Ideals and Reality

"Though there are some subtle errors in your understanding, it is understandable that you do not know. After all, aside from the Heavenly Inquiry Path she created herself, Tongji did not really care about these things."

After hearing Huai Shi's answer, Russell shook his head. "Besides, after the Heavenly Kingdom Fall, Utopia split apart, along with the Heavenly Kingdom Lineage. Even now, people call it the Abyssal Lineage. Who knows how many materials and records were lost in the process? Before their rebellion, those traitors from Golden Dawn even used the authority of the Land of Nothingness to erase many records from the Silver Sea."

In the elevator, he pinched his chin and pondered for a moment before suddenly nodding. "Then, before we get down to business, let us have a basic lesson."

Only then did Huai Shi realize that, while he had not been paying attention, he had somehow been dragged aboard another pirate ship!

But the elevator had already begun descending. There was nowhere for him to run!

Russell raised a hand and began writing in the air, his strokes fluid.

"Then let us start from the beginning. Setting aside the branches widely known today, the Heavenly Kingdom Lineage originally had nine Paths of sublimation—or rather, that was the plan..."

"Twilight, Eternity, Heavenly Inquiry, Divine Marrow, Maintenance, Change, Origin, Paradise, and one hidden path unknown to everyone except the chairman and official Secretaries of Fate..."

"Unfortunately, by the end of Utopia, the final Path of Paradise had not yet been completed. There was only a prototype, which lacked universality and could not be widely promoted. At best, it was half finished.

"In the end, only eight and a half paths were completed."

"Wait, never mind that the numbers do not match—did you just retcon the setting again?!"

Huai