Chapter 895 — Never Stopped

"These are essentially the measures we can take right now... Considering that Xuan Yao City has already taken root here for five years, and Fort Defiance has been rooted here for a thousand years, and the Giant Deer Amon is still quietly 'waiting,' then at least in the short term, what we are doing should suffice."

Virolai, platinum scepter in hand, looked over with calm eyes: "And in the long term?"

"The long term..." Gao Rong paused for a moment. "If in the long term we still have no means of dealing with a trapped, weakened god, then we need not bother considering any Defiance Plan at all."

"I understand." Virolai nodded, indicating that she had no further questions.

Gao Yang, meanwhile, sighed softly in his heart.

A trapped, weakened god, was it...

Not long ago, another god had extended an invitation to him, asking him to visit that nation ruled and sheltered by a god. At the time, out of consideration for his own circumstances and out of caution, he had declined that invitation. But today, he had taken the initiative to make contact with a "god" right under his nose... Behind this bold move there was an element of risk, but more importantly, he was more than ninety percent certain that even if the God of Nature lived, He must surely be in a weakened state and incapable of moving freely—on this point, he had great faith in the power of that "God-Slaying Fleet."

If the Giant Deer Amon were not in a trapped state, not affected by any weakness, then he would have absolutely declared an overnight relocation of the capital right then and there—this was not a question of cowardice, but a question of life and death.

After all, the lesson left by the old Imperial Capital of the Typhoon Empire was still fresh in memory.

Just as Gao Yang was thinking of the lesson of the old Typhoon capital, Amber beside him muttered: "Ah... earlier we were joking that the Typhoon people of several centuries ago built Olandell right at the doorstep of the God of Dreams, and now we've built our capital on the grave mound of the God of Nature..."

This remark was exceedingly apt, and the study fell into a sudden silence. Only Heidi, after a few seconds, could not resist lightly nudging Gao Song's arm and whispering: "If that had been Rebecca, I would have already strung her up..."

Gao Cen opened his mouth to speak, but could not help reflecting inwardly: Have I been teaching this disgrace of the Empire too many flippant remarks?

After arranging a series of surveillance and security measures concerning the Dark Mountains and Fort Defiance, Heidi and Amber were the first to leave the room, and then Naritel sank back into the neural network. In the vast study, only Gao Yang and the two Defiers from the Gondor era remained.

The topic quickly turned to the technical domain. Virolai, with a trace of emotion, spoke softly as if sighing: "We now have many new things that require study..."

"Amon mentioned something called the 'Deep Sea.' From my understanding, it should be a part of this world's underlying order—we have never known of it, yet everyone comes into contact with it without realizing it," Gao Dai said. "The Deep Sea surges in every corner of this world, seemingly permeating all things, and everything in the world is a reflection of the Deep Sea. At the same time, mortal currents of thought can conversely map back into the Deep Sea, forming 'unique gods'... This is also Amon's original wording, and I consider it to be extremely important intelligence."

"Could He be trying to use a 'knowledge' far beyond mortal comprehension, yet genuinely existing, to 'trap' us?" Kamael said hesitantly. "The 'Deep Sea' He mentioned may truly exist, but it sounds too ethereal and mysterious. We might sink enormous amounts of time and energy into it..."

"Yet a researcher cannot refuse such 'temptation,'" Virolai glanced at Kamael. "Especially when this domain may help us uncover the underlying mysteries of this world."

"...That is indeed so," Kamael paused for a moment, then said with a bitter smile. "I cannot suppress my own curiosity... Though this may be a trap, I think I will involuntarily set about understanding and studying it."

"We do indeed need to understand and study it," Gao Yang rose from behind the desk, looking at the two Defiers before him. "I have a premonition that this 'Deep Sea' may be the key to understanding all truths—whether it be the gods, or the mechanisms behind the Magic Tide... even the very essence of magic. I have a vague sense that they are all connected. Kamael, Virolai, I authorize you to initiate research in the relevant fields, and find some way to locate traces of this 'Deep Sea.' Additionally, I suggest we pursue cooperation with the elves in this domain—the elves have a long heritage, and within their ancient treasury of knowledge, there may already exist fragments of insight regarding the mysteries of the world."

"In the same way, we can open cooperation with the sirens as well — they are an alien race, true, but they have lived in this world far longer than we have, and over their long ages of study and adaptation, they may well have observed certain signs..."

"I understand. I will arrange a technical exchange as soon as possible," Kamel said at once. "As it happens, we have accumulated a great many problems in our high-altitude vehicle project of late, and we have precisely the need to trade interim results with the elves..."

"High-altitude vehicle..." Gao Shaoke was drawn at once by the project Kamel had named — it was one of the key projects he had approved this year, as vital as the high-speed vehicle, the study of the stars, and the exploration of the oceans. It was the hope of the next generation of flight technology, and it bore on that dream of a sea of stars in Gao Yang's heart. "How is it progressing?"

"Everything went smoothly until we reached the top of the static magic boundary layer — stronger anti-gravity generators, more efficient power spines, more rational rune layouts... with the help of certain new techniques, we lifted the unmanned craft with ease to altitudes even Thunder Swallow birds cannot reach. But once past the static magic boundary layer, matters changed. The magic environment of the atmospheric turbulence layer is nothing like that near the surface: the primal magic is stronger, and yet far harder to control. The magic web can scarcely run stably in such a chaotic environment, and stable lift is out of the question — every one of the unmanned craft came down."

As he spoke, Kamel spread both hands — or rather, two streams of arcane energy whose forms were bound by rune armor plates: "We recovered every recording device carried aboard the craft, and we mean to run a comprehensive analysis of the data, to see whether we can find the patterns of the turbulence layer, and to see what the elves make of it..."