Sorcerer’s Handbook

Chapter 434: Assassinate the Princess

The highest-ranked “Gospel Ranking” astonishingly requires pure and innocent maidens to make the list!

Although Ashe knew that everyone loves beautiful girls, even the Divine Sovereign being this shallow was simply outrageous!

“Young Lady, let me look at the ranked individuals of past ‘Gospel Rankings.’ I need to thoroughly study the Omniscient Weaver’s preferences!”

“Can’t you use your own points to look?” Annan touched her amethyst earring and said, “But even if you look back, you wouldn’t find much——because the top Echoers of past Gospel Rankings have always been veiled maidens, their appearances concealed.”

“Huh? The Omniscient Weaver monopolizes?” Ashe looked down at Lise and took out a Twisting Mask from his pocket, placing it on her face: “Like this?”

“Where did this big demon king and little witch come from,” Annan said irritably. “Don’t even think about it. I’ve never considered using Lise to deceive the Gospel Ranking. Not to mention, Lise doesn’t meet the requirements at all. Plus, as I just mentioned, the top spot of this ranking list is already determined even before the Weaving Festival begins.”

Although Ashe thought Lise was the cutest little girl, she indeed didn’t embody ‘innocence’ and was a bit far from being ‘kind.’ If she grows up, she might be someone skilled in playing with emotions, someone people would both love and hate——Ashe had always thought Lise had recognized the wrong parents; she should have taken Aunt Bukin as her mother instead, that would be a perfect match.

Igor asked, “Then who is the pre-appointed top of the Gospel Ranking?”

“The next Empress of Yisuo.”

Annan scanned the crowd and slowly said, “Every top-ranked individual of the Gospel Ranking becomes the Empress of Yisuo for the next fifty years. The Empress currently residing in the Imperial Capital Nabistin was the top of the previous Gospel Ranking.”

“Since the founding of the Yisuo Dynasty, this tradition has never seen an exception and has never changed.”

Igor frowned, “Every time?”

“Every time.”

“No anomalies? Is there any chance someone else made the ranking but the Yisuo Royal Family incorporated them before the ranking list was published——”

Annan shook her head: “Believe me, when I first thought about seizing the Divine Sovereign’s Wish, my initial option was to become first on the ‘Gospel Ranking.’ And it wasn’t just me; who doesn’t want the Divine Sovereign’s Wish? Just think about it—Belldate, Mercury, Kaesrei, which family hasn’t contemplated seizing the Divine Sovereign’s Wish?”

“However, the fact is that the Yisuo Royal Family has held tightly onto the first place of the ‘Gospel Ranking’ for hundreds of years, never letting it slip.” She shrugged. “That’s precisely why I dared to blaspheme the gospel with you guys—because the Yisuo Royal Family has been blaspheming the gospel for hundreds of years!”

“How could it be that every generation of the royal family has the purest maiden in all of gospel? The only explanation is that the Yisuo Royal Family has mastered the technique to deceive the gospel and has stolen the grand prize of the Weaving Festival!”

“Even if gospel invalidates all other ranking lists, it would never invalidate the ‘Gospel Ranking’—because it doesn’t need to be woven at all; the Yisuo Royal Family already has the answer prepared!”

Ashe noticed Lise restlessly squirming in his arms. He patted her white-haired head and asked, “But why does the Weaving Festival have such a peculiar ranking list as the ‘Gospel Ranking’? How does having the purest maiden boost productivity or enrich everyone’s spiritual needs?”

If it was just once or twice, that would be one thing, but having this ranking list at every Weaving Festival seems too odd, especially compared to other ranking lists—like the ‘Art Ranking,’ which satisfies spiritual and cultural needs; the ‘Family Ranking,’ which guides families to align with new influential figures; the ‘Ranking of Schemes,’ predicting major events for the next fifty years…

The purest maiden, who neither has accomplishments (good or evil), nor guides social life, might be appreciated occasionally, but how could it be the one consistent ranking list at the Weaving Festival?

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Could it really be that the Omniscient Weaver is selecting a consort?

“Gospel has never provided a response.” Annan said, “Currently, there are three mainstream theories—the Omniscient Weaver desires everyone to become innocent, pure, and kind, so this ranking list is created to attract us to emulate; the ‘Gospel Ranking’ is the foundation for the other nine ranking lists, and altering it would cause the collapse of the Weaving Festival, so the Omniscient Weaver keeps it unchanged; the Omniscient Weaver is female and likes women.”

