The entrance to the underground palace is located in a stone tower on the west side of the Courtyard Square, surrounded by a dense grove of trees, which can only be accessed by a winding stone path. Most of the palaces and forts of the Holy Court are densely distributed on the east side of the square, and they are magnificent, solemn and solemn here, as if the place is an abandoned wasteland, and the stone tower is a black prison in it. There was no one to guard it, and no one was passing by, and when the attendants brought Irina here, he seemed to be worried that he would be eaten by the stone building. "Miss Black, there is the entrance ahead, the library is on the right hand side of the entrance, there is a candle in front of the door, if you feel a little dark inside, you can light it at any time. But be careful, no one has been to the library for a long time, and dust in the air can easily ignite, I mean, just in case, be careful ...... candles. ”

"I'll be careful with you. Irina quickly took over. The squire handed Posta's passcard back to Irina, but his gaze avoided the stone tower.

What were these people afraid of? Irina pushed open the creaking iron door, and a thick smell of Nipu grass greeted her, and the sun shone on the dusty hall, where almost no one had ever walked except for the footprints of rats. Matteless vessels line the stone shelves on the walls, which are covered with wood-framed paintings, clinging to dust and cobwebs, and beyond that, they are empty and dilapidated. Irina removed the candle lamp hanging on the wall, and with a whisper, the dim candle flame rose immediately, and it looked especially dim in the sunlight. She walked into the inner hall with a candlelight, the soft dust made a slight noise under her feet, and there was indeed a closed stone door on her right hand, and on both sides of the stone door stood a foot-tall child statue, one covered her ears and closed her eyes, and the other sat in contemplation, as if to remind the enterer to be quiet. But now it looks more like a boy who has been left out in the cold.

As she pushed open the door of the library and was about to enter, she glanced back vigilantly, and at the other end of the library, a seven-foot-high iron door was nailed by wooden planks, and on top of it was a rusty shackle, and the blood red crystal was embedded in the stone wall above the iron door, the symbol of the church of Dashtur, and the finger-wide crack extended from the top to the base of the wall, and the surface was covered with blood and traces of battle. She deliberately looked closer, and the icy wind kept spilling out from the cracks and cracks in the door, mixed with the smell of dampness and decay.

This must be the entrance to the underground palace, but it can never be the only one. Irina touched the cold iron door with her palm, her ears close to listen, and there was a dead silence inside except for the whirring of the wind. She wasn't sure how many treasures were still stored in the underground palace, but Ormond was convinced. He asked me to enter the underground palace to find secrets, but the stone tower and the gate proved that the palace had long been abandoned and that the treasures inside had been transported elsewhere. A possibility suddenly alerted Irina that Posta was playing tricks on the men in black, that this was no longer a library in Seahorse Town, and that even if it was, it was just some abandoned scrolls and books.

With suspicion, she turned and walked into the library, which was much larger than Irina had imagined, and it was cold and dim, with no skylight to provide light, only the candlelight in Irina's hand flickering. She lifted the candlelight and walked between the bookshelves, the smell of old ash and rotting paper was strong. Sometimes, in the dimness, they would hit their heads into sticky cobwebs, and the silk would pull at the books on both sides, and the sound would echo in the empty library for a long time. As expected, this was no longer a library, and Posta was playing tricks on me, and he was reluctant to accept my offer. Perhaps the Church of Dashtur was the one who started it, and they hated the men in black and what they did to them. But the man in black also remembered how the church of Dashtur distorted the history of the beginning of the Second Age of mankind, how it deceived future generations about the Dark Ages, how it did so that the War of the Dead was nothing more than a story to scare children, and how future generations knew that the mysterious man in black was actually the messenger of the true god Panla. Irina gets angry at the thought of this. This is retribution, and you deserve to be punished.

At this time, she noticed that the first section of each bookshelf was hung with a pattern with the neat text written underneath it: The property of the church of Dashtur. But she couldn't guess what the motifs meant, such as a masked horned deer, waves of water surrounding the trees, overlapping triangular totems, shattered cups, upside-down houses, circular motifs, and some twisted lines. Only a few can tell the classification of the bookshelves at a glance, the crossed sword represents the war class, the spiral annual ring pattern represents the family history, the scales represent mathematics, the waning moon and stars represent the celestial phenomena, the three mountains represent geography, the spoon represents food, the old woman represents medicine, the cross bow represents hunting, the three drops of water represent wine, the anvil represents blacksmithing, and one of the patterns is engraved with the year, which should indicate the age recorded in the book.

