Chapter 901 — Another Record
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
"The writing in here... reveals a great deal," Gao Dai said. "A wealth of information about the Shadow Realm, about the shadow dwellers... and also that mysterious Shallow Realm and Deep Realm. But I think what matters most to you... must be..."
"A member who 'woke' ahead of time, vanishing from the sight of its kin... that should be me, shouldn't it," Amber said, drawing a breath. She seemed to have rallied already. She pointed at herself. "Judging by the timeline, during the years Mo Jin Wilde was active, I should have been sleeping in the Shadow Fortress... in the form of a homunculus embryo. The scholars of the Gondor Empire captured the souls of shadow dwellers and successfully injected one of them into a homunculus body—that is where I come from."
"Yes, we all know that," Gao Yan nodded. "It seems your adoptive father learned, through some channel or other, part of what was in Mo Jin's travelogue—learned that it might mention your origins—and that is why he risked stealing it."
"But it was not worth it," Amber said, staring at the Mo Jin travelogue, her voice low as if speaking to herself. "What's in here... how could it be worth him doing that! I don't even care how I came to be. Wouldn't it have been fine to just live quietly in the countryside?"
"But he likely thought it very necessary," Gao Yang shook his head. "And he most likely was not certain what the travelogue truly contained, much less that he would fail. None of this was his to decide in advance."
Amber could not help grumbling: "He was an idiot. Years of idling in the countryside had long worn away the skills he had as a covert knight, and yet he still thought he was the elite royal shadow guard he once was..."
"...This mentions the 'birth' of the shadow dwellers," Gao Yang glanced at Amber, offering no consolation, and simply moved on to another topic. "They were born in a dream in the 'Deep Realm,' and the continued existence of that dream is what sustains their current state. Their wandering through the Shadow Realm is in fact a wandering along the boundary between dream and waking... Do you understand what that means?"
Amber thought it over, then shook her head. "I don't know—though I can communicate with the shadow dwellers, they have never spoken to me of such things. But if I get the chance, I can ask."
Then she added: "Of course, I do have a few guesses of my own... I think the shadow dwellers' descriptions of the 'Deep Realm' and the 'Dream of the Deep' are very likely connected to a certain place..."
Gao Qi frowned, and soon guessed her meaning from the intelligence he already possessed: "You mean... the Gloom Realm?"
"If the world we live in is the 'Shallow Realm' to the shadow dwellers, and if the Shadow Realm is to them an 'intermediate layer' between the Deep Realm and the Shallow Realm, then the Gloom Realm... is very likely what they call the 'Deep Realm,'" Amber said, nodding. "In terms of spatial relations, the Gloom Realm is also the deepest of the several 'realm layers' we know of, so it is quite possible."
"Then what is this 'Dream of the Deep' they speak of?" Gao Qi said, brow furrowed. "The Gloom Realm is empty... So far, apart from a nature god hiding inside and playing dead, we have found nothing there—certainly no dream."
"Tell me, might that giant deer Amon know something?" Amber said, pondering. "He seems to have been in the Gloom Realm for a very long time, and as a deity, he ought to know more than we do."
"If I can help it, I would rather avoid obtaining 'knowledge' from Amon," Gao Yang said after a moment's thought, his expression grave. "Instinct tells me there is great risk in it—not risk born of Amon's 'malice,' but of some 'law' that even Amon himself cannot control. From ancient times to now, countless mortals have met terrible fates after excessive contact with the knowledge of gods. Asking questions of a god is itself a last resort.