Secret: The undead do not die in the fire

Chapter 214: Restoring the Glory of the Dragon
tread!tread!
Yujin stopped and stood in front of the man-sized stove, staring quietly at the blazing flames inside.

As long as you overturn the stove, the whole world will burn completely.

Roselle was the first to discover this place, and built a city named "Terra Palace" here to cover up the existence of the church. He undoubtedly knew about the existence of this place, but the Steam Church might not know.

The embers want to burn the world to ashes, and no one will stop them.

But that was not his purpose.

The ember slowly reached out to the furnace and placed his palm into the flames that were enough to burn the entire world.

The next moment, the blazing flames in the furnace instantly "boiled", like a dancing phoenix, frantically gathering towards the palm of the ember. The flames in the entire furnace were rolled up, like a raging fire storm, but this storm was absorbed by the invisible vortex the moment it appeared, without spilling out at all.

Snapped!
The ember retracted into his palm, and the originally blazing flames were reduced to just a tiny flame at the bottom of the stove.

The Church of Steam clearly has an inadequate understanding of the world of painting, and even has considerable misunderstandings.

They even used the painting world as a specific place for the demigod ascension ceremony, causing the "vitality" of this world to decline significantly. This ritual of plundering vitality not only caused the land to become barren and the lakes to dry up, but also accelerated the corruption of this world.

The flames in the furnace have been burning for a long time, and it will soon burst out, plunging the whole world into a sea of ​​fire. Of course, burning is not necessarily a bad thing, because only the burning of the old world can bring hope for the birth of the new world.

But the Steam Church obviously didn't have a world painter, and once this painting world was burned, it would mean complete destruction. But the embers absorbed the power of the fire that was about to overflow, allowing the flame to return to its embryonic state, which was also a disguised way of extending the life of this world.

Of course, as time goes by, the world will inevitably slide into corruption. If this situation cannot be reversed, destruction is inevitable. The embers can only delay the arrival of destruction at most, but cannot prevent it. Sooner or later, the flames will ignite again!

The reason why Ember did this was, on the one hand, to treat it as paying the ticket fee to the Steam Church.

On the other hand, he himself also needs the power of fire.

Ember looked behind the stove, to the end of the chapel.

In the niche in the middle is a statue, which looks like a person wearing a fur coat and sitting cross-legged on the ground. But if you look closely, you will find that what is coiled is not legs, but a thick and long snake tail. Even the "face" under the cloak is a snake body covered with scales!

Unfortunately, there is no bonfire under the alcove, and it is impossible to reach the gathering place from here.

Of course, there is no gathering place in this world, let alone a ring-marked city.

Yu Jin looked around and made sure that nothing was missed before turning around and leaving.

The flickering flame in the stove is extremely weak, but it will never go out, because fire is part of this world.

As the world slides into corruption, it will sooner or later burst into flames!
Inside the church, Carula looked at the embers passing through the bottom of the statue and asked softly:
"Want to leave?"

Yu Jin shook his head slightly, shifting his gaze away from Kalula and finally onto the vertical ladder behind the right wall.

Under Carla's strange gaze, he slowly climbed the stairs.

Above the stairs is the attic of the church.

Bright light poured into the attic through the exquisitely carved windows, illuminating this not-so-large room.

The attic looks dilapidated after years of erosion. The putty on the wall has long been peeled off, revealing the red bricks and stones inside. There are also many paintings scattered in the attic, most of which are rolled up and properly placed in wooden boxes against the right wall.

On the left side, there were a lot of empty picture frames and a huge oil painting by the window. In front of the painting was a high stool. In a trance, Yu Jin seemed to see a petite girl sitting on the high stool, holding a paintbrush in her hand, her crystal white feet swaying gently in the air, and her long silver hair dragging on the ground...

But when he came to his senses, everything turned into phantoms and disappeared, leaving only the empty high stool in front of him.

But the girl sitting on the high stool had long disappeared.

