Outside the high walls of the school city, the hustle and bustle gradually disappeared.
Liu Qian's figure disappeared into a narrow alley.
He stopped in front of a simple wooden door with peeling patent leather, raised his hand and knocked.
The door axle slowly opened inward, and there stood an old man tall and thin but slightly hunchbacked.
His weathered face was covered with wrinkles, like cracks in a dry riverbed, a pair of blue eyes were deeply surrounded by wrinkles, and sparse gray-white hair was soft on his scalp.
The most striking thing is the smile on the corner of his mouth that is a bit kind and seems to hide wisdom.
"Hello."
The old man's voice was gentle: "Who are you looking for?" "
Liu Qian also had a smile on his face: "Excuse me, are you a bachelor?" "
The smile on the old man's face remained unchanged, he nodded slightly, and then slowly shook his head again: "Three days ago, maybe it was okay, now, the cardinal of the school city has officially stripped me of my bachelor status." "
His tone was calm, as if he was stating a trivial matter that had nothing to do with him.
Liu Qian looked directly at those seemingly gentle blue eyes and got straight to the point: "Bachelor of Science and Technology, if I unconditionally support your exploration and research in necromancy and other fields, and provide you with sufficient resources, safe places, and even experimental materials, would you like to join my team?" "
The gentle smile in Coben's eyes seemed to fluctuate slightly, flashing with an extremely imperceptible light.
He didn't show obvious surprise, but tilted his head slightly and looked at the stranger in front of him with great interest: "Excuse me... Who are you? "
His voice was still steady, but the sense of inquiry was significantly aggravated.
"I'm from the Stone Steps Islands."
Liu Qian said calmly: "This time I came to the school city to recruit talents like you who have a persistent spirit of exploration for the deep mysteries of the world, but suffer from worldly prejudices and shackles. "
He didn't mention Malwyn or reveal more details, but the words "exploring the deep mysteries of the world" were enough to stir up ripples in Cobain's mind.
When Cobain heard this, the usual smile on the corner of his mouth seemed to deepen.
He didn't ask any more questions, not even showing the slightest hesitation, just nodded simply: "Understood." "
He turned sideways to get out of the way, "Please wait a moment, I'll go pack my things, and I can go with you now." "
His tone was so flat that he seemed to be talking about going to the market to buy a piece of bread.
Liu Qian was slightly startled, he didn't expect the other party to agree so neatly, and even a little impatient.
But in an instant, he understood.
Coburn, the "madman" who was expelled from the school city, is essentially a pure scientific research maniac.
As long as he can satisfy his almost paranoid desire to explore unknown areas and provide the most basic research conditions, worldly identity, reputation and even moral shackles may be as light as a feather in his eyes.
Such an existence, as long as his core needs are identified, it will naturally be effortless to subdue him.
Watching Coben turn around, he quickly but methodically began to clean up his simple room full of bottles and cans, bizarre specimens and paper full of strange symbols, Liu Qian felt even more determined.
After a while, Cobain walked out with a suitcase that looked quite old and a bulging canvas bag, which were clearly his treasured research materials and "tools".
"Okay, let's go."
Coben's smile was still on his face.
Liu Qian nodded, took this special talent who had just been "recruited", and quietly left this dark alley.
He escorted Coburn safely to the galleys moored in the harbor and guarded by elite soldiers, and ordered the guards to ensure his safety, before turning around again and returning to the school city.
When he pushed open the door of Malwin's alchemy lab and storage room again, the atmosphere inside was very different from when he left.
Malwyn was sitting on his broken chair surrounded by mountains of books, leaning forward, his expression was unprecedentedly focused and serious, even with a hint of humility in the face of advanced learning.
He was gushing about blood magic one question after another to Janice sitting across from him.
Janice looked calm and confident, her purple eyes shining with wisdom, answering in an orderly manner, occasionally quoting the original sentences from the forbidden book, which often made Malwyn suddenly realize and slap her thigh with excitement.
Seeing Liu Qian return, Malwyn raised his head suddenly, his face instantly glowed with an almost excited glow, he pointed at Janice and shouted in a rough voice mixed with amazement and excitement:
"Oriental boy! You're finally back! Oh my God, you're really eye-opening for me, Miss Janice... Her understanding of the nature of magic and her mastery of Valyrian's secret arts are simply enough to forge a Valyrian steel occult necklace in the school city, no! It's two! This girl is a genius! "
His tone was full of excitement like a treasure discovery.
