Following that question, Virus faced a deep silence.
In return, he was just about to let out a helpless sigh, when he spotted a minute change in Augustus’ profile which seemed to indicate that he had thought of an idea. Sadly, in the end, he refused to open his mouth and continued remaining quiet.
Nonetheless, having already discerned that adjustment in his expression, Virus wasn’t willing to let go of any viable options. Therefore, he stepped up and asked, “Augustus, you seem to have come up with something. Tell me about it.”
Seeing that Virus had astonishingly read his general course of thought, frankly, Augustus was tongue-tied. Still, after some hesitation, he opened his mouth. “Okay, boss. So, based on my knowledge, all of the stronger clans and sects use a special type of item to limit the access of their disciples to some techniques to a specific period of time.”
“Oh? Tell me more.” Looking at him with interest, Virus awaited the anticipated reply.
“Um, you see, in order to distinguish and test the comprehension capabilities of their students and disciples, clans and other organizations only allow the usage of a particular book for a limited period.”
“What that signifies is that during that time, whether the student can grasp the technique is completely up to the talent of that individual because when the time is up, they have to return the book regardless of their accomplishments in the said technique.”
“You guys must be thinking can’t the disciples just temporarily copy the book somewhere for a comprehension session later on… and that is exactly when the item I’m talking about comes to play,” Augustus said with perception.
Rubbing his chin, Virus was all ears. “What’s the item called? And what does it do?”
Staring with half-lidded eyes, Augustus answered in solemnity, “The name of that item is the ‘Forgotten Pen’, boss. And as the name suggests, it is considered a special type of pen since everything that’s written using it cannot be expressed externally in any manner.”
“Hmm, what does that mean?” Furrowing his brows, Archibald was the one to open his mouth this time. He couldn’t quite comprehend where Augustus was going with this.
With the weight of his gaze aimed at Archibald this time, Augustus proceeded. “That connotes despite the reader being able to memorize or grasp the text of a book written using the Forgotten Pen, they cannot express its content outwardly in any way.”
“The readers cannot recite or jot it down somewhere since whenever they try to do that the knowledge will simply leave their minds temporarily and they’ll feel stumped over it.”
Tilting his head downward, Augustus added, “In fact, not only is that method helpful in gauging the disciples’ talent, but it’s also useful in preventing the uncontrolled spread of the techniques and secrets of a particular organization to other factions, clans, sect, etc.”
“I mean there are always stronger organizations out there somewhere that doesn’t fear stealing your techniques and secrets, and the Forgotten Pen is the only surefire method of countering and resisting such vile schemes.” He culminated in a peaceful tone.
Listening up to this point, Virus promptly thought of another occurrence that was quite similar to the effects of this unique Forgotten Pen.
A while back, when Virus was just about to enter the Invisible Ancient Fortress World, in its gate, Virus had come across a set of ancient engravings which simply couldn’t stick to his memories because the moment he looked away, it was as if the knowledge escaped his mind.
‘Although the effects of this Forgotten Pen Augustus is talking about is quite similar to the characteristics of those ancient letters, all this considered, there is a major difference between them.’ Virus brooded over the matter.
He judged, ‘While those engravings at the entrance could neither be memorized nor expressed, this one is different since you can still memorize the content of the books written by the Forgotten Pen and only external expression is restricted.’
‘So, in a way, the Forgotten Pen is a weaker version of whatever that was utilized to engrave those unknown ancient letters to the gate of the Invisible Ancient Fortress World.’ Nodding his head, Virus surmised the whole picture.
By now, he was amazed at the existence of this particular item called the Forgotten Pen. According to his database, in his past world of the future, there wasn’t a single mention of anything similar to the so-called Forgotten Pen, denoting anything related to it had probably long gone extinct by that time in the future.
“That’s… a wonderful piece of intel actually, Augustus. It is precisely what we require right now. So, tell me, where can we get such an object from?” That was Virus’s following question.
“Ah, about that, boss… I’m not quite sure where ‘we’ can get our hands on such a thing. However, I know for a fact that a clan as strong as the Poison Deity definitely has a few of those Forgotten Pens in their possession since they need it to secure their own techniques and secrets using them.” Augustus divulged with certainty.
Listening to Augustus, touching his chin, Virus pondered the subject for a while, trying to reach an immediate solution.
…
ONE MONTH LATER
In the blink of an eye, a month passed.
During this past month, all Virus had done was to passively gather more information about Blaze while mostly commuting between his simple courtyard house and the brothel.
Of course, he had yet to touch Aily in any way so she was still pretty safe in the brothel. However, Virus also knew that several wanton clients there were already eyeing Aily like she was some forbidden fruit of heaven that the brothel didn’t allow them to touch.
Alas, the more the brothel protected Aily from such people, the more they desired this forbidden fruit of temptation.
As for the Cultivation Trust, during the entire month, there hadn’t been a single sale of any of their forty techniques in stock.
