The Ancestral Furnace - this colossal ancient giant machine is moaning in pain.
Groan, its surface was dark, almost all the heat dissipation grids and light signals were dim, and a low strange sound kept coming from the depths, like the mournful screams of some kind of monster before death.The battered shell still bears the traces of the previous explosion: a striking crack that runs diagonally from the top of the main reactor shell, almost a third of the main body of the ancestral furnace, and smoke and small sparks of electricity continue to emerge from the cracks, where something still seems to be running, but it is more reassuring that it can stop completely than it lasts: Hao Ren worries about whether it will produce the next explosion."
The core should have shut down," the data terminal quickly scanned the energy readings inside the ancestral furnace, and gave a slightly reassuring conclusion, "There is still some current surge left in the suspected buffer layer, and it will not explode in a short time." ”Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief, he smelled a strong scorching smell in the air, at first he thought it was the smell of the engine of the "Steel Beast Chariot" finally being scrapped, and then he realized that this was the smoke left over from the previous explosion.The megareactor had leaked so much gas that the badly dilapidated purification pumps on the bulkheads of the nearby vault couldn't handle the incident, and the pungent smell of burning chemicals was now permeating the entire city.Led by Willy and a group of royal city soldiers, the group arrived at the capital of the Tower Kingdom.This royal city is much grander than the Fireplace City, and unlike the distant city-states of the garbage heap, this royal city is clearly carefully built by many craftsmen - it stands right next to the "Ancestral Furnace", with an old antenna broadcasting tower or some other tower at its core, around which the craftsmen have built a seven-story, hexagonal classical castle out of cement and steel, with bright flags fluttering, knights in bright armor standing guard, and hundreds of complete glass windows glittering in the light.
Around the castle, there are neat houses and spacious streets.Some of these dwellings are slightly remodeled from the original buildings of the Vault City, while others are simply built from scratch by craftsmen, and they look beautiful and imposing after getting rid of the problem of decorating the walls with garbage and scrap.At least compared to other city-states.The royal city is surrounded by a high wall, which was also built with new materials – "new materials" here refer to things other than garbage.The craftsmen who built the royal city had somehow obtained so much cement and new steel plates, and they had built the walls so strong and beautiful that they didn't look like they had collected materials from the ruins of the vault.Perhaps the tower king is fortunate enough to occupy an inexhaustible warehouse of ancient building materials?
Either way, building a royal city would undoubtedly cost a lot of wealth, especially in a shelter like this.The city of Tower Kings was far more populous than the other city-states in the Ark, with well-dressed citizens and spirited knights, people roaming the streets, and vendors selling strange goods—mainly utensils, food, cloth, and sheets of metal that did not rust.It's a bit surprisingly bustling, it's almost like a normal, thriving medieval city-state, and there's no sign of a starship shelter at all - unless you look up at the sky, where another city hangs upside down.The "Steel Beast Chariot" and the Iron City-State's "Bone Chariot" were all stopped outside the city, and the loud and dirty machines were not allowed to enter the city, just as some countries on the ancient earth did not allow mules from the countryside to step into the royal city."
Among the four kingdoms in the world, only the capital of the Tower Kingdom is so close to the ancestor Honglu," Willy proudly introduced the capital of his motherland to Hao Ren, "In the legend, the capital of the Tower 'Honglu Castle' was the first human city-state at the beginning of the world, and the gods created human beings in this place and allowed human beings to survive in the city.The watchtower at the top of the Furnace Fort is exactly level with the first ring of the Ancestral Furnace, which is the stairway to the spirit of the ancestors, through which everyone who dies in this world must enter the oven and be reborn as a part of the world, and the Tower Kingdom is the closest place to the principle of the world cycle because of that tower.No matter how tragic the conflict between the four kings, this great city never fell. ”The tower Willy was referring to was the spire at the top of the castle in the center of the royal city, and it also had a 10,000-year-old antenna transmitter hanging on it, and the so-called "first ring" was the outermost steel structure of the core reactor, which was supposed to be the condensation component of the reactor, and in the eyes of the locals, this complex and delicate ring had extraordinary significance."
