“Not really,” Roy shook his head.
“It doesn’t make sense that a grave buried just yesterday would be dug up today. This shows no respect for the deceased.”
“So you’ve already presud that Godfrey is a real person who has died and left sothing important in his grave?” Lan Zhe looked at Egbert and Roy with disbelief.
Egbert said, “I’ve always believed that Godfrey is just one facet of Lord Su Li.”
Then, Egbert emphasized to others the values that Godfrey represented.
“If such a character exists, there must be traces of his past.”
“Besides, people like Lord Su Li are exceedingly rare. I don’t believe that if Godfrey were a real person, he would naturally possess the sa level of wisdom as Lord Su Li.”
“On this point, I’m more inclined to believe that if Godfrey truly existed, whatever wisdom he possessed would have co from Lord Su Li.”
“In other words, the admired and respected Godfrey would be Lord Su Li’s disciple.”
Egbert wore an expression that suggested this was simply fact. “If Godfrey is already so revered by the people of this city, then Lord Su Li himself would only achieve greater success.”
“Of course, this persona, identity, and these characteristics were created rely to deal with ordinary citizens,” Egbert said. “For nobles and royalty, what’s most important is that Lord Su Li possesses the qualifications to influence the heir of this country. That’s what truly matters.”
Roy beca confused. “What you’re saying now is quite different from how you acted before.”
“I previously just didn’t think nobles were worth our attention,” Egbert glanced at Roy.
There was an important characteristic that distinguished commoners from nobles.
For the forr, it was enough to know that there existed soone in this world who could guide them in the right direction.
But for nobles who considered themselves the privileged few controlling important resources, it was far simpler to convince them by showing the vast difference between themselves and others than trying to earn their trust.
The forr could be guided through Godfrey to create the scenario Egbert wanted, while for the latter, the people around Lord Su Li already possessed the characteristics needed to achieve that goal.
It’s just that Egbert hadn’t deeply appreciated this point before.
But once he considered how the channels controlled by nobles could indeed make it easier for commoners to hear Lord Su Li’s words, Egbert voluntarily brought up the previously unimportant nobles for discussion.
“In a few days, after that book buried in the coffin—’No One Understands Lord Su Li Better Than ’ with the blacked-out word ‘Su Li’—becos widely circulated among the people, I’ve decided to have Willard help spread the blacked-out words ‘Su Li’.”
The Raven was the first to be confused, “Who’s that?”
Egbert’s expression imdiately beca difficult to describe.
“A strange person, but occasionally of so value as a tool.”
That day’s conversation hastily ended with this conclusion.
While others were thinking about how to delay Su Li’s return to the rcenary City so that “Godfrey” could fernt a second ti within the city, the latter gave them no opportunity for delay and directly proposed to Willard that he wanted to visit the royal library.
Willard agreed on the spot.
So while legends were brewing and fernting within the city, Su Li imrsed himself in mountains of books.
He needed to review the details of “The Birth of Elents,” a book he had previously read as gossip, and also revisit other classic books of noble gossip.
Those gossip stories must hide information that had not been deliberately paid attention to before.
For example, in a particularly promiscuous family, there might be soone unusual who not only abstained from such behavior but even wanted the entire family to stop their debauchery.
Besides this, there were people occasionally ntioned between the lines of gossip stories who, compared to the general public, were almost linked to abnormality.
After discovering these individuals, he would dig deeper along these traces, and with the help of Willard’s connections, personally visit and inquire after confirming that a certain character belonged to a certain family.
During a period of continuous efforts, Su Li truly unearthed so extraordinary things.
For instance, the Amikbi royal family—their initial bloodline originated from rmaids.
Su Li was taken aback when he saw this, not because he doubted the existence of rmaids, but because he suddenly felt that the humans of this world had indeed been limited in their thinking.
At least he knew roughly what a rmaid was, regardless of whether it had been artistically modified by modern society or not.
And if he directly asked the people around him about the term “rmaid,” Su Li would bet that Egbert’s response would definitely be: “A fish that looks like a human?” such a counter-question.
Apart from understanding the literal aning, people unfamiliar with the concept would be completely unable to comprehend it.
Besides this was the geographical environnt of Amikbi.
Why was Jisuo Town necessarily a required passage to the Beast Forest?
