“This is a fragment of the ‘True Cross’ upon which the Messiah was crucified.”

Hearing this, Su Zhou, who was poking the snake spirit, immediately stopped. Only after Yala urged him to ‘hurry up’ did he stiffly press down again.

Although his academic performance was average, his extracurricular knowledge related to the mysteries of the world was extensive. The Messiah's cross? That was the one that witnessed the death and resurrection of the Messiah, the holy son of the former Cross Church, the ‘True Cross’ that witnessed the ‘miracle’?

He never expected that this wood chip would have such a great origin. No wonder it could ward off evil!

“No, no! You’ve got it wrong from the very beginning!”

Su Zhou shook his head. If it were the complete ‘True Cross,’ then with the high spiritual rank that the former Cross Church used to suppress the European continent, anything related to their Messiah, even a fragment of clothing, could probably suppress a great evil spirit, let alone his sacrificial cross… A complete version of this thing would be able to easily suppress and kill even a minor god, let alone exorcise evil spirits!

This wood chip was a fragment of a true divine artifact!

Rather, the fact that it had been sucked by the snake spirit until only a little bit of its ability to ward off evil remained already showed that it was severely damaged.

“Then… what about this wood powder?”

Hearing that even an inconspicuous wood chip had such an origin, Su Zhou couldn't help but have higher expectations for the wood powder that Yala was currently lying on. He rubbed the little red snake's back while it praised 'Comfortable!', and asked, "What kind of divine object is this?"

"This? A branch of the 'Original Tree of Wisdom,' the 'Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil'." The snake spirit wiggled on the wood powder and said lazily, "It's a pity that it's been crushed into powder, but fortunately its spirituality still remains, and it hasn't really turned into wood powder."

Crap.

Su Zhou uttered a common sentiment of the Zheng Nation network in his heart.

Although sects no longer existed, there were still surviving scriptures. He naturally knew what the ‘Tree of Wisdom’ was—it was the mother of the fruit that granted humanity wisdom in the old Cross Church covenant, a true divine tree!

“This thing actually really exists, and it turned into wood powder?”

Su Zhou recalled the grand occasion of the Holy Snake Spirit Convocation holding a void ritual to absorb the spirituality of all things and condense a wisp of ‘immortal blood,’ and immediately felt a chill in his heart. Just that little bit of immortal blood required the consumption of so many spiritual objects. It seemed that condensing more immortal blood to transform his family and friends was something he shouldn't think about in the short term.

At this moment, Su Zhou had some understanding of how powerful Yala's original body used to be… And from this simple conversation, he also sensed a trace of danger.

“There must be many hidden mysterious organizations in this world. The Holy Snake Spirit Convocation may have been the closest to success in the past, but it was definitely not the largest.”

Could it be that only sects that worshiped the Holy Snake Spirit could hold void rituals? That was obviously impossible.

"Don't be too surprised, Su Zhou. As spiritual energy revives and the extraordinary returns, similar divine objects will return and emerge one by one. Not to mention anything else, I can feel a very strong aura of thunder and righteous law in the mountains near your hometown, but it has already been concealed in advance by relevant personnel."

Seeing Su Zhou fall into thought, Yala raised its head and shook it, saying, "The secrets hidden in this world are far deeper than you imagine. I can't tell you too much right now, not because I'm hiding anything, but because you don't yet have the power to protect those secrets. Of course, you're already very strong. In this era before the revival of spiritual energy, you should be among the strongest of the extraordinary.

"But Su Zhou, our goals and vision cannot be limited to this land, or even this world. There are still many dangers that do not come from this world."

"Okay, I understand. Just tell me directly, I won't mind."

Su Zhou nodded slightly. As long as Yala told him in advance, he wouldn't dwell on this. But soon, he looked at the wood chips and powder in his hand and asked hesitantly, "But Yala, since these are all fragments of divine objects… wouldn't the way I was thinking of using them be too wasteful? How should I use them to maximize their effectiveness?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to tell you."

At this point, Yala understood that it couldn't continue to live peacefully, nestled in wood powder and reminiscing about the past, so it sighed, climbed along Su Zhou's hand to behind the youth's ear, and began to teach him, "You probably don't have any white crystal bottles at home, do you? Glass will do too."

"Well, ordinary people probably don't usually have mercury and liquid purified gold prepared… But that doesn't matter. Just get some tap water and use a ritual to consecrate it into holy water. That should be enough."

"First, arrange the fragments of the True Cross in a cross shape and use holy water to glue them together…"

"Wait, how can holy water glue things together?" While the snake spirit spoke, Su Zhou acted. He was an ultimate action-taker with strong practical skills, but that didn't stop him from complaining as he did it: "Could it be that holy water can also act as glue?"

"You'll know soon enough." Yala didn't explain. Under its guidance, Su Zhou quickly found a glass bottle that his mother used to store alcohol, and then performed a very simple small ritual to consecrate the water into holy water.

It was really simple—just boil the water, then follow the snake spirit to recite a mantra, raise his spirituality, and sprinkle some spices (pepper and curry powder are fine) in the name of the saints. That was all it took.

"It's quite fragrant. Maybe I can use cumin next time."

