Some people say that the critical line of life and death can completely change a person, and some people say that people who escape death can often see very openly, about these two points, Gawain believes that Viscount Andrew at this moment has a deep understanding.

During the few days he was magically controlled by the cultists, Viscount Andrew was always awake - his consciousness was trapped in a weakened shell, and he was subjected to the erosion and torture of the cultists' crazy thoughts all day long, he watched "himself" issue martial law orders for the whole city, watched his family and servants in his castle being captured by the cultists, watched this glorious family castle fall into darkness and distortion day by day, and in these long days, which seemed like a hundred years, he realized that the king who was far away could not save him, The town's supposedly blessed chapels couldn't save themselves, not even the centuries-old legacy of the Leslie family's glorious glory.

In the end, the one who saved himself turned out to be the ancient duke who came from the lower reaches of the Baishui River seven hundred years ago.

Fate is such an inexplicable thing, and a bold "investment" a few months ago has now paid off in a completely unexpected way - a life.

In the Lord's Council Chamber, where a large hole had been opened, Viscount Andrew, who had recovered a little strength, sat on his wide chair and told the truth about the trouble with a wry smile: "Because a new crystal vein was found in the mine, I sent someone to dig a new mine, but the mine collapsed during the excavation, and the overseer reported that a large space was found under the mine......"

Gawain's heart moved when he heard this: It turns out that this Viscount Andrew has discovered those secrets under his territory?

However, his previous judgment was correct, this viscount did not know about the existence of those Gondor ruins in the past, and he found that there was something else under the mine or recently......

And Viscount Andrew's account continues: "They are ancient ruins, with ancient, stone-like walls and supporting structures, which are as wide as the cloisters of a palace, rather than narrow and cramped tunnels. Most of them collapsed and were buried, but there were some well-preserved places that I sent to investigate the ruins, and they found a tightly sealed room - the magic seal of the room had failed, so the magician in my territory easily dismantled the mechanism in the room, and later we found some antiquities in it...... Among them was a fragment of an eternal slab. ”

Eternal Tablet, Gawain is no stranger to this, it is said that all the secrets of the gods in this world come from the mysterious Eternal Tablet. In ancient times, when mortals had not yet come into contact with miracles, the Eternal Stone Tablet was a complete piece, and later the sages of human beings and other races discovered the Stone Tablet, and the moment they came into contact with it, the knowledge about the gods poured into the heads of those people, including the inheritance of divine arts, the distribution of gods, the names of gods, and so on, and the first sages who came into contact with the Eternal Stone Tablet became the earliest "Apocalypse" among mortals, and became the original popes and holy sees.

The Eternal Slabs, on the other hand, soon fell apart, as if the gods were unwilling to allow mortals to come into contact with more than they could bear, and the mighty Slabs were reduced to countless pieces and scattered into the world.

In the years that followed, several of the major sects that had risen rapidly among mortals found fragments of the tablets, including the most powerful of the Church of the God of War, the Church of the God of Light, and the Church of the Rich Tritheism, who regarded the fragments of the tablets as sacred relics and kept them in their respective holy places, and only the highest-ranking members of the Church had access to the tablets and received revelations—although the tablets were broken, there were still a lot of residual powers, and mortals could comprehend the knowledge related to God after contact. And half of the reason why several powerful churches have been able to maintain their strength for thousands of years is due to these fragments of slate.

According to the various churches, those "sacred knowledge" have been collected by major denominations, and the slate fragments are currently under the control of several powerful churches, but Gawain knows very well that the church has collected only the largest fragments of the slate, and God knows how many small fragments are scattered in this world, some of them are secretly collected by those small and medium-sized churches, and some small fragments have fallen into the hands of kings, dukes and even large collectors, but these small fragments seem to carry very little "divine grace", It is far from enough to raise people's level of divine arts or enable people to obtain complete knowledge of the gods, so they can be preserved semi-openly among the people, and have not been desperately retrieved by the major sects.

Gawain just didn't expect Viscount Andrew to be so lucky (or unlucky) to find a fragment of an eternal slate scattered outside.

Then he thought of the ancient ruins in the Dark Mountains, and the thousand-year-old experiments that Nicholas Egg mentioned, the "locally excavated samples", the conjectures about "gods".

So, the slab fragment was discovered by the Magus of the Gondor Empire and buried in this underground ruin? Could it be that the local excavated samples mentioned by those researchers were fragments of eternal stone tablets? No, it shouldn't be, although the eternal slate is precious, but the Gondor Empire was at its peak back then, and several major churches did not dare to confront the imperial authority, Gawain didn't believe that His Majesty the Emperor in the Spark Age would have a few pieces of eternal slate in his hands that were used as walnuts to play with, so the fragments of the eternal slate buried in the depths of this land may only be a part of the excavations back then......

