In fact, Victoria really wanted to ask why burping could hurt the throat, but the tacit understanding between friends for many years made her give up the idea at the last moment. She also found herself a more reasonable excuse.
After all, Maggie was a Dragon. When they burped … the temperature might be higher.
In a sense, Victoria's idea was subtly consistent with reality …
Seeing that the awkwardness had disappeared, Maggie seemed to be a little relieved. Then she looked at Victoria's face and asked before Victoria could ask any more questions, "How was your contact with Mr. Modir?"
Victoria's mention of "being chased by the ancient gods" and "samples" could be regarded as the content of a public report. What she was asking now was Victoria's personal feelings.
The Duchess of the Northern Region was silent for a few seconds, as if she was recalling the process of her contact with the old man today. After a short period of recollection and thinking, she whispered in a strange tone, "I don't know …"
"You don't know?" Maggie suddenly widened her eyes in surprise. "This is not like your style of speaking."
"No one can imagine the process of contact with the family's ancestors in advance, and I can't either." Victoria sighed softly and said in a somewhat complicated tone, "I used magic to confirm that he is related to me by blood, and the credibility is more than 99%. However, in addition to this physical connection, from his manner of speech to his habits, from his way of thinking to his personality, he gave me only a feeling of strangeness … I wanted to understand him as much as possible, but the more I understood, the more I saw an ancestor who was very different from the family records and the history books … It was like facing a specious illusion. I knew it was real, but I always felt something was wrong."
"We talked about this before we set off, didn't we?" Maggie said with a trace of concern. "You should have expected this situation — a living person must be different from the content recorded in the books. What's more, Mr. Modir has been missing for nearly 600 years. No one knows what he has experienced in the past 600 years, and this experience can completely mold him into a different person. After all, we did not come to Tarlonde to look for a 'Modir Werde' who is exactly the same as in the records. "
"You're right, I really shouldn't care about these details." Victoria nodded. "I just thought of Madam Heti … She may have also experienced the confusion I faced, but she seems to have adapted well to it all …" Maggie glanced at Victoria.
She seemed to be a little hesitant, but after a moment of hesitation, she said, "I have some inappropriate thoughts, but I believe you will also understand this obvious fact: Madam Heti has faced a different situation than you, and the Gwen Cecil she saw may be even more different from the pioneering hero recorded in the history books. She did not 'adapt well', but the Cecil family at that time must have an ancestor who came back from the dead … As for the harmony between His Majesty Gwen and her, and Her Highness Rebecca … that's a matter of the future."
Victoria's expression suddenly changed slightly. She could not help but look at her friend. "You're not just having inappropriate thoughts — in another environment, I'm afraid you'll be arrested for saying this."
"So I won't talk nonsense in front of outsiders." Maggie shrugged. "I'm just giving an example. So, let's talk about something else. Other than these 'confusion', do you have any other feelings about your adventurer ancestor? What else did you talk about? "
"… We spent most of the time talking about his adventures," Victoria said as she recalled. "He was a very cheerful and optimistic person. He didn't care about trifles, which was very different from the Wilde family. He had indeed been to many, many places. Even if his memory was often disrupted or disrupted, he still remembered countless bizarre stories and many long-lost folklore. He worshipped our King very much, although he didn't remember that he had gone to sea to find His Majesty's' secret route '…"
"Have you asked about the Violet Kingdom?" Maggie looked into Victoria's eyes. "I hope you haven't forgotten about it."
