Chapter 31 Obsidian
"You've been running naked for a month, slam"
Under the oasis is a large round room full of books and scrolls, some on the table, and some piled up to four feet high on the floor. Faded brocades and dilapidated maps hung over the stone walls. Some heavy mudstones piled up in the corner. In addition, the only light comes from a high black candle in the center of the room.
The candle is uncomfortable and disturbing. Ashburn closed the door hard and shook down the paper on the table next to him, but the flame of the candle did not flash. The color of the flame is very strange, white as new snow, yellow as gold, and red as flames, but the shadow it leaves is so dark, like the black hole of the world. Leo found himself staring at it. The candle was three feet high, as thin as a sword, with a spiral edge as sharp as a knife and a slight flash of black light.
"Is this...?" Rosie whispered.
"...obsidian." Li Ou said, "The material used in the spire of the sword group is exactly the same."
"I thought it was just an ordinary black stone. But when I know what obsidian is, I can't help sighing that alchemists are always so luxurious and violent. Ashburn greeted them into the room and into the light of the obsidian. Li Ou took a deep breath and suddenly seemed to smell the smell of his hometown and immersed himself in the light of truth of alchemy. However, I don't call it obsidian, but divine stone.
"God Stone?" Leo asked in shock.
"If you get involved with those guys, nothing good will happen." Rosie snorted coldly.
"No, I have seen records about them in ancient books." Li Ou swallowed his saliva, "Rosie, do you remember those ancient scrolls in our hands? Golden scrolls. It even said how to fake them and how to deceive gods by it.
"The Scroll of Oris's Alchemy." Rosie and Ashburn said at the same time.
Rosie asked warily, "How do you know?"
"Your father is looking for them." Ashburn said to Leo that a look of nostalgia appeared on his face. It has a total of seven volumes. It not only has countless alchemy formulas, but also records the truth of the world and a reciprocating future.
Even Leo himself has never known so much. Is that what my father told you?
"No, I found it myself."
However, he was a mercenary in the first half of his life and a monk in the second half of his life.
"Yes. So I'm annoyed by the incompetentness of the first half of my life. Ashburn said, as he walked through the obstacles piled up of books. The life of monks has given me a mastery of knowledge. I can't talk here, only books and prayers accompany me, which makes me find peace and unknown secrets.
"What secret?"
"Time wears away memory, and how much truth Huangsha has covered up." Ashburn sighed as if he were a scholar. He stretched out his hand and couldn't help whispering in the air. Fat slaps, thick knuckles, and a low voice... Ahiburn's appearance of casting makes people laugh. He was originally a lame apprentice halfway, and Li Ou couldn't help worrying about whether his spell would fail.
The magic appeared without warning, the familiar fluctuation, but the strange posture, and the bewitching Yanling and Li Ou couldn't help but be surprised. Is this the so-called taboo spell?" What kind of spell is this? I have never seen it." He whispered his doubts.
Rosie looked carefully at Ahiburn's gesture, closed her eyes and listened to the other party's spell, and felt the magic**. Variants of magic. She opened her eyes and said, "To be precise, he directly transformed his pure faith into power. Without the gods, there is no prayer and repentance. No wonder it will be listed as a taboo.
Faith is faith, not related to the gods. Leo finally understood what Ahiburn said at this time.
A gust of wind appeared without warning in the underground stone chamber without windows. It gently rolled up the books and papers, piled them together, piled them up, and the dust in the room was taken away by the breeze. A piece of mud slab was lifted up, and then one after another, they were smoothly placed on the table in front of them.
When the magic stopped, Ashburn took a deep breath and forced a smile. His face was full of sweat, and it could be seen that he was still not familiar with magic. I have too few opportunities to practice. He sighed and then turned to point to the mudstone in front of him. A lot of things are recorded on it. Their history can be traced back thousands of years.
Li Ou came over and took a look. The cuniform text on it was obscure and difficult to understand, and some kind of secret text covered up the true meaning. The words above are exactly the same as the volume of alchemy. He said in surprise and read it all the way.
"What did you write?" Rosie asked.
"God Stone." Leo told her, "There are also some introductions about alchemy. But without its origin, the content is too little. There are only a few words engraved on each half-man-high mudstone. Nothing can be determined by these alone. If only there were more."
"There is no more." Ashbourne sighed, "They are buried deep in the ground like this divine stone, buried in a secret place, swallowed by yellow sand, and eroded by the flowing sand."
"Okay," Rosie asked, "let's not talk about these for the time being. What's the use of this sword-like stone?
"The magic is based on faith." Ashburn said, "Using obsidian, the gods can communicate with his priest; through it, the mage's sight can cross mountains, deserts and lakes."
