Chapter 818
Thousand Year Vow of Hatred Spirit Tower
After the meal, Alistair was led by Albert and a few others to the Spirit Tower’s preservation room. Although the name sounded like a storage room, it was actually a crucial part of the Spirit Tower. Its importance was second only to the Spirit Amber Spine, which provided the core power.
“Entering here requires some form of shelter; it’s a kind of key,” Adolf, who had followed them, extended his staff and touched the shoulders of Alistair and the other two. A faint, dim yellow film lightly enveloped their bodies. Then, they pushed the door open and entered.
Upon entering, Alistair immediately felt a very strong power of the Twilight Path. Everything here seemed as if time had been frozen… emitting a dim yellow light and maintaining absolute silence. Not far away were over a dozen rows of giant bookshelves. Besides books, they housed bottles and jars containing organs, as well as peculiar trinkets or carefully packed documents. A large, ancient-looking treasure chest lay open, filled with shining gold coins and various jewels.
There were even two figures who appeared to be petty thieves, crouching beside the treasure chest with expressions of joy. One cupped gold coins in his hands, letting them fall naturally. The coins slipping through his fingers froze in mid-air. The other held a gemstone and a soft handkerchief, seemingly wiping it with care. Yet, the handkerchief had also become incredibly solid and unmoving. Some people were caught mid-stride, frozen in place, completely unaware. Others seemed to realize something, their faces etched with panic as they raised their staffs.
“Are these people… thieves?” Alistair asked. Her voice produced no echo, but the others evidently heard.
“Some are, and some are disobedient students,” Adolf replied, closing the door of the preservation room. His voice also resonated in Alistair’s mind, “The Spirit Tower’s strongest preservation technique is fixed within the preservation room. The Principal’s ‘Amber Container’ is located here, and its power is enough to freeze the surrounding time. It is also the Principal’s greatest weakness.”
“…Is it appropriate to tell me this?” Alistair was startled. The so-called ‘Amber Container’ must be the Lich’s phylactery. Unlike the Amber Artisan, whose Amber Container sealed a soul before transferring it to another body, a process for possession, or creating a soulless vessel for rebirth, the phylactery was a Lich’s core ability. The Lich sealed its entire soul within it, allowing it to regenerate anytime even if the physical body was destroyed, as long as the phylactery remained intact. Conversely, if the phylactery was destroyed, the Principal, no matter how powerful, would die instantly.
For a moment, Alistair thought she might not be able to leave. Adolf shook his head, “It’s fine. It’s been so many years, and it’s hardly a secret anymore. At least, it’s not a secret to those with malicious intent, so there’s no need to hide it from a friend… Even if someone knew, they still couldn’t get in. And you, with the Sixth Tier King of the Wild Hunt at your command, couldn’t you break in if you had hostile intentions towards us? Since that’s the case, it’s better to show our utmost sincerity.
“Besides, you underestimate the ‘Preservation Technique’ too much. ‘Preserving secrets’ is also within the scope of the Preservation Technique. Knowledge acquired here cannot be explicitly conveyed to outsiders; it can only be passed on through riddles or hints. Those who know the secret will ultimately remain silent.
“Look…” With that, Black Face Adolf pointed his staff at a man wearing a hood, whose presence was very faint. If Adolf hadn’t pointed him out, Alistair would not have noticed him at all.
“That is a Master Assassin, Fifth Tier. During the Earth Split War, the Black Eagles sent him to assassinate the Principal by infiltrating the Spirit Tower. Clearly, he failed.” The man was currently frozen in a forward-stepping posture, lost in the past, completely unaware.
“And this man,” Adolf pointed to another white-bearded old man who seemed to be chanting a spell, “is a Fifth Tier Archmage, the Archmage Lord of the Water Lily. And that silver-haired woman is a Fifth Tier Child of the Moon… I don’t recognize the others. Many have wanted to kill the Principal, and now they are all spoils of war.”
