Although she had known Morris for many years, in Vanna's eyes, Morris had always been just a gentle and elegant scholar. When he was still in the city-state of Plande, the old man spent most of his energy in school classes, and the rest of the time he either spent in the library or was invited by certain schools to give lectures.

Vanna didn't have much opportunity to understand the "extraordinary qualities" of this elder in the extraordinary field.

But since she boarded the Lost Homeland, she finally began to see another side of Morris, and realized how those seemingly harmless scholars who followed the god of wisdom, Lahem, actually completed their work.

That's one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: the pursuit of knowledge.

But if you think about it carefully, this is normal. Scholars should have unique and powerful powers. After all, there are many beings in this world who pursue knowledge, from the deep demons to the phantoms of the spirit world. But in the end, most of the knowledge was caught up by mortals. What is the reason? It is the strong academic level of mortal scholars...

Fanna rubbed her forehead, trying hard to control the random thoughts in her head, and muttered casually: "So you are so amazing... If I had known earlier, I would have taken the classes seriously, maybe..."

"No, the gap is too big," Morris shook his head expressionlessly, "It would be better for you to train seriously."

Fanna was suddenly a little embarrassed: "At least I successfully graduated from City-State University..."

Morris glanced at her and said, "One third of the credits are for sports specialty, and one third of the credits are for church further studies."

Fanna remained silent. After a few seconds of silence, she looked towards the thick fog around her and changed the subject abruptly: "The cultists you eliminated should be the controllers of those fake freaks?"

"At most, he is one of the controllers," Morris shook his head. "Have you heard the noise coming from other blocks? The whole city is full of those monsters now. I wonder how many cultists have taken advantage of the thick fog to enter the real world... I'm afraid we can't wipe them out completely by ourselves."

Vanna nodded solemnly, but just as she was about to say something else, she suddenly noticed something out of the corner of her eye and let out a soft "eh".

She came to the dead Annihilation Cultist, squatted down to examine the body, reached out and grabbed the man's collar and tore it open.

The flesh and blood under the clothes was melting and wriggling, appearing to be contaminated and soaked in black mud. As the body died, the speed at which the mud was wriggling slowed down visibly, and gradually became dry.

"...This is also a fake?!" Vanna opened her eyes wide in astonishment, unable to believe her discovery, "This group of cultists...even made their own people into fakes?!"

"No, it's not that simple," Morris frowned. He was also carefully examining the cultist's body and recalling the details of the battle. After a moment, he slowly shook his head and said, "I have sensed his thought fluctuations. They are different from those of the fakes. Those fakes have obvious gaps in their thinking process that are different from humans. Even if they can behave like ordinary people, they will not be able to maintain a stable consciousness due to the instability of the 'element' itself. But this cultist does not have this problem."

As he spoke, he pointed to the piece of flesh on the cultist's chest that was covered in black mud.

"And the more important part is this. You see, he is not made of elements - the elements and normal flesh and blood exist at the same time. This is more like a kind of symbiosis, or... self-contamination."

Fanna stared at that spot for a long time, her brows gradually furrowed. "These heretics took the initiative to pollute themselves with the elements? They even used the elements to replace part of their own flesh and blood... This is a bit disgusting. Even for the Annihilation Cult, this is an impressive level of perversion."

Morris' tone was quite calm. "I think they are not much different from those Annihilation Cultists who transformed themselves into Deep Demons. These lunatics hate the flesh and blood of the mortal world, and they never mind using the craziest methods to transform themselves."

As he spoke, his attention shifted elsewhere.

He looked at the large black leather book that the cultist had been holding.

After a slight hesitation, the old scholar reached out and forcefully pulled the book out from the cultist's tightly grasped fingers.

"Be careful," Vanna immediately warned, "This book may contain blasphemous and obscene content! The power of the sun has weakened now, so if you touch it rashly..."

"Scholars always open new and mysterious books. For us, every reading is a process of challenge and adventure." Morris shook his head gently. "Don't worry. The Lachem sect has special training and coping skills for reading behaviors in this situation. You just need to help me be alert and help me solve the problem if something is attracted to the book."

