Chapter 268 — Deteriorating

"In principle, that's how it works..." Suojilin said, less than certain. "But I heard the elven magisters of that era say that every Sentinel Tower was built with an enormous margin, enough to cope with sudden large-scale surges within the Gondor Wasteland. Moreover, across the entire protective barrier zone, fifty percent of the Sentinel Towers have backups. If the barrier truly began to overload, those towers would activate at once to balance the load. There shouldn't be any such severe problem as the barrier temporarily failing..."

"Ah, the backup Sentinel Towers. I've heard of that arrangement too—it does exist," Gao Yang said as the relevant data surfaced in his memory. "Hmm... Have you been back to your homeland in all these years?"

"Only once, three hundred years ago," Suojilin said with a faint smile. "It's truly difficult to make the journey. There's the Gondor Wasteland in the middle of the continent; to return to the Silver Empire from the north, one must circle more than halfway around the whole continent. And I don't have a griffin or a dragonhawk of my own."

"Then how do you normally keep in touch with your kin? Or... do you still maintain contact with your homeland now?"

"Contact there still is," Suojilin explained. "The Sentinel Towers themselves possess a magical communication function and can relay signals from the Court of the Radiant Vault—that function exists precisely to monitor the condition of each Sentinel Tower. Within Typhon's borders and along the western frontier of Ansoul, there are barrier monitoring stations established by the Silver Empire; I can reach my homeland through them. But not frequently—the information the Sentinel Towers can transmit is limited, while elves who wander abroad are many."

"Then when was the last time you communicated with the Silver Empire?"

"You're worried..." Suojilin realized Gao Yang's concern. "Worried that the maintenance of the Great Wall has already gone wrong, but the silver elves haven't told the world?"

"I can't rule out the possibility. After all, ever since the great information network conduit between the Gondor Empire and the Silver Empire collapsed, it has been hard for the human nations to receive news of the elves in timely fashion. On the continent today, only the Highland Kingdom in the far south maintains direct contact with the elves—and the Highland Kingdom is the most mysterious of the four human nations," Gao Yang said unhurriedly. "Even setting everything else aside, the Great Wall is indeed having problems now, yet no word at all has come out of the silver elves. That in itself is cause for worry, is it not?"

Suojilin's expression turned grim. He made no attempt to conceal the worry deep in his heart. Though he had lived in the human world for many years, Suojilin was ultimately still a silver elf, and it was impossible for him to set aside his homeland.

"The last time I contacted my homeland was over a decade ago... As you know, by elven reckoning of time, that was not long ago," Suojilin raised his head and looked at Gao Yang. "But now I feel it's necessary for me to make contact again... As a high-ranking ranger, I know quite a few people of some standing in the Silver Empire. Perhaps I can find out how matters stand with the Great Wall."

"While you're at it, you can tell them about 'Gao Yang Cecil's resurrection.' I have quite a few acquaintances among you silver elves—that should make your contact be taken more seriously," Gao Yang nodded. "Even if nothing has gone wrong within the Silver Empire itself, it would be well to tell them that the northern barrier has briefly failed. It's a warning of sorts—after all, the Dark Mountains line is the hardest stretch of the entire Great Wall to monitor. Who knows, your magisters may not even know yet that the barrier is having problems."

Suojilin nodded gravely. "Very well."