The first reason is easy to understand. People tend to follow what those in power favor, but societal trends clearly cannot be guided by a ranking list alone, especially when it only has ten spots.

If the list could expand to a billion spots, then Ashe might see a kingdom filled with beautiful girls.

The second reason is also quite normal. It’s like spaghetti code—you might not know why it works, but as long as it works, you don’t touch it.

“But why suspect that the Omniscient Weaver is a woman?” Ashe found it confusing. “Shouldn’t the guess be a man?”

Annan asked, “If you designed a ranking list to select women, would you place ‘kindness and innocence’ as the highest criteria?”

“Um…” Ashe pondered, “It’s hard to say. For me, many qualities in women are highly valued.”

Annan pressed, “What’s the most important?”

“It’s kind of embarrassing to say, but it would probably be physique.”

“If it’s embarrassing, at least don’t answer so quickly!” Annan glanced at herself, huffed, and said, “Shallow!”

“If it were me, I would value her strength,” Harvey interjected.

“Mm, I get it,” Ashe nodded, “After all, she’d also be your combat tool, so strength is indeed crucial.”

“I wasn’t talking about corpses.” Harvey gave him a look. “I think the best woman is one who can efficiently and cleanly eliminate my targets and bring their bodies back to me.”

“Sorry, we’re discussing character sexual traits here, not functionality.” Ashe looked towards Igor. “What about you?”

Igor coldly glanced at him. “I value the same factors as the ‘Gospel Ranking.’”

“Because it’s easier to deceive innocent and pure women?”

“Because such women don’t exist,” Igor stated. “Children learn to manipulate life from a young age, teenagers’ desires surge and become uncontrollable, and young adults experience the mingling of good and evil in society… Unless they’ve been isolated from the world since birth, how could there possibly be innocent and pure maidens? I’d love to see what kind of impossible creatures the Future Ranking will conjure up.”

“According to the ‘Con Artist’s Guide,’ the more a con artist verbally despises someone, the more they actually like them deep down.” Ashe chuckled, “I never thought you liked that pure and innocent type, Igor… Ah, I get it now!”

Igor raised an eyebrow, “You idiot, what do you understand now?”

“Anfel really matches that description!” Ashe exclaimed in realization. “No wonder Gospel predicts that you and Anfel will get married in the future! It all makes sense; she totally fits your preference!”

“Dad, what’s the ‘Con Artist’s Guide’?” Lise asked. “Can I become a con artist by learning it?”

“No, but learning it will teach you how to deal with con artists.” Ashe turned to the young butler, “What about you, Banjeet? What do you value the most?”

Banjeet was slightly taken aback, then smiled, “Isn’t this conversation getting off track?”

“Indeed,” Annan said. “Regardless of whatever ultimate purpose the Omniscient Weaver had in setting up the ‘Gospel Ranking,’ what we need to know is that it has become the biggest hurdle for us.”

“My initial plan was to secure high rankings in several of the other lists, allowing one of you to accumulate enough weight to completely overshadow the first place on the ‘Gospel Ranking’ and claim the Divine Sovereign’s Wish with the top priority.”

“Therefore, I’m not particularly happy, even though I am currently the highest-ranking contender.” Annan spread her hands, “With just two rankings, I can’t replace the status of the ‘First Gospel.’”

“Right now, I honestly hope that the other rankings haven’t been invalidated, but the chances are slim. Since the Omniscient Weaver intends to speed up the Weaving Festival, it’s unlikely to accelerate only one ranking.”

Ashe hesitated for a moment and then asked, “Have you considered that even if the Weaving Festival hasn’t been sped up…”

“Even if we capture first place in all nine rankings, there’s still a high chance that the Divine Sovereign’s Wish will be predetermined for the First Gospel? Of course, I’ve considered that possibility, and I think it’s quite probable,” Annan said calmly. “But so what?”

But so what?

If she stopped taking action whenever hope seemed slim, Annan would never have led them in the Blasphemy Gospel plan in the first place. This has always been a scheme against the divine sovereign, and from the beginning, she had prepared herself for the possibility of a total loss.

Ashe couldn’t detect even a hint of regret in Annan’s eyes. She was like a moth drawn to darkness, destined to rush into the flame. The only thing Ashe still couldn’t figure out was what exactly she yearned to set ablaze.

“Since every Yisuo Emperor has received the Divine Sovereign’s Wish,” Igor inquired, “what wishes did they make?”

“I don’t know,” Annan shook her head. “That’s the second of the three great mysteries of Gospel: why each Empress can make it to the ranking list and what wishes they’ve made.”