Looking into it was revealing—previously everyone only had the concept of a required passage, but in reality, the entire continent was like an isolated island. Except for the connection between Jisuo Town and the Beast Forest, the edges of Amikbi were basically natural landscapes that were completely impossible to cross easily.
Mountains over ten thousand ters high, chasms and abysses of unknown depth, oceans full of unknown dangers ahead, and various polar regions unsuitable for human survival.
Everything confined humans to a limited area.
Had no one ever explored outward before?
There was a description in a gossip book: [That fool who was stupid enough not to know how frightening the world is, just walked toward the mountain that no one had ever thought necessary to climb. Then, the alchemy tool that preserved one’s life shattered one deep night. And the person who left never returned.]
Climbing mountains, especially dangerous peaks, is indeed risky for modern people, but for those who possess elents, such seemingly extre environnts are quite simple.
So what killed that person?
It seed like monster beasts were the only possibility.
But why did a book also describe: [All monster beasts live in the Beast Forest.]
Combining these statents, Su Li’s conclusion was that the concept of the Beast Forest was similar to Amikbi.
Amikbi referred to a country with various natural environnts and people possessing different elents. If the Beast Forest followed the sa concept, it proved that human living areas were not only circled but also defined as not worth breaking through.
Why would people who went out die? Obviously because they were too weak.
Going out ans death equals being too weak.
Being bullied equals being incapable.
Resource scarcity equals being useless.
Everything in the information channels accessible to humans proved to them that the problem was with themselves.
Brainwashing is a terribly effective behavioral thod, and if generations have received this kind of education, then implicit rules would imperceptibly beco equivalent to what seems natural.
So if soone develops the idea of exploring and understanding the unknown, it becos: Why are you seeking death? Do you not want to live? No one has ever done this before, and those who did all died.
And then it circles back to: Why are you seeking death?
Returning to the creators of noble gossip.
Why would the author describe it as “not knowing how frightening the world is”?
Conversely, this ans the person who wrote the gossip might know more than the explorer who died.
And perhaps they even harbored a hope that you could return safely and bring back more information.
Su Li silently set himself a new schedule to visit the families of the creators’ descendants.
Understanding these unknowns was not unimportant to Su Li.
A world suitable for comfortable retirent should at least not present various risks that cannot be directly faced.
Secondly, there was the matter of popular wisdom.
People who have been taught not to raise questions or doubts, if they continue like this, will truly be completely assimilated into just another branch of the monster beasts.
Despite being human, they desperately follow the developntal path of monster beasts.
In the end, they would suffer the consequences of being neither one thing nor the other, and unable to develop further…
Humanity cannot bear this burden.
Being assimilated is equivalent to being destroyed.
In such a world, Su Li worried that he, who could normally eat two bowls of rice, would find even one mouthful choking.
Therefore, understanding the answers to the unknown in advance would allow him to imdiately provide answers when soone raised questions, and reinforce their curiosity.
Thus, when Su Li deliberately maintained a state of “don’t disturb , I just want to read books and understand the stories behind them”…
This state continued for a month. Just as Su Li finally had so confidence that could be shattered at any mont, believing he could contact the king of Amikbi and initiate the task of enlightening the people, he suddenly discovered that people passing by in the streets were discussing his na.
“What I like best is of course Su Li’s saying, ‘Things that seem reasonable, if accompanied by bloodshed, no matter how reasonable they appear, they are unreasonable things.'”
“What I like most is the saying, ‘Physical pain has an upper limit, but ntal pain is endless.'”
“Actually, I often wonder why I must beco stronger. Of course, I know becoming stronger is a good thing, but I doubt, generation after generation, my parents, my ancestors, my forefathers, each of them strived to beco stronger, and now in my generation, with my noble status, with enough money to spend for a lifeti, able to buy anything I want, why must I still desperately beco stronger?”
“I can’t derive any joy from the effort to beco stronger; I only feel pain. When my strength increases, my abilities improve, even if there’s a mont of satisfaction, I will feel endless emptiness and despair in the process of striving for the next stage.”
“I don’t want to do this.”
“Actually, I have the sa thoughts, it’s just that when I was younger and expressed such ideas, my family would only lecture for not being ambitious enough.”
Su Li could hear such conversations no matter which street he walked down in the Inner City.
But…
“What… book… are… you… all… talking… about?”
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