Within the silent laboratory, Chen Heng looked at the numbers from the test, a look of surprise on his face.
His feeling from half a year ago had come true.
The increase in his power from half a year ago really had to do with faith energy.
Moreover, from the numbers, there was quite a big relation.
After coming to this conclusion, Chen Heng looked incredibly surprised.
Because he came from a modern society, as well as being familiar with the Sorcerer system, he felt that it was difficult to accept this.
Only after a while did he come to his senses.
It had to be said that other people's faith energy producing changes to his power was a bit too unbelievable.
His power had increased, but he had not been able to find out a reason for it.
Even though he had gone through many simulations, the law of conservation of energy had been constant.
How could faith energy cause his power to increase?
Was it that faith energy really could turn into power?
What was the principle behind this?
Why was this possible for some people and not others?
Many questions appeared in Chen Heng's mind.
He instinctively wanted to find the principles behind this but did not know how.
This completely surpassed what he was capable of.
If it was researching a material or the use of runes, it would not be too difficult. However, to research faith energy, that was beyond his capabilities.
Forget it.
Chen Heng felt quite annoyed and decided to stop with this research.
Even if he continued with it, he would not be able to get much out of it.
Apart from the use of faith energy, Chen Heng's research had produced some other fruits, such as a method to leave.
During that half a year, Chen Heng had done much.
He had been doing his experiments while taking care of the children, while occasionally adventuring with Herlo and the others.
He was quite a busy person.
Of course, he had only gone adventuring at the start out of curiosity and did not go much after that.
After all, as someone with quite a lot of money, he just needed to wait for Herlo and the others to bring back the results; there was no need for him to go himself.
This saved him much time.
It could be said that it was incredibly difficult to progress without any money.
This place seemed to have people like Chen Heng coming here before, and they were all Sorcerers.
What was going on with that?
There was a thick book in Chen Heng's laboratory, which had a few magic skill frameworks recorded in it.
It had been discovered by Herlo and the others in a cave. They had discovered many other things but had only brought this back, and it was still somewhat usable.
Fortunately, this book had been made by a magic-infused item, or it would have long since decayed.
There were three magic skills in total: Mental Intimidation, Searing Flames and Flame Spirit.
It seemed that the Sorcerer who had left this behind was proficient in fire magic.
Chen Heng wondered how he had come here.
From that senior's records, Chen Heng also discovered some things.
This included that person's guesses about this region.
That person guessed that this was not an ordinary world but a man-made little world.
These little worlds were often created by ancient Sorcerer organizations of the past to either store their resources or to do various experiments.
This was most likely the case for this little world.
According to that Sorcerer's guesses, this experiment most likely had to do with the legend of the demon king and hero.
The reason was because every person who entered this little world would go through the trope of the demon king rampaging and hero rising up.
This was most likely some kind of trial and experiment.
Those who entered this little world would be entered into the trial and begin the rise of the demon king.
Following this, the hero would rise up and defeat the demon king.
Only by defeating the demon king and returning the world to peace would this trial end, and then they would be able to leave.
These were just guesses, and he did not know if they were true or not.
After all, at least at the time of writing, he evidently had not left yet.
As for whether that senior had really left, Chen Heng did not know either.
Herlo and the others had not discovered a corpse in that cave.
There was a chance that he had died, as well as a chance that he had left.
Only the heavens knew…
However, now that Chen Heng had obtained this Sorcerer's records, he had researched this and found that most of the senior's guesses had been correct.
In order to confirm some other things, he needed more materials and resources.
Standing in his laboratory, Chen Heng felt quite annoyed.
The recent experiments had made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
After walking out of the laboratory, he came to the courtyard outside.
After half a year, the courtyard had changed much.
Where there had only been grass before, there were now some saplings, making the courtyard look quite pleasant.
Shouts could also occasionally be heard, as a few children with shovels dug holes and planted trees.
The trees and saplings in this courtyard were all planted by these children.
This was so that the children would not be bored and have something productive to do.
As for whether this was child labor or not, Chen Heng did not think so; there were many children in this world who wanted something to do and would be thankful for it.
After staying in the courtyard for a while, Chen Heng sighed and walked out.
Outside, the old butler who he had employed was waiting.
"Sir, that mercenary group has come again," the old butler said with a displeasured look.
"The mercenary group has come again?" Chen Heng thought about it and knew who the butler was talking about.
Even though Chen Heng had been busy with his experiments, he had stayed in contact with Herlo and the others.
He would often spend money to have them explore certain places and bring back what they found.
Because he was quite generous with money and his requests were not too difficult, Herlo and the others liked Chen Heng a lot and would often come to find him.
However, the old butler did not like them.
After all, every time they came, they would ask Chen Heng for money.
Even though this money was not his, he did not like seeing it being wasted on this mercenary group.
There were few good people like Sir Ed, and yet these mercenaries were always coming to swindle him out of money; were they not afraid of divine retribution?
From how the old butler saw it, they were just swindling Chen Heng.
They just brought back some useless things that could not be eaten or used and yet asked for so much money; was that not swindling?
The old butler felt that since he was being employed as a butler, it was his duty to help his employer not be swindled.
However, it was a pity that Chen Heng and those mercenaries seemed to have a good relationship, so he could not just chase them away.
"Let's go, let's go."
Chen Heng patted the old butler's shoulder and smiled as he said, "Take me to see our guests."
His residence was quite big, and they walked through a very long corridor to get to the guest hall.
Within the guest hall, Herlo and the others were waiting there.
In the past half a year, Chen Heng had not changed much, but these people had gone through many changes.
