Forge a path to success

"I find it hard to believe that the cursed demon is helping me, especially since we were fighting to the death in Golden Leaf City not long ago," Chu Hengkong said coldly. "Why is this cursed demon, which has been tormenting people all over the world, suddenly being kind to me this time?"

“Because Twilight is my apprentice,” Olek said.

The news was so shocking that Chu Hengkong paused for a moment. Olek sat quietly across the wooden table, his dark eyes like the sea before a storm.

“Twilight, the Librarian, the All-Seeing Eye—whatever you call him, that hopelessly naive, foolish demon is my disciple.” Olek sized him up. “The library has been in turmoil for some time now, and that Vander beside you is unfortunately very suspicious. I need to find out why he carries the power of my disciple.”

"He was one of the students in the library, and he studied under 'Twilight,' that's all."

“Those scoundrels in the library aren’t capable of extracting my spirit,” Oleksandr sneered. “Enough. I already know you know nothing, and I doubt Twilight would be so foolish as to let its backup plan know too much. Now let me see the book it gave you.”

It's reasonable that Olek knew about the information in the manual... after all, he had never kept it a secret. People from Huilong City to Jingsha knew of its existence, so it wouldn't be difficult for him to find out about it given its intelligence capabilities.

Chu Hengkong didn't hesitate much before taking out the handbook and placing it on the table. He himself was also very curious about what this so-called "graduation gift" the curator had given to Fan De was!

"..."

Olek suddenly fell silent, his fingertips tracing the cover inch by inch. The single eye on the page was merely an engraving, unmoving, its gaze still blankly fixed on the ceiling. Chu Hengkong carefully observed him, noticing a highly complex expression flash in Olek's eyes the instant he took out the manual.

It was a mixture of anger, regret, and longing... as well as some deeper emotions that he could sense but could not describe.

Olek said nothing and pushed the book back. For no reason at all, Chu Hengkong suddenly felt that the hostility emanating from him had vanished. Before, he had undoubtedly been a cold and malicious figure, but now Olek seemed like a harmless passerby.

He turned his gaze back to the topic: "Let's leave that aside for now and talk about the key that Vlataari gave us."

Chu Hengkong raised an eyebrow: "Your intelligence network is quite impressive."

“You’re not qualified to underestimate me,” Olek replied. “I suppose Vlataari didn’t tell you how to use that key.”

It was absolutely right; the old octopus had given him the key, hinting that Van Dyne should retrieve the knowledge about the thesis from the Great Archives, but it had never explained in detail how to use it. Chu Hengkong later went to see it specifically, and the answer he received made him frown.

—It doesn't know!

The old octopus only knew to give the key to Van der, but nothing more. The zookeeper who assigned it this task seemed like a charlatan; its subordinates knew the action but not the reasoning, and the successors were completely clueless. Crucially, Van der didn't react at all, as if it took it for granted…

"The library's confidentiality law," Chu Hengkong said ambiguously.

“You’re wrong. I taught him this secrecy law,” Oleksandr sneered. “Let me tell you, that key is used for door Z-2978 on the top floor of the Great Archives. Behind that door lies information about the ‘Final Proposition.’ I need you to tell me about the changes in Vandal after he entered, and the content of the information.”

"I don't intend to make this deal."

“This is not a deal, it’s a suggestion.” Olek stood up. “Think of that knight, and you who killed Vansalal. I’ve allowed you to live until now only because of my apprentice.”

"And most people don't have my kind of meaningless kindness, so you can keep delaying and wait and see how others deal with you."

He put on his hood and walked out of the bar. Kanin came back and sat down shortly after, offering Chu Heng an empty beer.

“If you have any news later, you can contact me directly,” he said. “You know, I’m your messenger.”

“I really didn’t expect you to work for Olek.”

“I’ll help!” Kanin exclaimed dramatically. “That’s not how it works. What you do has always been up to them, not you.”

Chu Hengkong finished his drink, put down his glass, and left. Kaning called out, "Detective, you seem to have forgotten my contract."

"I really want to kill you again right now. Are you sure you want to talk today?"

"We'll talk about it when you have time, of course." Kanin raised his glass in a toast.