Li Ou interrupted and said, "Does it also include entering other people's dreams to show illusions, or exchanging information across half a world?"
Ahiburn looked up at Leo for a long time. Yes." He did not deny this.
"What about Blanc?" Li Ou chased after him, but a pain in his heart came without warning, making him close his mouth tightly. He took Rosie's hand and said nothing.
"Yes. Just like what you guessed." The red-robed monk said, "Magic conveys news like a small whisper, and so is the oracle. Anyway, no one has heard the metaphor of God for thousands of years, hasn't he?
Poor Brandick. I knew it would be like this. Nowadays, there is only magic and no gods. Leo reluctantly said coldly, "Poor those priests, how many oraccles have they forged. Thank you for your hard work. He wanted to continue to sarcastically, but the pain made him forget his anger. He resisted his discomfort and found a chair and sat down. Rosie moved the bench close to him. She grabbed his hand, trembled, buried her head in his arms, and bit her teeth at his shirt.
Ahiburn lowered his head, and he didn't see their pain. I don't know anyone else. At least I'm the only one who knows how to do it in this quiet sanctuary, and I'm just telling... No, it's cheating Blanc.
Does he still know that this is cheating? Leo thought that he would still think that he was the gods in this pleasure of others. The colic pain in his stomach made him almost unable to think, and Rosie almost shrank into a ball in his arms. But doubts still hit his soul. How on earth did the red-robed monks predict? Why is every order always prophetic? He tried to make his voice sound more normal. Obsidian can also predict?
"I don't know." Ashbourne opened his mouth and said something that surprised Leo.
Isn't he accompanied by mud and stone slabs all day long, holding these books and papers in the room all night? Why don't you know?" The hot pain in the chest, and reason is retreating under the torture. In that case, what you said... are all your imagination? I really admire your luck that you have all been fooled by you.
"Not as you think." Ashburn said, "I just saw and heard it. I just don't know where it came from and why it appeared in front of me alone. Everything is so real that people have to believe it.
Li Ou snorted, "Through this obsidian sword, obsidian candle?"
Ashburn nodded. There is also a divine stone in his hand. He said, "Obviously, she contacted me and showed me what she knew and predicted. The silent metaphor shows that the gods in the age of miracles did this to the priests. I will be skeptical, but you appeared in the other party's metaphor, and I had to be careful, so I sent Blanc Dick and pretended to be an oracle to deceive him and induce him.
The red-robed monk is good enough for him. He still misses the old feelings. Leo has no doubt that he will do his best to help them. However, his words obviously conflicted with Brandick's description. This conflict was so huge that Leo's hair was creepy and he forgot the pain in an instant. However, Brandick said that he heard more than one oracle. He was also led to meet an astrologer.
"The old man in Brandick's mouth? I know her." The red-robed monk said what he knew. Before you arrived, he also saw each other in meditation. The old girl said a lot of warnings to him.
"For example?"
"If I say that the world is coming to an end, do you believe it?"
Liou shook his head.
Ahiburn sighed sadly. But her temptation and intimidation shook Brandick's faith. Mario monk also noticed this. I shouldn't blame him for this. He did it right and timely.
"What on earth did the old woman say?"
"The woman told Brandick that the gods were going through hardships." Ahiburn smiled bitterly, "What else can a long-dead guy suffer? But I can't tell him that. I can only hold this idea to the bottom of my heart.
Liou nodded to show his understanding. But she did guide Brandick before.
"Yes. I also confirmed that she had no malice before, or more like pretending kindness. Everything is part of her plan. But we can't confirm this. You should be able to guess, and I'm sure that she should be the old woman who seduced Brandick and tried to destroy his faith.
"Her mind is not that simple." Leo commented. But who is she? We have never seen it." Will an old woman be the so-called mother of the desert? A face full of abscesses and maggots? Brandick's description is unbelievable.
"She is a magic barrier. I thought what she said was also an oracle, but she was just a magic barrier." Ashburn said with a solemn face. Magic can always change the external image. You have to be careful."
The sky is getting darker and darker, and Leo can feel it, approaching midnight.
Rosie trembled more and more uncontrollably in his arms. He could hear her trying to suppress the unbearable roar in her throat. Her teeth were grinding, and the hilt of the sword on her body couldn't help colliding with the iron nail buckle on his belt, covering the subtle ripples above her head. He also felt uncomfortable, and he felt her pain. There is no pain all over the body, acupuncture, bite, all kinds of pain like waves, from fingertips to the heart, from the top of the head to the soles of the feet, the pain is everywhere. He could only hold Rosie tightly with one hand and open and close his left hand desperately, bursting the infected and unrecovered left hand, allowing the pain to cover the pain. But it helps.
