Chapter 452 - 450: Golden Apple
"This thief doesn’t seem to be very skilled with arrays."
Hilia noticed the traces left by the opponent within the array were quite many.
He seemed to have tried many methods unsuccessfully before attempting to directly remove it, then quickly attached the advanced magic crystal.
This process didn’t cause any disturbance at the stronghold.
Because the array at the stronghold was very complete, there was a contingency plan for such emergencies, there was buffering, and after timely replenishment of magic power, the array continued to operate normally.
"But when forcibly dismantling, they somehow knew to block the array’s warning, preventing any alert from the array; interesting."
The more she felt, the more curious Hilia became.
Generally, once the array is successfully operated, it forms a complete entity, and conventional means cannot extract the energy supply from the array. Forceful disassembly would cause a serious reaction, commonly known as automatic counterattack.
But whether it’s an issue with the stronghold or the Deep Sea Leader was very confident, this array lacked an automatic counterattack functionality, only a simple warning.
Maybe because the leader thought that if one could run under the stronghold to steal the magic core, the entire stronghold would no longer exist.
It was indeed true.
This instead presented an opportunity for the opponent.
However, even with an opportunity, a novice like him shouldn’t have been able to steal it.
Hilia was puzzled; what exactly did he do to dismantle it smoothly?
The opponent was like a computer novice trying to change a memory stick without knowing assembly, yet somehow achieving it by force without damaging the motherboard, and the reattached memory stick worked fine.
"Fortunately, he was a novice; he used magic power when stealing the Heart of the Magic Puppet, otherwise I wouldn’t know who it was."
After feeling it for a moment, Hilia slowly revealed a peculiar expression.
She looked towards Rose in her mind, hesitantly asked, "Rose, do you think it’s her?"
Rose chuckled, "Who else do you think it could be besides her?"
Hilia was silent for a moment and nodded, "No wonder the luck is so good; dismantling blindly could even dismantle the Heart of the Magic Puppet... Shaline, could it be that the Sea God sent you to do this?"
Hilia slowly exited the array.
She already knew who did it.
Her classmate she faced at the end of term, Shaline.
Suspected member of the Hiro Association, Shaline.
Hilia still remembered Rose saying she received the Sea God’s inheritance.
And what was used as the cornerstone of the array was precisely the Heart of the Water Magic Puppet; Hilia felt that this Heart of the Magic Puppet must have a significant connection to the Sea God, even if Rose didn’t say it, she faintly had this feeling.
No mage isn’t curious about how such a magical item like the Heart of the Magic Puppet is formed.
Hilia was curious too.
She felt Rose must know what it is.
Originally she didn’t know what it was either, but after so much time with Rose, she already had some sense.
It’s a magical item with important connections to the Gods.
An unexpected person suddenly appeared here, stole the Heart of the Water Magic Puppet, and this person had once received the Sea God’s inheritance...
Hilia was already imagining a story in her mind about a common mage gaining fame after being favored by the Gods.
"Just wondering what Shaline will do with this Heart of the Magic Puppet, planning to make magic puppets?"
Hilia hesitated, after a while she chose to ask Rose, "Rose, you’ve been collecting super rare Hearts of Magic Puppets all along, do you think I should go get this one back?"
"Whether to get it back depends on whether you want to." Rose smiled subtly, "To me, it’s no difference whether I have it or not, it just depends on how curious you are about what your classmate intends to do."
It would be dishonest to say she’s not curious.
This is the first time Hilia saw someone, apart from herself, favored by the Gods, and not a Holy Daughter.
She wanted to know if the other had a Sea God directing her actions in her mind too.
Rose watched Ethel playfully, telling him about Shaline.
Ethel, "Why should it concern me? I don’t even know her."
If she hadn’t been caught by Rose, maybe she would have done it.
But there’s no chance now.
They still have to continue building the Endless Abyss.
On the other side.
Hilia finished her investigation, and the waiting Array Master beside her quickly asked, "How was it, did you find any clues?"
Hilia said, "Found some, yeah... The opponent possesses the Holy Word Skill from the Holy Court, there are traces of Holy Word Skill usage, it’s one of our own, no need to care."
The Array Masters looked at each other.
"One of our own?"
"Who’s such a pain?"
"If I catch them, I’ll make them pay!"
"..."
Hilia waved them off, "I don’t know specifically who, I can only sense that it is someone from the Holy Court, anyway, someone from the Holy Court surely isn’t a bad person, definitely not a spy from heretics, so I’ll leave the next steps to you guys, I have a lot of things to do, so I won’t participate in your plans."
After saying this, Hilia immediately bid farewell and left the Array Masters.
The idea of moving the stronghold back was too bold, she didn’t want to be caught by them to do such a ridiculous project together.
After returning to the stronghold, Hilia found the bishop responsible for researching the stronghold.
"Bishop, I’d like to borrow the Prayer Hall of the stronghold for about two hours, is that possible?"
The bishop was stunned, "What do you want it for?"
"Prepare to use the array there to trace back the good deeds done by heretics." Hilia casually said.
The bishop pondered for a moment and nodded, "Alright, since this stronghold was discovered by you first, you can use it whenever you want, do you need someone to guard for you?"
Hilia said, "No... wait, I need the door closed to trace, I’ll need two people to guard and keep others out."
"Alright."
Soon, the people researching the Prayer Hall were all called away by the bishop, and by the time Hilia went inside, it was already empty.
As she walked in, a pungent smell of blood hit her face.
Even though it’s been days, the smell of blood still lingers.
There were dried bloodstains on the ground, the bodies had been removed, only the pit made by the Deep Sea Leader and the battle marks remained, along with the bloodstains, proving there was a terrible battle here.
Hilia came to the central platform, took out the key to the Golden Apple Stone Forest array’s authority, Mage’s Hand immersed into the authority key, slowly connected with the Golden Apple Stone Forest.
She remembered Rose’s words.
"The golden apple we need is in the Golden Apple Stone Forest. In other words, polluted by binding demonic qi and used by the Gods as the cornerstone of the Golden Apple Stone Forest array, acting as the core of the array, using the features of the golden apple to bind the pollution within the Golden Apple Stone Forest tightly, preventing it from leaving."
"What are the features of the golden apple?"
"Revival and circulation, the Golden Apple Stone Forest array uses the feature of circulation to make demonic qi pollution circulate within the Golden Apple Stone Forest, preventing it from expanding the array outward.
The features of the golden apple are complex but can be broadly summarized as revival and circulation, revival can be considered as life revival, such as resurrecting the dead or rekindling a fire, can also be used to revive evil, like reopening the abyss, and circulation is similar, natural circulation, life cycle, stellar cycle... all within, just depends on how it is understood and used."
Hilia looked baffled.
She didn’t quite understand what Rose was saying.
A jumble of words was understood by her as three words—
Super awesome!