Chapter 324: 320 Taboo Research

Strange things began with the investigation of this ancient book. Since the investigation into the book's origins and the research into its contents were conducted simultaneously, the team of scholars assembled by Wang Yong also made progress while Dong Wen was investigating the book's origins.

At the time, Dong Wen did not know exactly what they had discovered, but he knew that Wang Yong and his team of scholars were all extremely excited, to the point that the first thing Wang Yong did upon having a new discovery was to choose to invite an outsider like himself to celebrate.

At that banquet, there were no others; the butler and servants serving the banquet were dismissed by Wang Yong from the villa where the banquet was held after setting everything up, leaving only himself, Dong Wen, and the team of scholars responsible for helping to research that ancient book.

Wang Yong and those scholars were so excited that they didn't even blink, their expressions revealing a somewhat horrifying ecstasy at every moment.

Dong Wen was like the only sober person present, standing on the sidelines, restless and timid like a cowardly penguin, yet Wang Yong seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, finding Dong Wen at once and pulling him into the center of that group of madmen.

Dong Wen actually didn't hear clearly what the slurring Wang Yong was saying, only vaguely remembering Wang Yong saying that he had discovered a miracle that could change the world, an absolute power capable of shaking the entire human society and changing the course of civilization. This was indeed a priceless treasure; no wonder his father had been willing to abandon everything to take this ancient book far away from the mortal world. If it were him, he would have made the same choice...

Perhaps Wang Yong didn't know at that time just how carried away he was by his excitement, inadvertently revealing a secret that left Dong Wen unable to think for a moment.

He did not care about the power Wang Yong spoke of; the mental state of Wang Yong and his team of scholars was very wrong. He suspected whether these people had consumed some prohibited drugs because they could not endure the dull and tedious academic research, which was why they had become so manic and deranged, somewhat losing their sanity. He was actually more concerned that Wang Yong had just called Li Li "father." The relationship between Wang Yong and Li Li was not the uncle-nephew relationship he had claimed; no wonder the other party had such a stubborn obsession with finding Li Li.

Dong Wen's doll-like, wooden expression made everyone somewhat unhappy; they thought Dong Wen could not understand their joy and believed he did not trust their results.

In order to make Dong Wen believe that what they said was true, Wang Yong and the group of scholars pushed Dong Wen out of the banquet hall, walked into the villa's study, and went into the basement through a hidden staircase on one side of the study.

Although Dong Wen was unwilling, he had no choice, and the scene he saw in the basement next would make him regret it for the rest of his life; he was also terrified that he had actually walked out of the basement alive.

Some people always think that the human race is base, shameless, and full of flaws, but when Dong Wen saw the creature that existed in the basement, he wanted to loudly refute those people. If they were also present to see this sight, they would surely understand how ignorant and shallow their previous words had been.

It was a bloated, massive meat maggot, its form flickering between reality and illusion. That foul, massive body of flesh was filled with unknown flowing liquids. At both ends of the meat maggot, there was a hideous head, and in the four-lobed mouths were dense, human-like teeth. Every time they roared, they released an unknown, fishy, foul gas... What kind of blasphemous creature was this? If there were truly gods in the world, why would they create such an ugly and fallen creation?

Seeing this horrifying scene that was enough to shatter one's sanity, Dong Wen could not help but think of the city that had already disappeared from the map of the Shenzhou Region, recalling that Collapse Night filled with endless pain, despair, and death.

Countless horrific and soul-shattering scenes repeatedly crushed his fragile nerves in the countless late nights he had spent. Even though every part of that city was a place he was familiar with, every part was also strange and dangerous, hiding unknown horrors that could kill with a single strike.

Dong Wen was so frightened that he screamed on the spot, his sanity nearly collapsing. He fled the villa like a madman, head in his hands, until he escaped back to the Jiu Chi Kun Shi he rented. Covering himself with a quilt, hiding his head and face, and curling up in the narrow corner against the wall by the head of the bed, making himself suffocate from lack of oxygen and breaking out in a cold sweat from the stuffiness, he slowly regained a shred of timid sanity.

From then on, Dong Wen never contacted Wang Yong again. He simply did a basic organization of the information he had collected so far, straightened out the logic, wrote a summary, packed the materials, and sent them to Wang Yong. After that, he deleted Wang Yong from his contacts, not wanting to have anything to do with the other party again.

It was all because Wang Yong forced him to see that thing that night; the psychological trauma Dong Wen had struggled to escape was tearing at his mind again every night.

He had to keep all the lights in his rental room on to dare to fall asleep. Before dawn, the curtains at home must never be opened, because those shadows stretching into the room from outside under the moonlight would remind him of that ugliness rolling and twisting in the shadows. He even had to plug his ears tightly; he did not want to hear any sounds entering his ears in the night, because that would remind him of the scene of that thing turning, squirming, chewing, and devouring.

Although Dong Wen blocked Wang Yong's number, Wang Yong still sent him messages incessantly every day. His messages were all recorded in the dedicated spam folder and would not have any notifications unless Dong Wen checked them himself. It was only later, due to a sudden turn of events, that Dong Wen finally began to look back at the messages Wang Yong had sent.

That sudden turn of events was that Wang Yong had gone missing, along with the team of scholars who were researching the ancient book with him, disappearing on a certain day after that banquet.

He only learned of this turn of events when the lawyer executing the contents of his will visited after the missing Wang Yong was officially declared dead, and Dong Wen finally knew what had happened.

Upon learning the news of Wang Yong's disappearance, Dong Wen was shocked but did not feel surprised.

Cruel pleasures will eventually end in a cruel way; researching the Abnormal will inevitably lead to being backlashed by the Abnormal one day. Those taboos that humans should not touch ultimately brought disaster upon that man.

In addition to leaving Dong Wen a considerable amount of assets, Wang Yong also included that villa and everything in the villa.

Unexpectedly receiving a windfall, Dong Wen was both excited and terrified. He did not know if Wang Yong had regarded him as a friend. A trace of guilt welled up in his heart, and he felt some regret for his behavior of cutting off contact with Wang Yong without authorization before he went missing.

For this reason, after accepting the inheritance, Dong Wen also began to look back at the messages that had been blocked.

Starting from the earliest blocked messages, the messages Wang Yong sent at first were full of sincere apologies, stating that he should not have been too excited for a moment and forgotten Dong Wen's past trauma, making him see those scenes that made him feel uncomfortable, and hoping that Dong Wen could come to his villa to see him, as he wanted to apologize properly for this.

Later on, he no longer talked about apologies often, but began to intersperse them with their discoveries and research.

And it was at this time that Dong Wen learned that the ancient book was a Magic Book that recorded a lost civilization.