Pillars of Ita

Chapter 1280 Doubts abound
Olivia put the back of her robe under her body and sat on the soft moss, looking at the bonfire in the distance like stars in the sky. Her ink-like eyes flickered, and the firelight seemed to cast a haze on her face, changing constantly.

"This world is falling into a sea of ​​fire, Ed, the empire's purpose may be different from what you think..." The girl clenched a dagger, as if she was full of thoughts, but finally let go, couldn't help but exhaled softly, shook her head, "Forget it, what does that have to do with me... I am not interested in any of their affairs, and I have fulfilled my obligations, but the Fountain of Youth, Vor-Salastir, and the Proof of Hegemony..."

Olivia's eyes looked in that direction in the darkness, which was bright and dark. Her thoughts seemed to have returned to the days many years ago. She always had many thoughts and purposes, but he could not notice any of them and foolishly helped her out.

There were a few times when her plans were almost ruined, but it was a bit unexpected, and she didn't seem to be too angry. She covered up the inquiring letter intact, and then left Kapka smoothly and returned to the society.

A smile appeared on the girl's face, as if she was proud of her own cleverness.

She looked at the unrestrained bird. A nightingale was flapping its wings and flying into the night sky, leaving behind only the sound of its flapping wings and a few colorful feathers.

Fang He was a little surprised when he received the message from Miss Bachelor. It was a gray bird with a piece of paper tied to its feet. He removed the note and the bird immediately turned into a shadow and flowed away from his hand and seeped into the soil.

This is a familiar, Fang He recognized it immediately, but why did Olivia use a messenger to communicate?

"Have you never doubted why an alchemist like her could do this?" Eleusis's voice sounded in his ears at the right time. But Fang He ignored her and just looked in that direction, but through the bonfire, he couldn't see the other side clearly.

He unfolded the paper:

"Be careful of the Flame Oath Tribe. Their greed is beyond your imagination, and your goal will eventually stand in their way. However, the Flame Oath Tribe and the Empire are not allies, but opponents."

Fang He was slightly startled. Saier's eyes fell on the note in his hand. From that direction, he couldn't see what was written on the note, but the commander didn't care what was written on it. He just asked, "What happened? Maybe we can stop for a while."

Fang He shook his head, the work of unlocking the seal could not be stopped.

He looked up. The moonlight from three hundred years ago was bright and flawless in the night sky. He already knew something about this maze. "We must unlock the first seal before midnight, otherwise once the moon rises to the sky, the maze will be restored to its original state."

"So how much time is left?" asked Ser Gios.

Fang He put away the note and said, "There's still time, Mr. Sayre."

Although he was a little concerned about Olivia, including the questions that Eleusis had raised with him before, he was obviously not a fool.

The matter he asked May and Alisa to investigate has almost come to a conclusion, but he chose to believe that Olivia had no ill intentions, just like when he was in Kapka.

All in all, this matter should be put aside for the time being. Fang He walked silently to one of the nodes, found the granite building under the dense vines, pressed it through the magic glove, and felt the response from the stone slab.

Ser Gios watched as the patterns on the stone slabs lit up one by one, like warm water flowing through the grooves and into the huge pit. The strips of light looked like canals.

Alisa and Catherine stood aside and watched this scene. Luo Yu held the Death of Many Suns in his hand and could subtly feel the hidden changes in the ether. He was familiar with the term magic guide and understood the difficulty of ancient alchemy, so he raised his eyebrows slightly.

In the Seven Seas Brigade, there are quite a few people who are on the path of alchemy. Trishis, Lark, Pasha and even the ship's officer know a thing or two, as well as his assistant, Miss Lisa.

"Under Ed's leadership, we all learned about the art of creation. After the lady from the first division joined, or after the new generation of Siren constructs became popular, he spent more time helping everyone understand the rune laws of creation. But now it seems that the distance between us and him has not narrowed. "

But it has increased.

Fang He's mind was completely immersed in the maze array, and he almost forgot about the seal itself. He gradually discovered that there were some unexpected things in the array.