Herlo was wearing new leather armor and looked much more spirited.
George was wearing a robe and had a smile on his face. It was just that he seemed to be missing a finger on his right hand; he seemed to have lost it during one expedition.
The only woman among them, Aila, had also changed much. She looked much better than before and was also dressing more stylishly.
Overall, the three of them were doing much better than before.
This was not that surprising—after obtaining so much money from Chen Heng, their lifestyles had greatly changed.
Chen Heng walked into the hall, and Herlo and the others hurriedly stood up.
"Long time no see," Chen Heng said as he smiled and gave them each a hug.
"It has been a month or so, my friend," Herlo said as he grinned.
"Alright, one month if you say so." Chen Heng nodded, not caring much for time.
"Let me see what you've brought for me this time," Chen Heng said as he looked at the three people before turning their gaze to the box behind them.
With his sharp senses, he quickly discovered what Herlo and the others had brought.
Herlo and the others were very honest people; they very rarely came to find Chen Heng unless they had something to bring to him.
They did not have the face to just come and ask for money.
"It's some new stock," Herlo said before he and George walked over and opened up the box.
Soft a soft bang, the box was opened and its contents were revealed.
It was a red crystal that looked quite special. It gave off a red luster and looked as if there was blood flowing within it.
It looked like a crystal made of blood, and it was very beautiful.
"This is…"
Seeing this red crystal, Chen Heng's heart leapt but he suppressed his emotions.
He walked up and touched the red crystal.
A warm feeling came from his palm, giving him a comfortable feeling. It was not like he was touching an ice-cold crystal but touching a heart.
Putting aside its actual value, just this feeling could make people feel quite shocked.
"How is it?" Herlo rubbed his head. After the past half a year, his hair had started thinning out for some reason.
"My subordinate obtained this from outside; we have no idea what it is. I felt that it was quite unique, so I decided to deliver it to you."
During this half a year, not only had Chen Heng gone from being a rogue Sorcerer to the owner of this large residence, but Herlo had also become the leader of a large mercenary group. Apart from George and Aila, he had many other subordinates.
However, in actuality, he was here for money.
Now that their mercenary group had grown, their costs had also increased.
If they did not find a few revenue streams, they would be in trouble.
"I'll take it," Chen Heng said as he nodded, "If you find similar things, just send people to bring them over."
Hearing this, Herlo and the others let out sighs of relief.
Looking at Chen Heng, Herlo stretched out his hand somewhat awkwardly, "Then, about the money…"
"I'll…"
Before Chen Heng could finish, the old butler stepped forward and blocked in front of him.
"Sir, leave things like this to me," the old butler said respectfully as he looked at Chen Heng.
He had been feeling quite annoyed towards Herlo and the others, and he took this opportunity to come out.
Otherwise, with his understanding of Chen Heng, he would just pay whatever they asked for.
"Err… alright then." Chen Heng did not refuse and just waved his hand, and attendants took the box into his laboratory.
Regardless of the price, he still wanted it.
Especially this thing.
"How have things been outside lately?" Chen Heng continued to chat with Herlo.
Since they were the bosses, they could just leave discussing the price to their subordinates.
They left the hall and came to the courtyard to stroll.
There were children walking about; after planting the trees, they happily played with smiles on their faces.
Seeing this scene, Herlo could not help but smile, feeling quite happy.
However, hearing Chen Heng's words, he shook his head, "It's not great. There have been more demon beasts in the nearby forest lately…"
No one knew when demon beasts had started to appear in the forests.
This region had been quite normal at the start and did not have any demon beasts.
As time went on, demon beasts had appeared, and they began to increase in number.
By the time Chen Heng had arrived half a year ago, there were quite a few of them, let alone now.
According to Herlo, if they dragged out all of the demon beasts in all of the forests, they would be able to inundate quite a few kingdoms.
This was very shocking.
These demon beasts greatly affected people's lives.
Just for the ordinary commoners, those who relied on the resources in forests were incredibly unfortunate.
With so many demon beasts in the forests, who dared to go in?
Under such circumstances, mercenary groups like Herlo's began to grow.
On one hand, it was because many kingdoms gave out bounties, and on the other hand, many people could not continue to live where they had been and joined mercenary groups.
However, many smaller mercenary groups were not doing too well either.
Only ones of Herlo's scale did decently.
After all, it could be said that they had a rich backer who was an existence that other mercenary groups looked up to.
"Ai…"
After chatting for a while, Herlo deeply sighed, feeling quite bad for the commoners.
Chen Heng wondered why the leader of a mercenary group like him was so emotional.
After a while, the old butler, George, and Aila walked over, but neither of them had very pleasant expressions.
Could it be that it had been a pyrrhic victory for both?
Chen Heng looked at them with interest, and he chatted with George and Aila for a while before saying goodbye.
"How much did you haggle the price down to?" Chen Heng asked out of curiosity.
The old butler's expression was calm, looking as if it had not been a big deal.
"Only half."
"I'm sure they're feeling very sad then," Chen Heng said as he smiled.
Of course, he did not care much about this.
Whether it was full price or half price, none of that mattered much.
Of course, that was because it was easy for him to make money.
If it was magic stones, he would not be able to act the same way.
If it came to magic stones, he would be even stingier than the old butler.
After Herlo and the others left, Chen Heng returned to his laboratory.
Within the silent laboratory, the red crystal was laid out on an experiment bench.
Faint red light spread out, dyeing the surroundings red.
Chen Heng walked forwards slowly, a look of delight on his face.
