When Matthew arrived near Gray Lake, the first thing he did was to drive away the creatures nearby.
The number of wood elves near the Mark of the Dead is relatively sparse.
Except for those out-of-control losers, normal wood elves are unlikely to wander here.
But except for intelligent life.
The numerous species that are ubiquitous in Jade Cangting may also stray into the vicinity of Gray Lake.
Although nature would make these beings wary of Gray Lake.
But the sudden ash monster may rob the lives of approaching animals in an instant.
This will cause the power of Ashes to increase.
After Matthew started working on the Mark of the Dead project, he put forward requirements for the security management and biological dispersal near the southern city wall.
The elves are quite cooperative in this regard.
But before that.
The gate guards are responsible for driving away nearby creatures.
But things are different now.
The situation in Jade Cangting is turbulent, and many important positions are facing a serious shortage of manpower.
City gate guards are no exception.
When Matthew went to find someone, he found that the original guard post was in a mess and empty.
Without any choice.
He could only find the Wind Chaser who was still trying to maintain order.
finally.
It was a Moonlight team from the Wind Chasers that took over this responsibility.
They sent 6 elves Yueyao to be responsible for large-scale evacuation of the creatures near Gray Lake.
After confirming the safety around Gray Lake.
Matthew asked the apprentice responsible for tracking to return to the camp.
He also ordered a few mage assistants who were relatively capable at work to prepare some cold caltrops and condensation potions——
The boiling intensity of Gray Lake varies from high to low.
Whenever it is strong, the ground near Jade Cangting will tremble slightly.
Fortunately, there are many trees nearby.
The root systems of many old trees have penetrated one to two hundred meters underground.
It is the existence of these woods that firmly protects this land.
Otherwise, this area would not be suitable for life at all.
Just three earthquakes a month is enough.
And about the situation and emergency response on boiling day.
Matthew left it to his subordinates to plan.
Originally, he didn't have high expectations for these people who were messing around with the project.
But since he returned from the sampan plane.
Several independent mage assistants have actually developed several strategies to stabilize the Gray Lake on the boiling day.
One of the plans is to reduce the intensity of the gray lake boiling by investing in ice element materials headed by Leng Lingshi, and then using high-strength coagulants.
After reading it, Matthew led others to conduct a small experiment.
I found that this plan could indeed effectively solve the boiling situation in Gray Lake, and set this plan as a regular plan, and then prepared a lot of related materials in the mage camp.
During this process.
Matthew also felt the benefit of having someone under his command——
Many mages with professional backgrounds actually have no worse theoretical knowledge than Matthew.
What they lack is resources and opportunities.
If you can know people and make good use of them.
Matthew himself will be much more relaxed and can devote his precious energy to more important causes——
For example, plant trees.
While the mage assistants are returning to the camp to prepare cold stone and other related supplies.
Matthew came to the Gray Lake alone.
As soon as I got close.
A strong force of ash slapped his face wantonly.
Along with the boiling and rolling in the middle of the gray lake.
Large tracts of Mars are shaking outward.
The Mars envelops the mud, emitting a strong smell like a mixture of sulfur and silt.
The smell is revolting and vomiting at first.
I smelled it for a long time.
Matthew actually found it a bit charming!
"What a pure power of ashes..."
Matthew looked at the boundary that was constantly trying to expand by the Gray Lake, looked at the scattered sparks and silt, and felt that as he got closer, the impact from the domain level became more and more fierce!
Strictly speaking.
The pure power of void cannot penetrate into the material world.
Because void and matter are a pair of antonyms.
Therefore, the tentacle projected by the Lord of the Void, Euclus, on the earth is not the incarnation of the power of the void, but the closest realm to the void that he can find in the material world——
ash.
It's called ashes.
It is the state of a certain moment after the flame of soul and matter sublimates in the extreme state.
It's in the realm of ashes controlled by Ukruth.
Time is frozen.
All substances are in a state of ashes and are somewhere between burning and extinguished. The conditions are quite harsh.
in turn.
Matthew can also glean the true meaning of the void realm from the ashes in front of him.