The puzzles that lie beneath the jungle were once described by the elves of Númerín themselves—and the magic they used was not actually alchemy, but was described as such after it was passed on to mortals.

The real difference between the two lies in the difference between the magic furnace and the alchemy array.

The elemental affinity of the Numelin elves allows them to use magic without the use of a magic furnace, but in order to communicate with the starlight, they use a more esoteric rune as a path to advance their magic.

That is the most introductory part of the Creation Method. In the era of the Two Sacred Trees, its most profound content was only mastered by a few people, and for mortals, it was an insurmountable chasm.

This is not a pity for Fang He.

Because this book runs counter to the idea of ​​alchemy that most people pursue, and the high-level combat power of the elves in the past was scarce, they had to place their hopes on another route.

And the seemingly weak mortals did not disappoint them.

It was only a thousand years after the Numelin elves entrusted everything to the mortal world that someone wanted to go further on this path, but Fang He wanted more -

It is not about reproducing the elves' skills exactly and following the old ways.

The first mortal alchemists used magic circles engraved on the surface of objects to activate the magic circles to communicate with the underlying world. This was more convenient, but less flexible.

To this day, craftsmen can only engrave no more than a thousand spells on a magic wand, and some large-scale magic requires more than a hundred spells. Even if repeated spells are taken into account, a most elite magic wand can only record more than a dozen spells at most.

The same is true for other professions, not to mention that there is ether interference between different magical equipment, and alchemical formulas cannot be stacked on the body indefinitely.

Just like the protection spell on the barrier armor, it conflicts with the strength enhancement and swift burst spells on most heavy swords and longbows. Therefore, this type of profession has to carefully choose lighter armor, and some even choose not to wear armor.

This is the origin of professions such as greatswordsman and ranger.

In essence, mortals are using the power of the circle, not magic itself. But for the Numelin elves, magic is not such an inconvenience.

Twelve hundred mysterious runes can constitute a reflection of most of the laws in this world. They are used to communicate with starlight to create all miracles.

So if that’s the case, why don’t people choose to engrave runes instead of magic circles?
After receiving the inheritance in the Tower of Summer's End, Fang He actually came up with this idea - the ritual is composed of runes, and runes are the basis of the ritual.

Runes are like bytes, and spells are like words and sentences. Both are essentially connections to the core crystal and there is no difference between them.

But he still encountered a problem in the process.

With the addition of an intermediate step, the construction of the ritual became extremely difficult and slow. Except for himself who was almost completely unrestricted by computing power, most people encountered difficulties in the process of activating runes - starting the ritual.

This is due to the difficulty of the arcane runes themselves. Moreover, most people cannot afford to be distracted too much during a battle, and it is impossible to force everyone to become an alchemist and remember the vast number of spells.

Even alchemists themselves sometimes have to consult materials to ensure that those extremely complex large-scale spells are correct, not to mention that some magic and plug-ins require far more than just a few dozen spells.

This problem has troubled him for a long time.

But Fang He immediately discovered that this seal seemed to contain a solution.

How can the ancient puzzle lock still work normally after being out of control for thousands of years? The idea given by the elves turned out to be exactly the same as that of Jerdem's star device.

The ether circulates automatically and the magic circle maintains itself. Every time the full moon rises, the first level of the maze will be restored to its original state.

The starlight flowing through it seems to have its own self and wisdom.

It's not that he hadn't thought about this route. The first and second generation Siren constructs were derived from this, but Fang He always felt that there was a gap between the Star Device and ancient alchemy.

In fact, he also vaguely realized where the problem lay, which was in the Fairy Dance.

The Star Device and the Holy Crystal all come from the sixth technical route. This technical route was actually improved once later, namely the "Fairy Dance" transformation of Kingfisher Workshop.

After this change, a new era of combat craftsmen emerged, and further, the foundation for the birth of multiple parallel and surplus techniques was laid. Both of these are prerequisite skills for the star device that Fang He himself studied.

So what is the difference between the Fairy Dance and the alchemy of past ages?

