By the time Nasus had finished his business, it was already sunset, and when he returned home, it was late at night.

"Hoo ......"

There was too much fatigue in this long sigh, and although he planned to retire and marginalize himself as much as possible, there were still many things he needed to deal with.

The temperature difference between day and night in the desert was so great that the Shurima buildings made a little more effort to maintain the room temperature, but it was much cooler than Nasus expected, and he did not raise the fireplace or turn on the lamp, but cherished the hard-won tranquility in the dead of night.

He plucked the tobacco leaves and put them in his pipe, and the bamboo chaise longue made an unpleasant noise as he lay down.

He took a breath, letting the smoke pass through his lungs and then exhale it again, a slight feeling of vertigo wading over his brain, which made Nasus feel a lot more relaxed.

Too many things have happened recently, the sudden return of the prince, and then stubbornly want to have a much-anticipated coming-of-age ceremony, and then unexpectedly, Azir directly announced the project he brought back in the superior civilization of Kamigawa, which caused the paralysis of social networks, and even affected the transmission of government opinions, and public opinion exploded again, and the sense of panic that finally calmed down spread around the world overnight, and even large-scale demonstrations appeared in some places.

Nasus couldn't help but wonder, Your Highness, did you come back to make a special trip?

Fortunately, he and Asitaya are not dry meals, and after sending people to repair and update the social network, with the cooperation of the central government and various administrative regions, the contradictions in various places have gradually disappeared.

But there are still some knots, and the people are already a little unfamiliar with this prince who has not been in Shurima for twenty years, but Azir's actions have exacerbated the crisis of trust in him.

It's just that Nasus can't understand why Azir still looks calm and light, even though Azir knows all this.

Earlier, the conflict in the Academy of Sciences broke out again, to what extent? The chemists concocted their own explosives and used beakers as grenades.

This group of old men fought more happily than the Imperial Special Forces, which made Nasus sigh that if he had gone to study science, he would have been so old and strong.

Azir's words caused the most panic among them, scientists have been studying high-tech materials all day long, but everything Shurima can find has been turned over and over several times, and at this time, it is easy to imagine the elemental organization outside the planet, not to mention that they have to face a group of opposing camps all day long, and they want to fly into space all day long.

Azir's press conference excited the group of madmen, who talked about taboo topics about the universe and superior civilizations, and scared out the heart attacks of the old guys on their side, who had half their feet in the coffin.

The dean of the Academy of Sciences complained to him: "Scholar, have you heard the words of Your Highness? He said he would even study it for tens of thousands of years! That's hundreds of generations for us! ”

"What happened to hundreds of generations?" Nasus was still speaking for Azil.

"No matter how great a cause is, it can fail, and if the idea is wrong from the beginning, it will be a waste of hundreds of generations!" said the president of the Academy of Sciences.

"Do you think Your Highness will be wrong?" Nasus's face changed.

But the dean, who had always been weak, was rarely stiffened, and he looked directly at Nasus and said, "I don't want to see us become restless again, and it took us almost ten years to calm down after the disaster...... I understand His Highness's intentions, but he is still too young and in a hurry, and he is a little naïve......"

Not only that, Azir said at a press conference that he needed volunteers to help with the Ascendant project, but he didn't say exactly what the assistance would be.

It took Asitaya and Azir a month to erect a spherical structure that could accommodate more than a thousand people, but Azir's standards dictated that no more than ten people could enter at a time.

Once the spherical structure was erected, Azir waited there for the volunteers to arrive.

For the first two months, no one went.

Maybe people didn't believe him, maybe Azil's explanation of the Ascendant Project was too scary, or maybe it was because of the pressure of public opinion, no one wanted to be taken for a fool.

Eventually, however, someone came, and two months later, Azir was approached by a soldier who had served in the Imperial Army, and he respectfully begged Azir to accept him.

After a while, a dozen young people who were still in college also came, some of them just wanted to meet the mysterious prince once, and some of them really wanted to do something for Shurima with all their enthusiasm.

Eventually, the total number of volunteers for the Ascendant Project reached 5,000, a small number for Shurima, who had a population of several billion, but Azir was relieved that most of the 5,000 were young people.

Regardless of whether they are "hot-blooded youths" who come from the top of their hearts, it shows that even if some of the younger generation are afraid of coming into contact with superior civilizations, they dare to face the fear of the unknown, hoping that one day Shurima can break through this despair and move towards a new future.

