Chapter 935 - 934: The Signal Appears Again

"You’ve already accepted Talronde’s invitation?!"

In Gawain’s study, Aunt Heidi had just learned of this situation and looked at the smiling ancestor with wide eyes, utterly stunned and at a loss.

"That’s right," Gawain knew Heidi would react this way, he smiled and nodded, "Of course, we’re not leaving immediately—at least not until the Goddess of Magic incident has completely settled and all domestic affairs are properly arranged."

Heidi’s expression of shock hadn’t fully faded, but seeing the ancestor’s smiling face and hearing his calm response, she realized this wasn’t a whim on his part. He had likely made this decision after careful consideration, though the decision itself exceeded expectations, leaving everyone flabbergasted.

"Speaking of which, I should probably discuss this with all of you," Gawain looked at Heidi and lightly tapped his forehead, apologetic, "This isn’t just my decision anymore, and I was a bit hasty in deciding."

"No, that’s not what I meant," Heidi quickly shook her head, "I’m just very surprised. Since you’ve made this decision, you must have your reasons."

"There are many reasons. The Dragonkin are a powerful and mysterious force, a rare opportunity for the Realm of Mortals to interact with such a force; Talronde has many unknown mysteries, and I suspect their level of civilization may far exceed the Loren Continent, which needs to be observed and understood; the Dragonkin is a civilization that has survived multiple chaotic waves, and the intelligence on this is extremely valuable to us," Gawain explained methodically, finally shaking his head, "But for me personally, these reasons aren’t the main ones. The main thing is ... they have a god who has descended into the mortal world, and that god seems to have something to say to me."

"You mean the ’Dragon God’..." Heidi frowned slightly, "You’ve mentioned this before. So do you think this god is friendly?"

"Not sure, but at least it’s certain that He is intelligent enough for communication," Gawain said, "So far, we haven’t had direct contact with any ’normal’ gods capable of intelligent communication. They were either fake gods created by evil cult followers, or new gods like Nariteer that are significantly different from the gods of the world, or gods like Amon who have left their divine seat and whose divinity has waned... While they also have considerable reference and communication value, the Dragon God’s communication value is obviously more special and irreplaceable."

Heidi nodded lightly, evidently agreeing with Gawain’s view on this matter, but the worry in her eyes hadn’t dissipated: "... You’re right, but it’s still very risky, especially at this time... Going in person to Talronde means facing too many unpredictable variables. We still can’t determine what the ’Dragon God’ actually wants, but the danger is very real."

She couldn’t help but shake her head: "If we could follow normal diplomatic procedures and first conduct ambassador-level talks with Talronde..."

"Unfortunately, this is not a normal ’diplomatic activity’," Gawain said, "To the other side, this is just a personal invitation for me, it’s solely our side wanting to gain more from this invitation. Forget about exchanging ambassadors, at least not now—that won’t be meaningful to the ’God,’ and He’s not interested."

Then he looked at Heidi, seemingly caught in a dilemma (the Great Steward of Cecil Clan always seemed to be embroiled in various concerns), and smiled to reassure her: "I have considered various unexpected situations—including potential malice from Talronde, and the possibility of the Dragon God setting a trap. I accepted this invitation after weighing the pros and cons with great confidence."

"You have confidence?" Heidi said instinctively, looking at the ancestor who always seemed calm and reliable. She desperately wanted to ask how he, a mortal, could confidently face a god with an unknown attitude up close, but she swallowed the words.

She suddenly thought of the many "unhuman qualities" her ancestor exhibited after his resurrection, the strong resistance and even suppression he showed when faced with divine knowledge or even divine relics, and his forward-looking plans and incredible knowledge... Ancestor had explained that some knowledge came from the Gondor era, some from historical fragments he saw in a soul state, yet she never found even the slightest trace of this knowledge in the annals of human history.

"I understand," she bowed her head, "I’ll get everything sorted as soon as possible, while you’re temporarily away, everything here will continue to operate smoothly."

