Chapter 1128 — Beyila's Hint

That mysterious, unknown signal oscillated through the invisible realm, and no one knew what distance it had crossed, nor what meaning it carried — the faint ripples it stirred in the omnipresent magic field were so tiny that even the most powerful and keenest of archmages could not sense the traces it left in the atmosphere. Yet received and amplified by the more sensitive crystal arrays, this imperceptible fluctuation, beyond human perception, gradually grew distinct within the systems of the Sorin Hub, and after filtering and reinforcement again and again, it became a clear and forceful "voice."

Bard and his colleagues had been chasing this voice for a long time, and long before they founded this dedicated monitoring department, the scholars who had laid the foundations of the Magic Web Hub had tracked it even longer.

"The signal density seems to have risen compared to before..." a colleague beside him murmured to himself — what Bard was hearing had now been shared with everyone in the room — "these oscillations look like they're becoming much denser..."

"This has never happened before..." Bard frowned. "Aren't these signals supposed to be unchanging?"

"Who knows?" The colleague shook his head, his gaze on the holographic projection at the center of the room. "Wait — the image seems to be resolving."

Almost everyone's attention fell upon the space above the large Magic Web terminal in the monitoring center. On the projected holographic display, lines were emerging and swiftly connecting into patterns — the decoding technique developed by Lady Beyila was now widely applied in the eighteen monitoring stations across the Empire, from cold Northport to the imperial capital in the southern marches, from the Paramel Observatory to the Grand Hub of Tenwoods City. Whichever station received the signal, it would be decoded through this special "dot-matrix plotting" and converted into flat patterns that seemed to hold some meaning.

Since this vast monitoring operation had begun, Bard and his colleagues — including those stationed throughout the Empire — though they had reaped little, had nonetheless succeeded several times in capturing the signal and had plotted more than a dozen simple "decoded figures."

Without exception they were the most basic geometric patterns, and each time the content was much the same; no profound mystery could be seen in those crude dots and lines — even a child could easily draw them on paper. No one knew why these mysterious signals would use such a complex method to transmit simple geometric shapes, and Bard's colleagues had given them a very fitting name: "Urchin Scribbles."

"Today's 'Urchin Scribbles' seem very stable..." The image in the holographic projection continued, and several geometric patterns had already appeared clearly. The colleague beside him muttered softly, "All this transmission, and the signal strength still shows no obvious sign of interruption or decay... Is it because we switched to the new primary antenna crystal plates?"

"Very likely," another monitor said as he watched the equipment's parameters, "the raw material for these antenna crystal plates comes from the Auguley tribal kingdom. The crystal ore and primal crystal dust from Mount Mingcen are far superior in quality to those from the Greystone Mine."

"Crystal ore from Mount Mingcen? Ha, no wonder — I remember before the trade routes were opened, crystal ore from Mount Mingcen was top-grade spellcasting material. Ordinary mages couldn't even buy it normally..."

The colleagues nearby were discussing in low voices topics of international trade, crystal ore, spellcasters, and market shifts, but everyone's attention remained fixed on those constantly refreshing lines. Bard watched the things unfolding in the holographic projection with full concentration; he had already seen those extremely regular squares, triangles, circles, and hexagons — in past monitoring records, this had already been the limit of the information volume the work group had recorded —

But the signal's transmission continued, and more patterns were still being drawn out.

When a spiral curve, endlessly spreading outward, appeared on the display, the room fell very quiet. Everyone stopped their meaningless chatter, and a dozen pairs of eyes stared fixedly at that image.

When a set of dot arrays arranged in a specific grouping pattern appeared on the display, Bard heard someone beside him quietly break the silence: "We had better... report this at once."

……

The omnipresent fragrance of wood drifted into Belantia's nostrils, and this refreshing, delightful scent made the Silver Empress unable to resist relaxing.

After arranging for Elaine to rest elsewhere, she stepped together with Gao Yang and Beyila into a great hall situated within the canopy region of the giant tree.

Here, elegantly growing branches supported a dome of overlapping green leaves; pale wooden pillars, like slightly curved bones, fitted close to the nearby walls; flower vines twined between the pillars and the roof beams; faintly glowing mycelium or tendrils hung down from them, bringing bright yet not harsh illumination that further soothed the spirit of every visitor who stepped inside.

"This is my parlor," Beyila's figure moved forward amid a cluster of vines. "General Margarita suggested I open up a place where I could receive guests properly, rather than bringing people down to the deep biochemical laboratories or the biomass factories every time — though I still maintain that the fission pools and biomass chambers I designed myself are rather lovely."

Belantia, however, paid no mind to what the latter half of the other's sentence was saying; she was simply marveling at the place, which clearly exceeded her initial expectations — she came to a curved open space at the end of the hall and looked with some curiosity at the layered green leaves before her: "The leaves here seem a different color from elsewhere?"

"This is my balcony," Beyila said beside her, and as her words fell, that layered mass of leaves suddenly rustled and shook, rising upward like a curtain — a broad, curved opening appeared before Belantia, bright sunlight instantly poured into the hall, and within the open vista, a good portion of the Sorin Plains and the quaint, elegant towers of Sorin Castle were laid out before her.

"Sometimes I invite General Margarita or others here to take in the view, but more often I test the photosynthetic efficiency of different leaves here — this is one of the best-lit areas of the canopy," Beyila continued.

"Truly beautiful..." Belantia came to the edge of the open terrace and could not help drawing a deep breath. Then she turned to look at Beyila and finally said what she had long wanted to say: "You really have changed a great deal... No, this can hardly even be called 'change' anymore..."

"All of us have changed a great deal, for better or worse," Beyila said quietly, gazing at the Silver Empress who had grown into her role. After a few seconds of silence, she suddenly asked, "Is my portrait still in the Hall of Saints?"

The Silver Empress nodded. "It has hung there all along."

"Take it down," Beyila said softly. "A cultist of the End of All Things has no right to keep occupying that place."

The Silver Empress looked into Beyila's eyes. She was not at all surprised, but still she shook her head: "...I guessed you would say that, but the Hall of Saints has never had a precedent of removing a sage's portrait — perhaps you believe you have lost the right to sit among them, but your past deeds have not yet reached the day of being wholly repudiated. For the silver elves, seven hundred years is far too short a time."

"Then how long a time would not be short?"

"Until this giant tree withers," the Silver Empress Pingxi said. "Only then can we be certain where the life of the Sage Beyila has truly led."