Exploring Technology in a Wizard World
Chapter 331 - Chapter 331 Chapter 330 The Strange Melody

Chapter 331: Chapter 330: The Strange Melody Chapter 331: Chapter 330: The Strange Melody Richard held the second Space Iron Ring he had obtained from Suo Men and walked aside, donning a single magnifying lens to observe the Magic Runes on its surface, and found that it truly was identical to the first Space Iron Ring.

So, the next step was easy. He brought the first Space Iron Ring close to it and activated the “Absolute Spatial Precision” function. After a series of operations, he quickly disabled the identity verification function of the Magic Runes on the surface of the second Space Iron Ring, thus obtaining the right to use it.

After finishing this, Richard took out the objects from the second Space Iron Ring one by one, sorting and organizing them into categories. Glancing over them hastily, Richard noticed they were roughly the same as the ones he had taken out from the first Space Iron Ring, totaling five categories:

The first category consisted of various Casting Materials. There were gemstones, crystals, mineral powders, plant roots and stems, as well as bat blood in glass tubes, and others.

The second category was a collection of potions, Medicine Powders, and ointments. Many were common and not exclusive to Wizards. Only a few had Mana fluctuations, yet they were not particularly precious, at best on par with the Spartan Heroic Potion.

The third category, Papyrus Scrolls. Some were blank, while others were written with text and marked with symbols, obviously by Suo Men himself. Richard guessed that the contents were probably related to Suo Men’s organization missions, and the powerful Magic Scrolls he was looking for simply did not exist.

The fourth category was Crystal Coins, a substantial quantity of them. This was the most abundant in the Ring, vastly outnumbering the first three categories, with High-level Crystal Coins alone forming a small pile. Considering the similarly large number of Crystal Coins found in the first Space Iron Ring, Richard couldn’t help but summarize Suo Men’s situation with a single phrase: Extremely destitute, so poor that there’s only money left.

This led Richard to wonder where the other party found so much money. From the victims? It didn’t seem likely. Suo Men and Mu Konni did kill, but it was clear they weren’t after wealth. Could it be that the Mysterious Organization behind Suo Men was providing… a salary? Or, perhaps, funds?

But for there to be so much salary or funds, how wealthy would the Mysterious Organization behind him have to be? Also, could the Crystal Coins have been created by that very organization?

The fifth category contained miscellaneous items. Most were daily necessities, such as replacement clothes, food, water, and so on. This was the least valuable in the Space Iron Ring, but these items were essential, for sometimes, they were more important than the previous four categories, potentially life-saving.

After all, no matter how powerful a Wizard was, they could not overcome species limitations, unable to absorb solar energy for autotrophic sustenance; they still needed to eat bread and drink water.

In fact, since obtaining the first Space Iron Ring from Suo Men, he had always ensured a certain amount of high-energy food and clean water was placed inside, regularly refreshed to be prepared for any emergency.

Overall, the contents of the second Space Iron Ring were within Richard’s expectations. It’s not that they were garbage–the pile of High-level Crystal Coins alone would beg to differ–but there was no significant research value.

Richard wasn’t too disappointed by this. First, he hadn’t held out much hope, and second, from the beginning, he had not expected to procure this Space Iron Ring.

After all, he had never imagined he would encounter Suo Men and Mu Konni. He went to Frank Tavern, found himself in incredibly dangerous battles, and experienced signs of multiple organ failure and severe laryngeal obstruction. At the root of it all, his sole purpose was to acquire the last book of the Black Spirit Empire.

Thankfully, he did secure the book.

Images of the gruesome scene in Frank Tavern and dead Baki flashed before Richard’s eyes. He observed a moment of silence for a second, then exhaled softly, flipping his hand to take out the book of the Black Spirit Empire and placed it on the table.

The last book of the Black Spirit Empire–“Imperial Roar”!

With this, the collection of the Black Spirit Empire’s books was complete.

Now it was time to uncover whatever secrets these Black Spirit Empire books held!

Richard flipped his hand again, taking out all the previously collected books, arranging them in sequence, flipping through the pages to find the corresponding text:

The first book, “Soul Wail,” bore the Black Spirit Empire’s mark of number 5. Verified against the current world’s Lickerel Number, it yielded a palindromic number of 11. Therefore, the 11th word in the book is–Ke;

The second book, “Blood and Fire,” marked with number 11 by the Black Spirit Empire and verified by the Lickerel Number, gave a palindromic number of 22. Hence, the 22nd word in the book is–Guo;

The third book, “Dark Spirit,” the 33rd word is–Li;

The fourth book, “Rols Strange Tales,” the 44th word–Ling;

The fifth book, “Thirty-Six Days of Talk”–Gu;

The sixth book, “Coppola’s Secret”–a punctuation mark;

The seventh book, “Path to Nobility”–Du;

The eighth book, “Holy Land Dalaran”–Li;

The ninth book, “My Autobiography – Moratos”–Er;

The tenth book, “I was born from fire – Prometheus”–Mon;

The eleventh book, “Imperial Roar”–Wu.

All in all, the secret hidden in all the Black Spirit Empire’s books is a phrase: “Ke Guo Li Ling Gu, Du Li Er Mon Wu.”

“Ke Guo Li Ling Gu, Du Li Er Mon Wu?” Richard muttered the phrase, his brows slightly furrowed.

This was clearly not a location name, nor any spell; it was…

“Ke Guo Li Ling Gu, Du Li Er Mon Wu?” Richard repeated the phrase, his brows deeply furrowed.

Although he did not know what it was or what it was related to, his brain sensed an inexplicable familiarity, as if he had encountered it before. It was like a dream where one always feels they have dreamed it before but cannot remember when.

“Ke Guo Li Ling Gu, Du Li Er Mon Wu?” Richard spoke the phrase a third time, his brows tightly knitted, the feeling of deja vu intensifying. Initially, this sensation emerged when he was solving the eight books, but it was not as strong as it was now. Now that the phrase was completed, his entire brain seemed uncontrollably engaged in thought, from which an elusive, invisible something slowly drifted out.

Richard could be certain that this must pertain to the hidden answer behind the phrase, but what that answer was, he did not know, which was truly maddening.

Richard felt his blood pumping more rapidly, an itch within his heart, as if mice were scurrying inside his stomach. The scurrying mice were eaten by a cat, the cat was carried off by a dog, the dog was shot by a hunter, and the hunter was captured by a soldier… In the end, only a big-headed alien and a lame old man remained.

“Ke Guo Li Ling Gu, Du Li Er Mon Wu?” Richard kept reciting the phrase, his expression grave, his brow so furrowed it knotted up, chanting faster and faster until he felt a strange melody, a rhythm echoing in his brain, like the tolling of a large bell or as if someone was whispering in his ear.

Richard took a deep breath and turned his head to look aside; Pandora was watching him. Richard enunciated clearly, word by word: “Ke Guo Li Ling Gu, Du Li Er Mon Wu!”

Pandora: “Huh?!”