Chapter 353: Let Me Take a Peek (Subscribe Please)

If you want to know the answer, then you need to see it for yourself.

This truth, Herbert had understood long ago.

What the ears hear may be false; what the eyes see is true.

What one sees with one's own eyes is always more persuasive than what comes from another's mouth.

But… at this very moment, when Bishop Ashes lifted one corner of that gauzy floor-length gown, Herbert instinctively felt a trace of hesitation.

The truth not yet revealed had only parted a single crack, yet it already made him uneasy.

Intense unease!

Perhaps some things really should be left blissfully muddled.

Just as others had said, perhaps there really was no need to see things too clearly…

"…"

In the silence, Herbert suddenly heard a soft sound.

Gulp!

It was him unconsciously swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

And that motion was like a switch, restoring every sense he had been ignoring.

Herbert finally realized that his body was presently in an unusual state.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

His heart was beating with strange rapidity, pumping blood into the chilled corners of his body.

Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!

His chest rose and fell violently, drawing in great gulps of air, struggling to meet the body's needs.

His body… was trembling slightly.

What… was this situation?

As Herbert wondered, Bishop Ashes's teasing voice sounded by his ear.

"Didn't you want to see? Why are you standing over there not coming closer?"

Heh heh~

The coquettish voice carried delight and a faint mockery, playfully teasing the curious youth who had the will but not the nerve.

"So, child, are you actually afraid?"

"Afraid of obtaining a truth."

"You clearly spent so much effort pursuing a result, yet the moment you were about to obtain it, you gave up out of fear."

Bishop Ashes murmured softly, quietly watching Herbert's pitiful trembling from fear, and shook her head slightly.

"That really is a pity, ha ha…"

Her eyes held sentiment, held playfulness, but held little true derision.

For Bishop Ashes, this was not a very surprising outcome.

Before this, she had already seen far, far too many similar precedents.

Many people clearly longed for the truth, pouring out countless efforts for it, yet would often feel fear at the very moment the truth was within reach.

Because knowing a secret often comes at a price.

In the supernatural world, this was especially true.

Knowledge is alive.

And those hidden knowledges carry the power of taboo.

They will pursue those who seek them out, the secret-peekers, then coil around them and bind them.

He who would wear the crown must bear its weight.

He who would pry into hidden things shall be bound by them.

And she… was the Warden.

The Warden of Taboos, who held countless hidden things in her grasp.

The ash and dust left behind after being wrapped in the fire of knowledge and burned away.

She was a lonely one.

She was the silent guardian who watched over these clamorous knowledges.

It was natural for others to feel fear toward her.

Because a being like her ought to be feared.

Bishop Ashes, at this moment, felt only a touch of regret.

While Herbert was so stubbornly seeking to uncover her secret, she too had been waiting.

Hoping he would be different from the others.

Sadly, even the youth before her was no exception.

There are no miracles in this world.

So-called miracles are either the boastful lies of gods, or a momentary lapse of fate.

No miracle had occurred.

In the span of a few breaths, Bishop Ashes gathered her scattered thoughts and, with considerable regret, prepared to let her hem fall.

"If you're afraid, don't force yourself; it won't do you any good. Give up obediently."

Not wanting Herbert to be too disappointed, she added softly: "Don't worry, this one doesn't count. I can still grant you one other wish…"

This was Bishop Ashes's mercy, an obvious favoritism toward the boy's naive gesture.

But the next moment, the youth, in a trembling voice, flatly refused her kindness.

"No!"

Herbert forced his gaze away, raised his head, and laughed toward the Bishop of Ashes: "No need to change to another wish. I just want to know this."

"I want to know the answer!"

Change to what?

I want this one!

"Hm?"

The Bishop of Ashes raised her brows in great surprise and fixed her gaze on the trembling youth.

A wildly pounding heart, ragged gasps, ceaseless trembling… these were the reactions others would have upon glimpsing her true form.

Such reactions were no different from anyone else's… she had naturally assumed as much.

But when the youth firmly refused, she finally noticed a slight difference.

He was not like the others.

Not like anyone!

The real difference lay not in these surface reactions.

It was in his eyes.

The youth's eyes were filled with a dazzling brilliance the Bishop of Ashes had never seen before, bright as the stars.

Could it be… his trembling now was not from fear?

