Chapter 569 — An Incomplete Solution

"We are investigating the early-warning mechanism, and at the same time dispatching mages to inspect every Sentinel Tower along the Barrier," Suoyou said slowly. "But so far no problem has been found. The monitoring of the entire Great Wall is continuous; no suspicious point has turned up in the system. And apart from the monitoring system, we have set up a large number of watchposts on the outer edge of the Wasteland. The watchposts monitor the Barrier twenty-four hours a day. Anything approaching a Sentinel Tower—even a single mouse—will be detected. It is simply impossible for anyone to have had the opportunity to sabotage those towers. We truly do not know where the problem lies."

Listening to Suoyou's words, Gao Yun let out a soft breath, then said: "In any case, by your account, we actually missed a chance to repair the Great Wall..."

"And the best chance at that," Suoyou said with a sigh. "When the fault first appeared, the Sentinel Towers had not yet suffered any substantive damage. We had the opportunity to repair it thoroughly... But there is no use in saying this now. When the initial fault occurred, never mind other Ansul people—even you, at that time, should still have been lying in..."

Suoyou trailed off, a little embarrassed, but Gao Yang was unperturbed: "At that time I was still lying in my coffin—I woke up to find aberrations everywhere. By your account, the last window for emergency repair had already passed."

He died fighting aberrations, and seven hundred years later he woke up still fighting aberrations. "All that grinding in the previous patch was for nothing"—that saying described precisely Gao Yang's situation.

"Let's not discuss what can no longer be remedied. Let's talk about the present situation," Gao Yang said, closing this regrettable and slightly awkward topic and returning to the main line. "You just mentioned there is no thorough repair plan. So what other plan have you brought?"

"Building external amplification devices outside the Wall—an incomplete repair and reinforcement plan. We have brought the data—" As she spoke, Suoyou took from another courier beside her a silver-white cylindrical device. It looked like a scroll, but when Suoyou channeled magic power into it, a clear holographic image suddenly surfaced at the end of the "scroll." In the projection created by illusion magic, a massive tower device and a great many intricate runes and spell-array structures switched continuously from one image to the next.

Suoyou set the "scroll" upright on the table and, maintaining the holographic projection, continued: "This plan is to build paired 'secondary towers' outside some of the Sentinel Towers, providing the Sentinel Towers with additional energy and bearing part of the Barrier's pressure. At the same time, a series of 'pressure-relief points' would be established between the Sentinel Towers and the secondary towers, gradually channeling and releasing the chaotic magical energy accumulated near the Sentinel Towers in a relatively safe manner to the outside of the Barrier, with purification carried out near the pressure-relief points..."

Gao Shao immediately seized on the key point in her words: "You've found a way to purify the magic tide?"

"Seven hundred years—we have not been doing nothing," Suoyou said, showing a faint smile, though there was still something forced in it. "This device cannot purify the entire Wasteland, nor can it purify the magic tide. At present it can only extract a portion of the chaotic magical energy from within the Barrier and carry out purification with limited efficiency. The main purpose is to reduce the load on the Sentinel Towers and relieve the pressure on the repair system. The effect is limited, but better than nothing."

Gao Yang watched the intricate rune arrays and the exploded diagrams of the device within the illusion magic, his gaze solemn and focused.

This was elven technology, different in form from human magic, but its essence and laws still conformed to the descriptions of runic logic. It seemed able to resist the contamination of the magic tide... though only a little, it was indeed effective.

The Silver Empire was indeed declining, but it still possessed reserves of accumulated strength that the other human nations could not remotely match for the time being. Before those reserves were exhausted, they could still produce astonishing technological achievements like this.

After only a few seconds of thought, Gao Yang raised his head and looked into Suoyou's eyes: "Then let's not waste time—which area exactly needs repair? How many secondary towers and pressure-relief points must be built? How much manpower and material will be needed? When does construction begin? And how much time do we have?"

The crisp, decisive questions made Suo You press a hand to the brow and exclaim with feeling, "Good heavens—if those human nobles of Holy Sunir had half your awareness and efficiency, we would most likely have set out to repair the barrier by now!"