CHAPTER 173: CHAPTER 173: RESEARCH_1

Speaking of which, Tiffany also found it regrettable; one had to admit the offers from those people were very tempting.

"Very good." Lance paid no mind to her emotions and turned to Dismas. "Did you encounter any problems?"

"My lord, you guessed right. Those guys indeed had some tricks up their sleeve, but I’ve resolved them without leaving any traces."

Lance nodded in acknowledgment upon hearing this.

"Good. I’m aware of the situation. You should all get some rest."

Tiffany could sense there was more to Lance’s conversation with Dismas. After they both left, she didn’t depart but approached Lance to inquire further.

"Why do you think you were able to return unscathed today?" Lance asked with a smile, not minding disclosing the matter.

Business warfare in this world is cruel and direct, devoid of any elaborate schemes, merely a matter of simple interests. Just like York bribing Gene to cause sabotage, it was because Walter had gone missing, leaving behind channels that were valuable enough. Similarly, now that the grain supply from the central plains had been cut off due to natural disasters, the previously insignificant supply channels of the Walter Conglomerate, which Tiffany managed, had become valuable. If the situation remained unchanged, there wouldn’t be too much of a problem. However, Tiffany’s decision to cut off the grain supply was undermining the interests of the local grain merchants. Just like York, the local grain merchants also wanted to seize control of the channels, specifically the upstream grain collection channels. These large factions were far more powerful than a small trading group, especially since this was their territory. They had a hundred ways to make Walter relinquish control of the conglomerate. For example, they could directly apprehend Tiffany, the person in charge. They would do it cleanly, and by the next day, a compliant individual would take over, continuing to run the conglomerate and collect grain for them. But clearly, their current opponent was not Walter, but him—Lance Hamlet. There had to be a reason he placed Dismas and Boudica by Tiffany’s side; he had already thwarted their plans without Tiffany’s knowledge. At least for the short term, those individuals probably wouldn’t make a move.

"So you understand now, right? Don’t wander off unnecessarily. There are definitely people out there watching you."

Lance joked with a smile, but Tiffany genuinely felt a sense of danger, her expression uneasy.

"Alright now, I’m here. What’s there to fear?"

Lance reassured her and then sent the anxious Tiffany away. She looks like she’ll suffer from insomnia tonight, haunted by lingering fears.

Watching her leave, Lance actually had another matter he hadn’t clarified with her.

Only by completely severing the original channels and offending those grain merchants would Walter be forced to rely on me, and only then would the conglomerate be unable to escape my grasp. Tiffany has unwittingly squandered Walter’s last assets, but for me, it was a necessary move. I can’t accept a conglomerate outside my control; my territory’s goods hold too many secrets.

Whether they could sleep or not, Lance didn’t know, but for him, tonight was destined to be sleepless.

Once back in his room, he immediately took out the cursed books he had found in the bookstore.

"The Boundary of Dreams" was divided into three sections: Dream—Entering the Dream—The Dreamer.

Its content described what a person saw and heard in a dream, filled with wonderful imagination. Yet, as one read on, the words became disordered and hasty, and the dream world turned bizarre and mad...

"PHEW!" Lance suddenly awoke with a start and snapped the book shut with the back of his hand. His gaze fixed on it, his breathing grew rapid, and his initially casual demeanor turned grave.

In that instant, I felt as if I was about to fall into the strange world depicted in the book. This is too damn ludicrous! If Sanctuary hadn’t taken effect, I would have ended up trapped in the dream realm just like those other people. This book is too sinister. It’s not something I can study at the moment.

But Lance grew excited. The situation had just proven how powerful Sanctuary was at immunizing against those Curses.

This means that while other Transcendents need to be exceedingly cautious, slowly exploring from the confines of their little boats, I can swim through the ocean of knowledge without pressure and salvage the ancient treasures hidden within!

With this thought, Lance couldn’t wait to take out "Spiritual Vision" and examine it properly.

This book seemed much more formal, explaining a researcher’s studies of Spiritual Essence, though interspersed with some cruel and bloody human experimentation, which was somewhat normal for this era.

Lance quickly immersed himself in it, thereby gleaning the author’s understanding of Spiritual Essence.

All things possess Spiritual Essence. The author’s exploration discovered that human Spiritual Essence manifests in the soul, with inspiration being the degree of fusion between body and soul. The deeper the integration, the more one can accept.

This translates to greater ease in controlling Spiritual Essence, but also an increased susceptibility to its influence, potentially leading to loss of control.

This is not fixed; it could potentially change later in life.

Here, the author, through certain means, unexpectedly discovered in a highly panicked test subject that the human body can forcibly merge soul and body under certain conditions to enhance inspiration.

Upon further research, it was found that not only pain can trigger this, but other extreme emotions such as anger, fear, despair, joy, courage, exhilaration... and love, an emotion the author struggled to comprehend, can all rapidly enhance inspiration in a short period.

For this reason, he conducted some experiments—unfit to be disclosed—finding significant discrepancies in the extent and feedback of the enhancements.

Positive emotions led to stronger enhancements and tended to have positive effects.

In contrast, the enhancements from negative emotions showed great variation among different test subjects. While their effects varied widely, these methods had lower costs and higher success rates.

The author speculated that it might be some sort of human evolution, meant to unleash power under extreme conditions to increase chances of survival.

The book’s content was more like an experimental report. As Lance read the unchanging script on the pages, he could tell the author was a resolute individual, conducting a series of experiments with such a stable mindset.

It seems that in the author’s eyes, ordinary humans are just test subjects, no different from lab rats. And I can’t shake the feeling that this author had something to do with those who modified the Spiritual Crystal refinement techniques. Even if not directly involved, he indirectly played a significant role. His findings surely inspired some people. The author of such content should have been a Legendary figure, yet unfortunately, the book bears no name, or perhaps the author intentionally concealed it.

Continuing to study, Lance quickly noticed something was amiss. His eyes felt dry, which he initially attributed to staying up late. However, he quickly realized that his current physical constitution shouldn’t produce such a reaction.

At that moment, however, his eyes grew warm. Everything before him blurred, and his tear ducts automatically secreted tears, moistening his eyes. Lance instinctively closed his eyelids, squeezing out two lines of clear tears. He raised his hands but didn’t dare to rub his eyes.

Damn! This is a physical Curse!