Fanna hesitated for a moment, then nodded seriously: "...Okay."

Morris hummed, completed a quick prayer in his heart, then took out a small bottle of herbal powder from his arms, poured half of it on the ground and lit it, and sprinkled the other half on the book in front of him. Then he confirmed the status of the colorful stone bracelet on his wrist, then sat down on the ground solemnly and placed the book on his legs.

The cover of the book is pitch black, with no text or symbols on the surface. One can only vaguely see fine mesh patterns printed on the hard shell cover, making it impossible to determine its origin.

Morris opened the cover of the book and looked at the contents inside.

Vanna on the side turned her eyes away, trying to avoid being affected by the book.

Some messy lines and symbols caught Morris's eyes.

At first, he could not understand what he saw at all. The messy symbols and lines did not conform to any language or ancient characters he knew. But when he tried to turn to the next page, the marks on the pages suddenly began to move - the ink marks turned into living crawling creatures, moving quickly in the cage constructed by paper. The jumping characters stimulated the old scholar's vision. In just a few seconds, he felt that he had begun to understand the records on the pages.

Those symbols and lines were twisting rapidly, everything on the pages of the book was shaking in front of his eyes, and the "knowledge" was directly mapped into his mind!

Morris' heart moved, and the protection and stress measures that he had set up in advance in his sea of ​​consciousness were instantly activated. The next second, his main consciousness was withdrawn, and his reason solidified. He seemed to have become a bystander in an instant, standing behind "himself" in the real world from a detached and illusory perspective, calmly and soberly reading the content that was emerging in his brain.

〖…The meetings of the Forsaken Kings were held again and again, and the initial plan was decided…

The flesh and blood of those who are abandoned will melt in the light...〗

After reading only two sentences, Morris's illusory "self-projection" suddenly frowned.

This is what was written on the note brought back by the young informant named "Crow" when the captain led the team to explore the second waterway for the first time! It is the "sacred book" record that is vague, unknown, and suspected to be some kind of ancient record!

Morris's eyes changed slightly, and he immediately controlled his body to turn the pages of the book, allowing his eyes to read the blasphemous and distorted words and form corresponding knowledge memories in his mind. He then read the contents in his mind from the perspective of a bystander.

He saw more hieroglyphic records, and after the content copied by the crow, there were indeed some fragmented sentences:

〖…After the abandoned clan left, the creation of all things continued as planned, and the Forsaken Kings began to design the first and final blueprint…

However, the first blueprint was soon abandoned, because the aftermath of the Great Annihilation continued to stir in the mortal world... The kings gathered dust into stone, and then gathered stone into stars, but the stars collapsed and shattered, and could not last long...

The pale giant king "Salmir" fell on the first long night of creation...

...The kings began to design the second blueprint. They chose one of their own to be the creator. The first one chosen was the King of Dreams, also known as the "King of Knowledge and Memory", because this great man had indeed demonstrated the miracle of creation...

But the second blueprint also failed, and the King of Dreams was torn apart during the second long night of Genesis, with a part of Him floating on the border of the real world...

The third blueprint was handed over to another king to execute. His name was "The Creeping King", also known as "The Lord of the Cluster". He was the common lord of countless invisible and tiny things. He held the power of creation and the power of the opposite of creation... and there was truth, calling Him "Brother Wisdom".

...The Creeping King began His work. During the third long night, He gave the blueprint to the cluster and sought a helper from the surviving clans. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the Dream King and the Pale Giant King, He divided the blueprint so that there would no longer be countries in the world. The countries were turned into 1,200 cities. He also let the clan take charge of the first ten cities and named them "Crete".

The third long night passed peacefully. This was good.

But the Forsaken Kings were dissatisfied with the Creeping King's change of the blueprint, so they blocked His way back to the Holy Throne. The clans of the Ten Cities were grateful to the Creeping King. They did not dare to praise this king in front of the other kings, so they gave Him another honorific name. They called Him the Holy, also known as -

The Holy Lord of the Deep.