"Why are you here again? Instead of drinking your best martini, are you here to drink rubbish whiskey?" The night watchman refilled the wine glass in front of Ange, "Let me tell you first, I don't know if this wine has any
Not expired."
"It doesn't matter." Angers took a sip of wine, paused for a moment and then swallowed it, "It's really a bit expired."
"Tell me, what happened this time." The night watchman put his feet up on the table comfortably.
"Borrow your stereo." Angre raised his hand, and the thing in his hand was a recorder, "I got a lot of interesting things from Chu Zihang."
……
"Entrance No. 000?" the night watchman asked in a low voice.
"Yes." Angers put away the recorder.
"Sounds like a nightmare." The night watchman was silent for a long time, stroking his hair violently, leaning on the back of the swivel chair, looking up to the sky and letting out a deep breath, "Have you finally found the Maybach?"
"We found it. In the wasteland outside the city, the car body was severely damaged. It looked like it was cut randomly with a laser cutter and spot welded with a welding gun. The location where the car was found was 15 kilometers away from the nearest viaduct."<
/p>
Angers handed a printed material to the night watchman, "It was not towed by a trailer, it was driven there by itself. There were no traces of a trailer at the scene, and there were obvious ruts on the wasteland."
"Where did the information come from?"
"The school board of directors obtained the "unknown type of crime" file in China. When it passed through my hands, I secretly kept a copy."
"Why is it the school board again?" The night watchman frowned slightly, "The last time you came here was about the school board, right? It seems that they have been looking for trouble with you recently?"
"To be honest, I'm really tired of the school board. Don't forget that we are a college now. We are not the secret party we used to be. The school board should be just a row of portraits on the wall. What do they do in charge of school affairs? I thought
Are you a member of the Presbyterian Church of the Secret Party?"
"That doesn't matter." Ange shrugged, "I came to you today because of what Chu Zihang said."
"Okay," the night watchman sat up straight and drank the wine in his glass. "Where did other people drive the car? Is the place where the car was found the first scene?"
"No one else drove it. The fingerprints left on the steering wheel were only those of Chu Zihang and Chu Tianjiao. They are very clear and have not been damaged. If someone drives the car even wearing gloves, there will be traces left."
"That is to say, the first scene was the wasteland, where Chu Zihang met... Odin, the leader of the Nordic Asa clan, and he mistakenly thought that he was on the elevated road." The night watchman put the remaining ice cubes in the wine glass.
Swallow it into your mouth and chew slowly.
"I noticed that you are a little nauseous?" Ange said suddenly, "How long have you kept that ice cube? And what kind of water is it made of?"
"It's a small problem, don't worry about it." The night watchman smiled, "Why do you think Chu Zihang thinks this way?"
"Hallucination? Collective hallucination? Some kind of speech spirit that can cause hallucinations?" Angers thought for a moment and then replied, "Maybe there is a speech spirit that can affect the young Chu Zihang, but I know that Chu Tianjiao's speech spirit is "Time Zero"
"The blood purity should be similar to mine."
"If even Chu Tianjiao didn't realize that he was in a hallucination...then the only one who could release this spirit of speech would be the Dragon King."...
"Will Odin be one of the Dragon Kings?" the Night Watchman asked.
"I don't know. If we deduce it from Norse mythology, he is the god of justice, while the black dragon Nidhogg belongs to the evil camp."
The night watchman shrugged, "Okay, Odin, whether it's a god or something else, let's call each other that for the time being, or maybe we forged a road sign to lead Chu Zihang and the others into an uninhabited area...
”
He thought for a while, "For example, a road that has not yet been completed or is abandoned. That road is not far from the wasteland. Chu Zihang was very nervous when he escaped in the end, mistakenly thinking that he was still on the elevated road. How about this explanation?"<
/p>
"I searched on the map, and there is no such uninhabited area." Ange said calmly.
The night watchman was silent. His expression was very strange. The muscles in his cheeks were twitching and the corners of his eyes were twitching. It was unclear whether he was uneasy or frightened.