"Miss." Ember murmured in a low voice.

There was one thing that Carla said that was wrong. He didn't just remember the Fire Keeper.

He still remembered the eldest lady and Sister Friede.

The Fire Keeper exists to spread the fire. This is the beginning of everything.

And the eldest lady is the end of everything, and her paintings are used to shelter the survivors of the deep sea era.

He can remember the beginning and the end of things, but he can't remember the process.

So he didn't remember Carula, Irina, or anyone else...

But what made Yu Jin feel a little strange was that the people he had forgotten seemed to be all women.

But he remembered all the memories of those men clearly.

Slave Knight Gale, Silent Knight Horace, Blacksmith Andre, Escaper Hawkwood, Orbeck of Bheim...even the crossdresser Gwyndolin, and that bastard Patch, all the memories of them are quite clear, with a beginning and an end.

But the memories of women, apart from the fire keeper, the eldest lady and Fried, seemed to be only some insignificant passers-by, such as the maid in the turkey farm and the old woman carrying a lid...

But they are all memories, so why is there such a huge difference? Why is it women?
Yu Jin was silent for a long time, then walked forward silently, walked to the high stool, and stared at the painting.

The painting does not show any content, but is covered with white paint, like a child's scribbles.

"You smell like ashes. You must be the man Grandpa Gale was talking about? The one who could show me fire."

"It's okay, once I'm done with this, I'll go back over there since you left the door open."

"..."

"You are Ashes. I wanted to tell you because you agreed to Grandpa Gale's request."

"Thank you. I will paint the world with that name as the theme. It will be a very cold, dark, and soft painting. One day, it will be a painting that can be a place for someone to stay."

"Those who do not understand fire are not qualified to paint the world; those who are seduced by fire cannot paint the world."

"..."

Complex thoughts flashed back from his mind one by one. Yu Jin looked forward and looked into the distance through the window. The Terra Palace had stopped not far away. It did not go far, as if it was waiting for Yu Jin to leave before returning to its original position. That was the last order Roselle left for it.

Collecting his thoughts, Yu Jin turned around and prepared to leave the attic. There still weren't many clues left here.

But before he left, he had one more thing to do...

The ember looked at the vertical ladder in front of him, which was the only way out of the attic. But behind the vertical ladder, there was a bonfire, a bonfire that had long been extinguished, with only ashes left. There was an iron-black spiral sword stuck on it, but it had long lost its former warmth and was cold and dead.

Yu Jin walked to the campfire, closed his eyes slightly, and a ball of ash appeared in the palm of his hand without him noticing.

A long strip of ash with obvious traces of smelting.

Or, you could call it, the embers.

He slowly raised his palm and clenched it tightly.

Snapped!
The remaining fire was crushed, and fine ashes floated in the air, releasing sparks all over the sky, clinging to the surface of the embers, as if the whole person was burning!

At the same time, Carla, who was waiting in the church, suddenly changed her expression and looked up at the attic above her head.

He flew to the top of the ladder and climbed up to the attic.

But when she went up to the attic, all she saw was an empty room, and the embers that were supposed to be in the attic were nowhere to be seen.

She turned around and saw a burning bonfire.

The bonfire that had been silent for thousands of years was lit again, no longer cold, nor dead silent.

But Carla's expression gradually became silent, her eyes revealed deep reluctance, and she gritted her teeth:
"I should have thought of it earlier. Even if this is not the real painting world, how could they not have a backup plan?"

She had finally stood in front of him again, and before she even had the chance to show him what she had learned in her life, she had lost it again.

And more importantly, she didn't even know where to look!

The power of the First Fire can transcend all obstacles, whether it is time or space. Reignite the embers of the bonfire and you can go anywhere with the bonfire! Carula believes that the embers will never leave without saying goodbye, so his sudden disappearance can only be because the bonfire has been adjusted.

