Chapter 674
Soul Runes
Chapter 674 Soul Runes
It took Gao De a while to search through the corpses of the three withered soul servants.
Sure enough, at the core of each wreckage, they found a fragment of soul essence the size of a fingernail.
He put away the three fragments, this time without handing them directly to Liu Ying.
After all, she had already absorbed three tablets and drunk his blood.
At this moment, his eyes were clear, the stinging pain from the withered soul's erosion had subsided considerably, and he was in excellent condition.
It's obviously safer to keep these newly collected fragments in case of emergencies.
In the desolate and barren realm, there is no alternation of day and night; the hazy sky remains eternally unchanged. There is neither sunrise nor sunset, nor any star guidance, making it impossible to determine the time.
Based on the interval between the two instances of the withered soul wind, Gaode could roughly determine that at least two days had passed.
The signs of the second wave of the Soul-Slaying Wind were more obvious than the last.
Having practiced enough, they noticed the signs early on and found a stone tower to hide from the storm.
Finally, after dodging several more waves of wandering withered soul servants, and before Liu Ying was completely exhausted, the central stone tower at the very core of the stone tower network suddenly appeared before the two of them.
It was unlike any of the stone towers seen along the way.
First, in terms of scale, it is much taller than other stone pagodas, with a robust body and a base diameter of three zhang (approximately 10 meters).
From a distance, it looks like a giant black pillar rooted in the barren wasteland, piercing the gray sky, exuding a sense of oppression.
Secondly, there is the material. Most of the other stone pagodas are made of ordinary rock, which is mottled after being eroded by wind and rain.
The central tower itself has a deep, dark black color.
The stone tower appears to have been cast from a special mixture of obsidian and bone, with a smooth, mirror-like surface covered with fine, natural patterns.
What's even more peculiar is its structure; the tower itself is completely undamaged.
It is so well-preserved that it doesn't look like it has been eroded by millions of years; it seems as if it was just built yesterday.
The top of the tower is a gently sloping dome with smooth, rounded lines, unlike the dilapidated and collapsed shape of other stone towers.
The tower gate was tightly closed; it was a single, solid black boulder, seamlessly integrated with the tower's body.
"This is it." A hint of excitement flashed in Gao De's eyes as he pulled Liu Ying closer.
Having learned from his previous surprise attack, he was extra cautious this time and did not push the door open rashly.
He paused outside the door, listening intently, but the stone tower was deathly silent, with no unusual sounds.
Even so, Gaode did not let his guard down. Instead, he gently pressed his palm against the stone door and carefully pushed it open little by little.
The tower gate looked incredibly heavy, but it was surprisingly light when pushed open, making only a low "creak" sound as it slowly opened.
Unlike the decaying, foul smell of other stone towers, a solemn yet eerie pure aura wafted over, invigorating the spirit and even lessening the lingering discomfort of the withered soul's corrosive influence.
As the stone gate slowly opened, the scene inside the tower came into view.
Compared to all the stone towers I've entered before, the interior space of this central tower is surprisingly equipped with its own light source.
The black stone atop the dome gleamed with a soft, silvery-blue light, not bright, but enough to illuminate the entire tower without casting any shadows.
The light was so evenly distributed, as if it had been carefully adjusted, gently enveloping everything.
The interior of the tower is much more spacious than it appears from the outside, and the floor is a single, smooth, round black stone.
The surrounding stone walls and the dome are densely covered with all kinds of strange symbols and characters, without a single gap, like a three-dimensional book unfolding before your eyes.
Some symbols were drawn with bone powder mixed with a silvery-white liquid, the lines were smooth and shimmering.
Some are carved directly onto the black stone, with varying depths, complex patterns, and layers upon layers, yet all in an orderly fashion.
These symbols are quite strange; some resemble huddled human figures, some resemble entangled chains, and some are irregular geometric shapes, yet all exude a powerful fluctuation of soul energy.
Even in a plane without magic, one can clearly feel that pure spiritual power.
“These… are soul runes.” Liu Ying raised her head, her clear blue eyes sweeping over the strange runes on the wall. Her tone was firm, yet tinged with a hint of joy: “And they are the purest and oldest soul runes. They must have been left behind by Mordekay!”
