Chapter 163: The True Origins of Da Zhou

"This, this is?"

Ergou shivered, glancing up at the sky in bewilderment—at this moment a dazzling great fireball hung above the vault of heaven.

That's right, it was indeed noon, and the noon of summer at that—how had it suddenly turned cold here?

Ergou couldn't make heads or tails of it, but his curiosity was instantly piqued. Yet his constitution now was no longer ordinary; gritting his teeth, he pressed straight ahead.

The next instant he froze, for what he saw was a scene that defied common sense.

Wherever his gaze fell, all was a sheet of snowy white; the ground was covered with all manner of ice crystals and enormous ice pillars, glittering beneath the sunlight like a kingdom of ice and snow.

Having lived so long in the capital of Qingzhou, Ergou had certainly seen ice before, and even eaten all sorts of snacks made from it, so he knew all too well how terrifying the scene before him truly was—that was ice, the easiest thing to melt, and it was under the blazing sun, yet now there wasn't the slightest trace of melting.

But with such exaggerated ice, how was he supposed to get past?

After finishing his exclamation, Ergou was left dumbfounded—under these circumstances, could he still get through?

Was he really going to return empty-handed?

The moment this thought arose, a wave of intense unwillingness welled up in Ergou's heart. After enduring countless hardships to finally arrive here, was he just going to go back empty-handed?

At this moment, Baichuan high above was also somewhat dumbfounded, because only now did he recall that he had actually forgotten to dispel the Ice Frost in advance.

It might have been because he hadn't come here in so long that he'd nearly forgotten, and combined with the fact that he himself had grown far too powerful, he'd completely forgotten that these Ice Frost, which to him were fragile beyond measure, were terrifying beyond compare to other living beings.

It was just like—would a being so powerful it no longer needed to drink water constantly remember that other beings needed to drink water?

Impossible.

Baichuan, nursing a slight headache, thought it over. Since that was the case, he could only melt it on the spot. Fortunately, from his recent sustained research into how to control a human body and evade the host's conscious awareness in the process, he had gained some insights.

As the thought landed, one Heat Storage Light Point after another began carrying vast amounts of heat, descending in utter silence, sinking into those thick ice pillars or ice crystals.

And during this process, the Light Points that had remained here all along also began to vanish and die in utter silence.

"Boom!"

A tremendous crash rang out—the sound of an ice pillar suddenly fracturing and shattering. Following the collapse of this ice pillar, a great many others also began to topple, smashing down upon the ice crystals and shattering into pieces those ice crystals that contained venom.

And in places Ergou could not see, vast quantities of ice crystals, the instant they melted, were evaporated clean by the scorching heat, leaving not the slightest trace.

"This is? The ice melted?!"

The bizarre situation unfolding suddenly before his eyes made Ergou leap back repeatedly in fright, uneasy and suspicious. Deep down, he instinctively felt something was off, as though he had forgotten something important.

He frowned, pressed his head, and tried to recall for a long time, but still could not remember. Bothered by this feeling, in the end he could only helplessly shake his head and ignore it.

He raised his head again to carefully survey the situation inside, and instantly the entire extravagantly luxurious palace of Da Zhou was fully reflected in his eyes.

Even though the palace was already half in ruins, Ergou still felt that compared to the palace of Da Qin, this place was even more luxurious and magnificent.

Seeing that the ice pillars blocking his path had vanished, Ergou no longer lingered and strode in, unable to wait.

This scene also made Baichuan, suspended high above, unable to wait any longer.

Has the moment finally arrived? The secrets of Da Zhou—reveal themselves completely before his eyes!

As this thought landed, he directly closed his eyes, hovering high in the sky as he was. He had evidently begun to receive everything Ergou saw and felt.

The sensation was rather strange, as though he were playing some kind of true immersive game—he could issue commands one after another to control the character's actions, and could also feel the various senses transmitted by the character, while at the same time hearing all manner of thoughts resembling inner voices from that character.

Because when all was said and done, everything in a human body transmitted information through various neural signals.

A person's entire being was thus laid completely bare before his eyes, without a shred of privacy.

At this, Baichuan was somewhat awestruck—this ability was far too domineering.

And as Ergou began to move, Baichuan also began silently and stealthily guiding him to the place in Da Zhou Huang Gong where books were stored, and a vast quantity of books was thus exposed before his eyes.

At this point, Ergou's reading life, at the height of excitement, began.

Of course, the fact that he could ignore the purpose of his coming here and lose himself in reading was all thanks to Baichuan's tireless efforts!

The thoughts of a human body, the influence the brain exerts during this process, is still far too great—otherwise, how would there be all kinds of hallucinogenic toxins affecting the nerves?

Unfortunately, Baichuan's understanding of the brain was far, far too limited; he couldn't perform various high-level operations yet, but the most basic one—rewarding dopamine during reading—he could just barely manage.

As Time passed, Baichuan also began, through Ergou's comprehension, to receive the various books that Da Zhou had collected and preserved for a thousand years.

Vast and complex knowledge began pouring ceaselessly into his mind. Of course, throughout the entire process, what Baichuan valued most was still Ergou's understanding and meaning of every single character.

Because only by understanding this could he truly skip the ability's sound perception, as well as the process of needing to convert into a human.

To truly achieve reading on his own, unimpeded, and understanding the knowledge crystallization of this world's humans.

This was also why he had merely guided Ergou to the library at first, rather than to various hidden chambers containing classified books.

Because those classified materials, he did not want anyone other than himself to know.

Time flew by in an instant—in the blink of an eye, half a month had already passed.

On this day.

Baichuan, high above, suddenly turned his head to look toward another direction on the earth below.

At this moment, a small contingent of people was hurrying over there. In an instant, Baichuan detected from the leading human a presence similar to Ergou's.

That should be Ergou's family.

Thinking of this, a flash of realization crossed Baichuan's eyes. He knew this was because Ergou had been away from home for too long, and his family, based on a sentence he had once blurted out in a daze, had spent a great price to come searching for him.

It seemed it was time to toss him out and return him.

Baichuan sighed. Fortunately, with the support of vast computing power, he had finally managed to roughly understand the written characters of this world's humans, and could at least barely read on his own without hindrance.

Since that was the case, then it was time to return him.

With this thought, the Ergou below, who had been reading, suddenly grew drowsy and fell asleep.

Then the flood dragon from high above brought down layers of clouds, and a great number of Light Points began to rise and spread, directly lifting the sleeping youth below.

Silently, he was moved to the path that contingent of people had to pass through, and at this very moment, the confusion and suggestion Baichuan had previously set upon him also vanished one after another.

Baichuan did not directly kill this youth he had used up, nor did he make him forget the information from all the books he had read on this trip. On the contrary, he even strengthened the youth's impression of this knowledge, lest he forget it.

After all, it was nothing but ordinary books that hadn't touched the Core. He was, in the end, not a heartless being—as long as it didn't touch what threatened his ultimate goal of transforming into a dragon, he had always been easy to talk to.

Therefore, everything this youth remembered from this trip was his reward for truly learning the written characters of Da Qin for Baichuan in the library on this journey.

(End of Chapter)