He walked alone by the lake, unaffected by the ashes in the sky.
He has a realm of negative energy and the power of the undead.
These are enough to keep Matthew alone in the realm of ashes.
But nevertheless.
Even though he was so close, he still felt the terrifying power of the ashes.
It was a feeling of annihilation of all things.
Just feel it lightly.
It can inspire the deepest fear of the universe and void in human blood.
And at this time.
Matthew's ears suddenly sounded like voices that were both human and inhuman:
"Are you angry?"
"Then destroy it!"
"Destroy everything!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
With a thought, he immediately blocked out those crazy ravings.
Matthew's eyes were a little uncertain.
Because just when he heard those gibberings.
In the middle of Gray Lake.
The huge phoenix egg was exposed in the air as the lake boiled violently.
Matthew saw it very clearly.
Most of the phoenix egg's shell was corroded by the power of ash, and a yellow and black liquid layer was formed.
Inside the fluid layer is a clear tear-like liquid.
A bright flame flickered deep within the liquid.
The flame is deep red.
Unfortunately, the scene was fleeting and the phoenix egg sank quickly.
…
"Warning: You have listened to the oracle from the "Killing Realm"!
If you continue to listen, you will have the opportunity to enter the realm of killing, but in the process your own will may be interfered with by the will to kill..."
…
Killing field?
Matthew was thoughtful.
Ashes and killing are not two fields that are particularly closely related.
But if you add destruction in the middle.
The three fields can still be linked together.
But the problem is.
There seems to be no so-called god of killing in the history of Irondor.
Matthew searched his mind and found only a few gods whose clergy were related to killing, such as the God of Murder, but there was a significant difference between murder and killing.
It is impossible for gods who are so sensitive to the definition and explanation of concepts to make mistakes in this regard.
Since there is not even a god of killing.
Where did the oracle come from?
"Is it possible that a creature born with the priesthood of killing was born in that phoenix egg?"
"Is Tyrast affected by him, and his own will has gone awry?"
Matthew thought secretly.
He tried to get closer to the depths of Gray Lake——
He did not dare to use the magic carpet, but relied on the legendary flying skill to slowly approach the phoenix egg in the middle of the lake.
And in this process.
Matthew can clearly feel that even if there is a negative energy field and the power of the undead to protect his body.
The pressure he faced also became increasing.
It seemed as if even the boundaries of his domain were being eroded by the power of ashes.
at some point.
Matthew felt he could go no further.
If this continues.
He may not be able to defend his territory.
And that place is only about thirty meters away from the phoenix egg in the center.
This result made Matthew feel regretful.
But he still strictly abided by discipline and chose to retreat without hesitation.
Just evacuated ten meters away.
suddenly.
Matthew's brows became hot.
He knew something was wrong, but the reaction of the void bloodline and the power of ashes was so violent that it instantly overwhelmed all external realms!
In the blood.
A burst of energy spurted out, and the related memories were deeply imprinted into Matthew's mind.
After that moment.
The surrounding ashes became less stressful.
Instead, it turned into an energy that made him feel extremely kind!
…
"Hint: Your Void bloodline resonates with the Ashes Realm!
You have mastered the new ability "Funnel of Ashes" from Void Blood.
Ash Funnel: You can use the power of Void Bloodline to dissolve the power of ash and obtain a large amount of soul dust.
Soul Dust: Through the creation method, you can fuse soul dust with incomplete spirituality to obtain a large number of high-quality soul crystals!"
…
Ash hopper starts on its own.
In an instant.
There are six more void funnels around Matthew, up, down, left, front and back.
All the ashes passing through the funnel will turn into traces of gray-white dust.
The dust looks a bit like ashes.
But lighter than ashes.
Faced with this situation.
Matthew felt happy and worried at the same time.
What I'm happy about is that the new ability can actually dissolve the ashes in the gray lake, and there is also the opportunity to convert the dissolved items into high-quality soul crystals.
Worryingly, in the resonance just now, he could feel that the void between his eyebrows had slightly expanded.
Although it's not serious.
