Chapter 24 Badge

The spire of the sword group shines with black light. Since the wrong warning that day, the black fire on the three sword towers in the thirteen spires has not been extinguished day and night, which is both a defense and a warning. But this still failed to stop the invasion of black magic. Just yesterday, the city owner had ordered the guards to completely block the trumpet area. This means that the death caused by black magic is just like the spread of plague. Things are about to get out of control, Li Ou thought, and we were helpless.

He stepped into the guild hall, relaxed his tight shoulders, and lowered his hand that had been pressing the hilt of the sword. An alchemist first saw him and greeted him, and he nodded to greet him.

"Congratulations, Leo."

The other party said something that puzzled him. Congratulations to me for what?"

"Don't you know yet?" The other party showed surprise, "I thought that's why you came here."

Of course, he didn't come because of the inexplicable "happy event." What on earth is worth celebrating for me?"

"Are you going to the Tower of Insight?" He nodded. Then I won't talk much, and you will know soon."

What's the selling level? Leo made a straight face. He passed through the hall with bright floors and turned into the flower-bloss courtyard. Countless kinds of flowers compete for beauty - thanks to the careful care of alchemy apprentices - but they are not as simple as embellishment, some of which are purified by alchemy and are deadly poisons. He did not stop and entered the sword tower under the gaze of his golden eyes.

The tower was silent as usual, and everyone walked silently under the package of dark robes. Li Ou passed by them, which would only attract their attention for a short time. He remembered that his colleagues privately called it the "tower of silence" and called it the "tower of muteness" with hostility. But whether it was the mute who cut off the stone or not, his eyes never went blind.

He slowly climbed to the top floor. The spiral staircase is like a snake wrapped around a branch, which is long and endless. On the way, he saw Vernan Lac again. His condition is slightly better than last time. But he still ignored his greetings. There was disgust and madness in the gray eyes. Is he hating me? Leo can't figure it out. He swallowed back the words that were about to come to his mouth. His intuition told him that it was better not to mention his father to this person.

The Eye of Insight was buried in a large number of reports, and a tall pile of sheepskin paper almost drowned him.

He didn't raise his head or say anything. He knew that the person who came was me, and Leo realized that his eyes were always everywhere. So he found a chair and sat down. There was only the rustling sound of a goose feather pen writing on paper in the room.

Li Ou can probably guess what secret documents he is writing. He knows exactly what the other party is planning - he has told him in detail - but ideals are ideals and reality is reality. It is difficult for him to change. Leo has a personal feeling about this--

There are very few mages who can discern things clearly, and most of them are old, weak and sick. Although they are influential, they can't make a large number of radical and low-level mages obey their orders. They are short-sighted and easy to be deceived. He believes that they will eventually hold the will to bind the magic mentors. But his advice is destined not to be suffoed by the other party. He sighed long and withdrew into the chair. He stared at the dust fluttering up and down in the sun for a while, but felt sleepy and yawned.

He must have dozed off, because then his head had been hung on the back of the chair. A voice called his name, and he suddenly stood up and touched the dagger.

"You're too nervous, Leo." The Eye of Insight said, "Relax and sit down. There is no sharp knife from behind.

People can't, but shadows can. He sat back on the chair and took a big sip of bitter wheat tea. The smell of astringent mouth spread in his mouth, diluting the acidic saliva. He felt a little better. "Did I fall asleep just now?"

"Yes." The Eye of Insight said, "I didn't wake you up."

He looked out of the window at the sky. The sun lengthen the shadow of the sword tower, as slender as a sword. When is it now?"

"Afternoon."

He went out in the morning, and it was already afternoon. I slept for so long." He was surprised by his fatigue. But these days, although things happen one after another, his body knows it himself, and he has never felt tired.

"You are more tired than before." The Eye of Insight points out so. What about your curse? How's it going now?"

"I can still feel its existence, but I have calmed down a lot." To be precise, it's just that in the day when he didn't sleep, the night dream was still full of night fire nightmares, running back and forth in front of his eyes and trampling on the peaceful countryside.

"Don't lie to me." Stunas's eyes of insight saw his excuse and camouflage. It has taken root and is thriving. Unfortunately, alchemy is almost helpless against curses.

"Just like we can't do anything about black magic."

"But the curse can be resolved. You'd better go to the temple and find a bishop to treat you as soon as possible. As he spoke, he took out a bottle of starry ink potion from the drawer under the table.

Li Ou closed his eyes and poured down the medicine fiercely. Its taste is far less beautiful than its appearance. It is an indescribable horror, like countless twisted fluorescent insects drilling into his throat and going along the esophagus into his stomach. He made up his mind not to ask about the ingredients of the medicine like a knight.

