The light patterns began to shape after gathering for a moment.
Soon, a familiar object appeared in front of everyone.
"The True Words Tome?" Angel whispered.
Indeed, what appeared before them was the True Words Tome formed by countless light patterns, and it emitted familiar fluctuations: the Power of Earth, Bloodline Power, Elemental Power, and... Power of Nightmare Illusion.
This was the very book Angel and the others had used previously when signing a contract with the Wise Sovereign.
The Wise Sovereign nodded: "To demonstrate my sincerity and dispel your doubts about what I say, I will use this True Words Tome."
Everyone was well aware of the rules of the True Words Tome; during questioning, one cannot remain silent, although lying is possible, but anything written on the book pages cannot be false. The Wise Sovereign producing the True Words Tome clearly intended to rely on the pages for crucial questions to show sincerity.
This was indeed a good thing for everyone.
They might not fully trust the Wise Sovereign’s words, but they would certainly trust the records in the True Words Tome.
Wise Sovereign: "Everything as before, adhering to the original rules."
Adhering to the original rules meant forgoing the True Words Tome’s unique "gambling", which was still advantageous for them. Truly engaging in gambling with the Wise Sovereign, this ancient fox, might not be something they could handle.
The Wise Sovereign paused: "As a reward for passing the trial, it is now your time, and you may ask questions."
Black Earl: "Everything related to the relics."
The Wise Sovereign looked at Black Earl: "You can, this is something I promised you. However... before that, I still need to confirm one thing: has the record about the relics completely disappeared from the Noah Clan’s ancestral narrations?"
Black Earl: "Why do you need to confirm this?"
Though Black Earl only had a nose floating in the air, making his expression invisible, the Wise Sovereign could hear the underlying meaning in his tone.
— The confirmation is perhaps intended to calculate how much to alter?
The Wise Sovereign: "If I truly intended to fabricate, would I tell you beforehand?"
"Then what do you mean?"
"I just want an answer." The Wise Sovereign paused, "I only visited the relics during their initial construction, and haven’t entered them over the years. So, whatever changes occurred inside, and what Augustine left behind, I mostly speculate about. I need to get some answers from his descendants to better explain to you."
As the Wise Sovereign spoke, he extended his finger, infusing Magic Power into the True Words Tome. Unlike before, the specialized screen did not appear. This was expected, as only the first Magic Power input shows each person’s specialized screen, yet this True Words Tome already contains everyone’s Magic Power, so the specialized screen no longer appears.
With the infusion of Magic Power, every word the Wise Sovereign spoke surfaced on the book pages, which indicated he did not lie with this statement.
However, the meaning of the statement itself was ambiguous, and the True Words Tome couldn’t be absolute proof.
As a result, Black Earl hesitated about how to answer.
At this time, the Wise Sovereign spoke once more: "It seems you still have doubts. Let me ask you, regarding how much the Noah Clan remembers about the relics, but only two yes-or-no questions, leaving you to decide whether to answer on the book pages or verbally."
Black Earl thought for a moment, then nodded: "Alright."
The Wise Sovereign didn’t immediately ask, but instead glanced at everyone: "I’ll pose the yes-or-no question on the True Words Tome pages, so you must answer too. Likewise, each of you is free to choose to answer on the book pages or verbally."
The True Words Tome contains everyone’s Magic Power, hence everyone is part of those questioned, and must answer, as this is the rule of the True Words Tome.
Answering on the book pages must be truthful, whereas verbal answers could be true or false, and the Wise Sovereign must judge for himself.
Though everyone wondered why the Wise Sovereign didn’t directly ask Black Earl verbally—this way, they wouldn’t need to answer themselves—but realizing more than one Noah descendant was present, posing questions this way saved time, thus they remained silent.
"The first question, I have already written into the True Words Tome, you can see the book page in front of you." Soon, the Wise Sovereign put forth the first question.
"Do you know of the Qingkong Poetry Room?"
Everyone exchanged glances in confusion, Qingkong Poetry Room, what is that?
They were unaware of what the Qingkong Poetry Room was, and the question wasn’t really directed at them, so they all expressed ignorance.
Most of them responded verbally, including Vay, a Noah descendant, who didn’t write the answer in the True Words Tome.
The only, or rather the two who wrote their answers into the True Words Tome, were Black Earl and... Angel.
Black Earl initially wished to let the Wise Sovereign guess whether he knew the place, but realized, why go around such a large circle? Not to mention, it might not be possible to hide from the Wise Sovereign.
As for Angel, he wasn’t joining in just to stir things up, but vaguely sensed that the Wise Sovereign deliberately expanded the yes-or-no questions from just Black Earl to include everyone, likely targeting not Vay, but himself.
Angel had appeared too familiar with things throughout, making it hard for almost everyone present, including the Wise Sovereign, to not suspect him.
Since the Wise Sovereign might be probing him, Angel thought it might as well be answered directly.
If a lie were needed, Angel would want to see whether the True Words Tome’s penalty might rebound onto him... or onto someone in the Nightmare Realm? After all, the energy Angel inputted into the True Words Tome wasn’t self-derived.
Nonetheless, this question needed no lies; Angel was genuinely unaware of what the Qingkong Poetry Room was.
Thus, his answer was: No.
And Black Earl’s answer was likewise: No.
The Wise Sovereign first glanced at Black Earl, showing no reaction to his answer. Then looked at Angel... The Wise Sovereign indeed intended to probe Angel, believing Angel also guessed his intention, yet he hadn’t expected Angel to be so honest.
Initially thinking Angel would answer verbally, but it turned out that he was the only one besides Black Earl to write the truthful answer on the page.
The big "No" made the Wise Sovereign squint slightly. In his imagination, Angel was peculiar within the group, and Adanis’s attention towards them was unusually high, logically speaking, Angel ought to have deep knowledge about the relics, including awareness of the Qingkong Poetry Room, yet the True Words Tome’s calm reaction indicated the answer was certain; Angel indeed did not know of the Qingkong Poetry Room’s existence.
Though the Wise Sovereign was suspicious internally, he didn’t outwardly express it, addressing everyone: "This question was just to find out whether the Noah descendants still remembered Augustine’s story, but it now seems they’ve forgotten his tale... I can only say, her strategy worked."
"Her strategy?" Black Earl asked doubtfully.
The Wise Sovereign: "Not in a rush, I will explain later. Now, I shall proceed with the second question, the last yes-or-no question of this time, once answered, I will tell you all I know."