Chapter 1186: “Famous Quotes”
A murky shroud of clouds blanketed the scorched, decaying earth. For seven centuries, the valleys, plains, hills, and basins had been soaked in intense magical radiation, giving rise to shadows of the fallen and grotesquely twisted monsters. Wild, chaotic winds howled through the jagged, menacing rock pillars and the gaps between crumbling cliffs, stirring up mournful, low moans that carried a sharp, acrid scent—the unmistakable odor of magic breaking down the very air itself.
Deep within the heartland of the ancient Gondor Empire, hundreds of kilometers from the crater left by the Deep Blue Well’s explosion, a “base” lay quietly nestled among the rocky mountains. It was a tangled fortress of massive stones intertwined with gnarled, colossal trees.
Thick, dark brown vines snaked their way through the cliffs on either side of the valley, weaving overhead into a vast, web-like canopy. Thorny branches stretched out from the vines, slicing the already dim and eerie sky into fragmented, chaotic patches. Beneath this thorny net, the valley floor was littered with boulders, and vines and thorns connected the stone pillars, forming countless massive barricades. Numerous wooden “pipes” extended from the nearby rocks, channeling precious underground water into a seemingly rough but actually meticulously designed irrigation network that crisscrossed the valley.
To any creature from beyond the wasteland, this was a grim and terrifying domain. But for the twisted beings that dwelled deep within the wasteland, it was a sanctuary—a place of comfort and life.
Countless grotesque, human-faced giant trees and controlled mutants roamed this “habitat.” Using this place as their foundation, they built their “territory” and slowly expanded their influence beyond the valley.
At the valley’s center lay a wide-open area. Above it, the thorny dome opened into a large aperture, allowing a faint, gloomy light to filter into this grim domain. Around the clearing, a ring of high platforms stood, each topped with a withered, twisted human-faced giant tree. They silently gazed down at a spiraling deep pit below, from which flickered an eerie blue arcane glow, casting ghostly light on their desiccated, mutated faces.
Time passed—how long, no one knew—before the leader of the treants finally spoke. His voice was like dry wood scraping against the air: “So this is the lifeblood that courses through our planet… truly beautiful, like veins filled with blood. The immense magic flowing within is like that blood itself… If only we could drink deeply of this blood, true eternity wouldn’t be so far away…”
“Ah, our venerable High Priest has a poetic side after all…” came a young female voice from behind the treant leader. Almost immediately, another voice, nearly identical, chimed in beside it. “Too bad this desolate valley has no poets—nor any verses worth singing.”
The treant leader, known as the High Priest, turned around. The creaking of his wooden body echoed as his yellow-brown eyes fixed on the elven twins ascending the platform behind him. “Do you two always take it so easy?”
“We have plenty to do,” Filna replied with a smile. “You just never see it.”
“Most of our work is mental labor,” her sister Relna added. “It may not look as busy as those mutants hauling stones and digging trenches inside and outside the valley.”
The treant leader seemed accustomed to the twins’ subtly provocative and infuriating tone. He snorted and withdrew his gaze, turning back to the deep pit below.
The pit was clearly man-made, over a hundred meters in diameter. Its edges were neatly lined with black stones inscribed with glowing runes—complex, arcane patterns that formed a powerful magical array long lost to this era. Below this “stone ring,” the pit walls twisted inward like a vortex, descending dozens of meters to a chilling “bottom.”
There was no rock or soil to be seen at the bottom, no solid ground to stand on—only endless streams of blue flames flowing wildly through a vast, empty space.
The earth and stone abruptly ended there. The pit seemed to open into an infinite expanse, giving the illusion that the planet’s surface was but a thin shell, pierced by this pit to reveal the hollow interior. Countless blue streams formed a tangled network, just as the treant leader had said—they looked like intertwined veins.
But this “planetary hollow” was merely an optical illusion. The planet was not hollow, and a pit just over a hundred meters wide could never pierce the crust. The raging scene at the bottom was a magical projection of a “rift.” The pit’s bottom was more like a teleportation gateway, revealing a realm of magical pathways inaccessible to mortal beings.