"It can only suppress the activity of curses, but it cannot be eradicated." The sight of the eye of insight stung Leo's eyes, and his words were like a cold wave. There is not much time left for you."

This is the third bottle he has drunk recently. With the passage of time, the number of times will gradually increase, and no matter how expensive the medicine is, it will gradually fail. At that time, long-term inhibition will only cause more violent outbreaks. And... If the person who casts the spell pronounces certain orders, the curse will take effect immediately, and God will be unable to stop it. In this regard, God and man are quite similar. He tried his best to be open-open.

"Put aside these disturbing things," Stunas rolled up the parchment roll on the table and put it aside and picked up a palm-sized wooden box. You deserve a welcome today.

"What congratulations to me?" He asked again. Everyone is happy, but I don't know where joy comes from.

Eye of Insight didn't say a word, but just opened the red lid of the box.

There is a silver badge on the soft purple-gold silk liner, which depicts the pattern of a seven-pointed star. In the past, he would have cheered for it, but at this time he just silently replaced the pentagram badge.

"I thought you would be happy." The eye of insight says.

How can you be happy? He barely squeezed out a smile, "But it's not enough to dispel the haze in his heart."

"I understand, better than you." I really shouldn't show off my mouth. Li Ou is secretly annoyed. What can be hidden from the god who looks at the fire? But if you don't find a little joy in this painful world, how can you have the courage to compete with it?

While thinking about the words of the eye of insight, he walked down the stairs. They are indeed very similar. Although he is for the ideal, I am for survival. Anyway, we have to do our best to keep it well.

There are 13 spires in the sword group, with a five-pointed distribution. The Tower of Insight is located on the pentagonal intersection of the central ring, while Leo's tower of wisdom is at the center of "creation" and "truth".

"Wisdom" is not as empty as "insight", like a deadland; here alchemists come and go, rubbing their shoulders one after another, but everyone tries to keep quiet. This is an endless sea of books, the intersection of knowledge and wisdom. Leo sniffed the aroma of ink and stepped into it. Knowledge is a weapon, and wisdom is a sharp blade. His father's words echoed in his ears.

A gray-haired old man looked through the records behind a long table full of books. Several alchemists couldn't help asking where the book they were looking for was. Their voices became louder and louder, which attracted the dissatisfaction of others. Finally, they were caught by a steel statue and ruthlessly threw them out.

"Welcome to come back tomorrow." The old man said. Then he found Leo, "What are you looking for?"

"Don't bother you. I know where to find it."

"Don't go where you shouldn't go." The old man finally warned.

The Wisdom Sword Tower has a total of 21 floors, each of which stores different books. However, from the thirteenth floor, books are no longer ordinary paper or stone carvings, but magic books written in mysterious words full of power, each of which can kill careless readers. However, magic texts are easy to read and difficult to break. Besides, that's not the purpose of his trip.

Because books occupy almost all the space, there are no stone stairs in the sword tower. Only a few steep wooden stairs stand in the corner for everyone to climb up and down like monkeys. No wonder the Lord of Wisdom always wears his floating cloak. Li Ou found the reason, no matter how hot the weather is.

He kept climbing five stairs for a moment, feeling his hands and feet sore and back pain. He shook his arm and walked towards the bookshelf maze straight to the ceiling.

Once upon a time, he was obsessed with secret writing and thought that he was the only one who knew the secret. But there are more and more cruel facts, and they are showing him how unreliable secrets are, that is, writing in divine dragon language cannot stop the world from exploring. Secrets and truths are like light and darkness, ice and fire. They always fight with each other and have the upper hand for a while.

Now is the time for light and flame to gain the upper hand. Li Ou thought. He skillfully turned several corners in the maze and stopped next to a bronze statue. He bumped into an unexpected person here.

"Brand."

"Selastin Leo." The dark-haired alchemist put down the book, glanced at him, and then turned his eyes back. He whispered, "I don't want to meet you at all."

Whether the meeting is accidental or intentional, it will not do them any good. So do I." Leo also replied in a rude whisper, and at the same time selected books on the bookshelf to explain the structure and grammar of the Juni alphabet.

They were silent for a while, and Brand, who turned his back to Leo, first said, "You have changed your badge."

Sharp little eyes. It's just that his tone is not so jealous. So he also chose to slow down his tone a little. A little luck." Leo replied, "What about you? Why are you here?"

"I'm still an alchemist, and naturally I'm qualified to go in and out here." Li Ou heard a "pop" sound from the overlapping of the book. I'm a smuggler, but I haven't changed my job to become a mage.

Li Ou was silent.

