FALLEN ORACLE

**Chapter 6: Ancient Text Fragment (1)**

Chen Yi put the "Destiny" ring on his left index finger and Huck's gift—the storage ring—on his pinky, then transferred everything from his old storage ring into the new one.As he had expected, the new storage ring indeed had an unimaginably vast space. He just hadn't figured out how to take out something as large as a villa yet.After that, he carefully searched the underground chamber again. Finding no other useful clues, he quickly left and hurried back to the bottom of the cliff.What Chen Yi didn't know was that because he had taken the ring from the skeleton, the vegetation of the White Sand Rainforest would gradually wither over the next ten years. Eventually, the entire area would turn back into ordinary desert.The cave was about half a day's journey from where he had fallen. Despite his best efforts, the round trip still took most of the day.When he finally saw the cliff in the distance, he heard a familiar voice shouting excitedly, "I sense someone over there. It feels like Chen Yi! He might be alive! Come quickly!"Such strong psionic perception could only belong to Phil."Phil, I'm here!" Chen Yi ran toward the voice. A moment later, he met up with the others who had come to search for him at the bottom of the cliff.The moment they saw him, Carl blurted, "How are you not dead?""What? You wanted me dead?" Chen Yi laughed and punched him lightly."I'm—so—sorry!" Liv screamed the three words, then fell to her knees and burst into tears."Why the hell didn't you wait at the bottom like a good boy? Running off everywhere!" Phil gritted his teeth and punched Chen Yi.Chen Yi made up an excuse. "Uh, I was thirsty. Went to find some water."In fact, his water flask, still more than half full, had been safely stored in his storage ring the whole time.Seth, relatively calmer, asked, "Even if you survived a fall from that high, you should be barely alive. How come you don't have a scratch on you?"At that, everyone stared at Chen Yi suspiciously."Did you forget? I have an Air Pressure staff. Right before I hit the ground, I used it on the ground to slow my descent. Smooth landing. Heh." He fabricated a lie—not particularly clever, but confident it would fool them.Falling that fast, it was hard enough to stay calm, let alone cast a spell. And while his story seemed theoretically possible, the timing would be extremely difficult to get right.But he was Chen Yi—once called a genius. He had fully demonstrated that in the fight just now. If anyone could rely on his skill and precise judgment to survive, it wasn't entirely unbelievable.Besides, the fact that he was alive was all that mattered. Why dig into the details?Seeing their doubts gradually fade, Chen Yi pretended to just realize something. "By the way, are you all okay? What about Bill and Nika? Did you defeat that demonkin?""Don't worry, they're at the top waiting for the professors," Natalie explained. "As for that demonkin—you probably won't believe this, but after you fell off the cliff, lightning came down from the sky and struck it dead.""Really? Something like that happened?" Chen Yi feigned surprise, carefully controlling his expression so his acting wouldn't seem too overdone.---They waited another two hours at the bottom of the cliff before the belated professors finally arrived.Before that, Chen Yi, whose robe had been shattered, removed the protective spell sequence Tiya had taught him to avoid arousing suspicion from the professors.Seeing that no one had died, the professors breathed a sigh of relief and repeatedly praised their good fortune."Surviving an encounter with a pureblood demonkin—you kids are lucky as hell."Escorted by the professors, they returned to the starting point and regrouped with the other trainees who had participated in the Special Competition. Then they set off by carriage back to Rongqi Academy.Before departure, Professor Tress specifically invited Chen Yi to share his carriage and asked in detail about the battle with the demonkin—and about his robes.Chen Yi told Tress everything truthfully, except for the part about Thunderstrike."Hmm. But one thing still bothers me," the professor said, still not entirely satisfied. "According to Bill, during the fight with the demonkin, you seemed to be casting a very complex spell?""Professor, you know I don't know any complex spells. I just saw that the demonkin seemed to have intelligence too, so I tried to bluff it and create an opening for my teammates.""Hmm." Professor Tress pondered for a moment, then nodded, accepting the explanation. After all, this was a student who had narrowly escaped death, not some cunning criminal."Still, I bear some responsibility. Though the robes were mass-produced, their protective performance clearly needs improvement. Fortunately, none of you were seriously hurt—otherwise, I wouldn't be able to explain myself to the headmaster or your parents.""You can't blame the professor. No one could have known a pureblood demonkin was hiding here.""By the way, I'd like to ask you a few questions, Professor." Chen Yi suddenly remembered that Professor Tress was not only a senior Healing professor but also the library director—extremely knowledgeable."Go ahead.""Have you ever heard of a mage named Huck?"Chen Yi had originally wanted to ask about Tiya directly, but decided it was too risky from a secrecy standpoint and held back."No," Tress said firmly. "Where did you come across that name?""In a book. Since you've never heard of it, it must not be an important figure.""Then I'd like to ask your advice: is there any magic that can make someone appear and disappear suddenly?""Appear and disappear suddenly?" Tress furrowed his brow. "I can think of two possibilities.""One is using magic to completely hide oneself, then reappear when the time is right. That could achieve the effect.""The second is teleportation. But as far as I know, no magic currently exists—neither invisibility nor teleportation—that can do what you describe.""I even suspect it's not something that can be done with magic at all—at least for mortals like us. Gods, perhaps, could do it.""Oh, I see."Seeing Chen Yi's disappointment, Professor Tress added, "Actually, there is one other way to achieve what you described, but it's too far-fetched. I don't think we need to discuss it."Under the influence of a Speed spell, the bumpy carriage left a set of ruts that it would never trace exactly again."Yeah. Too far-fetched," Chen Yi nodded.