Free Web NovelChapter 289: Chapter 173: Month: Oblivion
Of all the people Lu Cang had met since coming to this world, Pari was without a doubt the one he had the most complicated feelings about.
He couldn’t call her an enemy.
But he couldn’t call her a friend, either.
He needed her, yet he truly didn’t want to see her. He found her a bit annoying, too...
But whenever he faced a truly difficult decision, Pari’s name would come to mind.
She had indeed helped him solve many problems, but she had also scammed him out of a fortune. The money itself was secondary; what Lu Cang truly disliked was being toyed with.
"I have no idea."
"Sister Pari has always been in high demand. It’s only natural that so many people want to see you."
Since Pari hadn’t been explicit, Lu Cang had no intention of mentioning the "good deeds" he’d committed in Ruijia.
After all, Pari was supposedly "neutral."
Who knew what she had learned through Divination, or if she would sell that information to Ruijia.
"Heh..."
Pari let out a faint, cold laugh.
Seeing that she didn’t say anything more and had lowered her head to read, Lu Cang turned to leave.
’Divination Masters... It’s best to keep my distance from her.’
But as he turned,
he saw Yuna standing behind him.
His mind had been so tense and focused on Pari that he hadn’t noticed Yuna at all...
"Lu Cang, who is she?"
Yuna clutched her books and looked over at Pari, who sat quietly reading by the window.
"She’s..."
Lu Cang started to say she was an Evil Divination Master but stopped himself.
He said, "She’s a Scholar I knew before."
"She’s helped me a lot."
’Probably best not to bad-mouth her right to her face.’
Yuna looked toward Pari, but Pari’s gaze never left her book. Pari appeared to be in her early twenties, the very picture of a young woman in her prime.
If you ignored the fact that she was an Evil Divination Master, she really was a quiet, beautiful girl.
Yuna asked, "Oh, so you came here to see her today?"
Lu Cang replied, "No, I came to see you."
’With Pari’s high Level as a Scholar and her vast experience, she could probably help me more than Yuna,’ he thought.
But unless it was absolutely necessary,
Lu Cang really didn’t want to work with Pari.
For one thing, the Divination Master’s awful personality was seared into his memory. For another, her fees were terrifyingly high. freewёbnoνel.com
If he asked her to help him study the Forbidden Books, God only knew what astronomical price she would demand.
He might be rich, but his money didn’t grow on trees.
He could study these Forbidden Books on his own, and his progress wasn’t slow, so why on earth would he need to hire Pari?
Yuna, by contrast, was not only free, but also a joy to be around.
She was clearly the superior choice.
"Really?" Yuna tilted her head.
"Mhm, absolutely." freewebnovel.cσ๓
Yuna hugged her books tighter, lowering her head to hide a faint smile. "Mm... That makes me a little happy."
But Lu Cang just said, "Enough about that. Let’s go to my place."
"I recently got my hands on a collection of extremely rare books. They contain knowledge you’d never normally have the chance to see..."
And so, Lu Cang brought Yuna home with him again.
...
In the days that followed, Pari could be seen at the White Tower every day.
Rumor had it that turmoil had broken out in Ruijia, and some high-ranking members of the Church in Lorren had been dispatched there.
Some were dismissed, while others received promotions in the shake-up.
It was also said that powerful experts had arrived from overseas to reinforce the Seal on the Church’s Restriction in Ruijia, and that they had restocked the supplies within the Forbidden Hall.
The items in the Forbidden Hall were apparently to be used as rewards for those who performed exceptionally well.
Alternatively, members could exchange accumulated contributions and merits for items from the Hall.
When Kumironi learned of the collusion between Ruijia and the Death Church, the knot of worry in her heart finally loosened.
She later told Lu Cang that her main concern had never been about whether those churches were robbed.
When she saw Lu Cang become the Sect Leader of the Death Church, learn so many evil Rituals, and master the Source of disaster...
...and then saw him plotting with Iz to steal things,
she had grown very worried.
She was worried Lu Cang was heading down a path of no return. Yet, everyone has their own code, and Kumironi didn’t want to interfere with the principles her companion chose to live by.
This internal conflict had thrown Kumironi into a state of deep turmoil.
On top of that, of the two children she had rescued, one had become a highly skilled Assassin, while the other had become a Bishop of the Death Church.
This plunged Kumironi into even deeper self-doubt.
’Did I... Did I go wrong somewhere in raising them?’
Ultimately, Lu Cang had a long talk with Kumironi, promising her that he had a firm moral line he would not cross and that he would never become like the other members of the Death Church.
He swore he would use his power for a righteous path, relatively speaking.
Only then was Kumironi’s anxiety finally put to rest.
Kumironi wasn’t asking for absolute righteousness; she just didn’t want Lu Cang to become an evil being who slaughtered the innocent indiscriminately.
After all, the world was full of situations where it was difficult to distinguish right from wrong.
During this time, Lu Cang and Yuna managed to decipher a good number of the Forbidden Books from Ruijia.
He had become nearly proficient in Prophetic Science, Future Studies, Destiny Science, and Divination.
Only his knowledge of Chronology was still severely lacking, as there was almost no information on the subject to be found.
In the process, Lu Cang also uncovered numerous Secrets. He learned one of the War God’s techniques, the "Secret of Transparency," as well as the "Secret of Kicking." The former now allowed his power to more easily bypass hard outer defenses and strike an enemy’s interior directly.
As for the Secret of Kicking, it brought about a qualitative improvement to all of Lu Cang’s Combat Skills related to his Kicking Skill.
He also gave the Ice Bow to Lu Luwei, who loved it.
As for the Death Church, Lu Cang found top-secret files within its archives revealing that, in fact, quite a few nations were secretly in league with them...