"Haha, cough, that almost made me lose myself for a moment."

Herbert laughed twice, closed his eyes and let out a long breath, stretched his back vigorously, and by the time he opened his eyes again, he had fully suppressed his body's instinctive reactions.

His earlier trembling was not from fear, but from… excitement!

Some people, when facing the unknown, feel fear and confusion, and so they stop in their tracks.

But by contrast, there exists another extremely rare type of person… they feel excitement at it.

Toward danger, they savor it as sweet!

They are passionate about finding every possible way to court death.

Even in the Mortal World, they would seek out chances to push their limits, trying to experience the thrill between life and death.

And in the Extraordinary World, there would be a whole lot of ruthless people who go barreling toward the forbidden.

These people are often called pioneers, martyrs, sacrifices… admired and praised by the world.

But more often, they had not thought that much about it — not for any lofty ideal, but simply to satisfy their own craving.

Of course, Herbert did not consider himself such a person.

He had always thought of himself as cautious and careful, planning before acting, a practitioner of the path of self-preservation who disliked taking risks.

As for why he so often courted death… well, who knew?

What backlash of knowledge?

What hidden curse?

I don't understand.

I just wanted to know what was under the Bishop of Ashes's skirt, that's all.

Is it legs?

If not legs, then what could it be?

Clinging to this stubborn conviction, Herbert walked step by step toward the Bishop of Ashes and nodded firmly at her.

"Bring it on!"

Bishop of Ashes:?

Watching Herbert's look of facing death without regret (impatience), she couldn't help feeling something seemed off.

"Uh! Wait, wait a moment, are you really all right?" the Bishop of Ashes asked, unable to hold back.

No, you shouldn't be like this!!?

By all rights, the script shouldn't be going like this now.

Even if Herbert's will were firm enough to resist fear, at most he could barely keep his mind from collapsing and then accept a small portion of knowledge.

But now?

Herbert not only felt no fear, he actually strode toward her.

Such a display was indeed stunning and admirable… but this development is wrong somehow!!?

No matter what, facing this vast secret of hers, Herbert shouldn't be this calm!

Because the enormous gap between them existed objectively, and could not be shifted by personal will.

The difference in strength between High-rank and Epic could not be bridged by will alone — yet Herbert had done it.

He had not only regained his clarity, he could even stride toward her seemingly completely unaffected.

Why was he able to resist this power?

Could that old thing really have granted him such an exaggerated blessing?

What the Bishop of Ashes did not know was that Herbert had long been obsessed with strengthening his own mental defenses.

He had used every method imaginable, just to be able to stay as clear-headed as possible when facing spiritual threats.

By virtue of these, he had torn free of fear through his own will.

As for why he could be this calm, it still relied on the perks enjoyed as an ally of a certain Miss Xie Shen.

Epic was indeed very powerful.

But I've even seen Miss Xie Shen's Epic avatar, and I didn't feel afraid either?

His resistance to the forbidden realm far exceeded anyone's imagination.

Strictly speaking, Herbert was actually coexisting with the forbidden thing every moment of every day, and from time to time would even chat and banter cheerfully with it.

Your little bit of influence doesn't count for anything at all!

Let me take a careful look!

The Bishop of Ashes, while feeling it was absurd and incomprehensible, actually sensed a faint unease from this young man.

Wait, why would he make me uneasy?

How could he possibly make me… hss! He's really coming over!!!

She felt Herbert's fiery gaze and instinctively wanted to lower her skirt.

"Um, you, uh…"

"Enough with the nonsense!"

As a result, Herbert waved his hand grandly, paid no heed to the Bishop of Ashes who seemed to want to say something, and with a thud flopped straight down onto the ground.

"Let me have a look!!!"

Saying so, he actually unceremoniously thrust his head beneath her skirt.

Bishop of Ashes:???

No!

You brat really don't hold back at all!!!

I told you to lean over and look, not to burrow in and look!

At the same time, rather than lamenting Herbert's "brashness," she felt at this moment a distinct strangeness.

Th-this, this feeling…

Although he had only burrowed beneath her skirt, he wouldn't see anything truly outrageous.

But!

This bizarre feeling, however, was the strangest experience the Bishop of Ashes had ever had in her entire life.

Th-th-this…

Clearly Herbert hadn't done anything yet, but she already felt herself getting all itchy, as if she had truly been touched.

