After exhausting the imperial guards' endless efforts, the terrorist who had been on the run for two months was finally caught and will be burned to death in the central square of the capital this morning. Many people on the streets are rejoicing with hands clasped together, now the capital is finally at peace.

  Ah Si was mixed in the crowd of onlookers, watching as the prisoner was taken out of the prison cart by several soldiers and tied to a pillar surrounded by piles of firewood.

  He was already a man who was hard to distinguish between life and death. His thin body, disheveled hair made his face, which was originally full of scars and bloodstains, indistinguishable. With the deafening roar, the wood pile ignited into a raging fire. In just a few blinks of an eye, the entire figure was engulfed in flames, and it seemed that he didn't even have time to let out a faint cry.

  The speed at which he died was a bit too good to be true. In some sense, this person could also be said to have died for the country, in order to conceal a secret that might endanger the nation. Dying for one's country is also a kind of death that can bring comfort. But this person himself did not want to die, Asa was certain.

  The affairs of state are like that. Asa recalled the words of Duke Mraak last night. Although it's possible no one hated this man enough to want him dead, after a series of complex yet true value judgments, this person must also be burned into charcoal here.

  Bang! The convict's abdominal cavity was burst open by the hot air, and the crowd let out a thrilling roar, filled with cruel pleasure.

  It was almost as if he himself was the protagonist in that fiery scene. The scorching heat wave rushed towards him, and Asa suddenly shivered with a chill, squeezing out of the crowd and leaving.

  He doesn't quite understand national affairs and doesn't want to care about them either. He is now busy with a more important personal matter for him.

  Yesterday evening, he stayed up all night and flipped through all the books in Sandru's bookcase, but didn't see anything about "The Leaf of the World Tree". Still, there was only one page recorded in the second half of that book where he practiced meditation, but except for the title with a few words "The Leaf of the World Tree", other places were still those unreadable texts. When I went to ask Sandru this morning, I rarely saw Sandru flustered and said he had to go out of town for a trip. Asked him what was going on, he actually came up with a sentence: "Going to see my girlfriend." Then took a package and ran away.

  Actually, Asa himself had always found it a bit strange. Since he was young, he had heard from the old adventurer about all the most dangerous places and mysterious things on the continent. Even the Lizard Swamp, he knew everything inside before entering. Yet, he had never heard of the 'World Tree', let alone the name of the Silent Forest.

  But since there is only this one clue now, I can only start from here. Asa suddenly remembered that the Magic Academy has a library, and maybe there will be some clues inside.

  Arrived at the Magic Academy and walked into the library. Probably due to it being early morning, there were not many people in the library. The massive building was divided into over a dozen large rooms, each with signs on the doors indicating the type of books inside, such as "Geography", "History", and "Military". Each room had dozens of long bookshelves, packed tightly with books.

  Asa first went to the 'plants' category room to check the directory, and his eyes were blurred, but he still couldn't find any introduction to the 'World Tree'. After turning around for a few laps, he had no choice but to enter the room marked with the word 'language', hoping to find a dictionary that could translate the text on the book. However, facing tens of thousands of books, he immediately knew it was impossible, and he didn't even know what language the book was written in.

  Asa wandered between the bookshelves, wanting to find someone to ask for advice, but after walking through half of the room, he didn't see a single person. It wasn't until he reached the last two bookshelves that Asa finally saw someone.

  The person was wearing a white robe like the students in the Magic Academy, with an extremely slender figure, squatting on the ground with his back to Asa, intently stacking books up against each other. This game Asa often played before he was five years old, competing with several little friends to see who could stack the highest.

  "Hey." Asa greeted him.

  This person suddenly jumped up from the ground as if they had received a great shock, and the book tower that had been carefully stacked also collapsed. The person turned around, and Asa only discovered that it was a woman, with a bruise on her left eye, and looked very familiar. After taking another look, it turned out to be the girl he rescued last night, Xiao Yi's younger sister.

  She stared at Asa and said in a somewhat panicked tone: "I'm not playing around, I saw the books were messy, so I tidied them up."

  "It's you." Asa was somewhat surprised, but it was just right, she seemed to be a student here and could help out.

  "You're not the administrator?" She let out a sigh of relief and looked puzzled again. "Who are you? Do you know me?"

  "Ah... I'm your sister's friend." Asa replied, pulling out the book. "Can you help me take a look..."

  "Nonsense. My sister doesn't have friends like you." Her guard seemed to be up. "If you want to hit on someone, can't you come up with a better reason? At least dress nicely, okay?"

  Asa shook his head helplessly, took out a mask and put it on his face, saying: "It's me, remember?" She looked at him with a big fright. Asa took off the mask and put it away.

  "Is that you? So that face was just a disguise..." Chris stared at him in a daze, then shook her head. "Still no good, no long hair and so sloppy."

  Asa didn't understand what she was saying at all, took out the book, turned to that page and handed it to her, saying: "Can you help me with something? What is written on this page, can be found here..."

  She didn't even glance at the book, staring at Asa with disdain and shaking her head: "Don't you understand basic manners? When asking for help, at least be polite and address people properly."

  "Miss Mula, can you help me see what this character is and where I can find a translation tool?"

  "Never mind. Don't be so formal, I want to thank you for saving me once, just call me Chris. What's your name?" Chris took the book over.

  "Just call me Ah Sa then." Ah Sa replied.

