Chapter 288: 288 Ancient Magic Civilization
Ancient Ruins Mural Rubbings!
As these words left Yuri’s mouth, Reiger’s gaze first turned to the emerald green pendant that he had placed on the table.
"Another ancient ruins?"
According to King Hemulinp, the divine artifact Merloe was unearthed from an ancient site and wasn’t created by the alchemists or construction mages of this era.
Now, Yuri mentioned ancient ruins again, which couldn’t help but trigger a reaction from Reiger.
Liz and Marilyn, however, appeared nonchalant.
The reason was simple.
"As the Magic Civilization continues to grow, it’s now confirmed that before the rise of the modern Magic Civilization, there was actually an ancient Magic Civilization that prospered on the continent for a very long time,"
Yuri explained this point.
"Among the nations of the Akasha Continent, various remains from an era not belonging to the current one have been unearthed. Some of these sites have been excavated, allowing the countries of the continent to discover many ancient secret treasures and records of ancient civilizations. Others remain unbreached to this day. Due to technical issues, excavations are difficult, not to mention there are many unsolved mysteries and even ruins that pose life-threatening dangers to explorers, eventually becoming forbidden zones."
Yuri’s explanation vaguely reminded Reiger of some knowledge in this area.
This was knowledge that had been taught at the Spliller Magic Academy.
Unfortunately, the former occupant of the body didn’t value this knowledge, resulting in Reiger’s memory being hazy about it, able to recall only bits and pieces.
"Ancient Magic Civilization?" Reiger grew interested and asked, "So you’re saying, the modern Magic Civilization is built upon the ancient Magic Civilization?"
"No," Yuri shook her head and said, "According to the existing records, the ancient Magic Civilization likely vanished around eleven thousand years ago, and it was several thousand years later that the modern Magic Civilization was born."
"Vanished?" Reiger was taken aback and asked, "Why?"
"Not clear," Yuri said, "The reasons for the extinction of the ancient Magic Civilization are still not thoroughly understood by the magic world. However, based on the limited records unearthed from remains across the continent, the fundamental cause for the civilization’s demise might lie with magical creatures."
Yuri’s words directed Reiger’s attention back to the rubbing of the ancient ruins mural.
On it, the army of beast-shaped creatures confronting the army of humans was, without a doubt, comprised of magical creatures.
"Murals depicting scenes like this can be found in the ruins across the continent, so experts in the magical world believe that a long time ago, Akasha Continent might have harbored far more and far stronger magical creatures than today."
"They shared dominion over the Akasha Continent with humans and continually threatened human existence, pressing on the environment, leading to frequent conflicts between humans and magical creatures."
"And about eleven thousand years ago, there seems to have been a major outbreak among the magical creatures, setting the whole continent as the stage for an unprecedented final battle with humankind."
"After that, the ancient Magic Civilization perished, and the magical creatures also suffered heavy casualties. Their numbers sharply declined and, after thousands of years of recuperation, humans were once again able to rejuvenate the power of civilization, establishing a new homeland on the Akasha Continent."
"This is currently the most popular and accepted theory in the magic world."
Yuri took the emerald green gem pendant from the table and handed it to Reiger.
"Ancient secret treasures like this are occasionally discovered from remnants of the ancient Magic Civilization, which was far more prosperous than we can imagine. Modern Magic Civilization is unable to recreate, let alone decipher the principles of some of the precious treasures that date back to that civilization."
"Therefore, anything related to the ancient Magic Civilization, whether it’s knowledge or technology, is extremely valuable, as well as being the most mysterious and complex of treasures."
"The Hidden Land you mentioned may be related to the ancient Magic Civilization."
Upon hearing this, Reiger silently took the Merloe goddess amulet and wore it back on himself before speaking.
"Do you mean, Liz’s Moslo Sword could also be a product of the ancient Magic Civilization?"
This statement allowed Liz to react quickly.
Indeed.
Since the Moslo Sword appeared on the mural of an ancient site, doesn’t that suggest it’s very likely a product of the ancient Magic Civilization?
Yuri affirmed this.
"There’s a high probability that’s correct," Yuri said while nodding and then turned to Liz, "Has the Moslo Sword been researched by the royal family, Princess Liz?"
The answer to this question was affirmative.
"When I first entered the palace, my father... the King did indeed take the Moslo Sword away for a period of time,"
Liz said timidly.
This was an expected development.
If Reiger and Yuri could detect the abnormalities and complexities of the Moslo Sword, how could the royal family have missed them?
