The Alchemy Empire has been dead for more than 20,000 years, and her history dates back at least 40,000 years. In her life of more than 10,000 years, the ancient alchemists created a glorious human civilization and left many rich legacies for future generations.

Why heritage, not relics?

Based on the historical information he had collected, Victor was convinced that the ancient city-states of the Chosen One were all remnants of the Alchemy Empire. These cities have continued to play a role in human history and have not been forgotten.

This is, of course, a legacy, not a lost relic of civilization.

Since the Chosen One and the Ancient City-State Knights inherited the legacy of the Alchemy Empire, and the Radiant Church and the secular lords overthrew the Chosen One and ascended to the throne of rulers, why is there a huge gap in the understanding of the ancient Alchemy Empire in the human realm?

Victor used X-3 to deduce and piece together a possible answer.

The Alchemy Empire occupies a vast area north of the Jinshui River, and its sphere of influence may be larger than the current human kingdom and the northern wilderness combined. The larger the territory, the weaker the central dynasty's control over the localities, and it was inevitable that large and small separatist forces would form. Just like the empire on which the sun never sets on the earth world, even if the telegraph, train, and ocean-going steamship had been invented, the colonies scattered all over the world became independent.

Therefore, the early alchemy empire must have been a loose alliance of human city-states, each with self-sufficient conditions and strong military power. They do not need to be ruled by a strong regime.

However, there is a difference between the world of Tyrone and the world of Earth, there are supernatural powers that determine the superstructure of civilization is very different. The transcendents of the human city-states have unshakable dominance, and as such, they are not afraid of being overthrown by the populace like the ancient emperors of Earth.

To put it simply, the wizards and knights of the city-state are blessed with power, and they are all lazy in government affairs, and they do not care about power, they are obsessed with the study of mysterious powers.

The same hobbies and research content linked the wizards and knights of the various city-states, and gradually the prototype of the mage association appeared.

The Mage Guild is made up of talented wizards from various city-states, and their greatest achievement is to turn the Golden Knight into an alchemist.

Victor has confirmed that the ancient alchemists were all high-level knights, and he defined alchemists as high-level knights who can embody the void elements into material laws through the alchemy system model.

This has an unimaginable attraction for the high-ranking knights of various city-states.

Take Sylvia as an example, despite being a god knight on a high level, her use of the Void Element is not detached from the Void Element itself, and is still in a primitive and crude state. If she knew there was a way to create an alchemical creature out of the Void element, she would surely be ecstatic. For this represents the transformation of the law of origin into the law of reality, which is the authority of the Creator.

The high-ranking knights of the city-states wanted to become alchemists, and they flocked to the Mage Guild, and when the number of alchemists reached a considerable size, a new organization was born, the Alchemy Council.

The Mage Guild and the Alchemy Council are essentially a joint organization of top wizards and alchemists, who not only control huge resources, but also monopolize the promotion path of wizards and high-ranking knights.

Any organization needs fresh blood, and there must be organizational rules, which will eventually form a political force. The Alchemy Empire was thus established, but the dominant Alchemy Council and the Mage Guild remained an organization that favored the study of the occult. They didn't have an emperor and didn't care much about secular power.

This determined the political structure and operation of the Alchemy Empire in the early days. Each city-state provides resources to the Alchemy Council and the Mage Guild in exchange for the city-state wizards and high-ranking knights to join the organization and seek the qualifications of new powers, thus forming a grand alliance of city-states headed by alchemists and mages.

The Mage Guild and the Alchemist Council regularly select wizards and knights as their apprentices in the city-states within the Alliance. The knight families and wizard towers of the alliance city-states are proud to join the organization, and even fight for their heads.

Due to the scattered city-states of the alliance and the distance between them, the archmages and great alchemists who lived in the ruling layer of the alchemy empire only had influence on the members of the alliance, lacked administrative power, and did not build a top-down administrative system. In order to extract more resources from the Alliance City-States, the Alchemy Council and the Mage Guild must whet the appetite of the Alliance City-States by limiting the number of apprentices and conservative research results, and make the organizational tradition closed rather than open.

This inevitably led to the division of the upper and lower levels of the alchemy empire, and the emergence of two administrative systems—the system of parliaments and associations, and the system of each city-state itself.