  "What a weird name, it sounds like 'fool'." Chris glanced at the book and said with a smile: "Consider yourself lucky, this is an ancient script from before the dynasty. And I just so happen to be an expert in this area."

  A Sa was taken aback and said: "That's just right, let expert you take a look at what is written above."

  Kris took a closer look, but her heart was racing. There were many obscure phrases and strange grammar, and she hadn't even studied hard during class time, only roughly understanding about a quarter of it. But Haikou had already boasted about it, and she had been called an "expert", so it wouldn't be good to say that she couldn't understand it now. She could only force herself to string together the things she recognized, and somehow managed to make sense of it. In a pretentious tone, she said: "It says here that the leaf is in... a difficult-to-open forest? What a strange name, even stranger than your name."

  "Is it the Whispering Woods?" Asa asked.

  Kurisu said in a tone of an expert, "That translation is inaccurate. It should be 'The Forest That Is Hard to Enter'. The one mentioned above says that the forest is located south of Aile City in the southeastern part of the Empire... Ah... The tree is a species called Ema. Those are leaves with great power."

  "Is that all? You've filled up a whole page this big and that's it?" Asa asked.

  "It's precisely because of too much nonsense that it's inconvenient to use, that's why we need to abolish it."

  "Really?" Asa asked skeptically.

  "You figure it out yourself. I've told you and you don't believe me, don't pretend to be clueless." Chris said in a lecturing tone.

  But at least I know where it is and in whose hands, Asa let out a sigh of relief. Looking at Chris, who was dressed up like an old man, she didn't have her hair tied up so extravagantly today, but rather had it tucked into her long robe, and without the colorful powder on her face, her youthful beauty was revealed, and the bruise under her eyes made her look a bit comical. Asa reached out to touch her head, pinched her cheek and said: "Thanks expert, I'll treat you to sweets next time."

  "Oh no, rascal!" Chris shrieked and slapped his hand. Asa smiled and turned to leave the room. Suddenly Chris caught up with him from behind and blocked his way, saying: "I helped you out, how can you just leave like that?" Asa replied: "Didn't I say I'd treat you to sweets later?"

  "Come on." Chris's language was like that of a tavern mercenary, probably learned from that little ponytail friend. "I'm bored now, keep me company and chat with me."

  "But I won't pretend to be a housewife, playing with books and stuff." Asa thought this girl was interesting, and now that he had a lead, his mood relaxed a lot, and he felt it wouldn't hurt to chat with her.

  Asa accompanied her in the library, or rather just listened to her vent. Duke Mlarak said she would have to start traveling with a merchant caravan next month to broaden her horizons on the mainland. However, she was clearly already enamored with the luxurious life of the capital and had no desire to see the outside world, yet didn't dare resist her father.

  "Let me borrow that book you had earlier, if it's interesting I'll take it with me on the road. The books here are all too boring to read." Chris took the book and flipped through it, suddenly frowning as she looked at the first page: "This signature is... Archibald Gringham, isn't this a royal surname? There's also a royal crest here... This is a royal book, where did you steal it from? This book is also very strange, it seems to be made of some kind of skin."

  "This is human skin. This is someone else's book, I'm going to take it back." Asa scared her.

  "Are you kidding me? Fine, I'll just give you some money." Chris was disdainful, thinking that someone dressed so shabbily must be a poor devil, and poor devils could naturally be bought off with a little cash.

  Asa was reminded that he didn't have any money or a horse, and going to such a faraway place on foot would take at least several months. He hastily said: "Then lend me some money." Although this book belonged to Sandru, it was tattered and dusty, thrown behind the cabinet, probably not something very important, perhaps even Sandru himself had forgotten about it. Besides, it was just borrowed to exchange for some necessary travel expenses, and would be returned later.

  Unfortunately, he didn't know the true value of this book. If he had known, even if it was a real treasure, he wouldn't have dared to exchange it.

  Chris disdainfully pulled out a dozen silver coins and threw them to Asa, who was indeed a poor devil, and was immediately dismissed with just a few small coins.

  Unfortunately, she didn't know what this book was either. If she had known, even if someone gave her an extra mountain of gold, she would not have dared to take it.

  Arin looked at the small, shiny objects in his hand with some astonishment. He hadn't expected Chris to give him so much money; it was the first time in his life he'd ever held silver coins. In his hometown, one silver coin could support a family of three for a month.

  This tattered book can actually be pawned for such a huge sum, it's really unexpected. He suddenly had the idea that Chris would regret it, so he hastily comforted her with a few words and quickly walked away. It wasn't until he left the Magic Academy that he remembered he had forgotten to investigate the specific situation of the Whispering Woods. Fortunately, he already knew the general location, and he could ask people in Aili City too.

  Back to the big house, Shandoru has not returned yet. Asa is also afraid that he will mention again that he still owes him work things, and taking the book to pawn for silver coins makes him feel a bit guilty. So he simply left a note for Shandoru, saying that he went to the Whispering Woods to get the leaves of the World Tree, and then went to the Adventurer's Guild to buy a horse and some adventure items before setting off.

  After walking for a while, Shandru also came back with a swagger. When he saw the content written on the note left by Asa, he let out a strange cry.

  "It should be fine..." He thought for a moment, shook his head to himself, and waved the paper strip around.

  With a whoosh, the paper strip in his hand turned into a wisp of smoke.