Chapter 120: The Saint Era, the Ancient Era, and the Chaos Era.
“Dear Xia’er:”
“This set of books was actually recommended to me by that professor of ancient An Su language at An Su. I’ve bundled them all together for you.”
“After all, my skills are not refined enough; I can’t even translate a few sentences well. Although you said in your letter that my translation is good, I am very clear about my own level—it’s just amateurish.”
“I hope these books can help you solve the problems in your heart as soon as possible.”
“Also, I arranged for two maids to stay across from your house. If you need a carriage or to send information, you can go directly to them. They’re right across, always on standby.”
“If you don’t need them and feel they’re disturbing you, just let them return.”
“Your friend,
Aivana”
Xia’er looked at the pile of books already stacked in her room and placed Aivana’s letter in the drawer of her desk.
Although they hadn’t known each other for long, Aivana had become a very reliable person in Xia’er’s mind—not only did she complete every task Xia’er entrusted to her well, but she was also extraordinarily thoughtful.
Like when Xia’er borrowed life-saving items from Aivana before, even knowing there was a threat from cultists, Aivana still lent them without hesitation.
In any case, this trust moved Xia’er deeply.
Life-saving items…
A flash of inspiration crossed Xia’er’s mind.
She didn’t let it slip away, grabbing onto it firmly.
Life-saving items…
“Substitute Sacred Relic”…
This extraordinary item could create a few seconds of “false death,” absorbing consciousness and spirit, then after several seconds, purer consciousness and spirit would return to the body, eliminating most mental interferences, including the brainwashing by “Missionaries.”
So…
Could the “Substitute Sacred Relic” remove the influence of the feather?
If the “Substitute Sacred Relic” were activated after being controlled by the feather, both Xia’er’s and the feather’s spirits and wills would be locked into the “Substitute Sacred Relic’s” prison. As the original entity, Xia’er would be released after a few seconds, while the invading feather would remain trapped until the sacred relic burned out…
During this time, the Sealed Object itself, without consciousness, would just be an ordinary item.
Leaving the simulation with the Sealed Object during this period… or even directly using [Spiritual Summoning] to draw a blood array and sacrifice the “Substitute Sacred Relic” containing the spirit and will…
Once brought back to the System Store, Xia’er would be able to learn some information about the feather.
Feasible… worth trying.
Though this plan was extremely dangerous, in the Simulation, Xia’er feared danger the least.
What Xia’er feared most was having no leads, no intelligence.
Xia’er opened the Simulation Interface, preparing to check the number of simulation days.
A silver-white screen unfolded before Xia’er, quickly switching to the Simulation Interface.
[Future Days: 27Day (Sheng Year 741, July 21st, 16:00) (Consumption: 10 Mortality Points)]
[Past Days: 11Day (Sheng Year 741, June 13th, 11:55) (Consumption: 10 Mortality Points)]
[Old Days:***, ***Day (???) (Consumption: 10,000 Mortality Points)]
27 days later… roughly hitting the limit where 30 Mortality Points turn into a cost of 100, for Xia’er, this was the most cost-effective simulation.
And with so many ample days available in the simulation, Xia’er could carefully arrange her time, trying to align the outcome as closely as possible with her thoughts.
This period should be enough for the Simulated Self to learn ancient An Su language.
Xia’er silently repeated the words spoken by the feather she had heard before, reinforcing her memory—she would do this occasionally since emerging from the simulation.
Now, she could almost recite those words, even though she didn’t understand what they meant.
This time, another simulation without direct combat, Xia’er planned to digest another Potion, ensuring as much as possible that she retained the ability to save progress.
After filtering through various options, Xia’er retained a few potential plans in her mind.
“Assassin,” “Butcher,” and “Adventurer.”
Xia’er believed that she had completed the Replication Rituals for “Assassin” and “Butcher,” at the very least allowing her to directly consume the Potion for digestion.
Even if the quality of digestion wasn’t great, it was enough. If dissatisfied, Xia’er could overwrite with a better save point.
As for “Adventurer,” Xia’er wasn’t sure if she had completed its Replication Ritual yet, but the probability was low.
Mainly because of the foundation laid by “Gambler,” Xia’er thought digesting “Adventurer” shouldn’t be too difficult either.
Setting aside the three backup plans temporarily, Xia’er picked up a book on ancient An Su language teaching and quickly flipped through it.
The front page contained the dedication from the professor mentioned by Aivana.
Most of it consisted of encouraging words, thanking Aivana for showing interest in the obscure field of ancient An Su language.
Just from the narrative, the professor seemed like an ordinary person rather than an Extraordinary Person, merely someone interested in ancient An Su language.
