Standing in the study room, what Richard saw were five or six tall bookshelves lined up against the wall. Each bookshelf was filled with books and scrolls.
With eyes slightly narrowed, Richard walked to one of the bookshelves, stepped on the special wooden ladder, and reached out to reach the top of the bookshelf.
Pushing aside a large number of books and scrolls, Richard touched a cold black iron box placed at the bottom of the bookshelf. The black iron box is about thirty centimeters long and wide, and five or six centimeters thick. The surface is engraved with complicated patterns, which makes it look weird and mysterious.
With a slight exertion, Richard pulled the black iron box out of the bookshelf, walked down the wooden ladder, and placed it on the wooden table in the study room.
With a "click" sound, Richard opened the black iron box, revealing a book inside.
This book is about the same size as a black iron box. The cover has a cold metallic color and looks extremely heavy.
Richard took out the book and felt the ice-like touch. His eyes flickered and fell on a depression on the cover.
The depression, combined with the metal texture on the cover, looks like a split mouth. If you look at it from a special angle, you can still see a line of small words that are difficult to read: Let me drink magic energy to my heart's content, and I will Tell you the truth about this world.
Magic book! In other words, this is a wizard book!
Richard finally found this in the deepest part of the royal library. Even the oldest librarian couldn't tell its origin. All I know is that this is a weird book, full of evil power and with a vicious curse. If you come into contact with it frequently, you will get sick at worst or die suddenly at worst.
Richard naturally did not believe in so-called curses and evil forces. In Richard's opinion, this book just contained a volatile substance that was poisonous to the human body. As long as you pay attention to the circulation of air, you can completely avoid chronic poisoning.
But it is not easy to unlock the secrets in books.
Because this book is wordless.
Yes, the wordless heavenly book!
There is not a single word in the pages inside. Unless someone is deliberately making fun of it, there is only one explanation: under special conditions, this book can reveal its hidden content. Just like a common trick on modern earth, writing on white paper with starch changes color when it comes into contact with iodine.
But Richard has done many tests, and no matter whether it is pure water solution, iodine solution, acid solution or alkali solution, the book pages can't be changed. Obviously, the paint on the book pages is an extremely special kind, and the only way to do it is to find the corresponding reactant.
And what this reactant is, the cover has made it clear enough: magic energy.
What is magic? Magic substance
In order to decipher the secrets of this wizard's book, and to uncover the secrets of wizards and spells, Richard has been searching for strange creatures and humans for several years, and now...
Richard tilted his head slightly and looked at the rose-colored liquid placed on the side of the table.
"You should know right away whether it's right or wrong, right?" Richard said to himself. The next moment he picked up the bottle containing the rose-colored liquid, opened the stopper, and poured it slowly into the depression on the book cover.
Soon, the depression was filled, and a small bubble emerged. After being still for a long time, it broke with a "pop" sound.
For a moment, it seemed to cause a chain reaction. The liquid in the depression of the cover seemed to boil, and a large number of bubbles emerged and burst.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
Then, as if some restriction was triggered, he took a gulp and all the liquid was swallowed by the book in an instant and disappeared completely.
The next moment, the book began to tremble slightly, like a human being trembling, causing the tabletop to start shaking, and a faint voice sounded from the depths of the book: "Thirsty... thirsty... thirsty..."
Richard raised his eyebrows, stretched out his hand to hold down the shaking wizard's book, then picked up the bottle with rose-colored liquid and pointed it at the dent in the cover and drank it again.
This time, as the liquid was poured down, the sound of "gu dong gu dong" kept sounding. Every time the sound was heard, the poured liquid would disappear, and a low voice of "more... more..." would be heard.
Just like that, Richard drank half of the bottle of liquid. The sound of drinking water finally disappeared, replaced by a belching sound, "Hee-burp-"
The shocked book slowly returned to calm, and Richard took a deep breath to open it.
I saw that the first page of the book was originally blank, but now blood-red paint showed up bit by bit, and finally formed a scary skull.
The skull's eyes were burning with blazing flames, as if they were real. I don't know if it was an illusion, but Richard actually felt the heat.
this…
The next moment, something even more shocking happened. The painted skull actually started to move, and its jaws opened and closed and made a cold and low groan: "Who woke me up? Who is ready to peek into Master Munro's treasure of knowledge? Answer Me, otherwise you will receive the severest punishment!”
If the others were scared to death when they saw this situation, Richard was not. Instead, he looked at the skull on the page with interest and asked, "Who are you?"
"I am the book spirit created by Master Monroe to protect the safety of this book and screen the qualifications of people who read this book."
"What can you do?"
"I can verify whether everyone reading this book is smart enough. If so, then he will be qualified to read this book. If not, then he will pay the due price for his own recklessness and ignorance."
"What price?"
"Death!" Shu Ling's voice was extremely cold.
But Richard laughed: "It's interesting."
Then Richard asked: "How do you verify whether everyone is smart enough?"
"I will exchange a question with everyone. If he can answer my question correctly and make me unable to answer his question, then he is smart enough. During the period when I cannot answer his question, he can Feel free to read the contents of this book without penalty."
"Is that so..." Richard's eyes flashed, "Then what is your problem?"
"For those who want to pry into Master Monroe's knowledge, are you sure you want to start the challenge?" Shu Ling's voice became solemn.
"You have to give it a try." Richard said, "Whether it's success or failure, I want to study your mechanism of action."
"..." Shu Ling was silent for a moment, as if thinking about the meaning of what Richard said, and finally said, "Okay, since you have determined the challenge, let's answer this difficult question: There is a strange creature, in There are four legs in the morning, two legs at noon..."
Richard couldn't help but be startled after hearing this. Isn't this the mystery of the Sphinx on modern earth and in Greek mythology? In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat on a cliff near Thebes, stopping passers-by and asking them the same riddle.
Many people couldn't guess the answer and were eaten mercilessly by the "Sphinx". Later, a man named "Oedipus" guessed the correct answer. The "Sphinx" was extremely ashamed after hearing this. , jumped off a cliff and died.
The next moment, before Shu Ling could finish his words, Richard couldn't help but interrupt: "Don't tell me, what you are going to say next is, 'This creature has three legs at night. When it has the most legs, That's when he walks the slowest and is at his weakest. And then he asks me, 'What is this creature'?"
Shu Ling's voice suddenly stopped and he fell into silence for a long time, as if he had encountered this situation for the first time.
Richard spoke again and said to Shu Ling: "Well, if this is really the case, then I can only tell you that the puzzle is 'human'. Because humans crawl around when they are babies (in the morning) It has four legs, two legs for normal walking in adulthood (at noon), and three legs for walking with a cane in old age (at night).
But... the criterion for judging intelligence is just a puzzle similar to a brain twisting puzzle. Is it really rigorous? Or is it that what you call smart is not the same as what I understand? You prefer wit, but I prefer wisdom...",