Chapter 212: The Generation Gap Between Two Worlds

Chapter 212: The Generation Gap Between Two Worlds

It was not at all surprising to Zheng Yichen that Lily would ask this kind of question. On the contrary, he would have found it strange if she did not ask. After all, Lily was not foolish. Before, she had been able to raise questions by extrapolating from the fairy tales Zheng Yichen had created. Though Zheng Yichen did not think there was any need to consider deeper meanings in fairy tales…

Kids just needed to see the truth, goodness, and beauty in fairy tales, right? They weren’t reading some dark fairy tales, so why overthink it?

After encountering the Undying Witch this time, and through the words the witch had spoken without concealment, Lily couldn’t have failed to realize something. So it was normal for her to ask about Corpse Puppets now. Zheng Yichen just did not know how to answer this question.

Say he understood? This was the first time he had even heard of Corpse Puppets. He had studied Necromantic Creatures and knew quite a few types, but Corpse Puppets had not appeared in any records. Helplessly, Zheng Yichen could only say he did not know. True, he had conducted a lot of research on Lily, but none of that research was destructive.

“Oh…” Lily nodded somewhat disappointedly. Looking at Zheng Yichen, she had no intention of pressing further. Without him, she would have died in that explosion earlier. When she lost consciousness at the end, what she saw was Zheng Yichen exerting great effort to protect her in his arms. “Who was that woman?”

“I know this one—a Witch,” Zheng Yichen answered casually. After all, Lily was no longer an ordinary person now, so knowing about Witches shouldn’t be an issue.

“…A Witch?” Lily nodded in sudden realization. Once she was just a common little girl, but she occasionally heard stories or biographies told by Bards passing near her home. Many of these stories contained references to Witches, and in these tales, Witches were never portrayed as positive characters. Instead, many parts of the stories described how wherever a Witch appeared, disaster always followed.

Her current situation seemed to match what was described in those stories. The appearance of the Witch had transformed her into this state that seemed not quite human. The fact that so many members of the Sanctuary Church had been stationed in the small town where she once lived, a place filled with resentment, likely indicated a major problem. Perhaps everyone in the entire town had become ‘Corpse Puppets’ like her.

“Was that why you took me away back then?”

“Hmm, yes. After all, it was my first time encountering beings like you.” Zheng Yichen thought for a moment. Under the little Lolita’s eager gaze, he chose not to hide the truth. “So, driven by curiosity, I picked the best target to act upon… Well, direct confrontation or anything like that—I couldn’t possibly defeat that Witch.”

Lily thought about Zheng Yichen’s situation at that time and asked with some confusion, “Why didn’t you use that very powerful weapon?”

“Magic Arms are very effective against enemies of the same level or weaker ones, but against a Witch, their effect is basically negligible,” Zheng Yichen said with a hint of helplessness. In the Human world, High-Level Magic Soldiers were indeed impressive and precious weapons. However, Zheng Yichen had long seen Loris’s collection and had a decent understanding of Magic Arms. Beyond High-Level Magic Soldiers, there were even more powerful ones. Against a Witch, only Magic Arms of that higher level would probably have any effect.

But for now, creating High-Level Magic Soldiers was Zheng Yichen’s limit. More advanced Magic Arms? He really shouldn’t fantasize about that for the time being. If he forced himself to try, he wouldn’t succeed and would instead suffer severe Magic backlash.

Given the circumstances at the time, using Magic Arms was truly not as effective for Zheng Yichen as fighting the way he did then. Magic Arms could unleash formidable power, but what he needed then was an ultra-strong single-target attack that could break through a defense. Zheng Yichen didn’t need to compare; at that time, the destructive power of that compressed Pseudo Divine Power punch within a small area definitely surpassed that of Light Tide. Unfortunately, it lacked Light Tide’s sustained effect.

Even if it had a brief burst of sustained force, that shield of the Undying Witch should have been smashed apart by Zheng Yichen’s punch.

Zheng Yichen’s words made Lily feel an indescribable sense of powerlessness. In her eyes, Zheng Yichen was an extremely formidable being. Plus, he was from the legendary Dragon Clan, which added greatly to her impression of him. Yet this strength was redefined and shattered by the appearance of the Witch. Was the world really this exaggerated?

