Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!
Chapter 205 "Sirulu’s Marvelous Demon World Adventure

Chapter 205: Chapter 205 "Sirulu’s Marvelous Demon World Adventure

At that moment, in the All Things Library, within the Fifth Book Reading Room, Li Yan sat precariously on a book that was over a meter wide, hovering among towering shelves.

He came to a stop beside a particular bookshelf, where his stooped figure seemed extremely diminutive alongside the colossal shelf. With a light wave of his hand, a book slid out from the shelf and landed steadily in his grasp.

"Sirulu’s Marvelous Demon World Adventure"

The author of this book was an adventurer who, it was said, had stealthily infiltrated the Demon King’s army during the last great battle between the Hero and the Demon King and made his way to the Demon World through the Gate of Demon World.

The book primarily recounted the tale of Sirulu who, having crossed through the Gate of Demon World, disguised himself as a lowly member of an inferior race and embarked on an adventure with a Demon World Noble whose house had nearly been annihilated.

This book documented what he had seen and heard in the Demon World.

Although the prevailing opinion within the All Things Library was that this book was nothing but the wild imaginings of a fanciful individual, Li Yan was more inclined to believe that the male adventurer named Sirulu had indeed ventured to the Demon World.

After all, several passages detailing the various Demon World Races and magical sights were described with such meticulous care that it would be nearly impossible to fabricate them through mere imagination.

Of course, this book was not without its flaws and imperfections. The descriptions of magic and an assortment of strange creations were notably vague, and the conflicts between races were glossed over as if deliberately avoided.

Many members of the All Things Library Elders’ Council also cited these issues to criticize the book, firmly believing it to be nothing more than a fantasy novel spawned from one person’s wild imagination.

But it was hard to blame them.

The book hadn’t been in the Library for even a hundred years, and the last great battle between the Hero and the Demon King was already four centuries past. Virtually all documents about the Hero and that war had been collated and placed into the vital chambers, with Library members only able to consult the photocopied editions--there could be no oversights.

Thus, at that time, the book was naturally excluded.

Memories of the past couldn’t help but arise before Li Yan’s eyes.

Long ago, each week the books donated would undergo scrutiny by the Donation Committee, where duplicates or meaningless books would be eliminated before being collectively sent to the Elder Council for value assessment, compensating the donor accordingly.

Yet, when this particular book was being evaluated, a divergence of opinion occurred, but in the end, it was still passed on to the Elder Council for judgment.

With the book came a letter from the donor.

The donor claimed to have found the book in a Treasure Box passed down from his ancestors. He had tried various methods to unlatch the box, to no avail, but recently, mysteriously, the box had sprung open...

Initially, the donor’s sole intention in opening the Treasure Box was to discover its contents. Once he found it contained merely a book, his interest waned completely, and he donated it to the Library.

Although the majority of the All Things Library maintained that the book was utterly worthless, in the end, they deemed it to possess a boundless imagination and classified it as the lowest-grade F-rank, cataloging it in the Library without much fuss.

Li Yan’s opinion, however, was the exact opposite of most.

He esteemed the book as highly meaningful, believing it could potentially be a powerful weapon in countering the next Demon Clan incursion, achieving the strategic advantage of knowing the enemy as well as oneself.

Regrettably, Li Yan was too young when he had joined the Library and could not persuade the majority of the Elders’ Council, so he purchased the book for the price of an S-rank material using his own Contribution Value.

In fact, many senior members would advocate vehemently for the works they valued, arguing the prices set by others in the Library were far too low and didn’t align with the knowledge within the books.

To prevent members of the Elder Council from coming to blows over the valuation of a book, the All Things Library devised this compromise.

If one believes a book possesses certain value, then they could spend double that value to purchase the original copy, essentially paying to secure the book a rightful place.

The outcome of this system was a reduction in controversy.

Even if every book faced some valuation discrepancies, few would continue arguing over the value of a particular book, provided the discrepancies were minor.

Except, of course, when opinions were deeply polarized.

And "Sirulu’s Marvelous Demon World Adventure" was one of those rare books that could instigate such division.

But the controversy was resolved by Li Yan, who decisively bought the book and sent it to its rightful place.

And that was nearly a hundred years ago.

As he caressed the book’s simple cover, a sense of historicity rushed towards Li Yan, and he could feel it hailing from an era even more ancient than his own time of birth.

Assuming the donor was telling the truth, the box storing this book was likely enchanted with some special magic, and locating the box that originally contained the book could verify if the donor’s claim was true or false.

Alas, that was a century-old matter, and searching for the box was nearly impossible; it had probably been burned as firewood long ago, leaving no basis for judging the book’s authenticity.

But Li Yan had no regrets. Deep within, he remained convinced of the book’s depiction of truth. Every time he opened it, he felt as though he was privy to the era’s sounds, smiles, and appearances, which he simply could not put down.

Yet on this occasion, Li Yan was not reading the book with a leisurely mind, but was genuinely consulting it as a reference.

The Underground Maze was not proprietary to this world; it seemed there were similar structures in the Demon World.

Unlike here, where construction methods had been lost long ago, the Demon World apparently still widely held the knowledge to create mazes, and the book provided insights into their maze constructions.

In essence, the mazes in the Demon World appeared to be specifically built by large Noble houses to train their offspring.

In a Demon World where power was paramount, if the offspring of these Noble houses could conquer the ultimate level of the family maze, it was akin to earning full recognition from the entire house, marking them as strong contenders for the next Clan Leader position.

Constructing an Underground Maze involved tremendous financial and material resources, but maintaining one in the Demon World seemed quite effortless.

Provided continuous upkeep, even if the final Guardian was vanquished by the Tamer, a new Guardian would emerge after roughly half a year.

Such Underground Mazes could be considered essential tools for Demon World Race families to enhance their might.

And naturally, such mazes would cause innumerable conflicts within the Demon World.

In the interest of strengthening their families ever further, more mazes were a must. The cost of building one was colossal, but maintenance was minimal, so the best strategy was to seize the mazes of others--one of the logics behind the Demon World Race conflicts.

Another protagonist in "Sirulu’s Marvelous Demon World Adventure," that Demon Clan Noble, faced the destruction of her house precisely because of her family’s Underground Maze.