Chapter 583
Now she could almost confirm that after she had pierced the sky of the Abyss, Hei Ni had survived, and it was very likely that she had even made it to the surface, developing her own power as Xia Er had hoped.
This power had even managed to endure through the Age of Holy Wars, but it likely fell into rapid decline during that era, just like countless other religions, interrupted in their transmission by the Holy Wars.
"Your Excellency Xia Er," at that moment, Charles, who had been silent beside her, spoke up directly.
"Mm?" Xia Er looked up at Charles, signaling him to continue.
"If you are looking for texts from the Age of Holy Wars, perhaps you could try the Royal Library. Although most texts do not involve the extraordinary, the history preserved there is more complete."
Charles looked at Xia Er and continued, "While the Age of Holy Wars shattered the vast ancient Ansu Empire, many classical texts have been preserved."
Yes... Yes!
Xia Er suddenly realized.
She had been trapped in a habitual way of thinking, instinctively searching for new historical texts among those related to the extraordinary, but she had forgotten...
She had not created a pathway or left behind any power. Although Hei Ni might have embarked on some other path in the Old Days, what was passed down was not necessarily all extraordinary beings.
Without a pathway left by herself, Hei Ni certainly could not use religious means to bind and control "believers." At most, it could only develop into a secret cult, likely existing in the form of a clandestine society.
And within it, ordinary people should be the majority... or rather, only the things recorded by ordinary people were more likely to survive the unknown event that swept through the Chaos Era and the Age of Holy Wars.
"Please take me to see," Xia Er said without further thought, picking up the few remaining fragments and addressing Charles. It was rare for her to use honorifics; she took this matter very seriously.
Discovering these things would not only unravel more of Xia Er's questions about the Old Days but also allow her to refine her method of leaving information for the next time she entered the Old Days... perhaps even paving the way for her own path.
Charles did not waste words. He himself had many questions about the "Knight" pathway, and at that moment, he was eager to help Xia Er, hoping for a chance to ask her and clarify his own doubts.
He led Xia Er out of the Temple of the God of Order, and they boarded a carriage heading for the Royal Library.
The Royal Library of Ansu housed an immense collection of books, with countless volumes on history, but compared to those related to the Age of Holy Wars and ancient Ansu, there were not many... which actually saved Xia Er the trouble of sifting through every single book.
Charles ordered the librarian to bring all the books in ancient Ansu to Xia Er's side, and she began to flip through the stacks immediately.
One hour... two hours... Xia Er seemed to lose track of time, continuously memorizing the information from the books in her hands.
Charles remained like a sentry, sitting quietly in a nearby seat with his eyes closed.
Until night fell, Charles seemed to sense something. He opened his eyes and looked toward the nearby floor-to-ceiling window, where he saw two little heads peeking in.
It was Princess Wen Sha and Ai Wei Na.
"I told you... I said Uncle Charles was here, the guards told me!" Wen Sha said, her hands resting on the window's edge, looking smugly at Ai Wei Na.
Ai Wei Na also noticed Charles's gaze and quickly shrank back, tugging at Wen Sha's collar to pull her closer. But she seemed unaware that her wide skirt was still quite conspicuous by the window.
Charles: "..."
Charles glanced at Xia Er, then at the corner of the skirt by the window, sighed softly, and carefully stood up, walking toward the door.
He opened the door and said something to the guard outside before watching him leave.
Before long, the two little ones were hurriedly whisked away by Seraphine.
Charles let out a slight sigh of relief... this girl named Xia Er had unpredictable emotions and was extremely dangerous; he didn't want his daughter to be too close to her.
At that moment, Xia Er seemed to have found something.
She held a book in her hands, gazing at its cover.
It had been re-covered with a new cloth cover, on which the words "Orlando's Travels" were written in ancient Ansu.
When she peeled back the new cover, it revealed the old parchment cover beneath, still inscribed with "Orlando's Travels," also signed "Hei." However, unlike the new cover, the old one bore a symbol engraved after the name.
It was half of the golden character for "Xia"—the same inscription used by the altar runestone and the "All-Knowing One" to refer to itself.
On the title page of the book, the author "Hei" had written a note.
"Whenever I asked my grandmother why she recorded so many things, she could never explain why. It was just a habit formed from traveling with an old woman in her youth, and she didn't know why I had to record something too."
"I don't even understand why I need to learn ancient Ansu in this era—nobles don't even study it anymore."
"Fortunately, I do enjoy traveling, and as for recording, I'll leave it to fate."
"If you happen to stumble upon this book, congratulations! You will waste at least four hours of your time reading about my adventures~"
Though the cover was quite old and showed signs of weathering, the recorder's playful spirit still shone through, as if one could transcend time and see an interesting person scribbling away while muttering to themselves.
Xia Er quickly skimmed through the contents, and indeed, as the book described, it was a travel journal filled with local customs and cultures.
The time of the recorder's travels was also relatively recent, just over two hundred years ago... in the year 512 of the Holy Era.
Xia Er scanned the remaining books but found no other works by the author "Hei." She looked up in Charles's direction and spoke, "Lord Charles."
"Did you call for me?" Charles, just finishing up with his daughter at the door, turned to Xia Er.
"This author, or her descendants, how can we find her?" Xia Er raised the book in her hand.
"Let me see..." Charles walked over to Xia Er, took the book she offered, and began to flip through it.
"On page 31, it mentions that she seems to have lived in Ansu..." Xia Er casually recited an address she had just seen and asked, "Is anyone still living at that address?"
"Wait, the streets in Ansu have been rebuilt many times over the years... Can you give me some time? I'll investigate," Charles replied.
"As soon as possible," Xia Er nodded.
"Alright." Charles did not dare to delay, immediately dispatching orders to his family, directly mobilizing the resources of the family and the police to investigate that address.
Over two hundred years, there were hardly any paper documents left behind; the "detectives" could only rely on investigations and some archived city planning blueprints to search for the former streets.
At midnight, the "detectives" finally returned with news.
That address indeed had been continuously occupied; it was an old house in the western district. After being converted into a row of townhouses, the family still hadn't moved out... it was an ordinary family of intellectual teachers, living there with six members.
After learning this information, Xia Er personally went there, and Charles followed her.
Under the pretense of investigating an old case, they approached the family as members of the Royal Guard. To Xia Er's disappointment, the family seemed to have no recollection of the symbols on the cover.
But Xia Er did not give up; she began to inquire whether the family had any relics left by their grandparents. Soon, she received a box of books—after opening the nearly worm-eaten wooden box, Xia Er found a wealth of travel manuscripts signed "Hei."
As she flipped through the manuscripts, she discovered that although all were signed "Hei," there were evidently two different writing styles among them. One set was not a travelogue but rather a "Chronicle"... though it was called a chronicle, it merely documented the author's observations and summarized some major events.
In snippets of some manuscripts, Xia Er saw the earlier "Hei" writing about why she felt compelled to document her experiences.
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