Ashe asked, “What’s the third mystery?”

Annan glanced at him, “The identity of each Empress’s lover… But we’re fortunate because one of the answers is sitting right in front of us.”

Ashe felt deeply wronged-if the other rankings on the Happiness Ranking were playful speculations about Ashe, then the wedding at the 10th position and the Empress at the first were outright fabrications!

He had never even met the Empress, so how could Gospel determine that he would end up with her in the future?

What’s more infuriating is that the Happiness Ranking didn’t even reveal the Empress’s face. He couldn’t even satisfy his curiosity about what new “wife” Gospel had paired him with!

“Lise,” Ashe, bored, struck up a conversation with Lise, “do you think the Empress will be beautiful?”

Lise blinked, “I think…maybe she’ll look a lot like grown-up Lise?”

At that moment, Harvey belched and leisurely said, “So, Annan, does that mean you no longer have a chance to seize the Divine Sovereign’s Wish?”

“It’s we,” Annan emphasized, correcting the pronoun, and then continued, “Theoretically, we have no chance. But while invalidating the other ranking lists, Gospel has also handed me the blade to solve all problems.”

Igor was taken aback for a moment, then quickly stood up, fixing his gaze on Annan. “Such unverifiable conjecture can’t be the main basis for decision-making!”

“But this is our only chance left,” Annan said, locking eyes with him. “We’ve come this far, and even if it’s just a faint flame, I have to let it burn.”

Ashe looked at them, suddenly quarreling, a little perplexed.

Optimist, pessimist, yet me?

Ashe: “Can you guys switch to normal language before you start arguing? Your meowing back and forth is really confusing us!”

The Con Artist glared at the Purple Moth for a long moment before slowly sitting back down. His face was as calm as a lake, but internally, he was roiling with turmoil. Even though he had acquired knowledge from the Dominance Sect, and even though he had experienced the mental seas of thousands of people in Belldate, he still couldn’t reverse Annan’s slave Pact using the Mental Sect’s abilities!

Gospel’s acceleration of the Weaving Festival not only disrupted Annan’s plans but also threw Igor’s arrangements into chaos!

His original intention was to forcefully break the Pact using the power of the Mental Sect before the final ranking list was released. Yvaren’s debt Pact with him was both his homework and his final exam—if he could nullify Yvaren’s debt, Igor would be confident in breaking free from Annan’s control!

But everything came too quickly.

Their quiet days were too short-lived.

The Purple Moth looked at the Cult Leader, “Ashe, Gospel may have invalidated the ranking lists through you, but it has also granted you an unprecedented special authority.”

“You are recognized by Gospel as the ‘Disrupter of Fate.’ Any impact you have will be considered a ‘small reasonable deviation within the fate range.’ Applied to the ranking lists, this means that no matter who you influence, their spot can still be on the list, but their ranking will be invalid.”

“This isn’t Gospel’s original intent; it’s a new rule set up temporarily to accelerate the weaving. But since it’s a new rule, it must adhere to it; otherwise, it would cause contradictions between past and future rankings.”

Ashe finally understood: since Gospel used Ashe to nullify the Happiness Ranking, it must recognize Ashe as a tool capable of wiping out futures.

The “Disrupter of Fate” that Annan was talking about means that—without realizing it—Ashe has acquired a region-specific license to kill (invalidate) any Gospel follower’s future!

Ashe caught a fleeting insight. “Do you mean you want me to…”

Annan explained, “If you kill the Echoer before they make it onto the ranking list, Gospel won’t bother to revise the list. Because ‘you can destroy the future’ is a newly announced rule, it will simply operate under that logic and render the Echoer’s ranking invalid.”

“Ashe, you are the blade Gospel has given us.”

“If you can kill the person who is slated to be ranked first on the Gospel Ranking ahead of time, the Weaving Festival will invalidate her ranking, and I will rightfully ascend to the highest position.”

After a brief silence, Harvey suddenly chuckled. “So, we’re finally getting into the business of killing? Who’s the target?”

Banjeet looked worried, Igor furrowed his brows, and Lise buried her head deeply into Ashe’s chest.

“The future Yisuo Empress,” Annan said, “a princess residing in the Imperial Capital, Nabistin.”

“It has to be Ashe who kills her to complete the final blasphemy against Gospel.”

“So, here are two pieces of news: the good news is that you only have one last job left. The bad news is that this task may very well be your last,” Annan said, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe her mouth. “Destination: the Imperial Capital, Nabistin. Task content-“

“Assassinate the Princess.”