"Of course I haven't forgotten." Victoria nodded immediately. "I brought the topic to the Violet Kingdom, but I didn't ask directly. I was worried that this would trigger his' consciousness reset, 'but by beating around the bush, I was sure that he didn't remember whether he had visited the Kingdom of Wizards. I also asked about his earliest adventure in his memory, but unfortunately, he didn't mention the moss forest or the northern city-states. The earliest adventure he remembered was near a coast in the far west of the continent, which seemed to be close to the Kingdom of Dwarfs. It was thousands of miles away from the Violet Kingdom. "
"It seems that it's not that easy to figure out what happened to Mr. Modir." Maggie sighed softly and shook her head. "Well, tell me in detail about being chased by the power of the ancient gods. By the way, tell me about the 'sample'. I'll leave tomorrow and go back to Loren first …"
…
In the depths of the vast wasteland shrouded in thick, turbid clouds, a howling, dry wind kept blowing past the craggy ruins of the old Imperial Capital and the continuous hardened rock formations on the land. Around the giant crater created by the explosion of the Deep Blue Well, a dozen crystal tube spouts that extended from the ground were quietly surging with pale blue light. The pure energy that originated from the mana system deep within the planet still permeated this vast land to this day, maintaining the operation of the last legion of the old human empire.
Accompanied by the low hum of the magic device, a tall figure wearing a Gondor sorcerer's robe descended from the sky and landed next to a large pipe nozzle. The iron soldier first quickly confirmed the surrounding environment, and after completing the daily data collection, she stretched out her hand in the direction of the pipe nozzle. The ancient energy device immediately sensed the authority of the operator, and a silver-white armor on the side plate of the nozzle silently slid open, revealing the delicate and shining crystal structure below.
The iron soldier pressed her palm in the center of the crystal structure, and with a slight clicking sound, the hidden interface in her palm and the crystal structure were successfully connected.
"Beginning to read the peripheral wave record … Uploading to the iron soldier network … Beginning to compare the historical monitoring records of the Deep Blue Network …"
In the center of the Deep Blue Crater, in the depths of the 'cone-shaped mountain' that looked like thousands of crystal prisms, layers of alloy domes and energy shields enveloped the ancient underground structure. After passing through more than a dozen gates and connecting shafts, it was the place where the last Defiant Fortress of the Kingdom of Gondor was located.
Ancient trapezoidal corridors extended deep underground, connecting roughly flat-topped pyramid-shaped halls and underground caverns that relied on huge support structures to maintain stability. These caverns were built by manpower in ancient times, and the smallest one was equivalent to a hall that could accommodate thousands of people, while the largest caverns were the size of a castle. Countless automatic facilities operated between these halls and caverns, drawing energy from the Deep Blue Well to ensure the operation of the Ironmen, driving the operation of various laboratories, and maintaining the stability of the perimeter defense system of the entire fortress.
Somewhere in the underground fortress, in an area closer to the primordial source of the Deep Blue Well, an ancient magic gear was humming as it passed through the brightly lit but empty suspended bridge. The magic gear had an inverted cone-shaped body, with two magical arms floating in the air on both sides of it, and a huge 'eye' carved out of crystal inlaid in the mechanical structure at the top of it.
As the magic gear passed through the bridge briskly, the crystal eye constantly reflected the magnificent stream of light above the bridge.
Suddenly, the magic gear stopped in the middle of the bridge. A series of soft humming sounds came from its body, and then it turned its gaze to the vast space beyond the bridge.
It was a large cavern, with several alloy bridges and material slides crossing the cavern. On the dome and a part of the side walls of the cavern, there was an astonishing scale of ancient support structures. Some crystal pipes and gushing fountains extended from those ancient structures, and between them, there was a continuous flow of energy of an astonishing scale.
This was the scene in the upper half of the cavern. It looked spectacular enough, but compared to the strange scene in the lower half of the cavern, it was not worth mentioning.
The lower half of the cavern was the 'projection opening' of the Deep Blue Network. The thick rock and metal structure there seemed to have been cut by an invisible blade, and a vast chaotic space could be seen inside the opening, as well as the raging magic torrent in the space. It was as if someone had dug a hole in the planet, revealing the hollow structure inside, and inside the hollow structure was the Deep Blue Network that connected the entire planet and pulsated like the planet's blood vessels.
The magic gear quietly overlooked the shocking scene at the bottom of the cavern, and a hollow mechanical voice came from its body. "Comparing monitoring records … No unusual fluctuations found in the Deep Blue Network … Expanding monitoring range to nearby tributaries …"
Beyond this bridge, there were several additional gates that blocked the passage to the deepest laboratory and control center of the fortress. Loyal and powerful iron men guarded the ancient passage behind the gates, and the supreme controller of the entire facility … was quietly dormant in the deepest 'Matrix Hall'.
