Movement 5: The Angel Tells Me (11): Nine Gardens (2 in 1)
"The Feast Beast was activated directly?"
"It's that simple?"
The clergy touched the golden-red base of this giant instrument with expressions of disbelief on their faces.
There were even a few people who imitated Fan Ning's movements and waved in the air.
Only Miss Nightingale's expression was normal.
Of course my teacher is amazing. Just because you "flower-touch people" can't do it doesn't mean that my teacher can't do it.
"Mr. Scheler, you...have achieved 'unrestricted access', right?" Archbishop Fields' tone was filled with a sense of inexplicable relief. He took a deep breath and exhaled long, murmuring.
He said to himself, "No wonder Master '伊佊' wants to talk to him. In recent years, various revelations in the South have become more and more ominous. Maybe he can really save us from completely losing hope..."
"No restrictions on entry and exit?" Fan Ning turned around.
He had indeed felt something in his heart just now, and had developed the strange confidence that he could "play the carnival beast", so he waved his hand to mobilize his spirit to give it a try, but he did not understand the meaning of the phrase in the Archbishop's mouth.
"Midsummer is a time when illusions abound." Fields was still looking up in trance. "In the South, there are some places, corners, and even objects like this. Their external details and textures are all real, but when you go in or out, you can't change them.
If you let go, you will be inexplicably troubled..."
"Such places are called 'places of confusion'. Some of them can use cumbersome rituals to open the way, while others have no obvious effect..."
"Well, it's not limited to midsummer, but after midsummer has arrived, there will be more 'places of confusion' in the Tia city-state area, and the usual teachings believe that only the understanding of 'love is a question' reaches an extremely high level.
Only a wise philosopher can achieve the state of 'unrestricted access'..."
"Including the 'lost' ones on the journey, as well as the 'Feasting Beasts'?" Fan Ning asked.
"Yes, the latter's expression is less typical, but we think the essence is the same."
"What is the origin of the 'Feasting Beast'?"
"It is said to be the last work left by an ancient violin-making family before it disappeared." Fields' smile was filled with helplessness. "My knowledge is limited to this level. After Mr. Scheler sees the venue, he will be able to
The Saint knows better."
So Fan Ning withdrew his gaze from the "Feasting Beast" above, turned around and looked at this huge circular space.
The farthest boundary of the view is a hand-plastered wall intertwined with white and peach. Oil paintings of beaches and flowers are interspersed in the vaults and columns of the main building. In addition, they interact with mirrors, chandeliers and golden bas-reliefs to form a
It creates a pleasant, soft, and fantasy-filled visual form.
Fields introduced from the side:
"The entire ground of the red church can accommodate more than 6,000 people for worship activities without being overcrowded. When the 'Flower Ceremony' is held, the three-story annular 'Flower Ceremony Platform' on the outside will also be fully loaded, with a total capacity of more than 10,000 people.
.....”
"Part of them are royal family members and invited important guests from various city-states and islands, and more opportunities to watch ceremonies and banquets are reserved for the people of the South..."
"What kind of 'leave it to the law'?" Fan Ning asked, "The opportunity for thousands of people to watch the ceremony is still limited."
"Church branches in various places will send out a large number of invitations to attend the ceremony. You can enter the ceremony with your own name on the invitation, but the premise is that the invitations in your hands have not withered on the 'auspicious day'."
Fan Ning nodded slightly and walked down the stage, and everyone followed him immediately.
From the center to the surroundings, the terrain slowly decreases. Walkways and steps subtly divide the space into pieces. The candles on the corridor are in the shape of flowers. The benches and tabletops have light curves. The translucent interior seems to be filled with colorful flowers.
Marbles.
Under this heterogeneous decoration, Fan Ning also saw that the ground was covered with black wire harnesses, which connected the pickup structures at various locations, and finally gathered groups of huge mechanical devices under the ceremonial stage.
Seeing Fan Ning looking at them, Fields smiled: "In order to make the preparation process less hectic, the recording equipment for this ceremony's music has been installed and debugged in advance, and they were all imported from the Theolian Empire.
High-end goods, transoceanic dedicated lines, complete installations, and even equipment maintenance and debugging teams are hired with huge sums of money..."
It's such a familiar model... Fan Ning sighed secretly in his heart at first, but after glancing at something distinctive, his eyes shrank slightly.
In more than one place, he found marks similar to those scratched by a knife on several pickup iron boxes and the gray-black body of the main console.
