Chapter 124: Otherworldly Devils

When I looked at the book, my eyes were glued to it. When I realized what had happened, my heart began beating faster, and I wondered whether I might have been staring too long.

A soft shadow washed over my feet, the low light barely making anything visible.

I peeled my gaze away from it, but I had a sneaking suspicion just by the title alone. This place housed some of the rarest knowledge, and either that book was about devils from some hellish realm, or it talked about...

I should read this book here and put it back.

No! I had to think calmly. If someone was spying on me right now and I only read a book here and put it back, it would seem like I had something to hide and come off as suspicious.

With my mind made up, I walked toward the book I had my sights on. My feet pushed the shadowy ground aside like a fluff of smoke.

"I'm taking this book too," I said as I opened it.

'The first records of Otherworldly Devils appeared around thirty thousand years ago. Though that was the oldest record I could find, there were likely many before that. The Clocktower Queen, leader of the grasslands in the Eastern Continent, is assumed to have been the first female leader of her tribe. She likely earned that position due to her many miraculous inventions...'

I skipped some parts about her early childhood, which could be roughly summarized as showing that while she had no talent for cultivation, she was known as a miracle worker. However, the book never mentioned any of her miracles.

'She was killed at the age of twenty-two by a wandering demonic cultivator who wanted to see how a miracle worker's sacrifice would power his dark rituals. There are no records of the results, but later, that demonic cultivator would be killed by the Blood-Teared Immortal, whom many at the time assumed was the Clocktower Queen's childhood friend and perhaps even lover in the later part of her life. Or perhaps he was just one of the many people she helped when they were younger.'

I was about to turn to the next page but stopped myself. Otherwise, I would spend hours just sitting here reading this book.

So, I put it in my storage ring and turned toward the floating book, which looked at me curiously.

"This is amazing. I was just thinking about how there might be other people from different worlds," I said truthfully.

But the face in the book still didn't look impressed. The pages flipped to another drawing of him where he was still unimpressed but now had his mouth open. "You must definitely be a kid from one of the smaller clans."

"Actually-"

"If it can't compete with the Song Clan, it's a small clan," the book interrupted me, and as if to prove his point, he said. "There are records of a rabbit monstrous beast traveling through time. It was injured in the future and returned with those injuries to the past. Nobody has injured the rabbit yet, and it is bound to happen in the future. People from another world who can't even make things levitate with their minds are boring compared to things like that."Rêạd new chapters at novelhall.com

I was happy that truly knowledgeable people might not consider my situation exciting or important enough. Though... he was definitely right that the time-traveling rabbit was way more impressive than my situation. I'd never heard about something like this.

"Are there any books about this time-traveling rabbit?" I asked. "Also, what even makes a rabbit able to travel in time?"

However, I was surprised some cultivators were solemn enough to follow and catalog something like that. Perhaps one of those immortals had made an enemy of the rabbit. Also, it could all be a very elaborate plan by someone.

Something like time travel would break the balance of the world and everything I knew so far. Or there should be some strict limitations on that kind of power. Also, someone had injured it, so it wasn't as overpowered as it sounded at first.

"Well, humans aren't the only ones who can become immortals. Also, it isn't like that weakling can attack anyone, it just goes through time like a lost rabbit. We all know that when humans become immortals..." Whatever he was about to say next, the book stopped and flipped to a page showing the face of an expressionless man. Then it flipped again to a page with an open mouth. "Anyway, the world is a big place. Even though we haven't had contact with the other continents due to the monstrous beasts taking over the central continent, just this White Tiger Continent has many wondrous sights of its own, like the Cold Ice Time Palace and Space Breaking Point where people can travel to other realms. There's even a place where people can go insane seeing things no one was meant to see."

For example, as a baby, they could be born in a village that was about to be slaughtered or a city that was about to fall to a Beast Wave. They were powerless to defend themselves for at least the better part of a decade.

'There were only three recorded people who have revealed they were Otherworldly Devils. They did so only when they reached immortality and no one could touch them. Certain historical notes reveal they were all from the third category of Otherworldly Devils.'

Oh? Some otherworldly people actually reached immortality? Well, it would be weirder if none of them had. This was often a numbers game; eventually, someone was bound to check all the boxes needed to reach that unprecedented level of power.

'The Lustfully Eternal Immortal, from the Eastern Continent. The man who had the largest recorded harem with eight hundred women. He lived around 13,000 years ago. Lustfully Eternal Immortal didn't bother hiding that he was an Otherworldly Devil once he became an immortal, as he had his women often wear outfits that clearly revealed that. Like maid outfits, cat girl outfits, and...'

With that harem, there was a good chance that a large percentage of the population in the Eastern Continent where this guy came from might be related to him. Did he get inspired by Genghis Khan or something?

'The Beautiful Dream Immortal. A kind man, like a saint. He was from the central continent and died when the monstrous beasts took over. Most say that it was due to betrayal of some kind. He lived around 1,000 years ago...'

Oh, now that was a timeline point I could measure. I read in a historical book that the central continent was taken over four thousand years ago. So, this book was written around three thousand years ago.

'The Blood Step Immortal. A murderous man who lived on the Western Continent. A man born with a poor talent for cultivation, he was known to participate in mass sacrificial ceremonies that helped with cultivation and developed more such demonic rituals. He lived around 23,000 years ago and died soon after becoming an immortal. His life was relatively short but filled with violence. In every step of his life, he fought against fate...'

Oh, this guy was from the same continent as I was. The White Tiger Continent was also known as the Western Continent. Nobody called it the Western Continent since we lost contact with the other continents.

Also, it was telling that only these three people revealed they were other-worlders. They only did so after they became immortals; otherwise, it was like asking a demonic cultivator to just try a ritual on you. Fuck, me actually having a stronger soul than usual probably made me a good ingredient in a sacrifice. However, I had no idea what qualified as "good ingredients" in a demonic ritual.

As I approached the latter pages of the book, the author stopped discussing the lives of those three immortals and instead addressed another topic.

'Otherworldly Devils rarely ever get to meet another one of their kind. Because compared to the general population, they're too rare, and coming from another world is not a common occurrence...'

On the last page, the author's name was written.

'Written by: Chaofan Tuosu'

I finished reading the book and was close to my temporary house. Song Song was still waiting atop the wall. I closed the book and waved at her.

"Took you long enough," she said.

"Yeah, because I took the long route back. Your clan members like to stare," I responded, putting the red book in my storage ring.

As I leaped past the wall, the cold that had hung around me on my way here disappeared, and I felt the comfortable warmth of spring within the barrier. Song Song's presence disappeared from atop the wall, and she appeared sitting on the wooden porch.

I turned toward her. "You didn't tell me about the man in the book."

"The man in the book?" She looked at me, confused.