CH-105

105 The Successor Plan

Shu Li didn't even know how long it had been since he last ate white rice.

Having lived in the Northern Territory for so long, he'd made and eaten all sorts of things with wheat flour as the main ingredient: steamed buns, bread, noodles, dumplings, biscuits, walnut cookies, and wraps.

But in the end, he still had regrets.

The stomach cannot be fooled.

A Chinese stomach without rice can never truly be satisfied.

So, when he caught the scent of rice here, Shu Li couldn't help but feel dazed.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

Europeans eat rice too; otherwise, where did Spanish paella, Italian risotto, or rice pudding come from?

He was just too narrow-minded.

Shu Li thought he should get out and see more of the world.

If the Northern Territory ever became too crowded, he could just move here.

Shu Li stood in line, carefully smelling the air. The rice cooking in the iron pot had olive oil, garlic, and onion. The mixed aroma hit him directly—simple, yet enticing enough.

He could almost imagine the grains of rice plump with broth, steaming hot as they entered his mouth.

When Kyle and Phillips saw how he forgot all about them the moment food was mentioned, they were first stunned, then could only helplessly line up behind him, silent.

When they finally started eating, the three sat at a table. One aloof, one sullen, both seated around Shu Li.

Phillips complained, "How can you ignore people just because there's food?"

Shu Li was just about to shovel a spoonful of rice into his mouth and didn't know what to say. "..."

He didn't understand. Why did he have to sit with people he barely knew just for a meal?

But seeing Phillips' serious expression, Shu Li had no choice but to chew on his words along with the rice, planning to swallow them down. Then his back teeth hit something with a "crunch," like he'd bitten into sand.

He couldn't help but frown, using his spoon to stir the rice in his bowl—

As expected of Western cooking.

The rice was undercooked, the grains distinct but with a hard, raw center. Mixed with the sauce, the texture was even more pronounced.

Shu Li looked at the others again. They were all eating with relish and satisfied expressions, which only made him feel more out of place.

Luckily, the portions weren't large. Shu Li decided to just bury his head and eat quickly, finishing as fast as possible.

If they could finish it, so could he!

Kyle watched him wolf down his food and saw that everyone's portion was barely half a serving, about to run out after a few more bites.

He glanced at his own plate, then at the other two eating with their heads down. Building rapport was necessary. So he stood up again and quietly got back in line for more.

Phillips didn't understand why Shu Li was so hot and cold with people.

Clearly, when he was sick, Shu Li had shown him concern and care.

But now that he was a bit better, this person had started ignoring him completely.

Seeing Shu Li finish his food at lightning speed the moment he sat down, as if he couldn't wait to leave, Phillips felt a little hurt. "Are you angry with me?"

"What?"

Shu Li was focused on tidying up his tray and spoon, not even looking up.

He planned to ask to borrow their kitchen and make himself something else.

After all, since they were so charitable, they might as well go all the way.

Phillips stared at him. "I just sat down, and you're already leaving?"

That's when Shu Li realized the issue.

He explained, "I just wanted to go take a look at their kitchen."

The young Phillips asked curiously, "They gave you food. Do you still want to steal more?"

Shu Li was taken aback by his words, but also felt they made sense from a certain perspective, fitting the thoughts of some people. But he was too lazy to explain, nor did he want to intentionally get closer to him. He just said, "Why not? Do you really think I'm a good person?"

Phillips was left speechless by the answer. "..."

And in the next second, Shu Li turned and walked away with ease.

Meanwhile, Kyle was in line for his second helping.

He had just stepped out of the queue, not even two steps away, when a low voice came from behind.

"Wasn't it mentioned? Before reaching the capital, Levanci, no causing trouble, no standing out, no making people remember you. Right?"

The voice was very low and soft, the tone steady, yet incredibly clear.

Kyle heard the voice but didn't immediately turn around.

Kyle's eyelids merely twitched. His light-colored eyes shifted an inch, catching a tall, straight figure in his peripheral vision. The person was also dressed simply, with distinct jawlines and a posture as straight as the back of a blade—it was Claude.

