Whispering Verse

The windows on the top floor of the clock tower were closed, and there was an extremely strong smell of mechanical lubricating oil in the air. On the floor illuminated by kerosene lamps, spare parts and repair parts for the clock tower machinery were stored.

On the wall on the west side, there is also a complete maintenance operation manual hanging. Those black lines outline simple pictures, describing the details of the maintenance operations in as much detail as possible.

"For a ring magician, knowledge and power are actually the same."

The doctor continued to speak, but at this time he bent down and placed the suitcase on the ground. After carefully opening it, he revealed the expensive ritual materials that Shade had prepared for this.

"You are really willing to spend money. Even if you can buy cheap smuggled goods, these materials will not cost less than four-digit gold pounds."

The doctor sighed and made arrangements with Shade.

"Yes, for a ring wizard, knowledge and power are almost equal."

Shade agreed while placing the suitcase he was carrying very carefully against the wall because it contained dangerous items.

They squatted on the floor together and used blue chalk to outline the lines of the ritual formation. Doctor Schneider was much better at drawing circles with his bare hands than Shade. The basic array of this ceremony is roughly in the shape of a complex nested clock dial.

"Those who are addicted to power will be lost, and those who are addicted to knowledge will also be lost. I have heard a saying that for wise people, wisdom is their biggest enemy."

The doctor said, and Shade also smiled and added:

"I have also heard a saying that knowledge is bait on the ocean of ignorance."

He put down the chalk, ground the clockstone heart into powder, and mixed it with the heart-extracting liquid of the two-headed red-eyed demon wolf. After confirming that the color turned into the blue mentioned in the ritual record, I dipped a small brush made of Gray Night Rabbit's tail hair into it, and then brushed it along the chalk mark drawn by the doctor.

The blue liquid mixed with the blue chalk marks actually formed gray marks.

“But the desire for knowledge is also the most fundamental driving force for human progress.”

The doctor is still imparting life experience to Shade. In his view, Shade, who has only been a ring warlock for half a year and is the youngest in the group, is far from mature:

"I am older than you, and I have seen with my own eyes how the world has changed in the steam revolution in the past thirty years, so I can better understand the importance of knowledge and wisdom. Unfortunately, knowledge and wisdom are dead , and people are alive.”

He chuckled:

"For you, Lykins Plisha may be the first madman who seeks knowledge that you have met. But for me, I have seen many things like Lykins Plisha. Huan If the warlock's loss of control has nothing to do with the influence of the relic, most of it is due to the inability to control the desires in his heart."

Shade nodded, stood up and corrected the position of the ritual array:

"So doctor, what do you think knowledge is and what is wisdom?"

"I'm just helping you with the ceremony tonight, why are you asking about such a philosophical topic?"

The doctor stood up, finished the simple arrangement of the ritual matrix, and placed the symbols into the empty rings. It was almost time to perform the "time perception" enhancement ritual that Shade had been waiting for for a long time.

Shade was not sure whether he was the first person to perform this ritual, and therefore did not know whether people in history gave a new name to the sublimated thaumaturgy of "time perception."

The two took out the five antique pocket watches rented by Shard from the box and adjusted the time to one o'clock three, five seventeen, eleven o'clock, fifteen twenty-one, and twenty-three respectively. Forty o'clock - the pocket watch still shows twelve hours, but there are up and down arrows on the side of the dial to indicate whether it is am or afternoon. Pausing the time on his pocket watch, he then took out eight silver hourglasses of the same size. These were sterling silver antiques that Shade had borrowed from Miss Carina's manor.

The candle was lit, the magic potion to enhance perception was drank by Shade, the [Eternal Youth Leaf] as a ritual auxiliary item was held in Shade's mouth, and the most important item, the suitcase on the wall, was also Shade opened it very carefully.

"But if we really want to talk about what knowledge and wisdom are."

The doctor had exited the ceremony site and leaned against the fence as Shade opened his suitcase. The moonlight shone into the top floor of the clock tower from the window, illuminating the ceremony venue and Shade's profile, while the doctor stood completely in darkness. Behind him, huge gears of different sizes drove the chain to rotate, which in turn drove the hands of the clock tower dial on the outside of the wall to rotate.

"Knowledge is a tool to gain power; wisdom is a way to use power. Knowledge and wisdom are ways to help me pass the exam."

"This answer is really pragmatic."

Shade smiled, his voice a bit muffled because he had leaves in his mouth.

He looked at the square stone in the suitcase. On the surface of the stone, the Holy Emblem of the Righteous God [Mr. Dawn] and the prayers were carved by Priest August himself. Moreover, this stone was dug out by the priest from the main auditorium of the church. Brick.

Brass-colored locks are nailed to the surface of the stone. After opening the lock, the upper part of the stone is removed, and you can see the antique hourglass embedded in it.

Three thin glass pillars surround the main body of the glass hourglass. The fine sand in the glass shows a shining silver, as if the stars are imprisoned in it. The glass pillars are hollow and filled with dots of golden sand, while the upper and lower domes of the hourglass are made of an unknown silver-green stone that feels extremely smooth to the touch.

The stone dome is polished extremely smooth, and has the patterns of a clock dial and a giant tree.

