Demon Hunter: I have a red gourd

Chapter 59 Riddle
"So that's how it is." After glancing around, Ivan's eyes showed a look of sudden enlightenment. He finally understood what this altar was all about.

He knelt on one knee and pushed aside the layers of dead leaves covering the bottom of the shrine, revealing half a silver rune on the moss-covered stone slab.

"It is true." Ivan smiled.

He took two steps back, took a deep breath, and quickly made the Alder Seal with his left hand.

Ivan let out a low roar, and a powerful mental shock wave burst out from his palm, carrying a strong airflow and rushing straight towards the altar.

The shrine and wooden statue on the altar were instantly knocked away. After spinning several times in the air, they fell heavily into the bushes in the distance with a dull sound.

At the same time, the messy offerings, red cloths, candlesticks and other objects on the altar were not spared. They were all swept away by the airflow and scattered on the ground.

The altar where the statue was originally placed finally revealed its true appearance. It turned out to be an ancient marble slab covered by dirt and dust. The surface was dark and rough, with some vague runes faintly visible.

Ivan pulled out a dagger from his waist and gently scraped off the dirt on the marble surface. Then he took out a pot of clean water from the leather bag on his horse's back and slowly poured it on the stone slab, washing away the dust and dirt on it.

As the dirt on the surface of the stone slab was slowly washed away by clean water, the blurry runes on it finally became clear.

It was a hexagram formed by overlapping two triangles, its shape ancient and mysterious. Each corner was inlaid with a gemstone of a different color, and three sets of concentric circles extended outward. Between the circles, delicate astrological symbols were meticulously etched like the twinkling stars in the night sky.

As the last bit of dirt was completely washed out of the groove by clean water, the entire magic circle seemed to wake up from a deep sleep, making a subtle humming sound like a string being gently plucked.

The sound was vague, yet clearly audible, as if it was a whisper from a distant time and space, passing through the dust of time.

The moonlight sprinkled on the spells near the hexagram, and the mithril threads embedded in it danced with a faint silver light under the moonlight.

Ivan stared at the spells and realized that they were not magical symbols, but words. However, these words were not the common language commonly used by people in the North, but the ancient language used by elves and sorcerers.

Translated, these ancient words roughly mean: "Starry eyes open and close, silver tears wash away the lines, and the ancient gate will drink the moon and be reborn."

Everything was just as Ivan had guessed. It was not the statue of the Lady of the Forest that caused the demon's mutation, but probably just an ordinary piece of rotten wood.

What really makes the Demon Hunter Badge tremble continuously should be the ancient stone tablet in front of it with the hexagram rune engraved on it.

It was clearly the work of ancient elves, but after so many years, it was buried in dust and mud. Nearby villagers noticed the exquisite architectural patterns near the stone slab and covered it with red cloth, using it as a natural altar to worship the Fairy Mother they believed in.

The hexagram rune on this stone slab should be a magic circle that requires a specific method to trigger.

The Griffin School where Ivan belonged once had a deep research on magic. Because the founder of the school, Elan, had a strong interest in magic, he built a library in the Castle of Caer Sirens and collected a huge amount of magical literature in it.

These documents even attracted the covetousness of the sorcerers. After repeated attempts to obtain them failed, they united and planned an attack. In the mountains where the Siren of Kel were located, they used magic to create a massive avalanche that instantly engulfed the entire castle. With the exception of old Kelda, who managed to survive, all the witchers in the castle did not escape the fatal disaster.

The warlocks took this opportunity to open the portal, used magic to find the magic tome they needed in the snow, and took it away, leaving behind only destroyed buildings and silent ruins.

Upon returning to the castle and seeing this tragic scene, Elan knew that the future of the Griffin School and his own ideals had been shattered. He became disheartened and disappeared.

Only old Kelda dug out the bodies of his companions from the snow and buried them one by one. Then, he continued to guard the ruins of the castle with his love and hope for the school.

The few magical books he had salvaged from the ruins were locked away deep in the castle's basement, preventing even his later apprentices, Cohen and Ivan, from accessing them.

According to him, this knowledge is not a source of power, but a curse, the root of disaster and chaos.

Therefore, Ivan's understanding of magic was limited to the simple popular science knowledge recorded in the witcher books. He knew nothing about the principles of magic and was completely unable to understand how this power worked. Naturally, he could not tell what the hexagram array in front of him was.

Fortunately, he still had some common sense. He knew that when many elven ruins were first built, their creators would often write the method of activating the magic circle in a very secretive way as a riddle around the magic circle that opened the building.

These riddles use the unique language and thinking logic of elves, and only elves can decipher them.

The stone slab in front of me meets this condition. If the runes on it are really the magic circle that opens the ruins, then the spell engraved in ancient language next to it should be the method to activate the magic circle.

"The starry eyes open and close, the silver tears wash away the lines, and the ancient gate will drink the moon and be reborn." Ivan read out this sentence softly in ancient language. His pronunciation was very standard, and the ancient language flowing out of his mouth was exceptionally clear and rhythmic.

The easiest part to understand is the last part - "The ancient gate will drink the moon and be reborn." This clearly means that as long as the previous conditions are met, the ancient gate will open under the moonlight.

And now it happens to be night, which meets the requirements.

What does "star eyes open and close" mean?
The elves love nature, and their riddles are generally related to nature, stars and elements, so this sentence is likely to involve natural elements and celestial phenomena.

"Xing" may refer to stars or constellations, "mu" refers to eyes, and "qihe" means opening and closing. So, "xingmuqihe" means the stars open and close like eyes, so they are twinkling?

Ivan looked up at the stars in the sky. Countless stars were twinkling in the night sky. Which one was it? It was impossible to tell.
No, the stars are different every night, and the method of activating the magic circle is unlikely to be related to the stars in the sky.

Ivan set his eyes on the hexagram rune and noticed the gems inlaid at the corners of each hexagram.

He stretched out his finger and slowly approached one of the gems. The moment his fingertip touched the gem, the gem lit up slightly, then gradually dimmed and flickered softly.

　Thank you for the cool reward from Chunhei, thank you very much
　　
　
(End of this chapter)