Lily now felt like an ant that had gained three-dimensional perception—everything she saw seemed so tall and dangerous!

“Don’t be discouraged. Those beings have all lived for hundreds of years. How old are you?” Seeing Lily’s dazed expression, Zheng Yichen spoke up.

“…” Loris gently tapped the surface of the water in the basin, aiming at Zheng Yichen’s head… She had never once spoken such words in front of him before. So, in his view, Witches had this additional definition?

“Do I have hope of becoming like that?” Lily asked with a hint of hope.

“Why ask that?” Zheng Yichen couldn’t help but retort. Setting an unattainable ultimate goal for yourself from the start was just asking for disappointment.

“There are many things I want to ask her,” Lily said through lightly clenched teeth. However, Zheng Yichen could tell she was not being entirely honest. Noticing Zheng Yichen’s intense gaze, Lily couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her mouth. “I really hated that feeling of powerlessness before.”

If being treated as a commodity or tool when she fell into the hands of the town’s dark forces was already an unbearable humiliation, then facing the Undying Witch made her feel like a useless, unnoticed ant. The Witch’s gaze was like a thread finer and more fragile than a strand of hair, yet under that thread, she became unable to move, struggling to breathe, as if the next moment everything about her would be stripped away.

Before, she had at least the possibility of resistance. Later, even after Zheng Yichen took her away, the situation improved. Although Zheng Yichen did not allow her to leave and even forbade her from making certain choices, given her Otherworld perspective and her past experiences, being by Zheng Yichen’s side did grant her a degree of respect where her wishes were considered. It wasn’t much, but it was far better than before. This latest encounter, however, made her experience the feeling of being isolated by the entire world, as if she had fallen into an endless deep sea, waiting for death in lonely despair.

So, rather than saying she had many questions for the Undying Witch, it was more accurate to say she had utterly come to hate that feeling and wanted to gain the ability to break free from that suffocating discomfort.

“I can’t guarantee that,” Zheng Yichen said after thinking for a while. He rummaged in his pocket for a moment, then placed a half-used Notebook in front of Lily. The little Lolita looked at the Notebook Zheng Yichen had taken out with some confusion. She took it, flipped through a couple of pages, and looked at Zheng Yichen with a puzzled expression. Those standard square symbols on the pages should be some kind of writing, right?

They had a sort of linear, special aesthetic, completely different in style from the Continent’s Common Script. Yet she couldn’t understand a single character. Even combinations of strokes just looked like some kind of symbols to her, not to mention the commas, periods, exclamation marks, double quotation marks, and other punctuation… Just glancing at two pages made her feel dizzy and thoroughly confused.

“What is this?”

“Ahem, I forgot you can’t read it.” Zheng Yichen cleared his throat and took the Notebook back from Lily. “Let me translate it for you.”

All of Zheng Yichen’s experimental records related to any aspect of himself were written in Chinese characters. After all, in this world, only he, a single Dragon, knew Chinese characters. Moreover, this world did not have any unscientific Magic like ‘comprehend languages.’ There were indeed ways to communicate that ignored language barriers, but those involved Mental Energy connections, directly transmitting the meaning in one’s thoughts to the other party without needing additional speech.

After all, most of Zheng Yichen’s experimental records were results combined with knowledge from Earth. This kind of information might seem irrelevant in many aspects, but under specific circumstances, it could bring some unexpected, extraordinary effects… Not always good outcomes. On Earth, a world with extremely developed internet, there were just too many wild ideas.

And plenty of even more toxic ones. Zheng Yichen might not be able to develop new ideas based on his own knowledge, but he could borrow the ideas he already knew… Anyway, with the enhancement of his Mental Energy, the legendary transmigrator memory advantage had come online. So, if other Alchemy Professionals were to learn about his numerous experimental results, especially those related to forbidden Alchemy studies, who knows what kind of things they might cook up.

Well… Ultimately, there was also some selfish thinking on Zheng Yichen’s part. From the beginning until now, Zheng Yichen still firmly believed he was an Earthling. And in this Otherworld, he wasn’t even Human. So why should he excessively, or even selflessly, share the knowledge he possessed?

