Super Righteous Player
Chapter 355 - 352: Elder in Prison_1

Chapter 355: Chapter 352: Elder in Prison_1

"I’ve taught you everything I could."

The old man sat against the wall in the shadows, with the setting sun’s light passing through the barred window, only illuminating half of his chin.

Compared to the day before, the old man’s voice was even weaker, hoarse as he spoke: "Now... how much do you still remember?"

The Savory Wind Goose squatting in the cell opposite respectfully answered, "I remember all of it, I haven’t forgotten a thing."

"...Heh."

The old man chuckled softly: "At least half of what you say is a lie."

His deep, hoarse voice was filled with an unmistakable odor of death.

Since the time the old man’s bowl was shattered, the Savory Wind Goose hadn’t heard him say a word in front of the "jailers" who brought food.

The Savory Wind Goose had at least been given enough to eat three times a day since being thrown into the dungeon. However, the jailers had never given the man opposite him a bite to eat or a sip of water, which made his voice all the more feeble.

It was a wonder he had survived this long at all.

Being watched while eating, the Savory Wind Goose couldn’t leave the old man much food. He could only sneak away an apple at each meal, tossing it to the old man after the jailers left.

It had nothing to do with personal gain.

The Savory Wind Goose simply couldn’t bear it—being satiated while another person, especially his own teacher, was left without food or water.

Perhaps that’s why the old man taught him the knowledge of a Ritualist...

He clearly had little regard for the dim-witted aptitude of the Savory Wind Goose.

Yet the Savory Wind Goose knew in his heart that what the old man said was true.

Indeed, half of what the Savory Wind Goose said was false—

The old man had imparted to him a total of twenty-six rituals of various sizes and complexities, along with much secret knowledge. Except for a few simple rituals, the remaining ones were quite complex.

Players with real-world research experience might understand better.

The Savory Wind Goose felt that these rituals were somewhat similar to high school or college physics and chemistry experiments—despite having written down the steps found in textbooks, when it came to actually performing them, curious problems would arise, preventing a perfect replication.

And worse than the textbooks, he couldn’t look at any diagrams.

The ritual circles drawn on the ground were erased and redrawn by the old man every forty minutes—impossible to memorize.

Fortunately, he had a screenshot function...

Yes, the Savory Wind Goose had saved every step of the rituals by taking screenshots one by one.

All he had to do was follow them step by step when the time came.

Moreover, this knowledge about rituals seemed to be classified by the system as "secret knowledge." This prompt by the system, informing the Savory Wind Goose that he had completed the weekly task of the "Hidden Eye" when he was about to post this knowledge on the forum.

Submitting this knowledge to the database of the Hidden Eye would earn a great deal of experience.

The Savory Wind Goose immediately agreed.

These rituals were classified into different levels based on their difficulty and importance. Once players raised their reputation within the Hidden Eye faction to the corresponding levels, they could consult all the knowledge and information within that level at any time using keywords.

Much faster than looking up each diagram one by one.

But as a consequence...the diagrams and content here could not be released through forum channels.

Of course, it was still possible to memorize, copy by hand, and trade offline—but doing so was essentially taking the time to fully learn and then teach it to someone else. Moreover, if one mastered it, it could be directly taught to others in the Land of Mist, mouth to mouth.

Still, it couldn’t be recorded on paper.

This was one of the core laws of this world.

Knowledge holds power...mysterious knowledge cannot be recorded by ordinary people, with ordinary words, on ordinary paper. If written on paper, the paper would burst into flames; if written on wooden tablets, the wood would rot away.

Because power also implies a "curse."

Mundane objects cannot bear such a level of curse.

For example, the moment the old man used the fragments of his bowl to carve a magical formation into the ground, the temperature in the cell noticeably dropped. Some formations froze the surrounding earth, some caused blood to seep from the ground...

The old man was undoubtedly devoid of any Transcendent abilities. Yet the mere act of "fixing" the knowledge in its entirety was enough to alter reality.

The Savory Wind Goose knew his limits from the start...it was impossible for him to remember and understand all this knowledge. To put it simply, as long as he could use it, that was enough.

But what he never expected was that, as the uploader of the knowledge, not only did he gain a wealth of experience, but he also made it possible for himself to access the uploaded knowledge at any time—effectively, as if he had learned it.

Although he still couldn’t use it with the fluency that came from understanding it fully.

"...Enough."

After a moment of silence, the old man sighed deeply.

He reluctantly used a shard of his bowl to write something on the ground.

Although Delicacy could not see what it was, he keenly sensed that the ground beneath him seemed to be trembling slightly.

Soon, the earth in front of the old man began to wriggle.

Like a living thing, it restored itself to its original state.

No scratch, no frost mark, no scorch mark was left behind.

That was merely a few lines of text...

...In other words,

If the old man wanted, he could have used his knowledge to escape.

Not to mention, some rituals couldn’t be taught in this situation... Even this simple ritual that commanded the earth to erase traces, the old man had never taught Delicacy.

He surely hid even more power.

Delicacy couldn’t help but ask, "If you have the power... why not escape?"

"Why escape?"

The old man countered.

Delicacy was stunned.

For a moment, he didn’t know how to answer.

Seeing this, the old man laughed.

It wasn’t the snicker from before but a kind, gentle chuckle like that of the grandfather downstairs: "You’re a good kid... just too foolish.

"Whatever I teach you, you learn, yet you’re not afraid that the knowledge I give you is poisoned?"

"...Can knowledge be poisoned?"

"Of course, it can."

The old man calmly replied: "Some knowledge, merely written on a stele, has enough power to destroy a city; the secret knowledge I wrote on the ground can even control the land. What makes you think... your brain is harder than rock, your body thicker than the earth?

"Forget it, I won’t frighten you anymore. The knowledge I’ve given you indeed contains no deadly poison."

As he spoke, the old man slightly lifted his head.

The light that originally struck his chin now fell precisely on his gaunt Adam’s apple. With the sound of his voice, the sharp Adam’s apple slid up and down: "My life is at its end.

"Some grand rituals always consume life, and life is the best fuel."

The old man calmly replied: "You will have such a day too."

Delicacy couldn’t help but ask, "What exactly... put you in prison?"

"What?"

The old man scoffed indifferently, whispering, "Everything."

He clearly did not intend to continue answering this question.

Silence once again enveloped the cramped, dimly lit dungeon.

In the end, it wasn’t Delicacy or the old man who broke the silence.

Just then, the sound of a massive black iron key turning came.

From outside to inside, three doors were opened with different keys.

Claus Kass was carrying a bunch of keys in his right hand, and at his waist hung his sword with its silver scabbard.

"Have you made up your mind?"

He stopped at the doorway, looking at Delicacy, and went straight to the point with his first sentence, "Enjoyable, was it, spending two nights and three days in a room with a dead man?"

...Dead man?

Delicacy paused for a moment.

He suddenly looked up at the cell opposite him—

There, against the wall, sat the decaying corpse of an old man. Next to the broken bowl, five apples in various states of decay were stacked into a small pyramid, quietly placed in the corner.

The sunset’s glow fell on his neck, the sharp Adam’s apple jutting upwards, motionless.

...Then, what was it that I saw and heard before?