Laura stared with wide-eyes as she slowly realized that Zhen Shi was still messing with her. As such, she angrily spoke out again, "You shameless perverted wolf! It is now your DUTY to take responsibility for this mental damage!"

But Zhen Shi simply smirked, brought out the 'fake' scrying crystal, and began to play with it suggestively.

Laura immediately got his message and thought, 'This master Myrden is truly peerless!' while eyeing the scrying crystal in Zhen Shi's hand in despair.

As such, she could only heave a sigh of defeat and speak out in an annoyed manner, "Fine Brother Zhen Shi, you win."

Zhen Shi grinned in victory and handed over the 'long' 'list' for her to 'examine'.

Laura looked over the contents of the list for a few moments and slowly nodded, "Well... since you haven't exactly specified any books by name, I can definitely get you several books on each subject while ensuring their credibility. But the quantity... I don't think that I--we, can handle a few 100 books for each subject! Particularly for some of these lesser-known subjects, not to mention that the cost would be astronomical!"

Zhen Shi gave a knowing wink, "See? I told you it would be 'difficult' for you to 'handle'!"

As Laura's face grew red at the repeating innuendo, Zhen Shi decided to give the poor girl a break and replied with a smile, "Either way, it's fine if you can get me as many books as possible. Besides, I just want to read them. There is no need to take the book with me."

Laura fell into thought and slowly replied, "Well, if that's the case, I should be able to allow you to read through most of the books available for sale. If that still isn't sufficient, I could try to get the Lyon Family to call in a few favors and let you take a peek into the Lyonesse Kingdom Royal Library..."

Zhen Shi nodded thankfully. The fact that she was willing to help even after being teased so viciously, gave him a good impression of her.

But it also made him wonder, 'She couldn't have the same sickness as Myne right? Nah... I'm stretching this a bit too much,' and as such put aside that irrelevent thought.

Ignorant of Zhen Shi's thoughts, Laura clapped her hands and spoke with a smile, "Well, putting that matter aside, I suppose you must be tired from your travels? Considering the fact that you have promised to help us, and also since Zhen Shi is now an {Honorary Guest}, we have arranged accommodation for the three of you. Please follow me."

Saying so, she began to lead the trio away from the pagoda and towards the lush expansive forest. Within a few short moments, they came across a well-worn path through the forest which they began to follow.

Getting bored, Zhen Shi walked closer to Laura and spoke out, "Hey Laura you're a Lyon right? So were you the one that was supposed to compete against Josef Turnbull in the Appraisal Competition?"

Laura was surprised at this sudden question and answered grumpily as she was still justifiably angry about the previous situation, "Humph. What? Will you regret your actions if I'm that skilled?"

Still, she grumpily shook her head and answered, "But, no. I'm not that skilled in Item Appraisal. My main talent lies in Business. Besides, my father is only a distant member of the Lyon family, while my mother is an outsider who married into the Lyon Family simply on account of Uncle Hao Lei being her brother and an Elder of the Market Hall.

The one who was actually supposed to compete against Josef was Lady Dorothy Lyon. She was born of divine birth time and was immediately blessed by our Patron God Caishen. Her divine blessing allows her to instinctively learn information about most items! Obviously, very few can compete with her in terms of item appraisal. In fact, she always brings massive profits to our Market Hall by discovering strange and rare treasures that had been overlooked by others!" finishing with adoration in her eyes.

Zhen Shi was rather confused and asked back, "Wait... if she is so skilled why do you need us to help you?"

Laura smiled happily and explained, "That's simple. If by some unlikely reason, it is deemed that only invited appraisers can take part, we will definitely need outside help. Even if it was not so, despite how skilled Lady Dorothy is, the Turnbull Family has Lord Jeremiah the unopposed number one appraiser of the Kingdom!

Most importantly, you also have a Divine Blessing from God Caishen! While it might be still weak since you received it recently, it is still a personal divine blessing! As a god of fortune, you too should have received a similar divine blessing! So, as a true businesswoman, how could I not make you help us a bit?"

Zhen Shi simply grinned with a shake of his head. Since he was already getting some valuable rewards and help out of Laura himself, he wasn't opposed to helping her.

But he wasn't one to let others off scot-free either. So he began to play with the fake scrying crystal suggestively, causing Laura to immediately shut up in fear and anger.

Thankfully for her, the rest of the journey was short as they quickly arrived at a wide clearing within the forest with a complex of several identical luxurious pavilions.

The blazing midday sun shone down relentlessly on the pavilions causing the golden walls and silver roofs to glisten like gems.

There were many guards of the soul transformation stage adorned in golden-red armor surrounding the pavilions. But noticing Laura and the rest, they immediately moved to the side with a respectful bow.

Laura simply nodded in reply and showed the trio to one of the many pavilions. Having done this, she also handed over a metal insignia to Zhen Shi saying that would serve as proof of his title of {Honorary Guest} in the future.

Upon analysis, Zhen Shi noticed that the insignia was rather ordinary. While it was made of Abyss Glass, one of the toughest and rarest materials in the world which made it very difficult to replicate, it had no other purpose besides acting as proof of identity.

But it did have an intriguing engraving below the words {Honorary Elder}, a swirl reminiscent of the ying-yang symbol. But instead of plain black and white, it had a ghostly white lion on one side and a metallic black bull on the other.

Now that all of her tasks were complete, Laura left leaving a promise to deliver the required items and to come back later to take Vivienne for the purchase of the pill furnace.

As for Zhen shi's request to read through their books, it would take a bit longer to prepare the necessary arrangements.