This was the true form of the Deep Blue Well, buried deep beneath the lower layers of reality—a “lifeblood” that ran through the entire planet.
“So much magic flows through the Deep Blue Network, connecting every domain on this world and exchanging vast energies…” The treant leader stared into the pit for a long moment before speaking in a low voice. “It’s almost like the ‘source’ of magic itself…”
“Those unaware of the truth are easily fooled when they see the Deep Blue Network’s core,” Filna shook her head. “They mistake the magic cycle inside a single planet for the origin of all magic—like a short-sighted insect crawling onto a blade of grass, thinking it has reached the edge of the world.”
Relna nodded in agreement. “But that’s a shallow understanding. Magic comes from stars and ‘substellar bodies’ like our sun—massive, ancient celestial bodies singing faint songs across the cosmic ocean. Compared to those ripples from the stars, the Deep Blue Well on our planet…”
The elven twins smiled softly, their sweet expressions tinged with irony. “Is nothing more than a sunlit puddle, sparkling because it reflects sunlight. But in the face of the eternal sun, it would evaporate in an instant.”
The treant leader’s yellow-brown eyes fixed on the smiling twins, motionless as if carved from wood. After a long silence, he finally broke it: “Sometimes I wonder where you mysterious ones get your knowledge from… Don’t tell me it’s some ancient elven heritage or secret Gondor archives. I lived through the Gondor era and traveled much of the Silver Empire. I can’t claim to know all the world’s secrets, but I’m certain… much of what you know lies beyond the reach of mortals.”
“Is that question really important?” Filna tilted her head slightly. “In the end, the truth of the knowledge we bring has been proven, and you’ve benefited greatly from it…”
“We accurately located another ‘lifeblood’ within the ancient Gondor Empire,” Relna added, tilting her head as well. “And guided you on how to siphon energy from the Deep Blue Well to activate that lifeblood…”
The twins smiled in unison. “We’ve always been doing our best to help—though it seems you’re never short of doubts and caution.”
The treant leader glared at the smiling twins, a cold snort rumbling from his wooden frame. “Hmph. Your cryptic way of speaking and those annoying fake smiles only make me more suspicious. Has no one ever taught you how to speak properly?”
“Alright, if you insist,” the twins said in perfect unison, “we can speak more seriously from now on.”
“…No, never mind,” the treant leader said, shaking his withered crown with disgust. “Imagining you two speaking seriously is just too disgusting.”
The twins seemed completely unfazed by the harsh remark. They simply turned their heads, their eyes falling once more on the pit below, watching the Deep Blue Network flowing endlessly in another dimension. After a few seconds, one of them spoke up.
“We must remind you, High Priest Borken, your last operation was too reckless. Although moving through the elemental realm avoids the ‘gaze’ of the real world and gods, and doesn’t alert the ancient ghost parasitizing the server matrix deep in the wasteland, the elemental world has its own rules… and the troubles there are no easier to handle than those outside these walls.”
“You needn’t remind me. I know what I’m doing,” the treant leader replied coldly. “We need more parameters from the Deep Blue Network to identify the optimal control nodes. We’ve already wasted too much time at this stage. Taking some risks to break through this barrier is entirely justified.”
“Very well, if you’re so confident, we won’t say more,” the twins shook their heads. Relna added, “But we must warn you—these network nodes you’re opening here are unsafe. Under no circumstances should you try to directly siphon anything from these lifeblood streams… Nearly eighty percent flow back to the Deep Blue Well at the old empire’s center. That ghost in the server matrix… she may have weakened, but she still controls the strongest ‘tributaries.’”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful. We’re not desperate enough to be reckless.”
High Priest Borken’s tone was stiff as he left the warning hanging in the air. Then, his tendrils writhed as he turned and slowly descended from the platform. The other treants standing with him stirred and one by one departed.
