Chapter 1165: 152. Ancient Texts

Marcie had a dream.

She dreamed that she had become Annabawei’s hero, that she had become the most outstanding Pioneer.

She led Annabawei toward the light. The night was no longer a disaster that harmed this place, and because of that, she was revered by countless people, recorded in Annabawei’s history, and even in the square of every settlement, statues of her were erected.

Even her record book became a famous work destined to be passed down through the ages.

She returned to her own little village wrapped in boundless radiance. Her grandmother was there. That old woman, who had once disagreed most strongly with her doing dangerous things, now had no choice but to admit that her decision back then had been wrong.

She would certainly feel proud of her granddaughter. She would feel honored!

That was right. That was certain!

Because her grandmother was that kind of gentle person...

“Grandma...”

Marcie opened her eyes.

The dim room was lit by candles. The old roof was covered with traces of patching and repair. The nearby window was covered with torn burlap, so the cold wind outside would not pour in all at once.

Everything was so familiar. It was as if she had merely experienced one great dream and had never left this place.

“How do you feel? Is your body still uncomfortable anywhere?”

An incomparably warm voice came over, yet it made Marcie’s heart suddenly clench.

She turned her head and saw a familiar blond figure sitting by the window, using a small knife to peel the skin from some kind of fruit.

In an instant, Marcie’s tears flowed out. She was a very smart person, so when she woke and discovered that the person waiting beside her was Muen, she had already realized everything.

“That wasn’t a dream?”

She was talking about what had happened before.

About “Grandma Meg” suddenly appearing as Annabawei’s final villain.

“...It wasn’t.”

Muen was silent for a moment, then shook his head truthfully.

“Grandma Meg... or rather, that person named Priscilla, was a survivor from the same place as Andri. Her purpose was to take revenge on Miss Dragon.”

“Could she not be saved?”

“You saw the degree of her erosion too. She could not be saved.”

“Then I...”

Marcie looked at her own palm.

“Don’t worry. You’re fine now. This is also the part I find strange. You were clearly the person closest to Grandma Meg, but there is no Pollution of light on your body.”

“Maybe because I don’t believe in the Goddess of Light?”

“Pollution does not necessarily require faith in order to spread. But that point also makes me even less able to understand it. You were raised by Grandma Meg from childhood. How could you grow up until now and yet not believe in the Goddess of Light?”

Muen’s expression was puzzled.

A child raised from a young age, from ignorance to adulthood—if someone deliberately exerted influence, there were far too many ways to make that child become what one wanted.

But whether it was Marcie’s lively, cheerful, forward-charging personality, or her body, which was clean to an unbelievable degree apart from the original Pollution, both made Muen feel that it was extremely inconceivable.

He had even been afraid that his own ability was insufficient and that he could not detect some deeper hidden danger, so he had specifically asked Miss Dragon to take a look.

There was none.

Even after spending day and night together, Marcie’s body indeed did not carry the slightest trace of light... or rather, the Withering King’s Pollution. Including any other possible hidden foreshadowing, there was absolutely nothing.

The way she was made it seem as if Priscilla had actually never intended to use her for anything, and had truly been... raising a granddaughter?

“Did you usually notice anything abnormal about your grandmother?”

“No. Grandma was always like that. She was very good to me. She taught me, helped me... but she was never overly strict with me either. Even with my dream of becoming a Pioneer, she only disagreed with it verbally. In truth, she had always been silently supporting me.”

“Is that so?”

Muen thought again.

“Then perhaps Priscilla acted so perfectly in order to avoid being discovered as abnormal. Her disguise was indeed very impressive.”

“I don’t know either...”

Marcie suddenly remembered something.

“Right, speaking of this, I remembered something from a very long time ago.”

“Something from a very long time ago?”

“Yes... It was when I was very little, probably only four or five years old. At that time, my parents had just died because of a famine. Grandma treated me very badly then, because she thought I had caused Mom and Dad to die. She often hit me and scolded me... But after she went out once, she suddenly started treating me well.”

Marcie frowned, struggling to dig those distant memories out from the deepest part of her mind.

“Suddenly started treating you well?”

Muen was stunned.

“Yes... Thinking carefully about it now, Grandma at that time was like she had become another person. Gentle, kind, and when something happened, she no longer yelled and cursed or blamed heaven and earth. She also became very capable. During that year’s Daylight Period, I remember my family’s grain yield directly doubled...”

As Marcie spoke, her voice grew smaller and smaller, until in the end it became an extremely faint murmur.

“Could it be that it was actually... at that time?”

“...”

Muen did not know what to say.

People could not suddenly change. When the result had already been laid out before their eyes, some of the previous abnormalities could be explained so easily.

Unfortunately, that kind of pale and meaningless explanation could not soothe the wounds in a person’s heart.

“Eat.”

He handed the peeled fruit in his hand to Marcie.

“An apple. I think you can eat this now. After all, Annabawei will be able to grow this kind of thing in the future.”

Marcie took it blankly and took a small bite blankly.

In an instant, sweetness and juice she had never experienced before rushed into her mouth. The sweet fragrance steeped her brain, making her whole person dizzy, as if she had entered a fairyland.

But even so, she still could not control her tears and stop them from continuing to flow.

Sweetness could not erase the pain deep inside the heart either.

“That’s too despicable...”

Marcie murmured in pain.

“If it’s like this, then don’t I not even have anyone to hate?”

“...”

Muen sighed silently, still said nothing, and left for the time being.

With this kind of thing, any admonishment might instead become a sharp blade that caused harm. He could only let the girl figure it out herself.

...

...

Outside the village, at the forest farm.

Muen walked along the road he had once taken before.

As far as the eye could see, the trees here were still as they had been when he first saw them: thin, weak, withered, and bare.

