Chapter 157
The Fallen Empress ignored Yang Wan, who was struggling in her hand, but sensed a familiar aura.
"—Your Empress?"
Hebe, who was standing next to her, scratched his arm.
It's really not used to hearing the fluent and clear Chinese dialect spoken by Cathay Fallen Empress.
"Where did you get these two boys?"
The Fallen Empress held the Yang pill between her fingertips and flicked it at Hebe.
Yangwan flew towards Hebe's head, but was bumped by the purple Yin Pill and wobbled back into its orbit.
"Two boys?" Hebe asked with interest. "And where does this title come from?"
"The Water Palace Immortal Class," Morgan replied. "In the Water Palace Immortal Class, these two pills are actually Yan Gong's attendants, known as the Taiping Child and the Taiping Maiden."
"So they still have human form?"
"Of course not." Morgan glanced at the two pills flying around Hebe. "In Cathay, fish, turtles, clams, dragons... all these beings have what are called 'Danzhu' (pearls), which are proof that they possess a mark."
"So even in the Water Palace Immortal Class, these two boys still look like pills."
Hebe nodded as he pondered the spells in the Taiping Wen Shu.
"Hey, so you really are a member of the Water Palace Immortal Class, Royal Sister?" Hebe straightened up, smiling as she looked at her. "Royal Sister, where do you rank in the Water Palace Immortal Class?"
The Fallen Empress hesitated.
Hebe noticed the awkwardness and was about to advise Royal Sister not to force herself to speak.
The Fallen Empress sighed and took out a square piece of white jade about two feet and six inches long from her sleeve.
This piece of white jade is round at the top and square at the bottom, with faint cloud and water patterns flowing within it.
Hebe, being an antique dealer, immediately reacted with her professional instincts, clicking her tongue in amazement. "This is a scepter..."
The Fallen Empress glanced at the excited Hebe, shook the white jade tablet in her hand, and then put it back into her sleeve.
"This is one of the treasures I obtained from the 'Heavenly Consort's Secret Treasure'."
It was with this tablet that she was able to complete the ceremony of transferring from the command of the Wolves to the command of the Pearl, thus joining the ranks of the Water Palace Immortal Class.
In other words, this white jade tablet was to Morgan what the Sword in the Stone was to Arthur, or the Secret History Simulator was to Hebe.
"The Heavenly Consort's Secret Treasure..." Hebe exclaimed, "You've also been to Guangdong and Guangxi, South Seas? Did you try any slow-cooked soups, tea snacks, or poached chicken?"
"I did go to Guangdong Province in Cathay, but that was later." Morgan frowned. "But the 'Heavenly Consort's Secret Treasure' I found was not in Guangdong or Guangxi South Seas in Cathay. It was in Bharata."
Hebe blinked.
Bharata... the South Asian subcontinent.
India in this world.
Why would this place possess the "Heavenly Consort's Secret Treasure"? Perhaps their faith places even greater emphasis on the Ganges.
Although the Pearl Empress holds power over water, rivers are not included in her power; rather, they belong to the domains of the April Archon, the Fisher King, and the May Archon, the Messiah.
In Orthodox Church texts, rivers are seen as "the furrows and lines of the Fisher King's skin"; and river water is seen as "the flowing blood of the Messiah."
The "Heavenly Consort's Secret Treasure," representing the Pearl Empress, should not appear within the scope of Bharata.
A moment of thoughtful silence fell between the two. Morgan was pondering the matter of the Crimson Dawn, while Hebe was deep in thought about the connection between the Water Palace Immortal Class and Bharata.
Just as he was thinking about this, the outline of Blanckug reappeared on the sea.
232 There are three wonderful methods: the white deer soaring on the wind.
The Sapphire docked smoothly in the safe harbor of Blanckug.
When Hebe returned to the land of Blanckug, she almost felt as if she had been transported to another world.
Amid Morgan Toyokawa Shoko's astonished gazes, she suddenly turned around, opened her arms, and embraced them.
Morgan patted Hebe's back gently and casually; Toyokawa Shoko hesitated for a moment, then wrapped her arms around Hebe's.
They didn't know what Hebe had gone through, but being able to return safely from outside the gates of Atlantis was the best thing that could have happened.
Along the long bridge, which was somewhat wet with seawater, they waded safely through the icy water... After walking a few steps, Hebe picked up her sandals, jumped off the low bridge, and let the seawater wash over her toes and insteps.
The waves did not engulf her; instead, they did their best to lift Hebe and push her toward the shore.