Kyle's gaze sharpened. He didn't look back, just spoke flatly, "I know what I'm doing."

Claude didn't respond, just stood there, coldly watching the bowl of rice in Kyle's hand. He recalled how, at the back of the line, someone had meddlesomely carried the collapsed boy on their back.

If that kind of person knew where this line was truly headed, they'd only be a hindrance.

Kyle was here on an undercover mission from the Shadow Division, infiltrating this 'Successor' group.

These hundreds of summoned youths would eventually be taken to the underground chambers of the duchy's castle to become sacrificial offerings.

The Lord of the Sermon Duchy had been a devotee of alchemy for years and had recently taken on a mysterious alchemist. It was said this person could refine the legendary 'Homunculus'—a living being within a flask. This intelligent spirit could know the past, connect to the future, and even grant immortality.

It just needed the blood of healthy, pure youths to take form.

Thus, children were gathered—whether orphans, those from impoverished backgrounds, or even abandoned illegitimate children of nobles—all were to be sent to Levanci.

And the fourteen-year-old Claude and Kyle, selected from the military academy by the Shadow Division, had assumed false identities to infiltrate the least guarded group. Their goal was to uncover the truth and, if necessary, disrupt the ritual itself.

Claude was silent for a moment, ultimately saying nothing more. He merely turned slightly, wordlessly distancing himself from Kyle, and melted into the crowd from another direction.

Kyle stood for a few seconds, his face devoid of emotion. Only when the surrounding gazes shifted did he carry that bowl of rice and walk steadily back to his original seat.

But when he got closer, he found the seats had been taken.

Shu Li and Phillips had left at some point, and the long bench where he'd been sitting was already occupied by a few unfamiliar youths. Even the portion of food he'd initially left on the table was gone, only an empty plate remaining.

One of them was licking his spoon, grinning at the person next to him, "Whose is this? It's been sitting here forever. If you don't eat it, I will."

Kyle: "..."

He looked down at the bowl in his hand, then at the empty plate. His expression didn't change, but his lashes drooped low, and the corners of his mouth tightened.

Then, he silently turned, found a seat in a corner, and quietly ate his meal, not saying a word.

On the other side, Shu Li naturally had no idea what Kyle had done or thought.

But he wasn't particularly concerned.

The reason was simple. After hearing Phillips' name and carefully matching his facial features with the person from the future, Shu Li had realized he had likely traveled back over a decade to the story of the young Duke Claude stealing the 'Homunculus in a Flask'.

This was the Royal Power storyline from the book.

In the original work, after the male lead Leslie escaped from the Savoy underground prison, he swore revenge. First, to prove his innocence and that he wasn't a demon; second, to reclaim his ducal inheritance and prove himself.

So, at eighteen, he entered the military academy as a commoner and earned the top spot that year, catching the attention of the Southern Military Academy's Shadow Division.

This division was the shadow arm directly under the crown.

They answered only to the throne's decrees. Their missions were never public, and their identities couldn't be exposed.

They were the emperor's eyes, ears, and blade.

Every action, even a single appearance in the wrong line of sight, was a betrayal of the entire system. Failures or traitors would be hunted to their deaths.

For a long time, those recruited into the division signed life-or-death pledges and kept silent about all their secrets. In return, they gained authority equal to the emperor's, allowing them to probe all the empire's secrets.

Leslie accepted the recruitment not out of loyalty or ambition, but to investigate two things.

First, the truth behind his mother, Audra's, death.

Second, the reason for his father, Claude's, exile to the Northern Territory.

The driving force behind these two investigations stemmed from a thread of familial affection within Leslie that had never been severed.

For the former, he had never met his mother, only knowing she had served as a revered and trusted Saintess in the Holy City in her youth.

Yet, within a year of marrying Claude, she had perished. Her absence created an unfillable void in Leslie's upbringing. And when he later uncovered clues linking his mother's death to the Church, his initial questions transformed into hatred, becoming the starting point of his future rebellion against theocracy.