But Matthew seriously doubted that every time he used the Ashes Funnel, the Void Bloodline would eat away at him more!
By then it’s hard to say whether Ekmund’s alien spells can really have a containment effect!
But Matthew is also a decisive person.
Seeing that the ash funnel has been activated, a large amount of soul dust has also been produced.
So he took out the storage items to collect these soul dust.
While relying on the dissolving power of the ash funnel, he walked towards the phoenix egg.
It didn't take long.
Matthew then came to the tumbling phoenix egg.
The temperature here is actually not that high.
But when Matthew looked at the phoenix egg, he always felt like his skin was being burned.
This is the egg of the divine phoenix.
soon.
Matthew's eyes were slightly calm.
Because this egg is completely dead in his eyes!
Even the crimson flame in the center of the egg.
It's just the projection of the divine phoenix left in the egg, not even spirituality, let alone a soul!
"Those sounds just now did not come from the phoenix egg."
"they……"
"They came from somewhere else! Huh? Is there something down there?"
Relying on the power of the ash funnel, Matthew broke through the thick and bulging lake surface and carefully sank downwards.
Past the slowly rolling phoenix egg.
Matthew discovered a basement-like space beneath it!
The ceiling of the basement has been riddled with holes by some force, and streaks of golden light leak out from it at any time.
The phoenix egg is right above the basement.
Every impact of the golden light will cause the gray lake to surge violently and the phoenix eggs to roll!
"The source of Gray Lake's boiling is the power in this basement?"
Matthew was extremely surprised.
He tried to lean in, but found that he was being repelled by several forces of unknown origin!
Those powers are very domineering, but their attributes have nothing to do with the Lord of the Void.
"Can you actually create your own space in the realm of ashes?"
Matthew was even more surprised.
He activated his clairvoyance and added balanced perception, and finally saw the situation in the basement clearly after a few minutes -
It was an oval underground stone chamber.
Not so much a stone chamber.
It might as well be like a huge stone basin buried in the soil.
The ceiling above the stone basin has been corroded by various forces, but the materials around it and underneath are intact and have not been affected by the power of ashes at all.
In the center of the stone basin.
Matthew saw something quite familiar, it was a stone pillar rising into the sky!
The bottom of the stone pillar is flat, the periphery is smooth, and there is a bulge like a giant mushroom on the top. It is almost exactly the same as the stone pillar that Matthew saw in the Troll underground palace to store the Crown of Sin!
And when Matthew stared at the stone pillar.
He vaguely saw the outline of a sharp sword in the stone pillar!
…
"Warning: You have discovered the lost artifact "The Sword of Killing"!"
…
Immediately afterwards.
Matthew saw wisps of golden shadows around the stone pillars again.
Those thin shadows moved so fast, like strips of loaches, sometimes appearing on the stone wall of the stone basin, sometimes wandering on the ceiling full of holes.
The golden light Matthew saw before was caused by these fine shadows.
He took a closer look.
Only then did I realize that those tiny golden shadows were actually golden koi fish!
Matthew could tell at a glance that these koi were not creatures from Irondor.
Nine times out of ten, they come from the Eastern Continent!
He observed for a few more minutes.
at some point.
Those koi suddenly jumped high from different angles——
Matthew's ears heard the sound of dragon roaring like a roaring mountain and a tsunami.
Immediately afterwards.
The projection of the five-clawed dragon is reflected on the ceiling!
boom!
The somewhat fuzzy projection of the Heavenly Dragon angrily penetrated the ceiling with its claws, and dug hard into the bottom of the phoenix egg. The latter immediately bounced up, and then rolled around in the gray lake, but finally rolled back.
And pressed firmly on the mud pot!
The five-clawed dragon beat the ceiling angrily.
But soon.
The golden shadow dissipated again and turned into countless tiny koi carp. They began to wander quickly around the most important stone pillar.
During this process.
Matthew seemed to hear the whispers from the killing field again!
…
"Warning: You have discovered a section of the sealed soul of the Heavenly Dragon. It longs to break free from the seals of the "Sword of Slaughter" and "Void Tentacles", and longs to return to the Seven Stars of the Abyss!