Promote Earth-style culture?

Tch, I’m not even Human now. Doing that wouldn’t bring any benefits; instead, it might invite more covetous eyes. Plus, given his identity as a Cursed Dragon that everyone wanted to hunt down, doing so would really be asking for trouble when he had nothing better to do. Therefore, Zheng Yichen had always recorded things in the most secure way. For some important data and structures, he even recorded them directly in the Dreamscape.

Even if one day he were accidentally killed, all his research would vanish into thin air. Even if those Notebooks were obtained, without understanding Chinese characters or any basis for translation, others would only get a bunch of useless scribbles. Unless, by chance, another Earth Transmigrator happened to obtain these notes.

If that really happened, Zheng Yichen would consider it as helping out a fellow Earthling. If not, well, damn it, why should I let you Otherworld people, who are always trying to kill me, benefit from what I worked so hard to research?

Zheng Yichen had no grand ambitions, so he felt absolutely no pressure about his current behavior. In fact, he felt a certain Transmigrator’s pride.

Quickly translating the contents of the Notebook, Zheng Yichen handed the translated Otherworld-version notes to Lily. This wasn’t any special research; it was purely investigative records about Lily’s body, documenting the many peculiar characteristics Zheng Yichen had discovered about her so far.

Once she could understand the contents of the notes, Lily completely settled down to read them. The information recorded was very important to her, and she spent nearly two hours carefully going through it, making Zheng Yichen wonder if she was reading every word with deep comprehension. Overall, the content in the Notebook wasn’t that much, which was why only half was used… Well, after translating into the Otherworld Common Script, the same-sized Notebook ended up using over two-thirds of its pages.

After all, some content was simple to record in Chinese characters—sometimes just a single word would do. But when translating into the Otherworld Common Script, places where two simple words could be used often had to be rephrased into a full sentence to convey the complete meaning.

“Is my body really that miraculous?”

“Hmm, from what I understand, yes, quite miraculous.” Zheng Yichen crossed his arms as he spoke. Probably because, through his capture, his own Gray Mist Power had also acquired characteristics of his abilities, giving Lily’s physique traits distinct from ordinary Corpse Puppets. For example, when that gray Death Ripple swept over them earlier, Zheng Yichen had relied on his own ability to ignore its lethal effect. While Lily’s ability to ignore it was largely due to her lack of a Soul, a small portion of the Death Ripple’s power that swept through her body was permanently retained.

That power became nourishment for the Gray Mist Power in her body, which existed in a latent state. As for how Zheng Yichen could detect this, it was still due to his current perception of Lily, which was particularly strong regarding that latent power when triggered.

Summarizing his research findings so far, Lily’s body seemed to break through certain physical limitations. Her potential for physical growth was extremely high, and Zheng Yichen hadn’t seen any bottleneck or limit yet. Of course, it might also be because she was still too weak. So whether there truly was a bottleneck would only be known if encountered in the future.

“What is the body protection restriction?”

“Oh, the protection restriction? Well, everyone’s physical strength output has a limit. Exceeding this limit will injure one’s own body. So the brain automatically imposes such a restriction on the body to prevent it from exerting excessive strength that could harm itself.” Zheng Yichen gave a simple explanation, but it only earned him Lily’s “I don’t get it, but it sounds impressive” expression.

He couldn’t help but sigh. Generation gap, generation gap—this gap really spanned two worlds. Giving an in-depth explanation would be like having Zheng Yichen perform a live dissection on someone right now.

“Overall, your restriction seems lower than that of normal people. Let’s put it this way: if someone with the exact same physique as you can unleash maximum strength capable of killing a wolf, you could punch and kill a tiger with one blow. However, the consequence would be that you would injure your own arm due to exerting strength beyond your limit, while the other person would remain unharmed. But they absolutely couldn’t, like you, kill a tiger with one punch.”

Zheng Yichen’s explanation made Lily understand somewhat, but she didn’t feel particularly happy. From every angle, his explanation related to oneself. If one was too weak, it still wouldn’t be of much use… Besides, from the stories she heard from Bards as a child, Magic was often overly ‘mythologized,’ so she still held a strong belief in the power of Magic in her heart.