Sword of Dawn

Page 459

"That war destroyed the entire Reverse Tide Empire, ended a season of civilization before the demon tide came, and severely hit Tarrond," Dragon God continued, "The losses caused by the war itself are not terrible. What is terrible is the blow to confidence and belief—the entire Tarrond society has been greatly shocked, and this shock is almost immediately reflected in the "groupthink" of the dragons..."

Gawain quickly reacted, his eyes widened: "This also forms a new 'lock'?!"

"In a normal civilization, this short-term, lack of accumulation of group emotions is actually nothing, but the gods of the dragon have merged into one, and the mutual influence between gods and humans has been unprecedentedly strengthened, so that any strong The spiritual fluctuations of the group will quickly generate a large-scale echo in the trend of thought, and then - the echo will become a new lock.

"The giant dragon has never interfered with the world outside of Tarrond for more than 100 million years since then, and even the number of dragons who leave Tarrond every year is strictly limited.

"They can't tell other civilizations too much information about the War against the Tide, and they can't reveal the secrets of the Voyager at will. When other civilizations come into contact with the legacy of the Voyager, they must immediately find a way to recover those 'dangerous objects'... These are all in the The "reflective echoes" produced by the dragon group after the Back Tide Rebellion, these echoes have become mandatory "locks", and any dragon must abide by the constraints brought by them unconditionally, even after 1 or 10 years , Millions of years... Even if the legacy of the sailors is completely obliterated by time, even if no one remembers what the "Empire Against the Tide" refers to, the Dragon Clan must abide by it forever."

Gawain listened in astonishment, and suddenly couldn't help but said: "But when Melita mentioned to me that certain dangerous objects were to be recovered or certain information blocked, she just said that it was an order from her superiors, and it was a 'company regulation'... ..."

"That way, at least it sounds better."

Chapter 0963 The Reverberation of the Adverse Tide

This is the "lock" that connects man and God.

The rules of this world are more cruel than Gao Wen imagined.

Now, he finally knew why Melita had the painful reaction that was on the verge of getting out of control after she confided the secrets about the reverse tide and the gods to him several times, and what the real mechanism behind it was—he only thought that It was the punishment given by the gods of the dragon clan to every dragon clan, but now he discovered that even the dragon god who is high above him is just a prisoner under this set of rules.

God is not only a chain, but also a prisoner, and even an executioner at the same time, but this whole "prison" is built by mortals' own beliefs.

Seeing Gao Wen's thoughtful silence for a long time, Dragon God asked curiously, "What are you thinking?"

"I just thought about Melita - she said old things to me and now I know how much of a risk she took."

"Ah, Melita...is a child who left a deep impression on me," Dragon God nodded, "It's hard to see her complex traits in younger dragons—keep a strong curiosity Heart, with a strong creativity, keen on action and exploration, raised in the cradle of eternity, but as alive as the creatures 'outside'... The jury is an ancient and closed organization, and its young members appear like this Change, it's really...interesting."

Is there any enterprising young member in the ancient and closed jury...

However, Gao Wen suddenly thought of Melita's background, and thought that she and her "colleagues" were all born in factories and laboratories, and were employees customized by the enterprise.

He calmed down his somewhat wandering thoughts, and brought the topic back to the Reverse Tide Empire: "Then, since the Reverse Tide Empire, the Dragon Clan has never interfered in the affairs of the outside world... But the aftermath of that incident seems to have been going on forever. It continues to this day? What happened to the giant tower in the northwest of Tarrond?"

"You already know a lot about the mechanism of the birth and operation of gods, so you must have realized that in this world, a strong enough group thought can 'project' on certain things, thus causing the phenomenon of 'deification'," Dragon God said. He said unhurriedly, "The huge tower in the northwest of Tarrond... It was originally the legacy of the sailors, and it was also the "inheritance" for the 'first enlighteners' among them when the dragons supported the Reverse Tide Empire. place."

"Accept the inheritance?" Gao Wen immediately grasped the word, "You mean to use the unique properties of the relics of the voyager..."

