The two of them continued searching the room.
A few minutes later, they had confirmed that there were essentially no other valuable clues.
Raymond walked to the door and looked at the butler waiting outside.
"Were there any visitors at the manor on the night of the disappearance?"
The butler thought for a moment.
"Yes. A guest came to visit the Master that night. He was a young noble, said to be from the south."
"His name?"
"Andre Morris," the butler said. "The Master spoke with him in the study for a long time. I am not clear on the specifics of their conversation."
"When he left, was the young lady still in her room?"
The butler nodded.
"She should have been. I remember the manor lights were extinguished not long after that guest departed."
Raymond and Lu Yuan exchanged a look.
A noble from the south.
Andre Morris.
Lu Yuan committed the name to memory.
He had an intuition that this person was not simple.
Though there was no evidence, the identity of a 'noble from the south' felt off for some reason.
"I need to see the study," Raymond suddenly spoke. "The place where the Viscount spoke with that guest on the night of the disappearance."
The butler nodded.
"The study is on the east side of the first floor."
Raymond turned to Lu Yuan.
"Go check the collection room. Noble houses sometimes have... special things in their collections."
He lowered his voice.
"In a previous case, the person who went missing did so because they came into contact with a certain item in their home."
Lu Yuan understood his meaning.
"Fine."
Raymond looked at the butler.
"Have someone take him to the collection room."
The butler hesitated for a moment before waving toward the end of the corridor.
The young maid from before walked over, the unease on her face not yet fully faded.
"Mary, take this gentleman to the collection room."
The maid lowered her head and gave a soft response.
"Please follow me."
Lu Yuan followed her down the stairs, through the front hall, and toward the side wing of the first floor.
Along the way, the maid kept her head down, her pace somewhat hurried.
Lu Yuan noticed her fingers were trembling slightly.
"What were Lady Elena's usual habits?" Lu Yuan suddenly asked.
The maid's footsteps faltered for a second.
"...The young lady liked reading books." Her voice was very soft. "I was responsible for her daily needs, and the thing she requested most was for me to buy miscellaneous books."
"Did you notice anything unusual on the night she disappeared?"
The maid fell silent for a few seconds.
"No."
Her tone was somewhat stiff.
Lu Yuan did not press further.
He simply kept this detail in mind.
They reached the collection room.
The maid took out a key and opened the heavy oak door.
"Please enter."
She stood at the door, having no intention of following him inside.
Lu Yuan nodded and walked into the collection room alone.
The door slowly closed behind him.
A stale, ancient scent greeted him.
The room was not large, but it was filled with various collectibles.
Ancient porcelain, yellowed scrolls, daggers inlaid with gemstones, masks from exotic lands...
The accumulation of several generations of a noble house, the items that were not exceptionally precious, were piled in this room.
This also served as 'capital' to be displayed to outsiders.
Lu Yuan's gaze slowly swept across the collection.
Most were ordinary antiques or trinkets with symbolic meanings.
Though expensive, they were mundane in essence.
Suddenly, Lu Yuan's gaze stopped.
In a corner, under an individual glass dome, sat a shell.
A broken shell.
Its edges had obvious cracks, and the surface was missing pieces in several spots, looking as if it had suffered some violent impact.
But it was placed alone under glass, on a base made of a black velvet tray, with a small nameplate next to it.
The nameplate read:
【Abyssal Treasure—collected from the North Sea Abyssal Rift, found during an expedition by the third head of the Sophia family】
A broken shell.
Yet it was enshrined as a 'treasure.'
Lu Yuan stared at the shell, a trace of amazement rising in his heart.
To an ordinary person, this was just an old, broken shell; though it had an extraordinary origin, it held nothing special beyond commemorative value.
The Sophia family had not produced transcendents for generations, so they did not know the true value of this object.
But Lu Yuan saw something different.
Inside the cracks of the shell, something was flowing.
It was very faint, almost imperceptible.
Like some kind of liquid, yet also like a kind of light.
It was a capability brought by his perspective of specialized research.
【Target detected: Knowledge Oyster (A creation containing unknown power)】
【Status: Dormant. Specific conditions required for activation.】
【Warning: This object is connected to the Sea of Knowledge.】
Lu Yuan's breath hitched slightly.
He felt it.
A faint restlessness stirred somewhere in his body.
It was the Forbidden Lore in his mind resonating with this shell.
He did not actively trigger anything.
He was merely looking.
But the simple act of 'looking' caused something inside him to begin to stir.
At the edge of his vision, greyish-white text began to jump:
【Forbidden Lore - Seeker: +0.1... 49.8/50】
【Forbidden Lore - Seeker: +0.1... 49.9/50】
Lu Yuan's brow furrowed deeply.
The flow within the cracks... was becoming more and more obvious.
No.
His perception was becoming clearer.
This shell was not an ordinary collectible.
It was a door.
A door leading somewhere.
And he was pushing that door open.
Lu Yuan wanted to look away, but he found he could not.
His gaze felt glued, fixed firmly upon that shell.
The light within the cracks grew brighter and brighter.
No.
It wasn't light.
It was color.
Countless colors.
White, yellow, blue, purple, black...
Those colors churned and entangled within the cracks like countless writhing insects.
Lu Yuan felt his Sanity being mobilized.
He wasn't using it actively; it was pouring out passively, uncontrollably.
Simultaneously, a massive sense of pressure emerged.
The power contained within the Bronze City was triggered at this moment.
The eerie aura overflowing within the collection room was suppressed around Lu Yuan.
As a result, the outside world had no idea what was happening here.