The two non-interfering administrative systems of the Alchemy Empire are the root cause of the loss of the Alchemy Civilization.

In the middle and late stages of the Alchemy Empire, the human city-states were fully invaded by unknown alien races, and the city-states were defeated and retreated, and the crisis of collapse greatly enhanced the centripetal force of associations and councils.

In order to eliminate the threat of invaders once and for all, the Empire's Grand Alchemists and Archmages secretly conduct forbidden research to create the ultimate weapon of war, the Lord of Radiance.

However, don't forget that the occult knowledge of the Alchemy Empire will most likely come from the Whisperers, or the ancient gods who won the Eternal War. The Alchemy Council and the Mage Guild created the Lord of Radiance, angering the Whisperers. The specific reason is unknown to Victor, but there are various indications that the people behind the sudden failure of the Alchemy Tower and the sudden demise of the Alchemy Empire are the Whisperers.

If the Whisperers wiped out all the archmages and great alchemists and left no one behind, the Alchemy Empire's research on the Lord of Radiance would have stagnated.

The Alchemy Tower has a network for information transmission, and when the Alchemy Tower suddenly fails, the city-states cannot contact the members of the council. Then, the alchemist's lineage was severed, and the city-state alliance collapsed. The disappearance of the alchemist and archmage became a mystery to the city-states. Thousands of years later, even the puzzle was forgotten, and the city-state was restored to its original state of self-government.

This is why today's human kingdom only knows about the ancient Chosen One, but not about the existence of the Alchemy Empire.

There are very few relics left in the Alchemy Empire, and even if they are excavated, they will be classified as the relics of the civilization of the Ancient Chosen One.

Testier says that the building is a relic of the early civilization of the ancient Chosen One, and in general, he is not wrong. Only Victor knew that this relic of civilization was of special value and of great practical significance to him.

Unfortunately, now is not a good time to explore the ruins and claim the legacy of the Alchemy Empire.

Victor pressed the throbbing in his heart, turned back without the slightest hint of surprise, and exchanged greetings with the scout team members of the Inquisition.

"Master Ron?!"

When the scout team at the Inquisition saw the Ron Paladin behind Caligula, they all looked in awe, and the paladin Conral Trigovar stepped forward to salute the priest and said in surprise, "Master, we didn't expect you to come. ”

Ron nodded indifferently, his eyes covered with platinum luster turned to the third-level paladin next to him, and asked, "What about the Skyscanner?"

The paladin squirmed his lips, lowered his head, and said, "Skyscanner...... Missing, probably dead. ”

The chief referee, Trigovar, secretly complained, His Royal Highness Randall was extremely intelligent, and no one could be sure, what clues could he see from the headless conversation between Ron and the beast tamer?

Trigoval explained to the Pope in turn: "The Skyscanner is the big owl...... The Great Owl has a long lifespan, and its last owner was a good friend of Master Ron, so Ron recognizes the Skyscanner. ”

Victor didn't seem to care about the referee's explanation, and turned his head to look at the majestic ruin with interest.

Clemento nodded and asked, "Brother Conral, what has happened to you these days?"

"The deputy captain is out hunting, and he should be back in a moment. Conlar said, "Let's get to the camp first, and I'll explain the situation to you." ”

The scout team led the group up to the 35th floor of the ruins, where their camp was located on a sheltered corner, with a few sheepskins on open stone slabs, weapons and some miscellaneous items stacked next to them, and some air-dried animal meat, but nothing else, not even a campfire.

They have been living a life of drinking blood for some time.

Victor turned his gaze around, turned back and ordered, "Aka, light the stove, heat a bag of purple cane wine first, and then boil some hot water." ”

Acre was very happy to do errands, which made him feel useful to everyone, and the rack on his back could hold more than three hundred pounds of supplies, and he had all the necessities for a long journey, and of course drinks.

While Acre was busy making fiery wine, Victor asked, "Your Excellency Conral Trigoval, how did you find this ruin?"