He watched Chu Hengkong walk away, then stood up and beckoned with his finger. Everyone in the bar stood up simultaneously, their eyes filled with a zombie-like bewilderment. Kanin led them out of the bar, leaving the surrounding area deserted, except for Olek standing alone in the cold alley.

Oleksandr's fingertips trembled. Of course he knew what the book was; how could he not recognize the power of "omniscience"? He cursed under his breath, his face hidden in the shadows beneath his hood.

“You’re all like this… I’ve warned you so many times… I’ve said it before…!”

·

Chu Hengkong left the bar, turned a few corners, and sat down on a bench by the roadside. A tall man sitting at the other end of the bench, reading a newspaper, asked without looking up, "Who is this important person?"

"doom."

"How terrifying, how terrifying, this is terrible..."

The newspaper was put away, revealing Trek's unkempt, long face.

Chu Hengkong certainly wouldn't negotiate with a demon unprepared. The meeting place was chosen at the Third Meridian because Trek's elusive abilities would ensure immediate intervention should anything go wrong. He folded the newspaper and said, "Misfortune is not a god to be trifled with."

“The choice is probably not in my hands.” Chu Hengkong hesitated for a moment, then vaguely revealed some information: “It seems to have a personal connection with the library…and it knows a great deal. I can’t afford the consequences of it overturning the table.”

“The same goes for it,” Trek said. “If something as powerful as misfortune wants you to do something, there are only two possibilities. Either the matter is too difficult to handle, so it has to ask you to do it, or it really doesn’t want to touch you, fearing that the current situation will drag you into it. Considering that this is its private matter, the second possibility is probably more likely.”

Chu Hengkong was stunned: "It? Protect me?"

"Demons are a race that does whatever they want; nothing they do is surprising," Trek said ambiguously. "Like the amusement park incident, have you read the investigation report?"

"I don't have the authority to access your system."

Trek tossed him a stack of documents stamped with "Confidential": "Entertainment, as one of the card designers, also holds a considerable position and power on the surface of the Fifth Order. It seems strange from an outsider's perspective that it chose to come underground and raise the banner of rebellion."

"There must be another mastermind behind this at the bottom of the amusement park."

"If the mastermind wanted to disrupt the situation, why didn't they choose Indulgence, who was already on their side, instead of going to all the trouble of having this inexperienced kid, Entertainment, do it?"

Chu Hengkong considered for a moment: "On the eve of our trial, we happened to encounter Entertainment, who was trying to take things further..."

“A coincidence of turning the tables, that makes sense,” Trek nodded. “However, if something ‘makes sense’ happen again and again, it’s something to be concerned about.”

“That makes sense.” Chu Hengkong stood up. “Let’s see if there will be another coincidence this time.”

"It wouldn't have gone smoothly without coincidences. The Great Archives has never been easy to access."

Chapter 321 Hiding in Seclusion (3)

As is widely known, the Jingsha City-State is one of the oldest existing powers in the Shendong Realm, with its origins dating back to the distant past before the Candlelight Era.

Over thousands of years, Jing Sha naturally accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience that countless younger talents could not even imagine. This wealth included history, culture, customs, technology, and, unavoidably—

case.

While Jingsha is a paradise, it is not a heaven either. The diverse environment inevitably leads to frequent conflicts, and even if the guards are diligent, various incidents will still occur. Furthermore, the average lifespan of the city-state's citizens is quite long, and it is not uncommon for a few to live for thousands of years. In addition, the efficiency of the city-state's civil servants is not very high, which inevitably leads to longer trial periods for cases.

It's not uncommon for a murder case to take ten years to investigate, and cases that have lasted for a century are not uncommon. Some long-lived citizens are quite vengeful and will go to great lengths to collect petitions demanding the retrial of unsolved cases from decades or even centuries ago, giving the Mansaxingburg Supreme Court a major headache.

The authorities had no choice but to preserve the case materials for a long time in case of unforeseen circumstances. The definition of "long time" is specifically stipulated in the Jingsha Law: 100 years for civil cases, 250 years for criminal cases, 500 years for major criminal cases, and materials related to cases involving high levels of secrecy such as those concerning outsiders, military affairs, and domestic affairs are simply "permanent".

