The bright bonfire jumped into Fang Plover's field of vision.
Warm light casts on the open fields in all directions, and the whistling sound of the flames rising and burning has long been concealed by people's chatter, interspersed with a few sharp children's screams and laughter, but at this moment, There was no one to blame them anymore.
Fireflies were flying on the dark lake. At this time, a witch doctor in a yellow robe walked down from a high platform in the distance. The crowd became slightly quieter and made way for him, allowing the old man to slowly walk to the bonfire. Under the light of the fire, mysterious patterns were painted on the bronze face of the witch doctor. He held a cane with bone fragments hanging in one hand and a simple stone slab in the other.
Fang Plover learned about the general steps of this celebration from the clergy in the Malan Temple.
First, the igniter will light the holy fire, and then a great celebrant will come up and recite prayers, praying to Andromeda that more life will be born in the desert, and the shadow of the flame will take away the decay; after the celebratory ceremony is over, , King of Sand Babartan will appear and accept the audience of his people, and then receive the envoys of Corrin-Ithurion and present gifts.
After all this is over, there will be carnival, dancing and dining. The celebration will last until midnight, and those who don't want to leave can even stay until dawn.
Then the guards would drive away the remaining people and close the palace door.
This elderly witch doctor should obviously be the person performing the ceremony.
Fang Yu had no intention of listening to the long prayer recited by the other party, and turned around to look in other directions: more and more people were gathering into the open space, and the light of the bonfire only illuminated a small area under the high platform. It's just a circle, and in the darkness in the distance is a vast sea of light like stars - those little bits of light are exactly the crystals of light in people's hands.
The light in the darkness extends beyond the palace.
Most of the residents of Questac should be gathered at this moment, and there is a larger square outside the palace, which should be equally spectacular at this moment.
The guests who could enter the palace were mostly nobles and merchants of some status, not just civilians. He had Aleph's warrant to enter. Ordinary people who are not qualified will gather in the square outside the palace, where there are more and bigger bonfires than here, and there are various performances.
The royal family outside will distribute food, fruits, vegetables and fine wine so that the poor can also participate in this annual celebration.
On the contrary, the nobles need to bring their own food——
Fang Yu thought this was humane. After all, the princes just needed a social occasion and didn't care about food and drink. They had many servants, and they could just ask the servants to bring enough food and wine to hold a banquet.
In addition to these two places, major temples will also be open today. Believers will perform evening prayers and share the Holy Communion in the temples. The scene he saw before leaving Ms. Marland's church was that he was preparing for the church. Prepare for the big celebration tonight.
However, this celebration is only grand in Cuestac. In other areas of Istania, it is often just each family's own preparations. There are no parades and carnivals, unlike the Winter Festival in Korin-Ithurion. Generally, it is held from north to south, even in places where it doesn't snow, such as Vanlike.
Fang Plover withdrew his gaze, and the ceremony bearer finally finished his prayer.
"May Andrma bless the Silver Sand Sea."
The other party concluded with a congratulatory message.
The guests in the square also responded in unison, and the prayers came and went one after another, like the waves of the sea.
For the Istanians, the sand sea is one with them. This thousand-year homeland carries the living civilization of the desert people.
This congratulation was said in the Kaolin language, which should be understood by even plovers. This was definitely not the case in the past, but after Istania joined the Kaolin-Ithurion, the tourists and the chosen ones More and more, this ancient country has to 'do as the Romans do' and make some adjustments and innovations.
Fang Plover looked around again, secretly guessing how many of the guests present were the chosen ones.
Every year, the Penelope royal family invites some guests who are not nobles into the palace to participate in this celebration. Most of these invitees are selected people - tourists to be precise. As you can imagine, this is actually a business. How many people to invite and who to invite are naturally private transactions between the royal family and major travel agencies.
Every year, almost 300 quotas are allocated to major travel agencies. These travel agencies are the "cross-border travel agencies" that Fang Lu has heard of in the past. Of course, Stargate Port's sightseeing channels are not operated by Stargate Port itself. Behind the scenes are more than a hundred 'cross-border travel agencies', large and small, all over the world.
There are about twenty-seven such travel agencies in the third division, of which there are three larger ones. Ai Xiaoxiao's family and Tang Xin came to Aitaria through one of the three "Xinghui" travel agencies. Among them, the Sand Celebration It is one of the classic sightseeing items, Ai Xiaoxiao has mentioned it more than once.
However, the sightseeing itinerary is divided according to seasons, and Ai Xiaoxiao's and his party's itinerary did not originally include this celebration. In fact, if the Star Gate had not been postponed, their family and Tang Xin would have returned to Earth long ago, and naturally they would not be able to catch up with the celebration.
Ai Xiaoxiao felt quite pity when he mentioned this matter.
Fang Yu looked around and didn't know if she and Tang Xin were here. They should be with other people from the Seven Seas Brigade.
After the ceremony leader announced the start of the celebration, the atmosphere around him suddenly relaxed. The open space was already crowded with people, and people's discussions became more and more noisy. Everyone was more or less excited, and some people laughed from time to time. came the voice.