When the ember activated the bonfire, it was teleported to another area. The location of this "area" was only known to them who had placed the bonfire there, and Carula was obviously not among them.

With so many barriers of time and space blocking her way, where could she go to find the ashes?

"No, there's her!"

Carla took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

She had waited thousands of years, long enough to burn several Gwens to death.

Even though the separation was short, she was not completely without clues.

For example, the girl she met outside the Steam Church had a ring given by Yu Jin, so she must have some special relationship with him. As long as he followed her, they would definitely meet again.

but……

Carla's tone revealed a little displeasure:
"Why a girl again?"
-
Yu Jian looked around and found himself in a hot yellow desert. He couldn't help but whisper to himself:
“Am I still in the painting world?”

The desolation here was exactly the same as the scene in the painting world owned by the Steam Church, which even made Yu Jin doubt that he had not left. But he soon changed his mind, and because he could sense the spirit world again -

It is not a 'small spiritual world' separated from the painting world, but a real spiritual world covering the entire real world.

The bonfire he lit had already set up a 'beacon' and a predetermined 'route', and would be transported away the moment it was lit. This was the information that Yu Jin had already obtained when he lit it. He could have resisted this 'teleportation', but he chose to accept it.

Because the painting world was drawn by the eldest lady, the bonfire was also set by the eldest lady.

The only things that can light a bonfire are embers.

This trip was originally arranged for him by the eldest lady, and Yu Jin believed that the eldest lady would not harm him.

The only question is, what can he gain from this journey?
Or rather, what did the young lady hope he would find here?
Even if we take a step back, Yu Jin should at least figure out which country he is in.

"Roar!"

Suddenly there was a roar from the sky, echoing between heaven and earth, shaking the earth.

Yu Jin looked up into the distance, and in the afterglow of the setting sun, huge black and gray monsters were flying in. They had thick lizard-like bodies and a pair of broad leather-covered wings on their backs. Their huge bodies almost blocked out the sun and all light.

Yu Jin saw scales the size of plates and the dark golden vertical pupils in their eye sockets.

"Dragon."

Yu Jin immediately connected it with the corresponding image in his mind, and immediately realized a problem:
As early as the Quaternary Period, dragons and giants had already withdrawn from the stage of history and were close to extinction.

Even if there were occasional rumors of giant dragons appearing, they were in the deep mountains and old forests where few people went. And once the rumors spread, these giant dragons would be slaughtered quickly - because giant dragons are full of treasures, their extraordinary materials can be used for promotion, and a giant dragon's corpse is also extremely valuable.

As a result, even such rumors had disappeared by the Fifth Epoch. People generally believed that the dragons had long since completely died out. Even the subspecies had become extremely rare, and few people could find traces of either the colorful lizard dragon or the phantom subspecies.

But now, a group of giant dragons are soaring in the sky openly, and even making intimidating dragon roars without any concealment to intimidate other creatures around them. They don't seem to be afraid of being hunted by humans at all.

There is only one possibility -

This time period is not the Fifth Age, nor the Fourth Age. The Third Age is unlikely, because the ancient gods had already fallen in the Third Age, and although the dragons had not yet perished, they were also treated as prisoners like the giants.

As for the First Age, it was an age of chaos, and dragons were not the rulers of that era.

This, then, could only be the Second Age.

The Second Age is called the 'Dark Age' of mankind, but for dragons, this age can also be called the 'Golden Age', because this period is the golden age of dragons. In this era, dragons are the undisputed overlords of the sky!
Only in this era can the dragons soar freely in the sky, as if patrolling their own territory.

"The Second Age again?"

Yu Jin suddenly felt a little funny. The first time he traveled through time was also in the Second Age.

However, that time was at the end of the Second Age, when even the ancient sun god had appeared and the ancient god was about to fall.

And now.

Roar!
At this moment, the dragons suddenly roared with their huge mouths, and there was a faint flash of hot light in them.

(End of this chapter)