She taught Aivana knowledge about ancient An Su language, and in return, Aivana would find some rare ancient An Su language books that ordinary people couldn’t easily access—most of which were related to theology, some even involving Extraordinary forces.
At the beginning of the book, Xia’er learned something she hadn’t encountered in the Academy.
Currently, most academic records use the end of the Holy War in Sheng Year 741 as a dividing line. Before the end of the Holy War was the Ancient Era, and after it ended was the Saint Era.
According to all existing records, the Ancient Era lasted for 1100 years. During these 1100 years, countless Organizations engaged in brutal battles, sweeping the entire world.
Countless Organizations were destroyed during these 1100 years, and countless new ones adapted to the times emerged. After multiple rises and falls, they eventually formed the current Church system that maintains a delicate balance.
No wonder secret religions weren’t surprising to Aivana. Even though the Holy War has been over for so long, many texts from extinct Organizations have remained, and some people who obtained these texts might regard them as true scriptures, thereby founding new secret religions.
One piece of knowledge Xia’er gained was that before the Saint Era and the Ancient Era, there existed an unrecorded Chaos Era.
The Ancient Era was too close to the present; even adding the Ancient Era and the current Saint Era together only amounted to 1841 years.
Xia’er deduced that the Old Day simulation might simulate an era before the Ancient Era, at least events from the Chaos Era.
With no resources left behind, Xia’er couldn’t investigate further and could only put the matter of the Chaos Era aside for now.
Her current goal was to spend an hour quickly reviewing ancient An Su language to see how much influence [Linguistics Lv.1] had on her.
If the enhancement wasn’t significant, to ensure the Simulated Self could accurately translate the necessary information, Xia’er would need to spend Points to upgrade [Linguistics].
This was putting Mortality Points to good use, and Xia’er didn’t feel it was wasteful.
After calming down, Xia’er began studying again after a long break since graduation.
Whether due to the impact of the Crisis or the sheer amount of experiences she’d gone through recently, Xia’er felt that knowledge entered her mind and slipped away quickly, making it hard to focus.
Fortunately, this situation disappeared after about five minutes, and Xia’er entered a state of deep concentration.
She scribbled on scrap paper, recording the ancient An Su alphabet extracted from the book.
After starting to study, Xia’er noticed some peculiarities.
Past-life English and Old English didn’t differ greatly; Old English evolved into Middle English and Modern English under the influence of Norse, Latin, and French languages, leaving traces behind.
The alphabet was still 26 letters, just with some special characters added compared to Modern English, such as Æ, Ð, Þ, Ʒ.
However, An Su language and ancient An Su language were different. The differences in the alphabet alone highlighted a massive distinction, akin to a completely new language.
Especially writing it was incredibly cumbersome. If someone handed Xia’er such a string of characters in her past life, she would have thought it was AI-generated text.
Fortunately, with An Su phonetic annotations, it wasn’t hard for Xia’er to pronounce.
Moreover, perhaps due to the influence of [Linguistics], Xia’er found learning languages unusually easy.
Even without a teacher, Xia’er never experienced any sticking points.
Within half an hour, Xia’er could already write down more than thirty letters completely and familiarize herself with their pronunciation, memorizing around fifty simple words.
For an extremely complex language, this learning speed was fast enough to make Aivana feel inferior, but Xia’er was still unsatisfied.
This pace was still too slow…
During the learning process, an idea popped into Xia’er’s mind.
Her primary purpose was merely to translate the few sentences spoken by the feather.
Now, the materials provided by Aivana included phonetic dictionaries and word lists.
Knowing the letters and pronunciation, Xia’er didn’t need to follow the normal learning logic to study vocabulary and grammar from start to finish.
She could directly search for answers based on phonetics.
Before entering the simulation, Xia’er could decipher the meanings of those sentences, and perhaps the information those sentences gave her would be enough to change her plans.
Xia’er’s method wasn’t difficult, and with sufficient materials, upgrading [Linguistics] a bit more might allow her to handle it within an hour.
Since Xia’er also planned to delay the simulation to recover her spirit, this free time was perfect for studying.
Xia’er opened the Basic Discipline Interface in the System Mall, found [Linguistics Lv.1], and spent 2 Points to upgrade it.
A silver light flashed, and [Linguistics Lv.1] became [Linguistics Lv.2].
[Linguistics (Lv.2): 3 Mortality Points]
[Linguistics Lv.2: Moderately enhances your linguistic talent, making it easier to learn basic languages. With a little effort, you can become an excellent linguist.]
Mortality Points dropped from 165 to 163. Xia’er closed the System Interface and looked at the materials on the table in front of her.
She wanted to see if spending those 2 Mortality Points was worth it and how much difference it made.
Xia’er started attempting to translate the first sentence she remembered.