Officials of the royal family appeared on the high platform. Fang Plover glanced in that direction twice and realized that Babartan, the King of Sand, might appear next. He was also a little curious about the legendary Sand King, but he had more important things to do at the moment and had to go away. When Babartan appeared later, the scene would definitely become quiet again.
If it is too orderly, it will be inconvenient for him to do things.
While there was still a commotion in the open space, he turned around, separated from the crowd and walked towards the outside. He has entered the palace no less than twenty times in the past few days. Although he has not found any opportunities to enter the forbidden palace, he is already very familiar with the peripheral areas of the palace and has roughly found a few routes to enter the forbidden palace.
Because he was surrounded by high-status nobles, although there was a huge crowd of people, everyone relied on their status and it was not as crowded as a sardine can outside the palace. He didn't spend much time before he separated from the crowd and walked to the outside of the open space. There were naturally guards guarding and patrolling outside, but when Fang Plover saw this scene, he was not surprised but happy.
As expected, in order to prevent any accidents, the Penelope royal family dispatched more guards to this place to maintain order on this day. But the number of troops guarding the palace is limited. If there are more troops here, there will naturally be fewer troops there. This is a matter of course.
He calmly walked to the outside of the square, towards the library. The guards guarding there had become familiar with him in the past few days. They probably knew about his relationship with Prince Aleph and looked at him when he came over. Asked:
"The celebration is about to begin, wouldn't Mr. Ed stay a little longer?"
"The carnival hasn't started yet, is the library open?" Fang Yu asked hypocritically.
The guard smiled secretly, not expecting that this young alchemist, like them, was only interested in the carnival in the second half of the celebration. "It's not time for the library to close yet, Mr. Ed."
Fang Yu nodded, thanked the other party, and walked in that direction.
But of course he wasn't going to the library. After walking a short distance, he suddenly turned and walked into a path without leaving a trace. As soon as he entered the path, he ducked behind a bush in a familiar manner, hid in that place and looked around, and the surroundings were quiet.
After confirming that there was no one around, Fang Plover took off his coat and hid it under a bush. Then he took out a robe that had been prepared and put it on with a turban, covered it again, and took out a robe from the bag. He only controls the gloves, opens the craftsman system, and instantly reconstructs a knight's scimitar and wears it on his body.
He took out a small steel-faced mirror and looked at himself. Judging from the general appearance, if you didn't look carefully, he looked like a palace guard or a desert knight.
The only thing that dissatisfied him was that it was a little shorter.
The Istanians probably have some djinn ancestry, and their average height is quite high. The palace guards are strictly selected, and they are all tall and tall, taller than ordinary people.
He was wearing such a robe, compared with ordinary desert knights, he looked nondescript, like a Papalar wearing human clothes.
But forget it, it’s just enough.
After making these preparations, Fang Yu took out a dark crystal from his pocket. Naturally, if you want to enter the palace, you cannot bring any weapons. Neither can flexible construction, nor can information crystals. However, he used some tricks to change his information crystal into a communication crystal.
But in this way, the original communication crystal can no longer be carried. After all, no one would bring two communication crystals on their body to arouse suspicion.
Fortunately, the communication crystal is not used in the first place, so there is no need to worry about it——
He released two 'Wasp-I's from the information crystal, then released them one after another, pulled down the goggles, and began to investigate the surrounding situation.
After the previous few days of testing, he was actually very familiar with this area - this path would lead to a quiet garden, where after passing through an iron gate, he would enter the courtyard of the Forbidden Palace. ; On weekdays, of course there were heavy guards there, and there were two teams of guards patrolling the nearby paths. He wanted to cross the iron fence and enter the forbidden palace, but he had no chance to do it.
But after the palace's troops were deployed today, the defense here was obviously much empty. Fang Plover soon saw through the clockwork goblin's vision that although the patrolling guards were still there, there was obviously one less team than before. He let his 'Wasp-I' fly lower, passed through the sight of a clockwork goblin suspended in the air, and slipped from below unnoticed.
Naturally, there are alchemists among the royal guards, and Fang Pultru discovered this early on.
After passing through the field of vision, he easily saw the fence gate in that direction. There were still guards guarding the gate, but the number was at least half reduced.
Seeing this, Fang Plover finally breathed a sigh of relief. It was almost as he expected, and his chance had come. He then carefully let his clockwork fairy rest on the tree there, keeping the camera pointed in the direction of the guards, then raised his goggles and looked around again - after confirming once again that no one was around, he Walked out of the bush.
Fang Yu took a gentle breath, saying that it was impossible not to be nervous in his heart. Although such sneaking in seemed to be a common occurrence for him, this kind of catching would cause huge disputes, which was obviously different from the previous ones. Too same.
He allowed himself to calm down. The words that Bishop Faris had said to him before seemed to have worked. After all, he clearly understood what he was doing and what the purpose of doing it was. The remaining hesitation in Fang Plover's heart was no longer too much.
