Chapter 223: Teacher Shaya, Did You See It? This Tower Built For You (5k)
First Era, Western Continent.
Hill of the Watcher.
This is a barren hilly area located in the central part of the Western Continent.
It is said that a thousand years ago, before the Great Calamity broke out, this was the site of one of the three great royal courts of the Glorious Era—the Giant King’s Royal Court.
However, unlike the Ancient Dragon Royal Court, which still has ruins remaining, and the Elf Royal Court, which is said to exist above the endless sea, coexisting with the Lost Island.
The fate of the Giant King’s Royal Court was even more tragic than that of the other two royal courts.
In the chaos at the beginning of the Great Calamity, as the core battlefield of the mythical creatures, the Giant King’s Royal Court was affected by the aftermath of the divine war—
Under the might of the fallen god, every inch of land and every building in the Giant King’s Royal Court, including all the creatures within, were swallowed by the violent spatial turbulence stirred up by the collision of divine power…
Completely crushed into dust, not even a trace of debris remained.
It was the extinction of an entire race, the blood of countless giants staining the entire barren hills a striking crimson, which had not faded even after a thousand years.
In the following centuries, a legend spread among the human kingdoms in the surrounding areas.
A half-mad legendary mountain giant was said to have been prowling between these crimson hills.
It was said that this mountain giant was once a guardian general of the Giant King’s Royal Court and had narrowly escaped death during the Great Calamity because he was away on a mission.
However, after narrowly escaping death, he did not find another place to recuperate like the other surviving giants… Instead, he wandered day and night in these hills, the ruins of the royal court he once guarded.
On every full moon night, residents near these hills could hear the mountain giant’s mournful cries.
Occasionally, human adventurers, coveting the extraordinary materials and holy relics that might remain in the ruins of the Giant King’s Royal Court… would embark on expeditions to treasure hunt in the ruins of the Giant King’s Royal Court.
Then, they would be torn to shreds by that enraged mountain giant.
Over time, this area of hills, which bore the ruins of the Giant King’s Royal Court, became a place that humans in the surrounding areas referred to as a forbidden zone, like a forbidden zone for life.
The mountain giant who wandered above the ruins of the royal court was called the “Watcher of the Royal Court” by the surviving adventurers.
Along with the taboo ruins of the Giant King’s Royal Court, it became known as the “Hill of the Watcher.”
The past has been buried by the years, spanning over a thousand years.
And that mountain giant, known as the “Watcher of the Royal Court,” had also reached the end of his life at some point, turning into a gray and withered corpse on the Hill of the Watcher.
Only the place name was passed down, along with the story of the mountain giant, becoming a vague and unverifiable legend in the mouths of bards.
…
*Pat—*
Upon a desolate and rocky crimson hilly area.
A dark spatial crack silently split open in the dim sky.
In the next moment.
High heels made of crystal quietly extended out of the spatial crack.
Following that, a golden elf maiden in a plain white robe, with crimson-gold hair disheveled.
She stepped onto the blood-red hills with an elegant and light movement.
“It’s really been a long time…”
“Western Continent.”
“No, to be more precise… this should be my first visit.”
The golden elf stepped onto the barren hills.
One of her eyes was slightly closed, and with her only open right eye, she looked down upon this desolate hilly area.
Giants had much longer lifespans than humans, but unless they broke through to demigod status, undergoing a fundamental transformation of life to evolve into non-human mythical creatures, their lifespans were not infinite.
That “Watcher of the Royal Court” had long since passed away, but due to the numerous taboo rumors and the ominousness of these ruins permanently stained with blood, the surrounding humans still regarded this place as a forbidden zone for life, not daring to set foot in it.
In the entire barren mountain range, only the golden elf maiden, with her left eye half-closed, was alone.
She looked for a long, long time.
After a long while, a hint of nostalgia flashed in her light golden beautiful eyes, which seemed to have experienced the vicissitudes of time.
“Although before this, I had imagined the real scenery of the Western Continent outside the Lost Island countless times…”
“But when I finally left the island on the vast ocean and actually saw the scenery of the Western Continent… I found it rather ordinary.”
“Even a little disappointing.”
“So, is all of this because of you…”
“Teacher Shaya.”
Heiser’s lips moved slightly, and she murmured softly.
In the “Shaya’s Flying House” that drifted through the astral realm back then, in the Grand Library of the Lost Island, in the library Shaya had left for her…
On countless difficult nights, Heiser would use the faint candlelight, looking through the small text on the tattered and old ancient scrolls… to imagine the world outside the Lost Island.
Not a world perpetually shrouded in the veil of eternal night, but a brilliant landscape bathed in sunlight.
However, when those thousands of imagined scenes finally met reality, when she truly returned from her long wandering in the astral realm and set foot on the land of the Western Continent.
