Time flies.
I set off from Xinjing at the beginning of the new year. After a fairly short journey, something happened in the middle and I lost a traveling companion. Then I arrived at Fuso, a country within a country that seemed to be isolated from the world. In the blink of an eye, Winter, which was no longer noticeable in central Crescent Continent, quietly left.
But the arrival of spring does not always mean good things. As the temperature rises, the water vapor spreads from the mountains, forming a thick fog that permeates the town paths and prevents pedestrians from seeing beyond 20 meters.
Walking on the 4,000-year-old ancient streets in Fuso, pedestrians covered in thick fog look like ghosts, coming from nowhere. They pass by and disappear again.
The continuous rain has lasted for more than a week since the day after the group arrived. The drainage canals of this old town near Guanmen are almost overflowing, while the Jingang County near Shanchengguan, a few kilometers away behind them, has been raining continuously for more than a week. The tall and huge outline of the mountain was also lost in the drizzle and thick fog.
Fuso, surrounded by the continuous spring water vapor in central China, seems to be like an isolated island on land, blocked by the white mist of water vapor, even without those strict gate guards. It is difficult to imagine the endless horizon. There are beings other than yourself outside.
And it seemed that just to deal with the thick fog, even if it was not night, the stone pillars built by the elves emitted a bright light.
The light they seem to emit in dense fog is slightly different from night lighting: the light that comes on the night they arrive here is soft and not dazzling, but it is difficult for such light to penetrate the dense fog. Therefore, in foggy days, the light emitted by the light beam is even brighter, and when viewed up close, it is almost as dazzling as looking directly at the sun.
It exists almost eternally, requires no human maintenance and supplies, and has no cost investment, but it provides great convenience to people's lives.
It is said that similar stone pillars are scattered throughout Fuso territory, and the spreading roads can extend up to dozens of kilometers. It is a very huge project if you think about it carefully.
People here trust this existence, relying on these luminous stone pillars to greatly enrich their ability to travel and work at night and in bad weather. It has long been a part of local culture, even a very important part.
But despite trusting and even relying on them, most people have no idea about their existence.
Either they will only repeat the rhetoric of "this is a miracle", or they will refuse to answer and be extremely resistant, as if it is all a dream that will be exposed once they try to delve deeper, causing "the miracle to disappear".
Elf magic is indeed a very advanced technology from a human perspective, but the attitude of these ordinary people towards it is completely different from the attitude of the Rigar people towards magic.
If the attitude of Rigal people is: "Oh, you can do magic, it's amazing, and I can do backflips!" If this is limited to praising the other person for some talent that he does not possess, Kazuto's attitude is almost to the point of A level of extreme awe that should not be explored or studied.
Mira was even a little bit ready to throw a magic spell to see how these people would react.
There is no mercenary guild or magician academy here. And it all seems intentional.
Even Aya, who was the most knowledgeable doctor in the Moon Country, did not realize how strange all this was until she came into contact with the group and came to Fuso in person.
Living in New Moon Continent for more than 20 years, she has been exposed to the crystallization of the highest wisdom, but she had never paid attention to these stone pillars before.
Magic does not exist in Crescent Continent. They have not yet seen the techniques of the so-called Onmyoji faction; the spells used by the witches; the strengthened war marks on the ghosts, and these stone pillars. From a Rigarian perspective these can all be attributed to the realm of magic. But Kazuto interpreted it as a miracle, and only certain classes were allowed to have contact with it.
As for these existences that are not technologies but some kind of buildings that most people can access, according to Ling, they do not exist in the library of Tiange Academy that theoretically contains the entire New Moon Continent’s wisdom. ——Of course, our cautious doctor lady also added that although she had consulted many, there were still many books in the academy’s collection that she had not read.
But from a common sense point of view, it is indeed very strange that such a large stone pillar that exists in the old capital of New Moon Continent is not regarded as some kind of miracle worthy of special mention.
The local people's attitude towards them seems to have a general answer to all this: it is like sunlight and moonlight, like mountains, rivers and lakes, majestic but natural.
The vast majority of living beings only find the sun dazzling and do not think about why the sun shines. Many people know the relationship between the moon and the tides, but think that it is just natural and does not need to be studied in detail.
Habits are an extremely powerful force.
It allows you to obey something against your intuition and common sense.
Things that are obviously man-made are treated as a background like mountains and seas. People who were born and raised here are accustomed to its existence, and even think that it is not worth writing about or delving into who built it.
From the perspective of our sage, this "habit" of "not caring" is obviously the work of the ruler of Crescent Continent.
There are countless secrets accumulated over 4,000 years, and if there are intentional efforts to erase them from generation to generation, even the most indestructible things will be eradicated.
Kazuto may have refrained from destroying the stone pillars for practical reasons or for other reasons, but everything about their builders had long been forgotten.
This is true even for those descendants who still have the blood of their ancestors flowing through them.
That night, the inn proprietress who met not far from the gate entrance and received the group was a branch of the Hayato tribe known as the Eight Hundred Bi clan. Their bodies are relatively short among the aborigines of Crescent Continent, but their life span is very long. There are many people who still look like teenagers after 50 years old.
This title comes from the rumor that the first generation leader of the clan lived to be 800 years old.
This clan, with an average lifespan of at least 180 years, is a small group among Hayato, but it occupies a relatively important position in Hayato society.
Their most striking feature is the emerald-green pores that are unique among the Kazuto people - and this is actually proof of the dwarf lineage that is the most adept at engineering technology among the major races.
This title can easily be confused with dwarves, and they are even synonyms in many languages of Rigar. The reason is very simple - this weird race hates everyone who is stupider and boring than themselves, which means that they hate the vast majority of humans.
