Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Chapter 406 Cunningham's Defenses Are Breached

"This soul feels familiar."

The evil book was laid out on the table by Sharl, and next to it, Cunningham's Soul Orb was placed in a small bone cell made of a few bones.

Without this bone prison the size of a kettle, Cunningham could cast a weak spell to make the Soul Orb float away, but fortunately, he currently has no physical body and cannot break free from the bone prison's restraints.

"Have we met before?" Charles stretched out his finger and poked the Soul Orb a few times. He didn't use much force; if he used too much, he might puncture the Soul Shell, and then Cunningham would be close to death.

It's not time for him to die yet.

"I remember this guy wanted to get some knowledge about life experiments from me before." Words appeared quickly on the pages of the evil book. "Back then, he was a bit slow and I had to teach him many times before he could understand."

Sure enough, Charles nodded slightly. He knew that Cunningham had been bewitched by the evil book, or that Cunningham had searched for the evil book in order to achieve his own goals.

"How could he have become like this?" A thin, dark line rose directly from the pages of the evil book, trying to reach out and touch the sphere of souls, but Charles reached out and pulled the bone prison away.

"It's not the right time yet," Charles said calmly. He still had many questions for Cunningham, and if the evil book "devoured" him now, he would lose a lot of information.

"As you command." Several large characters immediately appeared on the pages of the evil book, and the thin thread retracted. "Speaking of which, this guy was quite respectful in addressing me as 'Master' before."

"Is that so?" Charles chuckled, then reached out and poked Cunningham. "Stop pretending to be dead. I know you can use telepathy in this state."

Spencer also told Charles this news; of course, if there was no other way, he could bring over a Furu.

"You vile goblin, what is your purpose?" Cunningham's voice rang out, and it was clear that even though he no longer had a body, he was still arrogant at heart.

"Don't you want to see your teacher first?" Charles pushed the evil book to the side of the bone cell. Immediately afterward, the Soul Orb shook a few times, seemingly recognizing the evil book.

"How did this book end up with you?" Cunningham exclaimed, clearly surprised. "I know, it must be that druid from the Church of Life. She must have gotten the evil book from that bastard Luther and was planning to conduct life experiments in the forest."

"Sigh—" Charles sighed softly. The evil book was indeed taken from Luther, but it was not brought by Sophia, nor was it for any life experiment. Sure enough, a madman will use a madman's mindset to speculate about others.

"Shut up, you idiot! How dare you speak to an adult like that?" Words immediately appeared on the pages of the evil book, clearly displeased with Cunningham's words. Even the previously retracted ink lines extended from the book's pages, as if Charles could devour Cunningham with a single nod.

"You, you—" Cunningham's soul sphere trembled incessantly. It seemed that, rather than obtaining information from the handwriting, he could directly hear the "voice" of the evil book.

"Compared to the adults, you're nothing but a rat in the gutter. If the adults hadn't said you were still useful, do you think you'd still be alive?" The evil book's writing grew faster and faster, and it seemed filled with righteous indignation.

After being spoken to, Cunningham's entire Soul Sphere trembled uncontrollably, but he fell silent and stopped saying a word.

"Is it this intense when you and your teacher meet?" Charles chuckled. "Normally, shouldn't the student greet the teacher first, and then the teacher inquire about the student's studies?"

"He's an idiot, no match for an adult, there's nothing to ask." As the evil book revealed its words, it slightly raised its spine and then, like a caterpillar, moved away from the bone prison a distance away.

"You damned goblin, if I were alive, I would tear you to pieces!" Cunningham broke his silence and began to hurl insults.

Hearing his curses, Charles just smiled. From the moment he met this high-ranking archmage, the other party had always been arrogant and condescending. Even when Spencer appeared and the construct was killed, he did not behave in a way that was inconsistent with his identity as a mage.

The only time his expression changed was when he heard that goblins were not plagued by the demonic plague.

But now, he actually broke down and started cursing at a goblin, completely unlike the composure of a high-level archmage.

"It seems that your teacher's rejection of you, while simultaneously addressing a goblin as 'sir,' has been quite a blow to you." Charles chuckled a few times, which silenced Cunningham's curses. His Soul Orb merely trembled angrily in the bone cell, seemingly unwilling to pay any attention to Charles.

"My lord, you can ask him directly if you have any questions. If he doesn't want to talk about it, I can answer." The evil book once again revealed its writing, as "dutiful" as ever.

"I'd better ask this archmage," Charles smiled, then leaned closer to the bone cell and asked, "I wonder how much this archmage of the cursed faction knows about the transformation curse?"

This question did not elicit an answer from Cunningham. Instead, words began to appear rapidly on the pages of the evil book, but Charles simply waved his hand, preventing the book from providing an answer.

"Speaking of which, I have a friend who was cursed with transformation and accidentally turned into a goblin. He wants to know how to turn back." Ciel crossed his arms and looked at the Soul Orb with great interest.

"The friend you're talking about, is it yourself?" Cunningham broke his silence, but the sarcasm in his tone was undisguised.

Hearing his words, Charles did not answer, but simply watched quietly.

"You vile green-skinned dwarf," Cunningham sneered again. "Now I know, something must have happened to you, you've been turned into a goblin. Tell me, are you a member of the Church of Life?"

"Aha," he exclaimed, "A few years ago, the Cardinal of the Church of Life claimed to have died of illness, but no funeral arrangements were made. These high-ranking members of the church handled their own monarch's funeral so quietly. Now I know, you are Cardinal Willid."

“No,” Cunningham said, then contradicted himself. “Willid is an old man. Even if he turned into a goblin, he wouldn’t be this young. You must be someone from the church.”

"Little fellow," he chuckled, looking as if he had seen right through Ciel, "it seems you willingly became a goblin, just to test how to remove the magic and turn back into a human before you go and flatter Your Majesty, huh?"