The Dragon Soul discovered you and tried to interfere with your will——
You (Divinity +3) are immune to the will interference of the Heavenly Dragon Soul!"
…
When enduring the interference of the will of the Heavenly Dragon Soul.
Matthew could clearly feel the irritability, anger and hostility.
Although the saving throw was completed with the divinity in hand.
But he still didn't dare to be careless.
Exited from Gray Lake in one breath!
It wasn't until he was about five kilometers away from Gray Lake that Matthew stopped and took a breath.
He can feel it.
The will interference from the Heavenly Dragon Soul has finally come to an end.
This trip of exploration was full of surprises.
Matthew's brain was spinning rapidly, and soon he figured out the most critical part of it:
"The phoenix egg rolling in the gray lake is because the sleeping dragon soul wants to break through the original seal and return to the Seven Stars of the Abyss."
"Since the Five-clawed Heavenly Dragon and the Lord of the Void are competitors in the same ecological niche, the latter certainly did not want to see the Five-clawed Heavenly Dragon return easily, so after the seal of the Gray Lake was loosened, they used warlocks to bewitch the wood elves to take the Phoenix away.
Throwing the egg in is a secondary reinforcement of the seal!"
"Sure enough, I said it was impossible for the wood elf to throw the phoenix egg in for no reason..."
Matthew's eyes sparkled.
What is certain now is——
The Phoenix Egg is indeed dead;
The oracle that Matthew heard from the realm of killing should have come from the stone pillar in the center of the stone basin. To be precise, it was the artifact Sword of Killing in the stone pillar;
It seems that the identity of the Sword of Slaughter is not under the control of the Five-clawed Heavenly Dragon and the Lord of the Void. Otherwise, under the increasing corruption of these two existences, it would have been impossible to survive alone.
"That killing sword may be the first seal against the soul of Tianlong."
"The Tentacles of Ucruz May Be the Second Time."
"The phoenix egg was added temporarily for the third time!"
"According to this line of thinking, when the warlock Lance bewitched the Elf Queen to give birth to the Mark of the Dead, it was not just to occupy a place in the material world, but more likely to slow down the return of the Five-clawed Heavenly Dragon!"
Considering that the return of the Five-clawed Heavenly Dragon is very likely to accelerate the advent of odd-numbered heavenly changes.
Look at it this way.
The Lord of the Void did a good thing instead?
Matthew felt a little dumbfounded.
Of course, he also knows very well that at their level, every move is for their own ambitions, and they can no longer judge the other party's position based on pure good or bad.
"Fortunately I didn't blow up the lake directly..."
"If that's true, the Heavenly Dragon Soul will probably be liberated, and the Yuanzi Seven Stars will also usher in the third lighted star."
Matthew was a little lucky.
He thought about it again and felt that his reasoning should not be too wrong.
But there are still many questions about the details.
For example, the origin of the killing sword;
And why is the storage method of the sword so similar to Guilty Crown? Is the Sword of Slaughter also related to the Troll God?
Even the return of the Five-clawed Heavenly Dragon and whether the lighting of the Seven Stars of Yuanzi are really related to the odd number of heavenly changes is just a guess.
In the absence of clear information, no matter what decision you make, it is risky.
Matthew stood there and thought for a full twenty minutes.
A thought suddenly came to his mind:
"Actually, the Trace of the Dead project can also be transformed into a long-term operation project."
"Whether from a profit perspective or from a practical perspective, this decision is much better than reckless bombing."
"I just don't know what Tyrast and the alliance's senior management think so. If I can convince them to agree, then I can streamline the team after the Umbrella 0 is completely completed, leaving only a few people to be responsible for daily operations and maintenance, and then we can
Convert this project into a long-term project and then completely solve it in other ways at some point in the future?”
Have to admit it.
This idea is much more tempting than simply blowing up the Mark of the Dead.
The latter is to make a fortune and leave.
The former is equivalent to raising a chicken that lays golden eggs.
And he can also pick up the wood elf’s wool from time to time——
The premise is that the situation in Jade Cangting does not continue to deteriorate.
