"Hurry up!" Leilin strode into the interior of the villa.
"Chip! Scan the main structure of the villa!"
"Task initiated, beginning scan..."
Previously, because the villa's exterior was covered by a defensive layer of witchcraft formations, the Chip had been unable to scan its internal structure. Now, the situation was completely different.
Soon, a pale blue map appeared before Leilin's eyes.
"Mm! The villa has two floors! The top floor contains a bedroom and a washroom! The first floor is the living room, and as for the laboratory, it's located underground! The entrance is behind the closet!"
Under the Chip's scan, everything within the villa was laid bare to Leilin.
"Bedroom first!" Leilin quickly ran up to the second floor.
Grasping the brass handle, Leilin flung open the bedroom door. A layer of dust immediately billowed towards him, but a black luminous film automatically formed over his body's surface, deflecting the dust aside.
Leilin then swept his gaze around the room: "Everything has been packed away very neatly!"
The bedroom was small, containing just a bed, a desk and chair, and a wardrobe.
Leilin opened the wardrobe: "The clothes are all gone. It seems the owner of this place abandoned it intentionally!"
Although he had suspected something like this, a hint of disappointment still stirred within Leilin.
He then meticulously inspected the bedroom but found nothing of value. The drawers in the desk were also empty. Only in a corner of the room did he find a few blank sheets of parchment.
"They should be remnants of notes or a diary! Pity they're blank!"
Leilin sighed with some regret, but then his eyes brightened: "A diary! Of course!"
The yellow parchment was extremely old, looking as though it might split into several pieces at any moment, but to Leilin, these few sheets were priceless treasures!
"Chip! Scan the indentations on the parchment!"
Leilin issued the command, and immediately, his vision was filled with a blue glow. On the parchment, some fragmented red markings began to continuously emerge.
"This is what that Wizard wrote on a previous sheet, but left indentations on these sheets!"
Leilin felt a twinge of relief. Wizards would only use witchcraft to inspect items and had absolutely no defense against the trace analysis techniques from Leilin's previous life. Finally, he had found a clue.
The information on the parchment was jumbled, with many letters overlapping, making them unrecognizable even for the Chip.
After piecing together bits and pieces, Leilin obtained some information. It appeared to be from a diary:
September 1st, Clear skies. Polar Night City is a peaceful place; I hope to quietly conduct my experiments here...
December 5th, Overcast. Oh! Damn it! The experiment failed once again, as expected! The difficulty of synthesizing bloodlines is far beyond what I anticipated...
What remained was very blurry, even the dates were illegible:
...After reading Vono's letter and conducting several more experiments, I have to admit that he was right. My initial direction was completely wrong. This is truly saddening news...
...The test subject was a total failure. Even if the remaining eggs hatched, they would be useless. My plans have utterly collapsed. Gods...
...There is no point staying here anymore. Perhaps I should go to Dylan's Garden. Vono said his experiment has achieved a breakthrough of sorts. That is truly good news for the rest of us...
That was where the diary's contents ended — a Wizard documenting his endless experiments and failures before finally deciding to abandon this laboratory for good.
Aside from the name Vono and a place called Dylan's Garden, Leilin had found nothing of use.
But there were far too many people named Vono, and as for Dylan's Garden, Leilin had never heard of the place at all.
"No — wait!"
A sudden flash of insight struck Leilin, and he spotted another name tucked into the corner of the parchment.
The faint red lettering was extremely faded — Leilin had almost missed it entirely.
"Nork... Nork Gulatu Fasel!"
"Nork Gulatu Fasel!" Leilin's eyes snapped wide open. "The Crimson Grand Wizard!!!"
"Could it be that the owner of this laboratory is actually the Crimson Grand Wizard?!"
Nork Gulatu Fasel was a legend of the Wizard world on the South Coast! According to the tales, he was not only a scholar of extraordinary and vast knowledge but had also achieved dazzling accomplishments on the path of Wizardry, rallying the full might of the South Coast's Wizards to repel countless invasions from underground and the sea.
Such a great Wizard was the role model for every Wizard on the South Coast!
Back at the bazaar, the merchant who had sold Leilin the torn page of the Luoyan Scripture had even tried to pass off the scrap as a note left by the Crimson Grand Wizard — though Leilin had seen through the deception.
"A big shot like this — his legacy is bound to be invaluable. Too bad the top two floors were cleaned out so thoroughly that nothing was left behind!"
A flicker of regret crossed Leilin's face, but he still committed every detail on the parchment firmly to memory.
"I hope there's something worthwhile inside the laboratory itself!"
Leilin cast a disappointed glance at the bedroom, then gave a light puff of breath. The parchment crumbled to pieces on the spot under the airflow.
He made his way to the cupboard on the first floor. The cupboard, which should have been flush against the wall, now had a gap behind it — Leilin could even see the passageway beyond.
That was probably the doing of that Manxter serpent as well.