As for the latter, undeniably, Leslie still held hope for his father and craved his approval. Even if they would later become adversaries, in the earliest days, Leslie still harbored an unbreakable attachment to this father.

He believed he could find a page about 'Claude' within the Shadow Division's archives.

And on that page, Shu Li knew the other was more than just the then-emperor's illegitimate son.

To earn his father's approval and praise, Claude had thrown himself into the Shadow Division, willingly becoming the crown's most hidden blade. Day and night, he ran, killed, and purged for the throne, all for a single word of acknowledgment.

The biggest mission he received was to steal the 'Homunculus in a Flask'—the elixir of immortality—from the Lord of the Sermon Duchy for his biological father.

An artificial spirit like the 'Homunculus in a Flask' was a taboo in alchemy.

Therefore, the Lord of the Sermon Duchy naturally couldn't publicize this matter.

Initially, the alchemist suggested feeding the Homunculus with the blood of prisoners—discreet and unlikely to cause an uproar.

But the old lord scoffed at the idea.

"Such base and filthy blood will only breed a malevolent spirit of equal filth and depravity, one that will eventually turn on its master."

He wanted a loyal, obedient, and pure intelligent spirit.

So, he proposed taking the blood of healthy, pure youths and maidens.

An intelligent spirit raised on such blood would undoubtedly be pure and willingly serve the old lord.

However, this presented another problem.

Directly abducting large numbers of the duchy's citizens' children to use as sacrifices would inevitably spark resistance and riots. Public resentment would quickly spread throughout the Sermon Duchy.

Thus, the old lord changed his approach and devised the Successor Plan.

By publicly announcing that all youths of age had a chance to become a Successor, most impoverished families would willingly offer up their children. Afterwards, they could simply sever the children's contact with their parents under the pretext of royal education or military training.

This way, a mass sacrifice could be packaged as a respectable ceremony.

Sure enough, lured by the promise of reward, glory, and an escape from their current fate, countless families willingly offered their children, sending them into the 'Successor groups'.

In the novel's flashbacks, the sacrificed children were all neatly filed away into carefully crafted lies with reasons like 'perished in battle' or 'lost contact on assignment,' leaving no one the chance to investigate further.

And the blood of those youths flowed ceaselessly into the depths of the alchemist's laboratory, feeding the small, curled-up figure resting in the flask, becoming the old lord's gamble for immortality.

For most, the stated goal of this operation was to stop the Sermon Duchy's cruel Successor Plan.

Thus, the Shadow Division was ordered to infiltrate, to sever the source of the sacrifices and terminate all blood alchemy experiments.

But in reality, the order came from the then-Emperor of the Great Metropolis.

His true intent was not to save people, but to order Claude to secretly bring the nearly-formed Homunculus in a Flask back to the royal court.

"Do not interrupt the sacrificial activities. You will enter with the southern group that departed last. Whether the final product succeeds or fails, I must have that elixir of immortality."

'Immortality' for an emperor was both an alchemical miracle and the key to power.

It was something all emperors desperately sought by any means necessary.

In the original story, Claude, behind the backs of all his companions, fulfilled the emperor's task.

The Homunculus in a Flask was indeed brought to the Great Metropolis and hidden deep within the royal court.

But just three months later, a sudden coup erupted in the Great Metropolis.

The emperor died suddenly, the cause a mystery.

Claude's elder brother, the other heir to the throne, swiftly ascended.

And Claude, charged with 'being a pagan and causing unrest in the capital,' was exiled to the Northern Territory, forbidden from ever leaving.

As for that Homunculus in a Flask, the product of countless sacrifices and years of alchemy—

It spiraled completely out of control in the few days of chaos. Its body crumbled, its consciousness annihilated, becoming the most expensive, bloodiest, and most deeply taboo failure in alchemical history.

The royal court never spoke of it again, and the 'Successor Plan' was completely erased.

Only a very few knew that the start of it all was a flask containing an artificial miracle that had never possessed a true soul.

