Chapter 114: The Strange Paper

“You may not have learned much else, but you picked up the art of Xuan Law’s verbal trickery rather quickly.”

Qin Le looked utterly speechless.

This elf was truly shameless—in every sense of the word.

“High praise, high praise. I’ve always been quite confident in my ability to learn.” Emoya showed no embarrassment whatsoever. If anything, she seemed proud of her lack of shame.

She pushed open the car door and climbed out first.

“Hurry up, hurry up. Don’t waste time. The treasure is waiting for us.”

Urged on by Emoya, Qin Le and the others got out of the military jeep.

As he looked up at the castle before them, the sunlight overhead stabbed at his eyes.

The castle was stark and rugged, without any unnecessary decoration. It had only thick walls, watchtowers, and various defensive measures. Rather than a castle, it resembled a fortress built for war—somewhat like Count Dyna’s castle.

Its design considered defense alone, completely disregarding comfort.

Emoya dashed into the castle and vanished from sight in an instant.

“That woman…”

With a pained look on his face, Qin Le entered the dim castle.

Lamps had been lit throughout the interior, and soldiers stood guard in every area.

An officer who had been waiting inside hurried over the moment he saw Qin Le and saluted.

“Sir.”

“Has the entire castle been searched? Did you find any secret rooms or anything of the sort?” Qin Le asked.

Ever since he had seen that scene in the border town last time, he had begun to suspect that the castles of these nobles always concealed something beneath them.

In a world where supernatural powers existed, society could never become completely rigid; the classes were always in flux. Yet the common people lived even more miserable lives than those in his original world. Anyone with talent had risen above them, leaving behind only the untalented—a mass of slaves as tenacious and worthless as weeds.

Still, in a world where dark arts existed, even slaves had value. The nobles’ exploitation of the lower classes was enough to make the capitalists of his original world weep.

The officer replied, “The entire castle has been searched. We haven’t found any secret rooms. However, there is one strange matter: after occupying the castle, we found no trace of Viscount Will’s family.”

“It seems modern technology has a hard time detecting this world’s anti-theft measures.” Qin Le did not believe that a castle this large would have neither secret rooms nor hidden passageways.

The higher a person’s position, the more likely they were to leave themselves a way out. Even the powerful figures of his original world had thought to dig secret tunnels. In a world possessing supernatural forces, such precautions were even more inevitable.

“We’ll have to wait for Emoya.”

The moment he finished speaking, a slender, snow-white hand suddenly came to rest on his shoulder.

Qin Le’s heart gave a violent leap. His body reacted instinctively: he twisted at the waist and drove his right elbow backward.

“Qin Le, I found—whoa!”

Before Emoya could finish, she saw the elbow hurtling toward her and immediately crouched down to evade the blow.

Qin Le came back to his senses. Looking at Emoya, who was crouched on the floor with both hands over her head, he said helplessly, “I told you not to appear behind me without warning.”

The experiences of the first half of his life had ingrained a kind of muscle memory into this body—one he could not control himself. Whenever someone suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder without making the slightest sound, his body would react at once.

Emoya was especially troublesome in that regard. She made no sound and gave off no presence whatsoever, causing his body to respond with exceptional violence.

“Qin! Le!”

Emoya sprang to her feet, her delicate features filled with fury. Gritting her teeth, she said, “What the hell is wrong with you? Were you trying to murder me?”

“That was my instinctive reaction. You can’t blame me.” Qin Le explained himself, then looked at her scornfully. “Besides, you’re an upper-third-rank supernatural. In theory, I couldn’t possibly hurt you.”

The upper third rank was a watershed in this world. Once someone reached that stage, their strength underwent a tremendous leap, and they became truly supernatural beings in every sense of the word. Even Xuan Law could not guarantee that it would be able to deal with an opponent of that level with absolute certainty.

Even a physically frail mage, upon reaching the upper third rank, could pin Qin Le to the ground and beat him senseless. The disparity in strength was simply too great.

Yet Emoya was a complete anomaly. Other than running fast, she possessed no combat ability whatsoever.

“Hmph! It’s not as if you don’t know that my body is no different from an ordinary person’s,” Emoya said irritably.

“I’ve found the room. Come with me.”

Looting the place was more important now. She had no intention of wasting time with that man, Qin Le.

Led by Emoya, the group arrived at an empty room.

The room contained nothing but walls and floor tiles.

According to the officer beside them, it had originally been a study, but Xuan Law had already removed all the books. Every corner had also been searched, yet nothing unusual had been found, just as before.

Naturally, if Xuan Law were determined to dig out a hidden chamber, it could do so. But that would consume a great deal of time. They were still in the midst of war and could not afford to spend so long hunting for treasure.

“Where is the hidden chamber?” Qin Le asked, staring at the empty room.

“There isn’t one,” Emoya replied.

“There isn’t? Then how did they conduct their lamb sacrifices? Did they do it openly?” Qin Le asked in surprise.

The dark arts of this world were equivalent to human experimentation in his original world. They were forbidden in public, but secretly, everyone carried out a little of it. Such things could never be placed in the open; it was enough for everyone to understand without saying so.

Emoya rolled her eyes at him.

“Do you think this is the Kingdom of Kexian? How could anyone conduct such things openly? This is the Kingdom of Dawn. The dark arts are forbidden here. The nobles only dare dabble in them along the borders. They wouldn’t dare touch them in a major city.”

As she spoke, Emoya walked toward the western wall, stopping after every step. Her pace was rather peculiar.

“Although there’s no hidden chamber, in all my years of professional experience, I’ve learned that nobles are creatures who always hide something away—especially humans.”

She reached the western wall, raised her right hand, and tapped it lightly.

At once, the entire wall began to glow white.

Mysterious lines slowly emerged, forming a pattern resembling an eye.

“Well, well. I didn’t expect this to be so sophisticated. They actually used a superior sealing spell.”

Emoya looked surprised. Then she extended her right hand, and the entire arm sank directly into the wall.

“Let’s see what valuable things are hidden inside. Hmm…”

The next moment, Emoya pulled a yellowed sheet of paper from within the wall.

“What is this supposed to be?”

She stared at the paper in her hand, completely baffled. They had used such an advanced method merely to hide a scrap of old paper.

The sheet was yellowed throughout, its four rectangular corners cut with remarkable neatness. It looked ancient and seemed to have existed for many years.

Line after line of unfamiliar writing filled its surface in neat, orderly script.

Qin Le came over and leaned toward the tattered paper in Emoya’s hand.

“What is it?”

After all that effort, they had found only a single sheet of paper—and he could not even recognize the writing on it. It was clearly not the common tongue.

Could this world possess languages besides the common tongue?

Emoya frowned slightly and pondered for a long while.

“It looks very much like the writing found in ancient ruins. I studied a little of it in the elven library, but I can’t guarantee that the elves’ translation is correct.”

Her slender, pale finger touched the first line of the page.

“In the **thousandth year, His Majesty the H*, went mad.”

After haltingly reading the line, Emoya stared at the paper in confusion. She examined it from the left, then the right, turned it upside down, flipped it over, and inspected it again.

“What in the world is this?”