to the new changes in time."

Wha‑la~~

Sang Qiesi Te instructed his assistant to place a document on Luosen's desk.

"Your Majesty, this is the report obtained after sampling surveys of enlightenment academies across the realm."

"You see, although the number of academies has exploded, the quantity and quality of instructors, as well as the amount and quality of teaching equipment, are all merely average and can only meet the most basic teaching needs."

"Moreover, most parents do not value their children's learning, have low expectations, and lack the ability to help their children in studies."

"Finally, the status and compensation of enlightenment instructors are still insufficient, and professional and social ethical expectations for the occupation have not yet formed."

"These various reasons cause most young mages to treat the profession as a short‑term transition, focusing most of their energy on finding better new jobs rather than improving their own teaching skills."

Luosen flipped through the documents quickly.

The material is detailed and specific, showing a flood‑like development model; combined with the daily prayers of natural believers, the two corroborate, giving Luosen a comprehensive understanding of the Empire's enlightenment education.

He gently pressed his hand on the document: "In just a few years, achieving this is already quite good."

"I will try to increase investment in enlightenment education. And sir, your future work focus should be on raising the promotion rate."

"It should be as high as possible, exceeding 80%, but note that the standards must never be lowered just to raise the rate."

A hint of doubt appeared on Sang Qiesi Te's face: "If the promotion rate is that high, the current number and scale of elementary magical academies will be far insufficient."

Luosen waved his hand grandly.

"Insufficient? Then build more!"

"Mongdaniya New City is basically completed; many construction crews are looking for new work, so let them build academies."

"There are still countless young mages without jobs, so let them become instructors at elementary academies."

Since the Emperor said so, Sang Qiesi Te naturally had no objections.

He continued to report the new data.

"In June of this year, 400,000 students participated in the advanced academy graduation exams, and 180,000 successfully graduated, a graduation rate of 45%."

"The average age of graduates is 20, and the median magical cultivation level reached 4.3."

"Among them, 40,000 graduates exceeded Five Rings, 5,000 exceeded Six Rings, and finally 33 surpassed Seven Rings."

This data made Luosen quite pleased: "Oh~ very good~~ far better than I expected."

These are the figures for one graduating year; accumulating a generation will be enough to cause a radical transformation in the Natural Empire's national magical level.

After one generation, not only will we surpass the Radiant Empire, even the former Navarat Republic and the Sacred Elves Empire that has accumulated millennia of talent will be left behind by the Natural Empire.

And with so many advanced academy graduates entering society each year, they will inevitably give an extremely powerful boost to the Natural Empire's development in all fields.

It can be foreseen that in a few more years the Empire's magical level will experience another extremely fierce surge.

Luosen looks forward to it greatly.

On the other side, Sang Qiesi Te laughed, "Indeed, the numbers are astonishing; I hear every government department and major legion is practically fighting over top talent."

To snatch a Seven Rings magical prodigy, the military and civil departments resort to every possible means.

That is naturally a great thing; after all, however they compete, it ultimately serves me, the Emperor.

Luosen smiled, "So have this year's outstanding graduates been selected?"

"They have, here is the list."

Sang Qiesi Te handed over a thick roster, listing the names and data of a full 1,000 graduates.

Luosen examined them one by one, carefully.

This list bears the name "Morning Sun Register", a proposal by Luosen, and is part of the Empire's "Divine Favor Project".

The so‑called "Divine Favor Project", as publicly described, is that Luosen, the true god husband, selects from the mortal world a batch of top‑tier magical talents with outstanding aptitude and character.

Then, Mother Nature bestows divine grace to help these mages break through the Ring barriers and raise their magical cultivation levels, increasing the number of the Empire's cutting‑edge magical talents.

Such massive divine grace greatly solidifies Luosen the Natural Emperor's position and greatly enhances Mother Nature the true god's prestige.

Naturally, the criteria for entering the Morning Sun Register are also extremely stringent.

Currently, out of 400,000 people taking the advanced academy graduation exams each year, only 1,000 are chosen, an acceptance rate of less than 0.3%.

Everyone knows that once selected for the Morning Sun Register and becoming a Divine‑Favored Mage, it is tantamount to walking a broad, prosperous road in life, so everyone scrambles for it.

It is highly competitive, but the results are also truly remarkable.

The "Divine Favor Project" had been in operation for less than two years, yet it had already produced 23 Ten‑ring Mages, 121 Nine‑ring Mages, and 328 Eight‑ring Mages.

Wham‑wham~

Luosen flipped through the roster page by page; not merely to glance, he constantly cross‑checked the contents of believers' prayers to verify their authenticity.

He read quickly, yet equally meticulously.

Halfway through, he pulled out a sheet, pointed at a student's name and said, "This student appears to have serious moral blemishes; investigate thoroughly, and if confirmed, replace him."

The remark was addressed to an operative from the Island Security Bureau standing nearby. The operative took the list and immediately forwarded the data to the Operations Office.

