After 'swatting' the slime dream creature to its death and cleaning up all the bloody stains, Lin Jie leaned against the wall in his basement and proceeded to extract the human skin book from within his dream realm.
He flipped the first book and discovered that the text inside were seemingly spells.
That's right. Spells.
Lin Jie continued flipping pages till the book's center gutter. Written on this page was a description on how the 'human skin book' was bound as well as how to use it.
On further thought, Lin Jie was certain the slime he had killed definitely was bad news and must have some sort of relationship with the human skin book.
Otherwise, it couldn't have been able to use the human skin book and write down the usage method as well as other evil spells.
There's no doubt it was trying to attack me using these spells!
Unless, it was some sort of 'familiar spirit' left behind by the owner of the human skin book?
If the owner could summon a 'familiar' out of the human skin book to attack the thief upon discovering that the book had been stolen, it's pretty much a foolproof contingency!
This other world is really dangerous!!
Lin Jie was deeply perturbed.
Had he kept the human skin book in his bookstore rather than his dream realm, he might perhaps have been sneaked upon by this humanoid slime when he slept.
Lin Jie's physique had improved tremendously after learning swordsmanship from Silver, and he had come out on top in his past confrontations of people with transcendent ability (Michael and Gabriel).
However, he was convinced that those two had been weaklings and there existed beings who were more powerful in this world, just that he had yet to meet them.
Surely there wouldn't be just one being of Silver's power level in this world.
Lin Jie reckoned that he ought to be more cautious. He now had proof that transcendent powers existed in Azir and had also pretty much offended the only criminal organization of transcendent beings he knew of, 'Path of the Flaming Sword,' and therefore could no longer afford to be as carefree as he was in the past.
"Just so happens I've got matters to speak with Silver about, especially the incident with the dragon heart…" muttered Lin Jie as he subconsciously rubbed his chest, vaguely feeling the loud thumping of his heart.
Other than the previous incident where he had been inexplicably irritated and gave Young Mike a beat down, there had been no other strange anomalies since then.
However, he couldn't shake off the feeling that the incandescent energy that had emanated from the dragon heart had affected his heart and body.
He then recalled the time where Blackie refused to answer his calls for help. Could it have been because it could detect the incandescence was not only harmless but instead beneficial as well?
"I think I'll enter Silver's dream realm and have a chat with her tonight." Shaking his head, Lin Jie continued to scrutinize the human skin book.
The basement was lit up by a single dilapidated kerosene lamp. Under the dim light, it made the bloody words that filled up the grainy pages of the thin human skin book seem all the more creepier, an image he associated with horror stories.
As he flipped through the pages, Lin Jie muttered, "Silver once said that the reason I felt Candela's memories were fragmented is due to my inability to understand those concepts, including that so-called 'Divine Arts'... But looking at it now, those 'Divine Arts' were simply sorcery to Candela."
And the reason he came up with such a conclusion was simple…
Because as he attempted to decipher the writings in the human skin book, the memories of the elven king Candela gradually got clearer.
And eventually become complete.
Approaching it how he would from an academic standpoint, Lin Jie meticulously read every page. "The contents of the first 20 pages coincides with the 'Divine Arts' Candela had pursued in his youth, though the later pages are completely differing…
"This part, I guess, probably requires learning 'fundamental magic,' much like compulsory education to set down a foundation before pursuing different specializations…"
Lin Jie soon found himself sitting cross-legged on the floor with his face leaning on his palm and elbow resting on his leg.
As he continued reading, he had another thought. It looks like the magic and sorcery from the Second Era and earlier has been passed down through the ages. But since a large majority of the information has been lost through time, these spells are much harder to learn now.
The human skin book totaled around 100 pages, with the first 20 being dedicated to stuff Candela had learnt before he was 10.
Assuming the contents of this book was the entire knowledge its owner possessed, this was akin to stuff learned in kindergarten taking up a fifth of all the knowledge.
It could be described as rather nurturing.
However, the owner of this human skin book was far from nurturing and could even be described as the epitome of heinousness.
After the 20th page, the contents within the pages was a stark contrast to Candela's memory, like a vagrant going down the path of crime and reaching a point of no return.
More than half of the spells required the specific usage of fresh human blood as the basis for spellcasting. Furthermore, it also specified that blood from a human moments before their death had endowed special properties and as such, the subject should be tortured in countless ways before having their blood drained.
Anyone would have gotten shivers just reading this.
A small number of spells didn't actually require a living human to be killed, though they still inadvertently required a human corpse of sorts. Lin Jie could only scrunch up his brows as he proceeded to skim through all the information and only stopped at a relatively normal spell.
'Blood Curse, Dying Blood Spirit Transfer.'
The effect of this spell was to allow the caster to temporarily transfer their consciousness into the blood of a person near death (the person has to be dying and not actually dead). After which, the caster would then replace the original's soul and take over the body.
With any luck, so long as this person's soul managed to undo control before it dissipated and received immediate treatment, that person would still have a chance to live.
But from a different angle, if not for the death of the caster as a prerequisite, this could actually make a great life-saving skill.
Indeed, there are no wicked abilities, only wicked people. I think it's better if I pass this book over to Joseph since it's considered a plundered object.
A virtuous person like him would definitely find a way to use these wicked spells for good, thought Lin Jie to himself as he rubbed his chin.
Meanwhile, he had already memorized the first 20 pages of fundamental spells.
The only issue now was that he had no idea how to harness his aether to cast them.
Currently, all of the aether he grasped had been used to construct his dream realm and he was constantly channeling whatever he had to continuously expand his dream realm.
How in the world was he going to squeeze out excess aether to learn these spells…
"I'd better consult Silver about this." Lin Jie stood up and dusted himself off.
After finally finishing his woodwork, he left the basement with the cat bed and the human skin book in tow.
——
"He-he put the ring on?"
Walpurgis' eyes widened in surprise and she jumped down from her crescent moon rocking chair perch, landing lightly on the water with stars reflected on them, and paced around in circles barefooted.
Mu'en nodded.
"And now, he can't take it off?"
Mu'en nodded again.
Walpurgis gasped with slight disappointment. "Oh my, the contractual ring contains the covenant I made with those who prayed for my protection. Now that he has worn the ring and activated it, the anointed must have felt the change, and they'll mistake him for me…"
Besides killing the false god to prove the real moon, she had another motive as well—to fulfill the past covenant.
What she was to do now that the ring had been taken by someone else…
Even though she was somehow unable to see through this fellow, the contractual ring was ultimately still a representation of her identity. She had to get it back!
"How do I get it back?" Mu'en asked blankly.
Walpurgis looked straight at her and suggested, "Sneak into his room at night and…"