In order to maintain and preserve such a terrifying mountain of documents, Jing Sha had no choice but to allocate special funds to establish a special institution for storing case-related materials, namely the "Jing Sha Major and Above Case Written Materials Closed Storage Vault" located in Mansa Star Castle, First Line.

It is also known as the "Great Library".

·

“I always thought the Great Archives was a large library.” Ji Huaisu’s gaze was blank.

“If you’ve looked at the map, you’ll know that the largest library in Thornhill is in Poetry Umbrella, only four stops away from our bookstore. Any institution located in Mansa Starburg is inextricably linked to ‘official business,’ otherwise why would the lords of the House of Lords be willing to give up such precious land?” Van Der said. “But this library is truly enormous…”

Right now, the two of them were standing in front of a giant, pure white building. The building was oval in shape, resembling the Colosseum of ancient Rome, but dozens of times larger: 257 floors formed horizontal patterns that stretched outwards from the cylinder, each floor composed of countless translucent small squares, which together looked like rows of compound eyes of giant insects.

The librarians work in these small cubicles, ensuring complete transparency and oversight in the management of the materials. Only the cubicles above the 150th floor are closed off; these are the "sealed layer" of the librarian's archives, a confidential area that will never be disclosed without authorization.

"I heard from the members of the Divine Guard that the Grand Archives Administrator is the most lucrative job in the industry. You can just sit in the office all day and get by. So, those who can become the administrator are basically local residents of Mansa Starburg," Chu Hengkong said.

"Master Jingsha is already a master, why make a distinction between masters among masters?"

“There are also so-called ‘nobles’ in this city-state.” Chu Hengkong took out the tickets. “What’s next? Our tickets are only enough to go to the public level.”

The public floor of the Great Archives is open to the general public and, since the last war, has also undertaken the business of burying letters, photographs, and other materials. Van der had been procrastinating because he was waiting in line to get his ticket.

However, the sealed layer is not open to the public, and even the members of the Divine Guard have to go through a cumbersome and lengthy application process to investigate cases. Chu Hengkong also has a document written by Cui Ke, which states that the three of them are handling cases in accordance with the law and ask for your convenience, but he is very skeptical about whether such a handwritten letter is useful.

Vande's eyes lit up: "I think we should first use Old Cui's documents to probe the situation. If that doesn't work... we'll figure out a way ourselves."

"What kind of judgment is there for trespassing into the sealed layer?" Ji Huaisu was more concerned about the law.

"It depends on the severity of the situation. The Great Archives' dusty layer is on par with a military restricted area. If you just walk in and don't do anything wrong, you'll only get a warning and a fine. But if you look through important documents, then you'll be in serious trouble..."

"What if I break in and take away important documents?" Chu Hengkong asked.

"Without a doubt, this is an extremely serious and egregious case, punishable by at least 20 years in prison," Van der said. "We don't need to go to such lengths just to read a book. If all else fails, we can always pull some strings."

However, even Van Der hadn't expected that they wouldn't even have a chance to pull strings. After walking only a few steps, they saw a dark mass of people in front of the Great Archives. Looking further ahead, the crowd stretched out like an anthill, forming a winding maze, with no end in sight.

A turtle team member slowly crawled over, its pointer thoughtfully pointing to a small dot a few hundred meters away, marked "End of the line here".

"Please move to a line in three places," the turtle team member said tepidly.

Even Van Der was dumbfounded: "Where did all these people come from?!"

"You know, the referendum on the bill is coming up in the next few days." Team member Turtle craned his neck. "The supporters want to find cases in the archives to use as propaganda, and the opposition wants to find materials to attack the bill, so they're all crowding into the main archives..."

How long will the wait be?

"It'll take about seven days. Actually, they know they won't get a spot, so they're just wasting time here to slow down the other side... Everyone's bored out of their minds. Anyway, I can't see the data, so you can forget about seeing it either..."

"No, this queue shouldn't be seven days long..." Ji Huaisu suddenly exclaimed, "Holy crap, that's incredible!"

Chu Hengkong glanced at her from afar and immediately understood the source of her exclamation.

The receptionist at the entrance to the Great Library is a sloth.

