Chapter 1433 - 1430: Shortcut

Igor was feeling woozy and out of it.

He felt like he was being completely ignored, though it wasn't the first time he'd felt that way, so he was kind of used to it.

To be honest, he was also quite curious how Senior Douglas was going to get justice for that friend of his. After all, Douglas had said he wouldn't kill anyone. For Igor, that made things a lot harder, because in his mind revenge had always meant a blood-debt paid in blood; he'd never even considered there could be another way.

So right now Igor was listening very intently.

"What I mean is, you'll understand when the time comes. I won't kill anyone, but I will enrage those who love slaughter!"

"Oh, a guy like you is actually pretty terrifying. I'd better keep a bit of distance from you!" Amoon said with a grin, half joking, half serious. He more or less got what Douglas meant.

Igor, however, was still totally confused. He didn't really follow, because his way of understanding things just wasn't that complicated.

Originally he'd thought Douglas was the same sort of guy as Kadi, but now he felt Douglas was a little more complicated than Kadi—maybe that was just a matter of experience. Thinking of Kadi, Igor couldn't help feeling sad again.

"Let's stop with the pointless chatter and make better use of our time getting ready. We're going to the Vero Realm—the journey won't be smooth at all!" Douglas said.

"Indeed, it's a long journey," Amoon agreed, and this was exactly what he'd been worrying about all along.

Right now they were on the border between the Ghost Realm and the Kayne Realm. From here there really was quite a distance to the Vero Realm—not in a straight line, but in terms of the route. If they wanted to go to the Vero Realm, they had to take a detour. Even though it looked like the Wensi Empire was not far off in the distance, if you wanted to go there, you'd basically need wings…

There was a great river cutting off these three lands. The Vero Realm was on the far side of the river, while Kayne and the Ghost Realm were on this side. The river wound and twisted, making the territories of the Ghost Realm and Kayne Realm twist along with it. The Three Great Empires all clustered around this river, and all had towns along its banks…

"Actually, we do have a shortcut to get to the Vero Realm!" Igor suggested from the side; by now he'd already blended into the conversation between Douglas and Amoon.

"A shortcut?" Amoon looked at Igor with curiosity. "You mean crossing that long river? That's not some little stream—that's a full-on river!"

"Not just a river. That river is the Water Spirits' territory of activity, and we really don't want to offend the Water Spirits!" Douglas added.

Amoon and Douglas's first reaction to Igor's so-called shortcut was also crossing the river. They weren't ignorant; they knew the map of this continent quite well. Crossing the river would indeed get them to the Vero Realm quickly, but trying to cross it was no easy task at all. Not to mention, there were Water Spirits there—a race that had always posed a threat to humans.

"The shortcut I'm talking about is indeed on that river. We can at least give it a try!" Igor scratched his head; he didn't know how to convince these two seniors.

"Try it!" Douglas stared at Igor in surprise. He also really wanted to reach the Vero Realm as soon as possible, but that river was no joke.

"We understand how you're feeling, Igor!" Amoon was relatively gentle; he was lightly comforting Igor in his own way.

"Um, Seniors, I know I'm not good at persuading people. This shortcut wasn't discovered by me, so of course I don't have the persuasive power. I'd better let it explain things!" Igor hurriedly cut off Amoon's attempt at soothing him, then took a Spirit Book out from his clothes.

Things like shortcuts, of course, were all suggestions from the Spirit Books; Igor himself had no way of knowing the hidden details behind them.

The Spirit Book landed on the ground and let out a yawn, as if it hadn't fully woken up.

Of the four Spirit Books in total, they had come to an agreement and sent out a representative—the one that had spent the most time with Igor.

That book was the one that had run out of Witch Biggs's Divination House.

"Come on, tell the seniors about this shortcut to the Vero Realm. They don't really believe in your shortcut!" Igor said. He himself was keeping a skeptical attitude anyway, since this Spirit Book had seriously screwed him over in the past.

"Er, if all the shortcuts I suggested were wrong, how would you have gotten here?" The Spirit Book sounded a little resentful, clearly puzzled by Igor's remark.

"Well, me believing you doesn't help—we need these two seniors to believe you!" Igor spread his hands, hiding the doubts gnawing at his heart. These doubts had been troubling him for a long time, and now he was finally putting them out in the open.

"Uh… convincing these two? Heh, that's not exactly difficult. We books exist to answer people's questions and, well, to convince people." The Spirit Book quickly slipped into banter; clearly this sort of thing was right up its alley.

"So, I just want to know: is this shortcut you're offering purely theoretical, or has it actually been tried in practice?" Amoon seemed pretty skilled at dealing with Spirit Books. There was no surprise on his face; he simply asked his questions directly.

"Of course it's been tried in practice. The best way to convince someone is to give examples. We may be books, but we're not going to stiffly haul out big generalities—that would be terribly unconvincing!" The Spirit Book rattled on, returning to its usual chatterbox mode.

"Uh, can you tell me what kind of practice we're talking about here?" Amoon stayed patient; he wasn't the least bit irritable, and seemed very well-mannered.

"Of course. I just love talking to people like you—you understand everything, nothing muddled!" The exchange between the Spirit Book and Amoon was going quite smoothly.

This left Igor and Douglas looking at each other in confusion. They didn't understand how this Spirit Book and this Alchemist were hitting it off so well!

"Then I'd trouble you to explain it," the polite and courteous Amoon said, making Igor really envious. Igor moved over to Amoon's side and nudged up against him.

"Senior Amoon, could you tell me how you communicate with these Spirit Books? Is there some trick to it? I always feel there's this barrier when I talk to them!"

Igor spoke very quietly; he was trying to learn a trick, and he didn't want the Spirit Book to notice!

"Heh, well, I'll explain slowly after it's done talking." Amoon was just as friendly to Igor as he would be to a younger brother.

"Mm!" Igor was excited; he felt that with Amoon's tips, he'd be able to work in much better harmony with the Spirit Books in the future!

At this point the Spirit Book was feeling pretty pleased with itself. Next, it was going to explain the matter of the shortcut to everyone!