Chapter 79: Wendegoon's Introduction to the Life Sciences
For a moment, Zhou Ning stood frozen, stunned, wondering if he was seeing things.
In his previous life, information about Wendegoon in the game had been exceedingly scarce. Only a single player who had received a related quest had learned a few scattered facts through the quest text.
Zhou Ning never imagined he would stumble across one of Wendegoon's books at an ordinary bookstall selling occult literature. The coincidence gave him an uncanny sense of fate.
He examined it closely—he hadn't seen wrong. However, "Wendegoon" wasn't listed as the author, but as the book's title.
Taking a steadying breath, Zhou Ning calmly walked over, picked up the book from the stall, and began flipping through it.
It was roughly 400 pages thick and titled Wendegoon's Introduction to the Life Sciences. The text was written in Ruins Script, a language largely unintelligible to most of Bryston's population.
The first dozen or so pages discussed Wendegoon's theories in life sciences, full of obscure Ruins Script terms that required constant dictionary lookups just to make sense of.
Zhou Ning attempted to convert the parts he could recognize into Ancient Falric, using a codebreaking method from Puppet Alchemy—piecing together the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th characters of each line. As expected, the sentences made sense.
So the guy really was consistent—still using the same encryption method.
Just as Zhou Ning was about to flip a few more pages, the stall owner, a middle-aged man with graying hair, finally lost his patience and let out a loud cough. "If you're not buying, put the book down. You've been reading it for over ten minutes."
"Sorry." Zhou Ning snapped out of it and held up the book. "How much is this one?"
"Forty-two Roshens," the shopkeeper replied after checking the title. "It's a medical classic from the Ancient Falric era, and a unique copy at that. This is already a bargain."
Zhou Ning, being well-off, didn't bother haggling. He bought it outright.
The stall owner, pleased to make a sale, smiled. "You're a med student at a nearby university, right? I have a complete set of medical texts written by Blaine. Interested?"
Zhou Ning shook his head, uninterested. He scoured the stall for more books in the same series but found none. To be thorough, he asked, "Do you have any more of Wendegoon's works? I'm willing to pay a premium."
"No," the vendor replied, then hesitated, perhaps swayed by the mention of a high price. "But I can keep an eye out for you in the secondhand book circle. Leave your contact info—if I find anything, I'll have someone notify you. But just so you know, it won't be cheap."
"Sure." Zhou Ning gave a faint smile and scribbled down the address of his alchemy lab. Moments like this made him appreciate the power of money.
After leaving the stall, Zhou Ning wandered around the other booths. According to Molly, some items here held genuine mystical properties. A few old silver artifacts, aged enough, could substitute for mythril in crafting talismans with unique effects. Zhou Ning had a skill called "Occultism," which dealt with this kind of thing.
After half an hour of browsing, with Molly's guidance, Zhou Ning bought several antique silver pieces and rare materials, spending nearly ten Vecktas. Unfortunately, the elusive unknown artifact remained nowhere to be found.
That said, this market had plenty of charm, especially now that supernatural powers had fully resurfaced.
There were fortune-tellers using crystal balls, illusionists playing with strange sleight-of-hand tricks, and witches casting spells. Zhou Ning noticed many bore the marks of the mystic arts, though most were clearly beginners.
It struck him then—he had, unknowingly, become a seasoned supernatural. Zhou Ning chuckled and made his way to the exit.
By the time he returned to Vick University via public coach, it was nearly 10 p.m.
With the new semester approaching, the campus was no longer as quiet as it had been in previous days. Students bustled along the tree-lined paths.
Zhou Ning couldn't help but marvel at his own appeal—just walking from the school gate to his dorm, a five-minute trip, he'd been approached seven or eight times.
Back at his dorm, he found John, surprisingly, not out partying for once, but seated at his desk, writing furiously.
"What are you up to?" Zhou Ning asked curiously.
"Writing a business proposal. I'm starting a new venture," John replied without even looking up. "My dad said if I submit a viable proposal, he'll invest another ten thousand Vecktas."
Zhou Ning: …
He had thought his two thousand Vecktas made him wealthy, but compared to John, he couldn't help but shed a tear for his own poverty.
John paused, lifted his head, and said, "I was going to invite you to start the business with me... but never mind." He smiled and shook his head. "I know someone like you—a supernatural—won't be lured by money, nor would you want to be tied down to a little shop."
Zhou Ning: ?
Why wouldn't I?
You should've at least tried to tempt me with your filthy money! How could you just give up like that without even trying?
After a brief chat, Zhou Ning took a long, relaxing shower. Towel-drying his hair, he returned to his room, pulled out a pen, a sheet of paper, and his Ruins Script dictionary, and began decrypting the book's contents.
With the constant dictionary lookups, it took him nearly five hours to decode all 400 pages. By the time he finished, it was around 3 a.m.
Without hesitation, Zhou Ning picked up the translated manuscript and began reading.
To be honest, the content was both disappointing and astonishing.
It recounted Wendegoon's path after developing Puppet Alchemy. He became obsessed with the idea of synthesizing life. He believed that everything in existence—be it human or stone—was composed of the same basic elements, merely existing in different forms. With the correct formula, they could be interconverted.
To prove his theory, he rigorously studied medicine and conducted countless dissections to understand human anatomy and the placement of each organ. Once he was ready, he began crafting his first alchemical lifeform.
A year later, he succeeded. By mixing Pristine Earth, Primal Life, and human sperm—and continuously adding blood over a forty-day period—he cultivated a transparent humanoid lifeform. Although it died three days later, he believed he was on the right path.
The following sections described his continued experiments, including attempts involving extraordinary creatures. Zhou Ning couldn't fully understand the techniques, but he was deeply shaken by their implications.
Just then, a system notification appeared:
[Through reading, you have learned: Life Alchemy (Beginner).]
"Life Alchemy?"
Zhou Ning glanced at the notification but chose not to focus on it. Because of Holwig and the Life Alchemy Society, he had a rather negative impression of that school of thought.
He continued reading.
After extensive experimentation, Wendegoon felt ready to attempt creating the legendary extraordinary creature—a dragon.
What shocked Zhou Ning most was that Wendegoon actually succeeded. Through his saint-level alchemical techniques, he truly created a dragon.
The final passage in Wendegoon's manuscript read:
"In one book, I read of a brutal war between gods. One god wounded another, and divine blood spilled, forming a lake. If gods can bleed, I find myself wondering—what are their insides like? Do they have organs like humans? As it happens, I now have an opportunity…"
The writing ended abruptly.
At that moment, Molly's voice echoed in Zhou Ning's mind, full of awe: "By the Sun Goddess… This Wendegoon is both a genius and a total madman…"