Lord of Enigma

Chapter 8: Fragmented History

Early next morning, inside the little brick house.

On the second floor, in the middle of the bedroom which faced the sun, on a soft mattress with the pattern of the moon, Tang Qi slowly woke up.

Before he opened his eyes, Tang Qi saw that gray void of a space in his mind. There seemed to be even more golden, dust-like light spots. These were the results of Tang Qi's whole night of cultivation. It was strange, that after he had sat here and practiced the whole night, he still didn't feel the least bit of fatigue.

After he woke up, he felt even more energetic.

He also managed to figure out the maximum timing for each practice of the Golden Furnace Meditation Method. Besides the first time which was special, afterward, he had to stop every one hour or so of practice.

Then he would rest for half an hour and continue to practice for another half an hour.

The cycle repeated, and a whole night would pass.

Of course, as to how to properly manage the time of cultivation, Tang Qi was still trying to figure it out.

What really bothered Tang Qi was that he had yet to find a use for those spiritual powers he gained from meditation.

But it was clearly no easy thing to find a supernatural method of cultivation. Tang Qi who was still in the process of getting used to this new world still needed some time.

What Tang Qi was going to do now was to play the role of a ninth-grader well.

Although he sealed the luxury villa and stayed alone in high school without needing anyone to take care of him, which made him pretty much the same as the original occupier, Tang Qi felt that he still needed to put a bit of work into his role as a student. He would also use this identity to properly learn some common knowledge.

Thinking of this, Tang Qi immediately got up and cooked breakfast for himself, then took the books and class schedules he received yesterday, and went out.

Just when he was walking to the door, he seemed to have remembered something and turned toward the storage room beside the lounge.

He directly reached for and dragged out a wooden chest from the small room. He opened it, and the things inside came into his sight. These were the witchcraft notes, some small witchcraft objects, and the Balance Scale of Soul Exchange, which he got from Old Morgan's body.

Last night, Tang Qi threw these things here.

The abandonment of the black-magic notes and the Balance Scale of Soul Exchange was naturally not because he was not decisive enough nor because he was devoted to the separation between justice and evil.

The sole reason this whole time was for the sake of caution.

Although these things could give a person good strength, using black witchcraft would provoke an old witch family, which was not a wise choice for Tang Qi now.

Especially after Tang Qi got the Golden Furnace Meditation Method, these things appeared even more tasteless.

Right now, Tang Qi looked at them again. Though a whole night had passed, perhaps it was a delusion but Tang Qi felt that the evil aura on these things seemed to have weakened and was continuing to be weakened.

"Could it actually work?"

Tang Qi muttered and directly focused his look on the scale at the bottom of the wooden chest.

Immediately, wavy patterns moved in his sight, and a special interface appeared once more.

Among these things, it seemed that only the scale and the meditation method were able to trigger Tang Qi's "Omniscience" ability.

Wonder: Balance Scale of Soul Exchange

[Information Fragment 1: This is an evil creation that can exchange the soul.]

[Information Fragment 2: Due to the special environment, it is being suppressed by righteous powers, and it continues to weaken. There is a high probability that the ritual will fail.]

"It works!"

Tang Qi rejoiced at the changes in the information fragments.

The information in the diary was correct. There were indeed righteous powers in Holy Thorns High School that suppressed dark witchcraft.

Even if it was not human, but just an evil creation, it would be suppressed within the area.

After verifying this, Tang Qi immediately felt a great relief.

He sealed these things back at once. Tang Qi felt more relaxed, turned around, and opened the door. He walked down the stone stairs, following the memory of yesterday, walked along the boulevard to the actual campus.

Holy Thorns High School's front was the white-brick square and the Thorns Church with hundreds of years of history.

But that was just the front. In the back was a very large campus.

Deep in the campus, there was even a relatively large park.

The main area, such as the central campus, was a real building complex for teaching. There were four or five very magnificent, tall buildings among the complex, and on the left and right sides were the buildings where the faculty worked and the student dormitory.

Tang Qi was located in a remote corner on the left.

As he walked towards the main campus, he casually glanced at the clock tower area close to his small house.

According to that Pastor Simbani, the only downside of this quiet little brick house was that it was too close to the "Ascetic Society", and some weird scenes could frequently be seen, especially early in the morning.

Yet this time, Tang Qi saw nothing.

"Did I wake up too late?"

He shook his head and mumbled.

Tang Qi pulled a book out of his pocket and opened it while slowly walking towards the main campus.

There was still a short distance in between, which was enough for Tang Qi to review some common knowledge, especially in history.

For example, on this page that Tang Qi randomly opened the book to, there was the history of the establishment of the Condor Empire.

Before seeing the words, what caught his eyes was a striking image depicting the seaside of a metropolis, where a huge statue that seemed to extend into the clouds stood.

