Chapter 1288 — Key Intelligence

Although Biles had witnessed Phil’s severed hand, Weber’s hanging, and Mr. Magician’s palm fused from worms, and also had a certain understanding of the horrifying anomaly brought about by 0-02, his lacking level and experience made him unaware of the true horror behind this matter. He mostly explained it away as a horror tale coming to life.

Therefore, despite feeling afraid, he mustered up his courage and quickly approached the rectangular table under the watch of the magical Magician and Grounded Angel. Of course, him being from the Sailor pathway was partly responsible.

Within two or three steps, Biles had reached a spot where he could touch the brass book.

Without thinking, he reached out his right palm and grabbed the brass pages on 0-02 and quickly flipped them.

During this process, the back of Biles’s hand held up the brass page, which hadn’t completely been filled, to prevent it from being blocked, so as to allow him, Mr. Magician, and Ma’am Angel to observe the changes on it and react in advance.

Amidst the flipping sounds, this Sailor saw the line that touching the Trunsoest Brass Book would result in the death sentence. He was first alarmed before he was filled with a strong sense of puzzlement about his current state.

However, this didn’t affect his action of flipping the pages forward. Klein’s eyes reflected the different brass pages, and each page had different rules.

The projections of these brass pages didn’t appear by making lines disappear and having new ones substitute them. Instead, they appeared side by side and gradually increased in number.

In the end, Klein’s eyes reflected a different number of brass pages in them. They were neatly arranged, one line after another. It was as though he had split the 0-02 into a single page and placed it on a glass platform to bask in the sun.

This was a dream divination technique at the angel level, allowing Klein to reproduce the scenes he had just seen before his very eyes.

With the passage of time, the brass pages in his dark brown eyes began to spin and pinpoint one of them:

“...The Trunsoest Brass Book originates from a Justiciar Uniqueness that had been corrupted by the Nation of Disorder...”

It’s exactly as I expected. Since the Trunsoest Brass Book can produce all the low-level rules, the corresponding content must contain a description of itself! This is determined by its essence. Unless it completely awakens or comes alive, and has the sufficient intelligence to know how to selectively hide it... Just as a thought of joy flashed through Klein’s mind, he saw a new word in mercury color appear on the unfilled brass page.

This meant that 0-02 had finally diverted a portion of its power from its vicious cycle. It was preparing to add text as a supplementary explanation to fix the flaws.

“Leave!” Without any hesitation, Klein shouted.

Biles strictly obeyed the orders of a high-leveled figure, immediately withdrawing his right hand, turning around, and sprinting out the window.

“Make a move to attack me.” Seeing that the Sailor with dual attributes had left the city library, Klein suddenly added.

Biles’s heart was filled with puzzlement, but he still raised his right arm and pulled back his shoulder. He put on a stance that looked like he was about to throw a punch at Klein.

At this moment, a new article finally took shape:

“With regards to the rules above, the Trunsoest Brass Book and the group of people it permits have immunity while enforcing the law...”

However, even if this article was successfully published, Biles wouldn’t suffer any punishment.

Clearly, the Trunsoest Brass Book wouldn’t pursue problems that led to a vicious cycle or unclear definitions. It was just like how it didn’t pile crimes on Arrodes after it mended the loopholes in the rules.

By the same logic, Biles, who had truly come into contact with 0-02, didn’t suffer any contamination from a sefirah. Before the supplementary clauses were published, Biles was a part of the Belltaine. He couldn’t be damaged in any sense, so he couldn’t be corrupted. But with the additional clause, he wouldn’t be “retroactively” punished for his previous actions.

In fact, after Biles left the city library, he had violated the curfew order as well, but Klein had already noticed a problem. It was that when the Belltaine citizens pursued foreigners while outside, they weren’t restricted by the curfew. Therefore, he made Biles attack him in a manner to avoid the corresponding punishment.

Right on the heels of that, he seized the opportunity while 0-02 was fixing the loophole to quickly recall the detailed information regarding the Trunsoest Brass Book.

“...This book possesses a living characteristic, but most of the time, it’s at a very low level...

“...The first half of the book displays almost all the underlying rules, while the second half is blank. It needs to be filled in autonomously...

“...Once there are no restrictions, it will naturally set up laws with certain biases for the surrounding areas and strictly enforce it. During this process, it will change and correct the rules based on the feedback.