It's still funny. If Lu Mingfei saw it, he would definitely say, "Hey, Mr. Vice Principal, why do you have such a ghostly expression on your face?"
"Then he has seen a ghost," the night watchman looked into Ange's eyes, "He has arrived... in the land of the dead?"
"Yes," Angers also looked into the night watchman's eyes, "This is my conclusion. The elevated road does exist, and the "000" entrance also exists, but ordinary people can't find it."
"To this day, that elevated road is still there, empty and empty, exactly like what Chu Zihang saw that rainy night... that place is... the country of the dead!"
"You're talking nonsense!" The night watchman jumped up from his swivel chair. "This is what you came here to tell me today? The Kingdom of the Dead! What a sacred place it is. Throughout thousands of years of human history, alchemists have been trying to find it.
How can a child go in without thinking so hard?"
"I don't know if I'm talking nonsense, but I know you're worried. You haven't jumped up in front of me in decades. You always huddle on the sofa like a lazy snake, and you have a beer belly after drinking too much beer.
Angers pointed at the night watchman’s denim shirt that couldn’t cover his belly.
The night watchman lowered his head and realized that what Angers said was true. As an older generation of Western handsome men, his eight-pack abs had turned into a bulge. He had not been excited in decades, because
There is really nothing worth getting excited about.
The days of watching old westerns and sexy girl magazines to reminisce about his youth were indeed very pleasant, but he realized why he suddenly lost his composure. If the exit from that world really appeared...his comfortable days were almost over. "The Kingdom of the Dead is just a legend and may not exist at all." The night watchman sat back in his swivel chair and considered his words.
"Tell me about the country of the dead. I am a new figure in the Secret Party. You know far more about science, alchemy and dragons than I do." Angers said with a smile and handed over the empty wine glass, "
Pour me another glass."
"It's a long story..." the night watchman pondered, pouring himself and Angers a full glass of single malt whiskey.
"Long story short."
"Then there are two words, heaven."
"Heaven?"
The night watchman took a sip of whiskey and said, "Actually, no alchemist knows what the 'Land of the Dead' is. There are many alchemists in history who say they have been there, but they can't prove themselves."...
"The existence of this thing is more sacred than the "Philosopher's Stone". The essence of alchemy is to "kill" matter and then "regenerate" matter."
"In this process, the magazine is removed and the substance is reborn. It is easy to kill people, but not so simple to kill substances. In order to kill metals, alchemists continue to pursue higher flame temperatures and more magical formulas
."
"The prerequisite for life is death." Angers nodded.
"Yes, dead matter is the best material. If you want to refine gold, you must kill silver. If you want to refine a sharp sword, you must first kill steel." The night watchman whispered.
"The Kingdom of the Dead is a legendary world that coexists with our world. It is not only a place where dead people are found, but also a place where dead matter accumulates."
"Imagine what a huge treasure house it is to the alchemists. If they can get there and pick up a stone casually, it is the best raw material. The dust there is priceless in this world."<
/p>
"What does this have to do with the Dragon Clan, or us?" Angers asked.
"It probably doesn't matter, because this country of the dead probably doesn't exist at all," said the night watchman.
He paused, "However, this is indeed consistent with a Nordic mythology. The black dragon is guarding the branches of the World Tree leading to the Kingdom of the Dead. It seems that he is the gatekeeper of the Kingdom of the Dead." p>
"And when Ragnarok came, the sea was opened, and a large ship made of dead people's nails rose from the sea. It came from the Kingdom of the Dead, and the ship was full of undead. They were the army sent by the Kingdom of the Dead to challenge the living.
."
"The undead...those dark shadows that Chu Zihang saw?"
The night watchman nodded, "Over the years, have you ever felt that even though
We have worked so hard to study the dragons, but they are still very mysterious."
"In fact, we have never excavated those miraculous things, such as the towering bronze palace of the Lord of Bronze and Fire in Northern Europe, such as the sky-high copper pillar that stands in today's Greenland, on which the Black King was crucified.
The White King."
