It had to be said that Xiao Jinsheng's order to split up and escape was very correct. Although the female knight was powerful, she could only choose one target to pursue.
"Phew… Looks like I'm not the first target. I think she went to look for the form teacher," Bai Xiaowen thought. He heaved a sigh of relief and mourned for the fat form teacher for a second. "However, since she's a knight from medieval Europe, she should believe in the way of knights. It's unlikely that she will kill indiscriminately, right?"
Bai Xiaowen dashed into another basement on the other side of the fork. Compared to the man-made basement, this basement was much narrower and shorter. Its walls were uneven.
"This should be the basement excavated by the Plague Rats," Bai Xiaowen thought.
Just as that thought flashed through his mind, a gust of wind blew, and a black shadow pounced toward his face! In the dim light, he could only see a pair of green eyes.
"Zombie Rat!"
Bai Xiaowen did not care about his image at all. He rolled on the ground to dodge the Zombie Rat's pounce. However, the Zombie Rat's Agility exceeded 6 points. It leaped onto the rock wall and skillfully changed its direction before continuing to pounce on Bai Xiaowen!
The Zombie Rat pounced on Bai Xiaowen's back. Its claws slashed out, lancing its nails across Bai Xiaowen's back and tearing his clothes apart. Fortunately, the machete strapped to his back blocked the rat's attack. Otherwise, with Bai Xiaowen's weak Physique, he would have been injured.
At this critical moment, Bai Xiaowen's mind was clear. He gritted his teeth and endured the burning pain in his back. He stomped on the ground, using all the 4.5 Strength he had. Cracks even appeared on his military boots. It was obvious how mighty this stomp was!
BANG!
Bai Xiaowen slammed his body against the rock wall.
The rat on his back was almost flattened by the force of the collision. Though it had stiff skin, it was useless against this kind of blunt impact.
Bai Xiaowen was also having a hard time. He almost passed out. Fortunately, he had a high Spirit attribute, so he was able to endure the pain. He sat leaning against the rock wall. The Zombie Rat's corpse was very close to him, but Bai Xiaowen had no intention of moving it.
"The battle is over. Strength: 5, Precision: 3, Continuity: 3, Evaluation: Good."
"Your basic specialty: Combat proficiency increased."
Bai Xiaowen heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that his combat proficiency had increased by a large margin. He had performed exceptionally well when he killed the Zombie Rat just now, so all his evaluations had exceeded his usual training standards.
In the digitalized Spiritual Energy Era, the explosive power of life was not to be underestimated.
Bai Xiaowen turned on the searchlight and began to identify the sheepskin scroll.
The danger was not over yet though. The real terror was the female knight from the Spiritual Realm. Bai Xiaowen had to obtain more information about her, including her motive, the source of the Plague Rat Cave's mutation, and so on. Only then would he have a better chance of escaping!
The words on the sheepskin scroll were written in ancient Latin. They were scribbled and several pages were missing.
Old Latin, like Mandarin, was part of the curriculum for ordinary classes.
Bai Xiaowen had learned Latin when he was still in his first year of high school. With his perverse memory, he could still recall a lot of Latin words after sifting through his memories. Of course, he struggled with grammar, sentence structures, and so on. Fortunately, he could still understand the language by guessing.
Bai Xiaowen flipped through the pages of the sheepskin scroll and slowly sorted out the information.
It was a diary with a line of words written on the title page.
"I, Margaux, am honored to become the servant of the Lionheart Empire's chief royal alchemist, Lord Falca. I swear to the Lord of Light that I will always be loyal to my master."
Only upon reading this sentence did Bai Xiaowen know the identity of the linen-robed deceased in the basement. It turned out that he was a servant named Margaux.
"9th July, Light Calendar Year 1152."
"Master is losing his temper more and more often lately. His Majesty seems to trust the new alchemist more. He doesn't care about the alchemy results that Master has presented. This month, two servants have already been beaten to death by Master with the Punishment Whip. I don't want to be the third."
"11th August, Light Calendar Year 1152."
"Today, we went to the North County Monastery to pray. This is the third time this month. Master seems to have become much more pious recently."
"Master's temper has also improved. He hasn't flared up for the past month. This must be the blessing of the Lord of Light. Praise the Lord of Light!"
"20th September, Light Calendar Year 1152."
"Unbelievable! Master is actually willing to take me in as an apprentice. What a rare opportunity! Praise Master!"
"21st September, Light Calendar Year 1152."
"Master told me his plan, and he wants me to join him. If I refused to do so, he threatened that he would silence me. Heavens, I would rather not have heard of this crazy plan. He actually wants to steal the Soul Stone sealed by the North County Monastery!"
"That evil Soul Stone is strictly guarded by the nuns in the North County Monastery. Those terrifying nuns have broken all previous secular ties. They give up on money, pleasure, kinship, and love, and devote their bodies and minds to the Lord of Light. These nuns are unreasonable lunatics. Anyone who dares to approach the Soul Stone will be mercilessly purified by them!"
Many pages of the journal were missing. Based on some scattered descriptions, Bai Xiaowen speculated that the "evil soul stone" should have been obtained by the royal alchemist, Falca, and his servant, Margaux.
It seemed that those nuns were not as terrifying as Margaux had described.
Bai Xiaowen continued to flip through the journal and found a relatively complete page.
"6th April, Light Calendar Year 1153."
"This is the third time we are on the run. Those crazy nuns actually persuaded His Majesty to send powerful royal knights to hunt us down! Although the Lionheart Empire is huge, there's no place for us to stay anymore."
"It's destined that we leave our hometown and head south toward a port city called Walterlund. My master plans to find a ship there and cross the ocean to get to the new continent. He swore that he'd never return to the Lionheart Empire before he mastered the power of the evil Soul Stone and reached the pinnacle of alchemy."
"30th May, Light Calendar Year 1153."
"During this seemingly endless pursuit and escape, I gradually discovered the changes in Master. His skin became paler and paler day by day, looking like a vampire that crawled out of a tomb. It is beyond terrifying. However, Master's strength also increased day by day. He became faster and stronger. Is this the power brought about by the evil Soul Stone?"
"2nd June, Light Calendar Year 1153."
"Praise be to the Lord of Light! Just as my master and I were cornered by the royal knights, a spatial rift appeared like a miracle! No matter what kind of world was on the other side of the rift, we have no other choice but to enter it."
"Finally, we can be rid of this eternal pursuit. However, I seem to have heard the angry and indignant roar of the royal knight who followed us."