I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 189 Double Chain (Bonus Chapter 17 for Monthly Tickets)

When Richard came home from school on Monday, he continued to work through the remaining encrypted documents.

When he turned to the last copy, he was able to peel away the double-layered strokes that he had previously had to rely on his spiritual vision to distinguish with his eyes.

The third set is the actual exercise used to check progress.

On the cover of the third set, my aunt wrote an even shorter sentence: "No answers provided."

Richard pulled out the third set, starting with the top one.

The document at the bottom is a report analyzing the reasons for a failed sealing attempt.

The covering on the surface looks like a draft of the same report.

Both copies use the same sheet of paper and the same type of ink.

Richard laid it flat on the table and fixed the entire page with his spiritual vision.

He stopped looking for words that were repeatedly avoided and instead treated the entire page as a net, looking for which lines were not quite right in the most crucial positions.

About twenty minutes later, he put down his pen.

The true report hidden beneath the cover is an early proposal sealed by Whitcomb.

Part of that proposal was destroyed by the authorities because it offended the church.

The copy he currently has is a private one, which was hidden in his lesson preparation drafts by a scholar using a double-copying method.

[Knowledge] Lv.2 Progress 100%.

The progress bar on the panel no longer moves forward.

Richard closed the notebook and opened the panel.

Available points: 2.0.

He tapped the "Knowledge" column with his fingertip.

One point was consumed, and the [Knowledge] Lv.2 on the panel became Lv.3.

Richard's gaze fell on the stack of his aunt's thesis copies that were pressed under the books in the corner of his desk.

He casually recalled page seventeen of the paper.

The small print in the footnote on page seventeen came to the fore.

"...This section concerns the spread of later variants of the Alexandrian school in the western continent."

See Raphael Montes's "The Late Alexandrian School," published in the 34th issue of the *Review of Classical Studies* in 1882, pp. 127-129.

He remembered that footnote.

He even remembered the smaller print below that footnote, where the graduate student had accidentally misplaced half a letter.

He then pulled up the third edition of "Introduction to Curtain Dynamics" that he had looked through in the Imperial University Library last autumn.

Page 216, paragraph 3.

"...The correction factor for the annual decay rate of the curtain has been adjusted from 0.003%/year in the original model to the current 0.0037%/year since 1820 (Gregorian calendar). The specific basis for the correction is detailed in Appendix A."

Richard's finger stopped on the edge of the table.

He remembered this part.

He even remembered the line graph below that section.

The vertical axis represents the decay rate, and the horizontal axis represents the year. The line for the 1820 year is printed slightly thicker.

He only skimmed through a few pages of this book in the Imperial Capital University library.

At the time, he scanned page by page, spending less than ten seconds on each page.

But at this moment, every page was in his mind, down to the words, punctuation, and printing defects.

Richard's gaze fell on the panel.

[Knowledge and Broad Knowledge: All the books and texts one reads leave an impression on the brain.]

In the past, he relied on the limited space in his mind to spread out a few stacks of books on his workbench to read.

With each new book flipped through, the first stack that was laid out had to be put away to make room.

The stack that was cleared out, when you look through it again in a few months, all that's left are a vague outline and a few of the most important sentences.

Things are different now; the worktable is gone.

Every page of the book he had ever read was imprinted in his mind.

Just walk up to the page you want and reach out to grab it.

Richard let out a soft breath.

What this bonus means for someone pursuing an academic career is obvious to them without much thought.

The biggest bottleneck for scholars, besides the speed at which their brains work, is whether their brains can hold enough raw material.

From that moment on, he no longer had the problem of not being able to contain himself.

There is 1 point left on the panel.

Richard turned his gaze back to the "Intelligence" column.

The third aspect of [Wisdom], [Critical Thinking], has not yet been activated.

He tapped the "Critical Thinking" section with his fingertip.

A message pops up on the panel.

"Consume 1 point to unlock [Critical Thinking]".

Richard confirmed that 1 point had been consumed.

[Critical Thinking] Unlocked at Lv.1.

He sat there for a while, but didn't notice any obvious changes.

Richard frowned.

He took out a copy of his aunt's doctoral dissertation from the drawer.

The Influence of Late Variations of the Alexandrian School on the Sealing Theory of the Western Continent.

He has read it roughly once in the past few days.

