Chapter 620 - 379: World Riddle

Chapter 620: Chapter 379: World Riddle

This trip out and back had been quite fruitful.

The rewards for killing someone had become incredibly high. Not only could I turn them into an Undead to fight for me, but I could also extract an Enchantment Effect from their body.

To make it my own.

When I returned to the hotel, Xiumi was already back.

The item had been appraised. The fragment, which opened a rift, would likely summon Tier Five or Tier Six Abyss Creatures.

But in terms of the threat it posed...

...it wasn’t much of one.

With Lu Luwei and Leng Qingying there, the two of them could handle it with ease.

’Besides, according to my own records...’

’Xiumi’s combat strength shouldn’t be weak, either. She’s a prodigy in her own right.’

’I could rest slightly easier with them all working together.’

"Are you really not coming, meow? Lu Luwei said you’re really strong, meow."

Xiumi asked Lu Cang.

Lu Cang chuckled and declined. "I think I’ll pass. My strength is pretty average, actually."

’Should I try to further obscure what Lu Luwei knows about me?’ Lu Cang wondered. ’It would keep her from running around telling everyone how strong I am.’

’Forget it...’

’Besides, even if she told people, it’s not like many would find out.’

’And even if she managed to tell the whole world, they would forget the name Lu Cang in a very short time.’

’If his name came up again later, they would just ask, "Who the heck is Lu Cang?"’

’So there was no need to make Lu Luwei forget about me.’

"Fine... we’ll just go farm it ourselves, meow."

"We were even going to give you a cut."

’Truthfully, I don’t really need it.’

’Abyss Creatures are valuable, sure, but to me, they’re just slightly more valuable than common materials.’

’That’s a gap I can easily close just by running a few more Dungeons.’

’I have a mountain of Tier Seven materials in my possession that I haven’t even found time to sell, let alone worry about materials from some Abyss Creatures.’

’If I actually needed those materials, I wouldn’t have to hunt them myself anyway.’

’I could just buy them.’

After turning down their invitation to team up, Lu Cang went to the Mage Association. He registered the magical research he’d been conducting, along with a few new spells he had developed.

He registered them all as spells that could be learned free of charge.

Through this method.

He increased the spread of his magic.

He also sent the second- and third-generation improved versions of his Combat Skills directly to the Warrior School, making them available to learn for free.

Lu Cang could feel his Magic and Combat Skills gradually becoming known to the world.

The proliferation of Combat Skills and the popularization of Magic would take time.

Only Death and Destruction could be accomplished in a single stroke.

As long as one created a major destructive event that was acknowledged and accepted as such, with enough witnesses...

Directly destroying the entire Empty Valley might be a good option.

And maybe pick a few survivors while I’m at it...

’Now *that* would be a true violation of moral principles. See? I’m still normal.’ As for the advancement requirement for his Decryption Scholar Profession, Lu Cang already knew of a puzzle that was famous throughout the world but remained unproven.

The Harvest Moon Phase.

The celestial phenomenon of the Harvest Moon was known as a Scroll phenomenon. Due to the Special nature of this phenomenon, it was difficult to compare the Moon Phases of other months with the Moon Phase of the Harvest Moon.

The Moon Phase affected the harvest and also influenced Rituals. If one couldn’t correctly determine the Moon Phase during the Harvest Moon...

...they would miss the optimal time for harvesting and would be unable to accurately perform Rituals related to the Moon Phase.

Lu Cang learned of this puzzle.

And then...

...he went into a pre-enacted Future and simply got the answer.

Unlike Root Magic, which required his own perception and comprehension, knowing the answer to a puzzle wasn’t nearly as complex.

Lu Cang could simply write it down in the Future and inform his present self.

In fact, the requirement to advance from a Level 5 Decryption Scholar to Level 6 was to make this very answer public.

If he didn’t even know the answer himself...

...how could he possibly make it public?

The Puzzle Enthusiasts Association.

Compared to a grand name like the White Tower, the Decryption Scholars’ association sounded a bit unrefined.

’Puzzle Enthusiasts’ sounded like something a child would come up with.

The association’s storefront was also tiny.

Inside, only a few people were scattered about.

Decryption Scholar was one of the Secret Scroll Professions, so it was only natural that there were fewer of them than practitioners of more common Professions.

This was true even in Moon Sea.

That was why the Decryption Scholars’ association only appeared in major cities, unlike Mages and the White Tower, which were everywhere.

Furthermore, because Scholars and Decryption Scholars already had a degree of overlap...

...the Puzzle Enthusiasts Association seemed to have an even smaller presence.

"I’ve solved one of the world’s great puzzles. I’m here to announce the answer."

Lu Cang walked into the wooden building and spoke in a calm voice to the man at the front desk, who was chewing on a black pen.

The man looked up at Lu Cang’s arrival, slightly curious. "Oh?"

"One of the world’s great puzzles? Which one are you talking about?"

"The Invariant Theorem? Or the Mechanical Mind Proposition?"

Ultimately, there wasn’t a huge difference between Decryption Scholars and Scholars. Decryption Scholars leaned more toward solving unanswered unknowns, while Scholars excelled at studying established knowledge.

Of course, Scholars also explored the unknown in the process, delving into ever deeper and more specialized fields.

So the difference between the two was quite subtle, really.

"The Harvest Moon Phase."

"Oh... you mean that S-ranked ’ordinary’ problem."

’What does he mean, an S-ranked "ordinary" problem?’

Lu Cang glanced at a white wall on one side of the room, which was covered in stacks of paper.

The papers listed bounties for various conjectures.

These were all famous conjectures, well-known to the world. Scholars had proposed them, but they remained notoriously difficult to prove. Eventually, these conjectures made their way to the Puzzle Enthusiasts Association, where they were posted as world-class puzzles with bounties attached.

Most were classic problems that had remained unsolved for centuries.

The young man at the desk spoke again. "Coming here specifically to solve a puzzle and announce the answer... you must be trying to advance to Level 6 Decryption Scholar."

Lu Cang nodded. "That’s right."

He sized Lu Cang up. "You must be one of those early Reincarnators, then? Advancing to Level 6 Decryption Scholar this soon?"

"You know, I actually had some ideas about that Harvest Moon Phase puzzle myself."

"I was just too lazy to work through the details. I didn’t expect someone to solve it so quickly."

"Judging by your age, you can’t have been working on this puzzle for long, right? A year, maybe?"

Lu Cang replied, "Not quite that long. More like three days."

It had been during a pre-enactment three days ago that Lu Cang had found this place.

And found the puzzle he wanted to solve.

"Three days?"

With a loud CRACK, the man at the front desk bit the black pen he was chewing clean in half.

"Since you’re so talented, how about you try a puzzle I’ve got right here?" the man asked, his interest piqued.

"A new conjecture came out of the White Tower a few days ago..."

"They’re conjecturing that Demons can actually transform into sapient creatures."