This character “殇” possesses a depth as profound as the starry night sky, repeatedly carrying endless sorrow. At a single glance, it fills one with melancholy and grief, as if all the world’s hardships and sorrows are contained within it.

William Harris was shocked, his expression drained of color. The appearance of this divine book had shaken his very soul, leaving him at a loss.

“Hello! I’m just borrowing your place to hide for a bit. Sorry for the disturbance!”

A voice, extremely weak and exhausted yet utterly ordinary, suddenly emerged.

“Who? Who’s speaking?”

William Harris snapped awake, looking around in alarm. This was his own sea of consciousness—how could there possibly be another, unfamiliar voice here?

“Me? My name is ‘Shawn’!”

The voice hesitated for a moment before speaking.

This time, William Harris heard it clearly—it was coming from the ancient book.

“You’re a book? And you can speak human language!”

William Harris was clearly stunned for a moment.

But he quickly regained his composure. Since this mysterious ancient book could forcibly squeeze into his sea of consciousness, it wasn’t surprising that it could speak. He continued, “Then, how did you get into my mind?”

It pondered for a moment, then slowly said, “How did I get in? That’s a long story. To put it simply, I was born in the era of the ancient gods as the number one book of the Divine Martial World—a book of knowledge and inheritance. I have witnessed the birth and destruction of countless ancient deities on the Divine Martial Continent, and the rise of the four great races. Later, I traveled across the Divine Martial Continent, ventured into countless perilous lands, endured endless adventures and tribulations over the years, and have seen innumerable divine techniques and hidden realms.”

“You’ve actually had such incredible experiences!”

William Harris listened to its origins, filled with both amazement and admiration.

What Shawn described was a grand world utterly out of reach and unimaginable for a humble martial artist from Luyang Prefecture like him.

In his entire life, William Harris had never even left the few hundred miles around Luyang Prefecture.

“Shawn, you’ve even seen ancient gods—you must be amazing. But you’re still being burned by fire? Isn’t that dangerous? Is someone hunting you down?”

William Harris was still confused, nervously pointing at its various terrifying wounds as he spoke.

Shawn explained, “I have traveled through all the dangerous places in the Divine Martial World and endured many disasters, leaving countless scars on me. But none of these are fatal.

The most dangerous thing is that I was accidentally discovered by some holy deities of the four races. I am merely a book of knowledge created by ancient gods, not a holy deity myself, and I lack the power and means to resist them.

These holy deities are hunting me, trying to seize this inheritance of knowledge. The divine flames and divine ice on me, along with many other injuries, were all inflicted by them.

With my own strength, I cannot extinguish these divine flames and divine ice. I need your help to recover.

Fortunately, I possess billions of pages, incredibly vast. Even if they try their hardest to erode me, they cannot destroy me in a short time. Even after burning for a thousand years, they could only destroy a small portion of my pages.

I exhausted all my strength to tear open a rift in the sea of consciousness and escaped here. Now I am too weak to run any further, so I’m borrowing your memory and sea of consciousness to hide for a while and recover my strength.”

“Why did you choose to enter my sea of consciousness?”

William Harris asked curiously.

Shawn did not deliberately conceal anything and answered truthfully, “I was being hunted by the holy deities and had exhausted my strength. In desperation, I used the last of my power to tear open a space, and somehow ended up in your sea of consciousness. Maybe it was random. Once I recover, I will leave and won’t implicate you. I estimate it will take several hundred or even a thousand years, temporarily residing in your sea of consciousness and drawing some strength from your body. Of course, during this time, I will also pay you as compensation for hosting me and providing energy!”

After entering William Harris’s sea of consciousness, it discovered that the person before it was merely a weak, ordinary martial artist.

Such a martial artist posed no threat to its safety whatsoever.

Even if it told William Harris that it was a book of knowledge and inheritance, William Harris would not have the power to devour it. Unlike those holy deities, who could plunder this book of knowledge at will.

William Harris provided it with a temporary place to stay.

In return, it would give William Harris some benefits—this was necessary, as it needed William Harris’s help to regain enough strength. Otherwise, it could not recover on its own.

“Oh, so that’s how it is!”

William Harris nodded, gradually understanding.

This ancient book simply wanted to stay with him for a while and draw a bit of strength from his body to replenish its divine power.

This deal was clearly very worthwhile.

After all, it was a divine book—whatever it gave him would be something extraordinary.

He was just a pitiful nobody at the first level of martial arts, with no room to bargain.

“What kind of compensation can you give me?”

William Harris asked curiously.

Shawn replied calmly, “As a book of knowledge and inheritance, I am divided into two parts. The first is ‘Martial God’s Techniques,’ which records all the skills I have witnessed. The second is ‘Vast Ages,’ which contains all the knowledge, sights, and experiences I have gathered over countless years of adventure.”