He could recount the overall structure of the paper, but he didn't quite understand the specific details of the arguments within each section.

He is now rereading it.

"...It was precisely because of the coupling effect of the first two characteristics mentioned above that the later variants were able to spread rapidly in the Western Continent's sealing science."

He had read this sentence twice before and didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

As he read the section on "the coupling effect of the first two features," the entire text seemed to move slightly before his eyes.

His extensive knowledge came in handy at this moment; he was able to recall all seven key paragraphs mentioned earlier.

He compared them one by one.

The two main threads, laid out independently from different parts of the paper, have been combined in the section he is currently working on.

The load-bearing beam is the point where these two main lines converge.

If the point of merging does not hold, half of the argument in the entire chapter will fall apart.

Richard put the pen aside.

"When reading a paper, you should look at the beams that support it."

"If Liang's argument stands firm, then the entire paper will stand firm."

"If you can't stand firm, no matter how beautifully your thesis is written, it's just a piece of timber laid out on a piece of land."

He raised his hand and pressed his temples.

After pressing a few times, he gradually realized where the bonus from [Critical Thinking] really lay.

This bonus, unlike gaining the "Knowledgeable" trait, doesn't immediately open fire for the entire team.

Its physical sensation is passive.

When [perception] is unlocked, the whole person becomes "clear";

[Reflection] When unlocking, the lighting was changed from flat illumination to side lighting.

Flat lighting illuminates everything, but it doesn't reveal the depth or shade.

When the side lights shine on it, all the bumps and dents are exposed.

The papers, textbooks, and philosophical works he had read in the past…

Previously, with his [Knowledge] level 2, he was able to remember, repeat, and find the corresponding information in papers.

Now he can start nitpicking.

Richard couldn't help but smile.

He immediately switched to [Stone Armor].

He had followed the instructions step by step as recorded in the inscription.

He then retrieved the inscription from the gargoyle.

【博闻】Makes every page, every illustration, and every note written by the creator crystal clear.

[Debate] Then it was launched.

The load-bearing structure of the entire [Stone Armor] technique slowly appeared before his eyes.

The "touch" stage is the foundation;

The "Yinfu" section is a load-bearing wall;

The "maintain" level is the roof.

In the past, when he practiced [Stone Armor], he subconsciously treated all three stages as equally important steps.

The practice time is allocated equally each day.

[Reasoning] Tell him he is wrong.

Both "triggering" and "maintaining" are fixed structures.

The marginal returns of practicing with a fixed structure diminish; once you reach a certain level, you can no longer learn anything new.

"引覆" is a variable structure.

Hidden within the variable structure are two weaknesses that he had previously overlooked.

Richard reached out and grabbed a piece of paper, then redrawn the operational route diagram of the [Stone Armor].

After finishing the drawing, he added two small auxiliary lines to the thinnest part of the "Yin Fu" section.

Richard set the manuscript aside and took out the rubbings of the twelve sets of boundary stone inscriptions from the drawer.

He had only broken through one-third of the twelve sets of rubbings before getting stuck.

Later, with the addition of paired studies on parchment scrolls and bronze pieces, further progress was made.

He has now laid out the restored manuscript and the original rubbing side by side.

[Bowen] He memorized every symbol, every wear and tear, and every subtle deviation left by the engraver's trembling hand on these twelve sets of rubbings.

[Critical Thinking] Slowly begin to move.

The load-bearing structure of the border stone formation gradually came into view before his eyes.

The function of the first to sixth groups is to "seal the thing inside so it can't come out".

The seventh to twelfth groups are responsible for "preventing anyone from entering without permission".

This is known; Richard had read about it before.

What [Debate] is telling him now is a detail he was completely unaware of before.

The second set of load-bearing inscriptions and the fifth set of load-bearing inscriptions are structurally mirror images of each other.

This mirror image correspondence has a name in Celtic rituals—"double lips".

The lips are the true mouthpiece for the ritual.

Richard put down his pen and leaned back in his chair.

In the past, when he wanted to write empirical texts, he always wanted to write something new when faced with the twelve sets of inscriptions, but the new things he wrote were all considered to be insufficient.

Now, he knows what he should write.

Richard reached out and moved the ink bottle closer to himself.

"Now, all that's left of truth is its loveliness."