The pale yellow paper had been steeped in the ravages of history — not only were many of the characters blurred beyond recognition, but the pages had fused together, and several corners bore unmistakable signs of corrosion.
The script inscribed upon it was also written in some ancient language, the characters scrawled so crookedly that a three-year-old could have done better.
Even back in kindergarten, Xia Weier could have looked down on the writer. Thanks to his father — a doctoral graduate in history — he had been exposed to various ancient scripts from a young age, and this particular one especially had been something his dad had taken great care to teach him.
"In the ancient days before time was counted, the world was a mass of dark shadow. One day, this shadow exploded apart, forming the Starlit Continent. The rivers of Xanaar wound across its surface, and from the waters emerged a sovereign called the Myriad Serpents — it possessed the most beautiful face in all the world..."
Xia Weier read the parts that were still legible.
"This is obviously just some myth..."
The memory of his childhood — of treating this massive tome as a storybook, of it accompanying him through those early years — brought a faint smile to young Xia Weier's face.
"The Mother of Myriad Serpents ruled over the entire Shadow World. Her offspring spread across the lands surrounding Xanaar, wielding tremendous power. They defeated the Homo sapiens, the Eliasi species, and countless other ancient creatures, ultimately conquering the entire Starlit Continent..."
"...The children of the Myriad Serpents were called the 'Bloodline Heirs,' masters of shadow who could communicate with all manner of serpents. The Bloodline Heirs divided the continent into fifteen empires and crowned the purest-blooded among their descendants as emperors..."
"Written as though it were actually real..."
Young Xia Weier continued to leaf through the pages. The entire first half of the tome described the beauty and might of this "Mother of Myriad Serpents," as well as the prosperity of the Shadow World under her dominion. But when he reached the second half, a piece of information caught his eye.
"...After the last radiant empire of the great serpents collapsed, the ancestral bloodline merged into other races. In theory... any creature possessing the blood of the Myriad Serpents could, through specific training, awaken the unique power of their bloodline..."
Beneath this passage, there was a damaged black bud insignia, exquisitely crafted.
Xia Weier's finger traced over the mandala bud, the pads of his fingertips still able to feel its rough, uneven texture. The sheer complexity and meticulousness of the craftsmanship meant this was absolutely not something produced as a joke.
In fact, upon closer inspection, the black mandala bud was actually composed of a multitude of intricate dark runes, though the passage of time and the wear of the pages had caused more than half of them to fade away.
Behind the bud insignia was a collection of dubious-looking training methods — things like mixing the blood of bats and rice-field eels together, smearing it beneath one's nose to increase the chances of entering a meditative state, and other such nonsense.
"This was it... the thing that made me a laughingstock back in kindergarten..."
Xia Weier's face twitched slightly. Viewed with his current knowledge, the training methods in this book were laughably primitive — they looked like something some primitive tribe would use to fool people.
"If you're going to fake something, at least put some effort into it... Everyone knows that without 'Aether' and the 'Mana Web,' it's impossible to wield supernatural powers or cast spells..."
Xia Weier rapidly flipped past this section with a speechless expression, reaching the very end.
The handwriting here was considerably newer, clearly added at a later date. It was written in a modern script as well, with no difficulty whatsoever in reading it.
The front portion of this section was a personal account by someone who called himself Shannon. In essence, he too was a member of this family, but he found the ancestors' records to be utterly absurd. Even with his experience traveling the world, he hadn't believed a word of it.
However, Shannon had appended an additional section further back — supposedly a set of martial techniques that belonged to the family, originally meant to be practiced by the servants who served them.
"Now this looks like it has some sincerity — 'Serpent Bite Fist,' is it?"
Xia Weier leafed through the illustrations that followed and discovered several highly detailed anatomical diagrams of the human body. They carried a sense of complexity intertwined with realism, and were remarkably similar to what he had studied in his advanced biology courses.
Judging by his own experience training at a martial arts gym, the conditioning methods described here didn't seem like utter nonsense either.
Thanks to the existence of Aether and the Mana Web, the people of the Shadow World had long accepted the existence of supernatural powers, and there had once been a massive craze for martial arts and psychic phenomena — though it was quickly discovered that charlatans far outnumbered the genuine article.
Aside from Aether and the Mana Web, it seemed that supernatural power had vanished entirely from this world.
Still, certain body-conditioning methods remained genuinely useful. After all, a strong physique and sharp reflexes could be of considerable help when obtaining a technician's license or casting spells.
For reasons of vanity, Xia Weier had once paid a rather hefty tuition to train at an upscale martial arts gym.
