Ancient Alchemist

No one answered, because the logic itself was irrefutable.

The next moment, the King of Stability's will descended.

He compressed the message into a few extremely simple statements, leaving no room for explanation:

Starting from this Great Reckoning, the scoring system had adjusted the weighting of the "Civilization Authenticity" dimension.

The weight of the Survival Index had been lowered from thirty percent to fifteen percent.

Authenticity Index: newly added, weight twenty percent.

Effective time of the adjustment: the beginning of this round of the Great Reckoning.

That was all.

The King of Stability did not explain the reason, much less invite anyone to discuss it.

That will descended, finished its statement, and withdrew in silence, leaving behind no trace that could be argued against.

No one spoke again, because everyone knew that after the King of Stability had just finished his statement, whoever was the first to jump out and question it would stand out glaringly no matter what they said.

Ron had not moved the entire time.

He still sat where he was, hands resting on his knees, his gaze fixed on the image of the hills where the last flame had already gone out.

"They chose to walk into the fire. To them, that meant going home."

That thought flashed through his mind.

On the other side, after the result was announced, Azure Garden fell silent.

The surface of the great lotus pod was smoother than it had ever been.

Aish issued no statement, nor did she summon anyone.

Seraphina stood outside the lotus pod for an entire day.

Not until evening, when the light in Azure Garden turned into a somber blue-gray, did she realize she would not be waiting for any instructions today.

So she put the documents away on her own, turned around, and went