...

Shu Li didn't have much of an impression of the Homunculus in a Flask.

After all, in the original work, aside from the coup, it wasn't given much detail.

Maybe it was to establish the low-magic world setting;

Or perhaps the very act of creating a higher being in a lab was an allegory for challenging divine power;

Or it could simply be satire of royalty, providing a reasonable pretext for Leslie's later campaigns to establish centralized rule.

Either way, it had nothing to do with a commoner like Shu Li.

Though Shu Li wasn't sure why he had to experience this time period as well, life is full of unexpected twists. Who can explain it all?

Perhaps it was just so he could experience the full plot, hence this segment.

Just like watching a cartoon, sometimes there's a mandatory rest interlude.

No matter what, Shu Li just hoped that after the plot ended, he could return to his own timeline.

Nothing too outrageous, and not for too long.

For now, what he could do was recall the plot and stay away from Kyle, one of the Shadow Division members.

As a notorious mid-level antagonist in the original work, Kyle was known to be vengeful, sinister, twisted, and incredibly caustic, always trying to kill Leslie with a multitude of schemes.

Even though he still carried a youthful air, appearing silent and reserved, even somewhat cold and proper, Shu Li knew deep down—this person was not someone to trifle with in the future.

Shu Li had to remain highly vigilant about Kyle pulling him into any collaboration.

Perhaps, on the road, Kyle had already made his calculations.

When the critical moment arrived, he would push Shu Li forward to take the blame and clean up the mess.

With someone like that, it was best to avoid him as much as possible.

"What are you planning to do?"

Phillips asked Shu Li, who had just successfully borrowed the kitchen.

Phillips was still half-doubtful about Shu Li's claim of going to steal things.

If he really were the type to take advantage of others, he would have likely agreed to the earlier offer of traveling together.

But he had refused without hesitation and was so intent on going to the Northern Territory's church to become a clergy member. He seemed more like an ascetic, eccentric person on a path of hardship rather than a thief looking to pilfer.

"Just wait and see," Shu Li said.

In the kitchen, Shu Li found leftover rice from making rice pudding and a small bucket of discarded shrimp shells and heads.

Because they were just pitiful scraps, the steward was willing to give them two extra eggs.

But what was kitchen waste to them was treasure to him—enough to make a pot of savory, sweet shrimp oil fried rice.

Shrimp oil just required frying the shrimp heads and shells to render the oil.

The dirty bits inside the heads and shells had to be cleaned out. They needed to be washed and thoroughly drained; otherwise, the water would spatter everywhere in the hot oil, separating from the oil and possibly creating a failed, oily puddle.

But Shu Li had spent four years working in the kitchen, practicing for four years.

Such small tasks were handled methodically.

When the oil in the pan was hot, the shrimp heads went in.

He fried and pressed them with a spoon, squeezing out the flavorful paste. In less than thirty seconds, the clear oil began turning red.

Shrimp heads were always the essence of the shrimp itself.

Once heated, the savory scent of shrimp would fill the entire kitchen.

After removing the shrimp shells, Shu Li could start adding the leftover rice.

Whether to fry the egg first or the rice first was a matter of personal preference.

For technical reasons, Shu Li usually fried the rice first, then added the egg, allowing the egg to coat every grain of rice.

Phillips initially felt a bit horrified watching Shu Li clean what seemed like kitchen waste, unable to imagine Shu Li picking food out of the trash. But gradually, as the fragrant oil rendered, his fear slowly subsided.

Especially the aroma of that rice—it was so rich it made one's mouth water.

Even the head chef and the surrounding maids couldn't help but look. Some even began to suspect Shu Li had secretly used expensive saffron, otherwise, they couldn't explain the rice's golden-red color or its astonishing fragrance.

"I didn't blink once, and he really just used shrimp shells to make that rice," Phillips said, amazed. "Is it really edible?"

Shu Li didn't care if they ate it or not; he made it because he wanted to eat it.

