Chapter 1358 — The "Sea"
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 5
She raised her head, her gaze falling on the metal cylinder not far away, and continued thoughtfully: "Crossing—overstepping the domain one currently occupies, stepping into a wholly new forbidden zone. In matters concerning the gods, this is a word of special significance. And the voice that appeared directly in our minds... it must have been chosen after the tower's advanced equipment scanned our cognition and language systems. The Pathfinders came to this planet in connection with the gods' loss of control in the first place, and much of what they left behind is more or less tied to the divine. This can be proven by the records of Tarlund and the clues the Alliance recently discovered in the 'Door' project..."
Byron's expression turned grave. He had already begun to guess what Ashalaina was about to say. "So you think this tower's criterion is..."
"Whether the lifeform attempting to approach belongs to a race bound to the 'gods,'" Ashalaina nodded, and glanced up at the sirens nearby. "Humans have lifted part of the gods' mental-branding influence and begun trying to loosen the entire pantheon's hold on their race, but overall they still have some way to go before escaping. Sirens don't have that problem—they have no mental branding, and the traits of elemental life mean they're simply immune to currents of thought. As for me..."
She shrugged, her expression a little peculiar. "The dragon race has come of age—and dragon descendants are dragons too."
Byron stood with his mouth open for a long while without speaking. Only after several seconds did his eyes stir and his thoughts catch up. His throat moved twice as though he wanted to say something, but in the end he admitted that Ashalaina's conjecture was highly plausible. "I'm afraid you're right..."
"It's all just guesswork on my part," Ashalaina waved a hand. "After all, we can't run further tests or conduct long-term research, and this tower doesn't look like it intends to answer any more of our questions. I just feel... that the Pathfinder legacy built specifically against the gods must have 'security measures' that are inseparable from the divine..."
Cassandra had been listening to the two of them, her eyes flicking back and forth between Byron and Ashalaina several times. Only now did she speak, as though something had suddenly occurred to her. "Hey, wait—something just came to me. You say humans lack the 'qualification' because of the gods' influence, but over seven hundred years ago, Gao Yang Cecil climbed a Pathfinder tower! One of my sisters even led the way for him back then. How do you explain that? Wasn't he human too?"
At those words, Byron's expression instantly turned peculiar. Frankly, gossiping about the Empire's ruler in private was hardly appropriate—but the one speaking was arguably an "insider" to the events of that year, and to be honest, he was suddenly curious too. He could not help but rub the stubble on his chin. "The tower His Majesty climbed back then wasn't this one in front of us, was it?"
Cassandra spread her hands. "It certainly wasn't. That tower is south of our kingdom—east of here, a long way off—but the two towers look quite similar on the outside. And since both are Pathfinder relics, the 'assessment criteria' inside should be about the same, right? Especially with something tied to the gods—surely you can't just switch towers and slip through a loophole..."
The siren lady's words made good sense. This was indeed a fact that was hard to explain and yet objectively true—but Gao Yang Cecil's adventure seven hundred years ago was tangled in mysteries to begin with, with many truths long since lost to the mists of history. He himself had no intention of digging into His Majesty's secrets, so he soon shook his head. "That's not for me to consider. We'll just report everything that happened here afterward. The key now is what we do next..."