Chapter 223: The New Library

Chapter 223: The New Library

“How long are we going to stay here?” Lily pressed her hands on the edge of the basket, her small head peeking over as she looked at Zheng Yichen with pleading eyes. Her pressure here was just too great.

“Hiding out for a while is good too. We’ll wait until the operation over at the Sanctuary Church slows down before we leave,” Zheng Yichen said after thinking. Even though the Prophecy Art had been removed, its aftereffects weren’t so easy to disappear. They ’d have to wait for the inertial force from the Prophecy Art to fade before leaving. Leaving now would probably just get them knocked over.

Without the power of the Prophecy Art, Zheng Yichen wouldn’t have a ‘fated rival’ effect with the Sanctuary Church’s Saintess like he did before. If he went out now, he might just unluckily run into some Archbishop who was out for a stroll.

“For now, let’s settle in and do some research!”

“…” Lily nodded. She had been running around with Zheng Yichen all this time; it was good to have a period of quiet now. The scenery here was beautiful… Except for the hidden pressure emanating from those Witches which was too frightening, there was nothing bad about the place. Zheng Yichen was frightening? Before, she would have felt that way. After being around him for a long time, she only felt that except for being a bit neurotic, Zheng Yichen was practically like a human. He often didn’t even act like a dragon, but a complete human.

“Want to go to the Library?” Seeing Zheng Yichen who had come to her, Irene thought for a moment. “You can, but don’t go to some areas. They’re dangerous.”

“Okay.” Zheng Yichen nodded. This was someone else’s turf; of course the owner had the final say. As he prepared to leave, Zheng Yichen thought of something and suddenly stopped. “Aren’t you doing research? What should I do then?”

“Not needed for now. After all, a Cursed Dragon like you is the first I’ve encountered.”

“WTF?”

“? What does that mean?” Irene asked.

“When did I get exposed?” Zheng Yichen asked, somewhat stunned. Had his identity as a Cursed Dragon been exposed that simply?

“I know many types of Magic,” Irene said calmly. In front of Zheng Yichen, she spread open her palm. A ripple appeared in her hand. The ripple gradually became clear, revealing a faint image of a young man.

“This works too?” Zheng Yichen’s mouth twitched slightly. His identity being exposed here probably wasn’t a big problem, otherwise Loris and Dan Marina wouldn’t have said nothing about it.

“Only I can do it.” Irene shook her hand and frowned slightly. This magic was a soul-revealing spell that only she could cast, a variant of Detection Magic. It could directly show the target’s Soul. For others, the Mana cost wouldn’t be low, but for her, the consumption was quite normal. After all, it was her original magic. But when she used this spell on Zheng Yichen, she used up over a thousand times more Mana…

Not several times, not several dozen times, but a thousand times!! Such a huge consumption, yet it couldn’t even fully and clearly reveal Zheng Yichen’s soul image, only showing a semi-transparent, faint state. It didn’t hinder viewing, but it ultimately wasn’t a perfect state. Dragon Body and human Soul—this was the characteristic of a Cursed Dragon. Yet Zheng Yichen’s Soul was very stable, showing no tendency for distortion at all. And without using this kind of magic for observation, apart from not feeling a trace of Dragon’s Aura from him, there was no feeling of discord at all.

Clearly an incompatible Soul and body, yet they intertwined in a completely harmonious state. If it weren’t for the fact that the Fate-Killer currently attracted her, Irene would have long wanted to figure out Zheng Yichen’s physical condition. What kind of method could create such a ‘perfect’ Cursed Dragon, one that even her unique method couldn’t perfectly reveal the Soul of?

It wasn’t that her Mana wasn’t enough to support a greater consumption, but that the previous revealing was the limit. After that, even doubling the Mana consumption would only make the revealed image a tiny bit clearer, not worth the cost. Zheng Yichen’s Soul seemed to have an extremely special quality, making all methods aimed at his Soul difficult to take effect, and even harmful ones would become completely ineffective!

Even… Irene had also sensed a somewhat familiar aura when using the soul-revealing spell, but that aura was too faint. Relying on this magic alone was insufficient to fully detect it. The best way was to forcibly extract Zheng Yichen’s Soul for detailed study… provided it could be extracted.

“Are all Witches this proud?” Zheng Yichen couldn’t help but ask upon hearing Irene’s words. ‘Only I can do it’… thinking about it, Zheng Yichen felt like he had heard similar statements from Luolisi, and even Dan Marina.

“We have the qualifications for such pride, so why not?”

Every Witch, based on their abilities and power, was at the peak in a certain field.

Hearing this, Zheng Yichen scratched his head. It didn’t seem like what she said was wrong about him. Not just Irene was like this; he himself in Alchemy and Engineering seemed to have similar thoughts often. After all, he possessed knowledge not from this Otherworld!

