masked knight
Chapter 9: God’s Language
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translations Editor: EndlessFantasy Translations
Rody followed Nicole into the small building. The first floor had tables and chairs but these were haphazardly placed. There were containers that Rody did not know the purpose of. There were small jars and vases. There were also shelves packed with neatly arranged books. Glancing at it, Rody could immediately see that these books were really old. They were antique sheepskin books.
Just these books were worth a lot of money!
Even creepier was the human skeleton standing at the corner of the room. The eerie white bones seemed to radiate a faint glow in the darkened room. Rody involuntarily walked towards it. To his surprise, there was a red mark on the skull that he could not understand.
Rody could not help but want to touch the skeleton when his eyes noticed some bottles on an iron shelf. The bottles were made of silver and there were labels on it. Unfortunately, he could not understand the words on it. It was not the text commonly used in the entire empire.
“Do not touch those bottles!” Nicole’s cold voice called out from behind him.
Rody immediately withdrew his hands that were reaching out to a bottle.
Nicole gave Rody a look. Although her face was cold, her tone softened. “Some of these things in the bottles must not be touched. For example, the second bottle in front of you. If you were not careful and spilled it onto your hands, even if it was just a little bit, you would die. Your entire arm would immediately corrode and only leave behind bones!”
Rody was shocked. “Are these all poisons?”
Nicole glared at him, saying, “No! These are all just used for experiments!”
Rody opened his mouth and wanted to say something but Nicole did not give him the opportunity to ask anymore questions and loudly told him, “Follow me upstairs, quick!”
Nicole turned and walked upstairs. Rody quickly followed.
The second floor was like a big open space. From the railings, one could see the hall on the first floor. There were more things on the second floor compared to the first. It had an old desk that had lost its color along with a strange instrument on top of it. The shelves on the wall were larger and stored 3 times more books compared to the one on the first floor. Rody had not seen this many antique books in his entire life! In the corner, there was also a durable but rusty iron safe. The amount of rust on that thing showed that it was even older than the combined ages of Rody and Nicole.
In the middle was a large table-like platform with more things scattered on it. There were some jars and bottles and some of them had fallen on the table.
Rody stepped forward to find a few pieces of old parchment. The messy handwriting on them showed that they were probably some kind of test notes or written records.
Suddenly, a line on the parchment attracted Rody’s interest.
'Lack of high-pressure utensils… Failure… Empire Year XXX. Dandong.'
“Dandong!” Rody could not help but exclaimed, “My God! This is the wise sage Dandong’s notes!!”
Nicole looked at Rody lightly and asked, “What is the fuss about?”
“What’s the fuss?” Rody cried out. “Dangdong’s notes! Do you know how much Dandong’s autograph is worth in the antique market?”
Nicole frowned, “What about it? All these things here were left behind by the sage Dandong! The shelves placed over there contains Dandong’s test notes. Also, these instruments are relics that Dandong had left behind. During those years, this was Dandong’s laboratory!”
The great sage's laboratory?
Rody stared with his mouth wide open.
“But... Dandong’s lab… In your home… Here?”
Nicole said indifferently, “That is because one of my ancestors was Dandong’s apprentice. Grandmaster Dandong lived in our home in his old age and this was his workplace!”
"All these… are the relics of Grandmaster Dangdong's wisdom!" Rody excitedly exhaled. The sage Dandong was one of the idols he worshiped as he grew up. Without Dandong's reform, civilians like him would not be able to enter the Imperial Academy. Even 10-year-old children in the empire knew that Dandong brought miracles to the empire!
“That is indeed true! These are really the relics of Grandmaster Dandong’s wisdom! Also, all these were inherited by the ancestors of our family,” Nicole’s tone was also somewhat sad. “Unfortunately, this is also our family’s tragedy! For centuries, none of my ancestors could understand the wisdom from these notes. 3 of my ancestors studied the Grandmaster’s notes here in their later years until they died of mental exhaustion. My father also died in this laboratory!”
“Why? Was the Grandmaster’s wisdom too difficult and profound?”
Nicole smiled gently. It was a fairly odd smile that showed misery.
"No idea. We do not know what Dandong's wisdom was even about. This is because no one could understand his most important notes. The most important wisdom in Dandong's notes is not in the common text of our Empire or any language on any continent. We do not even know what language it is!" Nicole's tone was full of mockery. "There are times we even suspect that the language Dandong used was God's language! My ancestors went through a variety of ancient books and still could not decipher this language!"
“God’s language?” Rody was surprised. “Is there really God in this world?”
Unexpectedly this time Nicole did not glare at him when she angrily said, "Only a genius would know!" This was because generations of her family were fascinated by ‘God's language’ and had futilely worked hard. This had cost the family a lot of time and even claimed their lives. It became a heavy burden for the Tulip Family. As a result, Nicole had no respect for God.
Rody was surprised and could not help but caress the table and the ancient sheepskin notes gently. He cautiously asked, “Can I take a look at it?”
Nicole shrugged, “As you wish. This is just the replica I used to study. The original has already been hidden away.”
Rody immediately grabbed the sheepskin notes and spread them out.
Sure enough, the first page of the sheepskin notes was written in the Empire's common language. However, the backs of the notes were written in a different language. The characters were also extremely complex. Each stroke looked like it was delicately cut with a chisel. The structure of the texts was also delicate. Each word looked like square blocks and they also had a special pattern. It was definitely not in any language that Rody could understand.
Although there were occasionally some designs and drawings, one look would tell you that these were blueprints. Unfortunately, the words written around them were all in ‘God's language'.
Nicole ignored Rody who was frowning while staring blankly at the sheepskin. Instead, she walked to the iron cupboard at the corner and chanted something. The iron cabinet then opened. Rody immediately turned to look at it. Although he was a warrior, he was also interested in its operation method. He knew that Nicole used a locking spell. It was a kind of magical technique, a kind of memory magic. It was as if the cabinet could remember the person’s voice and only if the sound matched would it unlock. This technique was also invented by Grandmaster Dandong 200 years ago.
With Nicole’s back blocking Rody’s view, she pulled out a narrow box from the cabinet and then closed the door of the iron safe.
Nicole held the box with both hands as if it was a priceless treasure. She carefully placed it on the table before opening it.
“You don’t have to look at that anymore. My father looked at it for 2 decades while I have looked at it for 7 years. We couldn’t understand a thing. Do you think that you can understand it?” Nicole coldly commented.
“What did you take out? What is that?” Rody was curious.
Nicole glared at him and waved her sleeves. Rody was immediately thrown back like a sandbag being thrown out and he hit the corner.
Nicole looked at Rody coldly and said, “You must have forgotten! I said that when you and I converse, you must address me as ‘Master’. Now, come over here! Stop playing dead! I know you are a sturdy person. A fall like that wouldn’t even injure you!”
Rody mumbled to himself as he stood up. He did not say a single word but secretly cursed. Why is she so ferocious?! One day, I will… urgh… Even when she is fierce, why is she so beautiful?! Sigh...
With these thoughts in mind, Rody walked to the table. When he saw what was in the box, he took a deep breath and almost screamed!