Chapter 927 — It Has Already Begun

The Goddess of Magic Myrmina's "success" was, it seemed, very difficult to replicate—at least in Amorn's eyes.

But to Gao Yang, this incident had still given him a line of thought—the "non-directional currents of thought" created by the neural network were very likely an unprecedented "purification method" for gods born from such currents.

Of course, the neural network was still very weak; a peak scale of a mere tens of thousands of nodes could not compare with any existing religion in the world. But in Cecil, "magical-industrial products" like the neural network had one greatest characteristic: they developed extremely fast—even if its scale was insufficient now, a year later, two years later... one day its scale would reach a point where it could shake any divine authority in the world.

He did not explain these details to the former god before him; he felt it unnecessary.

Amorn was clearly still pondering the Goddess of Magic's escape this time. He broke the silence with a certain sigh: "I'm afraid more than one god has thought of a similar 'escape plan'; in fact... my own 'attempt' three thousand years ago must have inspired certain gods. But in the end, the only one who could successfully realize such a plan was the Goddess of Magic—and that, in truth, was determined by her 'disposition.' She was born from the shallow faith of mages. From the very beginning of that belief system, mages regarded her only as a kind of 'explanation' and 'anchor.' Mages have always championed solving problems through their own wisdom and power, not by praying for divine grace and salvation—and this allowed Myrmina the opportunity to 'ignore' her followers' prayers.

"For an ordinary god, a believer's prayer is very difficult to 'ignore' so completely. They must respond to some degree..."

Gao Yang quickly understood the meaning behind Amorn's words.

Because all gods in this world are born from mortals' hopes and longings. Mortals "created" those deities for the purpose of alleviating their own anxiety and fear, of seeking a transcendent individual who could respond to them. Therefore, for gods born from such currents of thought, "response" was one of their innate attributes—they simply could not refuse prayers and supplications from the mortal world.

The Goddess of Magic, however, was different—mages conceived of a being called the "Goddess of Magic" not to seek power or to obtain some guidance, but because in the course of their academic research they discovered that certain principles or formulas lacked a key "element." When the academic direction could not solve the problem for the time being, they decided to "define" a source for these inexplicable things—the passage of time and shifts in collective perception together caused this source to gradually deviate from its original concept, slowly becoming a deity used to explain every black box. Yet the essence of the Goddess of Magic remained unchanged:

"She" was the common "Condition X" in the mages' pile of unsolvable formulas and flawed theories. The mages' attitude toward and expectations of this deity could be summed up in one sentence: You just stay right there and don't move—I'll go guess out the rest of the equation...

Such a feeble constraint naturally gave the Goddess of Magic room to operate freely. With a long self-isolation and one ambitious escape plan, she gave the world's believers a single response: Guess my ass. Whoever wants to stay can stay—I'm out!

Gao Yang shook his head, sighing both at how gods who seemed so lofty were in fact just as shackled as mortals, and at how much chaos the Goddess of Magic's willful, decisive escape would cause—for how long, no one could say.

At last he reined in the disconnected associations in his mind and suddenly looked at Amorn.

"You now... should be able to tell us more 'knowledge,' right?"

"Not all of it," Amorn answered slowly. "You should understand that I have not fully broken free of my bonds—the contamination of divinity still exists. So if your question touches too much on domains humanity has not yet encountered, or points too directly at the gods, I still cannot give you an answer."

"That's enough for me," Gao Yang nodded, then gathered his thoughts and asked the question he had wanted to ask during his last conversation with Amorn. "I want to know the origin of the magic tides... You once said the magic tides have nothing to do with the gods, that they are essentially a natural phenomenon. So what exactly is the principle behind this natural phenomenon?"

Amorn was silent for a moment, and then a pleasing voice sounded in Gao Yang's and Virodai's minds: "You are not yet capable of addressing its source—because its source... comes from the sun above your heads."

"It really comes from the sun?!" Virodai suddenly broke the silence, asking urgently.

"Ah, it seems you have already noticed certain evidence."

"When the magic tide occurred seven hundred years ago, there were records of the sun undergoing anomalies. And whenever the residual magic tides in the Gondor Wasteland stir, corresponding anomalies always appear in the sun as well," Virodai said gravely. "We have always suspected that the magic tides are connected to some sort of solar cycle, but we never imagined... that its source would come directly from the sun?!"

Gao Yang, standing to one side, instantly thought of another question—this world's "sun" was not a star in a star system; it was merely a gas giant!

If this gas giant could trigger magic tides, then what of "Ao," the true star of this star system?

Between this world's gas giant and its star... was there some similarity, some connection in material composition? If both kinds of celestial bodies could trigger magic tides, then... could this explain the origin of magic power?

"Do magic tides occur on planets that orbit directly around 'Ao'?" Gao Yang asked bluntly, still thinking.

"...No mortal has ever considered the connection between celestial bodies and magic tides from this angle. Your perspective exceeds the scope of ordinary mortal knowledge," Amorn's gaze fell upon Gao Yang, but soon he let out a soft laugh. "But that's all right—this question can be answered...

"Yes, 'Ao' also triggers magic tides. Any world illuminated by a star or a false planet will experience magic tides."

"False planet?" Gao Yang, ignoring his astonishment, immediately seized upon the unfamiliar term in the other's words.

"Their structure is similar to that of stars, and their material composition is much the same, yet they fail to condense into 'fire' as stars do. The light and heat they emit in the starry sky are as faint as candlelight, but when close enough, their moons can still give birth to life beneath that faint candle-glow—the 'sun' you know is a false planet."

Enlightenment dawned on Gao Yang's face—the so-called false planet was simply the gods' term for a "gas giant." Clearly, no such term as "gas giant" existed in this world.

Moreover, Amorn's answer had revealed very important information: magic tides would periodically appear on any planet illuminated by a star or a "false planet."

This information corresponded with what he had tacitly accepted last time—that "magic tides also occur on other planets"—and further explained the source of the magic tides. At the same time, it suddenly gave Gao Yang an idea—if the sun triggered the magic tides, then would blocking sunlight during a magic tide cycle be of any use?

But he let the thought flash only briefly and quickly dismissed it, for the reason was simple—when the magic tide erupted seven hundred years ago, it was deep night in the Gondor Empire...

The sun triggered the magic tides, but the medium was not sunlight.

"Do you know of the 'Black Pit'?" Gao Yang gathered his thoughts and asked again. "I mean the phenomenon in which civilizations on this planet suddenly perish once they develop to a certain level..."