·

The sloth team's work speed is reminiscent of the phrase "flowing clouds and running water." Its movements are as fast as clouds drifting across the sky, and its speech is as rapid as a stream gently flowing through a winter forest. Standing in front of it, you will unconsciously immerse yourself in the imagery of nature and reach a state of harmony with the universe, until someone suddenly pushes you from behind and you realize that the entry process has been completed, and by then almost two hours have passed.

"The Grand Archives' move is too ruthless." Vande stared blankly with one eye.

Ji Huaisu exclaimed in surprise, "How can they allow this kind of inefficiency? If this were Huilong City, they would have been making a ruckus by now!"

"First of all, sloths are naturally fast. If you try to challenge them by comparing their speed, that's racial discrimination, which is very detrimental to the unity of all races in the Thorn Sandals," Vande explained. "Secondly, the sloth team members aren't Ascended beings but ordinary citizens. If you're going to use strength as an argument, then I'm sorry, you've committed the cardinal sin of discrimination based on strength. Finally, the sloth team members are dedicated to their duties, not slacking off, and diligently doing their jobs. What gives you the right to say their work attitude is bad?"

"My grass!"

"It's practically flawless when it sits there," Chu Hengkong commented.

"These old foxes are really something," Vande exclaimed. "Let whoever wants to argue about the bills do so, but they're not going to increase the workload of the Great Archives! If I'm not mistaken, the sloths will be on duty for the whole week, and this queue will be waiting for at least seven days."

Chu Hengkong always preferred action to waiting. He squeezed his way to the front of the line and said to the sloth team member, "Excuse me, the third team is handling this matter. We have a letter of introduction from the captain—don't be shy!"

The sloth member, moving with such slowness—so slow you could see every single hair—raised its paw as if to bow, but was stopped by Chu Hengkong, who had sensed its movement. It meticulously examined the seal (taking almost five minutes), then looked up (two minutes) and smiled (half a minute), saying, "Divine Guard...official business...please...right..."

Chu Hengkong almost flew to the right, but the sloth team member hadn't finished speaking: "Right... team member... process..."

"Right Wo... teammate... are you... there...?"

The sloth rang its alarm (which took 1 second, handled by Chu Hengkong), and about a minute later received a reply: "I... will... be there soon..."

Chu Hengkong was starting to get impatient: "Is the right team member also a sloth?"

"No...it's..." the sloth member smiled, "It's...wo..."

Chu Hengkong used his keen martial arts senses to detect the aura rushing towards the gate. He probed behind the gate with his spiritual energy, and suddenly everything went black.

"snails……"

"Sorry to bother you, I'll come back later." Chu Hengkong turned around abruptly. "I've wasted everyone's time."

No one blamed him; the line was filled with the sound of snoring. The lady at the very front of the line was awakened by the ringing bell. She groggily opened her eyes and saw a gentle, sloth-like smile.

"Excuse me... how... can... I... help... you...?"

The woman closed her eyes; it was unclear whether she had fallen asleep or fainted.

Chu Hengkong strode back to meet the two of them and preemptively said, "Going in through the main gate is no good."

“It’s obvious we’ve already eaten three ice creams.” Ji Huaisu yawned. “So this is… another intentional… ‘accidental’ event?”

“I can’t say,” Vand said. “Anywhere else I would suspect someone is after me, but considering this is Mansa Starburg, I have a feeling they’re probably like this every day.”

"How can ordinary people like us accept this kind of inefficiency?"

"I must remind you that their private sector hasn't grown much faster either. In other places, a bookstore manager who is not around for years would have gone bankrupt long ago."

Chu Hengkong observed for a while and suggested, "Let's fly to the top of the Great Archives and find a window to go in..."

"Do I need to say it again, this is Mansa Star Castle? The speed of the first elite team is definitely faster than those people from the amusement park."

"What do we do then? Just wait for the sloth?" Ji Huaisu rolled his eyes. "I feel like I can figure out a way to make it evolve faster than I can wait in line!"

"Oh dear, these two tourists seem to have some complaints about the efficiency of our Jingsha civil servants~"

Just then, a familiar female voice rang out. Vande looked up and saw a white-haired female mercenary standing not far away, holding an ice cream cone in her hand.

"Unfortunately, the locals are the same." Lico took a bite of her ice cream cone. "I know a shortcut, wanna come together?"

Chapter 322 Hiding in Seclusion (4)