To be honest, Fang He had never studied it in detail. Unless one was a scholar of alchemy history, most people would not study outdated skills, and those documents were all buried in a pile of old papers.

Even though he was aware of this, most of his historical documents are kept in the Guild of Artisans in Kaolin-Ishurian, where the Kingfisher Workshop began.

Therefore, it was somewhat of a coincidence that Sergios mistook him for a craftsman from the Corin-Ishurian school and forced him to unlock the seal.

But Fang He did not expect that the answer was written in the puzzle lock itself.

The ancient alchemy part was not difficult for him, and it turned out that the Numelin elves themselves had applications related to the star device, but they used their usual methods. But this was not a problem.

Because Fang He himself is extremely familiar with the star device - no matter which era the star device is from.

Now there are three standard answers, and the process of solving the problem is just to combine the three answers together, so for him it is just a natural thing.

He even forgot about the seal itself, and instead followed the ideas of the Numelin elves to go through all the rituals of the magic circle again, and then evolved it according to his own ideas.

And that was what Seer, Alyssa, Catherine and even Luo Yu saw.

It was not a sudden inspiration of a genius in a thousand years, but the result of a long period of time when several technical routes and concepts competed with each other, and the inheritance of different schools finally converged at this moment.

They are just borrowed from the hand of a young man, passing through the dilemma of time and reappearing at this moment, like winding lines interweaving with each other, and the hard work of countless geniuses finally writes down an answer.

Reflected in Luo Yu's sparkling eyes.

The young man held the Death of Many Suns in his hand and watched the scene silently.

The Sons of Salt and Bones are not without alchemists, but they are always helpless against this huge maze. However, even the ancients from three hundred years ago can still recognize the meaning of the spells written by Fang He.

The craftsmen held their breath.

In an era when multi-parallelism and redundancy techniques were not yet in vogue, innovations in combat craftsmen were still a future on paper.

And no one ever thought that people would have such an interpretation of alchemy centuries later.

Eleusis transformed into a girl in black clothes and a black skirt and stood beside Fang He all the time. Sergios was completely unaware of her presence, but the Duke's eyes flickered slightly, and she watched this scene with an extremely complex expression of justice:
"How is this possible? I can feel that he is imitating ancient rituals, but why are there so many things I don't understand?"

"No, even if his inheritance comes from the Tower of Summer's End, it's not like there are no records of it in the Empire. Could it be that the rumor is true? Has he really seen the scenery behind the last door of the Hall of a Thousand Doors?"

"…But this is not right either," Eleusis twisted the hem of her black skirt with both hands, her brows furrowed. She actually saw some specious methods of the Oshurs from this scene.

But it wasn't anything she knew—

It is somewhat similar to the method of the Flame Workshop. After Jerdem's death, most of his technology was sealed up by the Empire. Its subsequent survival became the starting point for the Empire's transformation today.

But the part that Fang He showed was still completely different from the technology she knew. Eleusis was not a novice. On the contrary, she was a genius alchemist, at least at her age.

She could see the truth behind those complicated techniques. They were more complex and sophisticated than the Empire's technology:

"The knowledge in the Imperial Library is vast... There can't be any part that I haven't read, but what he used is indeed the inheritance of the Empire. Why have I never heard of it?"

"No... What other secrets are there about Jerdem? The Empire did seal up the information about that era, but that is a document that only the Emperor can read. How could he know that?"

Fang He spent some time to deduce the entire maze. Of course, it was impossible to reproduce it completely. Such a large magic array would be a huge project, to say the least, and there might be more than one person involved in its construction.

But this was enough. After going deep into the bottom of the maze, it was just a simple task to unlock it again. Before the full moon rose, he opened several key nodes.

The magic arrays surrounding the giant pit all lit up at the same time, flickered for a moment, and then dimmed again.

After the first layer of self-repairing maze lock failed, the inner layer of the maze lock responsible for sealing had already been consumed over a thousand years, and the magic power dissipated in an instant.

