Chapter 237 A Second Visit to the White Pagoda: Ten People, Old Acquaintances from a Foreign Land...
The next morning, following the same procedure, Lai left the manor amidst Tata's reluctant gaze.
With Nash's invitation, he was able to enter the White Tower without any trouble. Nash was waiting for him at the very spot where they had first met.
"Ray, you're here!"
Nash waved to Rye, who smiled and walked over.
"After you sold me the dragon bone, I was busy for a few days and didn't invite you over. Today I finally had a free day, so I quickly invited you over."
"It's okay, it's okay, thank you for remembering me."
As they walked and talked, Ray and Nash arrived at a less crowded place.
He took out three boxes of strawberries from his ring space, one of each color, and handed them to Nash.
"We grew it ourselves, why don't you take a taste?"
"Haha, they even have white strawberries! Today is my lucky day. You have no idea how hard it is to get your white strawberries. I'm taking some home so my family can have a good taste!"
Nash happily accepted the strawberries from Rye, without any hesitation or awkwardness.
This is the best scenario, as it's comfortable for both parties.
"Please come to my house for dinner sometime. My sister's cooking is especially delicious."
"must."
The two quickly reached the third floor, where there was only one door.
"What you want is at the very back. I'll go in with you in a bit; just follow behind me."
Nash said in a low voice.
"good."
Nash led the way, pushing open the heavy wooden door, inside which were many bookshelves arranged neatly.
Sitting at the table next to the door was a young mage dressed in an old mage's robe.
He had short, curly hair, which looked messy and not very neat, probably because he hadn't taken care of it. He wore a pair of crystal glasses on his nose.
Knock knock knock.
Nash tapped the table.
"What's up?"
The young monk finally took his eyes off the book. He adjusted his glasses.
"We need to borrow some books from the warehouse."
"You cannot read the books there."
The monk answered decisively, his attention returning to the book spread out on the table.
"Hey brother, I have Lord Vesper's signature here."
Nash took out the slip of paper that the Holy Archmage had signed.
"Items in Warehouse M area".
The monk frowned.
"Alright then, come with me."
He took a long bunch of keys from the drawer and led Nash and Ray all the way to the back of the library.
A separate room was set aside there.
Who is Ray?
"I am."
Ray half-raised his right hand.
"Only he can go in. You wait for him in the library."
Nash shrugged helplessly.
"No magic can be used inside, and no copying is allowed. All books and notes inside must be kept tidy."
"I see."
The young mage gave Rai a metal key engraved with the letter M.
"I can only open the magic circle in area M. After you've looked at it, shake the copper bell next to the door, and I'll let you out."
"OK."
After speaking, the mage used the long bunch of keys in his hand to open the heavy iron door of the warehouse. The three people standing next to him, including Lai, could clearly hear the sound of gears and machinery turning.
"Go in."
"Lei, I'll wait for you in this rest area."
Nash pointed to a row of tables and chairs next to the bookshelf.
"good."
Lai went inside, and behind him he heard the sound of the iron gate locking.
The room is a bit cold in order to better preserve the books.
The interior is decorated in a retro style, but like the rest of the White Tower, it also has glass lamps for illumination.
The twelve shelves were arranged in a row, with different letters engraved on the side signs. Some were empty, with nothing on them.
Ray walked to the corresponding bookshelf and saw a complex mechanical door.
"This should be it."
He inserted the key and turned it in the direction of the lock cylinder. The mechanical door began to glow, and one mechanism after another slowly unlocked.
*Smack*
The door opened, revealing ten small wooden boxes labeled with serial numbers, arranged from top to bottom.
Lai tried to suppress his excitement, moved a chair, and sat down at a long, narrow table in front of the cabinet.
With trembling hands, he took down the box numbered ten and slowly opened it.
Inside were several exquisite leather notebooks.
He nervously turned to the first page, which contained only a short string of unfamiliar symbols, like a name.
He flipped to the next page, where there was a lot of writing.
Unfortunately, it wasn't Chinese, nor was it a common language. Lai couldn't understand a single word in the several notebooks he kept.
"What's wrong?"
Ryan followed him in.
"I don't recognize these characters."
"Let me see."
"How about it."
Under Lai's expectant gaze, Ryan shook his head; the magic circle here seemed to have no effect on him.
"It's okay, there are still nine boxes left."
Lei encouraged himself and tidied up the box, putting it back in its original place.
Looking back from the box with the largest number signifies the time from the present to the farthest.
Information is time-sensitive; the closer the time, the greater the hope.
Ray opened the ninth box.
The text inside looked somewhat like English, but it wasn't English. Even so, Ray saw a glimmer of hope.
The sixth box contained a jumble of connected English letters, but unfortunately, Ray couldn't decipher them completely and accurately.