Only, if one looked carefully, one would discover that on some of the branches, a few emerald-green tender buds had already grown.

This was something that made people extremely delighted. After experiencing the long night, they had finally welcomed bright sunlight, and they too were about to grow strong and healthy.

He believed that before long, this place would become a dense and true forest.

If nothing else, at least in this regard, Priscilla had been serious... Muen thought to himself.

Rustle, rustle.

Footsteps sounded behind him.

“So fast?”

Muen was slightly surprised. He had originally thought the girl would think for longer. After all, even from the perspective of an adult, this was a problem from which it was extremely difficult to reach any result.

“Are you not going to rest a little longer? Although my time is quite tight, I still have enough time to wait for you a while longer.”

“There’s nothing much to think about. Grandma is Grandma. I’ll just take it as her having gone out on a long trip... just like me. Who can always stay at home? When I left home in order to become a Pioneer, wasn’t it the same for Grandma?”

Marcie’s tone was firm. Only, her eyes were still somewhat red.

She really is as strong as ever... Muen sighed inwardly.

“What do you want to do next?”

Since the other party was no longer clinging to the past, Muen naturally would not be so tactless either. With a turn of his words, he brought up the future.

“Next?”

“Annabawei no longer needs to pioneer in order to find a path to survival. As for walking out of the Fog Wall, before I find a way to completely resolve the Pollution on your bodies, it would be better for you to continue staying here.”

Muen said, “Sorry. This is also for your own good.”

“No, it’s fine. Being able to have the ending we have now is already enough for us. I think everyone in Annabawei has no dissatisfaction. As for me...”

Marcie thought seriously.

“Then I’ll do what I was originally supposed to do.”

“What you were originally supposed to do?”

“This...”

She suddenly took out a small booklet. Muen thought it was another record book she had written, but when he looked carefully, he discovered that this booklet was full of traces of being flipped through. The cover was also damaged in many places, and it looked quite old.

“This is...”

“An ancient secret manual.”

“Hm?”

Muen raised his brow and took the small booklet from Marcie’s hand.

He vaguely remembered this matter. Grandma Meg had an ancient secret manual, and that was why, during that despairing era when the black night was long, she had been specifically responsible for cultivating forest farms, which gave people a pillar of support in their hearts.

“Now I’m genuinely a little curious.”

Not long ago, Grandma Meg had just been revealed to have another identity. Added to everything so far, anything related to the words “ancient” had been extremely extraordinary. Therefore, Muen’s sense of anticipation was instantly filled to the brim.

After confirming that there was no special power remaining on this ancient text and that there were no problems with it, Muen silently counted three seconds in his heart and opened the ancient text full of anticipation...

Tree Maintenance Manual—Cultivation and Planting of Hardy Tree Species.

Those were the heart-stopping words right at the beginning.

“...This is that ancient text?”

Muen was silent for a full ten seconds before finally opening his mouth and asking.

“Yes. This is that ancient text.”

“You didn’t take the wrong book, did you?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Then could it be that your understanding is mistaken? This fundamentally isn’t some ancient text, but a case of misinformation passed down over time?”

“This is absolutely the ancient text. Grandma told me so herself.”

“I see...”

Then perhaps I accidentally fell under some illusion?

Muen rubbed his eyes. To be safe, he even directly used his black-flame vision.

Open!

Fine. No illusion.

It was still fucking a tree maintenance manual!

“It seems that so-called ancient texts are not all something impressive...”

The corner of Muen’s mouth twitched as he casually flipped open this ancient text.

Then his words abruptly came to a stop.

“I take back what I just said. This book is very impressive.”

Muen’s expression gradually became solemn.

Packed densely together, what was recorded on it was entirely information related to trees, from cultivation, planting, and maintenance... to introductions of various species, their advantages and disadvantages, and hybridization. Every aspect was extremely detailed, and there were extremely delicate illustrations.

It was the complete opposite of its tattered appearance.

And when he flipped to the back, there was even handwritten information about Annabawei’s soil, sunlight, temperature, as well as various analyses... This had probably been written by later people, other people... or Grandma Meg.

“Impressive.”

Muen praised it again subconsciously. Although there was no record of any impressive magic on it, nor any extraordinary treasure, even from the perspective of Muen, an outsider to this field, its value had long since exceeded that of the vast majority of magic or treasures.

For Annabawei, perhaps this was the thing it needed most.

Because it could bring hope called “green.”

“I’ll study it properly. That fruit you gave me just now called an ‘apple’—one day in the future, everyone in Annabawei will be able to eat it!”

Marcie spoke firmly.

“Right, and bread too. Real bread, not black bread!”

“Good luck.”

Muen solemnly handed this ancient text back into Marcie’s hands.

“However, you may have to suffer quite a lot again after this.”

Muen smiled.

“Learning this from the beginning, with no one to guide you, will not be easy.”

“Hmph, what of it? Don’t forget, I’m someone determined to become Annabawei’s greatest Pioneer, and also someone who wrote this record book all on my own. A so-called Pioneer is someone who bravely steps into unknown lands, isn’t it?”

Marcie put her hands on her hips and said proudly, “So even if I previously knew jack shit about these things, I will absolutely learn them in the shortest possible time... Of course, I will also continue becoming stronger. If you need anything, call me. Don’t forget, I’m still the trainee by your side!”

“Definitely.”

Muen reached out his hand.

“Miss Marcie, Annabawei’s greatest Pioneer, I’ll be waiting for the day I can fight shoulder to shoulder with you.”

“Hehe...”

Marcie clenched her small hand into a fist and lightly bumped it against Muen’s, temporarily throwing aside all pain and worries as she revealed a smile.

“Just you wait. When the time comes, I will definitely give you a huge surprise!”