The Glory of the Past

Tru's life soon settled into a routine.

Don't assume the other researchers were unable to help just because they lacked Transcendent Power.

In fact, through their own methods, they had already begun collecting vast amounts of data and analyzing the various properties of Transcendent Power.

As the data improved, results would emerge sooner or later.

The Transcendent Research Institute was established under such unremarkable circumstances. Though it had yet to produce any results, it had already set sail.

Research into Knight Armor became the Transcendent Research Institute's first official project.

Meanwhile, Fernandez I had crossed the ocean and arrived on the Southern Continent.

However, his appearance had changed drastically. Hunched over, with graying hair and a sickly complexion, he looked like a man in his sixties or seventies.

He had severed every connection to his past and brought only Antoine with him, so even the Investigation Bureau had failed to uncover his trail.

At the time, the Great Xia Empire was still focused on the Western Continent, believing that Fernandez I would most likely flee west and continue raising the banner of opposition against the Great Xia Empire.

Of course, it was also possible that he had met with an accident along the way. Such things were not impossible.

But no one had expected Fernandez I to pull a trick right under their noses and return to the Great Xia Empire's homeland.

After twenty years away from home, everything had changed beyond recognition upon his return.

When he had left, the Southern Continent had still been a feudal agricultural society. Muddy dirt roads were everywhere, nobles lived in castles, and sallow-faced commoners toiled in the fields.

When he returned, he found that everything had changed.

The low houses were gone. Cities were packed with people, and buildings ten or twenty