Adolf then gestured to the organs in the jars, “And these too – their original owners were all Fifth Tier powerhouses. These are top-tier corpses, usable for the highest-level rituals and necromancy. They serve as our tactical reserves. However, the Principal didn’t kill all of them… these are the collections of the previous and even earlier Principals. Each generation of Principals maintained the existence of this preservation room with their own power. Among all the Principals, Master Grunewald lived the longest and was the only one who liked to preserve these assassins and petty thieves as well. Therefore, these individuals appeared only after Master became the Principal.”
“…It seems the Principal was once treated like a BOSS,” Alistair murmured. Albert and Aurora were not surprised by this secret. Clearly, when they placed their teacher here, Adolf had already told them about it once. In any case, with their talents, the Spirit Tower would likely depend on them in the future. The current Black Face Adolf had long wanted to retire; he could leave as soon as Albert was ready.
At this moment, Alistair suddenly remembered something. It was the name of the dungeon after the Old Lich entered it—Thousand Year Vow of Hatred Spirit Tower.
“…How long has the Spirit Tower existed?” Alistair asked, “You are the Vice Principal of the Spirit Tower, you must know its history, right?”
“Yes. If we’re talking about the Spirit Tower in the truest sense, it has existed for over four thousand years,” Adolf replied without hesitation, his knowledge seemingly unfaltering. “It existed at least before humans were born. At that time, the Spirit Tower was the inheritance of the Bird People, and it was called the ‘Sky-Piercing Tower’. A long time ago, it was a Mage Tower.”
“…A Mage Tower?” The two young Necromancers obviously had not heard of this hidden history and couldn’t help but utter sounds of surprise.
“It was even called the ‘Tower of Truth’ because it possessed the ability to deduce all mysteries of the past and future. Ancient mages were different from now… Necromancy, Preservation, Astrology, Alchemy, Curse, Ritual, and all other mysteries were classified as spells, divided into nine major categories and twenty-seven sub-categories, encompassing all the secrets of the world. It is said that when the Great Philosopher ascended to godhood, he directly tore through space-time from the Sky-Piercing Tower and reached the Dream Realm in his physical body.
“But afterward, one day, the Tower of Truth was struck by divine lightning, causing a conflagration that burned everything. Many ancient mages were killed, and much of their knowledge was lost. Because lightning was the Great Philosopher’s domain, many ancient mages believed that he destroyed the ladder to godhood after ascending to become a Pillar God, and thus harbored resentment towards him… but the Great Philosopher remained silent about it, neither admitting nor denying it.
“The ancient mages fought amongst themselves, and their inheritances were scattered. They no longer called themselves mages but ‘casters’. It was only after that, that humans, as newcomers, were qualified to learn these mystical arts. The vast Forbidden knowledge stored in the Tower of Truth was dispersed and lost… and the most complete lineage preserved was that of us Necromancers who simultaneously mastered ‘Preservation Technique’. Only those of us who understand Preservation Technique can comprehend the Great Philosopher’s silence.”
No wonder… Alistair suddenly understood. Preservation Technique involved conceptual manipulation. Its power was clearly superior to spells and astrology! It turned out that its inheritance was the most complete among the various caster inheritances…
“Until twelve hundred years ago, the First Principal found the Spine of the Amber Heavenly Envoy left in the Material Realm from the deep sea. Using the ancient techniques for building Mage Towers, he forged the original Spirit Tower. At that time, the Spirit Tower was still on an isolated island overseas. Two hundred years later, that is, a thousand years ago… the Spirit Tower finally fell into the Empire’s hands.
“—Strictly speaking, the Spirit Tower, with the Empire as its primary race and Necromancy as its main inheritance, has only existed for less than a thousand years,” Adolf said casually, as if it were not a thousand years, but merely decades.
And that name echoed in Alistair’s mind again—
Thousand Year Vow of Hatred Spirit Tower.
(End of Chapter)