King Hemulinp must have had doubts about the origins of the Moslo Sword and taken it away for research, which was a perfectly normal occurrence.
"I found the royal family’s research records on the Moslo Sword in the royal library,"
Yuri revealed to Liz something she was completely unaware of.
"The records show that the royal family once summoned twelve court magicians and three alchemy professors from the Spliller Magic Academy to analyze and investigate the Moslo Sword," Marilyn said. "Ultimately, they confirmed that it was a magical weapon left over from an ancient magic civilization."
"But when they were about to conduct material analysis, effect analysis, and structural analysis of the Moslo Sword, they encountered difficulties."
"No matter how powerful the magic or how special the magical tools they used, they could not get the Moslo Sword to react at all. It did not even detect any Magic Power, as if it were just a common piece of stubborn iron. They couldn’t even scrape off a speck of iron to study."
"However, during their study, they discovered something."
Yuri then took out another piece of parchment.
This time, however, the parchment that appeared was not an imprint of any mural but a very finely drawn map.
"Do you know where this is?"
Yuri, pointing at a location on the map marked with a red "X," asked Reiger and Liz.
Reiger, of course, shook his head, and Liz looked just as clueless.
Only Marilyn, after glancing at it, gave the answer.
"That’s the border between the Leiblu Kingdom and the Genas Kingdom, a Neutral City called Xinyeler."
Marilyn recognized the place at a glance.
A Neutral City refers to a human city that has no national boundaries, does not belong to any country, is self-sufficient, and possesses absolute autonomy.
Xinyeler appears to be just such a Neutral City, located at the border between the two nations’ territories—an agreeable term for neutrality but, in less pleasant terms, it is an existence scrabbling for life in a crevice."
Of course, to remain neutral at the border between two countries and not be affected by war, the city must have its own reasons for confidence.
"Xinyeler’s City Lord is a long-renowned Sword Saint who does not belong to any nation," Yuri explained. "Said to be from a small country, this Swordsman, after his nation perished in the flames of war, simply laid claim to the land at the border and founded the Neutral City."
Yuri pointed out the fundamental reason why this Neutral City could exist in the world.
With a Sword Saint stationed there, contending with two nations was out of the question, but survival seemed not too difficult.
Unless there were sufficient benefits to be reaped, nobody would go out of their way to offend a Sword Saint."
The question was...
"You suddenly mention this Neutral City because the Moslo Sword is related to it?"
Reiger raised this point of doubt.
"Yes," Yuri nodded and said, "Near Xinyeler, an ancient ruin was once excavated. Both the Genas Kingdom and the Leiblu Kingdom had sent people to explore it, but they couldn’t carry out large-scale excavation work due to the fact that it was within the territory of Xinyeler."
"However, the personnel of the Genas Kingdom who went to explore the ruins found a slot in the deepest part of the ruins."
"That slot, it seems, was meant to insert a sword into."
Upon hearing this, Reiger understood what Yuri wanted to say.
"You mean, Moslo is the sword that was inserted there?"
Reiger stated this possibility.
This time, however, Yuri neither confirmed nor denied it.
"At least, according to the records left by those court magicians and alchemy professors from the Spliller Academy, they all believed after comparing that the sword of Moslo fits the slot in the ancient ruins."
Given this, the connection between the ancient ruins and the Moslo Sword was certainly there.
"However, I’ve heard that the slot already existed when the ruins were discovered, so the Moslo Sword probably wasn’t originally placed there but was pulled out by someone," Yuri said. "After learning of this, the royal family had planned to send someone with the Moslo Sword to try inserting the sword into the slot to see what would happen, but at that time, a serious incident occurred, causing the royal family to ultimately abandon the idea."
As for what that serious incident was, Yuri did not know.
The incident seemed to have been buried by the City Lord of Xinyeler personally, and apart from a very small number of people, no one knew what had actually happened at the time.
King Hemulinp might know the ins and outs of the incident, but he made no declaration and seemed to have no intention of investigating. In the end, he even returned the Moslo Sword to Liz.
Since then, the Moslo Sword has never left Liz’s side.
Yuri then surmised...
"If you want to know the origin of the Moslo Sword, to find out where the Hidden Land is, you might start from here."
Yuri said this to Reiger and Liz.
"This is the only clue I’ve been able to investigate."
At these words, Reiger looked towards Liz.
Liz, however, fell silent and said nothing for a long time.