"Didn't you just say that Job and his people attacking you was in violation of the Federation's laws," He Ao seriously replied, "So, I was being a righteous intervener."
"?"
Selena remembered the miserable state Job was in when he died. You call this righteous intervention?
She stared blankly at He Ao's sincere expression, but, somehow, did it seem like he genuinely thought so?
In that instant, she even felt that this Evil God Priest before her wasn't truly sane, but had simply gone to the extreme of madness, seemingly possessing rationality.
Then she shook her head, casting this thought out of her mind.
The other person must be joking with her; how could there be someone in this world who is so mad that they seem to have rationality?
She was about to say something, but He Ao was no longer paying her any attention.
While talking to Selena just now, he had actually been fully focused on observing her every move, to see if Selena was trying to divert his attention with the conversation and make some subtle moves, or show more power.
He sensed the gradually rising sense of danger from Selena, needing to determine if Selena was recovering her strength, but it seemed now that Selena was not regaining her strength; she was just buying time for her recovery.
It looked like her power recovery was not linearly increasing but instead would instantaneously return after a certain point in time was reached.
But the danger-sensing ability inherent in Yezola had previously alerted He Ao to this risk.
He Ao felt this danger-sensing ability was quite handy and wondered if it was what Job had previously referred to as the 'Talent Sequences'.
While pondering in his mind, He Ao didn't stop shuffling through the bookshelf. Understanding that Selena was not a threat for the time being, he only left a small amount of attention on her and focused mainly on the books.
Through the changes perceived by his danger-sensing ability, he roughly estimated that Selena would need about an hour to recover her strength, and conducting the ritual would take a little over forty minutes.
So the game system seemed to have no restrictions on the time to complete the mission, but in reality, it still implied a time constraint.
His plan to exploit a bug to gather more information before completing the mission had failed.
Therefore, he had to find as much information as possible and complete the ritual before Selena regained her strength.
As for killing Selena directly?
It's a good idea, but he is a law-abiding good person!
Selena, still pondering why He Ao was ignoring her, was not aware that she had just narrowly escaped a brush with death.
She watched He Ao's movements, only to see innumerable pages flip open among the waving tentacles—revealing their blank interiors.
Most of these antique books were quite expensive nowadays, and those who couldn't acquire the real items often chose to buy such modern printed faux-antique books to decorate their homes.
This was quite normal.
However,
Selena watched He Ao's actions with a puzzled look. Wasn't this his own residence? Why was he flipping through everything so frantically?
What was he in such a hurry for? Did he discover that she was rebooting the system?
He Ao noticed Selena's gaze but didn't care; his actions were deliberately feigned, resembling a person who had just come home searching eagerly for something.
And not like an unfamiliar thief who had broken into a stranger's home frantically searching for valuable items.
The difference here was actually quite simple; searching one's own belongings, one would subconsciously take care of the items being searched through, whereas a thief would not care at all about the homeowner's property.
Thus, when He Ao was looking through the books, while flipping through them, he also paid attention to protecting the books from being damaged. If he found a book he wanted, he would consciously close it and put it back carelessly after looking through it.
Under the circumstance of ensuring a surplus of time, He Ao was only given ten minutes to search through these bookshelves, so he was virtually skimming the books at ten lines a glance.
Yezola's own vision was not good, so if there were books that He Ao missed seeing, he wouldn't turn back to search for them carefully.
Ultimately, he managed to flip through the entire bookshelf within ten minutes. Sadly, he did not find any books describing rituals, but he did unexpectedly discover a palm-sized booklet.
The entire booklet's pages were yellowed, and the edges were severely damaged, being squashed into a corner and serving to press the other books firmly into place.
This book was not written in any language that Yezola understood, but in a kind of simplified hieroglyphics, similar to the characters of the Central Earth Republic, but it was not a script that He Ao recognized.
However, although neither He Ao nor Yezola recognized the script, the cover of the book had a translation in a language that Yezola was familiar with.
The book's title was "Thirty-Day Sword Immortal Quick Mastery".
······
The odd elements increased.
How could such a book appear in this world? Was it serious?
He Ao skimmed it briefly, and inside were some simple illustrations of figures, accompanied by dense text in an unfamiliar script.
The person who translated the book probably just translated the title and was too lazy to translate the rest, or perhaps they didn't know how.
Although he did not recognize the script in the book, the content seemed to be drawn with some degree of precision, and it was the only book besides elementary school textbooks that he had found so far. After thinking it over, He Ao decided to take the book, and in Selena's blind spot, he tucked it between two textbooks and wrapped it up with his tentacles.
He then swept up many items in the cave that could "please" the God of Knowledge and headed towards the passage they had come through.
Selena seemed to realize what he was about to do and hurriedly shouted, "Yezola, didn't you say you abide by the law? Do you know how much disaster summoning an Evil God's Offspring can cause? Do you know how many people will die? You can't do this!"
As he walked forward, He Ao casually asked, "So, which law exactly says that I can't summon an Evil God's Offspring?"
"Ah?"
Selena was stunned. How would she know if there was any law that prohibited the summoning of an Evil God's Offspring? Isn't the harm caused by summoning an Evil God's Offspring blatant and clear? Aren't such acts universally condemned?
Who would bother to sift through those thick tomes of the law that were as big as bricks!
He Ao looked up at Selena and mused that this Investigator Miss had good combat skills and temperament, but was a bit too naive.
Naivety could get you killed!
While they spoke, he had already walked out of the passage and returned to the cavern where the Ritual Array was inscribed.
The tubers on the ceiling, shining faintly like stars, illuminated the dim cave, while the massive Ritual Array flickered with specks of luminescence within the cave.
He Ao wound one end of the metal wire, left inside his body from the confinement device, around one of his tentacles and forcefully pulled out these wires one by one.
Selena winced at his actions. Although these metal wires no longer received power from the metal stakes, they were still covered with numerous tiny barbs as thin as mosquito legs, each embedding deeply into flesh, and the pain of removing them was beyond her imagination.
But He Ao did so expressionlessly, pulling out the wires, and then released Selena, who had been empathetically pained.
Under Selena's bewildered gaze, he wrapped these metal wires around her.
Selena: ?
After the binding was complete, He Ao turned his attention to the Ritual Array.