“...As the law gradually becomes stricter, ‘His’ living characteristic will deepen... Once a law that can interfere with all aspects takes form, the Trunsoest Brass Book will completely come alive. It will possess true intelligence, and has the ability to modify the first half of the underlying rules to a certain extent... The exact extent that it can reach is as follows...

“...If there are contradictions in the laws that can’t be corrected, or if the pages are all filled without being able to form a sufficiently airtight system of rules, the Trunsoest Brass Book will produce a new line at the boundary between the first and second half: ‘All the following rules are ineffective.’

“...After this line takes form, the rules in the second half will disappear and the pages will return to a blank slate...

“...After the second half is completely blank, the clause ‘All the following rules are ineffective’ will be erased, and the Trunsoest Brass Book will repeat its previous actions until there is a set of laws that covers all aspects...

“...The rules that it creates have to be publicized or informed to the masses before having them take effect... When there’s no clear rule for a particular action, whether it’s against the common knowledge of the surrounding living beings...

“...Trunsoest Brass Book hates distorted and ugly rules. It hates having loopholes found...”

What a detailed description... There should be a method to seal 0-02 in all of this... Klein’s thoughts raced as he attempted to find information that he could use from every line of text.

At this moment, the leader of the ascetics, Arianna, whispered, “Think of a way to fill the pages behind 0-02, without making it airtight enough.”

That’s right! In that case, the Trunsoest Brass Book will declare that all the following rules are ineffective. It’ll redo it again. When that happens, its restrictions on the surroundings will temporarily vanish, allowing us to have the chance to touch it, take it away, or directly pray to a deity... But, how should we go about doing this? The Trunsoest Brass Book hates distorted and ugly rules. It hates having loopholes found... Klein’s heart stirred as he had an idea.

Without any hesitation, he stretched out his arms, as if he was hugging the air.

In the next second, inside the building whose dimensions had shrunk to one-tenth of the original Belltaine City Library, a hall that was covered with deep-black stone slabs with all kinds of scuffing descended into the real world.

There were eight black stone pillars erected in the hall, and metal poles hung from the high dome. At the bottom were candlesticks carved into different creatures, 41 on the left and 40 on the right.

This was the Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire’s Hall of Consuls that Klein had seen before. At that time, both consuls were still Sequence 1 Princes of Abolition of the Black Emperor pathway, so this place was filled with distortions. It didn’t match the normal circumstances and didn’t have any rules of aesthetics.

Apart from that, when Klein summoned this historical scene, he also used his domain’s ability to add the details of the Fourth Epoch which he knew. It made the order that stemmed from the Black Emperor become more and more detailed, as though it was corporeal.

Pa!

His wrists were severed as they landed on the ground. Blood spurted out from the wound, just like an ordinary person.

This was the second time Klein had committed fraud!

The two palms and fresh blood that gushed to the ground quickly separated into transparent maggots and sticky, nearly shapeless liquid.

As the Worms of Spirit convulsed and died, Klein grimaced due to the pain as he made numerous worms crawl out from the stump to form new palms.

At the same time, he tried his best to maintain the scene he had created through multiple summonings, not letting it dissipate.

On the rectangular table, inside the book that had bound brass pages, many new lines of text appeared:

“...All buildings and structures have to follow the golden ratio and principles of symmetry...

“...Strange clothes are not permitted...

“...The following crimes have the death penalty...

“...”

The Trunsoest Brass Book flipped through the pages quickly as it targeted the laws that stemmed from a Black Emperor. The further it went, the faster the new text appeared. There were no more pauses that lasted nearly a minute.

Inside the hall, the candlesticks that fell from the ceiling broke and disappeared. Then, the other parts of the hall experienced various changes, wiping away the original details of the order one by one.

Finally, the hall could no longer be maintained. It collapsed and returned to the Historical Void.

At that moment, the Trunsoest Brass Book had already flipped to the last two pages. It was spread out there without any movement.

With the last page filled with text and no longer able to form a tight system of rules with what 0-02 had previously set, Klein silently exhaled and relaxed a little. He felt that his spirituality was almost depleted.

“Let’s wait for an hour at Biles’s house.” He turned his head and said to Arianna.

If they stayed where they were, they would suffer increasingly severe punishments from breaking the curfew until they were sentenced to death.

As for monitoring the Trunsoest Brass Book, this mission that couldn’t allow for mistakes was naturally handed over to Arrodes. Although this magic mirror couldn’t directly look at 0-02, it could pay attention to the noticeboard and determine the disappearance progress of the laws on it.