This swordsmanship is renowned for its "complex and elegant moves that are difficult to learn and master." Although in the hands of many people it resembles more of an elaborate dance than swordsmanship, if mastered, it becomes a skill of extremely high caliber.
It can even serve as a stepping stone to gaining the recognition of a prominent member of the royal family.
Therefore, much like a symbol of high society, this swordsmanship is highly sought after by the court nobles and even esteemed ladies from notable families, and its circulation is limited to the upper echelons of power.
Even with Navy Captain Gel's status, when he explained swordsmanship to Aiven, he couldn't present the entire lineage, only vaguely explaining the features and countermeasures of this swordsmanship.
In Aiven's view.
A thief of noble origin, skilled in "court swordsmanship," going onto a navy supply ship to steal things, undoubtedly involves very troublesome matters; catching this guy would only bring more trouble!
So Aiven directly chose to turn a blind eye.
"Let me see what this guy actually stole?" Unable to resist his curiosity, the item stolen by someone like "Zorro" must not be ordinary.
Opening the black cloth bundle.
Though the package appeared large, inside there wasn't the precious cultivation resources or wealth Aiven imagined, but rather layer upon layer of tightly wrapped cloth bundles.
"What's going on, with so many layers of packaging for a stolen item?"
It wasn't until Aiven unwrapped layer upon layer of black cloth packaging, then unpacked the tough kraft paper inside, that he finally discovered a flat wooden box within.
After breaking the small lock on the wooden box, Aiven finally saw the true form of this mysterious stolen item.
It was a book with a black leather cover, but from the outside, it was rather disappointing. Its plain and old cover even had traces of colorful dye, as if it had been picked up from a garbage heap.
"A shabby book?"
Aiven found himself more puzzled by the mysterious "Zorro."
Taking such a huge risk to personally board a navy supply ship, leaving behind the valuable magic potions in the warehouse, the officers' premium pocket watches, and the military pay, but choosing to steal such an inexplicable book instead—if it isn't "Zorro" who's got issues, then surely the book has issues!
Therefore, Aiven felt there must be some secret, and decided to keep the book for himself, see the reaction on the supply ship tomorrow, and then decide what to do with it.
Throwing away all the miscellaneous "packaging materials," he wrapped the book in just a piece of black cloth and tucked it into his bosom.
"Boss, how's it going, did you catch the thief?" As soon as he returned to the naval port, a group of sailors waiting here surrounded him, with Gary, who was sobered up from the cold wind, asking first.
"Let him get away." Aiven shook his head, not lying either.
He noticed the supply ship was brightly lit, indicating that the sailors on duty there had also noticed something was amiss.
"Boss, the people from the supply ship came down just now; they're probably back to inventory the warehouse. I'll go tell them that we didn't catch the thief, so we can't be blamed for this." Noticing Aiven's gaze, Gary explained.
"Alright, you cooperate with them over there; if they find something missing, don't forget to let me know."
"Rest assured, boss." Gary simply assumed Aiven was curious, like him, and didn't think much of it.
....
Returning to his rented house, Aiven couldn't sleep for a while, so he turned on the gas lamp, took the book out of his arms, and sat at the desk to read it.
Gently flipping through two pages, Aiven discovered it was actually a pharmacy notebook. Since his time with Leopold to run a pharmacy, Aiven had already learned pharmacy from Grandpa Leo and even obtained a pharmacist qualification certificate. With his previous life's medical knowledge, Aiven wasn't an outsider to pharmacy either.
"Improved pain relievers, diarrhea medication, hemostatic ointment..."
From his experience, although most of the pharmacological agents were quite good, they only treated minor ailments of ordinary people, akin to Grandpa Leo's invention of the "Live Fish Potion."
They had some value, but not enough to warrant the extraordinary efforts of "Mr. Zorro" to steal them.
Finding nothing particularly notable for the time being, Aiven took great interest in the improved pharmacological agents at the beginning. As a registered pharmacist, the novel ideas revealed in the various improved recipes were equally enticing to him.
After all, pharmacy was very useful in this era; Aiven and Steward Leo had quite a decent life in Leopold thanks to this skill, and he didn't want to completely abandon it.
Moreover, the three pillars of the Knight Path—"Breathing Technique, Swordsmanship, Magic Potion"—are also closely related to pharmacy. He had even gathered most of the raw materials for the "Black Sea Potion" needed for advancement, planning to concoct the finished product himself.
This made it even more imperative not to neglect pharmacy.
Shh—
Shh—
The pages turned, and as Aiven became engrossed in reading, he didn't notice that the glow from the gas lamp on the desk gradually dimmed, and then suddenly went out completely, plunging the room into darkness.
"Unlucky, the gas lamp ran out of fuel at this time. Forget it, sleep first, and continue reading tomorrow." A minor mishap broke Aiven's reading interest; realizing it was extremely late, he decided to sleep since he still needed to get up early for training in the following days, even though the Silver Wings had no tasks."
As he placed the pharmacy notebook back on the table and was about to draw the curtains beside him, he suddenly noticed that under the moonlight streaming in from outside, a page of the notebook also reflected a cold, faint silver light.
"Thump!" Aiven's heart skipped a beat; he felt he might have discovered the hidden secret of this book.
Carefully turning to the glowing page, a few lines of light blue small text quietly appeared in the blank space of the original recipe.
However, this small text was not in the Tulip Alliance's common language, but in the extraordinary text known as "Spiritual Text" or "Jatata Language."
This is an ancient language that has existed since the spread of extraordinary knowledge in the world. Some say it is the language of the gods, others that it is the language of ancient civilizations from the previous era, and so on.
Even the most erudite scholars cannot ascertain its true origin, but the strange power inherent in this text is an undeniable fact.
Due to this, it is also the universally used script for recording extraordinary power in the extraordinary world across various countries on the continent, with a long history of transmission.
Being from an orthodox extraordinary knight family, Aiven naturally received relevant education, which was one of the reasons behind his mastery-level grammar skills on his skill panel.
"A new potion? A Developing Potion?"
Although the formula recorded in "Jatata" language was still of a pharmaceutical nature, Aiven dared not take it lightly, knowing that anything recorded in the extraordinary language couldn't be simple even if it wasn't of extraordinary level.
Thinking of the peculiar change this notebook underwent under the moonlight, Aiven speculated that if he could concoct the "Developing Potion," he might have the key to unlocking deeper secrets within this book.
"What a pity!"
The formula wasn't complicated, and the required raw materials were quite common; unfortunately, Aiven had none of them at hand now.
So he carefully put away the notebook, and went to bed with a heart full of anticipation, deciding to go to the pharmacy first thing in the morning to buy the raw materials for the potion, as he couldn't focus on anything else without doing so.