"Why couldn't you write it more clearly, you bastard!"
Lei continued opening boxes, just like opening blind boxes; no one knew whether the next box would contain a hidden gem or a dud.
The fourth box contained Japanese text, written in neat handwriting on clean, tidy paper, with some annotations by cartoon figures.
Through these things, Lei learned, by a combination of guesswork and deduction, that its owner was a girl named Sakura, born in 1973, who had come to the continent of Casa in 1997 after disappearing while climbing a mountain.
She has four children, and she is the third oldest.
This information was learned through a small cartoon depicting a family portrait.
Lei patiently continued reading; the rest should be about his experiences after arriving here.
There was a little man with pointed ears and a little man with a big beard, which he guessed represented elves and dwarfs.
The next page contained portraits of various monsters, one of which had been torn out for some unknown reason. The following page contained the word "demon," which appeared six times in a row.
I don't understand at all. What exactly did Sakura go through?
The rest of the content was almost entirely text, which looked like gibberish to Ray.
I can vaguely recognize individual characters and words, but putting them together is quite difficult.
Until the very end, a piece of paper with a magic circle drawn on it fell out of the notebook, and it was very different from the papers in the notebook.
"Lian, look what this is?"
Ryan leaned closer to take a look.
"It's like a summoning circle, or a spatial magic circle."
"Is it still usable?"
"No, look at the six corners of this magic circle. It's a six-pointed star pattern. Different offerings are needed to open it successfully."
"All right."
Lai was completely baffled; there were no written instructions on it. He stared at it for a while, feeling a little dizzy. After hesitating for a moment, he finally tucked the note back into his notebook.
"The last three boxes, is there really no hope at all? Sigh."
Lei sighed.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned; the two boxes they opened in succession yielded nothing of value.
"Whether you stick your neck out or not, you'll still get stabbed."
Lei finally brought out the top box. The wooden box was very light, and inside was only a notebook without a cover, with a piece of paper twice the size of it underneath.
Lai was very familiar with the paper below. When he sold vegetables in the small mountain village, he often bought it and made it into paper bags for customers to use to carry vegetables.
He first opened the following sheets of paper.
The painting depicts a modern-looking high-rise building.
It looks... a bit like the White Pagoda, but there are still some big differences.
The White Pagoda
Upon seeing the two Chinese characters in the lower right corner, Lai's eyes welled up with tears.
He carefully unfolded the thin little notebook.
"Wang Guiqin, 43 years old, born on May 23, 1956, in Beijing."
The notebook was small; its owner used only one and a half pages to clearly introduce his life story.
She studied architecture abroad for ten years. She once had a happy family, but lost her child in a car accident and also lost her ability to have children.
After her husband passed away, she went out with friends to clear her head and accidentally fell into a lake, where she ended up on the continent of Casa.
She felt lost and desperate.
This continent was ravaged by war, and she decided to use her power to help the indigenous people who were also human.
"I don't know what the consequences of my choice will be, but my conscience tells me that it was the right thing to do."
After reading the entire text, Lei was already in tears without realizing it.
Through these few tens of thousands of words, he saw the entire life of Ms. Wang Guiqin.
"What's wrong?"
"fine."
Lei wiped away his tears.
According to records, this happened hundreds of years ago.
On the continent of Casa, he was still the only stranger.
Ray continued to flip through the drawings below, which included architectural plans for the Vatican, a magnificent monument, and many simple buildings that were easy to construct.
"She was a pioneer of that era on the continent of Casa."
Lei sighed with genuine emotion.
Is it someone you know?
"No, but we are from the same country and speak the same language."
"You're so lucky."
"Yes, I'm so lucky."
Lei carefully put the items back into the box one by one.
"it's over?"
"Okay, let's go."
After restoring everything to its original state, Lai rang the copper bell, and soon the sound of mechanical operation came from the iron gate.
As soon as he came out, he saw Nash and the young mage.
Ray returned the key to him and thanked him.
"So, did you find anything?"
After leaving the library, Nash asked.
Lei nodded.
"Well, meeting someone from my hometown is a stroke of luck amidst misfortune. Thank you for waiting outside for so long."
"No trouble at all, no trouble at all. I happen to have a new magic circle that I'm not very familiar with yet."
Nash scratched his head sheepishly.
Just then, a long, drawn-out bell rang out from outside, and Ray looked out the window.
"It's from the Vatican. They ring it six times every day at noon, rain or shine. On the first day of each week, before morning services begin, there's also a choir singing. You can go and see what's going on."
Nash explained.
"So that's how it is."
As the two were about to go downstairs, someone called out to Nash.
"Nash, are the guests still here?"
"Here I am."
Lai looked at the newcomer with a puzzled expression.
"Is this Mr. Lei? The Holy Archmage invites you to the eleventh floor."
"good."
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