Chapter 166: A Myriad of Ages

When Andy arrived at the Azure Phoenix Society once again, he witnessed a horrifying sight.

Catherine had actually come here and was currently tasting the cat food prepared by Nicole.

Instead of rushing in immediately, Andy activated his divine-level invisibility technique, intending to scout out the situation.

Nicole was chattering away incessantly: "Princess Catherine, what you are tasting right now is mango-flavored. Later on, I will prepare a matcha-flavored batch for you..."

"Just how many kinds of cat food can you actually make?"

To Andy's shock, Catherine actually spoke, drawing a deep sigh of despair from him. He resolved to resolve Nicole's issue as soon as possible, determined not to let her leak any information about Catherine!

At that moment, Nicole's reply rang out: "I can't even count them all myself. Currently, with the ingredients available in the royal capital, the ones I can roughly make include: braised white eel cat food, braised swamp eel cat food, fermented black bean catfish cat food, pan-fried catfish cat food, simmered soft-shelled turtle skin cat food, pan-fried carp cat food, stir-fried carp cat food, soft-fried pork tenderloin cat food, soft-fried chicken cat food, assorted stuffed sausage cat food, sesame butter rolls cat food, braised fresh mushroom cat food, braised fish fillet cat food, braised fish slice cat food, braised fish maw cat food, sweet and sour braised pork slice cat food, braised white mushroom cat food..."

Like a machine gun, Nicole rattled off over a thousand types of cat food in rapid succession, greatly pleasing Catherine. Rooting through her spatial pouch, Catherine tossed a bamboo tile representing the Three of Circles straight to Nicole.

She told Nicole that three miniaturized spell arrays had been engraved onto it, and once activated, they would be sufficient to trap any enemy below the Silver rank for over an hour.

Overjoyed, Nicole caught it and, with utmost sycophancy, declared, "Your subordinate Nicole thanks Your Royal Highness for the bounty!"

A few more flattering words put Catherine in an even better mood, prompting her to toss her a "Two of Circles" as well!

Unable to bear it any longer, Andy revealed himself to interrupt their "roleplay." With a dark expression, he shoved Nicole out the door and slammed it shut. He needed to have a serious talk with Catherine!

Andy lectured Catherine extensively, explaining the gist of it: arbitrarily exposing the identity of a nether-cat could easily attract unknown dangers. To his surprise, Catherine remained utterly unconcerned.

Licking her paws, she said to Andy, "What are you afraid of? Do you take me for a fool? That Nicole's every move is completely under my control now!"

Outside the door, Nicole suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. Puzzled, she turned back to look, muttering, "Did the wind pick up?" She failed to see the little ghost red making comical faces at her.

Catherine continued, "Even if she harbors any malicious thoughts, I can make sure she loses the ability to speak before she can even make a move. Hehe, did you really think things given by me, Catherine, are that easy to keep?"

A cold sweat broke out on Andy's back; it turned out he had been worrying for nothing.

Just then, as if suddenly remembering something, Catherine rummaged through her spatial pouch once more and said to Andy, "Oh right, Andy, take this talisman. I embroidered it myself, stitch by stitch, when I took human form. It even has a defensive spell array reinforced onto it, capable of withstanding three attacks from a Silver-rank powerhouse."

Andy: "..."

Although he was certain Nicole posed no real threat to Catherine anymore, Andy still felt a slight twinge of jealousy watching Catherine and Nicole acting all chummy over the past few days. Furthermore, the growth of Andy's mental power was starting to encounter a new problem: as Nicole told fewer and fewer lies to him, the growth of his mental power had slowed down drastically.

The low-level swindlers in the trading market could no longer satisfy Andy's appetite, so he planned to find some high-level swindlers, preferably recruiting them into the society. Besides, although he now had Nicole, their society had not yet filled its minimum quota of members, so Andy put his recruitment plan back on the agenda. He seized the opportunity to pull Nicole away from Catherine's side to assist him with society recruitment!

