Although Angelica's words were unknown, Hao Ren still guessed about the situation about the ancient saint through a few brief words from the other party along the way.First of all, there was no doubt that the Old Sage was certainly not human, and that he was still alive - albeit in a terrible state.The Old Sage is indeed the supreme being of the Twilight City, and the humans living here worship it as a human god, and in the early days of the Twilight City, when the Old Sage was still doing well, he was indeed the supreme ruler of the city, but this situation did not last long.The Old Sage may have made some kind of sacrifice in the process of establishing the Twilight Capital - a sacrifice that caused his vitality to drain rapidly, and he gradually became unable to take on the responsibility of managing the city.According to Wendell's information, the Old Saint ceased to directly manage the city's affairs 1,500 years ago, and 1,000 years ago completely stopped having direct contact with the outside world, and the Iron Throne was closed and no longer open to ordinary people.Five hundred years ago, the ancient saints began to gradually lose the ability to communicate with the outside world.By this day, he should have been unable to speak, move, or express any of his wishes, and ordinary people could not communicate with him at all, only the special group of "caregivers", because of some mysterious ancient bloodline, they could still hear the voice of the ancient saint in some telepathic way, but this listening was also very chaotic - in Angelica's words, it was like a dream.Such a king could not rule the kingdom, so after the Iron Throne closed, all the management of the Twilight City was vested in the Steam Council, and the Steam Council lived up to its expectations: it was a little conservative and stubborn, but it was still dutiful from top to bottom, keeping the city running to this day.For many years, the Old Sage had been in suspended animation, relying on a fragile psychic connection to communicate with his caretakers, but there was never the slightest sign of true awakening, but today, his mental activity suddenly became intense, and through the psychic connection, he instructed the caretakers to bring the travelers from outside the twilight barrier to him.By this time, Hao Ren and the others were already in full swing with the Twilight Guards—in fact, it was their big fuss that caught the attention of the Old Sage.The Ancient Sage still hadn't fully woken up, he could only talk to the caretaker, and although the caretaker himself was respected, he couldn't meddle in the management of the city, and they didn't have time to get in touch with the Steam Council and explain the situation in a hurry, so after an urgent discussion, the caretakers split into two routes, one went to Shangcheng to find the Steam Council to convey the will of the Old Sage, and the other part came directly to pick up Hao Ren and the three of them."
You know we're here?"
Hao Ren looked at Angelica in surprise, "Our side is secretly operating. ”"This is the Old Sage's instructions, and he is watching you," Angelica smiled and nodded to Wendell, "Although I don't know what the reason is, this old gentleman also heard the voice of the Old Sage, and the Old Sage saw your arrival through his eyes. ”Wendell said with a proud expression that this was indeed the case, and Hao Ren suddenly became curious about this old man: he was just an ordinary person, how did he get in touch with the ancient saint who was almost buried deep in the ground?
Before they knew it, the group had followed the secret route provided by Angelica for several blocks, and Hao Ren noticed that the surrounding buildings were gradually thinning out, and the clutter of small and medium-sized houses was disappearing in favor of larger, neatly arranged stone buildings.After turning the last street, the scenery suddenly opened up, and a solemn boulder building appeared in front of the group.It is a stone fortress in the shape of a pyramid, stacked with neat black and gray ashlar columns, and although it lacks ornamentation, it has a solemn atmosphere of its own, and around the fortress is a large empty square, which may have been an important meeting place in the Twilight Capital, but now it seems empty and silent, lifeless.At the top of the pyramidal fortress, a pillar of pale golden light broke through the darkness and extended upwards into the depths of the layered urban fabric.Hao Ren looked at this stone fortress with a familiar look, and tried to remember it for a long time, before he suddenly realized that the structure of this thing actually looked like the Odin Golden Palace in the Garden of Asaph."
This is the sanctuary of the Iron Throne," Angelica pointed to a large gate at the base of the pyramidal structure, "The gate is over there, please come with me." ”The inside of the stone fortress is not as magnificent as imagined, in fact, as the residence of the "ancient saint", the interior decoration of this building is simply shabby in Hao Ren's opinion.The walls of the stone corridor were bare, the floor was paved with old stone slabs, and there were no sculptures or frescoes to be seen along the way, except for the gas lamps embedded in the walls: these lamps illuminated the sanctuary as bright as day.Along the way, Hao Ren also saw other caregivers: they were men, women and children, dressed exactly like Angelica, and even had a similar temperament: quiet, silent, gentle, with little emotion.This peculiar commonality may be the result of years of living in the sanctuary.The caretakers were already aware of the visitor's arrival, and when they saw Hao Ren and his party, they only nodded slightly or stood on the side of the road and bowed, and everyone remained silent, except for a brief conversation between the two young caregivers and Angelica.In this strange atmosphere of silence all the way, Hao Ren and the others were taken to a hexagonal hall.They finally saw the mysterious ancient saint and his present condition.The hall was littered with a tangling of pipes and cables, glimmering lines that stretched from under the six stone platforms around the hall to a metal platform in the center of the room, where a large, transparent crystal sat the Iron Throne: a thin, twisted old man sat on a chair cast of black metal.If he hadn't known in advance, Hao Ren couldn't even believe that the person in front of him was still alive.He was shriveled like a skeleton, his skin was a decayed gray black, the thin layer of skin clinging to the bones, and all kinds of pipes were inserted into it, and the old man's head was held in place by an iron frame, and many cables extended from his temples and the back of his head, all of which were connected to his body, and Hao Ren noticed that Gu Sheng's eye was wearing an eyepatch, and he guessed the identity of the other party.Vivien's face wasn't much surprised when she saw the ancient saint, she had already expected it: "Odin, it's really you." ”"So that's the case......
Hao Ren also had a feeling of surprise, the king of the gods who is missing on the Wiglite Plains - who else can do such a thing?
Wendell looked very excited, he didn't even notice that Vivien next to him called out the name of the ancient saint very familiarly, the old man just prostrate on the ground excitedly, kissing the stone slab in front of him over and over again: "O sage!
The Lightseekers have found a promised land, and the land of Asgard is still full of light!
”Odin on the Iron Throne did not respond, he just continued to sit there silently, seemingly completely incapable of communicating with the outside world.Hao Ren turned his head to look at Angelica: "He's always been like this?"
”"It was from the first time I met him."
Angelica nodded slightly."
What's next?""
I don't know," said Angelica, "I'm just ordered to bring you here, and the Old Sage's will is beyond comprehension. ”Vivien spoke suddenly, "I know what to do.Hao Ren, give me Gangnir to use. ”Hao Ren took out the spear from his space for some reason and handed it to Vivien, who whispered a few incantations to the spear, and then under the curious gaze of everyone, Vivien placed the spear on the platform under the Iron Throne.In an instant, the large crystal that sealed Odin emitted a faint glimmer."
Actually, I just tried it, but I didn't expect it to work," Vivien explained, "The Asaph are highly skilled in spiritual power, and they are also quite good at the way of the soul, and the strongest of them will infuse a part of their soul and life force into the objects that accompany them throughout their lives, as a backup in case of emergency.Gungnir had been broken into three before, but the mechanism inside it was still functioning, so I guess the power of the mothballing inside was still there. ”Hao Ren is optimistic: "So, he can recover?"
”A weak and old voice suddenly came from all around: "Unfortunately, it can't. ”(To be continued.) )