Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 107: A Soft Laugh
Celestial Canopy.
Kai restrained the wild joy in his heart and put the medicine bottle back in place.
All this time, the “Celestia Canopy” had been one of the Stargazers’ key research subjects. The Celestial Canopy was the most radical and insane organization of the Night Scourge era.
Amid countless schools of thought that wanted to compromise with the Night Scrouge, the Celestial Canopy persisted in researching the source of the Night Scrouge and strove to defeat it. In that era, this idea was no different from throwing an egg against a rock, a fool’s errand.
If the Stargazers’ speculation was correct, Saint Salaar himself very likely came from the Celestial Canopy. Although there were many theories about his origins, if every other faction compromised and compromised, only for a lone hero who stopped the Night Scrouge with his life to suddenly appear, no matter how one thought about it, it wasn’t very reasonable.
Only, these were ultimately conjectures.
The Celestial Canopy’s research was extremely rare, with only a word or two preserved in those sealed ruins.
Logically speaking, this should have been an obscure, second-rate organization. Yet the data and knowledge it left behind were extraordinarily precious, far surpassing that era.
The manufacturing technology for the “Divine Blood Puppets” was one of the Celestial Canopy’s research results.
Because of this, the Stargazers Society suspected that the Celestial Canopy’s existence and research had been deliberately covered up. Not long ago, Mr. Tenney used his life to construct the Divine Realm of the “Sea of Concepts,” finally confirming this point.
The “Stargazers Society” truly deserved to be the spiritual successor of the “Celestial Canopy”… although that was only a title the Stargazers Society had unilaterally granted itself.
When people raised their heads to gaze at the starry sky, what they saw was a canopy embedded with stars.
The Stargazers still couldn’t see the Celestial Canopy’s full appearance. They could only search for one lost star after another. Like that mysterious vanished organization, they bore the name of lunatics and challenged this world that had compromised with anomalies.
…Now, he had discovered another Celestial Canopy site, and even a medical point. They would definitely obtain quite a bit of new information. Kai was in an excellent mood.
“This place is a medical outpost, not a research outpost, so there shouldn’t be too many traps.”
Kai cleared his throat and stated solemnly, “We just need to continue upstairs. Documents are usually stored near the central control room.”
As he listened, Myss ran his hands over his new arm.
How strange, Lord Archdemon thought. Previously, when he touched this body, he would always feel comfortable or excited. Now that this shell was on him, Myss found it dull and tasteless. That strange warmth was gone, and the soft feeling had become ordinary.
He pressed his chest twice more and let out a soft, wistful sigh.
Half a step away, the Salaar version of “Myss” looked at him, wanting to say something but stopped.
Only then did Myss lower his hands, and while he was at it, lower his head. “Is this place really fine?”
“It is indeed a medical outpost, so the danger is relatively low,” Salaar affirmed.
Wonderful. Myss’s shoulders slumped.
Along their journey, even the tiniest matter had managed to drag out a heap of trouble. At least this adventure environment was acceptable and would let him calmly collect clues about the body swap.
Kai directed the Divine Blood Puppet to continue forward. Everything inside the tower could be called orderly.
There was no complex furniture for noble enjoyment here, only single wooden beds of uniform size, resource crates, and all sorts of strange instruments inside the crates.
The toilets and kitchens were all built against the outer wall, sectioned off with lightweight wooden boards. They were equipped with systems for melting snow to obtain water and draining wastewater. There was even a specialized magic device that collected dried waste to use as fuel for the central chimney.
There were even specific tower levels used for raising chickens, rabbits, and sheep. These livestock compartments were likewise neat and clean. They were completely different from the dungeon they had explored last time, and one could understand the general layout at a glance.
When it came to a medical outpost from the Night Scourge era, Myss had expected to see some bizarre things. As a result, this place was so normal it became abnormal, with a silence that could be called gentle.
Ever since entering the living area, Myss hadn’t seen a single trap. Although this place was dark and old, if one ignored the smell of rotten wood, the air wasn’t too unpleasant. Exploring this place was simply too easy.
“Is this place really a medical outpost? There are so many living facilities.”
Tass curiously flipped through a compartment. Judging by its structure, it seemed to be a laundry room. “It looks like the patients who came here weren’t simply being treated. They seemed to plan to live here until they died.”
“I only found shift registration records.” Father Kalen carefully put down those moldy papers. “Can we really find items related to ‘Saint Salaar’ here?”
“Continue upward,” Peyton said concisely.
As Myss looked around, he discovered that he was almost falling to the rear of the group.
Intentionally or not, he was accommodating Salaar’s pace. He didn’t know whether Salaar was unused to the new body or whether the scene was stirring up memories, but Salaar walked more and more slowly.