The doors of the Silent Bookstore opened silently before Hebe, and the invisible spirits hovering inside bowed respectfully before returning to their respective positions.
The Lord of Blankog has returned.
Hebe, wearing slippers, walked along the long corridor where wisteria flowers had begun to bloom. In the end, she decided to plant this Spring Eye in the Colonnaded Courtyard.
She closed her eyes slightly, sensing the knowledge in her mind, and gently clapped her hands four times.
Then the lush green lawn began to swell, as if some enormous force was coursing through the earth. Soon, this force began to stir and burst forth. It pierced through the turf and bricks, and tunneled through the soil.
The long-abandoned fountain in the center of the courtyard began to tremble and spew out warm mud.
Within ten seconds, the dark brown mud was washed away by the continuous flow of spring water, leaving only clear, cool spring water that filled the dried-up pool.
Spring of Youth
[Sexual aspect: Cup (the principle of procreation, desire, and drowning)]
This Spring Eye continuously flows with water brimming with vitality, beneficial for slowing aging, restoring energy, healing injuries... and serving as an important ingredient in rituals.
Before Remus built the great city of gold, the inhabitants of Atlantis revered all water sources, and among all the respected water systems, the natural springs located in the mountains and forests were the most sacred, both in terms of faith and practicality.
In the long wilderness, humans were no more noble than other species, and a sacred place was established around the spring.
Later, Remus established a kingdom that unified the high seas, and his fleet, spreading civilization and teachings, conquered the four seas. The worshippers of the springs also vanished without a trace.
Later, even Pure Water Spirit ceased to be born.
Warm spring water flowed gently over Hebe's fingertips as she turned to greet Morgan and Xiao Xiang.
Thus, an interesting scene unfolded inside the Silent Bookstore: the three men, each holding a cup, stood by the spring pool.
Both Morgan and Xiao Xiang drank without making a sound.
Hebe slowly finished the spring water in her thermos and then filled another cup from the pool.
She certainly didn't need to explain to the two of them.
She then leisurely turned around and walked back to the pure white foyer, taking the path to the foundry.
Only Morgan's bright, piercing eyes remained fixed on his back.
Merlin has always been shrouded in mystery, like a book that can never be opened or finished, captivating people to the point of obsession.
Morgan thought he had opened the book's cover, but he found that the contents inside were ten or even nine times more fascinating than the contents on the outside.
The foundry.
Hebe looked at the orbium that was gradually taking shape in his hand.
It has a strange dark yellow color, and when the angle of the Hebe changes, the surface of the orogenic copper will turn a dull grayish-black.
Orichalco, also known as Orichalco in some fantasy novels, cannot be produced by conventional methods, so the definition of orichalco changes over time—but it usually refers to the finest copper metal.
But Hebe now does have the recipe for synthesizing orchards: it requires a portion of high-purity copper ore, two portions of moist clay coated with gunpowder, and then the copper ore wrapped in clay is thrown into a high-temperature furnace! During this process, the smelter needs to chant prayers to the Celestial Flint without stopping.
Clearly, this recipe has a chance of failure, and it's probably not low.
The power of the Celestial Flint acted as a catalyst in the forging process, causing ordinary metals to die and then be reborn... This is an extremely sophisticated alchemy, and even with Hebe's current perspective, she can only understand two or three parts of it.
While the orchard was still warm, Hebe began to shape it by hand, as if he were kneading clay.
The orogen copper, freshly extracted from the furnace, still carried a terrifyingly high temperature, but in Hebe's hands, it felt like a piece of asphalt road that had just been warmed by the sun.
Hebe molded these ores into small copper pieces about the length of a finger, and while they were still hot, used his fingernail to trace the symbol "Tianfei's taboo" on them.
While waiting for the ores to cool, Hebe hummed a little tune as she dealt with the branches she had casually chopped from the yard.
The branch was about an arm's length and two fingers' width long, and it was completely straight.
During the process, Hebe couldn't help but wave it around several times, making strange "thump thump thump" and "whoosh whoosh whoosh" sounds.
"It's a real shame that Cathay in the modern era didn't film 'Journey to the West'," Hebe said, pursing his lips.
She began embedding the copper pieces into the tree branch, twelve in total, from top to bottom.
Two pills obediently circled around Hebe's head.
[Taiping Wen Shu, Yang, White Deer Staff]
[Taiping Wen Shu - Yin - Six Ding Soldiers and Horses]
[Taiping Wen Shu - Yin - Void Cutter]
Along the way, Hebe had clearly understood the spells recorded in these three Taiping Wen Shu.
