Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3089: Chapter 3090: New Scene

Thinking of this, Angel couldn’t help feeling a bit exasperated inside, half laughing, half crying.

But then again, the Abyssal Hollow really does count as an unsolved mystery, and Angel’s connection with the Daylight Mirror Domain is quite close; being able to learn this secret tale definitely isn’t a bad thing.

So, after calming his emotions, Angel continued reading.

As Angel finished reading the content on this page, a look of sudden understanding appeared on his face.

At first he had felt that the title ”The Withering of Wuan” was too obscure, as if it were deliberately showing off erudition, but now he understood he had overthought it.

The Withering of Wuan is, in fact, literal: a fellow called ”Wuan” died.

The entire page revolves around ”the death of Wuan.”

Including the Abyssal Hollow, which was also a strange phenomenon that appeared after Wuan withered.

Summed up in a single sentence: A very, very long time ago, there was a Legendary Creature whose mastered Law was named the ”Wuan Domain,” and because of this, it was also called ”Wuan.” Later, this Legendary Creature unfortunately fell within the Mirror Domain; the Wuan Law it commanded withered, transforming into a patch of lightless domain, and its flesh dissolved, becoming the vessel of the lightless domain.

In the end, the lightless domain formed a lightless space, and this lightless space became the Abyssal Hollow we know today.

Angel had previously speculated whether the Abyssal Hollow might be some sort of natural phenomenon of the Mirror Domain; now the case was closed—Abyssal Hollow is actually a region that accidentally came into being when a Legendary Creature fell and its Law Domain cooperated with that fall.

According to the book, a very long time ago the Abyssal Hollow still retained the death ripples of the Legendary Creature, and counted as an extremely perilous place; but later, perhaps due to adjustments by the World Will, or perhaps because time eroded everything, the death ripples within the Abyssal Hollow gradually disappeared, and the dangers inside greatly diminished. Now it’s only a somewhat unusual lightless space.

However, the last sentence on the Book Pages leaves this story with a lingering thread of suspense.

”For the withering of a Legendary Creature to leave behind such a vast special region, it shows that its death was not interfered with by the outside world. Since there was no external interference, its withering can’t possibly have failed to leave even a single trace of remaining will.”

”Yet strangely, no trace of Wuan’s consciousness has been found within the Abyssal Hollow. As if its death truly was carefree to the extreme, unwilling to leave even the slightest fragment behind.”

”But for a being capable of comprehending the Wuan Law, how could it truly be so carefree?”

”Perhaps Wuan also left himself a contingency, only no one has discovered it yet. If there really is a contingency, then the place where it’s most likely to appear may be in the Ghost Phantom corresponding to the Abyssal Hollow?”

The author who left this suspense even went out of his way to point out the ”Demonic Ghosts within the Mirror.” That really doesn’t seem like something mentioned casually; perhaps he had evidence proving that Wuan’s remaining will is in the Ghost Phantom, only he didn’t write it into the book.

After finishing this piece, ”The Withering of Wuan,” Angel had to admit that it absolutely counts as a secret among secrets.

The only pity is... it doesn’t have much to do with Angel.

From this secret tale Angel couldn’t see any profit to be made... Perhaps tracking down Wuan’s remaining will could be counted as a benefit? But if Wuan left himself a contingency, it’s certainly not meant to hand out welfare; there must be terrifying danger involved.

Unless one is already at the end of one’s rope and has no choice, who would touch that inevitable danger for the sake of a perhaps-benefit?

Angel certainly wouldn’t.

Although the secret tale didn’t bring any visible benefit to Angel, hearing the gossip about an age-old mystery did resolve a bit of confusion in his heart.

Angel didn’t press for more; being able to hear secret tales at all was already quite nice.

Right now, Angel rather hoped to see what other secret tales would appear later in this book. Would there be secrets about the Southern Domain?

With expectation on his face, Angel waited for the picture to change.

However, he was thinking too much.

Once the Dalmatian finished flipping this page, the entire image slowly faded away. Clearly, the image the Dalmatian had sent this time was solely for letting Angel read ”The Withering of Wuan”; once ”The Withering of Wuan” was flipped out, naturally there’d be no follow-up.

Angel felt a slight regret in his heart, but he quickly perked up again.

This time he hadn’t gained much—what about next time?

The Dalmatian had made a ”picture exchange” with him; if he sent another image over next time, would the Dalmatian send more images back?