So the scholars of the Four Kingdoms all come to the royal capital of the Tower Kingdom when they discuss the issue of the Ancestor Honglu?"
Vivien thought it was incredible, "Aren't you enemies of each other?"
People from the other three countries just came to the enemy capital for a meeting?
And you're still letting them in?
”"This is the ancient sacred covenant," said Willy solemnly, "and no one dares to break the oath under the ancestral furnace, and no one shall shed blood in the castle during the armistice." ”Aoro explained the problem from a historical perspective: "The Kingdom of the Tower is the royal descendant of the First Dynasty of Antiquity, although that dynasty has fallen apart, but the blood of the royal family is unquestionable, the Kingdom of the Tower has always been the orthodoxy of this world, and the other three kingdoms are just lost people who have split off due to curses.When there is a fundamental crisis in the world, it is imperative that all kingdoms put aside their disputes and renegotiate matters before the throne of the One True King. ”Lily was particularly interested in gossip like this: "The Kingdom of the Tower is a descendant of the original orthodox royal family?"
What about several other countries?
”"The ancestors of the Iron City-State were mechanics, the Free City-State was descended from commoners, merchants, and craftsmen, and the Star Fortress is the descendant of a group of scholars," Master Oro said slowly, "That's what the history books say. ”"It's really a weird society," Nangong May stuck out her tongue, she couldn't help but be a little surprised when she saw a group of people dressed in fancy clothes, with oil paint on their faces and faux leather on their backs, coming from the other end of the street, "Isn't this the 'homeless people' I saw on the road before?"
Are they in town too?
”"No, they're maesters and soldiers of the Free City-State," explained Maester Oro, "and the people of the Free City-State do look a bit like wanderers in the wilderness, and in fact the two are often confused: because they really have an ambiguous relationship.
Dark.But the free city-states were one of the Four Kingdoms, and their capital was built on the other side of the world, in the Bulon Heights, where half of the world's leather and cloth were produced in crafting factories. ”Although the Kingdom of the Tower occupies a piece of "God-given Land" next to the Ancestral Furnace, the kings of the other three kingdoms also have their own unshakable status.The capital of the free city-state controls the lifeblood of the cold on the other side of the world, and the capital of the iron city-state is a key point called the "mechanical core", from the description of Oro, Hao Ren judged that it is probably the material recycling hub of the city inside the ship, the Star Castle is the smallest of the four kingdoms, but it is the location of the Tower of Learning, it has cultivated generations of intellectuals, representing the mystery and wisdom of this world, and in the conflict of the four kings, the Star Fortress can almost rely on this point to maintain the neutral status of the territory.It is difficult to explain how the four kingdoms, crammed into a closed world a hundred kilometers long, intertwined with each other and entangled in power, form a grotesque complexity, and it is difficult to explain how they came into being in this situation for hundreds to a thousand years, but Hao Ren believes that any intelligent sociologist who comes to this ark of refuge will be blinded: there is a mad social model here, and logic and common sense are almost gone."
And then what are we supposed to do?"
Nangong Sanba asked curiously, "When are you going to investigate the situation of the Ancestor Honglu?"
”"All the Masters are going to the castle to meet the king and discuss the matter," Auro said, gesturing to the castle in the distance, "You can wait in the city, Willy knows where to go." ”Some of the knights of the royal city came from the direction of the castle, they were specially recruited to collect the bachelors from all over the world, and Oro left under the guidance of these soldiers, leaving Hao Ren and Willy in place."
I know where the inn is," Willy shook a small sign hanging from his chest, "The fireplace emblem will put us in a room."
Let's rest for the night, it's too late today, I'm afraid the bachelor won't be back until tomorrow. ”Vivien suddenly looked up at the Ancestral Furnace, looking at the dim heat dissipation grids and coil pipes, her brow gradually furrowed.Hao Ren noticed this: "What's wrong?
”"I just heard ......," Vivien continued to frown, "something seems to be calling me over there." ”(To be continued.) )