"For example, the Black King ordered the construction of the cross-ocean Shinto connecting the European continent and the Atlantic islands. According to the literature, the Shinto is about 400 meters wide, which is enough for a Macedonian phalanx of ten thousand people to pass through in formation. It is as flat as water and straight.
Not a single bend."
"If this kind of road still exists, I will definitely drive there to try the top speed." Angers nodded.
"But as soon as the Black King died, these things disappeared, just like Atlantis sinking into the Atlantic Ocean." The night watchman asked, "Why?"
"Is it related to the Kingdom of the Dead?" Angers said.
"This is one of the speculations. The dragon's kingdom is not built in a normal dimension at all, but is built in the "Kingdom of the Dead" they rule."
"It is a mythical dimension, a world of another concept, coexisting with the world we have now, and only a few interfaces can reach it."
"Or you can explain it in terms of parallel worlds." The night watchman drank malt whiskey.
Angers slowly raised his head, faced the dark roof, and exhaled the alcohol-filled gas on the first floor, feeling the magical and mysterious atmosphere in this legend...
"Things are indeed a bit troublesome." The night watchman also exhaled towards the roof, "Do you remember how the name Flamel came about?"
"Of course I remember that the first Nicholas Flamel was born in 1330. He was well educated, proficient in Latin and Greek, and was good at calligraphy and copying."
"He made a living by selling books and copying articles in Paris. He also took in students and taught them copying and illustration. One day, he suddenly became the most powerful alchemist."
"In the past, nobles often paid him to copy rare manuscripts, so some people speculated that he might have copied some kind of alchemical manuscript." Angers said, "Why do you ask this?"
"Your story is not comprehensive." The night watchman shook his head, "My mentor, the previous generation Nicholas Flamel, told me that the life of the first generation Nicholas was a legend."
"The first half of Flamel's ordinary life took a dramatic turn one night. An angel came to his dream and told him that he would receive a magical book and that he must study hard and understand it thoroughly.
You can gain extraordinary and surprising power."
"This dream came true. He recorded in his manuscript "The Book of Hieroglyphics" that I have an ancient and huge book in my hand that was exchanged for 2 florins. It does not use paper or paper like other books.
Sheepskin is made of fine, smooth young bark."
"The cover is tightly wrapped in brass and is engraved with words or strange symbols... It has three groups of seven pages, including the first page. The seventh page of each group has no text, but there is no text on the seventh page.
On the seventh page of the first group, there is a drawing of a wand swallowed by a giant snake."
"This mysterious document is called the Jewish Book of Abraham. The first Flamel spent 21 years collecting information before deciphering it."
"Finally, with the help of a Hebrew scholar, he died on 13@
"Is it really immortal?" Angers asked.
"If he can really live forever, there will be no Flamel like us now." The night watchman spread his hands, "But my mentor said something, when the kingdom of the dead reappears in the world, it will be his return.
time."
"Who is coming back?" Angers frowned, "The first Flamel?"
"No, the first Flamel was dead a long time ago." The night watchman said with a mysterious face, "My mentor has seen the notes of how many generations of Flamel he went up to."
"The notes say that the angel who appeared in the dream of the first Nicholas and gave him the "Jewish Book of Abraham" was real."
"What? A real angel?" Ange laughed dumbly, "What are you doing? A conference of the gods? First it was Odin that Chu Zihang said, and here comes another angel."
"Don't laugh, be serious!" The night watchman glared, "My mentor will not lie!"
"Then show me your notes." Angers stretched out his hand.
"Um... Well... I don't have this..." The night watchman softened again, "My mentor thinks my generation is too embarrassing. He even said this before he died. I think Flamel
This lineage is considered extinct in your generation!"
"So he didn't leave a lot of things to me until he died."
"Here's a toast. Your mentor can see through the essence of things." Angers raised his glass to the air.
"Don't interrupt me!" the night watchman cursed, "where did I come from before?"
"The angel will return soon." Angers reminded.
"Yes, the angel has returned." The night watchman put on an expression of fervent admiration again, "That angel is the legendary god of alchemy!"