“I have taught you everything.” The old man sat in the shadows against the wall, and the evening light came in through the fence of the window, illuminating only half of his chin.
The old man’s hoarse voice sounded much weaker compared to yesterday, “How much do you remember now?”
Delicious Wind Goose, who was squatting in the opposite cell, replied respectfully, “I have remembered them all, and I won’t forget them.”
“…Ah.” The old man sneered in a low voice, “I believe you didn’t speak the whole truth.”
His low, hoarse voice was filled with a blatant air of death.
Since the old man’s bowl was broken, Delicious Wind Goose hadn’t seen him say a word in front of the “jailer” who delivered the meal.
On the other hand, after being imprisoned in the dungeon, Delicious Wind Goose was provided with three meals a day. However, the jailer never gave the old man any food or even a single sip of water, making the old man’s voice much weaker.
It seemed that the old man had come to his limit after surviving for so long.
Delicious Wind Goose was unable to leave much food for the old man due to being monitored while eating. He could only hide one apple for each meal and throw it over to the old man’s cell after the jailer had left.
It wasn’t about having more gains.
Delicious Wind Goose found it unbearable to see another person starving and parched while having his stomach filled, especially the person was his teacher.
Perhaps this was why the old man taught the Delicious Wind Goose about ritual knowledge.
The old man obviously despised Delicious Wind Goose’s poor aptitude.
Still, Delicious Wind Goose also knew in his heart that what the old man said was true.
Half of his words were indeed false.
The old man had given him a total of 26 rituals of different scales and a lot of occult knowledge. Except for a few rituals that were relatively simple, the rest were quite complex.
If it was a player with scientific research experience, he might be able to understand them.
Delicious Wind Goose felt these rituals were like high school’s and college’s physics and chemistry experiments. He had written down the steps, but he couldn’t duplicate them fully if he were to perform them hands-on.
Worse still, the knowledge he got had no picture as guidance, unlike the textbook.
The old man would erase and paint a new ritual formation on the ground every 40 minutes on average. No one could have remembered them.
Fortunately, he had the screenshot function.
Indeed, Delicious Wind Goose captured all the ritual steps through screenshots.
When the time came, he just had to follow it step by step.
Moreover, the system labeled ritual knowledge as “occult knowledge”. When Delicious Wind Goose sent this knowledge to the forum, the system would notify him that he had completed the weekly mission of [Secret Eye].
By just submitting this knowledge to the Secret Eye’s database, Old Goose had earned a couple of experiences.
Delicious Wind Goose then followed through with this tedious task immediately.
These rituals were divided into different levels according to difficulty and importance. After the player raises the prestige level in the [Secret Eye] faction to the corresponding level, they could check up on all the knowledge and information to their level with keywords at any time.
It was much faster than browsing one picture at a time.
As for the price, they could not release the pictures and content here through forum channels.
Of course, the players could still memorize, copy, and trade the knowledge offline. However, that would require them to spend time and master that knowledge first before teaching others. This rule applied simply because the knowledge could be passed to the others verbatim in Mist Continent, provided the sharer had already attained mastery on it.
Still, it was impossible to record the knowledge on paper.
This was one of the core rules of this world.
Knowledge contains power. Occult knowledge couldn’t be recorded by ordinary people, ordinary words, and ordinary paper. If one were to write them down on paper, the paper would burn on its own; if the knowledge were carved on a wooden sign, the wooden sign would rot.
The reason was that power also meant “curse”.
Mortal objects could not bear this level of curse.
For example, at the moment when the old man used the fragments of the bowl to draw a magic circle on the ground, the temperature in the cell dropped significantly. There were also magic circles that made the surrounding ground freeze and some magic circles that made the ground seep out blood on the surface.
Undoubtedly, the old man did not possess any Transcended power. But the mere fact that knowledge itself was “completely fixed in the material world” was enough to change reality.
Delicious Wind Goose was self-aware. He might not be able to remember or understand the knowledge. Taking a step back, he was satisfied as long as the knowledge could be useful.
Unexpectedly, as the uploader of the knowledge, he gained ample experience and the right to utilize the uploaded knowledge at any time. In another sense, he had already learned it.
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to utilize the knowledge fully.
“Fine.” The old man sighed deeply after the silence.
He reluctantly wrote something on the ground with the fragments of a bowl.
Delicious Wind Goose didn’t quite see what was carved on the ground. However, he was keenly aware that the ground beneath him shook slightly.
Soon, the ground in front of the old man suddenly wriggled.
Like a living creature, the ground returned to its original form.
Not a single scratch, frost traces, nor scorch mark remained.
There were just a few lines of text.
It occurred that the old man could use his knowledge to escape if he wanted to.
Not to mention some rituals couldn’t be taught in this circumstance at all, the old man never gave this brief ritual that commanded the earth to erase traces of Delicious Wind Goose.
The old man must have hidden some of his true power.
Delicious Wind Goose couldn’t help but ask, “Since you have the power, why didn’t you escape?”
“Why should I?” The old man asked back.
Delicious Wind Goose was stunned.
He didn’t know how to answer for a while.
Seeing this, the old man laughed out loud.
It wasn’t the previous sneer but a kind and gentle chuckle like the old grandfather neighbor, “You are a good boy, but you are too stupid.
“You just learn what I taught you. Aren’t you afraid that the knowledge I give you is poisonous?”
“Huh, knowledge can be poisonous?”
“That’s natural.” The old man replied calmly, “When some knowledge is written on the stone tablet, its power is enough to eradicate a city. Yes, the secret message I wrote on the ground can even command the earth. But why do you think that your brain can be harder than a rock, and your body is sturdier than the earth?
“Forget it. I won’t scare you any further. In the knowledge I gave you, there is indeed no poison in them.” The old man said, raising his head slightly.
The light originally shone on the old man’s chin, but now it had reached Adam’s apple. As he spoke, the sharp Adam’s apple slid up and down, “My life has come to an end.
“Some grand rituals consume life, and life is the best fuel.” The old man replied calmly, “You will meet such a day too.”
Delicious Wind Goose couldn’t help but ask, “What the hell put you in this prison?”
“What put me in this prison?” The old man sneered nonchalantly and replied in a low voice, “Everything.”
He obviously did not intend to continue answering this question.
Silence temporarily shrouded the small, dimly lit dungeon.
In the end, it was neither Delicious Wind Goose nor the old man who broke the silence.
At this moment, the clicking sound of the black iron key intruded.
There were three doors to enter this place; each had to be opened with different keys.
Klaus Cass held a set of keys in his right hand, and his long sword was in the silver scabbard hung on his waist.
“Have you thought it through?” He stopped at the door and looked at Delicious Wind Goose. Then, he asked, “Did you have a good time in the same room with the dead person for three days and two nights?”
Dead person? Delicious Wind Goose was startled.
He looked up at the cell opposite him.
Sitting against the wall was the corpse of an old man that had begun to rot. Next to the broken bowl, five apples with different degrees of rot were built into a small pyramid shape and placed stably in the corner of the wall.
The brilliance of the setting sun was spreading on his neck, the sharp Adam’s apple protruding upwards, motionless.
What did I see and hear previously?