Chapter 463: Immense Challenge And Adventure
Ordinarily, once she was finished with her work for the day, Pauline would spend her evenings in quiet meditation.
If she wasn’t feeling tired, she might cultivate through the night.
If she was feeling exhausted, she may stop after just an hour and then sleep.
But tonight, Pauline was unable to concentrate, unable to empty her mind of distracting thoughts and focus on the Flowing Flame Art’s Circulation Mantra.
Who could blame her, though?
What she had witnessed today had shaken her very view of the world multiple times.
There were so many thoughts buzzing around her head, so many plans she needed to make, so many problems she needed to anticipate, so many possibilities she needed to consider, that her own personal improvement seemed almost irrelevant.
The more she thought about everything Lucas had shown her, all the public and classified projects that were underway, the more overwhelmed Pauline felt her mind become.
Project Ascension and its implications had hit her particularly hard.
A whole new method of cultivation, based around a universal, personalized Cultivation Technique that had no limitations whatsoever? Had Pauline not been shocked so many times already today, she might just have passed out from a heart-attack then and there.
She also understood why secrecy and security around this one particular project was so much higher than all the others.
Forget about being catalogued in the official family records, or a line existing in the family budget, as far as anyone outside a very, very small circle was concerned, there was no Project Ascension.
It simply didn’t exist.
Before today, Pauline at least knew about Lucas’ research lab and had heard a few specifics of Project Maple, but today was the first time anything related to Project Ascension had come to her attention.
Which actually made sense, seeing how there were only 4 full records of the details of Project Ascension and the True Unarmed Foundations Art.
One record, the master, was kept by Celestina in her Space Bag at all times, never leaving her side.
The second copy was stored in the Marquess’ personal training room, the one only she could open.
The third copy, recently made, belonged to the Supreme Elder of the Carlson Count Family, Elizabeth Carlson.
Pauline was surprised to find someone she considered an ’outsider’ so deeply involved in such a sensitive project, but when she heard about the contract imposed on Elizabeth, and the conditions it stated, she just barely considered it acceptable.
Having someone nearly as experienced and capable as her mother who was able to dedicate 100% of their time and effort towards Project Ascension was certainly a boon to its progress.
As for the final copy, that was the one Lucas carried.
Again, Pauline was surprised her mother had allowed such a valuable record to be kept by her First Disciple.
It wasn’t that the Great Elder didn’t think Lucas was responsible or careful enough, but it was an undeniable fact that he was only a Body Tempering Realm Junior.
Lucas was constantly being guarded by Spirit Initiates whenever he left the Balfour Manor, but who could guarantee that no accident would happen?
If tragedy struck, and Lucas was either robbed or worse, killed, the secret to a whole new paradigm in cultivation would fall into nefarious, malicious hands.
When she carefully voiced this concern, however, Celestina and Elizabeth, the only other two in the room, just laughed and shook their heads, with the former turning to Lucas and simply saying, "Show her."
Smiling wryly, Lucas pulled out an encrypted memory jade, unlocked it, and handed it to Pauline.
Placing it on her head, the Great Elder tried browsing the information inside but was immediately stumped.
"This... what is this?" Pauline asked unconsciously as she was completely unable to make any sense of what she was seeing.
"My copy of the research is written in another language," Lucas had replied, "actually, it’s 5 different languages, mixed together in a way that only someone familiar with all of them would be able to decipher it."
Needless to say, Pauline no longer doubted Lucas could keep this information safe.
The people of the Blue Sky Continent spoke several different languages, however the overwhelming majority spoke just one which was simply referred to as ’Standard’.
How this universal acceptance of a single language came about, Pauline wasn’t sure, but apparently it had something to do with the time before the Great Tragedy that ended the last era.
Regardless of that, while it was certainly possible for someone with a powerful Soul Sense to rapidly learn a new language, that was under the premise that someone was actually teaching it to them.
Trying to decipher the mish-mash of different words, symbols, and expressions that made up Lucas’ copy of Project Ascension’s research notes was pretty much impossible.
Perhaps an extremely powerful master who was also extremely skilled in languages could do it given enough time, but the chances of this Memory Jade somehow winding up in such a person’s hands was about as likely as the sun rising from the opposite horizon tomorrow.
In any case, Pauline’s immediate fears were soothed, though she acquired quite a few long-term worries in exchange. She also understood now why the moment she had come out of seclusion and returned to the family, her mother had dumped practically all of the work she was doing onto her.
It turns out, this time at least, it wasn’t because Celestina hated doing paperwork and dealing with other nobles, she really did have something more important to do.
Taking over for her mother wasn’t anything new for the Great Elder, but the burden this time was ’slightly’ heavier than normal.
All of the chaos Lucas and her mother were creating, all the chaos the smugglers on the Lorren were creating, all the chaos the Darr Kingdom was creating, all the chaos the explosion in the Great Western Forest was creating, all the chaos the Second Queen and her new economic policy was creating...
Even thinking about it all was giving Pauline a headache. She had a boatload of work to do, all of it challenging, all of it time sensitive, all of it of critical importance, yet surprisingly, she couldn’t bring herself to frown.
In fact, if Pauline was looking in a mirror right now, she would actually see herself grinning, a fierce smile filling her face.
Why? Who could say.
Perhaps it was the bright future she could just barely see beyond a distant tomorrow that was causing her to react so.
Or perhaps it was simply the immense challenge and adventure of it all that excited her.
Whatever the case, there was no way to avoid the mountains and valleys in her way, so she might as well grit her teeth and start forging ahead.
However, first things first.
Upon leaving her mother’s private training room, Lucas had actually made a request to her. A rather simple one, but a request none-the-less.
Lucas wanted her to find him a tailor, preferably an eccentric one who he could hire full-time to, as he put it, "Try out few ideas I had."