Fatty Xu and Agravain never expected that they had come searching for treasure, only to find a library instead.

This was a symbol of civilization.

A blazing, scorching light burst forth from Agravain’s eyes.

“These... these are priceless treasures!”

To ordinary eyes, these books would only interest researchers.

But Agravain was different. Hailing from a prestigious institution of higher learning, she immediately recognized the value of these books.

Because right here, the entire lost civilization’s entire culture might be recorded!

If they could take them away and decipher their contents, it would bring an enormous leap forward in human society’s understanding of the ancient civilization!

Fatty Xu scratched his head, a hint of disappointment sinking in his heart.

He wasn’t interested in this stuff at all. He just wanted to find the boss as fast as possible and hide behind him.

But just then, a rumbling “boom-boom-boom” sound suddenly echoed before them.

Something enormous was emerging from behind the Mountain of Books.

Agravain’s pupils violently constricted. She immediately drew the longsword from her waist. Fatty Xu also raised his wrist, aiming his hand cannon forward.

The next moment, they saw an old man in a long robe with flowing white hair stand up from behind the Mountain of Books.

His figure was somewhat stooped. He wore a pair of emerald-green monocles and was holding a thick book in his hands, absorbed in reading something.

The appearance of the two little figures hadn’t even caught his attention.

But Fatty Xu, tense with nerves, accidentally pulled the trigger on his hand cannon.

“Boom!!”

A flash of light streaked forward as the hand cannon fired. Agravain’s face twisted in shock.

The old man was startled. His massive body crashed to the ground with a thunderous thud.

“Why... why did you attack him?”

Agravain said, her voice trembling with fear.

“What if he’s some powerful existence from the Tri-Eyed Clan? We’d be doomed!”

Fatty Xu stammered, “I... I just fired on instinct, I swear.”

A deep, rumbling voice echoed in their ears.

“Oh, what’s going on here?”

The white-haired old man scrambled up from the ground. A huge hole had been blasted straight through the book in his hands, making him heartbroken with distress.

“This was a book from three hundred years ago!”

After getting up, the old man’s gaze locked onto Fatty Xu and Agravain on the ground.

“Hmm? Are these... Imitation Humans?”

Fatty Xu and Agravain’s faces had both turned pale. They exchanged desperate, hopeful glances at each other.

Both of them were extremely weak in combat. Each had assumed the other was a powerhouse, so they desperately hoped the other would step up to face the enemy.

The white-haired old man, the most knowledgeable Grand Scholar in all of Nasha, now looked at them with eyes full of curiosity.

“Could it be... what the books say is true? That the world above the dome is ruled by Imitation Humans?”

He thought for a moment, then switched to another language in a series of gibberish-sounding syllables.

It was the language of the humans from the underground world, similar to the ancient tongue of the Snowy Plateau Region.

Through their Smart Systems, the two finally understood what the old man meant.

Seeing that the old man meant them no harm, their hearts calmed down a little.

The Grand Scholar looked at them, his eyes filled with the curiosity of someone who had discovered a precious treasure, without any hint of malice.

“Heh heh, don’t be nervous. I won’t hurt you.”

“By the way, did you two come from the outside world? Because you don’t look like the Imitation Humans here.”

In the Grand Scholar’s words, he called humans “Imitation Humans.”

Agravain felt a little uneasy hearing that.

She asked, “You call us Imitation Humans... so what are you, then?”

The Grand Scholar sat down slowly on the ground, like a mountain, looking at them with a gentle smile.

“We are, of course, humans!”

Agravain was stunned, her jaw practically on the floor. Since the Grand Scholar was using the ancient dialect of the Snowy Plateau Region’s indigenous people, the definition of “human” shouldn’t be any different.

“You... you call yourselves humans too?”

The Grand Scholar looked somewhat surprised. “Oh? Do you also call yourselves humans?”

“Hmm, that’s rather interesting. Just like the historical records say. It seems we really might share the same ancestors.”

“After all, looking at our appearances, we are both similar primates.”

“Initially, it was precisely for this reason that we started calling you ‘Imitation Humans.’”

Seeing the old man’s scholarly, academic demeanor, the two guessed that he was probably not a combatant. Only then did they truly let their guard down.

They were also incredibly curious about Nasha. They wanted to know where this kingdom came from and why it resembled humans so closely.

Since they had nowhere else to go for now, the two simply grabbed a book, sat down, and started chatting with the Grand Scholar.

The Grand Scholar was also more than happy to exchange ideas with them.

The native humans of Nasha had long since become livestock; they had no value for research.

But these humans from the outside world possessed knowledge he knew nothing about.

“Have you all lived here your whole lives? How long is your history? Why live underground when the outside world is so vast?”

Agravain had many questions.

The Grand Scholar chuckled. “Our history is extremely ancient, but there were also gaps caused by wars in between. The clearly recorded historical years stretch back over thirteen thousand years. If you include myths and legends, it might be several hundred thousand years, hahaha! But those are all unverified and can’t be taken seriously.”

“As for why we live underground...” He furrowed his brow. “You call this place ‘underground,’ don’t you? But that’s strange. We consider ourselves to be living on the surface world.”

He pointed at his feet. “The real underground is the abyss, something humans can never reach.”

“Oh, so you came from above, right?”

He pointed at the sky again, his eyes burning with intense curiosity.

“I’ve also wondered before why we can’t go up into the sky. But human technology just isn’t advanced enough to reach that level.”

“Legend has it that there is only one way to reach the upper realm: ascension!”

“So in our ancient times, there were many powerful martial artists who could acquire great strength through cultivation. They say that, long, long ago, someone once ascended to the upper realm.”

Fatty Xu was stunned, speechless.

“That... that ‘ascension’ you’re talking about... means coming to our world?”

The Grand Scholar spread his hands.

“I used to think this was just a joke. Because the human physique simply isn’t suited for surviving in that kind of environment.”

“Besides, people live inside houses, not on the outside of them, right?”

“According to our ancestors, the place we live on is a giant sphere of dirt. It’s like a house. The soil on the outside is our wall, protecting us from the dangers outside.”

“But wouldn’t that just be moss growing on the wall?”

Agravain was utterly shocked after hearing this argument. For a moment, she couldn’t think of a single counter-argument.

Born into an environment of sunlight and open air, she instinctively believed that humans should live on the surface.

But wasn’t the underground world actually far larger and better at warding off threats from the cosmos?