Because Andy's previous recruitment efforts at the recruitment booth had yielded poor results, he came up with a new idea this time. Using his copying technique, he produced a large batch of flyers, preparing to distribute them at the entrance of Greymane Academy. Surely not everyone in the entire academy would be influenced by those fellows at the recruitment office!

When Andy brought her along to hand out flyers, Nicole was on the verge of a breakdown. She was the second young lady of the Barov family and an elite student of the inner academy. When had she ever done this kind of work? Especially when an acquaintance happened to pass by and stared at her as if seeing a ghost, leaving Nicole consumed with shame!

Yet, the moment she thought about how the future Emperor Bill was right here accompanying her to hand out flyers, Nicole's heart leveled out. While maintaining a stiff smile and handing out flyers, she cast sideways glances at Andy. To her surprise, she saw Andy holding a stack of flyers, passing them out with high spirits and explaining things to passersby from time to time...

Nicole pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed, worrying whether she would be quietly targeted for knowing Emperor Bill's embarrassing history.

The flyers actually yielded some results; a few students were attracted by the society meditation room mentioned on them. To her surprise, after a brief exchange with Andy, Andy did not accept them.

This left Nicole puzzled, so she asked Andy what his criteria for recruitment actually were.

Andy spun a mysterious web of nonsense to Nicole: good strength, active mind, cheerful personality, unconstrained by formalities, eloquence, great imagination, and so on and so forth.

In the end, Nicole understood: he wanted to recruit master swindlers!

Nicole sighed inwardly: "The Emperor is truly the Emperor, he certainly never walks the beaten path!"

However, Nicole had indeed heard of the kind of people Andy wanted to recruit. They had gathered together to form a society called the "Abnormal Human Research Center." That society was the ultimate concentration camp for swindlers.

Nicole shared this information with Andy. Overjoyed, Andy hurriedly asked what star-rank that society was and if there was any way to buy it out. Andy hadn't used much of the subsidy he received earlier, so he spoke with absolute confidence.

It was a zero-star society, lacking even a single star-rank, performing far worse than the Azure Phoenix Society. It had only become famous enough for Nicole to know about it because it was practically the laughingstock of the entire academy!

Nicole's execution of the buyout of the "Abnormal Human Research Center" went exceptionally smoothly—perhaps a bit too smoothly beyond Andy's expectations.

However, when their members arrived to report for duty, Andy understood why it had been so smooth.

A group of about twenty or thirty people swarmed into the Azure Phoenix Society, turning the place as noisy as a vegetable market. Had he not seen them with his own eyes, Andy would never have known that a wizard academy could feature attire like vests, slippers, and oversized shorts. Some of these people wandered around looking at everything and making critical remarks; others sat cross-legged on the floor talking boastfully; and still others unceremoniously took off their shoes to play with their feet...

Andy frowned at this rabble, and Nicole's expression turned equally unpleasant.

Catching sight of Andy's appearance, Mark, their former president, suddenly stood up, pointed at Andy, and announced, "This is big boss Andy! From now on, brothers, we roll with him!"

As soon as he finished speaking, sparse applause sounded from below.

Noticing Andy's dark expression, Mark hurriedly let out a roar: "What the hell, did you guys not eat? Hurry up and greet the president! Whether we eat solid food or thin gruel from now on depends entirely on the president!"

Swish! The entire group stood up instantly, shouting in unison as if they had practiced it a thousand times: "Greetings, President... May the President live for thousands of generations, unifying Doron, his literary and martial virtues accomplished, his grace blessing Azure!"

Boom! Andy's mind roared, and even without entering his mental space, he could feel his mental power surging rapidly!

"Hahaha!" Andy burst into laughter, waved his hand, and declared, "Good! Tonight at the Desheng Tower, my treat, and nobody is allowed to miss it..."

Nicole: "..."