The fiery wok hei, the distinct grains of rice—just stir-frying with a bit of soy sauce would make it divine!

Shu Li felt immense comfort in his heart.

He'd just started dishing out a plate to eat when others, overcome with curiosity, gathered around the pot with spoons, wanting a taste. Phillips quickly squeezed in, "He made it for me! Let me have some first!"

The process of eating was the most peaceful and blissful.

After Phillips finished eating and returned to the group, he whispered to Shu Li, "How did you know the kitchen steward had dropped his wallet? And how did you know where it was?"

Since he had managed to get the kitchen lent to him so smoothly, Shu Li naturally had to put on a bit of an act.

While looking for a steward who could make decisions, Shu Li noticed someone suddenly patting their waist and pockets. He also observed that even though it wasn't raining, the person's trousers had irregular splatters of mud, clearly from running in a hurry.

So, he took the initiative to strike up a conversation, first mentioning a strange line between the person's brows. Using verbal cues and then reading micro-expressions, he determined the person had lost a wallet, not some other important item.

Once confirming it was a lost coin purse, Shu Li suggested he could find it at the 'stables'.

Shu Li had two reasons for this deduction.

First, it was mentioned they were originally going to follow a noble lady to distribute food to the poor. Their estate was in the woods; the lady wouldn't walk to the villages and towns on foot; she would need a horse.

Second, even though Shu Li wasn't familiar with the estate's layout and didn't know if there were ponds or mud pits, he had often watched Leslie ride at the horse farm and knew the area around stables always had a muddy patch. Mainly due to horses' hooves and urine, the ground was always soft and damp, even in dry weather.

Sure enough, the person found his coin purse in the stables and looked at Shu Li with newfound respect.

Now questioned by Phillips, Shu Li naturally couldn't reveal his secrets. He simply said mysteriously, "Before I was born, my mother often told me that when she was pregnant, she could feel the Lord speaking to her, giving me blessings. So, from a young age, whenever someone needed help, I would receive some intuition."

"Otherwise, how would I have known what illness you had and what medicine to give you?"

Phillips looked at Shu Li, shocked. "Really?!"

"I'm a believer; how could I lie?" Shu Li, not wanting any trouble, added, "I don't get many of those feelings anymore."

He shook his head as he spoke. "I'm old now, useless."

Phillips felt like he was just being brushed off.

But Shu Li was a believer!

He surely wouldn't lie.

So, Phillips nodded. "With such a unique experience, no wonder you want to go to the Northern Territory to be an ascetic. If you need travel funds for the Northern Territory, I could sponsor you."

Just as he finished speaking, a glint of silver on the ground caught Shu Li's attention—a silver ring lay quietly in the bushes, like a silver star obscured by clouds.

The ring was plain in style, but it made his heart clench.

Wasn't this... the one on Claude's hand?

For four years, due to their cooperative relationship, Shu Li often noticed that silver ring without a family crest or any symbol of status. He'd never seen a similar one on the market; its simplicity was almost deliberate, making it stand out even more.

He remembered this ring clearly.

And now, it appeared here?

How could such an important personal item fall so silently?

Unless it was an accident—or a distress signal.

Shu Li's heart sank. He slowly raised his head, his eyes quickly scanning the surroundings, finally locking onto the sealed attic window straight ahead.

That high, tightly shut window had only a thin crack at the very corner, like an open eye, quietly watching him.

"..."

Could that Duke be locked up in the attic?

Shu Li had an ominous feeling.

Just then, a maid he'd seen in the kitchen passed by. Shu Li asked, "Who lives up in that attic?"

The maid's face turned pale with shock. "How do you know there's someone up there?"

Her sharp cry startled Phillips too.

Shu Li pursed his lips, his expression earnest. "Please take me to see. I sense something unfortunate has happened inside."

He hoped this would persuade them to open the attic for him.

Amen.

Though, there was probably an eighty percent chance of being refused.

Shu Li gripped the silver ring in his hand. He needed to find a way to save Leslie's father, and fast.