Unfortunately, beyond building a few patches of muscle, he had gained nothing of real value.
The truly authentic techniques were always hoarded and hidden by the instructors. Unless you had enough influence and money to become a full-fledged disciple, there was simply no way to receive the real teachings. Unfortunately, while the Xia family was relatively well-off, they were nowhere near wealthy enough for that.
On the other hand, because he was a sharp and personable young man, the instructor and the other students got along well with him, which had allowed him to learn a few genuine things.
"According to Red-Nose Instructor, a true martial artist who has properly trained their techniques can shrug off zero- to second-tier spells without a problem. In fact… before you've even issued the command, they could snap the wrist of the hand that's equipped with 'Swift Shadow'…"
Xia Weier examined the document titled "Secret Technique — Serpent Bite Fist" and found it recorded in extraordinary detail, covering everything from the most basic breathing adjustments to offensive and defensive applications, along with the medicinal ingredients required for training. It was clear that this Shannon ancestor had been an extremely meticulous person.
"I already have all the basic conditions met. I'd just need to buy a few specific herbs and commission some specialized training equipment…"
Xia Weier's eyes burned with a faint spark of excitement. "Looks like I really did miss out on something good when I was a kid. Should I give it a try?"
"Forget it… wasn't I just resolved to live as a normal person? What's the point of all these martial techniques?"
Xia Weider suddenly recalled the instructor's warning: "In this era, the ones with real power are the advanced technicians who can cast high-tier spells, the postgraduates specializing in Aether studies who graduated from prestigious universities, even doctoral candidates… In the face of their high-level spells, martial artists like us have absolutely no way to fight back…"
At that time, Xia Weier could clearly see the look of dejection in his instructor's eyes.
"Yeah! Nowadays, as long as you have money, you can download and use low-level spells at will, and even mid-tier spells aren't some impossible dream. Going to the martial arts academy to work out is fine, but anyone who seriously dedicates themselves to training in martial arts gets treated like a fool... What am I even still thinking about? I should hurry up and get my high-level technician license, gain access to mid-tier magic. Even Fortune 500 companies would be fighting to hire me..."
Xia Weier sighed and shoved the heavy tome back into its place, though a lingering trace of regret remained in his heart, refusing to dissipate no matter what he did.
After the youth left, with a click as the door shut, the entire study was plunged into darkness.
At that moment, Lei Lin's figure traversed infinite space and descended directly into the room.
The hidden compartment of the bookshelf opened on its own, and the heavy tome, wrapped in a faint glow, floated into Lei Lin's hand.
Rustle, rustle... pages flew by in a blur, stopping only when they reached the page marked with the black mandala symbol.
"The Blood Legacy of Ten Thousand Serpents? What a pity — it's been through too many breaks and gaps in transmission..."
With Lei Lin's expertise, almost the instant the book touched his hands, he could tell it had been written 1,257 years ago, and the author had also been an extraordinary being — equivalent, in modern terms, to a second or third tier
It was just that the legacy the author had received back then was already somewhat incomplete, and after being recorded down and weathered by the passage of time, it had become even more damaged.
"If someone were to actually follow the Meditation Method described here, the odds of cultivating extraordinary power wouldn't be zero — but the chances of turning into a monster would be a bit higher..."
"The martial techniques section at the back, though — once you set aside meditation and Spiritual Power, they actually conform to the current world's rules. There's even a chance something useful could come of it..."
Lei Lin commented flatly, then tossed the book back to its original spot.
For him now, such things were hardly even worth a second glance.
He then turned his gaze to the undulating waves of black book spines filling the shelves.
"A historian's study... it should be more than enough for me to understand the entire world's history of change..." Lei Lin's eyes locked onto a massive tome in the upper-right corner of the shelf, and the Chip's light scanned over it in an instant.
It seemed to be a family tradition of historical scholarship — this scholar had preserved a large number of physical books, which pleasantly surprised Lei Lin.
Although he could now infiltrate higher-level city security networks or even the Shadow
By comparison, this primitive method of information gathering, while somewhat tedious, would not be detected by her at all.
It was clear that the youth's father had been a very meticulous person — every book on the shelves had been carefully organized, arranged in neat chronological order.
At the very bottom were some ancient myths and poetic tales — clearly, the owner hadn't put much faith in them either.
The middle section consisted of a large collection of ancient histories, some even bound with thread, the kind that could easily be sold as antiques. The top shelves held modern history books, their pages bright and pristine, a clear sign that this was the section most frequently consulted.
And with Raine's reading speed, it wasn't long before the entire history of the Shadow World unfolded before his eyes.