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"Hmm…" Lu Zhen gazed at the book again with his golden eyes, his curiosity piqued.

To his amazement, as he stared at the text once more, he somehow began to comprehend the words on the pages.

Even though he couldn\'t fully understand the language, he had an innate sense of what he was looking at. His brain seemed to absorb the information directly from the text.

[You have fulfilled the condition for the Appraisal skill]

[Your Appraisal skill has leveled up from level 4 to level 5]

Lu Zhen\'s eyes widened with excitement upon seeing this.

He returned to the book, his gaze now more focused, and he carefully read its contents.

Skipping the numerous pages detailing the butler\'s mundane daily life, Lu Zhen searched for anything that might be useful to him.

<Imperial year 1089.

Finally, I have entered the fire academy. I can become a mage, Mom...>

Lu Zhen\'s eyes lit up as he carefully read the words, paying close attention to each one.

There was some bloodstains on the page after.

"Hmm…" Lu Zhen frowned as he carefully examined the words hidden by the blood, and his brain absorbed the information, helping him comprehend the text.

Suddenly, he noticed that his Qi was rapidly draining, like a waterfall, and his previously full reserves were depleting swiftly.

"So the appraisal skill uses my Qi to comprehend these words," Lu Zhen concluded. He nodded in understanding and continued reading, now with a sense of urgency.

Blood covered the entire bottom half of the page, making the text beneath it invisible due to the mixture of dark and red colours.

Lu Zhen rapidly flipped through the pages as his vision started to blur once more.

"Is this thing acting up again? Even after my physique had a breakthrough, it\'s still so effective." Lu Zhen sensed that the effects of the disease, or whatever it was, were slowly sapping his strength again, bringing a creeping lethargy from deep within him.

He frantically turned through all the pages of the book, heading straight for the last pages, searching for one word in particular.

Although he was interested in the mage system, even though it might be entirely useless to him, he could examine those aspects later when he had free time. For now, he needed to find a cure for this strange condition that was affecting him like an annoying bug.

The solution might not be in the book, but Lu Zhen had no better option, so he reluctantly searched the book in hopes of finding answers.

However, he had no regrets about killing the butler. He believed that the butler would have caused more trouble if he were left alive. Lu Zhen thought it was better to eliminate that threat now rather than allowing the butler to control his life and potentially create future problems.

Lu Zhen had never underestimated the resources of mages. While they might be weaker than martial artists in direct combat, they possessed numerous means to solve various challenges.

Suddenly, he spotted a word written in bold letters.

"Finally," Lu Zhen thought to himself, his anticipation growing as he focused on the topic of that word in the book.

"So where is the solution…" Lu Zhen skipped over the details as he desperately searched for the cure.

His expression soured as he read the text.

The solution presented in the book was to consume a dragon fruit, a term Lu Zhen had never heard of before. While he might have been able to find it by searching extensively, the likelihood of such a rare fruit still existing in this post-mage era was slim. Besides, time was not on his side, and he couldn\'t afford to embark on a fruitless quest.

The other option was to construct a mana heart, which supposedly would cure the illness. This solution also appeared impractical. Lu Zhen\'s face contorted with frustration as he considered both options. They might have seemed relatively simple in theory, but in practice, they were far from it.

Time was slipping away, and the lethargic feeling that kept creeping over him gave him a sense of impending doom. If he succumbed to this feeling and fell unconscious, he feared he might never wake up again.

Constructing a mana heart, the supposed source of a mage\'s power, was an even more daunting task. Firstly, he had no knowledge of how to construct one, and secondly, there was no mana in the air, which had long since mutated into qi with entirely different attributes and properties.

Lu Zhen sneered, starting to comprehend why the butler had been so confident when he claimed that only he held the cure for this infection.

Lu Zhen\'s mind was filled with a sense of dread as he considered the possibility that the butler\'s words had been nothing more than a ploy to buy time, to weaken him, and then finish him off. A shiver ran down his spine as he thought about the treacherous nature of the man.

"Killing him was the right thing to do," Lu Zhen concluded, his resolve to be more decisive growing stronger.

Although facing this life-threatening situation, he didn\'t give in to despair. Instead, he dragged the intact armour-clad corpse across the room. As he did, his eyes glowed with a golden light, searching for any hidden compartments or secret passages in the grand chamber.

"Surely, he wouldn\'t confine himself to just this throne room only, would he?" Lu Zhen pondered aloud as he examined his surroundings. His eyes fell upon two statues that caught his attention. One bore a striking resemblance to his Ancestor, while the other was an uncanny likeness of Xia Mei.

The statue of Xia Mei was a perfect replica, down to every detail, leaving Lu Zhen in awe. As for the Ancestor, there was a familial resemblance, particularly in the presence of horns and a tail.

"Hmm, so mages are also connected to the bloodline of martial artists," Lu Zhen mused, beginning to see the possibilities of such a link.

"It might be one of the experiments of the mages." A terrifying possibility emerged from the mind, which made Lu Zhen uncomfortable for some reason as unease built up on him as he looked around the room carefully, searching for the door.

If the conjecture that Lu Zhen thought was right, even if that was the case, Lu Zhen still had to solve his condition before thinking about other things. He could worry about that later.

Suddenly, Lu Zhen\'s golden eyes caught something in the wall that piqued his interest.

Without hesitation, he dragged the mage\'s lifeless body and struck the wall at the specific spot.

"It\'s quite hard," Lu Zhen mused as he felt the wall\'s resistance against his punch. However, his expression shifted to a smile as he sensed the rebounding force, indicating an emptiness inside the wall.

He knew he didn\'t have time to carefully look for the secret entrance. Lu Zhen decided to deactivate his appraisal skill. He took a deep breath, gathering his raw strength, and then withdrew his hand to gain momentum.

In one powerful, resolute move, he aimed his punch at the wall, seeking to break through and reveal what was hidden beyond.

Lu Zhen opted not to use his combat art, conserving his limited qi as he didn\'t want to waste it in this situation.

With a resolute "woosh" sound, it felt as if the very fabric of the air was being torn apart. Lu Zhen unleashed a punch with his full strength.

Boom!

The room was filled with a resounding boom as the walls developed a spider-like network of cracks and shattered into pieces.

"This looks more like glass than a wall..." Lu Zhen mused to himself as he cautiously entered the space, still dragging the lifeless corpse.

As he stepped further into the room, he was greeted by an extraordinary sight. It resembled a futuristic laboratory, the domain of a mad scientist. Countless test tubes of various sizes filled the space, each containing empty vessels connected to a computer-like terminal with rows of screens.

There was a massive bed situated to one side, and a series of complex test tubes, some filled with peculiar liquids. One of these test tubes appeared similar to the one that had affected Lu Zhen.