Whispering Poems

Chapter 3896 Omissions
Shad's prayers were in vain, as were Daniste's, but since Shad already had a plan, she didn't say anything more.
"After breakfast and a rest, let's go for a stroll in one of the big cities in the north."

About 100 miles north of the Karas Mountains lies a fairly large city. Neither Shad nor Danist had ever been there before, so after resting in their tent until 10 o'clock, they flew directly there.

Nothing happened during the entire day of sightseeing and dating in the city; Shad even bought some gifts to take back and share with Dr. Schneider and the others.

As night fell, the two returned to Mount Karas. They had already eaten dinner in the city. Shad entrusted the reluctant Mia to Daniste's care for the time being, then took out the Philosopher's Stone and spun the [Ring of Immortality] again.
"Miraculous Technique - [Breath of Time]".

The Philosopher's Stone merged into his body and soul, aiding Shad in casting spells with extraordinary power. He arrived before the ruins of the tower, and as he inhaled sharply, a thick gray mist rose from the abandoned foundation.

The gray mist quickly enveloped the base of the tower, then the entire cliff. This was a rare instance of Shad using his magic to reverse the time of such a large object in his normal state, but fortunately, with the help of the Philosopher's Stone, he only felt a slight pressure.

Although Daniste, standing behind Shad, couldn't see through the gray fog that represented the anomaly of time, she could hear the sounds of stones colliding and rubbing together, and feel the vibrations of the mountain beneath her feet.

Shad cast the spell with remarkable speed; half a minute later, the gray mist dissipated, and the complete tower stood erect on the cliff edge. As Shad looked up at the tower, comparing it to the one in his memories of the "fall," Danist returned Mia to Shad and looked down from the cliff edge. The wreckage below had also vanished.

The old "Moon Tower" is a pure stone building, and when it stands under the moon, the scenery composed of the starry sky, the tower, and the cliffs is indeed quite beautiful.

"Just like the tower in my memory."

Shad said, while Daniste was already quite impatient:
"Let's go and see what's going on inside."

The door at the base of the tower has no doors; one can enter directly through the opening. For nearly a thousand years after its discovery by scholars, the ancient tower served no purpose, so naturally, the interior was empty.

The two then examined the decorative details inside the tower. In a hidden part of the tower, the patterns of the sun seemed to be as numerous as those of the moon, a fact that neither Shad nor Danist could explain.

Is it the same as I remember?

Daniste asked again, and Shad took her hand and walked beside her:
"Same, but in my memory, when I climbed this tower, there were many corpses inside."

"Corpse?"

The sorceress and Shad exchanged a glance, both thinking of the corpses they had found a few days earlier.

The tower has thirteen floors, but fortunately, the structure of each floor is relatively simple, so climbing it doesn't take too long.

As Shad walked up the stairs, he pointed out to Denise where the view was exactly the same as what he remembered. Although the memory was hazy, Shad was fairly certain that the tower he had climbed in the spring of 1853 was the very tower he was standing on.

When the two arrived at the top of the tower at nine o'clock at night and walked out of the door on the thirteenth floor to the Moon-Viewing Terrace, the moon in the starry sky was still in its third phase, and they did not find much of value in the tower.

Below this terrace lies the cliff face. Shad touched the stone railing around the edge of the terrace, which was entwined with withered vines, and said with certainty:

"As far as I can remember, this is where I fell."

As he spoke, he handed the cat back to Daniste:

"Dannister, stand in front of the fence and don't move. I'll try again, mimicking the scene from my memory."

The sorceress did not stop him, and Shad adjusted his position again before leaping over the balcony railing.

He flew back quickly, and simply shook his head in response to Daniste's gaze:
"Since entering this tower, I feel that everything is familiar, even when I jumped down just now, I clearly felt that I had done it before."

But other than that, I had no other feelings.

"It's alright. Let's search this tower carefully from now on. Since the teacher and the astrologer Euclid have both been here, they couldn't have left no clues."

The explorations conducted by the Truth Society here may have obliterated information left behind by others, but Shad didn't mention this, instead splitting up with Daniste. One searched from top to bottom, the other from bottom to top, conducting a thorough search of everything within the tower.

He was quite curious about the sun patterns inside the "Moon Tower," hoping to find some clues by observing the frequency and order of the sun patterns, but naturally, he found nothing.

