Chapter 266

Chapter 253: Historical Records

What is the essence of poison recognition?

Regarding this question, Dorothy currently does not have a good explanation. For now, she can only roughly speculate that poison recognition is deeply related to “Enlightenment” spirituality. Thinking deeper, it might also be connected to the fall of the Star Number Repair Association, but overall, there is still too little information to make any judgments.

‘Forget it, there’s no point in thinking about meaningless things. As long as I keep pursuing knowledge, one day I will surely touch the truth.’

With this thought, Dorothy stopped pondering about poison recognition and focused her attention on the medical books before her.

‘On the other hand… the mundane medical books of this world are more advanced than I imagined. In my original world, during the steam revolution era, medicine was quite primitive; amputations and bloodletting were common, and hospitals resembled slaughterhouses.

‘Although this world appears to be in the steam revolution period, medicine has already achieved the production of antibiotics and has a relatively complete nursing system. It seems that the development of medicine surpasses industrial progress.’

Dorothy thought this way, having discovered this issue while reading medical books over the past few days. Regarding this matter, Dorothy did have some clues.

Thinking this, Dorothy reached out and pulled one book from the pile, placing it in front of her and flipping directly to the title page where the author was noted.

“Edwina Bulworth, Doctor of Medicine, Royal Honorary Earl, Main Achievements: Inventor of Erythromycin, Standardization of Modern Surgery, Founder of Modern Anesthesiology, Discoverer of bl**d Types…”

Reading the author introduction on the title page, Dorothy couldn’t help but stroke her chin. In the medical books she had read previously, this name appeared frequently. According to the descriptions, the significant strides in medicine in this world were inseparable from this doctor named Edwina. From the descriptions, she had many achievements that significantly elevated the level of medicine in this world.

“There are indeed geniuses in this world…”

Musing over the name on the introduction, Dorothy sighed thoughtfully, then closed and put away the book.

…

As the sun set and the moon rose, night fell upon North Tivyán, the Church District.

The bright moonlight shone upon the spires of buildings, and the heavy church bell sounds echoed through the night. The devout prayers reverberated through the houses.

In a nondescript building within the Church District, a bright lamp illuminated a spacious room filled with tall bookshelves. Various books and scrolls were placed on the shelves, along with strange props on tables and cabinets. A faint scent of incense wafted through the air in the corner of the room.

There were five or six figures in the room, both male and female, dressed in nun or cleric robes. These nuns and clerics sat at their respective seats, facing a complex instrument similar to a large microscope. They were carefully observing something through the instrument’s eyepieces.

The entire room was exceptionally quiet, with everyone fully engrossed in their work. Only the heavy bell sounds from outside could be heard.

“Ugh… It’s already seven o’clock? My eyes are getting tired from looking…”

Yawning widely, Vania muttered softly from her seat, rubbing her dry eyes due to prolonged use. She then looked at the sizable mechanical instrument before her.

This was an instrument akin to a microscope, about half a meter high, with a large lens tube adorned with countless gears for adjusting parameters. There were slots for changing lenses, indicating that dozens of lenses were packed inside the tube. The surface of the lens tube was engraved with mysterious symbols.

At the bottom end of the lens tube, it extended into a sealed metal cabinet. Inside the unseen metal cabinet, what was being directly observed by the objective lens at the bottom end of the lens tube was a damaged book fixed on a platform inscribed with a magical array.

This was a Secret Transmission Observation Instrument, an extremely effective defense device against poison recognition. Through the protection of multiple enchanted lenses, observers could directly view small portions of the secret transmission content. Primarily used by the Radiant Church, many societies utilized such instruments for secret transmission observation to defend against poison recognition.

This was the Historical Records Office in Tivyán’s Church District, a place dedicated to studying various scriptures collected from the public or unearthed. This was also where Vania worked. Daily, she used such instruments to observe secret transmissions, which was her daily routine.

Using such large instruments to observe secret transmissions, determine their general content, distinguish whether they were heretical false scriptures or orthodox canonical texts, and then archive them after recording, these were the main tasks of Vania’s job. In essence, she spent most of her days dealing with secret transmissions.

‘Sigh… almost a month, finally nearly done with this one… I can only read a few sentences at a time, then have to meditate for an hour. Compared to praying to Akka, this efficiency is truly torture. Sometimes I really want to take the book out of the cabinet and read more at once, but unfortunately, I can’t.’

Looking at the instrument before her, Vania thought to herself. Such secret transmissions given to her by the church had clear regulations on how much to read each time and the intervals between readings, as well as the duration of meditation required. Given the amount of time spent daily, it usually took one or two months to read a single secret transmission.

After returning home each day, Vania used her free time to read the secret transmissions obtained from Dorothy by praying to Akka. She could finish one book in about a week, making the efficiency gap quite large. For instance, this clearly heretical false scripture she had been reading for nearly a month would have been completed much faster if not for the secret transmission being locked in a metal cabinet, assisted by mechanical pages turning.

Amidst the echoing bell sounds, Vania rubbed her eyes, glanced at her colleagues, squinted, and then thought to herself.

‘There are only thirty minutes left until work ends… I really don’t feel like continuing to read… I’ll just pray my way through the rest of the time.’

Vania thought this way, knowing that during the intervals between rounds of reading, the nuns and clerics in the Historical Records Office were not idle. To resist the minor effects of poison recognition, they needed to sincerely pray and strengthen their faith during this time.

Although Vania’s current round of reading was not yet finished, it didn’t stop her from starting to pray early, using prayer as an excuse to slack off, stretching her final half-hour before the end of her shift.

‘Master, please forgive my laziness…’ Closing her eyes and folding her hands, Vania prayed at her position.