Wizard: Starting with Dealing with Magical Plants

Chapter 234 The Truth About Moon Silver Flower

"Then, where's the key?" Rowling pressed.

"What was that egg-shaped object that the Pale Hand found in the Forgotten Graveyard?"

"Identified as an ancient experimental contract anchor token, or contract beacon for short," the metal humanoid replied.

"Function:

Used to locate, awaken, and establish a mandatory contractual connection with specific aberrations or experimental products.

"This token was created and deployed by the ancient experiment organizers, but it was lost due to the failure of the experiment and the subsequent break in civilization."

"The Pale Hand organization accidentally obtained some of the tokens and attempted to use them to forcibly control the aberrant variant in the seventh sector of the Scorching Hell. Their actions are dangerous and illegal."

Violation of regulations?

Is it violating the rules set by the observer civilization?

Or is it some kind of convention followed by the maintainers?

"Since you know it's dangerous, why don't you stop them?" Ella couldn't help but interject, her arrow still pointed at the other side.

"Permissions and resource restrictions," the metal humanoid replied without hesitation.

"This outpost is a secondary maintenance unit, whose main functions are monitoring, recording, and minimal maintenance."

"There is a lack of authorization and sufficient force to directly intervene in the violations of activated and active aberrations and external organizations."

"Sending encrypted messages and providing risk warnings is the highest level of response that can be executed within the current scope of authority."

Therefore, when they send messages, it's less about proactively helping and more about a procedural risk warning and information dissemination, hoping to attract the attention of "capable individuals" and prompt them to handle problems they cannot manage themselves.

This aligns well with the logic of an automated maintenance unit that follows specific rules.

"So, what specific information does the arbitrator want to exchange with us?"

"What specific risks are you trying to warn us about?" Blake grasped the key point.

"Please follow me. The central hall, where the arbitrator's logic core is located, will provide more detailed data projections and deductive models." The metal humanoid turned to the side and made a stiff "please" gesture.

Warnings include:

The Pale Hand organization may possess information on other Covenant Beacon locations, the threshold for unstable outbreaks of Aberrations under specific conditions, and—signs of anomalous energy intervention that may involve higher-authority third-party entities.

A third-party entity with higher authority?

Rowling immediately thought of non-human visitors.

Could it be that, besides secondary units like the Maintainers, the Observer civilization has a higher-level force with direct intervention authority that is paying attention to this place?

Moreover, judging from this, it seems that the maintainers' attitude towards visitors is somewhat... subtle?

The text used terms such as "may involve" and "abnormal energy intervention".

The amount of information is enormous, but there are many doubts.

Going in could yield crucial intelligence, or it could lead you into a carefully laid trap.

If you don't go in, you may miss a crucial opportunity to learn the truth and assess the risks.

Blake looked at Rowling, seeking his opinion with his eyes. Rowling hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

The other party's logic was clear, their purpose was obvious, and Yue Yinhua's reaction also leaned towards entering.

More importantly, their mission was to find out the truth.

There are risks, but they are worth taking.

"Stay alert, keep up." Blake finally gave the order, lowering his shield slightly but not retracting it, signaling the metal doll to lead the way.

The four metal figures turned around and marched in unison into the depths of the passage.

The squad maintained their battle formation and cautiously followed behind.

The inside of the passageway appears wider and more complex than the outside.

From time to time, closed metal doors appeared on both sides of the wall, with different symbols and markings on them.

Above my head were continuous energy lines emitting a steady, faint glow.

The smell of engine oil, ozone, and unknown energy in the air was stronger, but it was not unpleasant; on the contrary, it gave people a sense of high cleanliness and order.

After walking for about five minutes and passing through several automatically sliding sealed doors, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

A huge, hemispherical metal hall came into view.

The hall is over thirty meters high and over fifty meters in diameter.

The dome and walls are covered with constantly flowing and changing pale blue data streams and holographic projections, displaying complex star maps, energy structure models, and real-time monitoring data of various areas of the Scorching Hell fragments!

The areas of the Throat of the Dead and the Boiling Blood Lake are highlighted.