But Azir understands that in fact, their fear can be said to be a kind of confusion, the younger generation is far less profound about the natural disaster twenty years ago than the middle-aged generation, they listen to the memory passed down by word of mouth, grow up in a blurred picture, although they also have the same fear of emotions, but the young people's minds are flying.

When it gets dark, they look up cautiously, their hearts beating faster with a mixture of excitement and fear, and then, when they see the starry sky, they wonder what a pity it would be if we never sailed there.

But Azir's experiment did not go well, and almost all of the 5,000 people fled home before they could survive for half a month, and everyone thought that they had been inhumanly abused.

The scorching heat nearly burned the water out of their bodies, and every day they could recall the memories they least wanted to face—memories of sadness or other negative emotions that expanded infinitely in the illusion and made them nearly collapse.

As a result, the people of Shurima questioned their prince to an unprecedented level, and there were even rumors that he was mentally controlled by those superior civilizations and came back just to study us.

If it weren't for the identity of the royal family, I'm afraid the abuse would be flying all over the sky.

As a result, no one had any hope for Azir.

This was the last thing Nasus wanted to see, because after the coming-of-age ceremony, Azir would inherit the throne and officially lead everything Shurima.

And it's been less than two months since the coming-of-age ceremony began.

Now Nasus has to worry not only about whether Azir will survive the coming-of-age ceremony, but also about whether the people will rebel after he succeeds to the throne.

None of Azil's actions could be understood by himself, so he approached him in frustration during the day and made his concerns clear.

"I can't understand what you've been doing these days, Your Highness."

"Are you worried?" Azir asked.

"Yes."

"Scholar, don't worry, I'm not crazy or stupid, now Shurima is like a big river frozen in ice, it seems to be wide but not vibrant, if I want to thaw the ice, I must first let the river surge."

Nasus disagreed: "I don't think we're a frozen river, Shurima is still alive, but it's just blocked by some dead grass and branches...... Isn't His Highness doing this to make these dead grass and miscellaneous branches even more? Shurima, who had already calmed down, was in chaos again......"

Azir smiled and asked, "Then why can't I be a fire that burns these dead grass and branches?" ”

Nasus shook his head: "You are only one person, and you can't burn the chaos that spreads all over the mountains...... You're too young......"

"Even a spark has a chance to ignite a raging fire, Nasus, do you know that maybe a little inconspicuous spark can also be an eternal fire, one day when we all pass away, the people of the future generations and our successors, those children as long as they see the fire not extinguished, will not forget the courage to move forward, go forward and never stop."

Nasus suddenly had an illusion that Azir's figure seemed to be much taller, he obviously did not succeed to the throne, and he had just stepped from a teenager to a young man, but Nasus felt a royal aura in him, he was born an emperor, greater than any leader in Shurima's history.

"We can rest assured that our unfinished business and regrets can be handed over to them, passed down from generation to generation, and one day the name Shurima will resound in every corner of the universe in the hands of generations of inheritors."

Nasus had come to persuade him, but was moved by his words, and the scholar asked a question that had been hidden in his mind for more than ten years: "...... Your Majesty thinks that we can really break out of the current predicament? ”

"What binds Shurima is never the fear of superior civilization and the universe, but our own thoughts, and we ourselves are imprisoned by ourselves!"

"Nasus, come and help me, I'm going to light a fire, burn all the useless dead grass and branches, and then open up a broader and clearer future!"

"This sleeping world must awaken and see what I see!"

Azir's solemn voice echoed in his ears all the time.

In the silent darkness, Nasus smoked a cigarette, he felt like he had just experienced a dream, too unreal, and in that golden light, he saw the miracle known as the Ascendant.

When he had finished his cigarette, Nasus pinched some more tobacco leaves, he was a hundred and fifty years old, and he lived a long life among the Shurima, his fingers were bronzed, his nails were dry, and the skin of his hands was wrinkled, while the pipe in his hand was new, shiny, and well maintained, which had been given to him by Asitaya.

There was no light in the room, so the matches that Nasus lit were exceptionally bright, and the tobacco leaves burned, and a slight crackling sound could be heard in the silent night, and the matches in Nasus's hands were extinguished, and the tobacco leaves he lit were full of sparks, and the more they burned, the brighter they were, like the new era that was coming.

Sparks burn the prairie fire.

……