Rivers of the Night - Chapter 686

Capítulo 686: Con

‘Fascinating.’

The secret here wasn’t in the fact the Runes of the formation reflected every form, but instead in the fact they represented every Law.

Theron had never thought aobut it so clearly before, but it was clear and obvious to him that Laws birthed Mana, not the other way around. Laws were the fundamental building blocks of the world around him, and Mana was the byproduct of substance and life forming around said rules.

This was why any Law could be applied to any Mana, but there were a nigh infinite number of Laws, while there was most definitely a finite number of types of Mana.

This formation theory, on the surface, seemed to require every kind of Mana affinity to use, but this couldn’t have been further from the truth. This was like putting the cart before the horse.

Instead, the essence of this formation theory was instead that any Mana could be used to trigger any sort of result. Rather than just touching onto the ways Mana of a certain type interacted with the most obvious of Laws, like Fire with Eruption or Water with Fluidity, it instead formed a method of formation mastery that could apply a singular Mana to every Law that existed.

To a layman, this might seem liek it required every affinity under the sun to comprehend. But this was only because their comprehension of their own Mana was too shallow and too lacking. They couldn’t grasp how Eruption might apply to Water, or how Fluidity might apply to Earth.

But Theron could.

In fact, he could so easily he had seen through this secret instantaneously.

There was a very obvious clue as to why as well. Theron had felt the truth of the matter just by reading the three books separately. He innately felt that there was a conneciton without the input of the Nightingale Ancestor Bird.

However, Theron still had to thank the Ancestor Bird nonetheless. Without it, he would have more than likely just picked one.

He wanted to understand formation mastery not because he was interested in the field, but instead to better protect himself in the future. Most cultivators didn’t need more than a basic understanding.

He had originally planned to fill in what gaps remained after the fact with his foundational knowledge. So long as he learned more about the underlying physical laws of the world—laws he could learn about in his library—he would be able to more easily apply the basic knoweldge he gained here.

But it was also thanks to this basic knowledge he had grasped that something almost no one else would have noticed appeared here.

Theron’s eyes narrowed. ‘This might bring trouble.’

Theron couldn’t help but notice something else now, something that he had missed earlier because his understanding of formation mastery was too shallow.

But here, there was an imprint, a unique one designed to mark who was selling. This was meant to be private as the seller was anonymous in most cases unless there was a famous crafter hawking their wares.

However, Theron saw something curious.

While there were subtle differences between each listing, and every one was put up separately and across many different weeks at widely variable times, the presence was just the same every time.

‘This must be the drawback of imprinting things into jade. It’s no wonder that this was written out in such a primitive method…’

Every time you wrote something within a jade, you needed to use your soul. And while using your soul, it was inevitable that you would leave behind traces of your aura.

In this case, it was like someone’s hand writing. It wasn’t as involved as signing something into a jade. But because whoever put these items up for sale needed to fill in certain bits of information themselves, the result was bound to leave some traces of themselves.

Not only was this person the same, but when they received the notification that their items had been sold, even if the pavilion didn’t reveal who the buyer was out of confidentiality, the fact they had been bought at the same time would raise red flags.

There was a good chance that this person didn’t even know what these items were, or else it would be unlikely for them to put them up for sale. But…

‘The fact they staggered the postings is suspicious. If this was, say, someone who inherited some things they thought were useless and thought to sell them, they would post them all at the same time, but these listings were a few days apart and at odd times of the day. One super early morning, and two others at various points at night. And…’

Theron’s eyes narrowed as he flicked his fingers a few timess. The filter system expanded and Theron’s gaze began to dart through the listings.

As expected, there were more listings with the same imprint on them. Not only were there the same imprint, but they were also all books on formations, all written by hand.

The tricky part was that some of them were more intermediate books, and some were more high level. These ones had been on the market for even longer than the basic ones had been.

Not a single one had been posted on the same exact day, while the ones that were the most high level cost an arm and a leg.

Just to exchange for all of them, it would take half the wealth Theron had only just gotten from the King Inn.

To say that that would raise even more red flags would only be an understatement.

That said… there was also a chance that he was being baited.

‘These listings… there’s a chance they’re useless and don’t have what I think they do within them. Maybe this person posted the real things at the lower levels, knowing that whoever could see through their secrets would undoubtedly have the funds to pay for the rest of them…’

No one would expect a GOld Mancer like Theron to see through such things. They would be expecting someone with the experience of the Nightingale Ancestor Bird.

In fact, the staggered listings might be exactly for that purpose…

To con someone.

So… should he take the chance or not?