Chapter 548 - Rare Book

In the Draconic Arcane Realm, Tom the black tiger laid on the floor as it watched curiously at the grey ant that was crawling on a green book, and flipped pages from time to time.

“You’re just crawling around, can you understand the content?” Finally, it could not help but question it.

The little great ant raised its two front legs, then swayed its antenna in disdain. It looked like it was saying, “I don’t want to talk to you”.

“Damn it, you ungrateful ant! If it wasn’t for me who saved you, you would’ve become the first eunuch ant in history! Now, not only you’re being unappreciative, you’re despising me? Is this how you treat your savior?” Tom the tiger was indignant.

The little grey ant did not utter a single word, it only faced its butt towards Tom the tiger’s face.

“I know, you’re still holding on to the grudge that I looked for Daqing to turn you into a queen ant, but wasn’t that because I ran out of ideas? I was also clueless that our owner has such spiritual ascension, and is able to restore severed limbs. You must know that your aedeagus was gone for a few days already, the metamorphism should’ve changed…” Tom the tiger chattered as if it was an abandoned wife.

There was nothing it could do. It noticed that recently, this little grey ant was slowly getting closer to Vigilante A, and its tendency of drifting away was getting more obvious.

This was detestable. After putting effort into raising it, it was going to be pulled by another person, this was certainly intolerable!

Right then, after the little grey ant heard Tom’s complains, it seemed to be hesitating for a while. Afterward, it began showing words on the book…

“You still have your conscience.” Tom the tiger immediately lowered its head to look at those words.

As soon as it looked, it was instantly appalled, it called out in shock, “It’s actually the rare book! Bai Shixin is such a reckless person who wastes natural resources! I’m afraid he has no idea of the true value of this book, or else he must’ve already kept it close to him.”

Before it finished, it looked around it suspiciously, afraid that someone else had heard its scream just now.

Somebody had already heard it.

In the System Space, Sir was dispirited as it said, “What is Tom screaming for? What does that little ant’s undecipherable writing say? I can’t even understand, I can’t even tell the unique of it.”

Similarly, Fang Ning was dismayed. “I don’t know too. After you sent the little ant and the pile of books into the Draconic Arcane Realm, it quickly found that green book, and keeps crawling around on it. Could it be that it has some special sensing ability?”

“That book is just an ordinary history book, I’ve looked at it for tens of times repeatedly. It’s not a cultivation secret book, it’s not a treasure map, and it’s not confidential technique information. That being said, this little ant was able to see something special out of it, this is really strange.” Sir was extremely flustered.

“This is simple, why don’t you just ask it?”

“No, you’re the idlest one now, you’ll ask.” It was unusual of sir to say that.

“I’ll go then. Tom the tiger seems to have other plans. It has always been greedy. If it dares to keep if for itself this time, go look for Daqing and turn it into a tigress…” Fang Ning was unbothered at all.

“Alright.”

…

In the arcane realm, Tom the tiger who was paying attention to the book suddenly felt chills on its lower body. It knew that somebody was evolving a plan around it, thus it instantly resented.

‘I’ve already compromised and became his mount for over half a year, am I still not able to live in peace yet?’

While it wondered, it suddenly lifted its head to find the warden of Draconic Penitentiary, the owner of the arcane realm. That soul was fluttering towards its direction.

“Thomson, what were you talking about just now? What did this little ant write just now?” Fang Ning could not be bothered about anything else, he popped the question right away.

Tom the black cat’s eyes moved a little, it thought, ‘Eh, Vigilante A is incompetent too, he actually doesn’t recognize the undead writing from the upper realm, written by the little ant.

‘So much for being a True Dragon descendant, I’m guessing that he was an underachieving dragon back in those years…

‘It’s not strange that this little ant knows it, it probably received heritance from the upper realm. After all, it has peculiar talents, and rare talents of the undead. For all I know, we can form a clan in the future, and become formidable in the world.’

As for Fang Ning, he often imitated a True Dragon of the upper realm but in little details as such, his flaws were exposed. Luckily, he had profound abilities, hence those flaws were automatically comprehended by others, just like Tom now.

After Tom was certain that Vigilante A was an underachieving dragon, it made an instant decision.

It decided to make an outrageous lie to see if it could have this rare book to itself.

“Oh, sir, here’s the thing. This is a complete cookbook which records most of the renowned recipes of the upper realm. I suppose that Bai Shixin is afraid that he’ll never be able to taste delicious food from the upper realm, thus he specially compiled this as a backup. It happens too that I’m an expert in making dishes, how about I replicate one for you to try?” Tom the black tiger rejoined seriously.

Fang Ning refused to comment on it, he only lowered his head to ask the little ant that was running around on the book, “Brother ant, is this fellow telling the truth?”

That little grey ant hesitated for a while, swayed its head, then nodded in the end.

“Eh, so it really is a cookbook. I wonder, what’s the difference between this cookbook from the upper realm and the ones of Earth?” Even though Fang Ning felt that something was not very right, he had no proof to act on it, so he only bore with it for now.

“Oh, these are top-notch cookbooks made by vitality materials. Previously, those materials weren’t able to be gathered from Earth, but now it’s possible. When consumed for a long time, it has an enormous effect on improving health, and elevate magical powers, which is far from all sorts of medicinal food consumed by humans. In the upper realm, only disciples from those big clans are able to enjoy this. With this as a foundation, even a cultivation failure is able to become superior.” Tom the tiger replied confidently.

“I see.” Fang Ning felt that it was being quite reasonable, he instantly responded, “It’s infrequent to hear that you have such an ability. Well, it’s better late than never, today you’ll pick a few from it and make them from everyone to taste.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll get on it now, but the ingredients?” Tom the tiger was feeling extremely proud, as long as it learned the content of this rare book, its day of turning the tables around would not be too far away.

“Make a list of the things you need, I’ll transfer them to you right away.” Fang Ning got everything covered, he was somewhat treating sir’s System Preservation Area as his home.

“Thank you, sir, I’ll now begin making a dish recorded in this book, it’s called ‘Deep Fried Soft-shelled Turtle’. It looks simple but in fact, it really tests one’s skill. Only when a cultivator becomes the chef, the taste of it can be fully presented.” Tom the tiger declared proudly but pretentiously.

“Alright, just go ahead with it.” Fang Ning was watching on the side, he kept feeling that something was off.

He pondered, ‘Is Bai Shixin a fool? Living itself is a difficult task, why is he so particular about satisfying his appetite? On top of that, he even records all the famous dishes from the upper realm?’

Tom the tiger was secretly pleased, the little ant had just told him that this book uses a double cryptograph. Through a certain reading method, and by skipping a particular number of letters which were then connected with the letters from before, the first cryptograph would be obtained.

Followed by that, the content would be decoded by using a set pattern but with an entirely different decoding rule, and the new content would be obtained.

At last, the real subject of the book would be revealed.

In a way, if it was not for this little ant who possessed a remarkable talent in searching treasures, usually, no one would have noticed the secret of this book.

Even Bai Shixin himself was only able to see the enchanting first layer of it, he did not identify the second layer which was filled with blood and death…

Whilst Tom the tiger thought so, it quickly lifted the stove up, and began cooking.

If it wanted to fool him, it needed to use its true abilities in order to avoid being suspected.

After all, perhaps it had already been exposed, and he was only using him. Should it not display its current value, it would easily be abandoned.