Tang Qi knew that the metropolis was the second largest city of the Condor Federation: Carthage.

And that sculpture was actually the statue of a god.

It wore a large robe and wore a crown of thorns that seemed as though it was shining with bright light. There was an unknown book in one hand, and the other held a long sword that looked cold and ancient. Beside its feet, on the tall, black stone foundation, there were countless broken engravings in the shape of demons, ghosts, and monsters.

With the naked eye alone, it was difficult to see how tall the statue was, and of course, it was impossible to learn more details.

However, at the bottom of this page, there was an introduction about this statue.

The Lord of Thorns: It was a gift to the Condor Federation from the Europa Union after the Great Disaster. The crown on its head signified the immense light given by the Lord of Brightness. The book in its hand was the Statute Book of Thorns, which represented the most comprehensive and fair laws. The longsword in its hand and the engravings by its feet signified the countless demons and monsters that the Condor Federation had defeated with its strong powers during its foundation.

It was said that there was also a pair of Wings of Liberty included in the gift from Europa, which was matched with the statue of the Lord of Thorns, but unfortunately, it was mysteriously stolen during transportation and had not been recovered in hundreds of years. It became one of the greatest mysteries in the Condor Federation's long history.

"Why not the Statue of Liberty?"

Tang Qi looked at the picture that seemed somewhat familiar to what he remembered and couldn't help but ask.

Though everything else was different, in some details, the image depicted on this page of the history book was indeed very similar to the Statue of Liberty on Earth from his previous life.

But the relevant history was totally unrecognizable.

It should be noted that this history book clearly recorded the official history.

The appearance of the Lord of Thorns and the Statue Book was understandable, but telling about demons and monsters in a realistic tone made Tang Qi very puzzled.

What he was puzzled about was not the existence of demons and monsters: after all, the experience from the day in which he was reborn made it impossible for Tang Qi to deny the existence of supernatural powers, and since ghosts, the Balance Scale of Soul Exchange, and dark witchcraft all existed, it only made sense for demons and monsters to be present.

What really was incomprehensible to Tang Qi was that on the surface, the existence of supernatural powers was denied by the officials.

This world, like Earth from his previous life, had developed a modern civilization.

Although there were still many strange and exaggerated myths and legends, they were unofficially spread in various books, film and television works, or talks among people. Compared with the Earth, the legends of this world seem to be much more abundant, and their details seemed overly realistic.

For example, the clearest memory in the original host's mind was that a cataclysm happened in this world thousands of years ago. There was no knowing whether it was a war or a natural disaster, but it is connected with various complex terms such as gods, demons, doomsday The whole world was involved in it.

The Condor Federation, which was now one of the most powerful political entities, was established at the end of the catastrophe.

By right, there should be detailed resources about such a huge event being passed down, but from the memory of the original host, the truth about this huge event seemed to be collectively concealed by the big countries, under some kind of common consensus.

What they really couldn't conceal, they polluted with various kinds of misleading information. The whole world successfully entered a kind of harmonious environment of modern civilization, even better than Earth from his previous life.

But if those supernatural powers, demons, or gods could appear in reality, even if the major political bodies colluded to hide it, it shouldn't be possible for them to block everyone's observation and talk.

Tang Qi found the reason that the present reality was such on the next page.

Or, at least, a possible reason.

It turned out that a hundred years ago, a magical meteor passed by the Origin Blue Star, and then all the supernatural phenomena disappeared overnight.

Replacing it was the booming development of science.

Soon, within a short period of a hundred years, the entire Origin Blue Star accomplished more brilliant achievements than it had in the past thousands of years. With the exception of occasional wars in certain localities and the Saha continent, most of the areas of the Origin Blue Star were very civilized and prosperous.

In view of this, many political entities or racial communities started to use a new calendar after that meteor, and the Condor Federation was also one of them.

That was why Tang Qi saw the words "Year 102 of the Condor Calendar" on his admission letter.

The Condor Calendar over here was actually the New Condor Calendar.

If the old calendar was used, the number would have to be at least several thousands higher.

The fragmented and wonderful historical progression of Origin Blue Star fascinated Tang Qi. He didn't notice at all that he had stepped into the main campus, and voices around him became louder. Many figures passed by quickly around him.

Right at this moment, Tang Qi suddenly felt a pain on his forehead. His body swayed, and he almost fell down. When he finally regained his balance, he actually saw from the corner of his eye that the figure he bumped into was going to fall onto the floor. Tang Qi subconsciously reached out with one hand and held the person's waist.

"Ah!"

When a clear and tender gasp came into his ears, Tang Qi also felt a warm, soft feeling in his palm.

A girl! Tang Qi judged in his heart immediately.