Then he thought that Mia sometimes had amazing inspirations, and was practically a low-budget version of Ellie, so he let the cat out to look around.

But it was clear that the cat wasn't interested in exploring such a desolate place. It wandered around perfunctorily for a while before rubbing against Shad's feet, trying to get him to pick it up.

Then came another whole night of searching and checking. By Friday morning, Shad hadn't forgotten to use his magic, the Truth Crystal, to illuminate the area, but there was clearly no "hidden area" in the tower.

As dawn broke on Friday morning, the two, who had been busy all night, returned to their camp at the foot of the tower for breakfast and rest.

Although the current investigation has not yet yielded any definitive results, the restoration of the tower has at least provided some clues.

"This tower is older than I thought. Perhaps the building materials were changed along the way, but judging from the style of the building and the details inside, the history of this tower is no shorter than that of the Temple of Time in the Vistalin, which is now the 'Golden Music Hall'."

"Is this tower also an architecture that can be traced back to the mythical era?"

Shad asked, and Daniste was quite certain of it:

"Yes. It seems that the secret of this tower is probably directly related to the ancient gods. Teacher came here in search of the moon goddess back then, and it seems that he really came to the right place."

She was holding a cup of hot milk:

"The Music Order comes to this mountain forest every few years to perform for the moon, but for over a thousand years, as recorded, they have never found anything unusual about the tower. In the decades since the teacher disappeared, they have also never found any cursed trees in this mountain forest."

I had expected this operation to be fruitless, but the fact that we found the bodies and can send people to Stranglethorn Vale to continue the investigation is already quite good. Today is Friday; we'll stay another day. If there are still no leads, we'll leave tomorrow during the day.

Shade shook his head:

“I don’t have anything else to do, so I can stay here for a few more days. If we still don’t find any clues by tomorrow, let’s stay until next Monday. We’ll use illusion magic to conceal this tower and come back when we have a better idea of ​​what to do next.”

Daniste nodded slightly:

“Our search has been thorough enough, and I think the clues may not be found on the surface. It’s possible that we’re missing some important step, such as a ritual, a key, or a token.”

The teacher most likely opened the Silver Moon Gate to enter the library here. But we couldn't find the gate, and even you can't sense its presence, so I don't think there's much point in staying any longer. Let's do it on Monday then.

Shad used a spoon to serve himself and Daniste the meat porridge, while Mia lowered her head to drink goat's milk. Although they were away from home, their lives hadn't changed much.

"We're just one step away from uncovering the secret, and I feel we should make some progress in the next few days. Think about it, is there anything important we haven't done here yet?"

"The relics were useless, the prayers were ineffective, and the calculations of the stars and the moon phases yielded no results. There were no unusual areas inside the tower, and the moon seen from the top of the tower was not the one you described. We explored both day and night, and even searched the nearby mountains and forests carefully."

The sorceress spoke softly, but after searching for most of the week, her enthusiasm had waned, and she had essentially accepted the possibility that the operation might yield no results:
"We can't think of any other way for the time being. Tonight, let's hold a moon-worshiping ceremony in front of the tower."

"Is it enough for just the two of us?"

"It's alright, we can simplify the ritual. Besides, you possess the Secret Fire, which in the era when the ancient gods still existed could basically be considered as the chosen ones of the gods. With you, we don't need any more people."

"Since we have time during the day, let's build an altar first. We don't lack materials, but I need to think about what scale of sacrificial ceremony to use."

Shad was also thinking about what else they could do, or whether they had forgotten to do something. He felt the answer was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't quite grasp it.

Why didn't you ask me?

"She" asked gently in the morning breeze, and Xia De then inquired:
"Alright then, shall we?"

All the memories of the past week flashed through his mind, followed by the methods and techniques he had used to solve various puzzles. Before he could finish his question, Xia De suddenly raised an eyebrow.

With a light laugh from "her," Shad put down his soup bowl and looked at Daniste:

"Perhaps there really is one thing we haven't done yet."

"whats the matter?"

"sleep."

The sorceress blushed, remembering how Shad had been doing this frequently these past few days:

"Don't be in such a hurry, wait until I finish eating~"

"what?"

Xia De paused for a moment, then immediately shook his head:

"No, no, I mean actually sleeping. We haven't had a good night's sleep since we arrived here on Monday evening."

(End of this chapter)