"I'm sorry, your deduction is wrong." Charles shook his head slightly, then reached out and tapped the pages of the evil book with his finger.

After receiving the approval of the "True God," the evil book flapped its pages a few times, as if laughing wildly, "Fool, that Willid you mentioned, I already ate him."

"Eat, ate?" Cunningham was shocked. The Soul Orb, which had been shaking because it thought it had guessed the answer, suddenly fell silent.

"Yes, that's right. The master needs me to conduct life modification experiments. That fragment of the cardinal's soul was a reward from the master."

"You...you conduct life experiments yourself?" Cunningham asked in surprise, seemingly shocked by the words of the evil book. "You always told me what to do, you never mentioned conducting life experiments yourself."

"Of course," words quickly appeared on the pages of the evil book, "Who do you think you are, daring to expect me to conduct experiments on you personally? Only you, sir, can command me. As long as I can help you, I will go through fire and water for you."

"Alright." Charles reached out and pressed his hand on the page of the evil book, stopping the "pledge of loyalty" part that followed. It has to be said that the words just now showed the evil book's true colors perfectly. The words cursing Cunningham were written in normal small characters, but when Charles was mentioned, the characters immediately became larger, making the words on the page look very inconsistent.

"If you can actually do experiments, then why did I waste decades of my life?" Cunningham's voice trembled, and you could tell he was so angry his beard was flying everywhere.

"Of course, you idiot, you come up here asking how to eliminate the plague," the evil book scoffed, fanning its pages with disdain, seemingly looking down on Cunningham. "Even a fool knows that it's a side effect of learning magic, a rule set by ancient gods, and it's not so easy to avoid. But it's different for you, sir. You just asked me to improve the mushrooms and even rewarded me with a fragment of a cardinal's soul."

"I've been guiding you, you idiot, for so long, and what have you given me?" After saying that, the evil book once again crawled towards Xia Er like a caterpillar.

"You—" Cunningham was speechless, his soul orb lying motionless on the bone prison base, looking as if he had been struck by a blow.

"So now, Archmage Cunningham, can you answer my question?" Charles tapped the table, reminding the other party.

"Hmph," Cunningham snorted, then after a two-second silence, slowly said, "As everyone knows, the Cult of the Damned's power comes from a magical field, and its medium is—"

"Its medium is the caster themselves, and then through a magical model formed by thought, it mobilizes the energy of the magic field to act on the target, in order to achieve the caster's purpose." Charles interrupted Cunningham directly, read aloud, and after finishing, even flicked the bone cell with his finger. "I know everything in this book by heart, I can even recite it from memory. Can you tell me something important?"

"Since you've already read it in the book, there's nothing more I can tell you," Cunningham said, and then fell silent.

Seeing the other party's nonchalant attitude, Charles sighed, then jumped off the chair, walked to the table, took the bone prison containing the Soul Orb, and placed it in a wooden bucket.

"Are you really not going to tell me?" Charles looked down at the Soul Orb in the bucket and asked again, but the answer was still silence.

"Alright, enjoy yourself." With that, Charles picked up the kettle next to him and poured the hot water into the bucket.

"Hiss." A gasp rang out, and Cunningham's Soul Orb trembled violently. He desperately tried to control the orb and move it away from the hot water, but due to the limitations of the bone prison, he was helpless.

Spencer once said that Cunningham in his soul state was very vulnerable because without a physical body, all external pain stimuli would be amplified infinitely, and this pain would pierce directly into the depths of his soul, causing him extreme suffering.

"How does it feel? Like being skinned alive?" Charles asked cheerfully as he slowly poured water.

"You, you demon," Cunningham's voice sounded extremely pained.

But then, the pages of the evil book began to turn, attracting Charles's attention. "My lord, I have observed his soul. Such pain is not enough. Although his soul shows colors that represent pain, it is more stubborn and defiant."

"Oh, so that means it's not enough." Charles chuckled a few times, ignoring Cunningham's cursing, and continued pouring hot water into the bucket.

"As a human, a high-ranking archmage, he should be very conscious of his appearance. He just went through a fierce battle, so now he can soak in hot water. This hot water was personally boiled by my goblin clan for making tea." Sharl watched as the hot water submerged the Soul Orb, and Cunningham's curses turned into the bubbling sound of water.

"How was it? When those goblins were doing experiments, you didn't expect them to be such a hospitable race, did you?" Charles smirked, his gaze coldly fixed on the Soul Orb. "How does it feel to be treated to a hot bath and hot tea on your first visit?"

The only answer he received was Cunningham's "glug" sound. Since there was no physical restraint, he wouldn't drown at this moment; he could only curse as he endured the scalding hot water.

"Still so energetic?" Seeing that the other party was still cursing even though he was in excruciating pain, Ciel raised his eyebrows and directly scooped up the bone prison.

As soon as he stepped out of the hot water, Cunningham yelled, "You damned green dwarf, don't even think about using such tricks—"

Before he could finish cursing, he was thrown into a bucket full of ice water with a "thud".

"Ah, gurgle gurgle." Cunningham's soul sphere was directly stimulated and shrank by one layer. The cold temperature made his soul sphere tremble continuously, as if it was gradually losing power.

"Hmm?" Charles frowned, looking at the slightly softened Soul Orb, and reached out again to pull out the Bone Prison.

"Well, have you thought it through?" Charles smiled at Cunningham, the high-ranking archmage of the cursed faction, whose voice had become weak and feeble, and whose soul orb had become somewhat flat.

"I...I won't tell you anything," Cunningham said haltingly.

Charles smiled and pulled a metal rod from his lower back. "This was left to me by a friend of mine, a man named Philip."

"I hope you like it."

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