Although she had known Morris for many years, in Vanna's eyes, Morris had always been just a gentle and elegant scholar. When he was still in the city-state of Plande, the old gentleman spent most of his energy in school classes, and the rest of the time he either spent in the library or was asked to give lectures at certain schools.
Vanna didn't have much opportunity to understand the "extraordinary qualities" of this elder in the supernatural field.
But since she boarded the Lost Homeland, she finally began to see another side of Morris, and realized how those seemingly harmless scholars who followed the god of wisdom, Lahem, actually accomplished their work.
That's one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: the pursuit of knowledge.
But if you think about it carefully, this is normal. Scholars should have unique and powerful powers. After all, there are many beings in this world who pursue knowledge, from the deep demons to the phantoms of the spirit world. But in the end, most of the knowledge was caught up by mortals. Why? It is because of the strong academic level of mortal scholars.
Vanna rubbed her forehead, trying hard to control the random thoughts in her head, and muttered casually: "So you are so amazing... If I had known earlier that I would have studied hard in class, maybe..."
"No, the gap is too big," Morris shook his head expressionlessly, "It's better for you to practice seriously."
Fanna was a little embarrassed: "At least I successfully graduated from City-State University..."
Morris glanced at her and said, "One third of the credits are for sports specialty, and one third is for church further studies.
point."
Fanna remained silent for a few seconds before she looked towards the thick fog around her and abruptly changed the subject: "The cultists you eliminated should be the controllers of those fake freaks, right?"
"At most, he is one of the controllers," Morris shook his head. "Have you heard the noise coming from other blocks? The whole city is full of those monsters now. I don't know how many cultists have taken advantage of the thick fog to enter the real world... I'm afraid we can't wipe them out completely by ourselves."
Vanna nodded solemnly, but just as she was about to say something else, she suddenly noticed something out of the corner of her eye and let out a soft "eh".
She came to the dead Annihilation Cultist, squatted down to examine the body, reached out and grabbed the man's collar and tore it open.
The flesh and blood under the clothes was melting and wriggling, appearing to be contaminated and soaked in black mud. As the body died, the speed at which the mud was wriggling slowed down visibly, and gradually became dry.
"... This is also a fake!?" Vanna opened her eyes wide in astonishment, unable to believe her discovery, "This group of cultists...even made their own people into fakes?!"
"No, it's not that simple," Morris frowned. He was also carefully examining the cultist's body and recalling the details of the battle. After a moment, he slowly shook his head. "I have sensed his thought fluctuations. They are different from those of the fakes. Those fakes have obvious faults in their thinking process that are different from humans. Even if they can behave like ordinary people, they will not be able to maintain a stable consciousness due to the instability of the 'element' itself. But this cultist does not have this problem."
As he spoke, he pointed to the piece of flesh on the cultist's chest that was covered in black mud.
"And more importantly, this part, you see, he is not made of elements - elements and normal flesh and blood exist at the same time, it is more like a symbiosis, or... self-contamination."
Fanna stared at that spot for a long time, her brows gradually furrowed. "These heretics took the initiative to pollute themselves with the elements? They even used the elements to replace part of their own flesh and blood... This is a bit disgusting. Even for the Annihilation Cult, this is an impressive level of perversion."
Morris' tone was quite calm. "I think they are not much different from those Annihilation Cultists who transformed themselves into Deep Demons. These lunatics hate the flesh and blood of the mortal world, and they never mind using the craziest methods to transform themselves."
As he spoke, his attention shifted elsewhere.
He looked at the cultist who had been holding
A large black book.
After a slight hesitation, the old scholar reached out and forcefully pulled the book out from the cultist's tightly grasped fingers.
"Be careful," Vanna immediately warned, "This book may contain blasphemous and obscene content! The power of the sun has weakened now, so if you touch it rashly..."
"Scholars always open new and mysterious books. For us, every reading is a process of challenge and adventure." Morris shook his head gently. "Don't worry, the Lachem sect has special training and coping skills for reading behaviors in this situation. You just need to help me be vigilant and help me solve the problem if something is attracted to this book."
Vanna hesitated for a moment, then nodded seriously: "...Okay."
Morris hummed, completed a quick prayer in his heart, then took out a small bottle of herbal powder from his arms, poured half of it on the ground and lit it, and sprinkled the other half on the book in front of him. Then he confirmed the status of the colorful stone bracelet on his wrist, then sat down on the ground solemnly and placed the book on his legs.
The cover of the book is pitch black, with no text or symbols on the surface. One can only vaguely see fine mesh patterns printed on the hard shell cover, making it impossible to determine its origin.
Morris opened the cover of the book and looked at the contents inside.
Vanna on the side turned her eyes away, trying not to be affected by the book.
Some messy lines and symbols caught Morris's eyes.
At first, he could not understand what he saw at all. The messy symbols and lines did not match any language or ancient characters he knew. But when he tried to turn to the next page, the marks on the pages suddenly began to move—the ink marks turned into living crawling creatures, moving quickly in the cage constructed by the paper. The jumping characters stimulated the old scholar's vision. In just a few seconds, he felt that he had begun to understand the records on the pages.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!