But Matthew also knew it very well.
The necromancer in White Rock City probably had the same idea as him.
But they failed.
There may be concerns about the Necromancer being corrupted by the Lord of the Void.
But here we are, Matthew.
This problem seems to be solved——
After all, he has been booked in advance by the Void World, and there is no possibility of being corrupted again...
"I don't know if the alliance's senior leaders know about the existence of the Five-clawed Heavenly Dragon and the Sword of Killing."
Matthew murmured in his mind.
Later, the mage assistants brought the materials to the Gray Lake. Matthew immediately put a large amount of cold stone and condensed potion into the lake. Without the need for additional spells, the boiling Gray Lake became much calmer.
"The cold stone and condensed potion should have physically alleviated the frequency of the Five-clawed Heavenly Dragon's impact on the seal. It is a temporary solution rather than a permanent solution. If you want to operate in the long term, you have to find a way to solve the problem of the Heavenly Dragon Soul."
After confirming that Gray Lake has returned to calm.
Matthew pondered and returned to Windward Valley.
What he discovered in Gray Lake today involved a lot of secret knowledge. He had to go to the Crucible House and asked 177 to help him check it out.
At night.
He received a private message from Rega, who, relying on his extremely high contribution rate, completely used the guild badge as a chat software and sent Matthew a lot of text.
Matthew glanced at ten lines and gave a rough overview.
The main content of the private message still mentioned the progress of the establishment of Rolling Stone City——
The Southern Magistrate Corps indeed has miraculous construction capabilities.
According to Rega, the inner city has been built, and the basic structure of the outer city and the "Sky Barrier" surrounding Rolling Stone City has also been completed.
It will be officially completed in June.
By then, Rolling Stone Town will become an extremely majestic city, and a lot of land in the city will be opened to the outside world in batches and entrusted to various people for their own development.
Rega said.
In order to build the new Rolling Stone City, he already owed a large sum of money to the Southern French Legion.
The money will be repaid with a portion of Rolling Stone's future earnings.
But that will take a full 60 years.
It can be seen that although the mages are efficient in their work, their fees are also shocking.
But Rhaegar felt that the money was well spent.
New Rolling Stone City is a super megacity - or a city agglomeration - that can accommodate a population of 300,000 to 500,000 people.
Various functional areas are divided into the city, which is completely an independent fortress that can be self-sufficient under extreme conditions.
The only problem is.
The population of Rolling Stone is still too small!
When preparing for the Battle of Moss Green Hills, Matthew knew that the population of Rolling Stone Town was only over 10,000.
Now after absorbing part of the population of High Leaf Collar, Golden Fertile Field and Red Earth Mountain.
The population of Rolling Stone City has reached just over 30,000.
The rapidly expanding population has posed a great challenge to the original order of Rolling Stone Town.
Many people came to Rhaegar to complain.
But Rhaegar was very conscious.
He believes that the short-term pain caused by population expansion will pass sooner or later.
And if he wants to develop Rolling Stone City into one of the best cities in the south, what he needs is more people!
There is not enough population.
What the Southern French Legion built was just a castle in the air.
The so-called kingdom of rolling stones.
It is just a vassal that exists purely based on the power of the mage.
The current Rolling Stone City actually has a very good population inflow rate.
But it was still far from Rhaegar's expectations.
He asked Matthew in a private message if there was any way to quickly increase the population.
also.
He also emphasized this in his letter.
If nothing else goes wrong, the Kingdom of Rolling Stone will be announced at the end of July, and there will be many ceremonies such as the founding ceremony to be carried out. I hope Matthew will not miss this no matter what.
"Ask the necromancer how to increase the population, and you will be the one!"
Matthew complained silently.
But he does have a way. In addition to vigorously bringing in immigrants, he also controls the field of reproduction and the exuberant aura that can stimulate fertility.
Take a long-term perspective.
There is no need to worry about the population of Rolling Stone Town.
As for the founding ceremony of the Rolling Stone Kingdom.
"July..."
"You should be able to participate."
Matthew conveniently filled in several memo notes for himself to avoid being careless and forgetting the important things.
