After the Traveler finished recounting their experiences, Cyno summarized:
["Take down the sages, save the god... This is our ultimate goal."]
[Alhaitham: "Then, think carefully—what other resources can we utilize?"]
This journey had already achieved uniting everything that could be united. Besides those present, the desert's Gilded Brigade would also be an ally.
But thinking carefully—could they really handle the Doctor plus the deified Scaramouche? It felt a bit difficult...
If it really wouldn't work... how about you return to your Flower-Fruit Mountain, and I'll return to my Gao Manor?
No time for discouraging words—because... the story ended.
Yes, just when everyone thought the final great battle was about to begin, the story ended.
Though the story cliffhanged, at least everyone understood what the title's "Three Magi" meant.
It couldn't be three dynasties/magi, because the Scarlet King's civilization didn't even last three dynasties.
In that case, it was Cyno, Alhaitham, and Dehya—these three were the Three Magi.
Now the heart-pounding cliffhanger came again. However, this time everyone didn't have any excited urging for updates.
During the third act, everyone was so excited because the third act's story should have been together with the fourth act. That interruption left the story half-told.
This time's story was different from the third act—it was still "complete." The upcoming decisive battle could be considered a new "independent story."
So rather than urging updates, the Sumeru people at this moment were more immersed in the desert's story, unable to extricate themselves—especially the desert people, completely unable to move on.
Little pearls weren't even wiped dry. With emotions so low, where was the energy to protest at Lucian's doorstep?
Though still scratching their hearts with curiosity, reason told them they needed to calm down now.
They had always felt Lucian's recent stories were too "heartwarming" and "mundane." Unexpectedly, this time he gave a harsh one.
They didn't know yet—this wasn't even the harsh part; it was merely stacking some vulnerability.
Though just stacking vulnerability, it was a solid special attack on Sumeru people. Sensitive ones like Nilou and Dunyarzad were unable to recover for a long time.
Lucian never favored one over another, so after special-attacking Sumeru people, it was time to attack others.
Thus, the new two books had some AoE meaning: "Lupus Aureus Chapter · Act I" and "Mantichora Chapter · Act I."
Someone might ask—weren't they already making the fifth act's animation? Hasn't it finished yet?
No, because Lucian isn't Hoyoverse.
Ahem, joking. In fact, the fifth act's story was already produced, but some ending work remained, like dubbing, dubbing, and dubbing.
To make the plot perfect, Lucian even grabbed Scaramouche to personally dub.
Scaramouche was easy to grab. Though he seemed free to go anywhere without supervision, in reality he never escaped Nahida's oversight.
It's just that Scaramouche himself wasn't very cooperative—after all, in the plot he had to face failure again.
Though the current Scaramouche had let go, that didn't mean he wanted to personally dub it again.
Unfortunately, it was Lucian's request. Scaramouche couldn't refuse—only with vivid emotion, as if truly experiencing it, did he dub.
Among the other voice actors was the Doctor—no issues there. Remember it was mentioned before—Lucian had a Doctor slice precisely for this moment. Destroy after use.
The most difficult was actually Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's dubbing. Getting her in person had some difficulty...
So this needed more time to slowly resolve. For now, release some other books.
First, talk about the less aggressive Lupus Aureus Chapter—this is Cyno's story. The story opens mentioning Cyno.
[???: "What to do about this... Sigh, if Senior Cyno were still here, it would be good..."]
It turned out Cyno's sudden departure left the Matra somewhat stretched thin.
Now facing a suspicious case made these Matra a bit overwhelmed.
Cyno frowned watching this—it seemed he usually worked too hard, causing the other Matra to somewhat not know how to work.
It was just a short time without him—how come the Matra acted like they were crippled?
This won't do! No—extra training! Must train them hard!
In the story, the Matra "wilted" without Cyno. In investigating this matter, they even needed help from non-Matra, like adventurers such as the Traveler.
Worth mentioning—the Traveler wasn't yet officially wanted by Sumeru. Those mainly wanting to catch her were Gilded Brigade people.
The Matra side hadn't received any wanted notice for the Traveler.
Thinking about it, the Akademiya itself didn't get along with the Matra. Even after Cyno left, the Grand Sage still didn't relax vigilance against the Matra.
This was why Cyno was even unhappier seeing this—these were his people—how could they be so unskilled?
And the incident these "unskilled" Matra couldn't investigate clearly was a smuggling case—smuggling extremely dangerous canned knowledge.
Smuggling, canned knowledge—these two terms together made readers instantly think of one person—Dori.
Back then, didn't the Traveler buy a lot of smuggled canned knowledge from her? This matter wouldn't also be related to Dori, right?
Dori was also reading this book. In her view, it probably wasn't related—but if you pay, she's willing to provide intelligence~.
In fact, Dori was very cautious yet bold in her dealings. She even did business with Cyno himself—but those were legitimate, selling things like Genius Invokation TCG cards.
As for illegitimate business, Dori generally delegated to downstream merchants. She was a clean, legitimate businesswoman.
So how could such illegal things be done by her? Traveler, investigate clearly quickly—clear my name!
In the story, the Traveler accepted the commission to investigate. As a result, just outside the city, they encountered Cyno, who was also investigating the same matter.
Though he had left the Akademiya, as the General Mahamatra, his sense of duty still drove Cyno to fulfill his responsibilities.
Upon discovering the canned knowledge smuggling case, he immediately took action—even alone, he would investigate thoroughly.
This was why Cyno was the General Mahamatra!
However, the matter was more complex than imagined. Cyno had already "judged" some people, yet still gained no intelligence.
But not entirely fruitless—at least he found intelligence on the transaction location; he could go probe it.
Dori shook her head—definitely not me. Such lack of vigilance—how could it be my team?