Chapter 31 - Unmemorable Sutra
Thirteen violet metal sheets were connected to each other like a mini-comic book. Its contents were viewable the moment he opened it. There were tiny words densely packed on every page and on both sides.
Zhou Wen began reading from the back of the first page. It was indeed the opening of a typical Primordial Energy Art. It mentioned things like the human magnetic field and Primordial Energy Art. As he read it, Zhou Wen suddenly felt hungry. Recalling that his favorite salted eggs were among the food he had bought yesterday, he put down the Lost Immortal Sutra and peeled one to add it to a bowl of instant noodles.
After he had finished eating, he returned to read Lost Immortal Sutra, only to realize that he had forgotten his reading progress.
Zhou Wen frowned slightly. He was confident in his memory and although it wasn’t a photographic one, he wouldn’t forget anything he read for a couple of years.
Yet, in less than ten minutes, he had forgotten the few lines he had just read.
Reading the Lost Immortal Sutra again, he was astonished to realize that it wasn’t as simple as forgetting his reading progress. When he read it from the beginning, he found the content equally unfamiliar as though it was the first time he was reading it. He had apparently forgotten all the content he had read just minutes ago.
There’s indeed something odd about this! Zhou Wen continued reading before finding himself feeling hungry again. He needed some more food.
This moment of distraction was enough to make him forget his reading progress in Lost Immortal Sutra. When he read from the beginning, he found the content he had just read unfamiliar once more. He had forgotten the content again.
Zhou Wen refused to have his beliefs shaken as he picked up his phone, opened its notes app, and began recording the content he read from the violet sheet.
However, whenever Zhou Wen memorized a sentence and turned his gaze to the phone, he would find his thoughts a blank when he tried to input the content. He couldn’t recall the line he had just memorized.
After attempting to memorize the Lost Immortal Sutra again, Zhou Wen quickly discovered that he could clearly remember the content when reading it, but once he moved his gaze away in a bid to record it, everything would be forgotten.
Zhou Wen attempted to write as he read, but it was useless. Just any level of distraction was enough to wipe his memories of Lost Immortal Sutra’s content.
He tried using his phone to snap pictures of the Lost Immortal Sutra, but after taking a few pictures, he found that the pictures only showed the metal sheet being a uniform violet color without any engravings.
This Lost Immortal Sutra is indeed odd. Not only can’t I divert my attention to read it, but I’ll be affected by the text within when focusing, getting distracted by my various emotions. It’s truly bizarre. Zhou Wen thought as he looked at the Lost Immortal Sutra engraved on the metal sheets.
Unbeknownst to him, this Lost Immortal Sutra wasn’t only simple but bizarre. He just experienced distractions in the beginning, but towards the end, it escalated to something far more fatal.
Many Epic stage experts in history had died because of reading of Lost Immortal Sutra. Even if they were lucky to survive, they would go crazy and become no different from an idiot.
Even Jing Daoxian wasn’t able to finish reading Lost Immortal Sutra after obtaining it. He closed it after reading it midway without daring to continue. If it wasn’t because the Lost Immortal Sutra had a magical connection to its owner, making it impossible to forcefully abandon it, Jing Daoxian wouldn’t have kept it on him.
If it wasn’t because of the influence that Lost Immortal Sutra exerted on him, Jing Daoxian wouldn’t have been injured inside a dimensional zone. He had originally planned on finding a way of disposing of it.
When Zhou Wen declined Jing Daoxian’s Skyfiend Treatise, the latter was insistent that Zhou Wen cultivated in the Primordial Energy Art he had given. Not only did he want Zhou Wen to cultivate it, but he also wanted Zhou Wen to suffer for his actions. He even wanted him to die a tragic death. This was the reason why he had given the Lost Immortal Sutra to him.
His vile nature was absolutely nothing the average person could compare with. He was truly a devil.
Due to the strangeness of the Lost Immortal Sutra, Zhou Wen didn’t continue reading. He even wanted to experiment if anything would happen to him if he distanced himself from the metal slab and the Lost Immortal Sutra.
…
In a hotel suite in Guide City, a few people were sitting around a table, discussing something. If Zhou Wen were around, he would have recognized them to be the uniformed personnel he had met that fateful night.
“We let Jing Daoxian escape once again. Damn it,” a man said angrily.
It hadn’t been easy for them to acquire clues of Jing Daoxian’s whereabouts. Furthermore, the latter was heavily injured, giving them their best chance of apprehending him. Yet, they had still failed to catch up to him.
“Despite being so heavily injured, how did he break through our blockade and escape without us realizing it,” a woman said, perplexed.
“Regardless of how injured he is, he is still Jing Daoxian nonetheless. We shouldn’t take it to heart. If we had locked down all of Guide City in the beginning, we might have stood a chance of finding him.”
Everyone exchanged their views, except for a man who remained silent. At the seat of honor, he rhythmically tapped the table’s surface as he hung his eyelids low, seemingly in thought.
“Minister Qiao, what’s your take on this?” a blonde, green-eyed lady gave the man a teasing look as she asked with a coquettish voice.
Qiao Siyuan looked up slightly when he heard her question. Stopping his tapping of the table, he swept his gaze across everyone.
“How long did Jing Daoxian spend in Guide City, from the moment he entered until he left?” Qiao Siyuan didn’t reply to the lady’s question and returned with a question.
The woman switched on her tablet and said after taking a look at the information. “For a person like Jing Daoxian with extremely powerful perception, it won’t be easy for cameras to capture any traces of him. Thankfully, the Eye in the Sky is a rather well-refined system. There are certain areas that make it impossible to escape surveillance. From the video feed we have at present, we can determine that Jing Daoxian entered Guide City at approximately 8:30 p.m. and left at 9:20 p.m., spending a total of fifty minutes in Guide City.
After Qiao Siyuan heard this, he picked up his pen and drew out a red line on Guide City’s map. “This is the path we took while pursuing Jing Daoxian. Based on the information we have at present, he has suffered grievous injuries, so he can’t advance too quickly. In addition, there are no reports of him using any transportation.”
“Based on the snapshots occasionally taken by the Eye in the Sky, that’s indeed the case. Jing Daoxian didn’t walk very quickly, reaching the square’s vicinity at approximately 8:55 p.m….” the lady briefed him in detail.
“Then, did you notice that the distance between Xiangjun Road to Changjiang Road only takes up less than 5% of his entire trajectory in Guide City. Yet, he spent nearly ten minutes there. Can someone tell me why?” Qiao Siyuan glared at everyone as he asked.
“Perhaps he needed to tend to his wounds?” a young man suggested.
Qiao Siyuan said stoically, “Does anyone of you remember our encounter with a high-schooler on that stretch of road?”
Everyone took some time to recall. When the lady realized what he was talking about, she hurriedly said, “The youth who you asked about Jing Daoxian’s direction of escape?”