Chapter 100: Arl, the

Lei Kedun leaned against the hull of the Future, admiring the sunset over the sea.

After more than five months at sea, Lei Kedun had become an Erudite of Sequence 6. Upon becoming an Erudite, his extraordinary abilities received a qualitative boost.

His original extraordinary ability to pierce fog evolved into the capacity, given prerequisite knowledge, to "analyze" the "analysis" of an opponent's extraordinary ability.

He also gained "Mimic": a chance to partially mimic the analyzed ability. The stronger the opponent, the higher the chance of failure, and even when successful, it remains far from the original. However, with the blessing of a Spirit Realm sorcerer, the gap is not too large.

Abilities belonging to the prerequisite sequence also received a substantial upgrade.

As a Scroll Professor, Lei Kedun can craft scrolls of extraordinary abilities he has fully understood and mastered through analysis.

Extraordinary abilities from the Reader and Seeker of Secrets paths align perfectly within this sequence.

To digest the Erudite's magic elixir, Lei Kedun has been causing trouble at sea, stirring disputes, and using the opportunity to record and analyze extraordinary abilities from various paths.

Although most pirates have low sequences and focus on the Sailor and Hunter paths, their sheer numbers mean Lei Kedun still uncovered many low‑sequence extraordinary abilities.

For some rare‑path extraordinary abilities, he sought Mr. Huang's help, trading a test for a chance to analyze an ability.

He didn't overlook even the Spirit Realm creatures that frequent libraries. Most of these are members of the Pure Light Brotherhood, centered on the Spirit Realm Seven Pure Light, who are relatively friendly to humans and enjoy spreading knowledge.

"It took nearly five months, but the Erudite's magic elixir is fully digested; the progress looks good."

Lei Kedun is fairly satisfied with his digestion progress.

"They've once again given my work to Tu Ba Ge and Black Cat; indeed, I need to raise another small creature, I can't just squeeze a single rabbit."

Thinking of Tu Ba Ge, who has constantly done his work, Lei Kedun decides to raise another extraordinary animal to share the load.

Lei Kedun's spirituality is stirred; he turns his head toward his left and sees a brass‑colored book emerge from the Spirit Realm, hovering before him.

Curious, Lei Kedun takes the brass‑colored book, opens it, and line after line of plain text appears:

My dear "Arsonist" sir:

Your bounty from Yin Disi has reached 15,000 Ferkin, and Lu En's reward is 5,000 pounds. Listen to my sister's advice: don't be too arrogant at sea; beware your wanted notice reaching Ma Dan, or you'll become famous.

I already know the auxiliary materials for the Corpse Collector's magic elixir you asked about last time.

50 g of brown spotted mushroom grown in a cemetery, 10 ml of hallucinogenic herb essential oil, 10 g of black pearl powder, and 100 ml of pure water.

Sister is in a good mood today, so she won't charge you; consider it payment for those odd little spells you told me about earlier.

The closing signature reads: Your cheerful sister Xi Ya.

Seeing Yin Disi's high bounty on him, Lei Kedun feels helpless; it's purely luck.

Lei Kedun knows that causing trouble at sea will get him wanted by the Storm Church, but the Eternal Blazing Sun Church was truly unexpected; to conceal his path, he mostly uses fire spells when fighting abroad, and accidentally burned a deacon of the Eternal Blazing Sun Church with demonic flame.

Even Jia Deli Ya warned him recently not to cause more trouble, lest he be ambushed by the maritime forces of the two major churches.

After reading Xi Ya's letter, Lei Kedun whimsically flips a page and writes in Dragon Tongue: If your true form is in the Spirit Realm, can you transmit messages directly between two pieces of paper?

The brass‑colored book quickly responds, a Dragon Tongue word appearing below: Yes.

Lei Kedun understands, then writes: Send a sheet of paper to the lady who just wrote, then remain in the Spirit Realm and directly transmit information between the two papers.

After writing the sentence, Lei Kedun tears a blank sheet from the book, tosses the brass‑colored book forward, and it darts back to the Spirit Realm on its own.

In a city of Dong Bailing on the Southern Continent, Lady Xi Ya, relaxing in a manor garden under bright sunshine and fresh air, suddenly furrows her brow as a slightly yellowed white paper falls from the Spirit Realm.

Xi Ya reaches for the falling paper, slightly puzzled—she just finished writing a letter, why another blank sheet? Is it because she wrote too little?

A line of somewhat awkward handwriting appears plainly on the slightly yellowed paper:

I just discovered a new use for the messenger: we can converse directly on paper, letting the messenger's true form stay in the Spirit Realm to relay messages.

"Interesting!" Xi Ya's mouth curves in a subtle smile.