Even if the images sent over are still these kinds of secret tales, that would be pretty good.

Just take it as reading gossip from all the heavens to kill time.

Thinking of this, Angel felt he ought to run an experiment... he decided to send another image to the Dalmatian.

Last time, he’d been too cautious with the image he sent; perhaps this time he could relax a little?

Angel pondered seriously for a good half hour, and finally decided on a picture to send to the Dalmatian.

In the image—

Angel had become a thumb-sized person, standing on the desk of a luxurious room, his gaze roaming as if searching for something. In his hand he held up a sheet of white paper, with words written on it.

The desk was covered with various books, but the most eye-catching thing was a golden Birdcage, inside which was a heart that was still beating.

And on the other side of the image, outside the window facing the desk, a rabbit using a saddle cloth as Gliding Wings was floating in midair outside, anxiously shouting in Angel’s direction; it too held a sheet of paper in its hand.

The paper in the rabbit’s hand read: The Earl of Black Tea is about to come back, be careful. Have you found the thing you’re looking for?

The paper in Angel’s hand read: What I’m looking for is the full text of the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method, I haven’t found it yet!

The above is the content of this image.

Without a doubt, the background Angel chose this time was his adventure in Teapot Country with the rabbit Cha Cha.

In the picture, the scene itself is real, but the content on the papers is his fabricated invention. At the time, he barely had enough time to search for mirrors; how could he possibly have had time to chat with Cha Cha using pen and paper?

As for looking for the full text of a Meditation Method, that’s even more completely made up.

Although the dialogue in the image never happened, Angel still decided to fabricate it... His main purpose was to see whether the Dalmatian could, through the exchange on the papers, help him find the full text of the Singularity Scattering Meditation Method.

Even though the Meditation Method he currently uses is still sufficient, it is ultimately only a fragment. If he could use this opportunity to find the full text, that would be a huge gain.

And the reason he chose the setting of Teapot Country was also because he was very curious about Teapot Country—extremely, extremely curious.

If the Dalmatian could find secret tales related to Teapot Country, that wouldn’t be a loss either.

With his own little scheme in mind, Angel sent this image to Wang Wang.

”This is what you’re transmitting this time? ...A static image? I can actually help you transmit dynamic footage.” Wang Wang offered the suggestion very earnestly.

Angel: ”Next time, I’ll send something dynamic next time.”

The reason he chose a static image this time was that static images are easier to fabricate; if one tries to fake dynamic footage, it’s easy to slip up if you’re not careful.

Wang Wang: ”Alright, when you contact me next time, I’ll help you send it over.”

Angel: ”About when does the Dalmatian usually contact you?”

Wang Wang pondered for a moment and said, ”Every day. Probably when it has some free time.”

Every day? Angel froze for a second. He’d thought the Dalmatian would only reach out to Wang Wang when it was looking for him. He hadn’t expected them to be in such close private contact.

”Then next time you two chat, call me in too. I’m free as well.”

As soon as Angel finished speaking, Wang Wang fell silent.

Without needing Wang Wang to answer, Angel already understood: ”Alright, I get it.”

He figured it wasn’t that Wang Wang was unwilling, it was the Dalmatian who wouldn’t agree...

Angel sighed inwardly, then said, ”Since we can’t all chat together, talking with just you is fine too.”

”Talk with me?” Wang Wang asked in confusion. ”About what?”

Angel: ”Let’s talk about the Void. I’m really interested in all the things you saw and experienced on your Void travels. Even those messages you just accidentally sent me—I’m interested in those too.”

Those ”traffic” intel reports from the Void might not be much use to him, but if Wilderness Traveler News ever really runs out of material to broadcast, he can still use them to make a friendly cameo.

Wang Wang thought for a bit and said, ”If you’re interested in this kind of stuff, I can periodically organize the information and send it straight to you.”

Angel snorted: ”So, the Dalmatian turned me down, and now you’re going to turn down chatting with me too?”

Wang Wang: ”No, it’s just that there’s a lot going on in the Void, and I don’t really know what you’re interested in. I can organize some information for you, and if there’s anything in it that catches your interest, you can come find me to chat about it.”

Angel: ”I see. That works too.”

Angel wanted to chat with Wang Wang partly because he was genuinely curious about Void stories, and partly because he wanted to get a bit closer to Wang Wang.

