Secrets of the Notebook

This swordsmanship is known for its "complex, elegant, and difficult to master" moves. While in many hands it might be called a dance rather than swordsmanship, if one can truly master it, it becomes an extremely profound and high-level martial art.

It can even serve as a stepping stone to gain the favor of a prominent figure in the royal court.

Therefore, much like a symbol of high society, this swordsmanship is highly sought after by court nobles and even the refined ladies of prominent families, its circulation limited to the upper echelons of power.

Even with his status as Navy Colonel Gell, when explaining the swordsmanship to Evan, he couldn't present the full inheritance, only broadly outlining the characteristics and countermeasures of this martial art.

In Evan's opinion.

A thief with a good background who was proficient in "Court Swordsmanship" stealing from a naval supply ship would undoubtedly lead to a lot of trouble. If they caught the guy, it would only be more troublesome!

So Evan directly chose to turn a blind eye.

"Let me see what this guy actually stole?" Unable to suppress his curiosity, Evan thought that anything "Zorro" would personally steal must be no ordinary item.

Upon opening the black cloth bag.

The seemingly large package inside contained not the precious cultivation resources or treasures Evan had imagined, but layer upon layer of tightly wrapped cloth.

"What's going on, stealing something with so many layers of packaging?"

It wasn't until Evan unwrapped the layers of black cloth and then the tough parchment inside that he finally discovered a flat wooden box at the very bottom.

After breaking the small lock on the wooden box, Evan finally got to see the true face of this mysterious stolen item.

It was a booklet with a black leather cover, but its appearance was rather disappointing. The unassuming, old cover was even stained with colorful dyes, looking as if it had been picked from a trash heap.

"A broken book?"

Evan felt he understood the strange "Zorro" even less.

Personally taking such a huge risk to sneak onto a naval supply ship, ignoring the valuable potions in the warehouse and the high-end pocket watches for officers, and not stealing the military pay, but instead stealing such a inexplicably broken book – either "Zorro" had a problem with his brain, or this book had a problem!

So Evan felt there must be some secret involved and decided to keep the book for himself, waiting to see the supply ship's reaction tomorrow before deciding what to do with it.

He threw away all the trivial "packaging materials," wrapped the booklet in a piece of black cloth, and tucked it into his embrace.

"Boss, how is it? Did you catch that thief?" As soon as they returned to the naval port, a group of sailors who had been waiting there surrounded him. Gary, who had sobered up considerably from the cool breeze, was the first to ask.

"He got away." Evan shook his head, not lying.

At this moment, he noticed the supply ship was brightly lit, and it seemed the sailors on duty had also discovered something was amiss.

"Boss, people from the supply ship just came down. They should be back to check the warehouse now. I'll tell them we didn't catch the thief, so it won't be our fault." Noticing Evan's gaze, Gary explained.

"Alright, cooperate with them here. If they find anything missing after their inventory, don't forget to tell me too."

"Don't worry, boss." Gary, thinking Evan was just as curious as he was, didn't think much of it.

Returning to his rented room, Evan couldn't sleep for a while. He lit the gas lamp, took out the booklet from his embrace, and sat at his desk to read it.

Flipping through a couple of pages, Evan found that it was actually a notebook on apothecary arts. Since he had learned apothecary arts from Grandpa Leo while running the apothecary shop in Leopold, Evan even obtained an apothecary's license. Combined with his knowledge from his previous life, Evan was no stranger to apothecary arts.

"Improved pain relievers, diarrhea medicine, hemostatic ointment..."

Based on his experience, although most of the potions were quite good, they were only for treating minor ailments of ordinary people, similar in quality to Grandpa Leo's "Live Fish Potion."

They had some value, but certainly not enough for the distinguished "Mr. Zorro" to go to such great lengths to steal.

Finding nothing particularly special for the moment, Evan began to read the improved potions with great interest. As a registered apothecary, the ingenious ideas revealed in the various improved formulas were also very appealing to him.

After all, apothecary arts were very useful knowledge in this era. Evan and Steward Leo had lived quite well in Leopold using this skill, and he didn't want to completely abandon it.

Moreover, the three cornerstones of the Knight's Path – "breathing techniques, swordsmanship, and potions" – were all closely related to apothecary arts. He had even collected most of the raw materials for the "Black Sea Magic Potion" used for advancement and was preparing to concoct it himself.

At this time, he couldn't afford to neglect apothecary arts even more.

Rustle

Rustle

Pages turned. As Evan became engrossed in his reading, the flame of the gas lamp on the table slowly weakened, then suddenly disappeared completely, plunging the room into darkness.

"Bad luck, the gas lamp is out of fuel at this time. Oh well, I'll sleep first and read tomorrow." The minor mishap interrupted Evan's reading. Realizing it was very late, even if the Silver Wing had no missions for the next few days, he still needed to wake up early for training.

He placed the apothecary arts notebook back on the desk. Just as he was about to get up and draw the curtains, he suddenly noticed that under the moonlight filtering through the window, a certain page of the notebook was also reflecting a faint, cold moonlight.

"Thump!" Evan's heart leaped violently. He felt he might have discovered the secret hidden within this book.

He carefully turned to the glowing page. In the blank space where the potion formula was originally written, a few lines of faint blue text quietly appeared.

However, these lines of text were not written in the common language of the Tulip Alliance, but in the extraordinary script known as "Spirit Language" or "Catha Language."

This was an ancient language that had existed since extraordinary knowledge began to spread in the world. Some said it was the language of the gods, while others claimed it was the language of an ancient civilization from a previous era, and so on.

Even the most learned scholars could not determine its true origin, but the fact that this script possessed a peculiar power was undeniable.

Given this, it was also the unified script commonly used by the extraordinary worlds of various countries on the continent to record extraordinary powers, and it had been passed down for a long time.

As someone from a legitimate Extraordinary Knight family, Evan had naturally received relevant education, which was also one of the reasons for the "Proficient" level grammar on his skill panel.

"A new potion? Developing Potion?"

Although it was still a potion formula recorded in "Catha" language, Evan dared not underestimate it in the slightest. After all, anything recorded in an extraordinary language, even if not extraordinary itself, could not be simple.

Considering the peculiar change of the notebook under the moonlight, Evan guessed that as long as he could concoct the "Developing Potion," he would have the key to uncovering the deeper secrets of this book.

"What a pity!"

The formula was not complicated, and the required raw materials were relatively common. Unfortunately, Evan had none of them on hand right now.

He could only carefully put away the notebook and go to bed with a sense of anticipation. He decided to go to the apothecary shop first thing in the morning to buy the raw materials and make the potion, as he wouldn't be in the mood for anything else otherwise.