Heiser realized… she wasn’t as excited as she had imagined.
“As expected—”
“From the very beginning, what I looked forward to was not ‘seeing the world of flowers outside the Lost Island’ or ‘escaping eternal night and bathing in sunlight’… these things that outsiders would take for granted as good.”
“Rather, it was.”
“Being with you.”
The joy and anticipation of learning magic with Shaya in the Flying House, and imagining learning magic and walking in the sunlight during breaks.
It was meaningful only because she was by his side.
And now, that human youth, who always seemed lazy, with a little mink lying on his shoulder, and who loved to pat her head, was not by her side.
No matter how beautiful the world of flowers in the Western Continent was, or how bright the sunlight was after its pollution and madness had been cleansed—
To Heiser, it held no appeal.
A hint of loss flickered in the golden elf’s eyes.
However, the slight melancholy in her crimson-gold eyes quickly subsided.
It had indeed been a long time since she had seen him.
She even dared not be sure if the young man beneath the abyss was alive or dead at this moment.
But, just as Heiser had agreed with the young man when they parted.
The next time she met him.
She would definitely be smiling.
And as part of the contract, the young man had promised to awaken from the abyss intact.
And then—
He would reappear before her, to respond to the feelings that had never been fully expressed back then.
Not as teacher and disciple, or as golden elf and human… but a deeper kind of affection.
That agreement at their parting was the sole driving force for Heiser to leave the Lost Island and continue moving forward.
It had sustained her through five hundred years of bleak wandering in the astral realm.
It had also allowed her to achieve a feat that countless demigods had sought but never attained in the astral realm, containing the “Secret Fire of the Magic Goddess,” or what was known as the “Silver Fire,” within her left eye.
“A brief separation is for a more beautiful reunion in the future.”
Although she knew it was just words to comfort her from the young man when they parted.
Heiser had always firmly believed this in her heart.
Her pair of crimson-gold beautiful eyes moved slightly, as she awoke from her reverie.
Then, she slowly looked around her surroundings.
On these blood-red hills, there remained a sense of familiarity that made Heiser feel somewhat connected.
Although life had long since passed, that sentiment had traversed the ancient years, transforming into fragments of rules resembling a curse, lingering above the ruins of the Giant King’s Royal Court, unwilling to dissipate for a long time.
The golden elf’s thoughts stirred.
In the next moment, her left eye, which had been closed all along, quietly opened.
A wisp of cerulean flame slowly flickered within her crimson-gold beautiful eyes.
Immediately after, an immense mystery enveloped the surrounding hills.
The imprints of time, like tree rings, quietly appeared over this area.
A illusory river of time was thus silently cut out and reflected in Heiser’s pupils.
Both the illusory wheel of time and the silver fire in Heiser’s eyes flickered and vanished in an instant.
However, all the imprints of time and information that the ruins of the Giant King’s Royal Court had experienced since the Great Calamity were projected into Heiser’s eyes at this very moment.
Then, all the details and information about this region over the past thousand years were understood and grasped by her without omission.
“A watcher?”
“What an apt name indeed.”
A flicker flashed in Heiser’s indifferent eyes.
“In the eyes of outsiders, it must seem like madness and incomprehensibility to remain here after the royal court has been destroyed, abandoning one’s future and also the possibility of further progress…”
“Such actions can only be described as madness and incomprehensibility.”
“However, I can understand this feeling.”
Heiser recalled a story that Shaya had told her a long, long time ago in the drifting star realm cottage.
A story, supposedly from Shaya’s hometown.
A fox demon named Tu Shan Shi fell in love with a human named Yu. They met, knew each other, and were newly married.
But one day, floods broke out. Yu, as the leader of the human tribe, shouldered the responsibility of controlling the flood and left his newlywed wife to throw himself into the fight against the flood alone.
In order to control the flood, Yu passed by his home three times without entering. His child had already learned to read, yet still did not know what his father looked like.
And that wife from the fox demon tribe, carrying her longing for her husband, waited day after day, year after year, for her beloved to return.
Until her body weakened, her blood ran dry, and she transformed into a withered stone, still gazing in the direction of her husband.
When Heiser heard this story back then, she was quite perplexed.
She did not understand, nor could she quite comprehend… what kind of obsession could make that fox demon, who was of a different race from her husband, miss him so much that she ended up as the tragic “Wang Fu Shi” (stone wife looking for husband)?
But at this moment, Heiser finally understood a little.
If she thought about it carefully, what was the difference between her actions and this mountain giant who lingered in the ruins for hundreds of years, unwilling to leave, and the fox demon in the story who waited for her husband to return?
The Nine-tailed Fox Demon and humans are different races.
And High Elves and humans… are also different races.
She persisted until now for a vague, insignificant agreement made five hundred years ago.
