Chapter 92: Return

"Okay, I understand, thank you."

After saying goodbye to the librarian, Yun Mu scanned the bookshelves and soon found the book Wensite had used when explaining things to her in the director's office earlier.

"The Kingdom of Blood and Art—The Peak and Decline of the Scarlet Court, Exploring the Truth of the Lost Kingdom"

Thinking of the librarian's instructions upon leaving, she carefully took the book down, found an empty chair nearby to sit in, and opened it to read.

After roughly skimming the useless preface, Yun Mu followed the table of contents and first read the introduction to the country known as the Scarlet Court.

Just as Wensite had said in the office earlier, this was a country that revered art and blood; in the beginning, it seemed to be nothing more than a weak city-state without even a name.

Until one day, though no one knew exactly what had happened.

A scarlet flag fluttered above the castle; in the year 625 of the Heral Calendar, the word "Scarlet" officially appeared in world history.

Through constant warfare and victory, this weak city-state gradually transformed into a powerful and brutal Kingdom.

Well, the label "powerful and brutal" was obtained through archaeology from the artifacts of surrounding countries, because ever since the Scarlet Kingdom was established, it had been constantly launching wars against its neighbors.

This country was like a war machine that would never stop, sending personnel to various front lines every single moment.

Even when the surrounding countries united, they ultimately failed to stop its expansion.

Finally, in the year 763 of the Heral Calendar, the Scarlet Kingdom officially unified the entire North Continent, a vast territory that included the present-day Frost Kingdom.

Hiss, it expanded from a city-state to a super-Kingdom ruling the entire continent in just over one hundred and fifty years?

What kind of overpowered protagonist plot is this?

Yun Mu muttered to herself while flipping through the pages in her hand.

After unifying the entire North Continent, the Scarlet Kingdom was officially renamed the Scarlet Court, and it began to downsize its military, turning instead to farming and development to recuperate.

It was also during this period that art, something not valued during wartime, was brought to the forefront.

After all, in an era of peace without war, once the standard of living improved, people always had to find other things to do.

Many of the current customs of the Frost Kingdom were also inherited from that time; in fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the predecessor of the Frost Kingdom was the Scarlet Court.

However, unlike the Frost Kingdom, which currently only had the Lady of the Night Dailianna as its mainstream faith.

Because the speed of annexing countries and city-states was too fast and the buffer time was insufficient, every region of the Scarlet Court had different mainstream faiths.

It was a mixed bag with very chaotic information, and the book did not describe it in detail, only briefly citing a few of the most widely spread faiths.

Among them, Yun Mu saw the name of the Goddess of Radiance Linfulei.

Hell, how long has it been since the end of the First Era, and no one has seen through the disguise of that lewd goddess yet?

Yun Mu complained, and soon flipped to the reasons for the decline and destruction of the Scarlet Court.

"Epidemic?"

Looking at the content in the book, her expression was very strange.

If one had to say, could the Scarlet Curse actually be considered an epidemic?

"When infected, red spots appear on the body; after the onset, one falls into madness and bites people everywhere, eventually rotting to death."

"It can't be wrong, this is definitely the Scarlet Curse!" Looking at the description of the epidemic in the book, Yun Mu felt a surge of energy.

"And then?"

She continued to flip through the pages, but the subsequent content was very different from what she had imagined.

"The reason for the epidemic's disappearance is unknown?"

Damn it, why is the most critical information missing!

Resisting the urge to slam the book in her hand onto the table, Yun Mu flipped back and forth according to the table of contents for about two hours.

She also looked at other books on the shelves that recorded information related to the Scarlet Court.

There was no information suspected to be related to the Blood Clan, but she actually managed to dig up the Scarlet Monastery from her last Dungeon, that dilapidated small town, and the story of the Knight and the nun.

The diary of a simp written by the Knight had been dug up by archaeologists in later generations and carefully studied and analyzed; the fact that the Knight was a simp and that this book was written by the Knight had long since been analyzed thoroughly.

It made Yun Mu feel so cold just reading it; she felt like she was going to die just from empathizing with it.

She wondered what would happen if she told the Scarlet Knight about this.

Yun Mu felt a bit restless in her heart, but she was afraid of being chased and hacked by someone with a sword, so she decided to forget it.

After neatly putting the books back on the shelves, Yun Mu returned to the second floor, to Wensite's office, preparing to do one last thing before leaving.

"Is something the matter?"

Seeing Yun Mu return, Wensite put down the pen in his hand and asked her.

"It's like this..."

Yun Mu connected the epidemic that occurred at the end of the Scarlet Court with the recent Dried Corpse Murder Case, and described the characteristics of the corpses from both one by one.

Wensite did not pay much attention at first, but as she spoke, his expression became increasingly serious.

"Alright, I haven't been paying much attention to outside matters recently, if the characteristics of those corpses are really as you described..."

Wensite frowned tightly, seemingly thinking about something.

"Regardless of whether it is that epidemic or not, I will pay attention to it."

"In any case, thank you for coming to tell me this." He thanked Yun Mu.

"Mm, I will also let the people in the city be vigilant." He added at the end.

"Thank you for your trouble."

Yun Mu performed a gesture of courtesy and then withdrew from Wensite's office.

Her goal had been achieved; as the director of the Frostfall City library, Wensite's connections and his authority were certainly not to be underestimated.

Hopefully, this would have some effect.

It was about time, and she should go to the Painter Association to give her lecture.

And by the way, go ask Sixin how to advance to a Second Rank Painter.

No matter what she wanted to do, strength was definitely very important; she could not afford to be stuck at lv10 for too long.

However, before that, she actually still had one thing to do.

Yun Mu turned and walked into a deserted alley, and after spreading her Supernatural Perception to confirm there were no people or animals nearby, she gently tapped Lucy's pixel icon with her consciousness.

Boom!

A deafening sound erupted in the Ether World, yet not a single sound was emitted in reality.

Countless pieces of information trembled, forming a massive vortex that gathered before Yun Mu.

Lucy's figure emerged from the void, and with a gentle wave of her hand, the trembling Ether instantly calmed down.

"Sorry, I can't let others know that I have returned," she said softly, bowing her head slightly.

PS: Any Legendary or higher-level existence will carve their own unique mark into the Ether World.

This was also the reason why Ether Resonance was triggered after Lucy appeared.

After all, what those silent Ether recorded was the Proof of Legend that belonged uniquely to her.

(End of this chapter)