She turns back to a room in the manor, sits at a desk, picks up a feather pen, and begins writing on the slightly yellowed paper:

"Your messenger is truly unique; how did you find it?"

After a brief pause, new lines of text emerge on the paper:

"A spirit wandering in illusion, a friendly creature available for command, willing to become my messenger's unique existence." I use this incantation to let Spirit Realm creatures seeking to be my messenger apply on their own.

Xi Ya silently records the incantation, then writes:

"And then Spirit Realm creatures actually came to apply?"

Lei Kedun replies promptly:

"Yeah! After all, I have some charisma in the Spirit Realm!"

When the previously written content accumulates, the blank paper automatically clears them.

Xi Ya writes on the now‑blank paper:

"Charisma? Do you mean saying to the messenger, 'Please, Mr. Messenger, I really need you' like that?"

Leaning on the hull, Lei Kedun glowers at the paper's content; after the messenger erases that sentence, he begins to write:

"Sister Xi Ya, aren't you on public‑funded travel? How did you get the Corpse Collector's auxiliary material formula so quickly? Did you rob the Spirit Sect?"

Xi Ya replies quickly:

"I happened to meet a love‑starved middle‑aged man recently and got it from him."

"A love‑starved middle‑aged man?" Lei Kedun ponders, feeling Xi Ya's remark is a bit improper, then writes on the paper:

"Sister Xi Ya, I didn't expect you ultimately took a shortcut?"

New content quickly appears on the blank paper:

"How's your Erudite magic elixir digestion? Shall I go to sea and test it for you?"

Lei Kedun feels the paper in his hand tremble, as if pierced harshly by a pen; he hurriedly writes a line:

"My captain told me to collect the sun‑dried small fish; that's all for today, talk next time!"

After writing, Lei Kedun lifts his hand and sends the paper back to the Spirit Realm.

In the Southern Continent manor, Xi Ya, seated at the desk, sees a sentence appear on the pierced paper, then darts away like fleeing, plunging deep into the Spirit Realm.

"The messenger is as cowardly as its master!" Xi Ya whispers, then rises and leaves the room.

At the doorway, she sees a gentleman hesitating whether to knock.

Bronze-colored skin, with extremely rare black hair and black pupils, a slightly cold expression, wearing a black trench coat, a somewhat slender figure, appearing under thirty. A black ring set with an emerald is on his finger.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Fei Ni Ke Si!" Xi Ya gave a very appropriate smile.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Xi Ya!"

The gentleman called Fei Ni Ke Si seemed a bit uneasy in the face of Xi Ya's smile.

On the Future, after ending the conversation, Lei Ke Dun prepared to find Jia De Li Ya, calculated the time; the Future Fool had already awakened from Source Fortress for a while now.

Lei Ke Dun's inspiration was triggered, a stream of massive, intangible light composed of countless pieces of information formed, appearing before him in an illusory form; Lei Ke Dun felt as if he had made eye contact with the other side.

A scene appeared in Lei Ke Dun's mind: a young man with black hair and brown pupils, an ordinary face, deep features, scholarly demeanor. He wore a tailcoat, black vest, white shirt, black bow tie, and dark trousers.

The other seemed to be saying something to him—no, to the owner of this perspective.

Lei Ke Dun quickly realized this was a scene the Hidden Sage transmitted to him through Lao Ni Er's perspective.

After completing all this, the Hidden Sage's informational avatar again vanished from Lei Ke Dun's sight in an illusory, torrent-like manner.

The Hidden Sage's sudden appearance and then departure left Lei Ke Dun a bit stunned.

"Is this urging me to hurry and find that Future Fool?" Lei Ke Dun guessed uncertainly.

Lei Ke Dun was not surprised at the Hidden Sage—or the Knowledge Wilderness—wanting to invest in the Future Fool. His soul had already passed through the Knowledge Wilderness before entering this body, so his memories had undoubtedly been obtained by the other side without reservation.

"It seems we can't wait until the Future gets close to Lu En before rushing over,"

Lei Ke Dun murmured something to himself, quickened his pace toward the captain's cabin, and saw Jia De Li Ya reading a book.

"Is there something?"

Jia De Li Ya placed a bookmark in the book she was holding and closed it.

"Captain, I'm leaving the Future," Lei Ke Dun said directly.

Jia De Li Ya, hearing this, nodded without surprise:

"Alright, do you need to say goodbye to everyone? If you're not in a hurry, you can take the Future over there."

Lei Ke Dun shook his head, recalling the later timeline, and said:

"No need. I'll just tell Fu Lan Ke, pack my things, and then I'll directly traverse the Spirit Realm to the destination."

"If nothing goes wrong, I should be back at sea early next year."

Speeding up the progress, getting ready to intervene in the plot (o°ω°o)

(End of chapter)