She silently pronounced the specific sounds in her mind and then searched for words according to the sounds.
This work wasn’t difficult, and the first word was “me,” which Xia’er had already memorized.
“Originally, you are my one…”
About ten minutes passed, and Xia’er translated the first half of the first sentence, but the latter part was somewhat advanced, and the remembered pronunciation wasn’t entirely accurate, slightly hindering Xia’er.
However, this progress was already faster than Xia’er expected, and her method of using pronunciation to reverse-engineer the meaning of the whole sentence proved more efficient than she imagined.
And with the bonus from [Linguistics Lv.2]…
She didn’t feel that the process was difficult in any way.
It was merely a matter of recording pronunciation, looking up syllables, and finally analyzing sentences based on context for speculation… However, Xia’er was aware that if she hadn’t invested points into Linguistics, she might not have even realized this, and it would have taken her tens of times longer.
At this moment, Xia’er looked at the small segment she had translated and felt somewhat bewildered.
“So you are my one?” What does that mean?
If the subsequent word wasn’t translated, the entire sentence’s meaning would become very strange.
After pondering briefly, Xia’er decided to upgrade Linguistics to Lv.3.
Raising it from 0 to 3 required only 6 Mortality Points, and Xia’er felt that if these 6 points could serve a purpose far exceeding their value, it would be worth it.
Increasing the Linguistics talent higher could be considered an early investment.
Once her points were more abundant later on, she would eventually max out all the basic disciplines, which would make her “omniscient” in the field of fundamental sciences.
This would greatly assist her in completing any Replication Rituals.
Xia’er could clearly sense that enhancing her Linguistics talent did more than just improve her talent; it also significantly boosted her memory and logical thinking, especially her memory, which was crucially important for Xia’er.
Xia’er spent another 3 points, bringing Linguistics to Lv.3, and her Mortality Points reached the round number of 160.
Linguistics Lv.3: Significantly enhances your linguistic talents, making it easier to learn various fundamental languages. Without much effort, you can still become a renowned linguistics master whose name will be recorded in history.
From scholar to master, it only took 6 Mortality Points.
Even if Xia’er stopped upgrading further, she could rely on this talent to master multiple languages, earn a living at university, and become a renowned linguist remembered by future generations.
However, this wasn’t Xia’er’s goal, so she didn’t dwell on it.
After reaching Lv.3 in Linguistics, upgrading to Lv.4 would consume 10 Mortality Points, a significant increase in cost.
But Xia’er didn’t plan to continue upgrading, as Lv.3 was already sufficient for her current needs.
When Xia’er attempted translation again, she discovered something unexpected.
The current Xia’er had almost achieved photographic memory.
This ability didn’t manifest as a skill, but Xia’er could distinctly feel it. Now, remembering words was effortless; just a glance allowed her brain to automatically associate with their approximate pronunciation and meaning, and those words were practically etched into her mind.
What a powerful foundational talent…
With this photographic memory, Xia’er’s translation progress advanced at an incredible speed. She barely needed to flip pages back when encountering familiar words, as she could recall them effortlessly without consulting the book.
She wondered if this talent was limited to Linguistics… If not, it would be incredibly powerful.
In less than half an hour, everything spoken by the feather Sealed Object had been roughly translated by Xia’er.
Xia’er didn’t directly write down the ancient An Su language but instead analyzed each sentence mentally.
“So you are part of me… No wonder you know so much.”
“I will become more complete…”
“Stop struggling. In another day, you will completely dissipate.”
“And I, at least have three hundred years to research how to repair my body… Though time isn’t much, it’s enough.”
“You can just wait quietly for your death. As a container, you should feel honored.”
“Why is it the power of nature…”
“Do we have to wait until her consciousness completely dissipates… After waiting so long, a few more days won’t matter.”
I am part of it?
This sentence made Xia’er certain that she was absolutely not part of “it.” It didn’t even know what it was missing itself.
As for why the other party questioned why she knew so much… That was natural, because Xia’er had already experienced it once.
Xia’er organized several clues:
- The other party was an incomplete Sealed Object searching for a container and had waited for a long time.
- After being possessed, her consciousness would dissipate within a day at the fastest.
- The “Inspector” ability was categorized by it as a “natural” ability, which could lead to tracing its era based on its definition of abilities.
Of course, aside from these, there were some less important pieces of information.
According to the feather Sealed Object’s estimation, Inspector Xia’er could live at least another 300 years through ascension…
Xia’er wasn’t particularly impressed by the prospect of a 300-year lifespan, at least not currently. In a world filled with extraordinary madness, longevity wasn’t necessarily a good thing, especially in this system where mental anchors were crucial. Time erodes your anchor points, and when you look back and find nothing left to sustain your will, you’re not far from madness.