Janice was a little embarrassed to be praised, her fair cheeks were slightly red, but her eyes were still bright.
Liu Qian cast an approving glance at her, then turned to Malwyn and cut straight to the point: "Dr. Malvin, did you send someone to send that Archbishop Maynard's diary?" "
"Diary? Yes! Yeah! Malwyn patted his shiny head, as if he had just remembered, and immediately bounced off his chair and threw himself on the table that looked like the scene of a disaster.
With both hands, he rummaged frantically through mountains of parchment rolls, glassware and mineral specimens, muttering non-stop in his mouth: "I remember... I remember that when Pete sent it over, I was careful... Damn, where did you put it? Pett clearly said that it was placed under this pile of manuscripts..."
"Pete?" Liu Qian's heart moved.
The mediocre apprentice who has been in the school city for many years but has achieved nothing, and has not forged a necklace?
A name instantly evoked fragments of his memory of this "little person".
Pete is obsessed with the quiller bottle's maid Rosie and longs for her first night.
To raise a golden dragon, he makes a deal with an alchemist who mysteriously appears.
Use the stolen Dr. Vograve's master key that can open all the doors of the school city in exchange for the golden dragon that changes fate.
The final result is that Pate stupidly dies of death, and both people and money are empty.
However, Pate's story is not the point.
The key is that the faceless man named Alchemist but suspected of being Jaquin is likely to use that key to continue to lurk in the depths of the school city as Pate after his death.
Why did the Black and White House spend such a lot of effort to send the top "God of a Thousand Faces" servants to infiltrate this fortress of knowledge?
What exactly are their goals?
An interesting guess is that Eurun Greyjoy once boasted to his brother Victalion that he had a dragon egg, but threw it into the sea when he was in a bad mood.
And this is just a lie by Youlun, the truth is that in order to get rid of his brother Baron who prevented him from ascending to the throne of the Iron Islands, Yulun hired the Faceless in the House of Black and White.
The reward paid is most likely the legendary dragon egg.
If this speculation is true, then after the Faceless obtains the dragon egg, the purpose of sending Jia Kun to infiltrate the old town school city is about to come out.
They need to find some way, some lost secret, or powerful magical item to help them hatch this silent dragon egg fossil.
Thoughts flashed like lightning, and Liu Qian's attention was pulled back to reality by Malvin's rough exclamation:
"Ah! Got it! Damn, how did it get under this pile of stuff? I have clearly turned over here. "
Malwyn pulled a quaintly bound book from under a pile of mineral samples like a treasure.
The cover is a crimson hard skin with faded blue silk threads on the edges, which looks solemn and mysterious.
Liu Qian immediately stepped forward and took the diary of Archbishop Maynard from Malvin.
Malwyn gasped, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, and stared at Liu Qian suspiciously: "This Archbishop Maynard has been in office for more than ten years, you kid, where did you dig up this old thing?" "
Liu Qian didn't answer, he quickly and accurately turned the yellowed and fragile pages, his eyes brushing over the faded ink like a scanner.
Finally, near the end of the page, in the corner where the edges of the paper were already somewhat broken and curled, a seemingly inconspicuous line of record locked his sight.
The handwriting is clear and solemn:
"... At the sincere request of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, a priest was sent to the shore of the Eye of God to perform a sacred marriage ceremony for him and Miss Lyanna Stark, and to conclude an eternal vow in the presence of the Seven Gods..."
Is Rhaega crazy?!
Liu Qian's heart was turbulent.
He always thought that the plot of Rhaegar and Lyanna getting married in the series was all made up, but the reality was in front of him.
However, there are also some differences in the content and episodes of the diary.
Instead of asking the archbishop to dissolve his marriage to Princess Illya, Rhaegar intends to follow the example of Aegon the Conqueror and marry two wives.
"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! How could this be?! "
Malwyn also leaned over, his cloudy eyes staring at the line of handwriting.
His face instantly turned pale, as if his blood had been drained, and he suddenly snatched the diary from Liu Qian's hand, his fingers trembled from excessive force, and he roared hoarsely: "Lei Jia... He actually had a relationship with Liana... Under the witness of the Church of the Seven Gods... Concluded a marriage?! O gods! "
He seemed to be unable to withstand the impact of this fact, and his body shook, almost unsteady.
Once this diary is made public, it is enough to detonate the entire Westeros.
The reason for Robert's rebellion was that Rhaegar kidnapped and imprisoned his fiancée Liana, and now all these reasons would not be tenable in front of this diary.