"Hss!"

In her panic, she instinctively wanted to pull her "legs" back, but just as she was about to move she came to her senses.

No, not yet.

Even if she were to pull them back, it couldn't be now.

Because at this moment, Herbert had already begun absorbing those pieces of knowledge; if she forcibly moved away now, it would only forcibly interrupt the process and cause severe damage to his spirit.

The Bishop of Ashes couldn't bear to do that.

She truly cherished talent, otherwise she wouldn't have tolerated Herbert being so presumptuous…

I let you be presumptuous, but I didn't let you be THIS presumptuous!?

And in order not to harm Herbert, she had no choice but to helplessly endure this shame.

The Bishop of Ashes gritted her teeth and couldn't help muttering: "You damned brat, actually making me endure this kind of humiliation, tsk! Just you wait, I'll definitely make you pay for this later!"

However, although she was viciously mouthing threats, in her actions she didn't dare to be the slightest bit excessive.

She even took the initiative to adjust the position of her skirt, covering Herbert entirely, so that the whole scene wouldn't look quite so bizarre — or so she hoped.

Although the image was still very strange, at least it didn't look like some pervert's crime scene, but rather like some bizarre religious painting.

And at this moment, what unfolded before Herbert's eyes was an entirely different scene.

"…"

Hidden in the shadow beneath the skirt was neither a pair of jade-like feet, nor empty trouser legs.

But rather… secrets.

Endless varieties of secret knowledge unfolded before Herbert's eyes, surging into his mind with a violent momentum.

Those ancient, hidden, even mad pieces of knowledge, as if they had finally found the new vessel they had long awaited, rushed toward him in a frenzy.

At first, Herbert could still bear it, carefully distinguishing these pieces of knowledge, sighing softly at the value of these secrets.

But very soon, he felt his head swelling, his consciousness beginning to grow muddled and sluggish.

"I'm about to reach my limit…" Herbert knew clearly in his heart that he couldn't forcibly bear it; doing so would inevitably cause irreversible damage to himself, truly making him a slave to the secrets.

And just as Herbert's will was on the verge of collapse and he was preparing to withdraw, those secrets seemed to sense something, and no longer charged toward his soul, but instead diverted and surged into the shadow beneath him.

And those pieces of knowledge that were too vast for Herbert were, for the Goddess of Harmony hidden in the shadow, utterly incapable of stirring even the slightest ripple.

This sudden change let Herbert breathe a sigh of relief, and he thanked the Young Lady in his heart: "Nie Nasha, thank you."

There was no response from the shadow, and it was unknown whether She had already awoken.

But Herbert had no heart at this moment to investigate this trivial matter; his entire attention was drawn to another affair.

"This…"

And after those tumultuous secrets gradually faded away, Herbert finally saw the truth he had long been yearning to know.

The Bishop of Ashes had not lied; she truly did not have an organ called "legs."

Those really weren't legs.

But rather… slender tails.

Snake-like tails with gorgeous colors, every single scale inscribed with countless tiny characters, sealing away passage after passage of secrets.

The Bishop of Ashes… was not human!

She was also a monster girl!!?

???

Is this right?

And just as Herbert was about to open his mouth to ask, another voice suddenly rang out in the space.

Ding-ling-ling.

After a crisp chime, Bishop Rusty Nail's cold voice sounded: "Your Excellency the Watcher, might I have an audience now?"

"Please allow me to enter the Court of Secrets. I have an urgent matter to report to you."

Herbert:???

Wait, don't come over here yet!!?

Just as Herbert was about to scramble out, the snake tail before him suddenly lashed violently, coiled him up, and dragged him straight into the deeper darkness beneath the skirt.

"Come in."

Bishop Ashes's voice was unusually calm, as if nothing had happened at all.

Soon, Bishop Rusty Nail entered the demiplane and bowed respectfully to the Watcher.

"Your Excellency, I have received news… hmm?"

But just as he was about to report, he hesitated and asked: "Is something the matter with you? Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, it's nothing, nothing at all… hss! Cough, cough, it's nothing, don't mind it."

Bishop Ashes silently gritted his teeth, then the snake tail slowly tightened, cinching Herbert around the waist.

You little brat!

Stop groping around everywhere!!!

(End of Chapter)