In addition, because the skin of this race is relatively sensitive to other creatures, they wear thick robes most of the time when in contact with people.
The mysterious faceless dwarf craftsmen, because most people are only exposed to the items they produce and have not been able to see their true appearance, this race has even been described by Rigar scholars as a branch of the dwarves.
But the difference between them is significant.
The royal family of the Padrosi Empire, which has more contact with the dwarf tribe, calls it the "Yinlishasa" tribe in its language. This word originates from the ancient Lamani name for the paradise "Yinlishim" and combines the meaning of craftsmen. It means "craftsman of heaven".
And some people call them "dwarfs" and "little elves" - most of the people who call them this have seen the true appearance of the dwarfs.
It's like dwarves are more like shorter humans, with various characteristics similar to humans. The dwarfs are more like smaller versions of elves, with smoother and more beautiful faces and pointed little ears - except that their skin is green.
The strange skin color can easily remind Rigar people of another short humanoid creature, but once you dare to mention the existence of goblins in front of the dwarf and compare the two, you will probably experience a series of mixed feelings. Creatures known and unknown instantly become your relatives in an insulting experience.
——Although this prerequisite is that there must be a dwarf who is willing to put aside his arrogance and listen to you——but let us return to the original point.
The bloodline of the eight-hundred-bit clan in the Hayato tribe has become so weak that it is difficult to see characteristics such as pointed ears and green skin. Although they still have a long lifespan, green children and a series of other characteristics, they are almost just special. A kind of human being.
Despite this, they are still an ethnic group that only exists within Fuso.
Not only that, after hearing the introduction from the proprietress, the group also learned that the Hayato tribe actually has many small branches. There are many subtle cultural and facial differences among them. Intermarriage is still prohibited among some tribes and even some Feuding.
Communicate with each other, one party will tell the interesting things about Rigal, and the other party will introduce the customs and customs of Fuso. This kind of "interesting" and "fresh" thing can attract the attention of this proprietress with ancient blood. Perhaps the blood itself is still at play.
But the more I hear about it, the clearer Xinjing’s plans for Fuso become.
The old capital is Fuso. The capital is adjacent to the Southeast China Sea. The territory is rich in high-quality iron ore, which can be transported to the south through developed water systems.
It sounds very much like a country that developed from the coast of the inland sea of Morbigas and also has the advantages of river water conservancy. And this geographical feature is indeed an important factor for a certain civilization to flourish.
The term "Mother River" is found in the languages of many countries. This is not only because water can be used to irrigate farmland and feed people, but also because water transport has a far greater carrying capacity than land transport and is used for heavy transport such as iron ore and metal products. It can also be used to transport items and can also be used as a vehicle for large-scale military expeditions.
There is a reason why this place would become the land of Longxing in the Moon Kingdom, but Fuso's advantage of being close to the water and the sea has its drawbacks as a capital - because if the capital of a huge empire is placed in such an area that lacks depth, it will be attacked by the enemy. If the army easily approaches and captures it, it will cause a huge blow to the morale of the people and cause the chain of command to become leaderless.
Fuso is the heart of the Moon Country, and Xinjing is the brain of the Moon Country.
Although there are many rich territories in this land, these two provinces are obviously more important than others.
It is no surprise that such an important heartland is protected and strictly screened.
Mottled stone statues with faces molding into the lake can be seen everywhere, and ancient exotic-style stone pillars rise one after another.
The rain stopped, and in the gradually thinning mist, the crimson torii gate on the steep stone steps on the mountain and the inscription rope pulled up in front were faintly visible.
More than 70% of the Hayato clan who have forgotten where their bloodline comes from and only know their current name are engaged in craftsmanship in Fuso.
In the story of conquest written as the "Founding Myth", Kazuto, the new god, defeated the old gods and absorbed their power to acquire their land.
Myths always contain past history.
Nowadays, these Hayato clan, who are gathered together to work conscientiously for the prosperity of Otsuki Kingdom, may have been on an equal footing with them at the beginning, and even strived to compete with the world.
Stars and rivers rotate several times, and new stars rise in the blink of an eye.
After the infinitely prosperous dusk, there will be a new dawn to replace it.
The losers were deprived of even the right to remember the names of their ancestors. They were merged into one nation along with the existence of different factions within the people themselves, but they were deliberately treated in hierarchical terms to prevent them from cohesively forming a united force.
The Hayato clan is a created nation.
This continent is where an organization called Dru Yin, a coalition of several other major races, tasted failure for the first time at the hands of humans.
Today it remains off-limits to them.
But this victory seems not to be considered noble even by the Xinjing royal family.
They deliberately weakened various influences, cut off the country's communication with other continents, and rewrote the original existence of the historical model.
And the reason for it.
The sage stopped.
"Teacher?" Mira called him, and several others also stopped.
They followed his gaze and saw that a seemingly indestructible elven stone pillar had suffered extremely serious damage. Whether it was due to the influence of weathering over time, its edges seemed to have been melted and the interior was full of cracks.
And at its root, a small white flower bloomed proudly.
The feudal lords are the exiled royal family of the Kingdom of the Moon.
They were the victors among the original group of humans, perhaps the descendants of the earliest nobles in the recorded history of mankind.
Well, they have knowledge about the darkness.
Where did it come from.
The answer seems not difficult to guess.
The four thousand years of taboos have been forgotten even by the descendants who still have the blood of their ancestors, and have been selectively excluded from history, leaving only those glorious and touching parts.
But the core members of the royal family still inherit the power that they used in the past.
When used again, it naturally became a boost to the Civil War.
