Chapter 1511 — A Look and a Coordination

"...Never mind that for now. Just take it to mean 'with ease to spare,'" Gao Yang said, waving his hand. Because he routinely fed Amber all sorts of bizarre vocabulary, their communication had grown ever more "uninhibited," so that sometimes he unconsciously forgot that Amber was in fact a "local" of this world; blurting out an out-of-scope term like this was common enough. "In short, the probability that the Lady of the Night is taking action against the gods is very high.

"Of course, as I analyzed before, He probably won't strike directly to sweep away the gods as the Voyager did—after all, the circumstances of our civilization this season are utterly different from those of one million eight hundred seventy thousand years ago. The gods today remain rational, and the mortal nations are still handling the matter of the Mind Brands in an organized way through bodies like the 'Council of Divine Authority.' In such a situation, crude measures would only make things worse, and might even undo all our gains. The Lady of the Night is a rational ancient god; He won't do that.

"So it is more likely that He is intervening in this world through some... 'controlled within bounds' means. I just don't know how He is doing it, or what exactly He intends.

"Given the limited clues at hand, that is all I can deduce."

Gao Dai said he could "only deduce this much," yet what he had deduced had already left Amber astonished—under such limited conditions, in such a short time, amid so many interfering factors, pushing the line of reasoning to this point was no easy feat. What it required was not merely analytical ability, but a mind nimble enough to leap freely and the nerve to entertain any thought at all.

"You have analyzed more than enough," Amber said with an involuntary sigh. Then curiosity stirred in her again. "But... can an 'alien god' really intervene in the workings of other gods? Isn't it said that because the essence of the gods is 'projections of thought-currents,' they are inherently isolated from one another, and that any god who has not left the divine seat will suffer immediate mental deterioration upon contact with an alien god?"

"...That, I suspect, is precisely why He is driving the Anchor Generator and gathering such vast energy," Gao Yang said after a brief pause, voicing his thoughts. "To this day we still don't fully understand the principle and function of that Anchor Generator. We can only roughly judge that its existence is what has ensured the Lady of the Night, an ancient god, can remain stable to this day without any support of faith, while maintaining immense power—and what if we take that line of thinking a step further? The word 'anchor' can be extended. Perhaps it can even alter the Lady of the Night's 'essence,' allowing Him to transcend to some degree the iron law governing the existence of the gods.

"After all, even the so-called 'iron law' is only a rule we have pieced together from our present body of knowledge, and the technological heights the Voyager occupied have long since exceeded the understanding of creatures like us, bound as we are by gravity."

Amber listened thoughtfully, and only spoke once Gao Yang had finished: "So if things really are as you say, should we do something to respond? Or do we just wait and see? Actually, I don't think the Lady of the Night needs any cooperation from us."

"The Lady of the Night may not need our cooperation, but other beings might," Gao Yang cut in. He was thinking quickly, and seemed already to have some plan. "Notify the Council of Divine Authority and the Ministry of Magic Technology. We need anti-divinity barriers at maximum power—bring out the whole stock and install them respectively in the great cathedrals at the headquarters of the major churches in the country."

Amber nodded instinctively, then suddenly froze, her eyes going wide: "What? You want to install anti-divinity barriers right in the headquarters cathedrals of the major sects?! Aren't you effectively throwing a sack over their gods' heads right in front of the Solaris extremists?"

"If their gods are happy with it, what can you do? Mier Mina once crawled into the sack herself," Gao Yang said with a casual wave, though he hastened to explain. "I'm not telling them to cover the whole cathedral with anti-divinity barriers—even if they could accept that, our stock of barriers might not be enough. Just find a spot in each cathedral reasonably close to the holy icons and set up the barrier there—even if it's only one room, one corner. The key is to leave such a 'window.'"

"Leave a window..." Amber seemed to have a vague inkling of what Gao Yang intended. It seemed it would be a wildly imaginative yet eminently reasonable operation, very much in keeping with the personal style of this Patriarch of Exploration who never walked the beaten path. "And then?"

"And then leave a note within the barrier's range—or if that doesn't feel solemn enough, carve it on a stone tablet; that can be left to the local church authorities," Gao Lan said. "On it, just one sentence: If the Lady of the Night has ever paid a visit, please respond to the mortal world where possible."

Here he thought for a moment, then added: "Of course, the exact wording can be left to the local church authorities' discretion, as long as the general meaning stays the same.

"Finally, and most crucially: after these arrangements are made, keep all unauthorized persons away from the areas where the anti-divinity barriers are installed, leaving only remote surveillance. This is a necessary safety measure."

Amber listened carefully, but she clearly still had doubts: "Can this... really work? Just leaving a 'message' for the gods, like that?"

"I've thought this through carefully. The gods find it hard to convey information to us directly because of the uncontrollable mental contamination of their existence, but the reverse restriction is not actually so great—how many muddled prayers do the faithful of the mortal world send to the gods every day?" Gao Yang spread his hands. "As long as it doesn't directly violate dogma, the very act of mortals transmitting information to the gods is itself in accord with doctrine and will not bring down evil consequences. If there's any problem at all... it's the 'response' afterward that will be key. That will directly determine whether my conjecture holds."

Amber nodded slowly. Fantastic as the plan sounded, she knew Gao Yang was serious. Yet another question occurred to her: "Even if it makes sense in principle, I'm afraid some priests will still balk at such a thing... The Council of Divine Authority and the Imperial Bureau of Government Affairs may press down from above, but that won't stop them from denouncing this bold action as 'blasphemy.'"

"Let them denounce it," Gao Cen said cheerfully. "The point is, don't they usually all piously declare how much they wish to commune with their gods, to hear the voices of their gods? Well, now the Lady of the Night has tacitly cooperated with the Empire to set up a direct line to Heaven for them—so why don't they dare dial? Is it because they aren't pious? But if they aren't pious, then surely the technical priests and technical monks sent over by the Council of Divine Authority are the more pious ones..."

Amber thought it over and decided that Gaudet had a point.

(End of this chapter)