Immortal Kingdoms

"That's a good question," Leonardo nodded his head and said, "I will obviously look for a place related to cultivation techniques and treasure appraisals."

When Leonardo scoured Rosaline's memories, an unexpected coincidence was that he could also browse through the memories of the second Dizmason Eternus when she inherited his legacy, and now he had a ton of knowledge regarding combat-oriented martial techniques. He could infer from and create new techniques by relying on his innate martial intent, advertise them in an auction, and then gather traffic to the shop in which he invested.

He could also rely on his innate martial intent to appraise treasures whether they were authentic or cheap counterfeits as a side job. All in all, he already constructed a framework on how to establish himself in this business avenue.

"The Martial Script Pavilion…"

Leonardo entered a fairly crowded street in the Vast Sky Avenue, this street had many shop fronts with a martial background.

medicine stores, treasure forging stores, alchemy stores, formation array masters, rune inscription masters, appraisal masters, and there were even small stands occupied by elders from sects who are recruiting for talents or exchanging resources for their sects.

In short, this short street of towering buildings and vast courtyards was rich with the air of cultivation. However, since most of the population in the Greenheart City 7th District wasn't interested in cultivation due to the hardships of this path, the street was the ideal spot to scout for a suitable investment opportunity.

On their way here, Leonardo paused by a few fashion stores to sort out his appearance into something presentable, his change in appearance brought an undeniable transformation to his temperament now that he didn't give off the first impression of being a beggar.

Clean leather pants matching his white modern high shine boots, a triple-layered upper garment of undershirt, vest, and a long sleeve cotton sweater all packed under a long silver coat with golden embroidery patterns.

His waist-length silver hair was let loose smoothly, though a nigh-imperceptible spiritual force thrummed through each strand of hair, maintaining a glossy and tidy appearance unruffled by wind or motion.

He looked so much younger in Merlin's eyes that she found it difficult to bring herself to keep calling him uncle under these circumstances, ultimately calling him by his alias Yunhei directly after a bit of Leonardo's persuasion.

Regardless, at least in public, she would address him as Sir Shi or Shopkeeper Shi.

(Author note: I settled with Shi Yunhei as an alias with the inspiration of Shi = Lion from the nickname Leo, Yun = Clouds, Hei = Black. If you want a rough translation of the alias, there you have it!)

"The treaty between the martial and secular world in the Core Mainland allows for minimal corporations and interactions between the Major Sects and the various Dynasties, though the range of these activities is limited. For example, it is against the treaty for sects to actively recruit citizens, but advertising the notion of recruitment by publicizing a designated time and location for recruitment in the wilderness is fine. That way, those who truly wish to leave the struggles of the secular world and join the martial world will have a fair chance to do so." Metlin was reading directly from a guide booklet, as she was just as curious about the history between the two factions.

She then added her own thoughts with furrowed brows, "Although both the secular and martial worlds have a set of ironclad rules and regulations, the latter is much more flexible and straightforward while the former is an endless entanglement of hidden schemes in the dark. I think this is the critical reason as to why the funding for my research in the magic theory field was cut short, the dynasty would be more concerned about something that could provide immediate benefits to its army, and the magic theory would instead prove beneficial to a sect in the martial world."

As she finally realized this, Merlin closed the booklet and sighed.

"Don't think about it too much, you can actually study the magic theory under the guise of studying runic inscriptions, the fundamentals of both professions are intimately familiar, let's go check a few relevant stores," Leonardo advised her with a faint smile as he pulled her in the direction of a massive building with the logo of a scroll and a divine feather dipped in liquified energy.

"Runic inscriptions?" Merlin looked at Leonardo with a puzzled expression.

She was but a mortal with a few dozen years to her lifespan, and she spent over a decade studying physics and the theory of magic, hence she was absolutely clueless to various aspects of the martial and secular worlds.

Leonardo nodded, checking around for any potential eavesdropping outsiders before whispering to Merlin in a low voice, "The principle behind the martial theory is to comprehend the laws of the world in order to derive the concept of establishing new laws, ultimately overlapping the original laws in the form of domains, personal dimensions, and ultimately creating a new world. As for the principles behind the magic theory, they lie in the ability to interact with these laws directly, fine-tune them, or even directly influence them to bring about an influence on the world structure as we know it. Hence, their long incantations are their means to establish a connection with these laws, and interrupting an incantation will sever this connection, resulting in a backlash."

Leonardo furrowed his brows, "Correspondingly, the longer and more profound an incantation is, the stronger it would become. Inscription Masters seize and or replicate the laws in the natural world, translating them into runes that could be embedded into weapons or tools as a medium to harness the power of the world without going through the hassle of long incantations. However, this profession is just an inspiration from the original magic theory, hence the inscriptions are limited to things like speed enchantments, defense enchantments, and other effects."

"Although the effects are minute, this minute difference in attributes is very crucial in a battle between experts, and it is especially significant to the armed troops of a dynasty. Thus, if you want to progress further in your research on magic theory, you might wanna start with reverse engineering inscriptions."

Leonardo then pulled back from near Merlin's ear, giving her a wink.

Merlin's eyes brightened with excitement.

"If I knew, I would have studied this topic instead of fundamental physics," Merlin's excitement suddenly dimmed as she remembered how half her life was wasted in the wrong direction.