A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 389 The Temple of Thoth

Rorschach no longer "ascended" upon entering; instead, he was stuffed into a winding pipe, with a suction force constantly forcing him forward.

This made Luo Xia a little nervous. Could it be that his master was waiting for him at the destination and was urgently trying to summon his soul?

"Whoosh!"

At the end of the "pipe" was still water, but not the water elemental plane. Instead, it was a huge copper pot. When Rorschach climbed out, he was surprised to find that his Stand's earthen body had completely disappeared. Now, when he stretched out his hand, there was a transparent soul form, commonly known as a "ghost".

Living aquatic microorganisms must not leak out. Rorschach examined the water's surface, yet the water in the copper pot was exceptionally clean; there was no trace of melted, fading mud. After climbing out of the pot, the transparency of his soul gradually faded, and he solidified back into a state indistinguishable from his original form.

"The sun is so blinding." Rorschach couldn't help but squint. The space he was in was like a desert, and when he looked up, a star that occupied most of the sky was silently moving. It was completely white, and he could vaguely see the uneven flow of matter on its surface. The Milky Way flowed around it. It was almost daytime, so Rorschach could only see the blurry, crystalline traces of the Milky Way.

This celestial body appears to be a star. Logically speaking, the distance between the Holy Land and the celestial body should be so great that even if Luo Xia were a spirit, he would be sizzling from the heat. However, he only felt a little scorching heat.

Perhaps it is also a "vesicle" that invisibly blocks most of the heat radiation, or perhaps there are certain laws at work in the holy land.

Looking further down the horizon, there stands a colossal tree-like structure that seems to stretch endlessly upwards, its surface constantly shrouded in flowing energy. Separated from Rorschach and the giant tree is a magnificent, square, and perfectly preserved religious building, its ivory-white exterior blending seamlessly into the desert-like environment.

If the colossal object is the "Tree of Law," then wouldn't Thoth's temple be close to the level of the original texts? Rorschach was startled. However, in legends, Thoth himself was the inventor of alchemy, and some even speculated and revered him as the god of magic.

As expected, legends always contain the "core of truth".

Sensing that this "relic" was extraordinary, Rorschach moved more cautiously. After climbing down from the giant bronze cauldron, he discovered that the cauldron was carried by a huge bull statue, and there was an extinguished square altar with four horns beside it.

When Rorschach saw the scattered bronze chariots in front of the temple, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, because the broken ruts and scattered wheels of the chariots proved that there was no longer a god or other being maintaining this place.

Only then did Rorschach walk step by step toward the main hall. The towering doors opened on their own in response to his arrival, emanating golden light, but with a warm hue. Rorschach saw that the entire hall, from the floor to the walls, and even the columns decorated with pomegranate-patterned capitals, was covered in metal of this color, though he guessed from the color that it was likely unoxidized bronze.

The main hall was empty and spacious, with only two rows of large candlesticks. The candles on them had long since gone out, and sunlight shone through the thin shells on the roof of the hall. However, there was still a faint fragrance of frankincense and the aroma of burning grass and wood lingering in the air. At the far end of the hall was a dilapidated cabinet, the main body of which was a base of two winged monsters with human faces and animal bodies.

Behind the cabinet was a curtain.

Should we go? Luo Xia paused and listened for a while. The place was absolutely quiet; if it were the real person, he could hear his own heartbeat.

He carefully lifted the curtain, and the second hall appeared. The second hall did not have a translucent shell-shaped roof, but the sacred fire burned continuously, providing flickering illumination. The first hall seemed to be the place where normal-sized humanoid beings came and went, but now the second hall was incredibly magnificent. In the firelight, it was difficult to see the height of the roof, but a rough estimate put it at tens of meters, truly the abode of the gods.

Various sculptures lined both sides. The sculptures closest to Rorschach were about the size of a normal person, some depicting wolves, some depicting humans, and others with pointed ears, seemingly elves.

On the left, Rorschach saw an old man wearing a hood, with a lifelike and lively donkey beside him.

He is Balaam, the wise prophet and the god of deception.

He recalled the conversation with the remnant soul of Balaam: He was Thoth, but Thoth was not Him. Did that mean the entire hall was filled with images of Thoth? Rorschach boldly walked onto the central carpet, looking at the various statues and speculating. But he also felt these images couldn't be simply seen as incarnations of Thoth, and Balaam himself had different images and incarnations in mythological accounts.

To summarize Balaam simply, He is a subset of the "Thoth set".

The further you go into the second hall, the taller the statues become. The last one on the right is almost towering. He has a strong and graceful male body and two faces: one is a pheasant and the other is a baboon, all bathed in the light of a full moon.

Rorschach possessed a medal called "Moon-Holding Owl," the main image of which overlapped with the owl face of this sculpture, although the moon on the medal was not a full moon. In other words, this was the appearance of "Thoth" as generally accepted by the Sand Kingdom and later mages.

The statue opposite Him on the left has only a base; the original body no longer exists. The next level statue is a handsome man with a venomous snake in his hand, wearing feather decorations on his head, holding an elderberry cane in his other hand, and a wine jug at his waist.

At the very end of the second hall, in the center, stands a towering throne, flanked by statues of gods tens of meters tall, almost touching the top. The second curtain at the end, however, is not large, just big enough for people to pass through. But its walls are painted with huge patterns.

The firelight wasn't bright enough, so Rorschach didn't dare light a lamp or use the [Light Spell] rashly. Instead, he activated [Darkvision] to observe. He saw a somewhat familiar pattern, but it was flickering.

Standing below the two-faced Thoth, he finally saw clearly and remembered what it was: the mark of the Arcane Hermitage! The ancient secret that Kano had shown!

Just as he remembered, the pattern began to light up automatically, first as a clear blue, then darkening and turning purple. The changes didn't stop, gradually turning into a blood-red hue.

Luo Xia's scalp tightened, because any change here meant potential danger. He looked away and discovered that a huge monster had appeared opposite him at some point!

It had a human face and a beast's body, with wings several meters long folded back on both sides. A flaming sword was held in its mouth, and its eyes, fixed on Luo Xia, held a considerable amount of fire. Luo Xia had seen it before, but the first time was on the base of a cabinet in the First Hall. Compared to the statue, the real thing possessed a more wondrous aura, combining holiness and eeriness.

As if a string in his mind had snapped, Rorschach was horrified to discover that the effect of [Dark Vision] disappeared after making eye contact with the other person!

When did it appear? Can't I cast a spell now? Before Rorschach could prepare, the monster pounced without warning. Rorschach was forced to roll repeatedly, reaching the left side of the hall and switching places with the monster. Although the monster had a sword in its mouth, it could still roar and was about to charge again.

Rorschach looked up as it pounced, and the pattern on the wall had changed! Although the monster spread its wings in mid-air and quickly obscured the pattern, Rorschach already knew that, from the left side of the hall, the holy emblem of the Lord of Light and Order was clearly painted on the wall!

If the main body were to undergo a major disintegration, let's see if you're still so arrogant! Now is not the time to test the strength of the blue light barrier. Luo Xia rolled awkwardly to the right, dodging the flames launched from the sky by the behemoth and its heavy body about to fall. By this time, he had rolled very close to the curtain. Without thinking twice, he got up and leaped behind the curtain.

However, the third hall did not appear, and there was no floor behind the curtain. In a panic, Luo Xia plunged headlong into the void.

"Who built this unfinished building?!"

(End of this chapter)