This was Su Zhou's thought when blessing the holy water.

Of course, the consecrated water didn't smell like spices. Instead, it was miraculously pure and could emit a white glow under the stimulation of spirituality.

Su Zhou used the holy water to glue the wood chip cross together. As long as he placed this small cross in a bottle filled with holy water, fixed it, sealed it, and then placed it in a secret place at home, the power of the holy light could protect a large area around it—at least, the kind of black shadows that appeared yesterday wouldn't be able to appear and get close.

"It can really be used as glue!" After finishing all this, Su Zhou was shocked to try to break the wood chip cross. With his strength, even an iron cross made of pure steel would be bent, but as a result, this seemingly fragile cross didn't budge at all!

"This simplified ritual is actually based on the same principle as the large formations in the Papal Temple. It won't purify harmless spirits, it will only dispel those with malicious intent. It's useful and very hidden."

Yala was quite satisfied with Su Zhou's practical skills. It could see that Su Zhou had obviously performed some small rituals from mysterious books in the past, so he was familiar with some common steps.

In short, watching Su Zhou continue to operate the next secret ritual process, the snake spirit swayed its tail and praised, "Good job, Su Zhou. Then put away the remaining wood chips. After you awaken, I'll teach you how to use secret methods to make them into jewelry to give your family sacred protection to carry with them."

"By the way, you can also take a piece to your friend. Its remaining power can't dispel the curse power that has already penetrated deep into his bones, but it can at least temporarily suppress it and prevent it from worsening."

"Okay, I understand."

Only at this time could Su Zhou directly feel how much help Yala's existence could bring him. Not to mention anything else, the endless stream of mysterious knowledge and high-level guidance were extremely helpful to him as a beginner in the extraordinary world!

"By the way, what about the wood powder from the Tree of Wisdom branches?" After hiding the sanctified protection glass bottle in the corner of his room, Su Zhou asked with great interest, "How should they be used? Just eat them directly?"

"Of course not. How can you eat wood powder directly? It's not a spice."

Yala looked at Su Zhou with a face that said "typical Zheng Nation person," and patiently explained, "Most of the power of this wood powder was absorbed by me before to condense immortal blood, so compared to the cross fragments, the remaining power is already very little.

"However, its spiritual rank and spirituality as a divine tree still remain. You can buy a pot of apple tree seedlings, and then mix the wood powder, holy water, and soil together and bury them in the pot.

"In this way, that apple tree seedling will have a bit of the spirituality of the Tree of Wisdom. As long as you water it with spiritual water or spiritual blood containing rich spirituality, it can quickly produce a weakened 'fruit of wisdom.'

"And eating the fruit of wisdom will increase your intelligence and comprehension."

This should have been very good news that would surprise Su Zhou—he was worried that his intelligence was not high enough, and it might be a bit difficult to get into a good academy… As for why he still wanted to take the academy exam even though he had extraordinary power, the answer was very simple. As the Zheng Nation supervised by the saints, the academy was the best way to legally enter the system and become a member of the upper echelons. As long as you became the top student of the seventy-two top-ranked academies, then the future of becoming a 'Saint' who can adjudicate all matters up and down in the Zheng Nation was just around the corner.

This method was legal and quick, and you could also make a lot of friends and get the support of the civilization system. Since this was the case, why should he be a solitary beast, toiling away all by himself?

However, if he wanted to become one of the Saints, or even the 'Chief Saint,' the most important thing was knowledge and intelligence. Originally, Su Zhou felt that he would have difficulty passing even the top-ranked academy, let alone becoming the top student, but now, he had the fruit of wisdom to make up for his shortcomings, which could really be said to be getting whatever he wanted.

"I originally thought I could only cling to Qiming's coattails, but now I estimate that I can become a coattail myself!"

But, even though it was a very exciting future prospect, for some reason, a very strong hallucination appeared in Su Zhou's mind, and he subconsciously complained, "Hey—why is it a snake persuading people to eat apples again? After so many years, Yala, can't you change it up a bit?"

"It's the Tree of Wisdom and the fruit of wisdom!"

The snake spirit Yala emphasized loudly, "Not an apple!"

"Also, Su Zhou, I can see that your comprehension in martial arts and the extraordinary is very high, but you are indeed more ordinary in other aspects. Everyone has their own abilities. To give you an example, if an average person has 100 base points to allocate to various aspects, then you are born with 150 points, or even higher."

"It's just that the extra 50 points, and even a part of the original 100 base points, are used in the extraordinary power aspect."

Saying this, Yala stretched out its tail and patted the remaining fruit tree wood powder smugly. It smiled and said, "But it's okay. As long as you raise a Tree of Wisdom and eat a fruit of wisdom, it will be enough to turn you into a true all-around genius!"

"That's great, that's great!"

Hearing this unprecedented good news, Su Zhou was happy in his heart, and he even spoke in the accent of his hometown, rubbing his hands and applauding like an old man.

But then he thought again that there were no unprovoked benefits in this world, and his expression suddenly became serious: "But, Yala, what's the price?"

"Water the potted plant more every day." Hearing this rather serious question, the snake spirit also thought seriously, and then said uncertainly, "Otherwise it might wither?"