The Void network Wang Wang controlled was absolutely overpowered. On top of that, Angel was very interested in Wang Wang’s ability to affect higher-dimensional layers, so he really didn’t mind spending time getting close to it.

Of course, Angel also felt that Wang Wang drifting alone in the Void might be a bit lonely; chatting with it often could also help ease the solitude of walking the Void alone.

Still, that was just Angel extrapolating with his own way of seeing things: ”I think.”

Whether Wang Wang itself felt lonely, whether it needed its solitude eased—that was another matter entirely.

...

After chatting with Wang Wang for a while longer and agreeing on the time for sending the next batch of Void travel footage, Angel logged out of the Void network.

Heideland also withdrew its tentacles right on cue, lazily spreading out into a floppy pancake.

Angel: ”Are you going back into the bracelet, or heading outside to keep watching the movie?”

Heideland didn’t respond, but Angel had come to understand it somewhat. Judging from its faint mental fluctuations, its answer was probably: either is fine.

Heideland was different from Wang Wang; its intelligence wasn’t nearly as high. Wang Wang might have its own way of seeing things, but Heideland purely didn’t.

Whatever it did, wherever it stayed, it was all fine to Heideland.

Angel thought for a moment and decided to let Heideland continue watching.

Since Heideland was following him, he still hoped it could grow a bit.

Void Travelers had top-tier life-preservation capabilities, but their weakest point was intelligence. Angel had never thought of raising Heideland to Wang Wang’s level, yet if it could gain a little more wisdom, a bit more ability to distinguish right from wrong, that would be good for Heideland.

And if he wanted to cultivate its intelligence, just throwing it into the bracelet alone definitely wouldn’t work.

It needed stimuli from the outside world, plus step-by-step teaching.

Dangross could take on the role of ”stimulus,” while Olao could shoulder the ”teaching” responsibilities.

So, Angel directly picked Heideland up, opened the quiet room’s Door, and tossed it onto the viewing spot.

As Heideland re-entered the image world of Anomalous Fire Alchemist, its soft body grew alert again... but when Dangross came over and the two little ones snuggled together, Heideland slowly relaxed once more.

Angel took one look, then stopped paying attention to Heideland.

After settling Heideland’s situation, Angel had originally planned to chat with Olao, but he noticed that Olao, just like Dangross, was currently watching Anomalous Fire Alchemist with rapt attention, completely absorbed.

Angel thought about it and chose not to disturb him.

There would be plenty of time to talk later; there was no need to rush.

For now, he might as well do something else... like checking on Luigi’s homework progress. Judging from the time, he should have finished it by now.

Angel returned to the deeper quiet room and took out the Indestructible Heart Mirror.

He stepped straight into the mirror and vanished from sight.

In the room just one wall away, Olao, who had been watching the Shadow Box, suddenly seemed to sense something. He turned to glance at the room where Angel was.

Olao pondered for a moment, then ultimately chose not to do anything extra, and submerged himself once more into the story playing in the Shadow Box.

On the other side, Angel passed alone through the heart passage and arrived in the Heart Space.

Luigi’s homework was indeed completed; he couldn’t wait to perform it once for Angel... With Angel’s level of artistic appreciation, Luigi’s playing this time had already hit the mark.

The drifting Harp notes blended completely with the piano piece played by Jon in the Illusion.

You could say Luigi’s progress was very fast, beyond Angel’s expectations.

At this rate, Luigi might be able to crack Uriel’s Choice in less than a week. If luck was on their side and Jon’s playing happened to hit the exam right on target, it might even be wrapped up in just two or three days.

Of course, that was only Angel’s personal opinion; whether they could pull it off would still depend on Luigi’s learning pace in the days to come.

Angel temporarily left the Heart Space and made a trip back to the Wilderness of Dreams.

After using Illusion Technique to show Jon a reenactment of Luigi’s homework for the day, Jon nodded in quite some approval. After thinking for half an hour, Jon assigned the day’s homework and took out a new volume of Piano Psychology for Angel.

By the time Luigi embarked on a new round of the Sea of Questions Tactic, a day had already passed since Angel released Wilderness Traveler News.

However, Angel didn’t continue to pay attention to the follow-up of Wilderness Traveler News. At this moment he was sitting on a fishing boat on a quiet stretch of water in the Wilderness of Dreams.

Sitting opposite him was Laplace.