Even after leaving the Lost Island and shedding the curse of her elven bloodline, as a High Elf, she possessed nearly infinite potential.
If she were willing, Heiser could easily ascend to demigod, pseudo-god, and even reach the pinnacle of mythical creatures, competing for the Throne of Heaven in the new era.
However, she abandoned all these opportunities and plunged into the depths of the astral realm, in pursuit of that elusive phantom.
In the eyes of outsiders, her actions probably wouldn’t be any different from those of a madwoman… like a mother who cannot face reality after losing her child, and thus mistakes a doll for her child, merely indulging in her own delusions and refusing to wake up.
But, some things are just like that.
Just as the “Watcher of the Royal Court” could never forget his duty to guard the Giant King’s Royal Court, and the fox demon named Tu Shan Shi regarded unwavering loyalty in love as the highest virtue.
Even after five hundred years, Heiser could not forget the time she spent with Shaya in that drifting cottage.
She could not forget the beautiful people and things.
Whether it was madness, or going astray due to obsession, or reason being dominated by emotion.
Others’ evaluations might be objective and correct, but they were merely “correct” in name… meaningless to the person involved.
“Hill of the Watcher…”
“Is this a place considered inauspicious, feared, and even shunned by humans?”
Heiser looked down at this entire barren hilly area and whispered soundlessly.
“However, from this day forward.”
“This place will have another name.”
“If I remember correctly.”
“That city, Teacher Shaya called it—”
“City of Knowledge.”
“Right?”
Her plain white fingers extended slightly and tapped in the empty air.
In the next moment.
In the golden elf’s left eye, that wisp of mixed cerulean and silver flame suddenly ignited.
Then, it erupted with an incomparably magnificent and brilliant radiance.
Space was distorting.
No, it was not just space that was distorted, but the boundaries of rules.
The division between illusion and reality, between fantasy and what could be reached.
Rumbling—
Rumbling—
A loud rumbling sound originated from this barren hilly area.
It echoed between the sky and the earth simultaneously.
Within that illusory and magnificent cerulean flame—
Countless elemental particles condensed in the void.
A leisurely, operatic chant rang out.
It was an ancient elven chant.
Used by Heiser with the technique of “High-Speed Divine Speech,” it was as beautiful and melodious as a poem, yet carried an ancient and solemn majesty.
The ancient elven chant converged into the archetype of arcane arts.
Then, under the constraint of the magic model.
The sky and the earth… myriad wandering, ownerless elemental particles were thus gathered, arranged, and reorganized according to Heiser’s will.
Then, from illusory and formless magic—
Transformed into tangible, real matter with mass.
Boom—
A colossal wave of magic and mystery reverberated throughout.
Not only the surrounding human kingdoms, but even many mythical creatures were alerted by the vast fluctuation and turned their gaze towards this barren hilly area, the site of the Giant King’s Royal Court.
However, Heiser at this moment paid no attention at all to those probes from the Spirit World and Astral Realm, some filled with malice, others with goodwill, and with various intentions.
She simply looked silently at the hills before her.
Obviously, it was originally just a barren wasteland with nothing.
But at this moment, it was shrouded in illusory light and shadow.
And when that distorted light and shadow finally slowly dissipated, and the illusion faded, what came into view was a grand and magnificent city.
There were no residents in the city, but every structure was detailed and clear.
It was the same as the City of Bubbles… that Shaya had taken Heiser on their last journey on the day the Lost Island fell into the abyss.
Compared to the City of Bubbles created by Shaya, which could only last for one day.
The city before her lacked the dense crowds, but everything was not an illusion, but tangible reality.
“Teacher Shaya…”
“You once said.”
“Magic is the process of manifesting illusions into reality by using the spirit to control magic.”
“Distorting reality, reshaping nature, and using the will of a wizard to rewrite this imperfect world into the shape we desire.”
“Then, as I am now—”
“The one who has manifested the city you once envisioned into reality…”
“Can I be considered qualified to graduate?”
Heiser murmured soundlessly.
Her toes moved slightly, and she took a step.
Her figure, accompanied by the opening and closing of spatial rifts, silently moved from the edge of the city wall to the center, the very heart of the city.
It was a spacious plaza.
In the center of the plaza stood a huge obelisk, inscribed with words in light golden ancient Arland language.
“Truth and home lie deep within the stars.”
Behind the obelisk stood an incredibly magnificent, pitch-black tower.
Majestically towering, it pierced straight into the clouds.
“Teacher Shaya, did you see it?”
Although the golden elf’s gaze was fixed on the pitch-black tower before her, her sight seemed to extend far beyond.
As if she had penetrated the city and landed somewhere more distant, a place that did not belong to this world.
“The continuation of your ideal…”
“This tower, built for you.”