For the next few days, everything was calm in the Emerald Cangting.
Terraste's horrific slaughter slowed to a crawl.
In fact.
More than three thousand wood elves have died in his hands.
This is compared to the entire wood elf community.
It's already five percent.
Today, Terraste has become the embodiment of terror in the city.
Thanks to him.
The order of production and life in Jade Cangting has completely collapsed.
At least half of the wood elves chose to flee.
They left the Jade Cangting, some fled to the edge of the forest, some went to the vicinity of Rapid City, and some even returned to the more dangerous Garden of Fallen Leaves.
The remaining elves.
Most of them are gentle and submissive people.
They had no choice but to deal with Terraste's rule and finally chose to reconcile with themselves.
Matthew heard.
Some wood elves with flexible ideas have proposed that some tree houses can be built on the edge of the Jade Cang Garden for the elderly who are over 600 years old and do not want to enter the Secret Light Jungle.
Some people also think that they can cooperate with Rapid City and other big cities to give the exiled elderly elves a place where they can enjoy their old age.
In their view.
With the superiority of elves, it is not difficult to get a good position in a human city-state.
These plans are circulating in the streets and have not yet been formally proposed by anyone with weight.
But anyone with a discerning eye can see the change in the direction of the wind in the Jade Cangting.
Terraste wiped out some of the people by force;
Scared some people away;
Now Jade Cangting finally has the final say!
soon.
Matthew received an important piece of news——
Five days later.
That is the morning of June 10th.
Tyrast will personally send the first batch of elven elders over 600 years old into the Secret Light Jungle.
It is said that these old elves all volunteered.
This is a very important ceremony.
Terraste sent a message to Matthew through Biana.
Hope he can participate.
Of course Matthew would not refuse.
He is actually also very interested in the Secret Light Jungle, the legendary ancient refuge of the wood elves.
So I wrote down the time and day.
Then he went about his own business.
On the morning of June 6th.
Matthew came to the Crucible House again and asked about the results of the data 177 asked him to investigate last time.
177 leisurely said:
"You are right, Matthew, there has never been a god called the God of Slaughter in Irondor."
"Historically, most of Irondor's killing priests were in the hands of foreigners."
“The first master of the Killing Priest was the Demon Lord of the Abyss, Cyclone;
The second one was Philipchi, a famous evil spirit in history;
The third owner of the Killing Priest is a powerful god from Tianlun Palace.
But killing is not his main ministry.
Guess who He is?”
Matthew thought for a while:
"The God of Murder?"
177 shook his head:
"It's better not to put rats in the sewer on the countertop."
Matthew asked again:
"Vasnov?"
177 shows contempt:
"In my opinion, the second-generation God of War is a little better than the rats in the sewer..."
Matthew is in trouble:
"I don't know much about gods, any tips?"
177 blinked:
"There is a realm in you that is strongly related to that god!"
Matthew was even more in trouble:
"Which field are you talking about?"
"I have a lot of areas..."
But suddenly he understood:
"You mean the sun god Gerald?"
177 nodded with satisfaction:
"It's Him."
"Gerald obtained the priesthood of killing a long time ago. At that time, some people speculated that he would use the way of killing to become a god. But I didn't expect that this kid held it in for a long time and finally chose the priesthood of the sun."
"But the priesthood of killing is indeed always in his hands."
"The killing sword you asked me to help investigate is also one of Gerald's special weapons."
Matthew was a little confused:
"But I heard that there is also a sun god spear?"
"What weapons is the Sun God good at?"
177 shrugged:
"Oh, the sun god in history was a real weapons master. He liked all kinds of weapons."
"It is said that in order to master as many weapons as possible, he cultivated thirty-two arms. This is to facilitate the use of them at the same time."
"Of course, rumors are always exaggerated, but I don't think the number of arms of the Sun God will be less than sixteen."
"Speaking of which, are you really not considering learning to be a weapons master?"
"The weapon master I'm talking about is the name of a high-level spell. After learning it, you can use multiple weapons at the same time, and you can also improve the proficiency of those weapons-"
