Chapter 72: Mission in the Knowledge Wilderness

Leiketon thought the Knowledge Church's year-end exam was still quite simple; he finished all the questions without much effort, and he also made a second revision of the answer that Tu Ba Ge had reported him for, making sure the captain wouldn't notice any problem.

"As expected of me! Consistently excellent!" Leiketon muttered to himself.

While sitting on the desk nibbling fruit, Tu Ba Ge heard the voice and gave a contemptuous glance.

Leiketon handed the completed answer sheet to Captain Yikang Dun, who merely glanced at it briefly before setting it aside, then handed Leiketon a new stack of exam papers.

Leiketon took the new exam papers from the captain with a dazed expression, suspecting that the captain had discovered his having Tu Ba Ge help him cheat.

"This is for the rabbit you keep; I want to test its intelligence and learning ability. There will be no scoring—this is just a test for it." Seeing Leiketon's puzzled look, Captain Yikang Dun immediately explained.

"Oh, okay, I'll get it done for it right away." Leiketon felt much relieved upon hearing that.

"Don't rush; there's no time limit. You can hand it in whenever it's done. Let it complete it independently—don't help it." Captain Yikang Dun explained, then added a worrisome reminder.

"Okay, Captain!" Leiketon nodded.

"In two days we'll have vacation; everyone can rest for a week. As long as you have no missions these two days, you're free to do as you please." The considerate Captain Yikang Dun hinted that Leiketon could skip work for the next two days.

"Okay, Captain! I'll go find Tu Ba Ge and have it do the questions." Leiketon left the captain's office laughing.

Tu Ba Ge saw Leiketon bring a stack of exam papers into the office, then come out with a new stack, tilted its head, and wore an expression of sudden realization.

"Boss! You got caught cheating!" Tu Ba Ge's tone revealed schadenfreude.

Leiketon glanced at his mischievous fat rabbit, then shoved the stack of questions into Tu Ba Ge's paws.

"Here, do it well! This is your share! Remember not to answer too well—keep your score low, so the church won't discover your true ability." Leiketon reminded Tu Ba Ge.

"For me? I'm just a rabbit!" Tu Ba Ge felt the world was too hostile toward rabbits.

"This is to test the intelligence and learning ability of a magical creature like you. Answer a bit poorly, so the church doesn't find out, and then there probably won't be any more of this." Leiketon explained.

Most importantly, Tu Ba Ge must keep its score low and not appear too smart, otherwise Leiketon worries that his having Tu Ba Ge help him cheat will be exposed.

"Waa~ I got it, I'll just scribble randomly." Tu Ba Ge nodded eagerly.

Tu Ba Ge picked up the feather pen on Leiketon's desk with both paws, then stopped. It looked at its own two paws, then at the feather pen it held.

"Boss, I can't write! Moreover, my paws can't hold the feather pen—it's too thin!" Tu Ba Ge said anxiously.

"Um" Leiketon fell silent.

He also forgot that rabbits can't write and that their paws can't hold a feather pen.

"Just doodle a couple of lines on it to get by—after all, it's just a formality. As long as you don't learn to write, you won't need to do these questions again." After thinking, Leiketon decided to let Tu Ba Ge do as it pleased.

Whether or not the captain also forgot that rabbits can't write, Leiketon just wanted Tu Ba Ge to get by.

"Oh oh! I understand." Tu Ba Ge nodded.

Then, holding the feather pen with both paws, Tu Ba Ge began to scribble randomly on the stack of exam papers Leiketon had given it. After making sure every sheet was doodled on, it happily set the feather pen down.

"Done, boss!" Tu Ba Ge exclaimed, patting its little paws.

Leiketon looked at the exam papers messily doodled by his own rabbit and felt reluctant to hand them back to the captain.

"You take it and put it on the captain's desk yourself!" Leiketon waved his hand.

"Ah!" Tu Ba Ge's excitement suddenly froze.

Lowering its head, it looked at the messed-up exam papers it had doodled, then at the door of Captain Yikang Dun's office, hesitating about going in.

If only it had known not to doodle so messily—what if the captain thought it was on purpose and got angry?

"Hurry up! Put it on the captain's desk and we'll go home." Leiketon urged Tu Ba Ge.

Tu Ba Ge had no choice but to reluctantly carry the messily doodled exam papers into Captain Yikang Dun's office.

Captain Yikang Dun sat sternly in his chair, brows furrowed, doodling with a feather pen on paper, and was somewhat surprised to see Tu Ba Ge enter his office.

"You finished that quickly? Or is there a problem?" Knowing Tu Ba Ge could speak, Captain Yikang Dun asked directly.

"I'm done!" Tu Ba Ge lowered its head and handed over the exam papers, looking resigned to death.