“Natural” force became one of Xia’er’s investigation targets.
A silver light flashed, and the [Ephemeral Infinite Notebook] appeared in Xia’er’s hands. She picked up a dip pen, dipped it in ink, and began writing in Chinese.
[Exploring the “Natural” prefix might become a breakthrough in finding information about the Sealed Object.]
[Borrow the “Substitute Sacred Relic” from Aivana, but it can only activate when your body is uncontrollable after possession. You’ll need to help devise a method since you have more time than me.]
After pausing briefly to think, Xia’er continued writing.
[To make the feather Sealed Object appear, Lucy and Obold must die. If no solution comes, let Tara go back and rally support earlier.]
[Keep it up, Simulated Me.]
Xia’er stopped writing, and with a flash of silver light, the Infinite Notebook disappeared back into the System Warehouse.
After tidying up her desk, she removed her shoes and socks, lay down on the bed, and closed her eyes.
In the darkness before her closed eyes, silver light flickered, and the System screen appeared.
Xia’er spoke slowly in her mind.
“Tomorrow.”
“No.0.”
Silver light enveloped everything before Xia’er’s eyes, swallowing all her senses.
Seconds later, noisy sounds came from her ears, and Xia’er opened her eyes.
[Tomorrow]
[Sheng Year 741, July 21st, 16:00]
[Countdown -23:59:59]
The System countdown began, and that interface gradually disappeared from Xia’er’s sight.
Her double vision merged, and the indistinct noises turned into clear voices.
Dong dong dong—
“Silence!”
A somewhat familiar voice came from behind, and Xia’er turned around to see Baron Hastings sitting behind a luxurious wooden long table. He wore a silver-white curly wig and sat solemnly at the highest position.
The sign in front of him indicated his identity—Justice of the Peace.
Xia’er turned her head and looked at her own desk, quietly moving the sign in front of her slightly backward to read the text.
Clerk.
Before her was a notebook, and Xia’er, dressed in plain black clothing, held a quill pen in hand, recording the case in front of her.
To her left and right sat the prosecutor and defense lawyer respectively, while above the jury sat numerous agitated citizens loudly shouting, seemingly insulting the criminal awaiting trial in the center.
Is this the Justice Court?
Was this the job Baron Hastings had promised her?
Why did the simulated self run off to work?
Xia’er didn’t see any Notebook in front of her or on her person, and the information in the Infinite Notebook wouldn’t be shared.
But Xia’er wasn’t anxious; instead, she took a deep breath and patiently continued recording based on previously recorded content.
Without the explanatory Notebook nearby…
And somehow found herself a job…
Even if there might be slight differences in opinions between the simulated self and the real self due to different tasks, she wouldn’t do anything bizarre.
She must have her reasons.
The trial seemed to be nearing its conclusion, so Xia’er decided to observe quietly. After quickly finishing her records, she flipped through the previous notes.
Borough City Mint Factory?
After a quick review, Xia’er roughly understood what this case was about.
This was a case where factory workers sued the factory owner. Originally, this case wouldn’t have gone to court, but prior worker protests and strikes pushed it to the Justice Court.
The initial cause was the sudden deaths of two mint factory workers due to excessive working hours, yet the mint factory provided no compensation. The bodies were still left outside the factory.
The factory manager was a merchant from a noble family who hadn’t received a title. In this high-and-low situation, his behavior had both the arrogance of nobility and the selfishness of merchants.
To avoid giving “lowly” workers compensation, he directly sought help from the Black Water Gang to intimidate the deceased families.
The families merely wanted an apology but were severely beaten instead. Under such circumstances, the mint factory workers, enduring harsh conditions and low wages, were finally ignited and took to the streets to protest.
This protest rally seemed to have the backing of the Salvation Goddess Religion, as workers were their main followers, and they had to demand some explanation.
Prior simulations of Xia’er hadn’t paid attention to events in Clock Tower Lane District, so there were no records of this rally and march. But now, working at the court revealed this event.
However… This wouldn’t change anything.
Following Baron Hastings’ verdict of innocence for the merchant, it was Xia’er’s quitting time. After bidding farewell to Baron Hastings, she picked up her canvas bag and boarded the returning carriage.
Xia’er recognized this carriage because it bore the Russell family crest. Riding this carriage to work was akin to driving a Rolls-Royce to deliver takeout in her past life.
She had no intention of standing up for the workers because Xia’er was well aware that soon the merchant would “miraculously” convert to the Salvation Goddess Religion and pay a large sum of penance money.
Whether he would survive depended on his fortune afterward.
Xia’er opened her canvas bag and saw a Notebook inside. She took it out and started flipping through it immediately.
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