Eternal Illusion Chapter 4 The Mystery of the Magic Stone

The Mystery of the Magic Stone

Get away from me, you brat—don't make me lose my temper. Put it down—put it down! That was left to me by eldest brother! You've already taken so many things—why won't you even leave me eldest brother's keepsake? **- **—you bastards—stop right there! You dare bully Norn—put Norn's things down and apologize to him! Damn—a bunch of brats with no fear of death! Who's afraid of you? Fight! You all back off—this has nothing to do with you! Damn it—why? Why is it like this? I've already lost everything—why does everyone treat me this way?

Brother's keepsakes, precious friends—I can't protect anything! If only you scum were dead—then brother's keepsakes would be safe, and my friends wouldn't be dragged into this. That's right—if you die—kill you—I'll kill you no matter what! What are you getting all edgy for? Get back—we'll handle this. Who the hell are you? You're going to stand up for these little brats? Allow me to introduce myself: I am Leon, priest of the Celastia Goddess Church of Silver Creek City. Lost lamb, stop your evil deeds.

A priest? The clothes look like an ordinary adventurer or mage, but that bearing isn't ordinary. And a group of clergy coming into foreign territory, disguised to hide their identity and avoid conflict—that's also normal. So it's honored guests from the Goddess Church. Instead of properly peddling your goddess's holy oil and holy water, what brings you here? I came with a sister to the border to visit the rumored Border Witch. I just happened to encounter you committing violence. I hope this gentleman will lay down the butcher's knife and become a god on the spot.

Hah—the Goddess's lapdog. This is the far eastern border, the territory of the great god Ventus, and the fief of Lord Jones. Whatever we do, it's not for outsiders to point fingers. Mind your own damn business. What if we insist on interfering? You wouldn't dare attack a priest of the Goddess Church, would you? Can't beat you—but can't I curse you out? A person like you, used to being high and mighty, probably hasn't suffered any decent insults, right? I wonder if you Goddess lapdogs can withstand the attacks of us small folk.

Ha—stupid little lamb. You won't even call me Father. Since you're so arrogant, go talk to my bishop. Instant Prison Shadow Kill Formation—Soul-Severing Art—rise—retrieve! You actually dared to hit a church priest? I didn't—I didn't! Um—how much are you planning to compensate? This priest fell over on his own—I never even touched him! Look at all this blood on the ground—who'd believe that? Damn—we'll have to confiscate these things for now.

Bishop? Father Leon has had an incident in a border village. Please come over with people as soon as possible. It's urgent—use the church's teleportation array to reach the nearest branch church, then fly over as fast as possible. You bastards, just you wait. That's it? Thank you, mister. If it weren't for you, my brother's... Why did you hit me? Brat, what did you learn from what just happened? What was I supposed to learn? Idiot—remember this: when your strength is inferior to others, learn to solve problems with your brain. We didn't throw a single punch just now, yet still drove them away.

Speaking of which—second question. Do you know that I can kill a troll with one kick? Then why didn't I just punch those thugs to death? Because you're kind. That hurt! Hey.

Think about it. Do you think I'll stay by your side forever? If I killed him, he has family and friends. They can't hurt me, so they'll transfer their anger to you. Do you want me to slaughter his entire family over such a trivial matter? Is killing entire families over any slight still human? That's what beasts do—and the same goes for you.

You were about to go for the kill just now, weren't you? Did you consider the consequences? If you win, retaliation will come. If you lose, no need to say. Impulsive actions bring nothing good. When facing problems, first use your head and consider the consequences—don't just go all edgy at the drop of a hat. I understand, uncle. I'm sorry.

By the way, what was that just now? Some black gas seemed to seep out of your body. This child has very high magical talent. Just now, the mana around him was affected by his emotions and began to stir and go out of control on its own, even reverse-invading his body. I've told you before—unlike your spiritual power, mana is fundamentally a very violent, chaotic, and invasive force.

What happens if left alone? Nine times out of ten, he'll have his reason destroyed by mana-driven emotions and become a walking corpse that only knows killing—even worse than a demon beast. You hear that? You want to become like that? So remember: from now on, control your emotions, always stay rational, think through the consequences, and use your head.

Also, what's the deal with those people? Tell me. That man with the burn scar on his face—he's probably the infamous Cody Kaufman, a notorious local thug. That kind of scum looks down on small villages like ours and normally wouldn't come near here. But not long ago he suddenly barged into the village and started robbing without a word. Since then, he's robbed several households every day. Today it was my family's turn.

Uncle, you scared him off, but he won't let this go. Could you please deal with him? I'll pay you. What do you mean "deal with"? You want me to kill him? I don't know. It's just that everything you said earlier made sense, and most of the people left in our village are just young kids. You're an adult—you should know better than us how to properly handle Cody and his crew.

What's the price? These—I know they might not be worth much—but this is everything I can offer.