【Sanity: -5... 115/120】
【Sanity: -3... 112/120】
With the loss of Sanity, the shell opened.
The broken casing slowly spread apart like an eye that had slept for a thousand years.
What was revealed inside caused Lu Yuan's pupils to shrink violently.
It was a pool of flowing liquid.
No.
It wasn't liquid.
It was an ocean.
An infinitely vast ocean compressed inside the shell.
The color of the liquid shifted constantly, presenting new hues every second, as if every color in the entire world was condensed into this tiny space.
Blurred text surfaced on the liquid's interface.
Lu Yuan could not understand those characters.
They were not in the Imperial Language, nor any language he recognized.
But he could feel the weight contained within that text.
Every character carried an unimaginable volume of information.
It was as if an entire library had been compressed into a single symbol.
【Forbidden Lore - Seeker: +0.1... 50/50】
【Experience full, advancing...】
In the next instant, Lu Yuan's consciousness was violently yanked into that liquid.
He fell into the ocean.
Not a real ocean.
It was the Sea of Knowledge.
Endless colors surrounded him, with countless pieces of knowledge hidden within as Lu Yuan fell into this great sea.
But strangely, all the knowledge was deliberately avoiding Lu Yuan.
The magnificent sea composed of text parted, revealing an endless abyss.
Lu Yuan continued to fall.
Almost all knowledge was here.
Every secret ever written, ever thought, ever forgotten, lay dormant in the depths of this ocean.
This was the Sea of Knowledge.
Lu Yuan forced his eyes shut, trying not to look at this magnificent ocean, but it was useless.
Countless pieces of knowledge surged in and out; they brought no memories, but they took away massive amounts of Sanity.
【Sanity: -15... 97/120】
【Sanity: -12... 85/120】
【Sanity: -18... 67/120】
Lu Yuan's Sanity continued its frantic descent.
Lu Yuan could not stop.
For a split second, he seemed to see something.
A city submerged on the seafloor.
A door to the heavens that remained forever open, emitting eerie colors.
Something that was watching him...
No.
He couldn't look.
He couldn't look anymore.
Just as he was about to be swallowed by that ocean, a hand grabbed him.
It wasn't a physical hand.
It was a kind of will.
A gentle but firm force yanked him out of that abyss, like picking up a drowning cat.
Then he heard a voice.
The voice echoed across the sea, carrying a hint of disdain and a touch of helplessness.
"...Not enough."
"You are not yet qualified to see those things."
"Go back."
Lu Yuan's eyes snapped open.
He was still standing in the collection room.
Before him was that shell.
The shell had closed, returning to its broken appearance, lying quietly under the glass dome.
It was as if nothing had happened.
But Lu Yuan knew what had occurred.
His breathing was rapid, and his back was soaked with cold sweat. Beads of sweat slid from his brow, dripping onto the floor.
He looked down at his hands.
They were trembling slightly.
At the edge of his vision, greyish-white text slowly emerged:
【Sanity: 67/120】
【Forbidden Lore - Seeker has reached its limit, advancing...】
【Advancement complete.】
【In your human form, you have stepped onto the edge of the Sea of Knowledge and glimpsed a corner that should not be seen.】
【New rank unlocked: Forbidden Lore - Knowledge Seeker: 0/100】
【You have provided new knowledge, filling the Sea of Knowledge with a drop of solidified text. You have obtained the key to the Sea of Knowledge. You can capture portions of the past of any known knowledge; each use will consume Sanity. The more you see, the more you lose.】
【Remember: Knowledge has weight. And you have begun to bear that weight. (Strange, why do you go against the tide?)】
Lu Yuan stared at the text, his whole body unable to stop trembling.
He spent a few seconds calming his breathing and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
Then his gaze fell back onto the shell.
This thing... could not be left here.
Though he didn't know why it had gone undiscovered until now.
More importantly...
Lu Yuan needed it.
Without any hesitation, Lu Yuan directly removed the glass dome and tucked the broken shell into his tunic.
Its surface was icy, possessing a strange texture.
But it did not open again.
Perhaps because it had just consumed too much energy.
Perhaps because... Lu Yuan's current 'qualification' was only enough to open it once.
He withdrew his thoughts, tidied his state, and ensured he looked normal.
Then he pushed open the door to the collection room.
The maid was still standing outside, head lowered.
She looked up at Lu Yuan, her gaze lingering on his pale face for a moment, but she said nothing.
"Take me to Raymond."
Lu Yuan's voice was steady.
The maid nodded and turned to lead the way.
At the door of the study, Raymond was saying something to the butler.
Seeing Lu Yuan approach, he stopped talking and glanced at Lu Yuan's face.
"Discover anything?"
"I found something." Lu Yuan took the shell from his tunic. "This needs to be taken back for inspection."
Raymond looked at the broken shell but did not press for details.
He simply nodded and then took an exquisitely carved small box from a nearby shelf.
He turned to the butler.
"These two collectibles are suspected of being connected to the disappearance case and need to be taken back to the branch for inspection."
"After the investigation is complete, they will be returned depending on the circumstances."
The butler opened his mouth, his expression looking somewhat pained.
But in the end, he said nothing.
He simply nodded in silence.
'After all, the items displayed outside have been screened, and this time it involves the Viscount's daughter.'
'I hope they can investigate thoroughly.'
'I just hope the young lady is still safe.'
Lu Yuan put the shell away and followed Raymond toward the main entrance.
In the corridor, sunlight shone through the windows, casting patches of light on the floor.
Everything appeared normal.
But Lu Yuan knew that from this day forward, the world he saw would be different.
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