Dragon God nodded: "Yes. The legacy of the voyager has the power to record data, instill knowledge and experience, and affect the thinking ability of creatures. Under proper guidance, it is possible to roughly choose what kind of knowledge and experience they want to pass on. ——The Dragon Clan took a while to do this, and then brought the best scholars and thinkers in the Reverse Tide Empire to that tower.

"The experiment has been very effective. They have created a group of individuals with outstanding intelligence. Although mortals can only obtain a small amount of knowledge from the inheritance of the voyager, this knowledge is enough to change the development route of a civilization."

Gawain had already guessed the subsequent development: "So the Reverse Tide Empire later regarded that tower as a sanctuary given by God?"

"...the Dragon Clan did not anticipate the volatility and short-livedness of the short-lived species, and also miscalculated the greediness of that season's civilization," the Dragon God sighed, "Those individuals who returned from the tower did use the knowledge they inherited The Reverse Tide Empire quickly became stronger, but at the same time they also used this to make themselves absolute leaders of theocracy—that out-of-control and terrifying belief was established with them as the source.

"According to a series of publicity, the high tower located in the Arctic region became a holy place where the gods bestowed blessings. Gradually, it was even passed down as the residence of the gods on the ground. In the blink of an eye, many generations of the Reverse Tide Empire passed away. They began to worship that tower, and built a complete mythology and worship system around that tower—so much so that when the Rebellion against the Tide finally broke out, Fanatic believers of the Reverse Tide Empire even shouted the slogan of 'take back the Holy Land' - they firmly believed that the high tower was their holy land, and the Dragon Clan was a heretic who stole God's gift...

"Therefore, in a sense, that high tower is actually the source of the outbreak of the War Against the Tide—once the fanatics of the Empire against the Tide successfully pollute the legacy of the sailors and become a real 'god', then the whole world will never There is no future."

Gao Wen sighed: "I'm not surprised by this - for short-lived species, a few hundred years is enough to completely reshape the real history and reorganize it, not to mention the need for theocracy on top of this." So, the Adverse Tide Empire's deification of that tower led to the birth of... what thing in that tower?"

"Perhaps we can call it the 'God' of Adverse Tide," Dragon God said lightly, "Hundreds of millions of people in the Adverse Tide Empire firmly believe that there is a god who bestows blessings in that tower, so the god was born in response to the trend of thought. That's right, the tower left by the voyager has been polluted by divinity... I have to say, this is really quite ironic.

"During the whole incident, the only thing we can be thankful for is that the 'god' born in that tower was not fully formed. Before the situation was irreversible, the Reverse Tide Empire was destroyed, and the process of 'breeding' in the tower was at the last step Failed. Therefore, although the tower has mutated and polluted, it has not produced true sanity, nor has the ability to take the initiative, otherwise... Today's Tarrond will be a hundred times worse than what you see."

"So the resistance of the Voyager Legacy to the gods is not so absolute and perfect," Gao Wen laughed. "At least now we know that it is not so effective against the pollution within itself."

"Perhaps... To this day, we still have no way of knowing what kind of changes took place in that tower, and we don't know the state of the 'God Against the Tide' born in the tower. We only know that The tower has mutated and become very dangerous, but there is nothing to do about it."

Gao Wen frowned: "Even you can't remove the divine pollution in that tower?"

"I can't get close to the legacy of the sailor," the Dragon God shook his head, "and the Dragon Clan can't fight against the 'gods'—even the external gods, even the God Against the Tide."

"This is also a 'lock'?!"

"It's also a 'lock'."

"Hiss..." Gawain suddenly felt a toothache, not the first time he had this feeling since he came into contact with the truth about Tarrond, "So you keep keeping that tower in front of your house? Just leave it like that?"

"There is no choice," Dragon God said frankly, "at least we can monitor its situation all the time. If that tower is located in other parts of the world, it is the real danger - the belief of the Reverse Tide Empire makes that tower It has a strong tendency to spread knowledge outward, if it is allowed to contact other mortal civilizations, countless counter-tide empires will be born, and countless out-of-control gods and disasters will be born with the sailor as the worship target."