Young Salaar stretched out his fingers and lightly stroked those rotten, broken papers. Myss suddenly realized that, for a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old Salaar, the daily life he had been accustomed to had suddenly become a lonely ruin, and the humans he had known had all turned into white bones overnight. For a human, this should have been an enormous shock.
But Salaar was unusually calm. Who knew what he was thinking? In the end, he put down that shift schedule full of blurred names, his fingertips slowly sliding over the rough table.
Looking at that face which originally belonged to him, familiar and yet unfamiliar, Myss found himself speaking on impulse. “Have you lived in a place like this?”
“No.”
Salaar said, “I only knew of its existence.”
Myss gave a hum of acknowledgement and a strange silence fell between the two of them.
Myss couldn’t help thinking, if it were the Salaar he knew, what kind of expression would he show? Not being able to see Salaar’s reaction was truly somewhat regrettable… When this little guy was not acting, his emotions were a bit too muted.
So the portrait in the Karns family’s entrance hall was a completely realistic work. Who knew what Salaar had experienced on the surface? Once they left this place, Myss would have to think of a way to ask.
In this way, the group passed through the living area and the livestock area, finally climbing to the surgical area.
Here, many precise treatment magic devices were stored. There were dedicated operating tables, and many limbs or organs preserved in medicinal fluids. Those body parts often had black-gray skin and were abnormally deformed. At one glance, they had clearly been contaminated by the power of the Night Scourge.
The scent of medicine and the passage of time surrounded them. The specimens were soaked in shadow, leaving only quiet silhouettes.
“…We climbed for nearly four hours. This place shouldn’t be far from the top of the tower,” Kai said in a cheerful voice, scattering the darkness.
“Don’t you all feel this place is a bit off?” Tass muttered.
The priest asked curiously, “Is it that there is too little danger, or…?”
To be honest, Myss also vaguely felt that something wasn’t quite right, but his understanding of the human world was truly limited, and he couldn’t say what it was for the moment.
Hearing this question, Kai stopped. “Now that you mention it, it does feel a little awkward. Let me think… ah.”
He looked around the silent surgical area for a while, and his brow twitched. “There’s no place here to store corpses.”
During the Night Scourge, people would definitely have died, especially in a hospital-like area like this. In normal ruins, even if there were no temporary cemetery, there would be a morgue for storing corpses.
“Maybe they were all burned.” Myss pointed back toward the chimney.
“No, no. Even in that era, people respected corpses, especially in a tower that went to such great lengths to save people.”
The moment the Tower was questioned, Kai immediately explained. “Besides, there would always be people who missed their loved ones and were unwilling to use corpses as fuel. There must be a dedicated corpse-handling site here. We just haven’t found it yet.”
The priest nodded. “I saw that there were supplies left in the crates. They shouldn’t have gone so far as to burn the bodies. Perhaps the corpses were all moved outside the tower and preserved by the Night Scourge’s severe cold.”
“Let’s hope so.” Tass curled his lip, the expression looked odd on Kai’s face.
No one was willing to assume that, in this tower where everything was so complete, all the corpses produced had vanished into thin air.
“Don’t you have any thoughts?”
It was rare for Salaar to have said nothing the entire time, so Myss couldn’t help speaking.
Salaar looked at him deeply for a while before finally responding. “No.”
Myss didn’t believe him. Salaar’s head was full of schemes. This kid definitely knew something.
“You’re lying to me.” He lowered his voice.
Salaar was very calm. “Yes.”
“…”
Myss’s anger surged, yet he couldn’t force this guy to explain on the spot. Huffing with rage, he peeled open a raspberry candy and began crunching it again, pretending it was Salaar’s tongue.
“In any case, you’ll find out soon enough.”
Salaar smiled to himself, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. Whether intentionally or not, he turned his head and glanced behind.
Behind them, there was an even more inscrutable one. Peyton followed like a ghost, as if all discussion had nothing to do with him. Stranger still, Myss kept feeling that this Peyton seemed not very interested in this “precious ruin from the Night Scrouge era.”
Tie these two strange guys together, and you couldn’t even pry a single word out of them with a crowbar, Myss thought sorrowfully.
After climbing another level, everyone fell into silence.
Living quarters, livestock, surgical ward—these were still within their scope of understanding.
But after leaving the surgical ward, never mind Myss, even Tass and Kai stopped speaking. None of them recognized the area they were currently in.
A complexly nested and unusually enormous alchemical magic device occupied nearly one-third of this level’s space. It was fixed to the wall, like a layer of… a digestive system made of glass and metal.
