The next morning, after working all night, everyone ate breakfast and continued studying the fragment.
Gao Shanggong left the Cursed Villa after breakfast to receive supplies from the Scholar Foundation.
Everyone sat on the sofa, staring at the fragment with wandering attention. At last, Nameless rubbed his temples and said, "Why don't we call it quits? I've looked through plenty of sources, but I can't find an extraction method that works on this fragment."
"What if we're just one step away from succeeding?" Lucifer said.
She was brimming with enthusiasm and showed no sign of fatigue. The sparkle in her eyes said it all: she was enjoying herself.
Zhang Shouzhong groaned. "Have mercy on me. I'm really not cut out for research. They say thinking for too long builds up toxins in the brain. I feel like there's enough in mine to poison me to death."
"Everyone can go," Nameless said with a smile. "Stay if you're interested. If not, go do whatever you need to do."
Everyone got up and left. Only Lucifer refused to give up.
Nameless lay back on the sofa and looked at Lucifer. "Is studying Rule Secret Arts always this tedious?"
"Usually, it's even more tedious. Most of the time, no one keeps you company while you work. When my father studies Rule Secret Arts, he can spend hundreds or thousands of years at it. The time we've spent so far is nothing.
"But then again, being able to gain power through research without taking any risks is a kind of good fortune in itself," Lucifer said with a smile.
Lucifer offered no further argument. She merely smiled faintly and went back to studying the fragment.
Nameless said nothing more. He closed his eyes to rest. He would return to the Eternal Silence Prison Tower