Speaking of this, Dragon God suddenly glanced at Gao Wen: "Why, are you interested in going to that tower? Maybe you won't be affected by it—"

"No, thank you," Gao Wen said without hesitation, "At least for now, I don't have much interest in it."

Just kidding, that is a legacy of the voyagers that has actually been mutated due to divine pollution—divinity, mutation, voyagers, and basically the world’s biggest risk factor. coffin?Gao Wen thought he had a certain resistance to divine pollution, but he knew that his resistance came from the voyager, and that tower was the legacy of the voyager after being polluted by the divine. Whether it will work or not is completely unknown.

More importantly - he can use the "abandonment agreement" to deter a rational dragon god, but he can't deter a "god against the tide" who doesn't even seem to have a developed brain. There is no way to talk about it, and it doesn't have much research value for Gao Wen... Why do you want to test it with your life?

After all, to Gao Wen, the curiosity about the Reverse Tide Empire can only be regarded as a pastime, not an urgent need - in his opinion, the degree of urgent need is not even comparable to the Coke in the cup.

He picked up the oak cup full of "reflection", took a full sip and settled down.

At a certain moment just now, he actually had another idea—if the "falling coordinates" of certain satellites and space stations in the sky were fixed at that high tower, could it be destroyed once and for all?

But this idea only surfaced for a moment before being rejected by Gao Wen himself.

Because he is not sure—he is not sure that those space facilities will crash on the tower accurately, and he is not sure how effective it will be to smash the legacy of the sailor with the legacy of the sailor.

As for the former, when Gao Wen used the system of Sky Station to simulate the falling process of on-orbit facilities before departure, Gao Wen discovered that the falling errors of those old antiques were actually quite scary—the power deviation caused by the too old system and the energy shortage. All are affecting their falling accuracy. Although the base of the tower may be as large as an island, the falling errors of those on-orbit facilities may be directly biased to the nearby Tarrond...

This is why Gawain used abandoned satellites and space stations to intimidate the Dragon God, but he never thought of using them on the situation in Loren Continent—there are too many uncontrollable factors.Of course, you don’t need to think too much about it when you use it to smash Tarrond. Anyway, the dragon kingdom is so big, and it will definitely have an effect wherever you drop it. However, there are many countries in Loren Continent. The forces are complex, and a booster engine has gone wrong when the satellite comes down. Maybe it will hit yourself, not to mention the amazing power of that thing, it is impossible to use it in conventional warfare...

As for the latter... it's even more worrying.

Use the satellite of the Voyager to smash the tower of the Voyager - it's okay to smash it into ashes, but what if it doesn't work, or just smashes the tower open and releases the "things" inside?Whose responsibility is this?

After a lot of thinking and weighing, Gao Wen finally suppressed the urge to "drag a satellite down and listen to it" in his heart, tried his best to keep his face and calm down, and continued to drink Coke with a serious and thoughtful expression.

The Dragon God quietly glanced at Gao Wen, maybe he sensed the latter's thinking, maybe he was also thinking about the possibility of asking this "outsider wanderer" to help solve the tower, but in the end he had nothing Say.

The topic about the Reverse Tide Empire and the tower seemed to be over like this.

This seemingly awkward silence lasted for a full 2 ​​minutes before Gao Wen suddenly broke the silence: "What exactly is the sailor?"

"I thought you were very clear about this," Dragon God raised his eyes, "After all, your connection with those legacy is so deep..."

"I just established a connection with those heritages by accident when I came to this world," Gao Wen said frankly - he has been in this world for so many years, and he rarely encounters such occasions where he can speak frankly, but he never Thinking that the first person who could open up a conversation with me turned out to be a "god", "I have lived with them for many years, but from those incomplete databases, I have not found a description of the voyager himself."

The Dragon God's gaze stayed on Gao Wen's face for a few seconds, as if he was judging the authenticity of the words, and then he smiled faintly: "The sailor...is also a mortal."

"A mortal?" Gao Wen's eyes widened in surprise.

"Yes, mortals, even though they are incredibly powerful, even if they can destroy the gods..." Dragon God said calmly, "They still call themselves mortals, and insist on that."

