Although he and Morris have known each other for many years, Morris has always been regarded by Vana as a gentle and elegant scholar - when he was still in the city-state of Plain, the old gentleman spent most of his energy in school classes, and the rest of the time was either soaked in the library or pulled by some school to give lectures.

Vanna didn't have much opportunity to understand the elder's "excellence" in the transcendent realm.

But since she got on the Lost Country, she finally began to see another side of Maurice, and realized what the seemingly harmless scholars who followed the god of wisdom, Lachem, did their job-

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

But if you think about it carefully, it's normal, scholars should have unique and powerful power, after all, there are many existences in this world that are chasing knowledge, from ghostly demons to spiritual phantoms, but in the end, most of the knowledge has been caught up by mortals, on what basis? It is based on the strong academic level of mortal scholars

Vanna rubbed her head, tried hard to control the cranky thoughts in her head, and muttered casually, "So you're so powerful······ I knew I was serious about going to class back then, maybe ......."

"No, it's too much of a difference," Morris shook his head expressionlessly, "It's better for you to exercise seriously."

Vanna was suddenly a little embarrassed: "I at least graduated from City-State University.........

Morris glanced at her, "One-third of the credits for physical education, one-third for the church's further education

points."

Vanna was silent, and after a few seconds of silence, she looked at the fog around her, and changed the subject stiffly, "The cultists you eliminated should be the ones who control those fake freaks?"

"One of the controllers at most," Morris shook his head, "hear any movement from the other neighborhoods?" Now the entire city-state is full of that kind of monster, and I don't know how many cultists have taken advantage of the fog to enter the real world····· I am afraid that we alone will not be clean."

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

She approached the dead Annihilator, crouched down to examine the corpse, reached out and grabbed the collar of the other, tearing it open.

The flesh beneath the clothes was melting and wriggling, appearing to be contaminated with black mud, and as the body died, the speed of the mud squirming was visibly slowing to the naked eye, and gradually drying up.

「…… It's a fake!?" Vanna's eyes widened in shock, unable to believe what she had discovered, "These cultists······ Even his own people have been made into fakes?!"

"No, it's not that simple," Morris frowned, he was also carefully examining the cultist's corpse, and remembering the details of the battle just now, and shook his head slowly after a moment, "I have sensed the fluctuations of his thoughts, and they are different from fakes - those fakes have a fault line that is obviously different from human beings in their thinking process, even if they can behave like ordinary people, they will not be able to maintain a stable consciousness because of the instability of the 'element, but this cultist does not have this problem."

As he spoke, he reached out and pointed at the black mud-covered piece of flesh on the cultist's chest.

"And more importantly, this part, you see, is not made of primitives - primordials exist at the same time as normal flesh and blood, which is more like a symbiosis, or ...... Self-contamination."

Vanna stared at the position for a long time, her brow furrowing, "These heretics actively pollute themselves with the element? Even replace part of your own flesh with an element...... It's a bit disgusting, even on the Annihilation Cultists, it's an impressive level of perversion."

Morris's tone was rather calm, "I don't think it's much different from the Annihilation cultists who have transformed themselves into dark demons, these madmen are disgusted with the flesh and blood of the world, and they have never minded reinventing themselves in the craziest way."

As he spoke, his attention shifted elsewhere.

He looked at the one the cultist had been holding in his hand

A big black book.

After a moment's hesitation, the old scholar reached out and pulled the book out of the cultist's fingers.

"Be careful," Vanna immediately reminded, "there may be blasphemy in this book!" Now that the power of the sun has weakened, I have rashly touched ......."

"Scholars always open new and mysterious books, and for us, every reading is a process of challenge and adventure," Morris shook his head slightly, "Don't worry, the Laham sect has special training and coping skills for reading in such situations, you just need to be on the side to help me watch out, and if something is attracted to this book, help me solve it."

Vanna hesitated for a moment and nodded with a serious expression, "...... Good. 「

Morris hummed, finished a quick prayer in his heart, then took the vial of herbal powder from his bosom, poured half of it on the ground and lit it, and sprinkled the other half on the book in front of him, and then checked the status of the colored stone bracelet on his wrist, and then sat down solemnly and put the book on his lap.

The cover of the book is pitch black, with no words or symbols on the surface, and only a faint reticulated pattern is visible on the hard-shell cover, making it impossible to determine its origin.

Morris flipped open the cover of the book and looked at the inside pages.

On the side, Vanna looked away, trying to avoid being affected by the book.

Some messy lines and symbols caught Morris's eye.

At first, he couldn't comprehend what he was seeing, the messy conformity and lines that didn't fit any of the languages or archaic characters he knew, but as he tried to turn the next page, the marks on the pages suddenly began to move—the ink marks became living creeps, hurtling through the cage of paper, the jumping characters stimulating the old scholar's vision, and in a matter of seconds he felt that he had begun to understand the description of the page.

The symbols and lines were writhing rapidly, everything in the pages trembled before his eyes, and "knowledge" was directly reflected in his mind!

Morris's heart moved, and the protective and stress measures set in advance in his sea of consciousness were activated in an instant, and in the next second, the main consciousness was withdrawn, and his reason was solidified, as if he had instantly become a bystander, standing behind the "self" of the real world from a transcendent but illusory perspective, calmly and soberly reading what was emerging in his brain.

「…… The meetings of the Lost Kings went on and on, and the original plan was set······

"The flesh of those who are forsaken will melt in the light......

After 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 "Raven" when the captain led the team to explore the second waterway before! It is the "holy script" account of some kind of ancient record, which is unknown and unknown!

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

He saw more of the scripture of the Holy Book, and after the passage that the crow had copied, there were some more fragmented sentences:

「…… After the forsaken clan was gone, the creation of all things continued as planned, and the Forsaken Kings began to design the first and final blueprints······

"But that first blueprint was soon abandoned, as the aftermath of the Great Annihilation reverberated in the earthly world...... The kings gathered dust into stones, and stones into stars, but the stars disintegrated and shattered, and could not be ······ for long

"Salmir, the king of the pale giants, fell on the first long night of Genesis......

「…… The kings began to devise a second blueprint, and they chose one of themselves to be the Creator, and the first to be chosen was the King of Dreams, also known as the "King of Knowledge and Memory," for he had indeed exhibited the miracles of creation......

"But the second blueprint also failed, so the dream

The King of the Realm was torn apart in the second long night of Genesis, and a part of him drifted across the borders of the real world.

"The third blueprint is to be executed by another king, the 'King of Creeping, also known as the Lord of the Cluster,' who is the co-lord of countless invisible, insignificant, and insignificant, and holds the authority of creation and the power of the opposite...... and the truth, who is called 'the wise brother.'

「…… The Creeping King began her work in the third long night, giving the blueprint to the cluster, and seeking help from among the surviving clans, to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Dream King and the Pale Giant King, dividing the blueprint so that there would be no more kingdoms on earth, and the kingdoms would be reduced to 1,200 cities, and the clan would be in charge of the first ten cities, and given the name 'Crete,'.

"And so the third long night passed safely. That's good.

"But the remnant kings, dissatisfied with the change of the blueprint of the King of the Creeping, blocked the way back to the Holy See, but the clans of the Ten Cities were grateful to the King of the Creeping, and they did not dare to praise him before the kings, so they gave him another honorable name, which they called Holy, or "The Lord of the Shadows."