Gawain's heart was racing, but it was only a matter of moments, and he looked at Viscount Andrew with just the right amount of surprise on his face: "So the cultist is eyeing the eternal tablet you have in hand...... Yes, the Death of All Things is a metamorphosis from the Druid Church, and they maintain a twisted belief and are normal to be paranoid about these gods, but how did they get this news? ”

"My butler," said Viscount Andrew, who smiled bitterly after a moment of silence, "I should have known that he would have known that he would have been a member of the Society of the Dead since he brought me all kinds of potions, and when he showed his knowledge of the occult!" ”

Gawain was stunned for a moment, and then remembered who the butler was—mainly remembering that Amber had stolen a watch, which was really impressive.

Amber next to her also touched her chin and muttered, "Then it seems that I don't need to return the watch to him." ”

Viscount Andrew's own magical talent is not high, and he does not have any knights, wizards and other extraordinary professional talents, but as a nobleman, he must ensure that he has the basic "extraordinary qualifications", so he has always been very interested in potions, mysterious rituals and other things that can improve extraordinary abilities, and the butler around him has followed him for many years, and is a knowledgeable person who knows a lot about occultism, and he can always get all kinds of effective potions on weekdays, so he is deeply trusted by Viscount Andrew, but who would have thought, Such a steward who has not shown the slightest trace for decades could be a minion of the Society for the Death of All Things?

Sadly, the minion fled much earlier - after the cultists took initial control of the castle, the butler disappeared from everyone's sight.

Based on these sporadic information, Gawain guessed that the "butler" was likely to be a "peripheral person" specially cultivated by the Society of the End of All Things, who did not have any extraordinary talent and had a certain amount of occult knowledge, so it was relatively easy to gain the trust of the nobles, and he was not on guard, and once the disciples of the Society of the End of Everything took action, such peripheral personnel would quickly evacuate, and they might change their faces to lurk around other nobles, or they might go to the depths of the organization......

What Gawain is really worried about is that this situation may not be unique.

Viscount Andrew is not a famous family that can control the situation in the kingdom, and the Society of the End of Everything is a behemoth that has developed into multiple countries, and it is unlikely that this cult will specifically plant an eyeliner that has been lurking for decades around a Viscount on the Ansu border, and the only explanation is that it is a norm for them to plant eyes around nobles.

What kind of monster has this Druid Order that fell seven hundred years ago now become?!

And soon, Gawain learned what was the reason why the cultists controlled Viscount Andrew's martial law.

"I told him that the Eternal Slab had been predestined for the king, and that he had already arranged for the men and horses to be transported out of the castle," Viscount Andrew said slowly, a smile of pleasure on his face, "His magic can control my limbs, he can control my tongue, but not my mind, he can make me speak according to the lines he arranged, but he can't make me say what I know in my heart—so he doesn't know where I hid the slate, so he can only put martial law all over the city, and then go from house to house in my name, And he didn't dare let me die until he found out......"

I see...... Gawain nodded clearly, the fallen druids do have evil techniques to control people's words and deeds, but it is not the mind control technique of the necromantic faction, but the more shallow limb nerve control technique, which is distorted and transformed from the original druid spell "animal domination", in the face of this spell, as long as you have a tenacious will to fight against it, you will not be forced to speak by the cultists.

Gawain just didn't expect that this Viscount Andrew, who seemed to be taking too many drugs and was like a sick seedling, would have such a tenacious mind.

"So that cultist buried the people in the castle in the atrium to extract thoughts, also to torture the whereabouts of the slate fragments......" Amber also reacted at this time, looking at the weak viscount with some surprise, "But they don't know where the fragments are, and you are the only one who knows about it...... Could it be that you didn't give it away at all? ”

"Of course I didn't send it out," Viscount Andrew chuckled hard, and though he was weak, he managed to hold his head high, "I am the heir of the Leslie family, and I will starve to death and die outside, and I will not be able to succumb to a cultist if I jump out of here!" ”

Although he felt a little subtle familiarity in the sentence, Gawain still looked at this weak traditional aristocrat with some admiration - this is the aristocrat of this era, he is indeed old-fashioned, indeed backward, and does have some foolish actions from God's point of view, but he also has a so-called "aristocratic spirit", which supports an almost unreasonable pride, and this pride makes him not bow to the cultists even if he dies.

"And where the hell did you hide the fragments of the Eternal Tablet?" Gawain couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Hah...... Haha......" Viscount Andrew laughed happily, even laughing violently, "right under that guy's nose all along!" Right under his nose! ”

As he spoke, the viscount struggled to get up from his chair, and then lifted the thick cushion.

"That idiot opened my treasure trove, rummaged through my magic room, searched my bedroom and attic, and pried open every locked chest and cabinet in the castle, but he never, never imagined, I just sat it on the ass. Under the Strands!! ”

After the thick mat was lifted, Gawain saw it.

It lay quietly on the seat, only the size of a palm, and the thickness was not even half a centimeter, and what was even more different from Gawain's conjecture was that this so-called eternal "slate" was not a slate.

It is a pale gold metal plate with an extremely flat and smooth surface and mysterious textures.