Sorcerer’s Handbook

“It was like this,” the necromancer began thoughtfully. “Back then, Ashe said you neither distributed money nor gave out points. The benefits were few, yet the demands were many. It’s like you were a prime example of a streetlamp. And then he said something about your mother.” The necromancer paused. “That sentence was something like—”

Lise and Annan felt a gust of wind rush past, and then they saw Ashe dash forward to cover Harvey’s mouth.

“Harvey is just a kid who loves to talk nonsense. Let me keep his mouth shut for everyone…” Ashe quickly changed the subject. “In any case, the Future Ranking must be wrong. Even if I have ties with Senhaeser, why would I be linked to so many other families?”

“Exactly.”

Igor also came to Ashe’s aid. “The Senhaeser family has ties with us, and the Aldo family has a grudge against us. But we’ve never even heard of the other families. Why would Gospel link them to Ashe?”

Annan sighed deeply, pulling Lise into her arms and ruffling her white cat-like hair, looking frustrated. “Don’t ask me. I don’t know either… All I know is that apart from the Aldo family, all the other families are prominent financial, Red Hat, and political families within the Kingdom of Gospel! Even if they’re not as large as the Senhaeser family, their influence is just as significant, if not more so!”

“Compared to the ‘Art Ranking’ incident, where ‘suspected of creating an apocalypse’ was listed as a crime, the impact of this ‘Family Ranking’ will be far worse. After all, ‘creating an apocalypse’ is like insulting a large crowd; people might wait for someone else to stand up and refute it, and won’t argue with you directly. But this time, Ashe, you’ve specifically named these powerful families as part of your necromancer legion. If they want to escape such a fate, they will undoubtedly try to crush you!”

“It’s not me, it’s my future self,” Ashe argued. “You can’t blame me for things I haven’t done.”

“Sorry, that’s the traditional culture of the Kingdom of Gospel. If you’re unhappy, get out,” Annan retorted irritably.

Annan knew this had nothing to do with Ashe. After all, Ashe had spent the past few days with her in the Dream amusement park, but she was genuinely upset about the situation.

Annan had actually anticipated that the second ranking list would make them the target of everyone’s ire. After all, “deceiving Gospel” and “predicting the ranking list” would draw immense attention on their own. But she hadn’t expected the backlash to be this intense—offending all the prominent financial families in the entire nation directly!

Just thinking about the barrage of criticism they would face in the future gave Annan a headache.

Her already risky adventure plan now needed a complete overhaul. If before she was walking a tightrope, now it would be like doing fingertip push-ups while walking that tightrope—maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to pre-order some coffins from Harvey.

And the person responsible for this situation was that detestable man!

Lise, who was being angrily rubbed on the head by Annan, felt completely deflated, as if she were taking the blame on behalf of her father.

However, Lise, who could vaguely sense other people’s emotions, found it strange. She felt that Annan wasn’t actually that angry with Ashe. In fact, their relationship seemed to have become quite close. Annan was very naturally playing and joking around with Ashe, their interactions were almost as frequent as with Aunt Bukin.

Moreover, Annan’s anger seemed to focus on why Ashe had ties with Qenna and the others…

Could it be that Annan… no, Aunt Annan had feelings for Ashe?

“Speaking of which,” Banjeet suddenly said, “that man who appeared in the video footage with Ashe…”

Everyone fell silent immediately, looking at the man who seemed the most suspicious. Even Ashe was no exception.

“It couldn’t be me.”

Surprisingly, Harvey shook off Ashe’s hand and calmly shook his head. “I couldn’t do something like that.”

“But don’t you like the Necromancy Sect?” Ashe asked.

“I’m willing to dedicate my life’s work to the Necromancy Sect, but that doesn’t mean I would convert living people into undead,” Harvey frowned, genuinely looking a bit angry. “Do you all really think the Necromancy Sect is just about antisocial spellcasting for killing?”

Everyone exchanged glances, trying to find a different opinion in each other’s eyes.

Harvey didn’t usually mind people misunderstanding him, but this time he felt he had to clarify: “The Necromancy Sect isn’t about creating death, but about utilizing death, following death, and ultimately conquering death.”

“To me, the living and the dead are equally important, and there’s an unbridgeable realm between the two. Creatures struggle to survive until their last breath, and eventually become a corpse etched with their life’s experiences. This is the greatest natural gift to a necromancer.”

“Though I despise the Blood Saint Institute, it’s only because they monopolize the supply of corpses. Personally, I greatly respect their approach—the Institute doesn’t interfere with the lives of the living. They observe the birth of life, watch it grow, see it burn brightly, and finally witness its end, then take what remains.”

“That’s the genuine practice of a necromancer. Corpses obtained this way are the best materials.”

“Converting the living into the undead is like cutting short someone’s life midway, prematurely ending a brilliant existence and destroying all its potential… It’s the behavior I despise the most. It’s worse than just killing them outright.”

“All Spellcasting Sects aim to help people live better lives, and the Necromancy Sect is no exception. The dead are meant to serve the living, not the other way around.”

Harvey continued, “I respect life, including my own and that of those I don’t know. I’ll gladly plan my own death and that of others, but I won’t desecrate our lives.”

Though his words seemed both understandable and incomprehensible, everyone as a sorcerer grasped Harvey’s meaning.

Sorcerers don’t just learn knowledge from their Spellcasting Sect; they also shape their worldview, philosophy, and values.

Just as Igor believes that manipulating rules is an essential skill for a civilized society, Harvey thinks that only by utilizing corpses can one achieve a better life.

Sorcerers attempt to explain the world and deconstruct their environment through their knowledge systems. While Harvey might do many things with corpses that seem without limits, that doesn’t mean he has no limits regarding other forms of life. Quite the opposite, during his years as a Controller, he always pursued efficient and silent methods of killing.

The biggest distinction between Harvey and ordinary people is his ability to clearly separate life from corpses. Life is life and deserves respect; a corpse is just a material. This is something ordinary people find hard to achieve, but Harvey, because of his understanding, has advanced the Necromancy Sect to the Golden level.

Thus, Harvey’s statements were sincere. He genuinely believed he would never commit such an act.

Asking him to turn a living person into an undead would be like asking Igor to become entirely selfless—practically a fairytale-level transformation.

At that moment, the Family Ranking was about to announce tonight’s luckiest award recipient.

Ashe sighed, “Here we go again, let’s see which major family I’m going to offend this time—”

“Family Ranking No. 1: Blood Corpse King Clan – Harvey”

“Blood Corpse King Clan: Archibald Harvey created this most fearsome undead troop type by fusing and intertwining a vast number of living beings, incorporating elements from the Blood Saint and Moonshadow Clans. Each Blood Corpse King contains thousands of tormented souls and generally possesses basic traits such as ‘Bloodthirsty Aura’, ‘Werewolf Giant Corpse Mutation’, ‘Immortality’, ‘Tombstone Soul Lock’, and ‘Immunity to Miracle Weaving’.”

“Patriarch: Archibald Harvey”

Ashe blinked at Harvey, and everyone else turned their gaze to him as well.

So much for your claim of not desecrating life. Gospel doesn’t seem to believe you.

Harvey pondered for a moment, then suddenly moved a few steps away from Ashe.

“What’s the matter, afraid I’ll hit you?”

“I’m afraid that when Gospel strikes you with lightning, I’ll get caught in it too,” Harvey pointed at the Gospel Book and said, “See? This is what happens when I get close to you. Even I got framed by Gospel.”