An iron man wearing an ancient sorcerer's robe, with long gray hair, walked through the deep corridor and stepped into the top-secret Matrix Hall. The roughly hexagonal hall was brightly lit, and the white and gray ancient building materials made the entire space appear extremely clean and monotonous. Inside the monotonous hall, huge, silver-white square pillars rose from the ground, pointing to the dome directly above.
Those square pillars were made of unknown metals and crystals inlaid between the metals. On the surface of the pillars, there were faintly glowing grooves. A low but pleasant humming sound constantly came from the depths of the pillars, as if resonating between each pillar, making the entire hall reverberate with a rhythmic "wind chime" sound.
"Commander," the iron man stood in front of the matrix formed by the pillars and said in an emotionless voice, "the inspection of all tributaries has been completed."
As the iron man's voice trailed off, the silent silver-white square pillars in the hall seemed to come alive in an instant. Their crystals began to shine brightly, and a buzzing sound that gradually grew louder amidst the low hum appeared. Holographic projections of complex structures appeared on the surface of the square pillars, showing the automatic monitoring records of every magical pulse around the Defiant Fortress. A pleasant mechanical voice rang in the matrix. "I've seen the data sent back. What's the result of the direct observation of the external patrol?"
"Everything is normal," the iron man said meticulously. "The perimeter fluctuation record is within the normal range, and the total change curve is in line with the historical fluctuation record of the Deep Blue Net …"
"Everything is normal …" The mechanical voice in the matrix repeated the words mentioned by its subordinate softly. "In this situation, everything that is normal is the biggest abnormality.
"The turbulence of the Deep Blue Net can be observed in the elemental fissure of Tarlonde. The newly hatched Young Dragon has been tainted by the Deep Blue Net, and even the Dragon God suspects that the Deep Blue Net is about to experience an upwelling … But my readings here are all normal … It seems that some of the restless freaks in the depths of the wasteland have consciously avoided all the tributaries that the Deep Blue Well can monitor."
The iron man quietly listened to the analysis of the Ophelia Matrix. After the resonant voice between the square pillars had died down, the iron man said with a blank expression, "The cultists know more about the Deep Blue Well than expected. They even know the range of our surveillance."
"Yes, because they have a 'consultant', a very professional 'consultant'," the Ophelia Matrix said slowly. "It is a pity that the strong-willed rebels of the past are now standing on the opposite side of the mortal civilization … I am really curious about what 'they' have experienced on the other side of the border. Unfortunately, it will be a mystery forever."
Then the matrix paused for a moment before resuming. "Continue to monitor all tributaries and maintain the intensity of patrols in the periphery of the crater. The cultists may know how to bypass the monitoring of the Iron Men, but as long as they are still mortals, there will always be times when they let their guard down. Do not miss any clues."
"Yes, Commander."
The iron man soldier received the order and then turned and left the brightly lit matrix hall.
The hall returned to its previous state. Huge metal pillars stood silently in the light. Inside these cold and ancient thought nodes, Ophelia Norton's consciousness flowed quietly, just like every day she had spent in the past thousand years.
This state lasted for a moment before a clear holographic projection suddenly appeared near one of the pillars. The projection showed a bustling street and a dazzling array of goods in the shops on the street.
Immediately after, a new holographic projection appeared beside another square pillar. It was a plain church. Young priests who pursued the path of the Holy Light were gathered in the church, listening to the senior priest teaching them about kickboxing.
More holographic projections appeared beside the square pillars one after another. There were bustling urban areas, quiet and peaceful suburbs, gurgling streams, green plantations, towering clock towers, and majestic city towers.
These were the sceneries from afar, beyond the desolate wasteland, in the increasingly prosperous country.
Ophelia Norton's consciousness flowed quietly in these sceneries from afar.
(End of Chapter)
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