He pulled his hood and walked towards the route he had already planned.
He first waited behind a palm tree for the guard to pass by. About ten seconds later, rustling footsteps passed by. The guards would pass by about once every two minutes. He already knew this pattern, but it was much better than the frequency where the two teams of guards would pass by once in less than a minute.
After passing the guard, he turned in another direction and walked behind the tree wall made of pruned shrubs. As soon as he passed through the tree wall, a tall black shadow rushed towards him with a striking red light.
"Intruder!"
It makes a low humming sound.
But as soon as the mechanical voice came out, Fang Plover conjured a crystal from his hand like magic and pointed at it. With a flash of green light, the huge figure stopped in place.
This was a military puppet. Fang Plover looked up at the three-meter-tall, motionless copper-skinned man. The red crystal on its chest shone like an eye. Since he chose this path, he naturally knew that there would be some trap guards on this road, and he had tried it several times before.
In the past few times, he used the excuse that he was unfamiliar with the place where he lived and often got lost in the palace. Then the guardian of the library and Aleph testified that every time, there was no danger. After all, he didn't really want to enter the forbidden palace at that time, and there was no evidence if he allowed the other party to check.
The palace is so big, the most the guards can do is laugh at the 'hillbilly' alchemist who can't find his way over to the library.
The golem is not a flexible construct of an alchemist. It is actually a creation of a magician, and does not require anyone to control it from behind. But although this kind of thing is trouble-free, it also has hidden dangers. As long as you have the corresponding password and 'key', you can easily control it - and there are also some methods that can make them temporarily stop their actions. Of course, these methods are not suitable for ordinary people. Complex, but nothing to a professional alchemist.
The crystal in his hand can temporarily block its magic transmission for a period of time, which lasts for about five minutes. After five minutes, the golem will resume action, and everything will be as normal, and no one can find any problems.
Besides, who would bother to check a golem that clearly has no malfunction?
After passing through the golem, there were several guard dogs in the tree wall maze at the back, but Fang Plover suspected that those might not be specialized guard dogs—perhaps they were royal hunting dogs. But dealing with these hounds is even easier. Fang Plover only needs to release Miss Nini.
The little girl with long flaming hair jumped forward, baring her teeth and claws:
"rua!"
Several hounds were immediately frightened to the point where their legs and feet became weak, and their limbs and heads lay on the ground, trembling, and they only made "hoo-hoo" in their mouths. How could they dare to bark at all?
Fang Yu was very satisfied with Nini's intimidating power, which Miss Tata could not do. After all, the artificial dragon soul was just called a dragon soul and did not really have the power of a giant dragon. But Nini is different. Although her name is Nini, she is actually the genuine soul of Nicol Bolas, the only true dark dragon in seven hundred years - compared to Toragothos, he is Consider it a semi-finished product.
And it is unknown whether Toragotos is dead or alive.
After passing through the maze of tree walls guarded by hounds, the iron fence behind is clearly visible. Before crossing here, one had to be careful of the guards patrolling in the other direction, but Fang Plover happened to see through the clockwork goblin's field of vision that the guards had just come here and turned around, walking in the other direction. .
No one will disturb him for two minutes.
Fang Plover walked toward the iron fence. Through the fence, he could already see the quiet royal courtyard. A white corridor passed through the courtyard and extended into the distance until it disappeared behind the shade of the trees. There seemed to be a body of water there that shimmered under the starlight, and I didn't know if it was connected to the lake outside.
He looked behind him to make sure it was empty, then approached the fence, but didn't put his hand on it immediately. Instead, he took out a scroll that had been prepared, chanted it gently and lit it, and then a faint light emerged from the scroll and covered the fence.
Magic Suppression Scroll.
It was worth seventeen hundred Lisels. He got it from the Woodpecker Brotherhood. It was still at a discount, but it was worth the money. As expected, there was a faint white light on the fence, which showed that it was originally attached to the fence. Magic is about anti-invisibility and magic alarm.
Fang Yu secretly said that he was lucky. He originally wanted to save this scroll, but luckily he didn't.
After dealing with the situation on the fence side, he covered his face, climbed up the fence, and carefully climbed over the top of the fence. Since it was only the boundary between the inner and outer palaces, the iron fence was not very high. It was obviously not as tall and insurmountable as the outer palace wall, so Fang Plover was given a chance.
After climbing over the fence, he jumped down with a pop. Behind the fence was a piece of soft mud. The square plover rolled on the ground and was not injured. It was just stained with some moss and mud.
He patted himself and got up, but as soon as he stood up, he couldn't help but froze.
Because as soon as he got up, he noticed a figure walking out from behind the bushes not far away.
The figure was obviously frightened when he saw him, and couldn't help but let out an "ah" sound. Fang Yu was stunned as soon as the sound came out.
It was a woman's voice.
And he knew him.
It was none other than Princess Afifah, the eldest princess’s younger sister.
…
Miaoshuwu