Luosen then continued browsing.

Soon he singled out six more with serious flaws, chiefly extreme indifference, extreme selfishness, extreme greed, and extreme violence—traits detrimental to cooperation.

It's not that these personality traits are useless; they can be handy in certain situations, but they clearly hinder teamwork.

In the mortal world, gathering great power requires a very high degree of cooperation, so these disruptive elements cannot be allowed into the Empire's core layers.

As he kept reading, he also spotted an exceptionally outstanding prospect.

"De Lunzci, male, 21, graduate of the Weilan Advanced Arcane Academy, has devoted 12 years to cultivation, 5 years to a new cultivation method, and broke through the eighth ring three months ago, making him the top cultivator of the year."

"Tsk tsk~~ what a supreme cultivation prodigy."

He was not at all surprised by the emergence of such a prodigy.

Because the Empire's current civic education system has produced over a thousand times the number of educated individuals compared to the old aristocratic era, and the efficiency of magical cultivation has also improved dramatically.

Thus, the hidden gems among the populace, long shrouded in dust due to scarce educational resources, were one by one brushed clean and radiated brilliant light.

He then examined De Lunzci's academic evaluation.

"Sharp‑minded, highly innovative, proficient in crafting photonic‑electric intelligent puppets."

Below was an attached treatise titled "General‑purpose Intelligent Puppet Concept."

Luosen examined it closely and rejoiced inwardly, "What a great treasure!"

The General‑purpose Intelligent Puppet is, in fact, an otherworldly computer.

Luosen's creations include the Faith Puppet, the auxiliary flight puppet for aircraft, and the control core of unmanned incendiary planes.

Strictly speaking, it should be called "Dedicated Intelligent Puppet."

They are usable now, but their performance is far from optimal.

Relying on a single individual for development makes progress extremely slow.

So he has been deliberately disseminating subtle arcane ideas among the populace and has opened a Puppet major at major arcane academies to cultivate relevant talent.

Now, talent is arriving, and they are top‑tier from the start.

Consequently, Luosen pulled De Lunzci's file and handed it to the Security Bureau operative.

"Investigate this student's background thoroughly; if there are no major issues, assign him to the Puppet Design Bureau."

He added another sentence after speaking.

"Notify the director, set up a dedicated laboratory for him, and let him freely develop the General‑purpose Intelligent Puppet."

"Understood."

Then he continued reviewing the list.

He read through to the end, found no further issues, but also no exceptionally striking individuals.

"That's all for today."

"Mr. Sang Qiesite, thank you very much for your tremendous contributions to the Empire."

He stood up and solemnly shook hands with Sang Qiesite.

The latter immediately left the study and continued busywork on the Empire's grand education plan.

Luosen, of course, was not idle.

He again contacted the Empire's Alchemical Bureau to continue overseeing the production of the low‑threshold +2 Legendary Hat.

Today, the Natural Empire has over 200 mages of eight rings or higher.

He plans to equip these high‑ring mages with Legendary Hats.

First they will wear the universal Legendary Hat produced by the Alchemical Division; those who excel will be rewarded with a custom Legendary Hat forged by him personally.

Once Legendary Hats become widespread, the Empire's legendary power will surge dramatically; although still not matching the Holy Elven Empire, at least it will no longer be trampled.

Besides that, there are two other major matters.

First, to study the Golden Warrior in order to forge the Natural Empire's Golden Seed.

Second, to create a Soul Amplifier to compensate for the small scale of mortal souls.

The first task is simple imitation with improvements upon the original basis.

The difficulty is not high, so progress is swift.

The second is original; it seemed easy in theory, but once work began, its difficulty proved extreme.

Forging a soul vessel is not difficult.

The challenge lies in seamlessly integrating the soul power within the vessel with Luosen's own soul.

The matter is exceedingly hard; Luosen tried many approaches, but none worked.

Just as he was at a loss, he received an urgent message from Duola.

"Will De Rui Tan return within half a year?"

"Oh~ that's much earlier than expected."

That means he will most likely not have time to finish a usable Soul Amplification Artifact.

"When that guy returns, the first thing he'll definitely do is go after me."

"He is a mighty god; his soul strength is near 13, his soul scale is over thirty‑thousand times mine, and he surely has his own trump card."

"Even with magic‑ring protection, I'm not completely safe; a slip could spell disaster."

What should we do?

Although we have big and small suns to fight desperately with, we won't use them unless it's the last moment.

After some thought, Luosen came up with a plan.

If I can't beat him, I'll just hide. As long as he can't find me, I'm safe.

Not only do I need to hide, but all important figures and facilities of the Natural Empire must be carefully hidden.

Because of the protection of the magic ring, hiding is not difficult; just stir the water to make it muddy.

We can't just hide; we also need to hide weapons in the murky water.

Even if we can't kill De Rui Tan, we must make him feel wary.

(End of chapter)