Chapter 869 — A Mysterious Signal
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Hearing Gaosong's question, Beiyila nodded. "Yes, exactly as I stated in my report—and to this day I still haven't figured out where those regular signals come from."
Gaoyi's brow furrowed slightly.
What he and Beiyila were discussing had happened not long ago—about a week earlier, the magic net in the Solin region had completed its regional networking. The several major cities of the eastern plains, which had previously relied on a chain of relay towers for "linear connections," had successfully achieved a grid distribution of energy and information among themselves. And Solin Castle, the regional hub, saw the largest of its magic-energy obelisks complete its mode conversion that same day, becoming the master hub for the entire region. The process itself had gone very smoothly, but afterward some puzzling "phenomena" had begun to occur.
On the third day after the network's completion, Beiyila began detecting, on and off, regular signals from the crystal array atop the Solin Tree—signals that did not belong to the magic net itself and whose origin was unknown.
Since the magic-energy obelisk of the Solin region was built at the very crown of the great Solin Tree, and many of its auxiliary facilities were constructed upon the tree's own structure, Beiyila was, as a "person," effectively a living magic-net hub. Once this was realized, Gaoyang's technical staff reached a cooperative arrangement with Beiyila: she began to learn and grow accustomed to the operating techniques of those arcanotechnical devices, and monitoring the signal modules of the magic-energy obelisk for anomalies became one of her daily duties.
—Incidentally, the Solin hub was currently the only magic-net hub within the Empire capable of maintaining itself. Gaoyang very much hoped to build several more, but at present Beiyila's cutting-and-transplanting technique seemed nowhere near a breakthrough, so such ideas could only remain ideas...
After a brief moment of thought, Gaoyang raised his head. "Are the technicians still unable to decipher the content of those signals?"
"The decryption has made no progress whatsoever. It's a signal we've never encountered before," Beiyila said, shaking her head. "It consists of a series of very brief tremors and echoes of unclear meaning, utterly unlike the two modes we currently employ—'neural simulated pulses' and 'mental transmission streams.' But one thing seems certain..."
Gaoyang's eyebrows lifted. "And what is that?"
"It isn't natural interference—it certainly isn't," Beiyila said with considerable certainty. "At first we suspected it might be connected to the disturbances of the magic field that are everywhere in nature, but later the technicians collected readings from every magic-monitoring tower around the Solin region, and none of those readings matched the signals I detected. Moreover, we sent signal samples to Master Kamael in the imperial capital, and he believes that some of the 'tremors' within show complex combinations—very much like the result of artificial intervention."
"...In other words, the technicians believe the signals received by the Solin hub are artificial," Gaoyang said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But... who would send such signals? Our magic-net communication system is a new thing; no second nation on this continent has mastered it..."
"If they truly are artificial, then sending such signals would require a complete technological system. For now, the several human kingdoms indeed could not manage it, but..." Beiyila said slowly, deep in thought, while the flowering vines behind her stirred gently, producing a low, soft, peaceful rustle. "I still remember something you once said—that there exists more than one powerful civilization in this world, and that present-day humanity does not hold the upper hand against them.