Only the elven twins remained atop the circular stone platform, surrounded by the ever-restless winds of the wasteland.
“Impatient, so impatient…” Relna shook her head with a sigh. “Humans really are an impatient species. Even after becoming like this, they haven’t changed much.”
“But it’s precisely that impatience that allows these short-lived creatures to create countless surprises,” Filna laughed. “Don’t you look forward to such surprises?”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
At the northern foothills of the Dark Mountains, southwest of Cecil City, nestled deep within the mountains and dense forests, the massive secret facility known as Project 115 was brightly lit inside the cavern that served as its main testing ground.
Bright beams from the high-powered magic crystal lamps mounted on the ceiling flooded the testing ground, illuminating countless platforms of various sizes and the intricate framework that connected and supported them. Numerous devices, still in their early prototype stages, were undergoing tests and fine-tuning on their respective platforms. Hundreds, if not thousands, of technicians bustled about the area, while engineering vehicles and small patrol cars continuously shuttled along the roads weaving between the platforms.
At the heart of the testing ground stood a special large platform that had just finished its adjustments. Rebecca climbed the steps and headed toward the central testing zone. Behind her followed Gawain, who had come all the way from Cecil City for this occasion.
“Ancestor, we finally got this thing set up properly!” Rebecca said cheerfully as she turned to look at her venerable forebear. Pointing with one hand toward a large container and its surrounding auxiliary equipment, she added, “The technicians just finished a full checkup on it. It’s in excellent condition now~~”
Gawain gave her a fond look, amused by her obvious excitement, then lifted his gaze toward the “experimental unit” nearby. In his line of sight, a large hemispherical container sat quietly in the base at the center of the testing platform. Around it were arranged crystal vessels of various sizes, connecting pipes, and neural interface modules. At that moment, the container’s cover was still open, allowing him a clear view inside. The container was filled with a thin, translucent nutrient solution, and immersed within it was a massive, brain-like biological tissue.
The brain floated leisurely in the solution, almost seeming to… enjoy itself.
After watching for a few seconds, Gawain couldn’t help but mutter, “No matter how many times I see it… this thing Beltira cooked up is still so bizarre…”
“It’s not that bad, really. I was startled the first time I saw it too, but after a while, you get used to it,” Rebecca scratched her head and smiled brightly. “Besides, these servo brains are actually pretty interesting. The more time you spend with them, the more you might even find them kind of cute—they’re hardworking and obedient. Whether it’s computational tasks or fitness routines, they follow orders without complaint…”
“I think a bunch of brains acting as computing hosts suddenly popping out of their sockets to do exercise routines is already pretty weird in itself…” Gawain covered his forehead with a hand. “But if you all can accept this kind of thing, then I guess it’s fine.”
Rebecca giggled and quickly shifted the topic to something she was more comfortable with. “Once this wetware mainframe is fully debugged, we can move on to the next phase of testing—getting it to coordinate the operation of those new anti-gravity units. According to the data from Grant Heavy Industries, the servo brains’ efficiency in this area is dozens, even hundreds of times greater than that of humans. The problems we’ve been struggling with should finally be solved.”
“Don’t relax just yet,” Gawain warned, though he trusted Rebecca’s technical skills. “Run multiple simulation tests first. Start the equipment on a small scale. The bigger the system, the more cautious you have to be—your aunt can’t handle any more shocks right now.”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Rebecca said, shrinking her neck at the mention of “aunt,” then nodding rapidly. “I know, just like your famous saying when you were alive: ‘Blind confidence is the first step toward destruction’—I memorized it seriously…”
Gawain was taken aback, not even bothering to question her use of “when you were alive.” “Famous saying? When did I ever say that?”
Rebecca blinked. “…Huh? Didn’t you? It’s listed as a must-memorize quote in the textbooks.”
Gawain: “That’s definitely not mine—I suspect some scholar who needed to fill space in a book just made it up and attributed it to me.”
Rebecca: “…?”
(End of chapter)