In the center of the hall is a circular platform about one meter above the ground.

Above the platform, suspended is a complex three-dimensional geometric structure, about three meters in diameter, composed of countless tiny points of light, slowly rotating.

The structure constantly shifts its form, emanating a near-tangible, cold, and vast fluctuation of logic and computational power.

Is this the arbitrator?

"Welcome, visitor." A synthesized electronic voice, similar in origin to the previous metal humanoid but deeper, smoother, and seemingly acting directly on consciousness, emanated from the rotating geometric structure, echoing throughout the hall.

"I am the core logic processor of this outpost; you may call me the arbitrator."

As the sound rang out, the data streams and projections around the hall began to rapidly reassemble, focusing on the team members, especially Rolin and the constant temperature incubator in his hand.

The silver flower seedlings shone with silver light once more, gently resonating with some invisible fluctuation in the hall.

"In accordance with Article 7 of Chapter 3 of the Pan-Starfield Unarmed Scientific Outpost Management Convention and the Root Beacon Active Access Protocol, a limited information exchange process is now initiated," the arbitrator's voice continued.

"Please raise your questions."

"I will provide the most accurate answer possible based on the current database permissions and logical deduction."

Blake, as the captain, spoke first: "What are the remaining forces and plans of the Pale Hand organization in Scorching Hell?"

The projection in the center of the hall changed rapidly, displaying a map of the scorching hell fragments, marked with several red dots.

"Based on recent monitoring data analysis, after the Pale Hand organization failed in the Throat of the Dead ritual, the number of remaining high-ranking members is estimated to be three to five, while the number of mid- and low-ranking members and controlled undead is unknown."

"Its current main activity is concentrated in several secondary death energy nodes outside the Throat of the Dead and in the northern Ash Plains."

""

"It is speculated that they are trying to reassemble the Covenant Beacon fragments or find alternatives to regain or complete control of the Aberration."

"The specific details of the plan are beyond the monitoring accuracy of this outpost."

Rowling then asked, "What is the true nature of the aberration, that is, the thing deep within the throat of the dead? What is its specific connection to the ancient experiments?"

The projection in the hall switched, displaying an extremely complex model with a severely distorted central section, composed of countless energy lines and regular symbols.

"The target aberration has been preliminarily identified as the main carrier unit of the seventh sector of the Observer Civilization's Spiritual Grafting and Rule Bearing Experiment Type II."

The arbitrator's voice carried a barely perceptible hint of regret.

Experimental objective:

The attempt is to graft fragments of highly ordered world rules onto a reinforced, special spiritual vessel to create controllable, semi-rule-based life forms with specific rule characteristics, for use in environmental modification, resource gathering, or stabilizing specific areas.

"During the experiment, the experiment encountered unknown energy pollution and the collapse of the internal logic of the spiritual carrier, which caused irreversible distortion of the main carrier unit, twisting of the regular structure, and the spirituality fell into a state of chaos and greed. It also deeply combined with the death and corruption energy in the environment, forming the current form."

Grafting fragments of rules onto a spiritual vessel—creating a semi-rule-based life form—the ambition and danger of this experiment are astonishing!

And the resulting mutations after failure are no wonder they are so terrifying.

"Do the spiritual imprints of rules within the moonflower seedlings originate from that experiment?"

Rowling pointed to the incubator.

"Yes," the arbitrator affirmed.

"The imprint of the homologous rule was detected, but the imprint strength is weak and the structure is relatively complete and stable."

"It is speculated that the trace amounts of uncontaminated fragments of regular information that were released during the experiment, after a long period of time, accidentally combined with native plant life with high spiritual potential, forming a benign symbiotic variant."

"Its very existence is a natural backup or harmless expression of information about ancient experimental rules."

"It shares a common origin with aberrations, but its evolutionary path is completely opposite."

It turned out to be the case.

The moonflower was actually a benign seed left over from that failed experiment.

No wonder it can resonate with the aberrations and open the door here.

It itself carries the mark of authority for ancient experiments!

"So, besides location and wake-up, what is the true purpose of the contract beacon?"

Rowling pressed on with his questions.