Captain Yikang Dun walked over, bent down to take the exam papers Tu Ba Ge handed him. Seeing the random doodles, he paused briefly before reacting.

"I actually forgot you can't write—well, holding a pen is also an issue. Seeing how deftly you usually handle a cane and an accordion with your paws, I overlooked this." Having realized his mistake, Captain Yikang Dun spoke somewhat helplessly.

"For now, let's leave it like this. When I have time, I'll make a new set of questions suitable for you to do." Captain Yikang Dun added.

"Whoa! Okay." Tu Ba Ge nodded eagerly and then fled the captain's office.

Seeing his rabbit rush back in a panic, Leiketon knew there was no problem—it had gotten away with it.

"Boss, it's really scary when the captain doesn't speak!" Tu Ba Ge jumped onto Leiketon's desk and muttered.

"Hahaha! Is your next line going to be 'The captain speaking scares the rabbit even more'?" Leiketon couldn't help laughing.

"Mm-hmm!" Tu Ba Ge immediately nodded in agreement.

"Come on, let's go home to get money, then come back to pick up the applied-for extraordinary materials, and we can enjoy our vacation properly. Qiao Xi and Joseph have both slipped away already—really not cool!" Leiketon tugged at Tu Ba Ge.

Tu Ba Ge immediately understood and jumped onto Leiketon's shoulder.

Bringing Tu Ba Ge home, he asked his mother for some money to buy extraordinary materials, then returned to the Execution Squad, got the extraordinary materials he had applied for from the captain.

"Captain, how did we get the extraordinary materials so quickly this time?" Leiketon asked curiously.

"You're just lucky; the church happened to have the reserves we wanted." Captain Yikang Dun explained.

"Pretty lucky?" Leiketon murmured to himself.

The captain's words made Leiketon realize his luck seemed indeed off. Since arriving in this world, everything that happened has been pushing him to quickly digest potions.

"Although Knowledge Wilderness and the Two Five Dragon each hold some authority over fate, it's only manifested in prophecies—they couldn't do this. Other beings who grasp fate authority have no relation to me either! I can't figure it out!" After thinking for a long time and still not finding the crux, Leiketon just let it go for now.

With the extraordinary materials in hand, Leiketon hurried home with Tu Ba Ge, as these materials would allow him to advance the Seeker path to Sequence 7 at any time.

After returning home, Leiketon didn't immediately prepare to advance his Seeker path; he waited until night, when it was deep and quiet, before beginning to use auxiliary materials to concoct a semi-finished potion.

15 grams of black pearl powder, 3 grams of crown jellyfish toxin crystals, 5 grams of dragon tooth grass powder, plus 100 milliliters of pure water.

Leiketon quickly prepared a bottle of dark, thick, highly toxic semi-finished potion.

Looking at the semi-finished potion in his hand, resembling a dark concoction, Leiketon momentarily dared not drink it, feeling that if he didn't first shed the wizard's extraordinary trait from his sage characteristic, he would be poisoned to death by this semi-finished potion.

After hesitating for a while, Leiketon steeled himself, closed his eyes, and gulped down the semi-finished potion in one go, then immediately began meditating.

A ring formed from countless gears, at its center was a giant eyeless eye, around it several chain-like tentacles swayed, and in the smoke and sparks rising around it flowed golden sand.

Lei Kedun skillfully poured his consciousness into the giant eyeless eye at the center; the familiar scene appeared again, this time more light debris shed from the giant eye, all rushing into Lei Kedun's consciousness.

Lei Kedun was shaken out of his meditative state by the impact, a blurry illusion appeared in his vision, and he felt as if he were seeing an endless starry sky, or as if he were seeing a giant eye.

Everyone's spirit seemed to be torn apart irresistibly and then repaired, like a tug-of-war process that made Lei Kedun feel his spirit rapidly strengthening; at the same time he also felt his connection to the Spirit Realm growing stronger.

With the promotion of the Sequence Seven Wizard completed, Lei Kedun's vision again showed that boundless wilderness, and a message appeared: 'Find the Hermit Card, the Perfectionist Card, and the Wheel of Fortune Card within the Blasphemy Card.'

The projection of the Knowledge Wilderness did not last long, merely dissipating in a breath within his vision, but Lei Kedun stood dazed in place for a while before coming to his senses.

"Is this a task assigned by the boss?" Lei Kedun murmured.

Afterward came more confusion and doubt; the Blasphemy Card should be useless for the Knowledge Wilderness, and as knowledge itself, Lei Kedun did not believe this world held any knowledge unknown to it.

"Is the Blasphemy Card's greatest special just its rank?" Lei Kedun wondered, "What use is that for the Knowledge Wilderness? Its own rank is higher, and wanting the Hermit and Perfectionist Cards I could understand, but why the Wheel of Fortune Card?" The more Lei Kedun thought, the more doubtful he became.

(End of chapter)