Soon, Lesser Lord Kusanali convened a meeting in the Akademiya's House of Daena to discuss plans for Sumeru's future, as well as the matter that concerned them most: the succession of the Sages.
At the meeting, Nahida's very first announcement shocked everyone present: Lesser Lord Kusanali declared that the Akasha would be shut down.
The Akasha's existence was a means, not an end. The moment Forbidden Knowledge was completely eradicated, the Akasha had fulfilled its mission.
In recent years, having the Akasha manage all knowledge had greatly restricted people's curiosity and stifled their potential, which was not conducive to Sumeru's development.
Moreover, operating the Akasha required borrowing people's dreams. Dreams were the crystallization of human wisdom, and the boundless imagination and creativity within them were vital to Sumeru. Thanks to the Akademiya's deliberate guidance, Sumeru's people had not dreamed for many years, and Nahida did not wish to deprive them of their right to dream.
Of course, there was another, most important practical factor that Nahida did not mention: she had already traded the Gnosis of the Dendro Archon, which powered the Akasha, to The Doctor. Without the Gnosis's energy to sustain it, the Akasha could not function normally on a large scale either.
Shutting down something as powerful as the Akasha just like that naturally left quite a few people present struggling to adjust. But when they considered that the Akasha was a divine artifact invented by Lesser Lord Kusanali in the first place, they had gotten their money's worth from using it free for so many years. If they had the nerve, why not take their protests to the god herself?
After announcing the Akasha's shutdown, she moved on to the issue that concerned everyone present most: the succession and selection of the Sages.
The Akademiya originally had