Act of Courage

"Didn't you just say that Job and those people attacking you was against Federation law?" He Ao replied seriously. "So I'm acting out of courage."

"?"

Selina remembered Job's tragic death. You call that an act of courage?

She stared blankly at He Ao's serious expression, but... it seemed like he genuinely thought so?

In that instant, she even had a feeling that this Evil God Priest in front of her wasn't truly rational; he was just so utterly insane that he seemed rational.

Then she shook her head again, shaking the thought out of her mind.

The other party must be playing with her. How could there be someone so insane that they seemed rational in this world?

She was about to say something, but He Ao had already stopped paying attention to her.

While talking to Selina just now, he had actually been fully focused on observing her every move, checking if she was using the conversation to distract him and make small movements, or reveal greater strength.

He felt the growing sense of danger from Selina. He needed to determine if Selina was recovering her strength, but it seemed now that Selina wasn't recovering her strength; she was just buying time for her recovery.

It looked like her strength recovery wasn't linear growth, but rather a sudden recovery once a certain point in time was reached.

However, Yezuola's inherent danger sensing ability had predicted this risk in advance and warned He Ao.

He Ao felt that this danger sensing ability was quite useful. He wondered if it was the 'Talent Sequence' that Job had mentioned earlier.

While thinking, He Ao didn't stop flipping through the bookshelves. After realizing that Selina wasn't a threat in the short term, he only kept a small portion of his attention on Selina, focusing his main energy on these books.

Based on the changes in the danger sensing ability's perception of danger, he roughly estimated that Selina's strength recovery would take nearly another hour, while performing the ritual would take about forty minutes.

So, although the game system didn't seem to limit the mission completion time, it actually gave a time limit in a roundabout way.

His plan to exploit a bug and gather more information before completing the mission had failed.

Therefore, he had to find as much information as possible and complete the ritual before Selina recovered her strength.

As for killing Selina directly?

It was a good idea, but he was a law-abiding good person!

Selina, who was wondering why He Ao was ignoring her, didn't know that she had just walked past the gates of hell.

She watched his movements, only to see countless book pages being flipped open by flying tentacles, revealing the blank paper inside.

Most antique books like these were expensive now. People who couldn't get real books often chose to buy these modern printed fake books made to look old to decorate their facade.

This was actually quite normal.

However,

Selina looked at He Ao's actions in confusion. Wasn't this his own residence? Why was he flipping through them so quickly?

What was he anxious about? Had he discovered that she was reinstalling her system?

He Ao noticed Selina's gaze, but he didn't care. His movements were deliberately disguised, like someone who had just returned home and was urgently looking for something.

Not like a strange thief who had broken into a strange home and was frantically searching for valuables.

The difference here was actually quite simple: someone searching for their own things would subconsciously take care of the items being moved, while a thief wouldn't care about the owner's property at all.

So, when He Ao was searching through the books, he was also careful to protect them from being damaged while flipping through them. If he found a book he wanted, after opening it, he would consciously close it and put it back casually.

With time to spare, He Ao only had ten minutes to search these bookshelves, so he skimmed through the books almost at a glance.

Yezuola's eyesight wasn't very good, and if he missed anything, He Ao wouldn't go back to look carefully.

Finally, he finished flipping through the entire bookshelf within ten minutes. Unfortunately, he didn't find any books introducing the ritual, but he unexpectedly found a small book the size of a palm.

The paper of this book was yellowed overall, and the corners had severe damage marks. It was pressed in a corner, serving to hold the other books in place.

This book was not written in a language Yezuola understood, but in a simplified script similar to hieroglyphs. It was somewhat similar to the characters of the Central Earth Republic, but it was not a script He Ao recognized.

However, although neither He Ao nor Yezuola recognized this script, the cover of the book had a translation written in a language Yezuola was familiar with.

The name of this book was, Thirty Days to Become a Sword Immortal.

Strange elements were added again.

Was this book legitimate in this kind of world view?

He Ao roughly flipped through it. Inside were some simple character portraits, annotated with dense text he didn't recognize.

It seemed the person who did the translation only translated the title and was too lazy to do the rest, or perhaps couldn't.

Although he didn't recognize the script in this book, the content inside seemed to be drawn quite well, and it was the only book other than elementary school textbooks he had found so far. He Ao thought for a moment, put the book away, and in Selina's blind spot, tucked the small book between two elementary school textbooks and wrapped it with a tentacle.

Immediately, he rolled up many items in this cave that could 'please' the God of Knowledge and walked towards the passage he came from.

Selina seemed to realize what he was going to do and quickly shouted, "Yezuola, didn't you say you were law-abiding? Do you know how much disaster summoning an Evil God's offspring will cause? Do you know how many people will die? You can't do this!"

He Ao, who was walking forward, casually asked, "So, which law stipulates that you can't summon an Evil God's offspring?"

"Ah?"

Selina was stunned. How would she know if there was a law against summoning an Evil God's offspring? Wasn't the harm of summoning an Evil God's offspring obvious? Wasn't this something everyone should condemn?

Who would bother to flip through those thick, brick-like legal codes!

He Ao looked up at Selina. This investigator lady had good combat skills and a good mindset, but she was a little too naive.

Naivety would lead to death!

As he spoke, he had already walked out of the passage and returned to the cave where the Ritual Array was carved.

The glowing 'tubers' on the ceiling, like stars, cast a faint light, illuminating the dim cave. The massive Ritual Array flickered with points of phosphorescence in the cave.

He Ao wrapped one end of the metal wires from the confinement device, which were still in his body, around a tentacle and pulled them out one by one with force.

Selina felt pain just watching his movements. Even without power from the metal stakes, these metal wires were still covered with dense, tiny barbs like mosquito legs. Each one would be deeply embedded in the flesh, and she couldn't imagine the pain of pulling them out.

But He Ao pulled these wires out expressionlessly, then put down the 'empathizing' Selina.

Under Selina's bewildered gaze, he tied these metal wires onto her.

Selina: ?

After tying her up, He Ao shifted his attention to the Ritual Array.