In any case, after obtaining Irene’s permission, Zheng Yichen was able to freely enter and exit the Library.

“Is it really okay to bring me?” Lily, following Zheng Yichen, cautiously looked around, asking a bit uneasily. Only Zheng Yichen was the one who asked for permission. Now bringing her… overall, the pressure Witches gave her still existed. Even though she hadn’t seen them for two days, this was Witch territory.

“Of course it’s fine. Ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent of the books in the Library you won’t be able to understand. And the Witches’ books are all protected by Magic. Even if you kicked them around like a ball, they wouldn’t break,” Zheng Yichen said without looking back. Lily behind him couldn’t help but show a slightly indignant expression, then sighed somewhat helplessly. Okay, what Zheng Yichen said wasn’t wrong. Obviously, books collected by Witches were definitely not ordinary books. It would be strange if she could understand them.

Irene’s Library. Zheng Yichen looked at this massive entrance and gave a slight nod. It was as grand as the style of this manor. There were even statues of two Giant Dragons on either side of the door. The statues’ eyes burned with a ghostly blue flame, seeming to serve a lighting effect, but in broad daylight, what was the point of lighting?

This ghostly blue flame appeared after he came within a certain range of here. Zheng Yichen rubbed his chin. “Following the usual trope, if someone came here without authorization, they’d probably be warned by some kind of restriction. If forced entry was attempted, these two things would probably come alive?”

“Huh? Have you been here before? You know this?” Lily asked, puzzled.

“Isn’t this something you can think of just casually?” Zheng Yichen asked back, somewhat strangely.

Lily fell silent. This dragon’s thoughts were indeed a bit weird. How could this be something one thought of immediately upon seeing it? Weren’t statues just statues?

Seeing Lily’s expression, Zheng Yichen shook his head slightly. He really wanted to say, oh Loli, you’ve read too few novels and know too few tropes. Generally speaking… Earth people who have read a lot of novels, coming to a Witch’s manor like this and learning about it a bit, could all think of this, right?

“Ahem! Open sesame!” Walking up to the door, Zheng Yichen cleared his throat lightly and waved his Dragon’s Claws to the sides…

“I’ve seen the ‘Open Sesame’ story,” Lily whispered, following Zheng Yichen. There was that in the storybooks before.

“I was just saying it casually,” Zheng Yichen immediately withdrew his hands and simply walked over to push open the door. Well, the door was huge. From the earlier test, it seemed there was no automatic opening mechanism. Opening it required manual force. The strength required… anyway, Zheng Yichen himself pushed with quite some effort. For others, trying to open it through brute force alone probably wouldn’t work. Using violence?

Did they really think the two statues at the door were just for show?! When Zheng Yichen came in, he noticed the statues’ joints were peculiar. Even if they weren’t Alchemical Products, they were something similar. It would be strange if they couldn’t move.

Having been to the Castle’s Underground Library, Zheng Yichen had relevant experience. Seeing this even more grand and massive Library, he only paused slightly before recovering. Lily, however, completely froze. “So… so big.”

She couldn’t help but be awed. From the moment she entered, what she saw was an ocean of books. The space inside was clearly expanded, so she couldn’t see the end at a glance. This Library, filled with so many books, due to its structure, presented a view full of orderly beauty, utilizing the space perfectly. Even though the number of books here was enough to make one despair.

“How do you even look at all this?” After the awe wore off and she regained her senses, Lily was still somewhat dumbfounded. There were just too many books here, enough to last a lifetime.

“Look at them slowly.” Zheng Yichen hooked a finger towards a nearby bookshelf. A book was pulled out by several Mana Threads and fell into his hand. “Hmm, I see.”

The books in the Castle’s Underground Library, while containing basic knowledge, were mostly high-level. But this Library covered a more comprehensive range. The book in Zheng Yichen’s hand was a children’s Enlightenment Book… the shelf holding this book basically had books of this type. Looking further back, there were books for every age group.

From this, one could see just how comprehensive the collection in this Library was!

“This is really… idle,” Zheng Yichen said sincerely. Considering this was someone else’s turf, he forcefully swallowed back the phrase ‘idle to the point of pain’. He gently tapped Lily’s head with his finger. “I take back what I said before. You probably wouldn’t understand at least ninety-five percent of the books here.”

Just the number of children’s Enlightenment Books alone was so large. Presumably, there were also many books Lily could understand. Such a comprehensive Library was perfect. Anyway, Zheng Yichen recently planned to delve into Potionology and perfect the previously designed ‘martial arts’ framework. These all required a vast foundation of knowledge. Zheng Yichen didn’t have such deep foundation, so naturally, he had to find it from books.

But with so many books, Zheng Yichen was also a bit troubled. At the Underground Library, there was the help of the local expert, the Ghost Maid. Here, did he have to slowly search with his own two eyes? Such a massive collection of books, even just the index alone could probably fill a large bookshelf…