"Well... a race that insists on calling itself a mortal no matter how powerful it is..." Gawain nodded, "Then what? How did they appear?"

"That was an even older age, so old that the dragon race is only one of several mortal races on this planet, so old that there are still several civilizations and different gods on this planet..." Dragon God The voice sounded long and leisurely, as if floating from the other side of the long river of history, with vicissitudes and memories, "The voyage came from the depths of the universe, and established an observation post and outpost on this planet..."

"They came from the depths of the universe?" Gawain was surprised again, "Didn't they develop from this planet?"

"Of course not." Dragon God shook his head, "Their hometown is in a more distant place, an ancient galaxy they call the 'Exile Place'."

"Exile place?" Gawain couldn't help frowning, "That's a strange name... Then why did they build observation posts and outposts on this planet? Is it for supplies? Or for scientific research? At that time, this planet already had There are several civilizations including the giant dragon—all those civilizations have been in contact with the Voyager? Where are they now?"

"They all went away with the Sailer—only the dragons remained."

"Why? I... don't understand."

"Because the Dragon Clan had developed too much on the wrong path at that time, and they no longer had the conditions to leave, and the sailors...must continue sailing, they still have their own mission, and there is no way to stay and wait for the Dragon Clan."

Noticing the more confused expression on Gao Wen's face, the god smiled faintly and filled the cups on the table again.

"We still have some time—it's been a long time since I've had a discussion with anyone about the Voyagers," he said softly, "let me tell you about them from the beginning—that's an incredible group 'mortal'."

Chapter 0964

The sailors are not the natives of this planet, they are just a group of passers-by—in the long, faded memory of the Dragon God, even the gods feel a little vague, the ancient times of this planet are a more in line with Gawain's The world of "Fantasy Imagination" is a world without orbiting giant structures, satellite groups and space stations in space.

It's a world of swords and sorcery, kingdoms and dragons.

"...At that time, Loren Continent was a little bit closer to the North Pole than it is today—the entire civilized world was colder than it is today. The dragons first multiplied and established their own kingdoms in Tarrond, and several others Three intelligent races lived on Loren Continent and two other lands—they were initially dispersed into nearly a hundred tribes and small countries, and later turned into several larger unions or empires, and for a long time , the dragons of Tarrond share this world with other races in the world..."

"You mean the other two lands?" Gawain couldn't help interrupting the Dragon God's narration, "Is it the lands located on the east and west sides of Loren Continent?"

"Yes," the Dragon God nodded, "The mortals on the continent of Loren don't know their existence now, but in the ancient language of the Dragon Clan, they are called 'Kaldor' and 'Moore' respectively—— Among them, Kaldor, located in the western part of the Loren Continent, is the ancient hometown of the silver elves...but that was tens of thousands of years ago."

Gao Wen's heart was pounding - each piece of ancient knowledge mentioned by Dragon God inadvertently was a huge gain for him!

"The elves really migrated to Loren from another continent in the west of the sea?!" He couldn't help asking, "Then do you know why the original elves migrated to the continent of Loren?"

"Unfortunately... Even the Dragon Clan has no way to monitor the entire world uninterruptedly, especially after the Rebellion of the Tide formed a new shackle, the range of activities and exploration capabilities of the Dragon Clan were further compressed, and my vision was limited Because of the vision of the Dragon Clan—I don’t even know about things that are too far away from Tarrond,” the Dragon God shook his head, but then added, “However, Tarrond will also be under the limit conditions allowed by the rules. Occasionally send some 'far traveler' to quickly explore the distance, almost four centuries after the elves migrated to the Loren continent, a small group of long traveler once flew near Kaldor for a short time-according to their rough observation, Kaldor Much has been turned into a wasteland."

"Turned into wasteland?" Gao Wen's tone was filled with consternation, "Has the elves' hometown been turned into wasteland?"

"Yes, very obvious wasteland, the land is scorched, the vegetation is extinct, and the coast is full of huge, charred ruins of cities that look like they have been destroyed for centuries," said the Dragon God. Not because of exploration or limited living space—their homeland was destroyed by some catastrophe."

