I'm not just human!

These five characters, when combined, form a barely meaningful half-sentence: "The hour leaks against it."

It still looks a bit strange.

"It seems... that the Chinese characters in this secret document are arranged in sequential order, not as gibberish, so it won't affect readability..."

As he pondered, the ball of light that Xia Fa had transformed into instinctively swayed up and down twice, making a slight nodding motion.

Immediately, he mustered his spirits and, filled with immense curiosity and a desire to explore, began searching for the other Chinese characters within this long, secret text.

To be honest, the fact that there were Chinese characters on this secret contract formed from the origin of the universe almost ignited his curiosity.

If it weren't for the other cryptic texts, which looked either like tadpoles or children's scribbles, he would have loved to translate the entire text.

Perhaps, this involves some earth-shattering secret.

Soon, Xia Fa found all the Chinese characters in the secret text to form the first sentence, and the meaning was finally completely understood.

This sentence is clearly: "Shi Lou whispered advice to its paws."

However, although he barely understood the meaning of the sentence, Xia Fa still didn't quite understand the underlying implications.

Fortunately, there were dozens of Chinese characters in the secret text of this Etheric Source Contract, and Xia Fa found them all in one go.

Then, these Chinese characters... somehow formed an article that looked like a poem!

"Shi Lou whispered advice to its paws."

"What appears in the sunlight is a huge, gray mountain range."

"Turning around majestically between heaven and earth."

"The scorching charcoal dried the eye sockets, and the red-hot iron coagulated the blood."

"A wailing heart, a gluttonous silence, a mocking lament."

Xia Fa read it quietly once, then once more, and then once more. Suddenly, his body trembled slightly!

Because of him!

Actually!

I didn't understand it at all...

But immediately, an astonishing change occurred within his body.

The transparent meat strip he had just eaten, which was about half-digested in stomach acid, began to dissolve at a visible speed!

These transparent strips of flesh transformed into streaks of translucent light that darted about, passing through his stomach wall and flowing into his organs and limbs.

Most of the translucent glow was quickly absorbed by his body, greatly reducing the aches and pains that were radiating throughout his body.

A small portion of the radiance directly merged into his mental body and rapidly rose to the boundary between his mental body and his astral body.

Immediately... they all merged into that illusory Etheric Secret Source Contract!

The next moment, all the Chinese characters that Xia Fa had found lit up, radiating a sun-like light.

A warm feeling spread from the lit words, making him, who had transformed into a ball of light, feel warm and comfortable, like soaking in a hot spring on a cold winter's day.

A feeling surged within Xia Fa, an intuition born of instinct.

That is... as he found and understood the surface meaning of the poems composed of these Chinese characters, his understanding of the Etheric Source Secret Code increased to twenty percent!

"This……"

Xia Fa was somewhat taken aback, because according to what Ban Li had said before, if a superhuman signed an ordinary secret contract, it would take at least a year to fully understand it to the point of 100%.

However, for advanced secret contracts, it takes at least three to five years to fully understand them.

He was prepared to spend at least one or two years fully understanding the advanced secret contract of the Ether Source, but unexpectedly, he understood 20% of it on his first attempt!

The process has been greatly shortened!

"Speaking of which, compared to the burning sensation and the electric current surging through my spine, this is what I truly cheated this time... and it's a cheat that only I in this world can cheat..."

Xia Fa didn't know whether to laugh or cry. After waiting for so long, it turned out his was hanging here all along.

In fact, some extraordinary individuals with exceptional talent and comprehension can also shorten the time required to understand the secret code, but they probably can't match him, who understands about 20% of it right away.

At the same time, as his understanding of the Ether Source Pact reached twenty percent, much knowledge about how to better utilize the abilities within this advanced pact naturally surfaced in his mind.

"Hmm... The weaker the supernatural power within an enemy, the lower their resistance to the Secret Bond ability... So, it's even possible to drain the enemy's blood with water?"

Honestly, this ability is just too abnormal.

However, according to this knowledge, it seems that only beings who have signed the Water Pact or the Ether Source Pact and have reached the level of demigods or above can do this against an ordinary person who is powerless.

Only in this way could the difference in extraordinary power between the two sides be enough for a demigod to activate this ability to drain blood.

"Earth elements can catalyze seeds and make crops grow quickly? But why is there still a famine in this world?"

Xia Fa speculated that this might be due to the scarcity of extraordinary individuals.

After all, not everyone can withstand the infusion of extraordinary power, and even if they can, they may lose control because they cannot resist the whispers of the unknown beings they hear when signing the secret pact.

This is why those who become extraordinary are admired and respected by the public, and why the church requires each clergy member to undergo rigorous examinations before they can become extraordinary.