Paladin Conral has a down-to-earth temperament, unkempt, and looks a little older than his uncle Lester. He smiled and said, "Your Highness, this relic was originally a Skyscanner...... Oh, the big owl found out first. We didn't take this place seriously at first, and we were going to complete the mission before we came here to explore the ruins. The first attempt to fight the head of the Goblin Lord was unsuccessful, and he was chased by the Manticore. He took the manticore around the mountains in circles to buy us time to transfer. He broke into the ruins and was surprised to find that the manticore-tailed lion seemed reluctant to set foot and lingered for a moment below the cliff before leaving. ”

The deputy captain chased after him, shot the manticore with a few arrows, deliberately provoked it, and then ran back to the ruins. As a result, the manticore chased down the cliff and stopped. The deputy head of the regiment tried several times, and confirmed that the manticored could not set foot in this ancient ruin. The exact reason for this is unknown, but Lord Strange thinks this is a place for us to take refuge. ”

The smell of wine came out of the thin tin cans on the stove, and several paladins of the scout team couldn't help but swallow, and Caligula saw that the wine was hot, and diligently poured a glass for everyone. The paladins saluted and thanked the big fool, and he smiled innocently.

Conlar took a sip of purple cane wine and said with satisfaction: "It's really comfortable to eat raw meat and wild fruits for half a month and drink a glass of hot wine." ”

"Deputy Commander Testil had asked us to gather some supplies and move here to set up camp, so he would have no worries and would be able to try to decapitate the two-headed goblin. Eight days ago, the Skyscanner didn't fly back on time, and I immediately realized that the Manticore had poisoned it. Without eyes in the sky, our situation has become even more precarious. So, we immediately moved to the shelter and were not well prepared. ”

Later, when the deputy captain came, the manticore followed him to the bottom of the cliff and barked for a while, and then withdrew. The priest performs a cleansing spell to remove the toxins of Lord Testiel. After that, Lord Testil went it alone, waiting for an opportunity to shoot the Goblin Lord, and he used his semi-elemental abilities and paladin's recovery to withstand the manticore's poison before returning here to be healed. ”

Paladin Conral's narrative is basically consistent with Victor's speculation, and Grand Master Tystir shook his head and sighed, "Strange is too reckless......"

Strange tried several times to decapitate the goblin lord without success, and the target had already mastered his ability and must have responded effectively, which invisibly increased the difficulty of Victor and the others' actions.

Victor smiled elegantly and said, "And when Lord Strange returns, we can make a detailed decapitation plan." This monument is magnificent, Lord Conral, have you gone inside to see it?"

Conlar put down his oak glass, shook his head, and said, "Can't get in...... We searched the surroundings and couldn't find a door to get in or out. ”

"It'...... It's a whole. But we confirm that the belly of the mountain is empty...... You also heard the sound of the water inside. He paused, pointed to the top of the snow peak, and continued: "The deputy head of the regiment climbed to the top of the mountain alone, and saw a bottomless crack, and the melted snow water flowed into it and merged into a waterfall. After surveying the terrain, the deputy regiment commander decided that if he wanted to go down and come up again, he had to use a soft ladder several hundred meters long. Otherwise, there is a danger of being swept away by the underground river. ”

Victor blinked and smiled, "Cousin Strange can't go down, so I can't go down either...... Apart from the mountainside waterfall, what else is special about this ruin?"

Scout Team's Battle Priest said, "The building has many weathered ancient scripts and patterns that are difficult to legible, and there is little chance of restoration. However, there are fourteen well-preserved giant stone balls on the top platform of the ruins, and their surfaces are rough and uneven, but they are not too badly weathered. ”

Victor's first thought was the core of the earth, but the battle priest spoke of the special features of the ruins, and acted with great energy, obviously a scholar-priest, and he couldn't tell the difference between the core of the earth and the stone orb.

Pope Clement asked with interest: "What do you think about this?"

The battle priest of the Inquisition said excitedly, "Your Majesty, judging by the weathering of the ruins' buildings and the stone carvings, this ruins belong to the early architecture of the wizarding city-state era. Its function is unknown, it is more than 15,000 years old, but the stone balls on the top layer are not more than 400 years old, that is, these stone balls were moved from elsewhere by some creatures 400 years ago and placed on top of the ruins. ”

Paladin Conlar interjected, "I have a different opinion on this, those stone balls should have 'grown' out. Because, with all my might, I couldn't push a single stone ball. Its base seems to be connected to the remains of the building, which are clearly connected to the peaks. I don't think there's any kind of intelligence that could place these stone balls on top of the ruins. ”

"Hah, for the first time I've heard that buildings can grow stones. Karui, a combat priest from the Benardikt family, was close to the Conral Paladins and sneered unceremoniously.