Gawain's curiosity was fully aroused, and he couldn't wait to ask: "...Then how is the situation of the ancient continent called 'Kaldor' now? Has it recovered? Is anyone there?"

Dragon God slowly shook his head.

"According to Tarrond's last observation of Kaldor's direction two centuries ago, it is still shrouded in deadly poisonous and radioactive contamination... The wasteland shows no signs of recovery, although the Farstriders did not go deep into the interior of the continent, But presumably there would be no survivors in that environment."

"...Okay," Gawain sighed regretfully, and silently memorized the name of Kaldor and the name of the "Moore" ancient continent that he just heard, and then brought the topic back, "Then let's continue with the previous topic. Let’s talk about the sailor.”

The Dragon God didn't show any signs of impatience, and she wasn't annoyed by Gao Wen's repeated questions and bringing up new topics. She just nodded and continued to talk about those things in the ancient times——

"...At that time, the sailor had not yet arrived, and the various races living in this world were just living in ignorance—even the dragon race was just a member of the ignorant mortal race. My memory is actually not clear, because everything happened before my own 'merging into one', but there is one thing that impressed me the most...

"In that season of civilization, wars were frequent, and even wars involving gods were not uncommon."

Gao Wen frowned subconsciously.

"Why?" he asked subconsciously.

But the dragon god asked back: "The reason? The mortal world is full of wars, when do we need a reason?"

Gao Wen didn't know how to answer for a moment.

"Mortal people are always keen on fighting, and their history is always in a chaotic cycle between long wars and short and partial peace-this is the answer I got after watching the world for 1807 million years. At that time, this star The countries on the planet are deeply involved in such endless battles, and they have never been able to form an absolutely powerful empire, nor can they form a relatively stable balance. Even the dragons of Tarrond have been active or passive several times. Involved in the wars between continents and continents...

"In my inherited, pre-'merge' memories, I still remember the scene... huge airships crossing continents, knights fighting on the plains, alliances formed and abandoned by nations, known as Characters who are heroes rise up like a storm, and then quickly fall into the dust, and such a long dispute that has spread to almost all intelligent races in the world has finally produced an impact in the "groupthink", which almost destroyed the civilization of that season. "

The Dragon God paused for a moment, and Gawain immediately realized: "The gods of that season...are also warlike?"

"Yes, the continuous years of war have spawned a large number of civilians who live in a state of war from birth to death, and such civilians will regard war as part of their worldview. When such a population accumulates to a certain number, the trend of thought tends to It started to change - the gods became warlike... no, worse than warlike, the gods in that season started to become bloodthirsty and became... like some kind of carnage incarnation, horrible and dark. "

When Dragon God said this, he shook his head slightly, and there seemed to be a lingering fear in the depths of his calm expression. At first, Gao Wen thought he had misread it, but soon he understood why the other party cared so much about this. .

The dragon race 1807 million years ago... also believed in their own gods.

If the change in thought back then spread to the whole world, the gods believed by the Dragon Race would obviously not be spared. Just now the Dragon God himself mentioned that Tallond was involved in the flames of war all over the world actively or passively several times at that time. Then it is obvious that the gods who became bloodthirsty and terrifying back then also included the gods of the dragon clan-although the dragon god has not been distorted and out of control because of this, but as a god born after the fusion of the gods, he may have been affected , at least with many bad memories.

Gao Wen didn't urge the other party, and after a few seconds, the Dragon God continued: "When mortals realize that the situation is wrong, it seems too late - the oracle full of malice and the 'spirituality' directly acting on the minds of mortals Enlightenment began to fall all over the world, and the whole world entered a dark and crazy age almost overnight-all wars began to get out of control, war behavior lost its bottom line, the gods instructed the fanatical Holy See army to slaughter unarmed civilians, and the priests who were out of control Bloody sacrifices are held everywhere to please their own gods... wanderers outside the territory, that is the real disaster of God.

"Different from the 'crazy gods' you know who crossed a critical point and became insane, the gods of that era completely completed their bloody transformation while sober. They did not become out of control, but came from the mortal world The trend of thought adjusted the authority of all the gods, allowing them to 'legitimately' hold the authority to kill, and these sober blood gods are more terrifying than mad gods."

