magician in town

Chapter 663 Ancestral Gift (53)

Roach reached out to the bronze artifact, but the bronze artifact did not produce any magical energy fluctuations the moment he touched it. The bronze divine bird was simple and exquisite, simply carrying the long-lost wishes.

He gently touched the smooth patterns on the surface of the bronze artifact, a surge of human emotion welling up within him. Humans had witnessed the omnipotence of their sorcerer ancestors; they understood those great powers in their own way, and recorded what they saw and heard in their own way. Liu Ziyu, standing beside him, mentioned many parameters for probing bronze artifacts, but the conclusion he had already anticipated was that it was simply a bronze artifact.

“Look at those crystals on the edge,” Roach said.

The faint glow reflected from the slightly concave circular rings were crystalline particles embedded in the metal structure. Based on his experience with the highland mages and the sealed lands, Roach could guess that these crystals were merely remnants of some energy storage entities, which should now be completely extinguished, explaining why they no longer produced any reaction to the battle mage's energy test. Liu Ziyu's test results were the same.

His attention was drawn to a patch of ground near the bird-shaped bronze artifact, where there appeared to be a charred mark. It looked like early humans had performed a ritual near the bronze bird, which was theoretically possible, but Roach quickly dismissed the idea. It probably wouldn't have been so easy for early humans to leave a mark on the creation of the Primordial Mage.

Thinking this, he tossed out a flame, wanting to see if the metal base could easily leave a scorch mark. The flame was instantly extinguished by Liu Ziyu with a spell. Without even glancing at him, her fingers flew across the ground, creating a small sandbox-like experimental field. Lightning accompanied by a fireball fell into the small experimental field. "It seems that ordinary flames produced by nature cannot leave any marks, and they don't seem to conduct electricity. These marks must have been created by the Primordial Mage himself. Can you please not do it yourself, Luo Qi?"

Roach blinked. "Time is of the essence."

"Then let's not cause any trouble," Liu Ziyu said bluntly.

“So these traces must have been left by the Ancestor.” Sect Leader Zhao interjected, naturally standing next to Liu Ziyu. “Do you think that so many circular halos mean that the Ancestor Mage once used a large-scale magic array here? I’ve never seen such a topological distribution before. Perhaps it’s some kind of magnificent magic that has long been lost. You just said that the magical energy here is isolated from the entire sealed land. The Ancestor Mage must have separated this place to perform special magic.”

"Maybe," Liu Ziyu said.

"It's foolish and laughable that humans would display their bronze artifacts here. But at least they recognize the sacredness of this place; they do have some sense of value."

Those who burn lotuses clearly all think so. Some have already begun chanting ancient words in praise, while others bend down to carefully examine the charred marks, discussing with each other what kind of magic could leave such marks on such a metallic surface.

Some even suggested melting down the ugly bronze bird. That could be done with a simple magic spell.

Liu Ziyu told him to shut up, and that if he dared to make a move, she would melt that person down first. The Lotus Burner only held back after seeing Zhao's expression. She looked at Luo Qi, who had been silent all along, and asked, "Why are you still angry?"

"Get angry with her?" Luo Qi glanced at Liu Ziyu in surprise, then shook his head. "I'm wondering why humans put a bird here."

“Humans aren’t even that smart now; in the time of our ancestors, they were just animals,” someone interjected. “This is a divine bird; humans created their own divine artifact.” Roach pondered, unconsciously stroking the bronze artifact gently, as if yearning to communicate with ancient humans. Humans cannot store their complex consciousness in a container to communicate with people a thousand years later, but they still express information in a simple and unpretentious way.

He looked up at the metal dome again. “They made a bird and placed it in the center of the circle. This means that they have seen a bird take off from the center of the circle and fly into the sky, or they have seen a bird land in the center of the circle, or both.”

"What nonsense are you spouting?" someone muttered in complaint.

“A giant bird flies back and forth within each of the giant rings. You're the fools. If you knew more about humans, you would have figured out what's going on here by now.” Roach didn't explain further. He turned to Yan Hao, “Locate the location. Are there any giant objects here? If we can find a surviving bird…”

Battle mages never ask why, but Yan Hao answered him almost immediately, "Yes. I'll lead the way."

Led by the battle mage, Roach swiftly traversed the giant concentric circles. In the center of each circle stood a bronze bird, though their sizes varied, the largest no more than a person's height, the smallest only the size of a football. He lingered, not stopping to examine them closely. After running through more than a dozen giant circles, a tower finally appeared within the light's reach.

According to Yan Hao's estimation, the tower was located in the very center of this giant space. Luo Qi stared in astonishment at the metal tower; its structure was strangely twisted, as if it had deformed under immense pressure, appearing as if it had collapsed. A metal collapse? The tower wasn't even inside the circle; its surface was engraved with sharp, flowing lines, somewhat resembling the lines on a bronze bird, only more complex.

No mage could explain what the metal tower had ever been used for. Liu Ziyu, after a hasty inspection, only noted that it contained a complex crystalline structure, but that it had long since gone out. Roach thought it resembled a lighthouse, though he couldn't be sure; it was just a far-fetched idea. He was also disappointed; this wasn't what he had hoped to see.

“Boss, there’s one even bigger than this.” Yan Hao said, staring into the darkness. “The information from the detection magic is very vague. I know we’re not far from it, but it seems to be able to evade most magical detection, so the feedback is very little. There’s no thermal reaction, it doesn’t reflect magical energy pulses, and it doesn’t even produce an echo. I can only sense part of its outline. If its structure is symmetrical, then it should be quite large, and its center point should be within a certain ring, which seems to meet your requirements. Do you want to go take a look?”

"Let's take one last look," Roach said, unable to contain his curiosity. "After we've looked, we'll leave and stop probing."

Yan Hao seemed to sense Luo Qi's anxiety, and after a moment's thought, he simply grabbed Luo Qi's arm. Luo Qi thought to himself, "Oh no!" Before he could refuse, he was pulled into a distorted space, and when he reappeared, he almost vomited.

But he was immediately distracted when he found what he was looking for.

The small light source Yan Hao had created lit up, and right in front of him, a colossal object stood silently in the center of the circle, like an abstract work of art—smooth, cold, and devoid of any mechanical feel, its entire body a dark gray. Its entire structure was seamless, as if sculpted from a single piece of material, its form streamlined. If one were to step back a few paces and look at it from a distance, it would surely resemble a giant bird in modern art, or perhaps a giant whale in the sea.

The chilling oppression almost took Roach's breath away; this was the second time he had seen it.

The first time was in a distant memory of the alien.