But before she left, she had to angrily glare at the sight of Zhen Shi continuing to mischievously play with the scrying crystal...

🏛️🏛️🏛️

The pavilion they were shown to was rather open and at the very center of the main living area, there was an open-roof garden. Besides the intricately grown plants and trees, there was a small koi-pond where the water was flowing in and out through a trickling silver stream.

Moments later, Zhen Shi, Myne, and Vivienne sat down on the floor from where they could easily observe the central garden.

Zhen Shi was the first to speak, "First of all, are you guys alright with spending some time here and helping this Lyon family? I do have some other stuff to handle, but it's not particularly urgent that I can't spend another week..."

Myne replied with a shrug, "As we said before, we don't have any particular plans besides slowly growing stronger. We'll follow your lead."

Vivienne too nodded with a smile.

Now that that was out of the way, Zhen Shi asked what had been on his mind all this time, "Alright then. Now, will you explain why you were worried about divine blessings?"

Myne nodded and began to explain, strangely switching from talking to mental transmission, "It will be useless for you to know the entire story for now, so I'll just tell you what you need to know. One of the lesser-known truths of the central plains...

When the various Divine Organizations first appeared out of nowhere, with majestic churches that had not existed the day before, the entire central plains were thrown into turmoil.

Those that joined and swore fealty to the relevant gods could gain strange and rare classes, including the most popular Divine Prophet and Proclaimer classes.

They also introduced the Divine Totems that granted Divine Blessings and made all the organizations that swore fealty to them much stronger, along with strange items that contained impossibly powerful Divine Curses.

And this was followed by the appearance of personally Divine Blessed with even more mystical abilities.

These three factors gradually shifted the balance of power in the central plains. With more and more people expressing their faith to the gods, almost every organization that had reigned supreme before was forced to fall into line and swear fealty to a Divine Organization.

But, a few of us skeptical and curious folk got together and began to perform various experiments, primarily to see if those results were replicable without a Divine Organization acting as the middle-man.

But, all of those attempts ended in complete failure. It was impossible to perform even a normal divine blessing without a Divine Totem.

Divine Cursed Items were similarly impossible to re-create.

As for personal divine blessings, let alone replicating the effect, we were still trying to figure out what those 'god shadows' actually were."

Myne continued, his tone growing ever more serious, "But we did discover some interesting details.

Both divine blessings and divine curses were discovered to be some sort of... order; a few undeniable, divine words that changed the very nature of the world, a re-writing of reality itself! And this was sensibly named by us as 'a god's edict'!

This was levels above the edicts used by everyday proclaimers, even sovereign level proclaimers were nothing!

In fact, it was later proved that the edict of any proclaimer, is simply an extension of the 'edict' of the patron god that they swore fealty to.

While this was still acceptable, we discovered something much more horrifying. The divine blessing that festered and grew within one's dantian, was identical in structure to a divine curse!

A Divine Curse has varying effects but most commonly they are based on influencing and others to act based on the user's will. So, in theory, this would mean that a divine blessing can be used by the relevant Divine Organization to control anyone!"

Zhen Shi, for the first time, sent a silent prayer of thanks to the System for absorbing his divine 'blessing' and saving him.

Well, it made sense. After all, Zhen Shi had always known that the system was a competent and good friend that looked out for him at every turn...

System:

Turning to Myne, Zhen Shi curiously asked, "If this is true, how come divine blessings are still looked at with such superiority and importance? Wouldn't there be mass hysteria if this was public knowledge?"

Myne scratched his head and explained cryptically, "Not many people are strong enough to be able to analyze the nature of the divine. Not even ordinary sovereigns...

Even if it wasn't so, very few people will care. In a world where law and fairness is only the surface, and power reigns supreme, most people would give much worse than their freedom and sense of self-control, in order to grow stronger...

Not to mention the divine organizations will do their best to keep it a secret and cover it up..."

Zhen Shi nodded while in deep contemplation, this reminded him of some of the strange events 'allegedly' covered up by governments. Not many people actually cared...

But almost immediately, he frowned in realization and asked mentally in worry, "What about the people who I care about and already have divine blessings? Isolde has a divine blessing, even Zhen Xixi! How can I save them?"

Myne and Vivienne glanced at each other helplessly.

Finally, Vivienne smiled lightly and sent back mentally, "Little Bro, based on our research, it's not possible to get rid of divine blessings. But... you 'special' physique seems to possess the ability to absorb divine aether. If you can learn to control it, it should be possible to remove a divine blessing. But for now, all we can say is become stronger..."

Myne too grinned supportively and said mentally, "Yup. Just focus on growing stronger! You already have some extremely unusual abilities with your 'special' physique. If some paltry divine blessing gets in the way of you and your loved ones, just become strong enough to beat it down with sheer power!

Myne and Vivienne wordlessly canceled the dome of qi. They got up and silently began to walk away, as they noticed Zhen Shi's desire to be alone.

But Vivienne paused for a moment and suddenly said, "Little Bro, I know that it's easier for you to improve your cultivation by killing, but it might be a good idea to occasionally cultivate normally and get used to the nature of your body. After all, you can't be too sure when treading on paths walked by none before..."

Myne also spoke out, "And since you expressed interest in learning blacksmithing and..." but strangely paused as he turned to look at Vivienne.

But she simply smiled and nodded.

Thus Myne continued to speak, "pill refining as well, we'll be back once we get the materials."

Zhen Shi simply nodded once more. As Myne and Vivienne walked away, his eyes fell onto the flowing stream of water, shimmering under the mid-day sunlight and jumping along the rocks, but his mind was a mile away.

His eyes glowed and his fists tightened involuntarily...