What is the essence of Spirit Sight?
Regarding this question, Dorothy doesn't have a good explanation at the moment. Currently, she can only roughly speculate that Spirit Sight is deeply related to the "enlightenment" Spirituality. Thinking deeper, it might also have some connection to the demise of the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society), but overall, the information available is still too scarce to make any judgment.
'Forget it, there's no point in overthinking meaningless things. As long as I keep pursuing knowledge like this, I will eventually be able to touch upon the truth.'
Thinking this, Dorothy stopped pondering about Spirit Sight and focused her attention on the medical books themselves.
'Speaking of which... the mundane medical books in this world are more advanced than I thought. In my original world, the medical technology during the Steam Revolution era was actually not very good. Amputations and bloodletting were common, and hospitals were like slaughterhouses.'
'While this world is superficially still in the Steam Revolution period, they can already produce antibiotics in medicine, and they have relatively complete nursing science. It feels like the development of medicine is more advanced than industry.'
Dorothy thought this. This was a problem she discovered after studying medical books for the past few days, and she wasn't completely clueless about it.
Thinking this, Dorothy reached out and pulled a book from the pile of medical books, placed it in front of her, opened it, and turned directly to the title page. The author of the book was listed there.
"Edwina Bulwer, Doctor of Medicine, Royal Honorary Earl, Major Achievements: Inventor of Penicillin, Standardization of Modern Surgery, Founder of Modern Anesthesia, Discoverer of Blood Types..."
Looking at the author's introduction on the title page, Dorothy couldn't help but rub her chin. This name had appeared in many places in the medical books Dorothy had read before. According to the author's introductions in the books, the great leap forward in this world's medicine was inseparable from this doctor named Edwina. Looking at the descriptions in the books, she had many achievements, and these achievements directly elevated the medical level of this world by a notch.
"There are no shortage of geniuses in this world either..."
Looking at the name in the introduction, Dorothy sighed thoughtfully, then closed the book and put it away.
...
Sun set, moon rose, night fell.
North Tivian, Church District.
Bright moonlight shone on the spired buildings, the heavy Church bells echoed in the night, and devout prayers spread among the houses.
Somewhere in the Church District, inside an inconspicuous building, bright Light illuminated a spacious room. Tall bookshelves lined the room, filled with various books and scrolls. Many tables and cabinets held strange items. In the corner of the room, a faint incense burned, its lingering fragrance drifting through the space.
There were five or six figures in this room, both men and women, dressed in Sister or clergy robes. These Sisters and clergy sat in their respective seats. In front of them was a complex instrument resembling a large microscope. These clergy and Sisters were carefully observing something through the instrument's eyepieces.
The entire room was exceptionally quiet. Everyone was focused on their work. The only sound in the room was the heavy bell ringing from outside.
"Ugh... Is it seven already? My eyes are starting to hurt..."
Sitting in her seat, Vanya stretched a big yawn and mumbled softly. Due to the dryness caused by prolonged use of her eyes, she couldn't help but rub them, then looked at the considerable mechanical instrument in front of her.
This was an instrument similar to a microscope, about half a meter tall, with a large lens barrel. The lens barrel had countless gears for adjusting parameters and openings for changing lenses. Judging by the number of these openings, there were at least ten lenses packed inside this lens barrel. On the surface of the lens barrel, circles of mysterious symbols were also engraved.
The lower end of the lens barrel extended into a locked metal cabinet. Inside the metal cabinet, unseen by people, directly facing the objective lens at the lower end of the lens barrel, was a damaged book fixed on a platform engraved with a magic circle.
This was a secret transmission observation instrument, an extremely effective Spirit Sight defense device. Protected by more than ten layers of enchanted lenses, observers could directly view a very small portion of the secret transmission. Many societies, primarily the Shining Light Church, used such instruments for secret transmission observation to defend against Spirit Sight.
This is the Historical Scripture Department of the Tivian Church District, a place dedicated to studying various Shining Light Church scriptures collected from the public or unearthed. It is also where Vanya works. Observing secret transmissions with such instruments every day is Vanya's daily routine in this position.
'Phew... It's been almost a month, and I'm finally almost done with this one... I can only read a few sentences at a time, and then I have to meditate and pray for an hour. Compared to praying to Aka, this efficiency is truly a torment. Sometimes I really want to take that book out of the cabinet and read more at once, but unfortunately, I can't...'
Looking at the instrument in front of her, Vanya thought this in her heart. For secret transmissions like the ones the Church issued for her to read, there were clear regulations on how much to read each time, the interval between each reading, and how long to pray during the interval. Despite spending a lot of time each day, it usually took one or two months to read one secret transmission.
However, when Vanya went home every day, she could finish a secret transmission obtained from Dorothy in about a week by praying to Aka in her spare time. The efficiency difference was huge. For example, she had been reading this secret transmission, which was clearly an otherworld pseudo-scripture, for almost a month. If the secret transmission wasn't locked in the metal cabinet and the pages turned by the machine, she would have already tried to take it out and read it in a different way.
Amidst the echoing bells, Vanya rubbed her eyes, glanced at her other colleagues in the room, narrowed her eyes, and then thought in her heart.
'Only half an hour left until get off work... I really don't feel like continuing to read... I'll just rely on praying to get through the remaining time.'
Vanya thought this. These Sisters and clergy in the Historical Scripture Department were not idle during the intervals after finishing a round of reading. To resist the slight effects that Spirit Sight might cause, they needed to pray devoutly and strengthen their faith during this time.
Although Vanya's current reading time for this round had not yet ended, this did not prevent her from starting to pray early, using prayer as an excuse to slack off and get through the last half hour before getting off work.
'Lord, please forgive my laziness...' Closing her eyes and clasping her hands, Vanya prayed in her seat.