"Liou." Ashbourne suddenly called him, "You..."
"...we're fine." Rosie trembled in the arms of the alchemist and said, "You're done talking. It's time for us to leave. We need to rest and travel all the way. We are very tired.
She struggled to stand up from Li Ou's arms and pulled Li Ou to stumble out. But before she took two steps, she fell to the ground with a muffled hum. Li Ou tried to pull her up, but he had no strength, his legs softened and he knelt down. He felt that it was painful to open his eyes, not to mention moaning. Every inch of skin and every nerve is completely soaked in the pool called pain and can't escape.
Ahiburn rushed up with an arrow. Leo felt that he opened his eyelids and looked at his pupils. He knew that his eyes must be full of other colors.
"Damn it! You don't want to die!" The other party scolded loudly, and he looked at Rosie again, "How many alchemy have you taken? I thought there was only one, but I didn't expect you..."
Li Ou didn't know what the red-robed monk said next, and he completely fainted.
In a daze, Leo heard the roar of the sea again and saw the ghost's giant ship. However, this time, the flag raised by the Leo Islanders was not an octopus monster, but a bright black sun with erect dark golden eyes. The sun blooms black light, and there is only the will to destroy in that eye, and there is no hope of creation.
The ghost rushed at him...
Li Ou suddenly woke up. The pain swept over. He inevitably let out a low voice, which shocked Lu Yuewu, who was guarding aside. She stood up from meditation and reached out to hold him gently.
"How are you?" There are some concerns and worries in her brown pupils.
"Hmm." Leo doesn't know what to say. He looked around and found himself lying in the room, with dazzling sunlight shining through the narrow window. The next day?"
Lu Yuewu nodded. It's noon now. The red-robed monk saved you. She paused and suddenly lowered her head. Why did you do that?"
"What?"
"Why torture yourself like this?" Lu Yuewu shouted, "You almost died. Your hand can hardly be kept. Did you do this to torture me? Let me see your pain? Let me blame myself?"
What's wrong with her? After being shouted, the anger in Li Ou's heart also rushed up. I've never been like this..." Lu Yuewu looked up and saw her red eyes and tears hanging on her face. All anger turned into guilt. He moved his lips and finally just let his throat mumble, "I'm sorry." He lowered his head.
Lu Yuewu took a deep breath. You are always like this!" She said.
It seemed to be silent and old, and Lu Yuewu stood up. I'll call the monks. He is treating Rosie. Before Li Ou could speak, she went straight out of the door, leaving him with a lonely and sad back.
The alchemist tried to figure out who was right and who was wrong between them, but it was more difficult to solve than the alchemy equation, as if the wool mass under the cat's claws had been wrapped in a mess. There was no other way to solve it again except to cut it into small pieces with scissors. He stared at the earthy ceiling impatiently, with only continuous sighs for a moment.
Only the red-robed monk returned to the room, and Lu Yuewu didn't know where he had gone. You woke up faster than I thought. Ashburn came in with a dark wooden box and put him at the head of the bed.
"Where's Rosie?" He couldn't wait to ask.
"She hasn't woken up yet, but it's nothing serious." Ashburn said, "For her, sleep is the best way to recover. I can guarantee that when you can't go down to the ground, she can jump alive and draw her spells everywhere.
As long as it's okay. He took a relaxing breath.
"Give me your hand." The red-robed monk ordered. Left hand."
Li Ou hesitated to stretch out his hand and watched him untie the bandage. He could hardly feel the pain. When the wound was exposed to the air, Leo couldn't help but be surprised that his hand remained on his arm. If it was someone else, his best advice was to amputate his limb. The pale fascia is connected to the bare hand bone, and the blood vessels are wriggling to pump blood. Several maggots drilled through the gap in the knife wound and twitched their fat bodies.
"They are dead." The red-robed monk told him that he accurately picked off a dead maggot by grasping the small tweezers with his big hand that once held the sword. They ate carrion, but also died as a result. Your carrion is full of accumulated toxins. Fortunately, you came early, otherwise it will take a few more days. You will either die or say goodbye to your left hand.
"So, we should also hold a funeral for them." His jokes are useless.
The red-robed monk said with a straight face, "Maybe you and the two guests of the mage will be added when the death sacrifice is held."
Li Ou** looked at the muscles of his face and didn't know how to interface it. Although he said no to say goodbye to his left hand, he felt the opposite in his heart.
Ashburn cleaned the blood from the wound, "Red blood, red muscles, very good." He said, "It seems that your father has trained your body and taught you how to resist toxins. But if there is another time, I advise you to say goodbye to your girlfriends as soon as possible. You won't have such good luck next time."