The ancestor who was resurrected may no longer be just a "human." She had vaguely sensed this from long ago, but regardless of how many secrets he held, these years had proven one thing: For this land and its people, Gawain Cecil was indeed a mountain worth relying upon and trusting.

For Heidi herself, she only recognized this ancestor resurrected after seven hundred years—and that was enough.

"I won’t be gone for too long; it will be a brief ’visit,’" Gawain nodded. He couldn’t see Heidi’s expression after she lowered her head, but years of interaction enabled him to sense her emotional fluctuations in such situations, and he couldn’t help but smile warmly, "Rest assured, I’ll return safely—and soon."

Then he waved his hand, temporarily skipping the topic, and casually asked: "Enough about this. You came early today, is there something to report?"

"Yes," Heidi promptly gathered her thoughts, recalling her original purpose for coming early today, "I brought the latest monitoring report from the Sorin Main Hub... The mysterious signal that appeared before reappeared at dawn today!"

Gawain was taken aback, and then immediately remembered what the ’mysterious signal’ that Heidi mentioned was, he exclaimed: "It’s appeared again!?"

"Yes... and it’s very similar to the previous incidents. It lasted for several cycles of broadcast, interspersed with brief high-frequency oscillations and repetitive waveforms, and then mysteriously disappeared as suddenly as it appeared—we still haven’t captured the signal source, and have made no progress in deciphering it."

Gawain frowned deeply and said sternly, "So... this signal has nothing to do with the Goddess of Magic..."

The mysterious signal they were discussing was previously received by the Sorin Main Hub and the Bitter Winter Hub in the northern parts of the Dark Mountain Range. Its source was unknown, its meaning unclear; it suddenly appeared at the listening borders of the Magic Web Terminal like a ghost, bringing noise and ripples for some time before mysteriously disappearing. This signal left all technical personnel bewildered, so much so that Gawain contacted Dragonkin, sea demons, and elves for investigation, yet still couldn’t ascertain its origin.

The mysterious signal had stirred many people’s nerves.

And after the Goddess of Magic’s invasion and escape incident through the Magic Web occurred, many of the Empire’s technicians—including Gawain himself—instinctively associated the two matters.

Gawain once suspected that the Goddess of Magic was the source of the mysterious signals received by Sorinburg and Bitter Winter Castle, and even suspected that those strange signals were phenomena caused when the Goddess of Magic tested the Magic Web before executing her escape plan—despite the lack of sufficient evidence, this guess was highly plausible, so many people thought this way.

However, now... the Goddess of Magic has been confirmed to have completely escaped and distanced herself from the human world, and the traces she left in the Magic Web have been completely erased by Nariteer and Duvalt, yet those strange mysterious signals have appeared again!!

"Only the Sorin Main Hub detected it?" Gawain frowned, "Have any other hubs reported anything similar?"

"Not yet, the signal is not stable; it fluctuates in strength and seems to only appear under quite accidental conditions, captured by our Magic Web crystals," Aunt Heidi shook her head, "However, the other main hubs are currently checking all monitoring records from midnight to early morning yesterday to see if there are any missing clues—if the signals they received were too weak and brief, it might have been overlooked by the personnel on duty at the time, but traces might be left in the buffered crystal array."

"Hmm..." Gawain slowly nodded, "Have them check carefully, this signal... is very concerning to me, it’s quite unusual. The Goddess of Magic has already messed with our Magic Web once, now that the signal has appeared again, it probably indicates that there’s more than one entity wanting to create chaos."

Aunt Heidi bowed her head, bent forward to accept the command: "Yes, ancestor."

Heidi left, and Gawain fell into contemplation behind the desk. Then he raised his head to look beside him, watching as an Amber slowly emerged in the air.

Amber blinked her eyes, with surprise and confusion on her face: "I thought the matter of the signal was over after the Goddess of Magic fled..."

