Chapter 817: Fearing the Cause, Repentance

Stowing the last batch of ancient artifacts into his Personal Space, Xia Duo looked at the grief-stricken Genite and said with a smile, "Thank you for the gift, Master Genite!"

"You—"

With the collection of half his life suddenly falling into another's hands, Genite felt his rage almost erupting from his head, threatening to ignite his hair.

But from the moment he encountered the Drow until now, so much time had passed that he had already thought through what he needed to understand. Calming his emotions slightly, Genite said, half-asserting and half-pleading:

"You are not a Drow! Drow are not like you. Tell me, who sent you?"

As he spoke, he even blurted out two names, "Was it Wusu or Magela?"

Xia Duo had an impression of both these names; they were also Secret Text Masters within Domutos City. As the saying goes, peers often disparage one another, so Xia Duo was not surprised that Genite would associate himself with those two Secret Text Masters.

Because his current behavior really did not resemble that of a Drow—at least not the pure, perverted slaughter that Drow exhibited on the Surface. Instead, he was more like a normal creature wearing a Drow's skin.

But regardless of whether Genite believed him, Xia Duo denied it anyway. He said, "Don't waste your effort guessing. I am who I am, representing only myself. I wasn't sent by anyone!"

Genite was deeply skeptical of this, but Xia Duo did not care in the slightest and continued, "If you want to get your treasures back, then use your best efforts to find me. If you find me, I will return them to you, and I will even give you a grand gift!"

"You aren't killing me?" Genite's eyes widened instantly, a strange luster appearing in his gaze—it was the light of hope.

"I am not killing you," Xia Duo nodded, confirming it.

Killing—or rather, killing an Elf—was not his goal. Perhaps he might use lethal means in the process of achieving his goal, but if it was not strictly necessary, Xia Duo still preferred not to take another's life.

Even if this was merely a virtual character within a Projection Plane.

After all, the various experiences in the Projection Plane were incomparably real. Xia Duo was unwilling to easily violate his own principles, especially when he realized that a Personality was a relatively stable and dynamically balanced state of consciousness; he was even less likely to easily cross his own bottom line.

There is a saying in his hometown: "Bodhisattvas fear the cause, ordinary people fear the result." Xia Duo would not claim he had the enlightenment of a Bodhisattva, but at least he was someone walking the path of longevity and had to make long-term considerations.

He did not wish for his future self to become what his current self would not want to see. Even if the future might deem his current decision wrong or disadvantageous, based on his current understanding, he did not regret it.

That was enough.

Since the other party had explicitly stated they would not kill him, and given that he was in a position of complete disadvantage, Genite believed these words—and had no choice but to believe them.

"You said before that my method of interpreting the Dam Leaf Document was wrong. Can you tell me what the true method of interpretation is?"

"I can."

Xia Duo saw through Genite's little schemes clearly. Once the hope of survival was ignited, one would naturally keep testing until they were truly certain. If he really had some dark, twisted sense of humor, then a deeper despair following hope might be quite interesting.

However, he was clearly not that kind of person.

In front of Genite, he took a Dam Leaf Document that had been stowed away earlier out of his Personal Space, then guided elemental fire to ignite the leaf.

Under the firelight, both the leaf itself and the Secret Text on it transformed into a mass of twisted silver radiance, eventually revealing a passage of text.

Although it was still Ancient Elven Script, slightly different from the script of the era the current Projection Plane was in, it was not difficult to interpret—especially for a Secret Text Master like Genite who was proficient in various types of scripts; it was even easier.

At first, he was still furious that the Drow had burned his precious collection, but when he saw the text within the silver radiance, he finally understood why he had never been able to interpret the Secret Text on the leaves before.

Perhaps those Secret Texts all originated from different individuals; the samples were too few and lacked a system, making them difficult to crack.

Or perhaps they were not Secret Texts at all, but merely traces of Spell Residue, with the true content hidden within the silver radiance after incineration.

The silver radiance did not last long. Genite only caught a glimpse of the general idea, but he understood what this so-called secret document was about:

"This is actually a confession?!"

He then looked up abruptly, stared at Xia Duo, and asked, "Could this really have been left behind by an ancient Adjudicator? How do you know of such secrets?"

Xia Duo did not answer this question. It was hard to explain that he had only heard a rumor while incarnated as an ancient Elf in another Projection Plane.

And the so-called Adjudicator, in layman's terms, was the military police among the ancient Elves; they did not fight enemies, but had hands stained with the blood of their own kind.

Having killed so many, it was inevitable that there would be instances of mistaken or wrongful killings. Therefore, many Elf Adjudicators, in their later years, would record their past deeds of slaughter, especially the dishonorable parts.

If someone in later generations saw it, it meant that this sin had dissipated into smoke.

It was somewhat akin to an indulgence.

The leaf that had just been ignited mentioned a meaningless slaughter, and the rest was filled with words of repentance.

Among the other leaves, if they were a set, there might be more repentance regarding this meaningless slaughter, or perhaps more cases.

For Xia Duo, the research value of such secret documents from Adjudicators was not great; it was nothing more than understanding ancient Elven history from a unique perspective.

But with the existence of the Projection Plane, where one could personally incarnate as an ancient Elf and tour the ancient Elven Kingdom, how much value could such a one-sided perspective have!

Looking at Genite's longing eyes, Xia Duo's heart stirred, and he added:

"Using magical fire to ignite it is just one method of interpretation I know. After interpreting it this way, the document no longer exists in the world. Perhaps you can discover other new methods that do not damage the document itself!"

"Really?!"

Genite had initially felt some regret that such a document would cease to exist once interpreted. Now, reminded by Xia Duo, he reaffirmed his belief in cracking it himself.

It was just that the premise for all of this was that he had to survive.

After demonstrating the method for interpreting the Dam Leaf Document, Xia Duo felt it was time to leave. However, before departing, he reminded him once more:

"Remember, from this moment on, the game has officially begun. If you find me, you win. Besides returning your collection, I will also give you a grand gift!"

After speaking, Xia Duo checked the surrounding Magic Net environment, and upon confirming there were no abnormalities, he teleported away directly from Genite's Library.