"Was Tallond also affected at that time? What are the dragons doing?" Gao Wen finally couldn't help asking.

"In the face of changes in the global trend of thought, unless the ethnic group is completely blocked from the beginning, not participating in any international events, and keeping the public from knowing any external changes, no one can be alone," the Dragon God said in a deep voice, "Talon Druid was affected too—dragons had been involved in wars, and more than once, when the gods of other races slid into darkness and tyranny, that bloodthirsty impulse spread like a plague to Tarrond, to In the dragon's own belief system, it began to influence the gods of Tarrond.

"But the situation in Tarrond is much better than other places. After all, it is located in the Arctic region. Only talented dragons can survive in Tarrond, which was not so friendly at that time. The natural isolation of the world makes the world The chaos in other areas could not spread here quickly, which gave the wise men of the Dragon Clan time to think and react.

"After realizing that something went wrong in the whole world, the giant dragons began to formulate countermeasures. Thanks to the high level of civilization and understanding of the world at that time, the scholars successfully found the root of the problem, and even analyzed The clues in a series of changes around the world have summed up some laws related to gods-for example, they realized that it is the thoughts of mortals that affect the judgment of gods.

"So, the Tallond Senate at that time made a decision, a 'self-help decision' whether it was luck or misfortune..."

Gao Wen felt that his mood was also constantly fluctuating with the Dragon God's narration. As soon as the other party paused, he couldn't help asking: "What decision?"

"Block Tarrond, stop paying attention to world affairs, and then—repurify and stabilize the 'orthodox belief system' of the Dragon Clan."

Hearing the words mentioned by the other party, Gao Wen suddenly had some bad premonitions in his heart.

The dragon god continued to narrate: "...At that time, no giant dragon realized the chain relationship between gods and mortals, and no one thought that gods would completely stand on the opposite side of civilization in a certain sense—even if the entire The situation in the world is deteriorating due to the bloodthirsty of the gods. The first thing the dragons think of is to 'repair' their belief system, rather than abandoning the traditions and beliefs they have insisted on for thousands of years, so they have formulated a huge and powerful The core of the strengthened faith plan of the preface is...to allow members of the ethnic group to re-believe in the traditional gods in a 'correct' way, so that the gods can 'return to their proper position'.

"A large number of temples have been repaired or refurbished, ancient books have been revised and supplemented again, members of the ethnic group have regained the old precepts that were fading at that time, and Tarrond has closed all external passages, as if the entire outside world has disappeared. Dragons Total immersion in the 'group practice' of reconstructing and repairing one's own spiritual world...for many years."

"It's over," Gawain couldn't help covering his forehead and let out a long sigh, "I think I understand why the Dragon Clan was left behind..."

Dragon God nodded: "Yes, now it seems that this plan to reconstruct beliefs has had terrible follow-up effects, but no one knew this at the time, and it seemed at the time... this plan to reconstruct beliefs was indeed It took effect.

"The dragon gods who had already begun to mutate did stabilize quickly, the spiritual deterioration of the members of the group and the negative spiritual enlightenment were quickly contained, and Tarrond quickly became safe. These are all visible The change.

"And in the world outside Tarrond, everything has become like a purgatory. The entire planet is immersed in a cycle of killing and sacrifice. Bottomless wars and bloody battlefields can be seen everywhere..."

"...No one can predict fate in advance, and even the history that has already happened is often unreasonable in the eyes of latecomers." Gawain shook his head, "Then what happened later?"

"Later... the Voyager appeared," Dragon God said in a deep voice, "coming from the depths of the universe and changing the fate of the entire world."

He paused for a moment, picked up the cup on the table, and took a small sip before continuing.

"The Voyagers...they are a civilization full of mysteries. They call themselves mortals, but they seem to be completely unaffected by the 'chain of gods'. They don't believe in all the gods in this world, and all the gods in this world can't shake even the most ordinary of them. I don't know if they have managed to break free from this shackles, or they have some kind of specialness.