After a while, the book slipped from the bookshelf behind him, and then the page was turned over. But this noise is not enough to cover up the evil feelings in the alchemist's mouth. Don't want me to thank you." He said, "I know what you think. You angered us with words, let me end other people's lives, and then you took things away... You get too much, and I give too much... So do you take this as compensation?"

It is undeniable that he has such an idea. But at this time, it's really a complete stupid person to tell the truth. I just think he will appreciate you. He said calmly, "I think you are the same kind of people."

"Is this ironic?"

"This is the truth." Both of them are ambitious, and Brand will be as cunning as a fox.

"I won't take your words as a compliment."

"It's better not to think so." Leo said, and then he heard the footsteps of the other party leaving.

He pulled his attention back to the book and looked for clues in the simple but dazzling Runi words. He took out the note and compared it, but the translated sentence didn't make sense. What "a dog is rag", "frog dancing"... and so on. This is not a good entry point, Leo realized. He put it back in the Rouney dictionary and took out a book of Analytical Secrets written by the Desperate Fort Bachelor, trying to find some inspiration from it.

The book is very big and old. Thick cowhide is used as the cover, with the pattern of the desperate castle; the two crossed steel chains tie the fluffy yellowed parchment tightly. Leo carefully untied it and sat on the ground and gently turned the pages of the book.

is rich in content and detailed records. Every difficult ciphertext comes with a real case. Among them, there are also many events that use Juni characters and geometric figures as secret text, but he still gets nothing from the notes he tried to replace the rules. However, according to the book, he must learn to use the thinking mode of the person who writes cipher to solve the puzzle.

However, Mike Jeriti is almost crazy, and he can't sleep with the dead like he did. Therefore, he can only look for clues from the other party's collection of books and some unencrypted notes, but time waits for no one, and he doesn't have so much time to look for clues. He grabbed his head in distress, but the alchemy array in the hut came to his mind.

He suddenly realized that those geometric figures may be a variant of the alchemy formula... and Mike Jeriti is the successor to the "undead creator". He has to start from here.

It turns out that his guess is correct. That geometric symbol is indeed a combination of several alchemy formulas. After successfully untied it, Li Ou found that the answer was too simple. He had touched something countless times. However, he was sweating all over.

In the theory of alchemy, sulfur and lead are not real metals, but some kind of reference. They are the catalysts of alchemy reactions, and by their action, everything in the world is produced. But they are all lowly things. Only silver and gold are rare and natural, which cannot be copied or manufactured. However, there is something that can make humble become valuable, make ordinary and low-grade iron and copper become silver and gold that make the world greedy and thirsty, and break the law of life and death and make people immortal.

In Mike Jeriti's secret note, it mentions this substance - a substance that alchemists are familiar with and have pursued for countless centuries - a panacea, the stone of the sage! He said that he had found it, and the excitement between the words was hard to hide.

Is it because of the "stone of the sage" that he was murdered? Wait, he also vaguely remembers that Mike Jereti said when he saw them, "You are not employees of the Nova Chamber of Commerce." Or was it not the Shadow Sister who threatened him, but the pressure of the Nova Chamber of Commerce that forced him to disappear and escape? And in the end, Sister Youying gave him the last blow? This seems to be the best explanation. Because the news the knight got from the hands of resentment is the clue to the collusion between the Shadow Sister and the Nova Chamber of Commerce. But before that, he was supposed to work for the Nova Chamber of Commerce... So what did he find before, and what was the stone of the sage? He looked at the note in his hand - the Juni letters had not been answered, and he felt that the answer they were looking for was among them.

It was getting dark, and he dragged his tired body away from the union. However, before he could go far, he heard the rapid horseshoe coming out from behind. He turned his head. A knight in chain armor rode through the streets and bumped pedestrians all the way to the street, chasing chickens and ducks away. The horse even kicked apples, citrus and watermelons like balls and trampled them on them. People stopped to curse, but the knights were unheard. He rushed straight towards him.

Li Ou made a concession, but the horse suddenly stood up and stopped in front of him. The knight put down his armor, and then Leo found that the other party was actually a white rose knight. His hair was completely wet with sweat, his face was pale, and he lay on the horse's back as if he were weak. What's wrong with you?" He asked.

Miss Mage told me you were here. Come on, get on the horse!" He breathlessly urged, "Let's ride together!"

"What's so panicked about?" He frowned and sat behind the knight, "Aren't you afraid of punishment when you run on the street?"

"Don't care about the punishment!" He turned around and shouted at him, then shook the reins and kicked the horse's belly with the spurs. Usually, his beloved horse cried in pain and ran wildly along the way he came. Follow me to the palace of the dead now. His words came from the wind, like a blowing wind, which made people tremble with cold-

"Jereti's body is missing!"