It's exactly the same as what I saw on the wooden table in the tavern in the small town of Saint-Accionne.
This record-recording device actually bears the residual imprint of Pogorelic’s divinity?
The Special Inspection Office also noticed this year's "Flower Ceremony", which Fan Ning had expected, but he still kept an eye out when he found traces on such things with unknown functions.
The tour of the venue ended quickly.
The clergy guided Fan Ning and his entourage out of the spiral staircase on the side, and continued along the uphill slope of the sea of flowers, arriving at the "garden" at the back of the Fanghui Temple complex.
This building near the top of the uphill slope is very eye-catching.
Its area is not as large as that of the Red Cathedral, but it is built extremely high. Its appearance is a strange multi-layered hollow structure. It is not simply a "thousand-layer cake" superposition from top to bottom, but presents an intricate spatial containment relationship. Every space
They are all lined with a large number of exotic flowers and plants and flowing water rockeries. Under the scorching sun, rainbows interweave and flowers and butterflies dance.
"Mr. Scheele, the entrance is over there." Seeing that Fan Ning seemed a little dazed, a clergyman quickly took a few steps to lead the way.
"I know, I want to go around to the back first and take a look." Fan Ning didn't stop, "To be honest, I've always been a little curious. The main church hall is already deep in the Fox Lily Field, so what's going on further in?
"
"There are many foreigners who have this question." Fields smiled understandingly and made a "please" gesture, "but the scope of the fox lily field may be much larger than you think."
Ten minutes later, Fan Ning walked around the "garden" and stood at the very back of the building complex, which was at the top of the hillside.
"Strange terrain, nothing unreasonable, but I've never seen it before." He looked at the scene in front of him and fell into thought.
There is no longer a conventional path ahead, but calling it a "cliff" might be a stretch.
To be precise, this is just a "grass wall" with endless edges at both ends.
The height difference of seven to eight meters is high or low. It may be unrealistic for ordinary people to jump down, but they can easily lower themselves down with the help of some simple tools.
And below... there is still a sea of flowers in the field of fox lilies.
The terrain is flat and well-proportioned, with no human habitation, and no more hills or rivers. There are some undulating slopes further away, but they have no blocking effect on the view, and this continues until the end of the horizon disappears.
The sea of burning flowers swayed in the breeze, and the hot wind brought a rich fragrance to the face.
"The only good thing is that they have not disappeared." Fields looked into the distance and said, "Fox lilies and immortal nectar, one is relatively ordinary, the other is more mysterious, but they are both representative of the magical power of the 'Fanghui Poet'
Except for turning back toward the city-state of Tia, the end of the symbols can never be found on this side, so it may be regarded as a 'place of confusion'."
...What if it is a person with "no restrictions on entry and exit"?
Fan Ning did not stay in front of the cliff for a long time. He turned around thoughtfully and walked back to the entrance of the strange garden.
"The Archbishop mentioned in the opera hall yesterday morning that the garden's everlasting nectar has been 'stopped', so he was referring to the garden in front of him?" he asked.
"It's a general term. There are actually nine gardens in total." Fields nodded. "They are all located in this building, but occupy different relatively independent spaces. Each has a different 'honey-producing channel'. In the past, every day
, our 'Flower Toucher' takes the existing unfading nectar as a primer, enters the channel and completes a specific tribute link, and then they can achieve their growth and harvest..."
"The 'nectar-producing channels' of the nine gardens have different responses to the proliferation. Among them, the garden in the core area accounts for 70% of the production. However, more than 30 years ago, it was first destroyed due to unknown reasons.
Due to various reasons, production was stopped. Two more cars were stopped more than 20 years ago, and three more were stopped more than 10 years ago..."
"So by this century, only the last three gardens were still in operation. Since the production of evergreen nectar was closely related to the abundance of the southern country's products, this directly led to the decline in the prosperity of nature's gifts. The church had no choice but to
A 'no hunting and banning order' was promulgated..."
When Fields said this, his face became solemn:
"The next thing you know is that the last three gardens also lost their honey-producing response the night before... Our Lord Saint '伊佊' is waiting in the garden, enter from here
You should be able to meet him not far behind."
Fan Ning pondered for a moment and then asked: "As the core source of extraordinary resources of your church, the nine gardens should be closed to outsiders on weekdays, right?"