Conlar retorted, "Didn't the core of the earth 'grow'?"

"Those are not the cores of the earth...... As you said, they are not condensations of the Void Earth element. Priest Karui spread his hands and continued, "Moreover, the core of the earth has been exposed to the air for a long time, and it will not be many years before it will disintegrate and lose the properties of the Void Earth element. ”

Victor stood up and said with a smile, "Anyway, when Cousin Strange comes back, we'll take this time to go up and have a look." ”

Without waiting for everyone to answer, he jumped to the top first, and on a platform of about 2 square kilometers, there were irregular scattered three-meter-high round stone balls, the surface was uneven and dark brown, and it seemed to be ordinary gray stone balls. Victor quickly stepped forward, his palm pressed against the surface of a stone ball, the cold touch was no different from that of a stone.

The bottom of the stone ball sank into the platform, which looked like it was growing on it, and Victor tried to push it, but the stone ball did not move.

This was to be expected. In terms of strength, the Silver Rank Earth Knight is not much worse than the Golden Knight, Conlar is not only an Earth Knight, but also a fourth-level Paladin, and the Divine Realm protects his soul from the invasion of the Elemental Sea, enabling him to mobilize the peak power beyond the Silver Rank. The most important thing is that the high-level knights with the affinity of the earth element are connected to the earth in a semi-elemental state, immune to knockback and lower limit, and can exert 100% power on the target.

Conlar couldn't push the ball with all his might, and Victor couldn't do anything about it, but he had to try.

His eyes turned dark gold, and the water element in his body was partially transformed into an earth element. The power contained in the body of the rock surpasses the level of the Golden Knight of the Earth, which is equivalent to the combined force of the Silver-level Raging Knight and the Knight of the Earth.

Victor's slender and white palm reached out to the stone ball again.

"Wait! It's not dead. ”

Relieved of the state of the rock body, Victor turned around and saw the cloth-clad and barefoot Ron Paladin past the crowd, walked up to him in a few steps, put his hand without palm prints on the surface of the stone ball, and said in a deep voice:

"I can feel that it holds the seeds of life, and when you touch it, they come alive. ”

"Sun elves, don't wake them up...... They were powerful, so powerful that manticores did not dare to set foot in this ruin. Ron gave Victor a deep look and stepped back to Pope Clement's side.

Turnans met Victor's suspicious gaze, nodded slightly, and said with a serious expression: "I also felt it just now, but ...... No malice, no danger. ”

Everyone looked at Victor's eyes and suddenly became strange, with envy, surprise, doubt, and imperceptible melancholy.

"Could it be...... The ruins of the temple left by the ancient elves?These stone balls are the guardians of the temple?I remember that there are descriptions of ancient stone tablets in the collection of the Ivory Sacred Castle...... The elves have a rare group of dwarven vassals, they are tall and stout, with an average height of 3 meters, and they are so powerful that they are called the giant dwarves. ”

The more the Battle Priest Karui spoke, the more excited he became, and his voice gradually increased, "If the legend is true, the Giant Dwarves are more than capable of carving a mountain into a temple of this size......"

Clement coughed, and Pastor Karui came to his senses and quickly shut up.

"Victor, let's get out of here first, go to the bottom, and wait for Strange. Pope Francis said gently.

Testiel also said: "Yes, cousin Victor, the ruins will not disappear, and when the time is right, we will come back to discover the secrets, and it is best to invite Her Highness Sylvia York to come with us." ”

With the experience of the Sword Saint Draven, the Pope and Grand Master feared that this relic would make Victor leave the human realm for some reason, in search of the elves. One day, no one will stop Victor from leaving, but at least he will have to give birth to an heir of noble blood with Sylvia before he can leave.

Victor withdrew his palm in a daze, his heart fluctuating.

Where is this temple of the elven race, it is clearly an alchemy tower, and these stone balls are some kind of special alchemy creatures at all.

Living Alchemical Creature ...... Is this alchemy pagoda alive?

If this is a living alchemy tower, who is its owner?