With the help of the Yin-Yang Pill, Hebe only needs to think about these three spells to unleash them; however, to fully master them, he must reproduce them from beginning to end.
Of these three spells, the [Void Cutter] is the most direct in its destructive power. Hebe used it to cut down the tree branch that was being used to make the cane on the way.
Although it is called felling, the imagery borrowed by this spell is not the ruling class of the path under the Blade Principle, but rather the path under the Principle of Opening.
The Principle of Opening reveal the gate, the key, and the opening. The rulers who possess the Principle of Opening are the May Archon, the Messiah, and the October Governor, the Gatekeeper.
It may seem indirect and bloodless, at most just opening and closing a door. But what if that door were to open onto a human body?
The [Void Cutter] draws upon this very imagery.
Of course, if this spell were in the hands of sorcerers from Cathay, Guangdong, South Seas, or Southeast Asia, it would be utterly useless... Not to mention the complicated steps, the success rate is frighteningly low, and they might even get themselves involved, resulting in more harm than good.
But Hebe was different. After the Eastern Lostbelt, she received the Open Sesame Charm; and after the Atlantis Lostbelt, she received a portable labyrinth from the Gatekeeper.
In other words, she could simply recite the opening spell in her mind and then use the [Void Cutter] to open the door to her portable maze, directly cutting her target in half.
Two largely useless blessings and a somewhat lackluster spell, when combined, become an indestructible and unstoppable spatial slash. According to Hebe's estimation, the spatial slash's maximum range is approximately fifteen meters.
As for the "Six Ding Soldiers and Horses"... in the description of the Taiping Wen Shu, it is actually a technique for enlightening and commanding spiritual servants.
However, contrary to their names, these consecrated spirits do not actually possess particularly strong offensive capabilities.
For example, if Hebe were to transform the table in the foundry into "soldiers," the table's spirit would attack like a girl of similar build to Hebe, wildly swinging her fists.
Note that this is not the Hebe has undergone numerous simulations and possesses great strength and skill, but rather the ordinary Hebe...
To put it bluntly, if Hebe had simply swung the table at it, the damage would probably have been greater than that of the spirit.
Just as Hebe was secretly labeling it as impractical, the enlightened spirit surprised Hebe again—although it was an invisible humanoid, it possessed the functions of a table.
After repeated experiments, Hebe finally determined that these enlightened spirits would master different skills depending on their original forms!
For example, the table spirit can hold many things—at this moment, many tools appear to be "floating in mid-air" in the foundry. But in reality, they are not floating; rather, they are placed on the table spirit by Hebe.
Meanwhile, the iron hammer that Hebe had casually conjured earlier was now being hammered away at the forge with great enthusiasm.
"So it seems that if I choose firearms or swords for the enchantment, the summoned spirits will possess considerable offensive capabilities!" Hebe smiled somewhat regretfully. "What should we call this, Touken Ranbu? Girls' Frontline?"
Of course, this was just a joke. Hebe didn't need these spirits to fight for her; she needed their functionality more. Besides, too many spirits would also deplete the summoner's own spirituality.
According to Hebe's deduction, if there were more than five hundred of these spirits, she would probably feel somewhat tired...
"However, in my opinion, these so-called soldiers and horses are not just a unique magic of Cathay," Hebe thought to himself.
Similar wizard spirits exist all over the world, among which the closest to the "Six Ding Soldiers and Horses" is probably the Inuit spirit Tornrark.
In Inuit folklore, Tornrark are the spirits of humans who drowned at sea, or the spirits of objects used over many years. The former are closer to the spirits of those who died unjustly, while the latter are closer to the spirits of tsukumogami.
For this reason, the Tornrark spirits can master one or two skills of their predecessors. Apart from that, they have no mind or physical form and only obey the wizard's summons.
An Inuit wizard can probably command three to ten Tornrark spirits.
Hebe did not believe that the "Six Ding Soldiers and Horses" were superior to the "Tornrark Spirits." In her eyes, these secret teachings were equally fascinating, and all such knowledge deserved respect, regardless of whether it originated from Cathay, Egypt, the Higashi, or the remote frozen lands.
What Hebe needs to do is to draw inferences from one instance to another and eliminate the dross.
"Haha, all done."
At this moment, the wooden staff in Hebe's hand had changed. With the embedding of twelve bronze plaques, the staff had not become heavy, but rather light.
When Hebe swung her wooden staff, it was incredibly swift and light, even producing a whooshing sound as it cut through the air, sounding like the cry of a deer.
In the Taiping Wen Shu, the spells recorded by Yin Pill are mostly destructive or related to curses and spirits.