Luo Wei and Tilis had been strolling along the beach for quite some time when, without realizing it, they finally arrived at the location of the small wooden cabin.
“We’re home~”
Tilis walked up slowly and stood in front of the tightly shut wooden door.
Luo Wei noticed a faint circle of blue fluorescence on the door, likely a magical seal Tilis had placed before leaving.
She then reached out her hand and waved it gently in front of the door, causing the magically sealed wooden door to slowly open.
Tilis turned back to Luo Wei, smiling as she gestured for him to come in.
“Come on in!”
Luo Wei nodded and followed her inside the cabin.
He looked around curiously. The cabin wasn’t large, with the most prominent feature being an alchemy table filled with various tools he was quite familiar with. Surrounding the table were several rows of bookshelves and cabinets filled with jars and bottles, presumably containing magical materials.
Although she lived here, there were almost no furnishings related to daily life.
Looking around, the only furniture was a desk, two chairs, and a small bed in the corner—nearly the entirety of her belongings.
Tilis was completely absorbed in her magical research, so she paid little attention to the comforts of life. Even when she lived in her old mansion, her room was always cluttered, leaving Luo Wei with barely any space to stand whenever he visited.
Luo Wei sat down on the chair by the desk and looked at Tilis with some confusion, wondering why she had brought him to her home. Was there some secret she wanted to share with him?
“Let’s have something to drink first~” Tilis rummaged through the cabinet for a while, stirring up dust, and finally found a can of tea that had likely been sitting there for who knows how long.
“I remember you liked this...”
She smiled as she showed it off to Luo Wei. “I came across this during my travels in the southern part of the empire. I remembered you liked it, so I bought it on a whim. It’s good stuff!”
Luo Wei smiled and nodded.
While Tilis brewed the tea, Luo Wei’s gaze drifted to her desk. The only thing in the room that carried a sense of daily life was the arrangement on the desk.
In the most prominent spot on the desk was a photo frame containing a picture of a young, adorable Tilis with a woman in her thirties.
This woman was her teacher, Usoma, the former head of the Magical Hermitage.
Next to the photo was a stack of newspapers...
Luo Wei didn’t even need to pick them up to see his own large photo on the front page of one of them...
In the photo, he was covering his face with his hand, though not completely, revealing an expression that was both annoyed and frustrated...
There were over thirty copies of such newspapers...
And besides these...
Underneath a thick book were scattered piles of newspapers and documents, all in disarray. Luo Wei sneaked a glance and noticed headlines about the Callen University disappearance case and the Saint Callen cultist incident...
So it seemed...
Perhaps she had been keeping an eye on him ever since he returned...
All this time, Tilis, who was thousands of miles away, had been secretly watching him, while he remained completely unaware...
A shiver ran down Luo Wei’s spine, leaving him with an eerie feeling.
Just then, he heard light footsteps approaching from behind.
“Luo Wei, why were you covering your face in the photo?”
Tilis approached with two steaming cups of tea, standing beside Luo Wei. Seeing him looking at the newspapers, she tilted her head curiously.
Luo Wei chuckled awkwardly and slowly accepted the tea she handed him.
“Who knows... Maybe I was in a bad mood that day...”
He couldn’t very well say he was covering his face to avoid being spotted by her, could he?
“Oh... Is that so?” Tilis grabbed the newspaper and carefully analyzed Luo Wei’s pose in the photo.
“It feels like... you didn’t want your face to appear in the newspaper...”
“You must have been hiding from someone, right?”
“No way!” Luo Wei immediately straightened his face and spoke with conviction. “I’m an open and honest person! Who would I be hiding from?”
Tilis tilted her head, watching Luo Wei’s nervous expression, and then smiled faintly.
“Really?”
“Of course!” Luo Wei nodded quickly.
The room fell silent for a moment. Tilis gazed at Luo Wei’s face, her smile deepening.
“Let’s not talk about this anymore...”
Luo Wei tried to change the subject—or rather, steer the conversation back on track.
He looked at Tilis with confusion. “You brought me here because you said you had something to show me, right?”
“Oh, right!” Tilis laughed. “I got so caught up in chatting with you that I almost forgot.”
With that, she leaned over and rummaged through the desk drawer for a moment.
Then, she handed Luo Wei an old notebook.
“This is...”
The moment Luo Wei touched the notebook, a system prompt suddenly appeared.
**[Usoma’s Fragmentary Notes (Forbidden Tome)]**
**[Danger Level: ★★★★]**
**[Contains the early research of the mage Usoma on deities, including numerous forbidden and ominous black magic knowledge. It is a gateway to madness.]**
**[Friendly Reminder: Not recommended for in-depth study. If studied deeply, sanity will decrease by 20, and continuous sanity checks will be required...]**
Seeing Luo Wei’s serious expression, Tilis explained to him:
“This is the notebook my teacher always carried with her. Over a decade ago, she began researching deities.”
“At the time, she secretly established a covert research project behind the backs of the council. The project aimed to search for traces of deities around the world. My teacher believed this was the only way to resolve the centuries-long dilemma faced by mages.”
“You mean the deity research institute on that island now?” Luo Wei asked.
“Exactly,” Tilis nodded. “Six months ago, she and I arrived here as soon as we could and immediately began researching the sea deity of Heglais Town. But the island’s research institute is just one part of it.”
Luo Wei stared at the notebook in his hands, momentarily unsure whether he should open it.
After all, the system had already warned him about the danger of this item. Even though he was extremely curious, he had to consider whether his sanity could withstand such a level of mental strain...
Tilis, thinking he was hesitant to get involved in the secrets of the Magical Hermitage, smiled reassuringly.
“It’s fine. If it’s you, I’m willing to share everything with you.”
“I truly hope we can walk this path of witnessing the truth together.”
“Witnessing... the truth...” Luo Wei felt a slight stirring in his heart.
He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself, and then slowly opened the notebook titled **Usoma’s Fragmentary Notes**.
I’ll just take a quick look...
Not too much, and I won’t study the black magic inside...
That should be fine.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
or! A blessing for those who struggle with love, a guidebook for dating novices. Quickly match with your dream goddess! Complete walkthroughs earn rewards, and perfect walkthroughs unlock limited achievements!】 Shen Yi, an ordinary office worker, accidentally downloads a mini-game called Dating Simulator. The mini-game is simple: randomly search for dating targets, simulate dates, and receive rewards upon successful confession. Rewards include but are not limited to money, attributes, and skills. The higher the evaluation, the better the rewards, with perfect ratings unlocking mysterious achievements. Shen Yi plans to use this mysterious mini-game to continuously pursue targets and improve himself, making his life better and better. ...... However, after several successful walkthroughs, Shen Yi suddenly notices something strange - the targets he previously simulated dating seem to be searching for him in real life?
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