After a moment, Irina chose the crossed sword. Seahorse has been through wars, Witchtown has been through wars, Screaming Bay and Riverbay have been through the rise of princes, far east of the coast of Ozfang, pirates and fishermen have fought countless times, and living in the vast lands north of the Deslan Plateau and south of the Endless Ice Field, the freedmen have also experienced the rise and fall. Looking back at the south of the Red Rock River, the strife between the town of Xize, the basswood fort, the strange stone platform, and the red castle has never stopped, and far west of the town of Forgotten Corner, several great powers have risen due to the battle for gold in the Pillar of Dawn, and several large countries have perished because of wealth.

So the truth lies in the long-ending war, and Irina searches for answers on the crooked and dilapidated bookshelves, the books on which have been destroyed, some reduced to a puddle of debris, some of which have been eaten by rats until only the folded and stiff covers remain.

And the Erkings, mysterious stones, strange stones, magical stones, northern wizards, deep valley tribes, ....... Irina meditated in her mind as she searched for clues in the few books that remained. The stone looks like a gemstone, or a large piece of gold, or maybe the stone has been picked up and used as a tool to put at the foot of the table, or maybe the stone is shiny and made into a necklace, ring, bracelet, or ...... There are too many possibilities. She remembered what Ormond had told her about Dragonfly, the Church of Dashtur, and the story of the Knight of the Bloodline with the Arkins, and her confusion disturbed her train of thought, and she didn't know where to start for a moment. He raised his hand slightly, his fingers lightly brushed over the old paper scroll, if this stone really has great power as people say, then it must be a very conspicuous record in the paper scroll, Irina is guessing, in the past hundred years, no man in black has heard of any stories and legends of stones, if this power really exists in this continent, then it must also involve the earth elves and dwarves, because only they have this power.

At the end of the bookshelf, a desk made of oak appeared in the light, filled with a jumble of paper rolls, a puddle of congealed blood stained the surface of the paper, which had become a cracked brown smegma with age, and the walls behind it also showed traces of blood. It's not just what it seems, there must have been fights here in the past, or something left over from the war. Irina fiddled with the stacked papers, most of which were letters and records. Before she could halfway through it, a piece of yellowed parchment caught her eye—the wrath of the gods. The black ink of the large pen occupies half of the content. She carefully brushed the dust off the surface, and when the candlelight got closer, a blurry text came into view, and the handwriting should have been written by an unknown apprentice: In the year 1520 of the Second Age, legend has it that the gods wanted to find an agent in the mortal world who could manage the world, and personally left the crown in the mortal world, and sent his most proud pet to watch over the crown, until that person appeared—the handwriting was a little blurred—the person who possessed the crown could control life and death and live forever in the world, and if you wanted to get it, you had to face the gods' pet, the Flame Cave Troll. No one has been able to kill the trolls for the crown in a hundred years, and the blue light still shines on the Silent Plateau of Deslan.

Irina continued to look at the following content through the light, the handwriting was mutilated but still faintly distinguishable: In the year 1528 of the Second Age, a warrior from the West fought the trolls for several days with a battle axe in hand, and finally obtained the legendary crown, which was inlaid with a huge sapphire, as if the magic was there,—— a passage was destroyed——, the crown was taken to the northern royal city of Haima, and a fertile land was used as a bargaining chip. King Saar, the king of the north, possessed the brilliant crown and regarded it as the heart of glory for the royal city and the north.

King Saar, the last son of the city builder Isukun, unfortunately died in the fire more than two hundred years ago, Irina had heard about King Saar from the northerners, and had also heard about the Heart of Glory, it was an unfortunate accident, and the lightning struck a house on a rainy night, and the fire spread rapidly, engulfing half of the city, burning a third of the people of Seahorse Town, and the Holy Court was the hardest hit area. The rest of the story is well known, with the Boda family's Dengkan taking over the dynasty of the Fortress Builder Isukun, Dawn City renamed Seahorse Town, and the Banner of King Teng Seahorse replacing the Banner of Dawn.

But one thing is crucial, that crown, the crown that fell on the Silent Plateau of Deslan, and the crown was set with a huge sapphire, wasn't that a priceless gem? maybe...... Perhaps the gem that the mysterious wizards who appeared in the north were looking for was it. Ormond should have been informed of this through the letter crow. No, not yet, this matter needs to be confirmed, a blank piece of paper alone cannot prove the real purpose of the northerners going south, let alone show that the stone that the northern wizards are looking for is it, maybe... Let's not talk about it yet. ”

She folded the parchment and put it in her pocket. By the time she got back to the inn, it was already evening, and the little girl, Midara, was sitting cross-legged on a purple goose down bed, fiddling with the pine nuts on a silver plate by candlelight. When she saw her sister returning, she smiled and handed the food to Irina. The candlelight reflected on her face, her pink face was like honey, except for the tattered green shirt she was wearing. "Sorry to leave you here alone. Irina smiled back, "I'll find you a clean outfit tomorrow morning?"

