Though Angelica did not elaborate, Hao Ren could guess the situation of the ancient sage from her brief words.
First of all, there was no doubt that the ancient sage was not a human being, and he was still alive, but in a very bad state.
The ancient sage was indeed the supreme existence of Twilight Capital. The humans living here worshipped him as a god. In the early days of the establishment of Twilight Capital, when the ancient sage was in good condition, he was indeed the supreme ruler of the city, but this situation did not last long. The ancient sage may have made some kind of sacrifice in the process of establishing Twilight Capital. This sacrifice led to the rapid loss of his vitality, and he gradually became unable to bear the heavy responsibility of managing the city. According to the information provided by Wendell, the ancient sage no longer directly managed the various affairs of the city 1,500 years ago, and he completely stopped direct contact with the outside world a thousand years ago. The Iron Throne was also closed at that time and was no longer open to ordinary people.
Five hundred years ago, the ancient sage began to gradually lose the ability to communicate with the outside world.
To this day, he should not be able to speak, move, or express any of his wishes. Ordinary people could not communicate with him at all. Only the special group of "caregivers", who possessed some mysterious ancient bloodlines, could still hear the voice of the ancient sage through some telepathic means. However, this kind of listening was very chaotic and disordered. In Angelica's words, it was like sleep talking.
Such a king could not rule the kingdom. So after the closure of the Iron Throne, all the management power of Twilight Capital was completely vested in the Steam Assembly, and the Steam Assembly lived up to the expectation. Though conservative and stubborn, they were responsible from top to bottom and kept the city running to this day.
For many years, the Ancient Sage had been in a state of suspended animation, relying on a weak telepathic link to communicate with his caretakers. But there had never been a sign that he would wake up. But today, his mental activity suddenly became intense, and through the telepathic link, he instructed the caretakers to bring the travelers from outside the Twilight Shroud to him.
At this time, Hao Ren and his team were already fighting with the Twilight Guards. In fact, it was their fight that attracted the attention of the ancient sage.
The ancient sage was still not fully awake. He could only talk to the caregivers. Although the caregivers themselves were respected, they could not intervene in the management of the city. In addition, they did not have time to contact the Steam Assembly and explain the situation. So after an emergency discussion, the caregivers were divided into two groups. One group went to the upper city to convey the ancient sage's will to the Steam Assembly, and the other came directly to pick up Hao Ren and his team.
"You knew we were coming here?" Hao Ren looked at Angelica in surprise. "We're doing this in secret."
"This is the instruction of the ancient sage. He is watching you." Angelica smiled and nodded to Wendell. "I don't know why, but the old man has heard the ancient sage's voice. The ancient sage saw you through his eyes."
Wendell said with a proud expression that it was true. Hao Ren suddenly became curious about the old man. He was just an ordinary person. How did he get in touch with the ancient sage who was almost buried deep in the ground?
Unknowingly, they had passed through several blocks along the secret route provided by Angelica. Hao Ren noticed that the surrounding buildings were gradually becoming sparse, and the messy small and medium-sized houses were disappearing, replaced by larger and neatly arranged stone buildings. After turning the last street corner, the scenery suddenly opened up. A solemn stone building appeared in front of them.
It was a stone fortress in the shape of a pyramid, stacked with neat black and gray square pillars. Although the fortress lacked decoration, it had a solemn atmosphere. Around the fortress was a large empty square, which might have been an important gathering place of Twilight Capital in the past, but now it was empty, silent, and lifeless.
At the top of the pyramid fortress, a pale golden beam of light broke the darkness and extended up into the depths of the stacked city structure.
Hao Ren found the stone fortress familiar. After trying to recall for a long time, he suddenly realized that the structure of this thing was similar to the Golden Palace of Odin in the Garden of Asgard.
"This is the sanctuary of the Iron Throne," Angelica said, pointing to a door at the bottom of the pyramid-shaped building. "The door is over there. Please follow me."
The inside of the stone fortress was not as magnificent as imagined. In fact, as the residence of the ancient sage, the interior decoration of the building was shabby in Hao Ren's eyes. The walls of the stone corridor were bare, and the floor was paved with old slabs. There were no sculptures or murals along the way. The only ornaments were the steam lamps inlaid on the walls. These steam lamps lit up the sanctuary as bright as day.
Along the way, Hao Ren also saw other caregivers. They were men and women, young and old, dressed exactly like Angelica. Even their temperament was similar: quiet, quiet, gentle, and almost emotionless. This strange commonality might have been caused by living in the sanctuary for years.
The caregivers were aware of the arrival of the visitors. When they saw Hao Ren and his entourage, they just nodded slightly or stood on the side of the road and bowed to them. Everyone remained silent. Only two young caregivers had a brief conversation with Angelica.
In this strange silence, Hao Ren and his team were taken to a hexagonal hall.
They finally saw the mysterious ancient sage and his current condition.
The hall was full of winding pipes and cables. These shimmering lines extended from the six stone platforms around the hall to a metal platform in the middle of the room. On the metal platform was a huge transparent crystal. Inside the crystal was the Iron Throne. On the black metal throne sat a thin, twisted old man.
Had he not known in advance, Hao Ren could not even believe that the man in front of him was still alive.
He was so shriveled that he looked like a skeleton. His skin was greyish-black, and the thin layer of skin was sticking to his bones. There were all kinds of pipes on it. The old man's head was fixed on an iron frame, and there were many cables extending from his temples and the back of his head. These cables were all connected to the iron throne under his body.
Hao Ren noticed that the ancient sage wore an eye patch on one of his eyes and guessed his identity.
Vivian was not surprised when she saw the ancient sage. She had expected it. "Odin, it's really you."
"So that's what happened …" Hao Ren also felt a sense of enlightenment. The king of the gods was missing in the Vigrid Plain. Who else could do this except him?
Wendell was so excited that he did not even notice that Vivian had called out the name of the ancient sage. The old man was so excited that he prostrated himself on the ground and kissed the slate in front of him over and over again. "Oh, the sage! The Lightseeker has found a paradise. The land of Asgard is still shining! "
Odin on the Iron Throne did not respond. He just continued to sit there in silence. It seemed that he had completely lost the ability to communicate with the outside world. Hao Ren turned to look at Angelica. "Has he always been like this?"
"He has been like this since the first time I saw him." Angelica nodded gently.
"What should we do next?"
"I don't know," Angelica said. "I was just ordered to bring you here. The ancient sage's will is unpredictable."
Vivian suddenly said, "I know what to do. Hao Ren, let me use Gungnir. "
Hao Ren took out the spear from the dimensional pocket and handed it to Vivian. He saw the latter whispering a few incantations to the spear. Then, under everyone's curious gaze, Vivian placed the spear on the platform under the Iron Throne.
In an instant, the large piece of crystal that sealed Odin emitted a faint glimmer.
"Actually, I just tried it. I didn't expect it to work," Vivian explained. "The Asgardian tribe has a high attainment in spiritual power and is also good at the way of the soul. The strong among them will pour part of their soul and life force into the items that accompany them for life as a backup in case of emergency. Gungnir was broken into three pieces, but the mechanism inside it is still working, so I guess the power sealed in it is still there. "
Hao Ren was very optimistic. "So, he can recover?"
A weak and old voice suddenly came from all around. "Unfortunately, he can't."
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