Just now you were desperate to keep these things from those thugs. Why suddenly give them to me? Because—for the village folks? I see. Then let me see what valuables you have. This door-sized two-handed greatsword—is it your eldest brother's sword? Yes. I remember it's called the Wild Wind Greatsword. This is no Wild Wind Greatsword. This thing is valuable—it's the legendary "executioner of corrupt rulers above and sycophantic ministers below"—the Imperial Sword.

What? I'll take this one. What junk—I don't want this—I only want the sword. Go home and rest well, and tell the other villagers not to worry anymore. Also, I said I'd teach you magic on behalf of my sect. Once I've dealt with this mess, I'll come back as promised.

You gouged out the only valuable thing on that sword. I know. And I suspect those thugs came for that magic stone. You mean their earlier thefts from other households were just a cover to hide their true objective? But we still need to investigate carefully—we can't fully trust Norn's account.

What do you mean? Simple: the truth is unclear. For example, did this magic stone really belong to Norn's eldest brother? How did he obtain such a precious item? Were those thugs really robbing? Maybe they were just taking back what was already theirs. We need to figure out the whole story. We can't rush to conclusions based on the scene and Norn's one-sided account. Even if those thugs are hateful, even if Norn and his family are pitiful, we must act calmly.

Remember, Yvur—we must witness the truth with our own eyes, and always make decisions with reason, not emotion. But Jiang Qiu, absolute justice doesn't exist, and not every event has an investigable truth. True. But we must still strive to approach justice and truth. You and I are dao cultivators—what we pursue is an unblemished dao-heart. If we wrong innocent people because of momentary passion, it will become an obstacle on our future path of cultivation.

I understand. I can use mind-reading magic to hear others' inner thoughts—I'll probe those thugs' true intentions. Mind-reading? You haven't used it on me, have you? Why—do you have secrets you can't share? Then I definitely should listen. No no no—Yvur-jie.

What is it? We didn't want to say it in front of Norn. Yes, Yvur-jie—we want to sincerely express our thanks. Thank you for saving Norn. Norn is a good person. His whole family are good people. The three of us are also orphans. After the last elder in our families died, Norn and Elini-ge have been supporting us.

Norn always says his eldest brother is a knight's squire with a monthly salary, enough for him and Elini-ge to eat, with some left to help us. Norn and Elini-ge have been helping us all along, and we couldn't do anything—we have no way to repay them. So we're truly grateful that uncle and sister helped today, saved Norn, and protected his brother's keepsake. Thank you so much.

Also, we know Norn's family is destitute now and has nothing to offer uncle and sister as thanks, so we want to add to the reward. This is all the savings we've accumulated over the years following Elini-ge to the town market to sell eggs, wool, and olives. Those people barely took anything the previous days, but today they turned Norn's house inside out—they would've torn down the roof beams if they could.

We suspect those bastards may have been after Norn's family from the start. We're adding this reward to beg you—please, definitely kill those bad people, don't let them bully Norn again. What's the matter—afraid Norn's payment is too small and I'd only agree with my mouth?

You said you often go to town markets to sell eggs? Yes, uncle. What about it? Take this money back and get me a basket of eggs instead. Just eggs? Of course. I don't want to eat magic cooking that could poison a person every day. Eggs are great—delicious no matter how you cook them. Leave me a basket of eggs—I'll come get them in the evening. Let's go.

Hey, Jiang Qiu, what do you mean "magic cooking that could poison a person"? Do you have a problem with my magnificent culinary skills? You want the truth or a lie? Truth. Eating your food always vaguely reminds me of other dishes. What dishes? Stinky foot double-decker burger, cockroach rice bowl, live maggot pie, pig-slop pork soup. And the lie? Yvur's cooking is absolutely delicious—number one in the world.

If you don't like my cooking, you do it—let's see what you can make. Fine, I'll cook. It's time to show you the mysterious Eastern cuisine. Why are you... what's wrong? Nothing. Just feel a little happy being thanked by so many people.

The trail ends here. Should be that direction. What technique did you just use? Celestial Sound Transforming the Heart—inner landscape gives birth to all things, the heart contains the finite beings. It's a technique for understanding the language of all living creatures. But unlike your True Words, Celestial Sound Transforming the Heart targets non-human creatures. Since these animals don't have high intelligence, their language is very crude—basically only fragmented words can be heard.

True Words captures the genuine thoughts of the human brain, bypassing the step of linguistic expression and directly reflecting the true meaning in your mind. But True Words has very low resolution for identifying non-human thoughts. I think it's because magic theory doesn't address the discussion of intelligence, so it ignores a lot of key information, resulting in True Words barely capturing emotional evolution patterns of non-human creatures but failing to effectively convey their thoughts to our minds.

You mean the fragmented words captured by Celestial Sound Transforming the Heart are like the missing key words that True Words lacks? Perhaps the two techniques can be combined. That makes sense. Want to try? Can you fully understand what those animals are saying? For example, those little birds. I can. What are they thinking? Those little birds are puzzled. Puzzled about what? They're wondering why your head is so pointy.

Teach me that magic. Fine—I'll teach you tonight. First, let's take care of business. Looks like this is the place.