"We've found a clue."
Flowing Light is not a runemaster.
But Mordekay's soul runes were so unique, and he was the first person on record to escape from the Desolate Soul Realm.
Therefore, in the chapter introducing the Desolate Soul Realm, several pages were specially dedicated to its detailed introduction.
Several images of Mordekaiser's late-game soul runes were included.
The strange shapes and unique rhythms of those runes left a deep impression on her, and she immediately compared the two.
Soul runes are an extremely niche branch of runic arts, obscure and difficult to understand, and mostly related to forbidden arts, with very few practitioners.
The most famous and feared runemaster in this field is probably Mordekaiser.
Actually, before Liuying mentioned that Mordekaiser might escape the Ghostly Realm using runes, Gaode had been pondering a question.
As a rune artist, he knew all too well the conditions for drawing runes.
Drawing runes requires consumables such as magic ink, rune pens, and magic paper. While one could say that one could "skip class" by using various methods, it would inevitably consume mana.
This is a crucial step that cannot be avoided.
However, the Desolate Soul Realm is a plane without magic, making it impossible to mobilize magical power.
So how exactly did Mordekay manage to construct a runic array powerful enough to tear apart dimensional barriers in a magic-free environment?
Now that he has seen these soul runes scattered throughout the tower, he finally has the opportunity to explore them further.
As Gao De pondered this, he began to walk around the stone wall.
The Desolate Soul Realm was originally a magic-free plane used in ancient times to banish the most ferocious necromancers.
However, with the rise of human dynasties and the gradual establishment and consolidation of the order of mages, forbidden necromancy had long been explicitly prohibited.
Those who practiced such evil arts became like rats hiding in ditches, afraid to see the light of day, let alone becoming the renowned necromancers of yesteryear.
This seat has been untouched by any living being for countless years.
This is why every inch of the floor, every stone wall, and every crack inside the tower is covered with a thick layer of grayish-white dust.
It is a mixture of ashes and dust weathered by time.
Stepping on it will leave shallow footprints, and a light touch with your fingertips will raise fine dust that slowly drifts down in the dim light of the dome.
Gao De's attention was already firmly drawn to the dense array of soul runes on the stone wall. He slowly strolled along the curved stone wall, his gaze intently fixed on each pattern, his mind racing with deductions.
These are all advanced composite runes of at least the fifth rank, obscure, complex, and strangely structured, far beyond the comprehension of ordinary rune masters.
Gao De's current runemaster level is barely considered to be Tier 3.
The reason it was a stretch was that he had reached the third level in both theoretical knowledge and skills.
However, due to the constraints of demand and time, he has not yet had the opportunity to practice, that is, he has never personally created a set of third-tier rune constructs or drawn a set of third-tier rune arrays.
Without a doubt, for someone of his runemaster rank, understanding these advanced composite runes would be difficult, or even nearly impossible.
However, the special thing about runes is that even the most advanced composite runes are all formed by splicing, combining and evolving the most basic runes.
Even the most powerful rune arrays still rely heavily on the most basic rune units at their core.
As for the basic runes, although Gao De did not master them all, he had already memorized the shapes and functions of all the basic runes in his mind through the [Super Memory] secret medicine, so recognizing them was actually a very simple matter.
As long as the basic runes in these composite runes can be broken down, the function of the composite rune can always be roughly deduced.
Even if you don't know the principle behind it, or even whether it's true.
Gao De thus dissected and identified the basic units that make up these complex runes in his mind, bit by bit:
Here's a "soul," there's a "guide," and there's a "gathering."
The scattered basic runes, when strung together, subtly point in the same direction: to draw in, condense, and manipulate pure soul energy.
As he was recognizing the object, Gaode suddenly paused slightly.
He noticed that the carvings on the stone wall were of varying depths and ages.
This means that if all these runes were created by Mordekaiser alone, he must have spent an unimaginably long time in this stone tower.
Judging from the brushstrokes, force application habits, and structural preferences of the runes, these traces were indeed all left by the same person.