Fang He then let go of his hand and took a step back. He came back to his senses from his own confusion and couldn't help but let out a breath. He felt a huge surprise in his heart. He didn't expect that unlocking this seal would bring such a great reward.

Once the gap between the Star Device and ancient alchemy is bridged, integrating Genesis into the modern alchemical system will be a crucial step.

He has even figured out how to design the next generation of Siren constructs, so that the future where everyone can become an alchemist will become possible.

Other professions are no longer just users of tools, they themselves will become builders, and with the help of attributeless crystals and magic furnaces, they can be realized.

A brand new future is slowly opening up.

An era that countless pioneers have wanted to achieve for thousands of years, an era that truly belongs to alchemy and to mortals.

But that step has not been taken yet, Fang He has not lost his mind and did not show any joy. He is very different from the past. He knows that this important secret now depends on himself, so he has to be more careful and cautious.

He looked at Ser Gios who was standing beside him: "In half an hour, the seal will open automatically."

What is currently blocking their way is actually the etheric magic power gathered on the seal. He has no way to speed up its dissipation, so he can only bide his time.

Sail nodded. He had heard the whispers of his alchemists and knew the strength of the young man in front of him.

He had tried his best to overestimate the other party, but he didn't expect that he still underestimated the other party's ability.

He turned his head to look at the vortex of magic. The second level of the maze was actually much smaller than the first. It was set under the huge pit. Behind the misty fog, overlapping ruins could be vaguely seen.

He was actually very familiar with those scenes.

He found a place to sit down, and no longer tried to restrain his men. He watched the sailors gathered in twos and threes, watching the wonder before them.

Saier turned around and looked at Fang He who was standing beside him. He suddenly asked, "Young man, what is the purpose of your journey?"

Fang He originally wanted to go check on Olivia. He was still a little concerned about the incoherent message that the bachelor lady left him, but when he heard these words, he was stunned and stopped subconsciously.

He looked at the other person and realized that the commander of the Sons of Salt and Bones was also a famous explorer in history. Why did he ask himself this?
What was the purpose of his journey?
It seems very simple, it’s just yearning.

Yearning for a free and easy life, yearning for the courage to cross the sea, yearning for those enchanting legends, yearning for the halo that surrounds generations of star selectors.

There is no lofty purpose.

He never shied away from this, because part of it was his childhood dream. It was just that he was unwilling to accept reality, and by chance he came to the Star Gate.

Most people have the right to dream, and he is no exception.

Searle got the answer from his eyes, and it was not surprising. Most people embark on a journey out of beautiful aspirations, although the reality is not beautiful and may even be a bit heavy.

But it at least gave people the courage to take the first step, and then in the storm, even if they got swollen in the face, they could not admit defeat. This is how many people walked on their own life path step by step.

It was just that at the beginning of that road, there was once a very important person accompanying me, but as time went by, that memory has faded a little bit:
"We can definitely break the fate. I will stay with you till the end, brother."

Fang He suddenly realized something.

The Bronze Bell Council sent the Sons of Salt and Bone's fleet to the Fault Sea more than once in order to find another safe route to Silverwind Harbor and break the Heimwol elves' monopoly on the continental routes at that time.

But if that is the case, why has Sergios always been so fascinated by this archipelago? Historically, he seems to have never crossed the Red Vortex. Otherwise, it might be that this great explorer should have discovered the continental bridge or even the Gate of Heaven.

There is no need to wait until future generations usurp the throne.

In fact, there was relevant testimony in the Senate's later trial of this great explorer. The elders of the Senate believed that it was the former's cowardice that led to the repeated waste of opportunities and resources given by the Senate.

It's just a pity that after the death of Ser Gios, the Bronze Bell Council couldn't even find a successor. In that era without star trackers, the fleet of the Sons of Salt and Bone also lost the possibility of further advancing into the Fault Sea.

The exploration of Sar-Volastil also ended here.

But Fang He looked at the great explorer who was sitting not far in front of him. What if his purpose was not to find that fictitious route?

So what is his real purpose?
……