“Howl’s Antique Store” was an official store selling materials near the palace.
Besides that, the Paper Princess also took Annan to the St. Bernie District, which was densely populated with underworld trading. They found “Daddy’s General Store” and “Alberta Used Bookstore”, which were illegitimate but offered reliable quality.
The owners of these two stores had purchased the Paper Princess paintings, so they were polite to Annan, who held the Paper Princess’s hand. All products were granted 15% off permanently. He could buy whatever he liked.
When Annan heard the name, he thought it was Vasily who opened a branch in the capital.
Then, he asked about it, which confirmed his speculation. A former apprentice of the “Father” opened up this store. Hearing that Annan knew the “Father”, the man immediately gave Annan another 10% discount.
The variety of materials sold here was lesser than that at the “Howl’s Antique Store”. However, the store manager swore not to leak the secrets here. If the customer’s secret were leaked, he would be burned to death. No matter what you buy from him, it would not be leaked. Furthermore, the store was equipped with strict anti-surveillance measures. It was a safe underworld store.
No matter what you buy at “Howl’s Antique Store”, it would be reported to the higher-ups.
That was why the Paper Princess brought Annan here.
The “Alberta Used Bookstore” disguised as a bookstore that sold used books, unique copies, and rare books. But in fact, they were secretly selling occult knowledge.
This was a genuine illegal store.
Annan bought a copy of “The Eighth Analects On the Sunray” and “The Birth and Initial Circulation of Silver Coins” from the store, intending to study the ritual in the realms of Mr. Ray and Silver Sire.
After all, his relationship with Silver Sire was great.
Learning the ritual related to Silver Sire would be useful in both reality and nightmares. Also, Annan was indeed a little curious about Silver Sire’s real name.
It was good enough even when the name was only used as a method to communicate with Silver Sire in the future.
The Silver Sire would sense it as long as Annan spoke out the real name. The name itself could also be added to the ritual as a material.
This context applied similarly to “Mr. Ray”.
In the “Chill of the Winter Sun” ritual that Annan was planning to perform this winter, the effect of the ritual could be further enhanced if Mr. Ray’s real name was added.
Mr. Ray held the authority in the realm of purification. He also specialized in purifying the undead and demons. For Annan, who might have to fight the demons later, it was good preparation for what would be coming.
Besides that, Annan also got himself a slightly tattered Dragon Language Dictionary.
Unexpectedly, the dictionary was helpful. Annan realized that the contrastive language [1] of the Dragon Language Dictionary was the “Frost Lingual”, which Annan had just mastered.
Then again, the logic connects.
Frostwisper’s power was related to Old Grandmother. After Annan mastered the Frost Lingual and still could not comprehend Old Grandmother’s language, he had a rough guess that Old Grandmother should be speaking the dragon language.
He skimmed through the dictionary for a while. Afterward, he focused on Mr. Ray’s book and put the dictionary aside. At the very least, Annan had found out that “Frost Lingual” might have evolved directly from the dragon language.
A similar example to explain it would be the connection between French and Latin.
Dragon language was complex. There was a tone to it, similar to the distinction between feminine and masculine. If pronounced correctly, the words spoken could manipulate the corresponding temperature, like increasing or decreasing the temperature.
This might be why the only two dragons among the upright deities were Old Grandmother and Father Flint.
The two upright deities represented ice and fire, respectively.
“En?” At this moment, Annan was in deep thoughts as he looked into the distance.
Beside Annan, the Paper Princess, holding Annan’s hand, detected it keenly.
She stopped immediately, turned around, and asked concernedly, “What’s wrong?
“Did you see something you wanted to buy? Just say it, I still have some money here.”
“No, of course not.” Annan shook his head quickly.
The Paper Princess herself was short of money, and he was embarrassed to ask the Paper Princess for it.
After Annan scanned the forum, he noticed Jiu Er asking for help. Then, he immediately switched to Jiu Er’s perspective.
Then he saw someone he knew—Bernardino Telesio.
It occurred that his magic had easily knocked Jiu Er’s soul out of her body. The player’s body was constructed through the power of the Book of Divine Transporter. Jiu Er’s body lost its vigor the moment the soul left her body, thus adding a death count under her profile.
Typically speaking, she should get a new body immediately.
However, under Bernardino’s constraint, Jiu Er was kept in the soul state.
This was the first time Annan had seen someone who could interrupt the players’ “respawn”.
A Gold Rank Spiritual Monk…
At the same time, Bernardino utilized dozens of spiritual bodies directly, including the souls of supernatural races like demons and centaurs. This meant that he could manipulate a separate existence at will like Kafni; he also shared similar abilities to the Silver Rank’s Prophet Wizard, reading into any time in the future. These were all features that could be achieved with the soul alone.
Annan even saw a soul dressed as a ritualist. The ritualist should be top-notch since Bernardino had the ritualist in his arsenal. In return, it would allow him to see through and decipher other ‘s rituals in time or even set up a ritual by following the ritualist’s advice.
From what happened to Longjing Tea previously, the soul detained by this old man could even directly interfere with the material world.
It should have been impossible.
Even the Pale Princess had to leave the soul state to interfere with the real world.
The souls seemingly could interfere with the real world without manifesting themselves. These ghosts were undetectable Dark Templars for a transcender with a lower soul rank.
Coupled with his ability to pull the soul of others out of the body at will and two wards whose abilities are unknown, Bernardino was an enemy Annan could not face.
From Bernardino’s questions, he seemed to have an apparent hostility toward Annan.
This was a more dangerous enemy than Nicholas.
Annan was well-aware of his situation.
Thus, he went straight for another approach.
“I need to rescue a friend of mine, Paper Princess.” Annan immediately asked the Paper Princess for aid, “She’s right here. The exact location is seven blocks ahead and two blocks to the right. The enemy she faces is a Spiritual Monk. An old man who can extract the souls of others. This man asks her if she knows about the Book of Divine Transporter.”
At first, the Paper Princess frowned upon hearing Annan’s words.
But when she finished hearing the details, she immediately became serious.
“Spiritual Monk, Bernardino?” The Paper Princess whispered, “Why did he ask the Book of Divine Transporter?”
Obviously, for this kind of rare profession, the name of the profession identified the individual directly.
In particular, Bernardino was a pope too.
His relationship with the deities was closer than ordinary people.
“Do not be afraid.” After a brief thought, the Paper Princess replied, “I’ll handle this matter in your stead.”
Then, she grabbed Annan and summoned a piece of chalk in her right palm.
Immediately after, the Paper Princess and Annan instantly turned into white chalk powder and dissipated in the air.