"I thought so too—everyone thought the signals Sorinburg and Bitter Winter Castle received were caused by the Goddess of Magic," Gawain’s brows were tightly knit, "But now it seems this might be two unrelated events..."

"If only Nariteer had managed to keep the Goddess of Magic at that time," Amber instinctively said, "Then we could directly confirm with her. Even if she didn’t cause the signal, she might know something—after all, she is somewhat of a god, and ought to know more than mortals."

Listening to Amber’s murmurs, Gawain just shook his head and said nothing.

...

Two days later.

In the deep autumn, cold winds blew across the vast Plains of the Holy Spirits. From Sorin Region, looking up at the sky, one could only see the high sky and sparse clouds, with a clear and open view.

The season of frequent rain and even snow was approaching, and such clear days would probably become increasingly rare in the coming months.

In the autumn wind, from the enormous canopy of the Sorin Giant Tree came a rustling sound, countless branches making noises deep within the canopy, as if certain structures inside were moving and reassembling, along with continuous friction and rolling sounds, as if something was traversing deep within the canopy, leaving behind sound traces along the way.

At the top of the Sorin Giant Tree, the uppermost layer of the canopy, extremely dense wooden structures and heterogeneous leaves intertwined to form an iron-like stable surface. On this scale comparable to a city square "green ground" were fixed a series of man-made facilities—a railing to prevent personnel from accidentally falling, streetlights for illumination, and small weather observation and collection devices, among which the largest scale was the massive crystal array located at the center of all facilities, fixed and supported together by numerous metal frames and intertwined vines: the Sorin Main Hub array.

This is the highest point across the Plains of the Holy Spirits, and one of the most important facilities in the Sorin Region. Around the scale of the massive crystal array, one could see dozens of fully armed large Treants, all of which were differentiated and grown from the Sorin Giant Tree as "guards," responsible for guarding the giant tree and the numerous valuable devices it carried. These Treants bore thick alloy armor, with large Magic Web energy packs for battle tanks fixed to their backs and waists, while holding formidable Gorgon Cannons in their hands; each appeared majestic and intimidating.

And the defensive strength of the Sorin Main Hub is not limited to them—

At a distance from the crystal array, on the edge of the canopy top, many exceptionally large and sturdy wooden structures grew from the branches, their ends "firmly grasping" fortress-level rail cannons or large bomb throwers, this formidable defense firepower forming another layer of security for the Sorin Main Hub.

The Magic Web main hub is an extremely important strategic facility of the Empire, and not only here at the Sorin Giant Tree, but at other main hubs too, there are similarly robust defensive forces.

Amidst a rustling sound, a fracture suddenly opened on the "ground" near the crystal array, with leaves originally covering the "ground" opening up to both sides, forming a petal-encircled structure, while a cage naturally formed by vines rose up from the opening.

The cage stopped steadily, with layered vines on the side opening up, and Margarita and several technical personnel walked out from within.

The barrier enveloping the entire treetop platform isolated the cold, fierce winds from high above, greeting visitors only with the vast and magnificent scenery at the top of the canopy. Margarita gently inhaled, unable to help but sigh: "No matter how many times I come up, the scenery here is always so breathtaking..."

A rustling sound came from beside, vines that had previously separated from the lift cage wriggled and converged, transforming into Beltira’s form amidst fusion and deformation. This former Archdruid of Oblivion nodded to Margarita: "Indeed, overlooking from such a height gives a quite unique feeling—if you need it, I can also create an even higher observation deck atop the canopy."

"No, no need, thank you for your kind offer, Madam Beltira," Margarita hurriedly said, before looking toward the crystal array not far away, "The King is very concerned about the reappearance of the signal, have you discovered anything new?"

"The attempt to track has failed, the signal source has completely disappeared, and I found no clues within my perception range," Beltira shook her head, "However, while trying to analyze the already recorded signals, I seem to have made a bit of a discovery."

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