Of course, the current findings are still very fragmented and superficial, and are far from solving the mystery of the escape.
However, the first turning point soon appeared.
In the lower left corner of an extremely complex compound rune, Gao De discovered a densely packed patch of small characters, the engravings extremely shallow and crooked.
Gao De leaned closer and squinted to examine it carefully.
He glanced at it once and smiled bitterly to himself.
It is ancient script.
He didn't recognize anyone at all and became completely illiterate.
If magic could be used, someone who is literate could solve the problem right now.
The problem is that this is a desolate and barren soul realm, completely devoid of magic.
Left with no other option, Gaode could only turn his hopeful gaze to the fireflies behind him.
"Can you read ancient characters?" He beckoned to Liu Ying—after entering the stone tower, he very "naturally" released his grip on Liu Ying's hand.
Upon hearing Gao De's greeting, Liu Ying immediately came over and carefully examined the engravings for a short while.
After a moment, she looked at Gao De and said seriously, "I don't recognize it. I haven't studied ancient characters."
Gaode was momentarily speechless, silently thinking to himself: "You haven't even studied this, yet you're taking it so seriously..."
But he quickly composed himself and spoke with certainty, explaining his judgment to Liu Ying:
"This is not an ordinary inscription; it should be a notebook, a research notebook left by Modike back then."
"When Mordecai was exiled here, he had no writing tools. The only way he could record things was by carving words on this stone wall."
"In a plane without magic, without companions, and without time, the brain becomes the only tool."
"But he wants to use this tool to solve an unprecedented problem—how to draw rune arrays in a place without magic and help himself escape this magic-free plane."
"This process requires a lot of trial and error, repeated comparison of observation data, and constant revision of previous assumptions. Human memory is prone to fading, self-consistency, distortion, and forgetting over time."
“If he doesn’t record every discovery, every conjecture, and every failure in the process, he might forget what he discovered on the first day after three months, and he might go further and further astray on wrong assumptions after six months.”
He paused, then pointed to the densely packed small characters.
"So Mordekay did something that all rune masters or researchers would do: he turned this stone tower into his rune laboratory."
“He carved every observation, every experiment, and every failure on the stone wall. These were his research notes, his memos for himself.”
"But for us, it has become a legacy for those who come after us, and it is the most important escape clue for us to try to replicate Mordecai's method and leave this magic-free plane."
"But..." Faced with Gao De's words, Liu Ying was quite clear-headed and earnestly and "straightforwardly" raised her doubts, "What if we can't understand it?"
Gao De hesitated for a moment, then finally chose to be honest: "There will be a way to understand it, but... it will take some time."
His [Non-Magic Adaptability] is still slowly improving.
Once you've adapted sufficiently and can reactivate your internal magical power, you can use [Language Proficiency] to decipher these ancient scripts.
At that time, he would inevitably have to rely on magic to solve survival problems such as food and water, and the matter of casting spells could not be kept from Liu Ying.
So he doesn't mind revealing some information in advance, just as a precaution.
"But this will take a very long time, and we... will most likely miss this year's Unparalleled Magic Fighting Tournament." Gao De sighed helplessly.
This was his tentative "main" quest in Mithril City, but who would have thought that such an accident would drag him into an unexpected "dungeon," forcing him to completely abandon the main quest.
Upon hearing this, Liu Ying blinked and suddenly said, "Not necessarily."
"Hmm?" Gao De was convinced that his judgment was correct.
"Didn't I tell you that the flow of time in the Desolate Soul Realm is different from that in our mage plane?"
Gao De was suddenly taken aback, his pupils contracted slightly, and his whole body trembled: "You mean?!"
Liu Ying nodded seriously, "Yes, the time flow rate ratio between the Desolate Soul Realm and the Mage Plane is six and a half to one."
6 and 2 points, 1 to 1
That's 6.5:1.
Gao De's heart skipped a beat.
This means that if you stay in the Desolate Soul Realm for six and a half days, only one day will have passed in the Mage Realm outside.
What desolate and barren soul realm? This is clearly the Jiang Lan Realm!
(End of this chapter)