Standing in the study, Richard saw five or six tall bookshelves next to the wall, each filled with books and scrolls.

With his eyes narrowing slightly, Richard walked to one of the bookshelves, stepped on a special wooden ladder, and reached for the top of the bookshelf.

Pushing through a large number of books and scrolls, Richard felt a cold black iron box placed in the innermost part of the shelf. The black iron box is about 30 centimeters long and wide, and 5 or 6 centimeters thick, and the surface is engraved with cumbersome lines, which looks strange and mysterious.

With a slight effort, Richard pulled the black iron box out of the bookshelf, walked down the wooden ladder, and placed it on the wooden table in the study.

With a "snap", Richard opened the black iron box, revealing a book inside.

The book is about the size of a black iron box, and the cover on the surface is a cold metallic hue, and it looks extremely heavy.

Richard pulled the book out, feeling the touch like a cube of ice, his eyes flashing, and his gaze fell on a depression in the cover.

The depression and the metal lines on the cover look like a cracked mouth, and if you look at it from a special angle, you can see a line of small words that are not easy to see: Let me drink the magic energy to my heart's content, and I will tell you the truth about this world.

A magic book! Or rather, a wizard's book!

This was something that Richard had managed to find in the deepest part of the royal library, and its origin was unclear even to the oldest librarian. All I know is that this is a strange book, full of evil powers, with a vicious curse, and if you come into contact with it often, you will get sick at least and die violently at worst.

Richard naturally did not believe in the so-called curses and evil forces, and in Richard's view, this book was nothing more than a volatile substance that was toxic to the human body. As long as you pay attention to the circulation of air, chronic poisoning can be completely avoided.

But it's not easy to unlock the secrets in the books.

Because the book is wordless.

That's right, wordless heavenly book!

There is not a single word in the pages inside, and there is only one explanation, except that someone deliberately manipulated it: under special conditions, the book can reveal hidden content. Just like the common trick on the modern earth, writing on white paper with starch will change color as soon as it touches iodine.

But Richard had done many tests, whether it was pure aqueous solution, iodine, acid, or lye, which could not change the pages. Obviously, the paint applied on the pages is a very special kind of pigment, and the only way to find the corresponding reactant can be found.

And what this reactant is, the cover has made it clear enough: magic energy.

What is magic energy?

In order to crack the secrets of this wizarding book, in order to unravel the secrets of wizards and spells, Richard has been looking for strange creatures, humans, and now ......

Richard tilted his head slightly, looking at the rose-colored liquid that lay on the side of the table.

"Right or wrong, you should know right away, right?" Richard muttered to himself, and the next moment he picked up the bottle containing the rose-colored liquid, opened the stopper, and slowly poured it into the dent on the cover of the book.

Soon, the depression was filled and a small bubble bubbled up. After standing still for a long time, it broke with a "pop".

For a moment, it seemed to cause some chain reaction, and the liquid in the recess of the cover seemed to boil, and a large number of bubbles bubbled out and burst open.

"Bang! bang!"

Then, as if triggering some restriction, with a "goo-dong" mouthful, all the liquid was swallowed by the book in an instant, and it disappeared cleanly.

The next moment, the book began to tremble slightly, as if a human being was trembling, causing the desktop to begin to vibrate, and a voice sounded from the depths of the book: "Thirst...... Thirsty...... Thirsty ......"

Richard raised his eyebrows, reached out and pressed the vibrating wizarding book, then picked up the bottle with the rose-colored liquid and poured it down again against the depression on the cover.

This time, as the liquid was poured down, the sound of drinking water continued to sound, and every time the sound sounded, the liquid would disappear and "more...... More ......" moans.

And just like that, Richard poured most of the liquid into his fill, and the sound of drinking water finally disappeared, replaced by a full burp, "Hee-hi-hiccups-"

The shaking book slowly regained its composure, and Richard took a deep breath and opened it.

I saw that the first page of the book was originally blank, but now there was blood-red paint showing little by little, and finally it merged into a somewhat terrifying skull.

There was a raging fire burning in the skull's eyes, as if it were real, I don't know if it was an illusion, Richard actually felt the heat.

This......

The next moment, something even more shocking happened, the painted skull actually moved, and the jaws closed one by one and let out a cold low voice: "Who woke me up? Who is going to peek into the treasure of Master Monroe's knowledge? Answer me, or you will be punished the most severely!"

If the rest of the people could be scared half to death when they saw this, Richard didn't, but looked at the skull on the page with interest and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am the spirit of the book created by Master Monroe to protect the safety of this book and to screen the qualifications of those who read it. ”

"What can you do?"

"I can verify that everyone who reads this book is smart enough, and if so, then he will be qualified to read this book. If not, then he will pay his fair share for his own recklessness and ignorance. ”

"At what cost?"

"Death!" the book spirit's voice was grim.

Richard laughed, "It's kind of interesting." ”

Then Richard asked, "How do you verify that everybody is smart enough?"

"I would swap a question with everybody, and if he could answer my question correctly and I couldn't answer his question, then he would be smart enough. During the period when I couldn't answer his questions, he was free to read the book with impunity. ”

"Is that so......" Richard's eyes flashed, "and what is your problem?"

"If you want to peek into Master Monroe's knowledge, are you sure you want to start the challenge?"

"You have to give it a try. "Whether it's success or failure, I'd like to study your mechanism of action." ”

"......" The book spirit was silent for a moment, as if thinking about the meaning of what Richard was saying, and finally half spoke, "Well, since you have decided on the challenge, let's solve this puzzle: there is a strange creature with four legs in the morning and two legs at noon......"

Richard couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, isn't this the mystery of the Sphinx in modern earth and Greek mythology? In Greek mythology, the sphinx-faced monster "Sphinx" sat on a cliff near the city of Thebais, stopped passers-by, and asked them the same riddle.

Many people couldn't guess the answer, and they were all eaten by the "Sphinx" mercilessly, and later a man named "Oedipus" guessed the correct answer, and the "Sphinx" was so ashamed that he jumped off the cliff and died.

The next moment, without waiting for the book spirit to finish speaking, Richard couldn't help but interrupt: "Don't tell me, what you are going to say next is, 'This creature will have three legs at night, and when he has the most legs, it is also when he walks the slowest and has the weakest physical strength'. And they asked me, 'What is this creature?'"

The voice of the book spirit stopped abruptly, and fell into silence, for a long time, as if it were the first time it had encountered such a situation.

Richard spoke up again and said to the book spirit: "Well, if that's really the case, then I can only tell you that the puzzle is 'people'." This is because a person has four legs when he walks in infancy (morning), two legs when he walks normally in adulthood (noon), and three legs when he walks on crutches in old age (at night).

But...... Is the criterion for judging intelligence really rigorous as a puzzle similar to a sharp turn in the brain? Or is it not at all the same as what I understand to be smart? You are more inclined to be witty, while I am more inclined to be wise......