"Compared to public areas such as the Crimson Cathedral, there are naturally restrictive management regulations." Fields stretched out his hand and moved in front of the white marble arch, causing a blood-red crack to appear in the middle of the invisible barrier. "But the number of people who apply for tours every year
There are many distinguished guests, such as the new poet laureates and famous singers over the years, and more than half of them have expressed interest in viewing the wonders inside the garden..."
The archbishop finally sighed; "The church has always been kind to their requests for tours, hoping that these artists who have received the attention of the 'Fanghui Poet' can bring about some good changes, but in fact, they
The area that can be visited is getting smaller every year, and as the mysterious properties of accelerating nectar gradually become silent, these out-of-production gardens have gradually become 'places of confusion', and the rituals held to open the road have gradually lost their response...
"
He led the clergy to bow slightly and made a "please" gesture to the arch:
"Mr. Scheele, I hope your meeting with the Saint goes well, and I wish you two little girls a pleasant trip."
"Thank you." Miss Nightingale replied happily, but Luna's voice was so quiet that no one could hear her clearly.
Fan Ning stepped into the garden through the blood-red crack on the plane.
The skin becomes moist to the touch of the air, and the pleasant sound of gurgling water rings in your ears.
In front of you is a vine hall full of red, green, and purple grapes. Through the heights of the wooden frame, you can see the flowers of magnolia, redbud, jacaranda and pomegranate trees blooming under the hot sun. It should be on the upper level of the garden.
At another height, no path has been found yet.
The three of them walked along the small gravel path with a slope in the middle. Both sides of the aisle were lined with pots of carefully pruned blueberries, cherries and small mango plants. There were also more colorful and plump fox lilies, or some that were only seen in the South.
I’ve been to strange fruits that I can’t even name.
Fountains or artificial pools show different height differences in the field of vision. They are suspended from wooden poles with wooden arches above. Paper pendants similar to lucky charms sway in the wind. Parrots and wooden pigeons with brightly colored fur stand nearby.
While glaring at everyone, the two little girls winked at each other with interest.
Very hallucinatory scenery.
"We meet again, Mr. Scheler."
Walking to an open mountainside, Fan Ning heard a familiar voice.
Behind is the water vapor and rainbow splashing from the waterfall, and exotic flowers and plants are blooming everywhere. In front of a wicker chair where the scorching sun is at its strongest, an older man with blond hair and strong and majestic eyebrows is holding a burning stick.
Cigar stood up slowly.
"Hello, Master." Fan Ning greeted.
"Master Lucter, are you also meeting the Saint today?" Miss Nightingale asked curiously.
The other party smiled when he heard the words, and his figure quickly faded under the scorching sun, and what was outlined in its place were heterogeneous lines, light and shadow.
Fan Ning looked slightly moved.
It was a fox lily that was suspended in the rainbow, taller than an average adult and over two meters tall. Its rolled petals had golden-red lines, and the outer edge was filled with thin burning flames.
It seems that as long as those flames are stronger, they can bake people's spirituality and passion into specimens like dried flowers.
“I am ‘伈佊’.”
The sound has changed, and the buzzing sound echoes in the ear canal, but the original sound can still be distinguished.
"Lord Saint?"
The minds of the two little girls went blank for a while. Facing this most revered semi-mythical figure in the Fanghui Temple, they had only seen his name in the teachings. For a moment, they forgot that they should pay tribute with a half-kneeling etiquette.
Fan Ning was quite surprised at this moment.
He had always thought that Master Lucter was just a Southern Crescent Poet who maintained a good relationship with the church, a Master of the Insight who had climbed to the third level of the sect. He did not expect that he was one of the leaders behind the three righteous churches.
Is it an existence with a complete status as a sequencer?
"It turns out that Master Lucter is the saint '伊佊'. From this point of view, the respect I had before was a bit weak. Please forgive me."
Recalling Lucter's deeds and his previous dealings with him, Fan Ning couldn't help but think about the meaning behind it.
"Not very accurate." came the comment of '伊佊' from the petals and flames.
Not very accurate?...Fan Ning was confused.
Are these indeed two different characters?
However, before showing this divine image, the person who greeted him before was indeed Master Lucter?
"Then... what is the relationship between His Excellency the Saint and Master Lucter?" Fan Ning asked after careful consideration.
The shadow of the fox lily further becomes pale, until it becomes transparent.
Only a half-smoked cigar still lay on the edge of the wicker chair.