Midara nodded promisefully, holding the silver plate in both hands higher.

Irina took the food the girl handed her, then took her hand and sat back on the edge of the bed. The goose down mattress was very soft, and the faint fragrance of jasmine made people calm, and she really wanted to fall asleep, she was really tired. "Sister assures you that we will live here for a while, and that you will rest here these days, and that I will take you to the south when this is over. ”

Midara tilted her head to look at her, "I heard from Grandma that the south side of the Redstone River is beautiful, and if you go far enough, you can see blue-eyed giants and dwarves." ”

"Like you said, the south bank of the Redstone River is beautiful, but not the Blue-Eyed Giants and Dwarves. "They live far, far away from here, and the blue-eyed giants are horrible, tall enough to be the height of three adults, and, well, very hot-tempered, you won't like them." ”

Midara thought for a moment, "And the dwarves, the lovely dwarves, I like them. ”

The dwarves in the story are indeed cute, but the truth is different, Irina does not want to spoil the image in her mind, so she plans to tell her another story, she gets up and squats in front of her, her hands on her shoulders, weak like the petals of a rain and dew morning, making people feel a sense of pity and caresses. "The dwarves love peace, and they live in the Porto Hills, near the Sea of Our Lady of the South, where there are three hills, three small rivers, three patriarchs, and three watchtowers, and you know that the three watchtowers of the dwarves have their own purpose. The first was built to welcome the Earth Elves, who would give them a Moonlight Sac to the Dwarves when they visited the Porto Hills. Every time the moon is full, when the moonlight capsule is opened, countless moonlight spirits will appear in the sky of the entire Hatato Hills, floating like stars in the Hatato Hills, and she will give the dwarves the most sincere blessings. The second was built to usher in the second age of mankind...... When the darkness disappeared into the far east, the three dwarven chiefs built the watchtower with their own hands, and the human emperor Palandi wept with joy over the tower, because it meant that the age of mankind had returned and that it meant ...... It also means that the earth elves are leaving. ”

Midara grabbed a biscuit and handed it to Irina, "Then why did the Earth Elves leave?"

"Because the earth elves must leave. Irina took the biscuit and took a bite. It is because of the human being's ability to reproduce and the muddy mind that inhibits their survival. Irina didn't want to tell her this, maybe it wasn't time yet. "As for the third one, it was built for them to master the secret language of magic, of which the sand powder is their masterpiece. ”

"I know what dust is. Midara stretched out her arms and gestured, "Poof! What a big flame, according to my grandmother, the sand powder burns brighter than the sun, and hotter than the fire." ”

"yes, dust is a dangerous thing, but it's also expensive. ”

"The dwarven patriarch is also very cute. ”

Irina shook her head, the candle flame on the balcony was suddenly extinguished by a gust of wind blowing in, and the crescent moon like a sickle hung in the sky, she got up and went to the window, "Listen. Then he said a word, and the candle flame burst out like a dazzling dawn, and in an instant the whole room became cold again. The girl was stunned at first, then jumped and threw herself into Irina's arms. "Sister, sister, you are the most powerful person in the world, the most powerful. ”

"You're the bravest girl I've ever met. She took her hand and both looked out at the same time, but Midara needed to stand on tiptoe to see outside. In the distance, outside the high walls between the buildings, the lights are bright and noisy, and a faint mist rises and spreads in the northeast corner of the city. "I have a secret for you, do you know what the dwarves are good at besides magic?

They're the best at building houses, huh...... and making dolls!"

"Half of the world's cuisine is created by the dwarves, and if the skilled craftsmen belong to the Metir, then the unique cuisine is none other than the dwarves, who will make delicious dishes from all edible ingredients anywhere. ”

"Did they make the cookies on that plate as well?"

"Maybe that's it. Irina laughed, "Some say they built a watchtower for the magic they created, but it's a pity they didn't build one for their food." But I've also heard that the dwarves will build a fourth watchtower, and when that day comes, it means that something big is going to happen in the world. ”

"What's the matter?" Midara looked up at her.

"I don't know, but it must be a good thing. ”