For a moment, Zhou Ning was stunned, thinking he had misread it.
Because in his previous life's game, information about Windegun was extremely scarce; only the player who received the quest learned some of Windegun's deeds through the quest text.
Zhou Ning never expected to see his book at a regular Mysticism bookstall, a coincidence that subtly gave him a sense of destiny.
He looked closely and confirmed he hadn't misread it. However, Windegun on the book was not the author's name, but the title of the book.
Zhou Ning calmed his breathing, walked over unassumingly, picked up the book from the stall, and quietly began to read it.
The book was about 400 pages thick, titled "Windegun's Introduction to Life Science." The text was still in Ruins script, which was not very friendly to most Blystone people.
As for the content, the first dozen pages were all about his research theories in Life Science, containing many obscure Ruins words that required a dictionary to fully understand.
Zhou Ning tried to convert the recognizable sentences into ancient faric language, and following the decryption method of Puppet Alchemy, he pieced together the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th characters of each line and read them. Indeed, they made sense.
He didn't expect this guy to be so straightforward, using the same encryption method throughout.
Just as he was about to turn a few more pages, the owner of the used bookstall, a middle-aged man with graying hair, finally lost his patience. He coughed heavily: "Customer, if you're not buying, please put the book down. You've been looking at it for over 10 minutes."
"Sorry." Zhou Ning suddenly realized, held up the book, shook it, and asked, "How much is this book?"
"42 currency," the shopkeeper said after looking at the title, "This is an ancient Faric medical classic and a unique copy. This price is already quite cheap."
As a wealthy man, Zhou Ning was too lazy to bargain and immediately decided to buy it.
With a deal made, the stall owner's face broke into a smile: "You must be a medical student from a nearby university, right? I also have a set of medical classics written by Brian. Do you need them?"
Zhou Ning shook his head, indicating he wasn't interested. He searched the bookstall again, but couldn't find a second book in the same series. To avoid missing anything, he asked the stall owner: "Do you have any other books by Windegun? I can pay a high price."
"No," the stall owner shook his head. However, perhaps the words "high price" moved him, and he hesitated, "I will keep an eye out for you in the used book circles. You can leave your contact information, and I'll send someone to notify you if I find anything. But one thing, the price won't be low."
"Alright." Zhou Ning twitched his lips and wrote down the address of his Alchemy Laboratory for him. At this moment, he could only silently sigh, "The charm of money."
After leaving the bookstall, Zhou Ning walked around the surrounding stalls. According to Molly, there were actually some spiritual items here, including some old silver artifacts that could replace mithril to make special talismans. Zhou Ning had a skill called Mysticism, which contained this kind of content.
After spending over half an hour browsing the entire circle, Zhou Ning, guided by Molly, purchased some old silver artifacts and special materials, spending about 10 vikta. Unfortunately, he never saw the unknown wondrous item.
Frankly, as a market specializing in Mysticism items, there were many interesting places here, especially after the full resurgence of extraordinary powers.
There were fortune-tellers using crystal balls, tricksters performing strange illusions, and witches casting spells. In Zhou Ning's view, many of them showed traces of Mysticism, but they were all only at an introductory level.
He realized he had unknowingly become a seasoned extraordinary. Zhou Ning smiled and walked towards the exit.
By the time he returned to Vik University by public carriage, it was almost 10 PM.
Due to the upcoming start of the semester, the school was no longer as deserted as it had been a few days ago, and students were bustling along the campus's tree-lined avenues.
He couldn't help but marvel at his own charm; he was approached seven or eight times during the less than 5-minute walk from the school gate to his dorm room.
Upon returning to his dorm, he found that John, for once, wasn't out having fun, but was sitting at his desk, writing furiously.
"What are you doing?" Zhou Ning walked over curiously and asked.
"Writing a business plan. I'm going to start a new business," John said without looking up. "My dad promised that if I come up with a feasible business plan, he'll invest another ten thousand vikta in me."
Zhou Ning:... He originally thought his 2000-plus vikta was already quite wealthy, but compared to John, he couldn't help but shed tears of poverty.
John paused while speaking, then looked up.
"I originally hoped to invite you to start a business with me... but never mind," John said with a smile, shaking his head. "I know an extraordinary like you wouldn't be swayed by money, nor would you be willing to be confined to a small shop."
Zhou Ning:?
Why not?
You should have tempted me with your dirty money before! How could you give up without even trying?
After chatting with John for a few minutes, Zhou Ning took a comfortable shower in the washroom, then walked into his room, drying his hair.
He dug out a pen, a piece of paper, and the Ruins dictionary from his drawer, and Zhou Ning began to try and decrypt the contents of the book.
Including the time spent consulting the dictionary, the decryption of the 400-page book took Zhou Ning almost 5 hours. It wasn't until around three in the morning that Zhou Ning completed the decryption.
Zhou Ning picked up the decrypted results without hesitation and read them quietly.
Frankly, the decrypted content left Zhou Ning somewhat disappointed, yet also somewhat shocked.
This passage described Windegun's journey after developing Puppet Alchemy. He became madly interested in Alchemic Life, believing that everything in this world, regardless of size or hierarchy, was the same. Humans, stones—all were composed of the same things, merely existing in different forms. As long as the formula was correct, they could be transformed into one another.
To prove his idea, he went to great lengths to study medicine. Through numerous dissection experiments, he figured out the structure of the human body, the positions of various organs. After making all preparations, he formally began to create his first Alchemic Life.
A year later, he succeeded. He mixed pure earth, primordial life, and human sperm, continuously adding blood over 40 days. The result was indeed a transparent, humanoid small life. Although this small life died after three days, he felt he had found the correct direction.
The next large section of content described Windegun's research into Alchemic Life through various methods, even including some extraordinary creatures. Although Zhou Ning didn't fully understand it, he was deeply shocked.
Just then, a prompt appeared on his panel:
[Through reading, you have learned Life Alchemy (Basic).]
"Life Alchemy?"
Zhou Ning glanced at it but didn't pay attention for now, as Holwig and the Life Alchemy Society had left him with too poor an impression of this school of thought.
He continued reading.
After extensive research, Windegun felt the time was ripe and attempted to create the legendary extraordinary creature—a dragon.
What particularly shocked Zhou Ning was that Windegun actually succeeded. After long-term research, he truly created a dragon through his transcendent Alchemy skills.
Then came the last paragraph of Windegun's text:
"I read in a book that there was once a fierce battle between gods, and a god was wounded by another god, shedding divine blood that formed a lake. Since gods also bleed, a wonderful idea suddenly came to my mind: what is the internal structure of a deity? Does it have internal organs like humans? And now, there's an opportunity ''..."
The entire text abruptly ended there.
At this moment, in his mind, Molly couldn't help but exclaim: "Sun Goddess above, this Windegun is both a genius and a complete madman ''...."