Glass tubes of various shapes were nested and connected, gears and engines mixed among groups of chains, and every gemstone slot was empty, like eye sockets whose eyeballs had been dug out.
This strange magic device covered every surface of the outer wall. Inside it still remained some turbid liquid, and a faint, sweet, bloody smell spread through the air.
On the inner wall, neat grid bookshelves had been built. The compartments were stuffed full of papers. Most had lost their magical protection and already turned into dust and mud.
Only a small portion far from the wall and high enough had been preserved. Kai stood dazed for a long while before remembering to take down a few sheets and carefully unfold them.
[My daughter is named ■■■lo■, and lives in ■■ City ■■■. Please say goodbye to her for me. ■la■■]
[Please give “Research on ■■■” to ■■■■. It’s my favorite book. ■■■liven■]
……
“Wills?”
Kai’s face was somewhat pale, and his voice rippled through the empty tower.
He quickly walked a few steps to another row of shelves far enough away. Then he stood on tiptoe and took down a few more pages. The result was largely the same.
Father Kalen thoughtfully went over to help. He took down papers from the highest level, and the contents still showed no difference.
Thousands upon thousands of decayed parchments, all of them covered with last wishes in different handwriting.
…But there were still no corpses, not even the simplest skeletons. Two wooden wheelchairs were left by the shelves, empty.
“Is that a ‘gate’?” Tass pointed toward that strange magic device with extreme wariness.
Near the ground, the giant magic device had an opening a little over a meter tall. From the outside, it looked like a single-door iron cabinet. Of course, it looked even more like a small door.
This size was just enough to push in a wheelchair with someone sitting in it.
Father Kalen’s expression grew solemn as well.
Everything here was still clean, too clean, making one’s stomach churn.
“This facility isn’t the whole thing. Quite a few tubes lead upward.”
Kai took out an image-recording crystal, the magical glow illuminating his pale face. He cut off the topic about the “door” and pointed overhead.
“There’s nothing else in this place. We need to continue…”
Just then, a scraping sound suddenly came from above. Fine dust drifted down from the ceiling, and a few wood chips crackled as they fell to the floor. The scraping was accompanied by irregular vibrations, like some heavy object being dragged across the floor again and again.
“…upward,” Kai finished dryly.
“Dear Mr. Stargazer, I have to ask, in a normal medical outpost, would there be something that can still go thump-thump strolling around after three hundred years?” The Dragon Fae forced a smile.
“Compared to other ruins, an anomaly appearing only near the top of the tower is our good fortune.”
Kai forced a smile back. “But everyone has been walking for so long, so you must all be tired. Why don’t we retreat to the previous level first and discuss things at length?”
No one objected, not even Myss. After half a day of sightseeing inside the tower, he was indeed hungry. He didn’t want to face the unknown on an empty stomach while deprived of his power.
Sure enough, the word “smooth” had never existed in his adventures.
Lord Archdemon rubbed the stomach that should have belonged to Salaar. This damned brute’s hunger hit with such ferocity that a few candies couldn’t suppress it.
Thinking of this, Myss once again glared at Salaar. “This place sure is safe.”
“The danger is relatively low,” Salaar repeated. “I said ‘relatively’.”
He knew it!
Forget it. The priest and Peyton still retained their combat ability. Besides, they had a retreat route. If they couldn’t win, they could still run, Myss rapidly calculated in his heart.
Suddenly, a soft laugh came from the shadows.
The laughter didn’t come from the unknown space above. It was right beside them. It came from Peyton, who had been walking silently at the back of the group.
Before everyone could react, the short whip shot out accompanied by pale-blue magic. Amid the sound of cutting through the air, the stairs leading downstairs were instantly destroyed. The bookshelves against the wall collapsed with a boom, and wooden planks and scraps of paper poured down, firmly blocking the passage connected to the staircase.
In the blink of an eye, the path downward was completely destroyed.
The tremor reached the floor above, and the strange scraping sound suddenly became rapid. It grew heavier, closer, circling endlessly above everyone.
Ahead was an unknown monster. Behind… There was nothing left. Their retreat path had been destroyed, and everyone was completely trapped on this level.
Amid the flying dust, Peyton lowered the hand holding the whip. He turned around, his plain robe fluttering slightly.
For the first time, an expression other than “calm” appeared on his face: a wide, brilliant smile.
“Peyton, are you insane?!”
Owen, who had been playing dead all this time, finally crawled out of the pocket watch and shouted, dumbfounded.
“Now.”
Peyton Karns’s voice was soaked in amusement.
“Now none of you can run.”
The author has something to say:
Peyton: If there’s no danger, just create some. [doge]
——————————
Lord Myss: The hero cushion is still better to touch when it’s attached to Salaar. [cat paw]
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