The entire hourglass was almost the size of two palms. After Shade grabbed the thin pillars on the side and lifted it up, fine streams of light flew around the three thin glass pillars, and then wrapped around Shade's hand. He had an inexplicable feeling at this moment, as if what he was lifting was not an hourglass, but a long river.

The flying light is like a dancing elf. In Shade's eyes, it constitutes an ancient elf inscription. Its meaning is roughly:

【Time will treat all creatures fairly. 】

"That's what you said."

The doctor asked in surprise, Shade nodded:

"Yes, the angel-level relic that was borrowed."

In fact, it was agnostic, but Shade was afraid of scaring the doctor.

Since no information could be found about the unknowable relic [Time to Rewind], Luvia and Priest Augustus only knew that it could rewind time, but they did not know how to start it or how to end it normally. But this relic is particularly sensitive to the power of [Mr. Dawn] and is almost completely suppressed by the power of this righteous god. Therefore, since it has been suppressed under the statue for a long time, the whispering element is very weak at this time, and the relic itself does not have to worry about suddenly losing control.

It’s just that Shade has to return it as soon as possible, otherwise other accidents will definitely occur. When Luvia and Priest August took it in, they only saw the relic itself and instantly lost all ability to perceive time. If Luvia hadn't contained the hourglass in time, the priest's consciousness would have been lost in the turbulent flow of time.

Of course, neither he nor Priest August nor Luvia thought about understanding the characteristics of this relic and then using it in daily life. An unknown relic has no possibility of being used by mortals.

If other levels of relics are to be used with caution, then only level 0 relics must not be used for purposes other than containment. The only exception is when thirteen-ring warlocks deal with enemies that humans cannot deal with.

"Doctor, it's time to start."

Shade said, carrying the very light hourglass with one hand and walked to the center of the ritual array. After carefully lying down, he placed the hourglass at the position of his heart.

The doctor nodded silently and closed his eyes. When he opened it again, a scarlet light flashed in his right eye. The ancient demonic power instantly affected the area. The power that should not exist in this era immediately stimulated the ritual.

A faint white mist rose from the ground, and within half a minute, it covered Sha De who was lying on the floor.

Shade opened his eyes and looked at the thick fog that obscured his vision, and then heard the clicking sound of the pocket watch they stopped at the same time. Eight antique hourglasses shimmered in the fog. The gravel that was originally at the bottom flew upwards as if time was reversed. The [Time of Retrospect] held by Shade seemed to melt into his body. It sank little by little on his chest until it completely disappeared from his chest.

A slight tingling sensation in the heart came, and the corners of Shade's mouth trembled, feeling as if he was lying in a flowing river.

He endured the strange feeling and said silently in his heart:

"Praise the Father of the Infinite Tree, may the World Tree protect me in time."

sand~sand~sand~

He heard the sound of the treetops swaying in the wind and felt the breeze blowing through his body. So he followed his own feelings, covered his stinging heart, sat up in the fog, and saw the giant tree in front of him that seemed to connect the sky and the earth.

The ancient trees record the stories of the years, and every leaf has the song of time.

Shade was very familiar with this tree, and even this fog, because what he saw in front of him was the shadow left by the ancient god [Father of the Infinite Tree] after he left.

The shadow of the giant tree was reflected in Shade's eyes, and his stinging heart beat as the treetops trembled when the wind blew. The stories of time are all recorded on the annual rings of the World Tree. Looking at this tree, you already know those past stories.

[Outlander, you have come into contact with a "miracle". 】

[The breeze of time blows open the curtain of time, bringing the stories of the past to you. When your soul touches the truth of time in the long river of time, what is waiting for you at the end is the figure of the father of the infinite tree. 】

[Foreigners, the thaumaturgic "time perception" has been sublimated. 】

[You have obtained the thaumaturgy "Contact the Father of the Infinite Tree", and you can perceive the truth of time in more detail. 】

Shade opened his mouth slightly and looked at the giant tree in front of him:

"Perceiving time has become perceiving the shadow of the tree father. This is really reasonable. So, the point in time I am at now is"

The truth that had been explored finally appeared in his mind at this moment, and the long river of time finally became coherent in Xia De's eyes.

There was no surprise at this moment, only a sudden calmness, as if everything had lost its meaning in attracting him.

The white mist gradually dissipated, and the sublimation ceremony of thaumaturgy ended in a brief vision. When Shade came back to his senses, he found that he was still lying on the floor, and the [Time of Recall] on his chest was still there.

He held the relic in one hand and sat up with the other hand on the floor. Using the new sublimated thaumaturgy, after the sweet sound of the rustling tree crowns being blown by the wind appeared in his ears, Shade got the answer:

"The current time is [the current world, the sixth era, the year 1854 of the universal calendar, the second day of the newborn month, Thursday, 8:05 pm]."

"The present world" is the outsider's own translation, which corresponds to the [past life and sixth era] that has passed.

"After the end of the Fifth Age Witch Era, it was [Past Life·Sixth Era], and then it was still [Past Life·Sixth Era], and then it was [Past Life·Sixth Era] again. It turns out that this is no longer the first Times."