Because there are far too few people who meet the criteria.

Xia Fa absorbed this knowledge with great eagerness, feeling that his grasp and understanding of the Etheric Source Secret Contract had increased several times over.

With such progress, he was filled with motivation and continued his efforts, beginning to try to understand the other cryptic texts on the secret code.

Starting from scratch, he first looked at the first line of the cryptic text.

These cryptic texts did not contain any Chinese characters that he was familiar with. Half of them were tadpole-shaped characters, a small part looked like graffiti, and the last few characters resembled cuneiform script.

A splitting headache surged up, and Xia Fa felt as if he were looking at a university-level advanced mathematics textbook.

But he gritted his teeth and persisted in trying to understand.

Gradually, he actually began to understand the meaning of each word in that line of cryptic text.

However, the meaning of each word is extremely complex, and the amount of information contained in a single word is equivalent to that in a sentence.

This line of cryptic text can only be understood by reading each cryptic text individually; it cannot be connected into a sentence like the previous Chinese characters.

At that very moment, a past experience flashed through Xia Fa's mind.

That was when he met Chestnut and his group in the cave.

At the time, Archbishop Glenn suspected that he was either out of control or a weirdo disguised as a human. Then, Chestnut immediately used a yellow crystal that was suspected to be a secret treasure to test him.

Three cryptic symbols appeared within the yellow crystal, which Xia Fa could not decipher at all.

But everyone else only glanced at them and understood the meaning of the three cryptic symbols, thus confirming that Xia Fa had not lost control.

Now, with his understanding of the first line of the secret text on the Ether Source Pact, Xia Fa discovered that he could also understand the other three lines of text.

"Interesting... I didn't expect the meaning of those three cryptic texts to be like this..."

Chapter 43 Crystal Dragon Grouper!

This happened just yesterday afternoon, so Xia Fa remembers it very clearly, especially the shapes of the three cryptic symbols.

The first cryptic inscription was tadpole-shaped, and he now understood that it meant:

"Mental stability: extremely stable."

The second cryptic inscription, also tadpole-shaped, means:

"Body stability: extremely stable, but rather thin."

The third cryptic message, at first glance, resembles a running horse drawn by a child with crayons in art class, but its meaning is:

"The overall risk of spiraling out of control is extremely low."

After understanding the meaning of the three cryptic inscriptions through the images in his memory, Xia Fa found it extremely interesting.

It's like having a difficult problem you've seen before that you couldn't solve, but then suddenly you can solve it in the blink of an eye.

No wonder Archbishop Glenn and the other extraordinary individuals trusted him immediately after only glancing at the three cryptic texts; the detection was so clear and thorough.

"Each cryptic message represents at least one sentence of information..."

"Moreover, even with the same cryptic inscription, as long as there are slight changes, such as the direction in which the tadpole-like characters' tails point—whether to the three o'clock or ten o'clock position—the information conveyed will be completely different..."

"If it had been pointing to the ten o'clock position instead of the three o'clock position, it would have meant that my mental stability was extremely low and I was about to lose control. It's truly profound..."

Xia Fa was preparing to press on and try to understand the second line of the secret text on the Etheric Source Code.

Suddenly, a sharp, throbbing pain shot through the back of my head, as if a sharp knife had pierced it.

The sphere of light formed from his consciousness and soul sank rapidly, breaking through the darkness in an instant and returning to his body.

Xia Fa opened his eyes and found himself still lying on the cold, hard wooden bed, his eyes staring at the cracked white ceiling.

The bright sunlight outside the window illuminated the quiet and bright room.

My nose felt hot, as if I was about to have a nosebleed.

But when he reached under his nose, he couldn't find any blood.

"It seems that I've reached my limit in terms of comprehension progress for today..."

Xia Fa smiled and shook his head, but there was no rush. It was only the first day, and he had already understood 21% of it. There was no need to rush at all.

As for the extra one percent, it was the progress he made by understanding the first line of the cryptic text.

"I can't continue to understand and memorize the secrets, my body aches and I can't exercise, and I feel like I'm even full after eating..."

Xia Fa felt somewhat helpless; was this forcing him to rest...?

Just as he was thinking this, a wave of fatigue surged up from deep within his lower abdomen, and he felt as if his eyelids were filled with lead, constantly drooping.

Before long, he fell into a deep sleep.

……

"Xia Fa, Xia Fa, wake up and eat!"

As the aroma of roasted grouse mingled with the invigorating scents of spices filled Xia Fa's nostrils, and Benedict's pleasant voice rang in his ears, he groggily opened his eyes.

The sun was rising as usual on the horizon; it was eight o'clock in the morning.

He was somewhat surprised that he had slept from yesterday afternoon until this morning.