Soon, a night had passed, the darkness faded away, and dawn arrived.
The glowing red light of the eastern sky pierced through the white mist, seeping out from the horizon.
"Clip-clop, clip-clop..."
The sound of horse hooves filled the air, and Richard, guided by his memory, rode to the small town where he had spent the night before.
However, all that lay before him were ruins—an abandoned, desolate town, starkly different from what he had seen initially.
Riding into the town, Richard struggled to compare the layout he remembered with the current scene, noting several similarities such as the orientation of the streets, the location of certain buildings, and the open space in the center of town, yet much more was unrecognizable.
Following his memory, he arrived at the inn where he had stayed overnight, found that the inn indeed existed, and even within the dilapidated rooms, he discovered traces of his previous stay.
The reality before his eyes made it clear that this rundown town was indeed the place where he had spent the night, only it had been under some misleading effect.
But how could an illusion be so extensive, so realistic, and so hard to detect?
According to his understanding, creating illusions through Illusion Magic required a high level of skill from the spellcaster. To prevent the illusion from unraveling, spellcasters aimed to make it as simple as possible, and even then, it was often seen through. He had previously exposed the Illusion Technique of the Yellow-clothed Elder in the private library of the King of the Black Holy Mountain Kingdom because of inconsistencies in echoes.
Yet during the past few days, he hadn’t spotted any flaws in all the scenarios he experienced. If it hadn’t been for this return visit, he might never have learned the truth.
If this was indeed the work of an illusion, it was terrifying.
Then the question arose, when did this start?
When had his experiences and memories become unreliable?
That said, was everything he saw now one hundred percent the real world? Or was he still caught in an incredibly realistic illusion?
Or even more frightening, perhaps he had never left the King’s private library in the Black Holy Mountain Kingdom and was still standing in front of the bookshelf—after seeing through the first layer of the Yellow Robed Elder’s illusion, he might have been immediately drawn into a second, inescapable layer of illusion. Perhaps all the events since leaving the Black Holy Mountain Kingdom and everyone he had encountered were merely false signals in his brain!
To figure this out, he did have a method.
The next moment, Richard took a Space Handbag out of the Space Iron Ring, placed it on the ground, opened it, and quickly called out, "Pandora!"
"Hmm?" Pandora emerged from the handbag, having previously mended previous mistakes and was now busily bent over her work with a focused manner.
Holding an iron piece the size of a fingertip in her hands, she covered it with flames to rapidly reshape the metal into a perfect ring shape before cooling it down.
After cooling, Pandora inspected the Ring, cautiously flicked it, listened to its clear resonance, nodded satisfactorily, and skillfully tossed the Ring into the left pocket of her dress.
Having done this, she took another fingertip-sized iron piece from her right pocket, held it in her hand, and then finally raised her head to look at Richard and asked, "Richard, what do you need me for? Hurry and tell me; I still have more than five hundred parts to finish."
Richard glanced at Pandora, raised an eyebrow, and spoke, "The parts processing can wait; you can put that aside for now. What I’d like you to do right now is recite the Multiplication Table for me."
"Huh?" Pandora’s eyes widened in shock, and the iron piece in her hand was crushed with a "crack," as she exclaimed, "I’ve... I’ve already recited the Multiplication Table to you in full many days ago; I’ve already passed this test! Why... Why do I have to do it again? You... you can’t do this to me!"
"What’s the problem?!" Richard frowned slightly and said, "Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten it since you last recited it?"
"How could I!" Pandora’s eyes grew even wider as she denied it vehemently, "I remember it very firmly."
"Then go ahead, recite it."
"I—," Pandora had no choice but to start reluctantly.
"One times one is one."
"One times two is two, two times two is four."
"One times three is three, two times three is six..."
"One times four is four, two times four is eight..."
At first, Pandora recited quite fluently, as practice makes perfect. But after the Four-character table, the old problem arose—she began to stumble, and it took a great effort to finally get past the Five-character table; the Six-character table, Seven-character table, and Eight-character table were even more challenging.
Finally, it was the turn of the Nine-character table. Pandora took a deep breath as if mustering great courage before she began to recite.
"One times nine is nine, two times nine is eighteen, three times nine—...gh!"
As expected, Pandora didn’t get far before getting stuck. Her eyes whirled in their sockets, but she was unable to remember the answer, and with a voice filled with anxiety, she repeated, "Three times nine... three times nine... three times nine..."
Looking towards Richard, Pandora ventured, "Three times nine... twenty-one?"
Richard’s palm immediately came down on Pandora’s head, and Pandora said, "Did... Did I get it wrong?"
"Of course you did, three times nine is twenty-seven, not twenty-one!" Richard replied, "But on the other hand, you did well. The mistake shows your true level, the real you. Had you recited it perfectly without a single error, I would have had doubts whether it really was you."
"Huh?" Pandora looked puzzled.
"Alright, go back to Eden and continue with your parts processing for now; I’ll tell you the reason later," Richard said.
"Okay," Pandora turned and, without a trace of curiosity, quickly made her way back into the handbag, as if to avoid another Multiplication Table recital.
However, just as she was about to enter the handbag, Pandora seemed to sense something. She stopped, turned her head to look at Richard, and blinked, asking, "Richard, did you lose something?"
"Hmm? Lose something?" Richard was taken aback, "Why do you ask?"
"I..." Pandora tilted her head, scratched her hair, and said, "No reason, just that you seem a bit down, which made me think you’ve lost something—and something quite important at that. If that’s the case, then I think, perhaps you might find it over there!"
Speaking thus, Pandora pointed towards the outskirts of the ruins, "It should be about a day’s journey. But don’t blame me if you don’t find it; it’s just a hunch."
After speaking, Pandora stuck out her tongue and quickly scrambled into Eden.
Richard’s brows lifted as he looked in the direction Pandora had pointed, lost in thought. After a long pause, he swiftly packed up the handbag, mounted his horse, and set off briskly from the town, heading toward the direction indicated by Pandora.