Chapter 1478 — Gao Song's Astonishing Speculation

Amber's entire train of thought was instantly derailed by the words that suddenly burst out of Gao Yang's mouth. Even with her famously wild imagination and sturdy, resilient nerves, she truly hadn't expected that after lowering his head in thought for so long, Gao Yang would come out with something like this. She froze for a full ten seconds before her eyes went wide and she spoke: "Where did that... even come from?"

"I know it's hard to imagine. Honestly, I don't even believe it myself. But when this matter escalates to the level of a 'suspected divine calamity' and gets tangled up with that Violet character, then I feel that even the most bizarre and outlandish 'speculation' deserves some probability," Gao Yang said slowly, thoughts surging through his mind. "Especially since Mojin got caught up in this incident and personally witnessed the shadow dwellers walking out of the black flames in that thick fog... That means this matter is already inextricably linked to the Lady of Night."

Amber frowned. "True, no one expected Violet to have any connection to the Lady of Night. But that great adventurer got involved, and his link to the Lady of Night is the biggest clue. Still, even with that, you can't just leap all the way to 'Violet doesn't exist at all'—that's absurd!"

"Being connected to the Lady of Night means that all our previous impressions of the Violet Kingdom, built on mortal understanding, could be wrong. We can speculate about what actually happened with the utmost imagination," Gao Yang said, rubbing his chin, thoughtful as if talking to himself. "Think about it carefully... In all this time, has the Violet Kingdom ever sent any 'product' to Loren? I mean, aside from the magical knowledge they spread abroad and those traveling mages themselves—has Violet ever 'exported' anything to the nations of the Alliance that you can see and touch?"

Amber's eyes slowly widened, her mouth opening wider and wider. "..."

"We established preliminary trade relations between Northport and several border cities of the Violet Kingdom, but those trades have always been strictly limited. We export goods, while the Violet side provides intangible 'commodities' like 'magical knowledge' or 'mage apprentice training services.' Even the currency used for settlement is Cecil or Typhon coin. The Violet people use a rigorous system of exchange and circulation control to ensure that nothing from that island ever gets taken beyond its shores..."

Gao Yang continued unhurriedly, as if he hadn't noticed Amber's increasingly astonished expression.

"All along, we've assumed this tight restriction was because Violet's national policy is isolationist, because their authorities hold an extremely conservative attitude toward 'transnational trade'—after all, it's a hidden nation with a long history, a mysterious realm ruled by mages. So many people explain away a great deal of highly unreasonable phenomena as 'the weirdness of a mage nation.' But think about it carefully... there are far too many parts here that can't be explained.

"You know, no matter how conservative a country is, no matter how strict its trade restrictions and border controls, it's impossible to be truly airtight. There will always be loopholes to exploit, always someone willing to take the risk, always someone wanting to break those restrictions and make a fortune overnight. The creativity and drive businessmen can unleash in this regard are boundless. Yet after all these years, have we seen any 'Violet specialty goods' on the market?

"Forget the normal market—what about your intelligence channels, the black markets, the smugglers, the collectors in the gray zones? Has even one of them ever managed to get their hands on any 'physical object' that flowed out of the Violet Isle?"

Amber finally blinked. Instinctively she felt there was something wrong with Gao Yang's near-fantastical ideas, and she spoke up at once: "Wait, that's not right. You just admitted that the Violet Kingdom at least sends traveling mages abroad to spread magical knowledge. Don't those mages count as 'real and tangible'? The clothes they wear, the supplies they carry, the books they bring out of Violet—aren't those all 'objects' that flowed from that island to Loren?"

"But those traveling mages all return to Violet together after a time, and everything they brought with them ultimately goes back. Back when Violet mages served as royal advisors in Ansell, they even took all their magical tomes with them when they left, leaving behind only copies made locally in Ansell... In fact, all extant Violet magical tomes are similar copies or reproductions, and every piece of extraordinary equipment bearing the name 'Violet magical artifact' was manufactured right here on the Loren continent."

Gao Yang folded his hands on the table, his gaze resting quietly on Amber. "There is no wall in this world without a single gap. And if a wall truly manages to leak nothing for decades or even centuries, that can only mean one thing—there's genuinely nothing behind it."

Amber opened her mouth, then said hesitantly: "So... are you suggesting the entire Violet Kingdom is one giant magical illusion? That everything there is fake? Including Emberfall City, including Palansanto, including the mages who travel abroad... But if the whole Violet Kingdom really is an illusion, how could the agents we sent there have remained safe and sound for the past two years? Their food and clothing... Are they living off phantoms?"

"Because they're within Violet's borders—while they stay on that island, they're part of the 'illusion,'" Gao Yang said in a ringing voice. "We're bound by common sense, Amber. An illusion isn't necessarily fake, and reality doesn't necessarily have a clear-cut boundary. Remember the 'sandbox' the Long Sleep Order created?

"To those of us living in the 'real world,' everything in the sandbox is merely virtual data. But to the natives inside the sandbox, their family and friends, the various objects they encounter daily—those are real existences. And even... a 'deity' like the 'upper narrator' who can reverse-enter the real world can be born inside a sandbox. That's enough to show that in our world, the boundary between reality and illusion is mutable...

"The Sleepers were just a group of mortals, and even they accidentally created something like the sandbox. So what if it were some mysterious and powerful ancient god?"

Amber listened in a daze, then suddenly seemed to think of something: "Wait! No! I know of something—an object brought out of Emberfall City by a mage originally from the Violet Kingdom! And that mage never made it back to Violet in the end. What he brought out of Emberfall City stayed on our 'side'!"

Gao Yang reacted instantly: "You mean... the wild mage's notebook?!"

"Yes, that's the one! The wild mage who created the Magic Web—he was actually a Violet native, and his notebook counts as a 'product' of that island... Wait here, I'll go get it!"

Amber spoke rapidly, and before her words had even faded her figure had already vanished into a shadow rift that tore open in an instant. Gao Yang watched her dash off in such a flurry, and once the study fell quiet again, he couldn't help but scratch his cheek, beginning to doubt whether his imagination had run too wild... To reach such an astonishing conclusion based on just this bit of mystical, cryptic intelligence, on a few anomalous phenomena from the past, on his own speculation alone—and then to discuss it with Amber at such length, treating it as the core premise... Was he perhaps...

Another shadow rift opened in the study, cutting off the thoughts racing through his mind. Amber had returned, cradling an exceedingly old black-leather notebook in her hands.