[You ask where Doll-Making Master Johnny currently is.]

[The reception scholar points toward a huge building in the distance that looks completely out of place with the school surroundings. Even from a fairly long distance away, you can still make out the factory-like structure and the thick chimney above it continuously billowing dense black smoke.]

[The reception scholar says to you that if you want to visit Master Johnny, after meeting the Chairman and delivering the letter, he can take you there.]

[But if you want Master Johnny to build a doll for you, then you had better be prepared to bleed heavily. Just preparing the refined copper materials alone would…]

[The reception scholar gets halfway through speaking, then seems to remember your status as a Multivision Scholar, and changes his words, saying, well… actually, Master Johnny’s students’ craftsmanship is also fairly decent.]

[It is not that you cannot afford Master Johnny, but rather that his students offer better value for the price.]

Lin Xun curled his lips. “I have an exclusive token, so I can freeload without paying. Can you?”

A summon like Valkyrie, combining refined copper technology and magic, likely really could not be enhanced in other chapters outside this world.

With a chance to freeload right in front of him, Lin Xun naturally had no intention of letting it pass. He decided that after delivering the letter and the Ring of Shining Stars, he would go find Master Johnny.

Very soon, under the guidance of the reception scholar, Lin Xun met the Chairman of the Direct Vision School Headquarters.

This Chairman took the letter and read it carefully. The more he read, the more excited and thrilled his expression became.

He directly dragged Lin Xun to a magnificent tower at the very center of the school, the Prophet Tower.

After many years of analysis by the two Schools of Knowledge, the number of star god coordinates that remained unanalyzed was already very small.

Now, with the Multivision School analyzing the Executor’s memories while the Direct Vision School analyzed the Ring of Shining Stars, the two-pronged approach would allow them to catch all the remaining star gods in one net.

When the two schools finished their analyses, it would be the time for the decisive battle to awaken the Great Prophets, the highest leaders of both schools.

[…]

[The Chairman of the Direct Vision School leads you into the tower and straight to its very top…]

[Here, just as you saw in the Prophet Council, a huge and intricate Analysis Magic Formation is also inscribed.]

[Only, compared to the Prophet Council, the analysis nodes of the magic formation are fewer by more than half, yet the number of surviving Prophets is nearly the same as that of the Multivision School.]

[All of this is because the Prophets seated at the formation’s node positions have already lost the form that humans should possess.]

[Their bodies are entirely composed of refined copper parts. Rather than calling them human, it would be better to say that they are refined copper dolls.]

[The surfaces of these dolls are covered in ugly traces of corrosion, as though they have passed through countless years.]

[Strangely, in the places on their bodies where there are no corrosion traces, the refined copper shines with a polished gleam, as though it had just been polished fresh from the furnace.]

[The Chairman of the Direct Vision School explains to you that at first, their Direct Vision School was just like your Multivision School, using flesh-and-blood bodies as containers for the Prophets’ souls, as a means of delaying Disorder’s erosion.]

[But this method is not the best method for delaying Disorder’s erosion, because every additional body replacement causes the Prophet’s soul to be eroded a little more.]

[After Master Johnny came to the school, he wholeheartedly served the school, creating many powerful refined copper dolls that became indispensable assistance to the Scholars.]

[In terms of pure bodily strength, the refined copper dolls created by Master Johnny surpassed the human body by hundreds or thousands of times.]

[At that time, the school proposed a hypothesis: Disorder can cause flesh-and-blood bodies to rot and mutate, but it may not necessarily work on cold and hard refined copper.]

[Would it be possible for the Prophets to abandon their human Shells and have Master Johnny build entirely new refined copper bodies for them?]

[It is worth mentioning that even the immortal souls of the Prophets need to find suitable Shells before they can be accommodated.]

[The bodies originally provided for the Prophets were all bodies that had been selected layer upon layer and that matched the Prophets’ own traits. If the conditions fell even slightly short, the Prophet’s soul could not be replaced into the new body.]

[Human bodies already had such harsh and demanding conditions, let alone refined copper bodies without life.]

[The school higher-ups argued endlessly over this and never managed to produce a result.]

[In the end, it was the still-conscious Prophet who made the final decision. So long as there was even a sliver of possibility, it was worth attempting.]

[With that hypothesis in mind, the school began experimenting…]

[The result was that every experiment of placing the Prophets’ souls into refined copper bodies failed without exception.]

[For Scholars devoted to academic research, failed experiments are an everyday occurrence.]

[The school did not give up because of this, but instead began to settle for the next best thing.]

[Since directly replacing their bodies with refined copper bodies failed, why not gradually modify the body first, replacing part of the flesh with refined copper prosthetics…]

[This idea succeeded during the experimental phase, but regrettably, even the hardest refined copper in the world still could not stop Disorder’s erosion.]

[Perhaps there is simply nothing in the world that can escape Disorder’s erosion at all, whether living things or dead things…]

[The corrosion traces you see now are exactly what Disorder’s erosion causes. It has merely changed into another form of expression.]

[Although the experiment proved that even refined copper cannot resist Disorder, it still yielded one encouraging piece of news.]

[After comparing multiple sets of data, the school discovered that refined copper prosthetics really do possess somewhat greater tolerance for Disorder than flesh-and-blood limbs.]

[But the prerequisite is that the prosthetics must be personally crafted by Master Johnny and must be synthesized from the highest grade refined copper materials.]

[Johnny is the one and only immortal artisan in the world who has surpassed legendary grade. His skill has already reached a height unattainable by any predecessor.]

[The refined copper prosthetics made by Master Johnny increase tolerance to Disorder by roughly one-third.]

[Do not underestimate this one-third. Even just one-third can allow the Prophets to endure for much longer.]

[From that point onward, the school began continuously replacing the Prophets’ flesh-and-blood bodies with the highest grade refined copper prosthetics. Although doing so was extremely costly, so costly that even the Direct Vision School found it somewhat difficult to bear.]

[But so long as it could delay Disorder’s erosion, all of it was worth it.]

[After continually replacing limbs until now, the flesh and blood of the Prophets’ entire bodies has all been replaced by refined copper.]

[Once, a Scholar proposed a paradox. There was a ship that, over a long voyage, needed constant repairs and replacement of parts. Replacing one plank left it still the same ship, and replacing two or three did as well.]

[But if all of its parts were gradually replaced one by one over the course of that long voyage, then would that ship still be the original ship?]

[These Prophets are the same. When all of their flesh-and-blood bodies have been completely replaced by refined copper, and when their souls too have become unrecognizable because of Disorder’s erosion, are the Prophets still the original Prophets?]

[Before, he had no answer, but now he does.]

[So long as the ship’s destination is still that harbor, the ship is still the original ship.]

[So long as the Prophets still persist in dedicating themselves to their faith, the Prophets will forever remain Prophets.]