Chapter 1091: Southern Continent

Within moments, Lei En mastered dozens of Ancient Saint Runes.

He returned to the bridge of the Osdu and immediately opened his phone's gallery, sorting the photos he had taken at the Ancient Saint Altar; after more than two hours, he imported them into the "Translation Dictionary" and waited, full of expectation, for the results.

Soon, a few lines of characters appeared on the phone's screen.

Lei En's spirits lifted, but after a close look he was greatly disappointed: the Translation Dictionary had indeed deciphered some Ancient Saint Runes, but only a little over a hundred, all built upon the troll runes he already knew, yielding only the simplest content.

That proportion of just over a hundred Ancient Saint Runes was still far too low to let the Translation Dictionary decode the entire script.

"Too little information; as expected, it won't work…"

Lei En felt a headache coming on.

If he could not decipher the Ancient Saint Runes and script, his Netway project would likely not even get past the first step, doomed to fail before it began.

He again tried to compile all known troll script, linking it with the Ancient Saint Runes, and powered the Translation Dictionary with multi‑core chips for a comprehensive analysis.

That analysis took three days and consumed a great deal of power.

Yet it still yielded little result.

During this time, Suo Lim officially began rebuilding the Storm Temples—the Western, Southwest, and Southeast Temples—constructing all three simultaneously. The rune dwarves of the Storm Plane had fully submitted to the giants; these master craftsmen formed the main force for the temples, directing hundreds of thousands of giant vassals as they toiled on the old sites of the three temples.

Suo Lim put the giants in charge of supervision, and he himself became busy as well.

Deep underground of the Southwest and Southeast Temples, two Ancient Saint Altars had been destroyed for tens of thousands of years; the altars could not be known to any outsiders, so Suo Lim had to handle them personally.

He ordered the giants and rune dwarves to gather ore and smelt metal, using magical alloy from the treasury to forge blocks of Titan Blue Iron of the required sizes and shapes.

Even that step alone almost stumped the Titan Elder.

The main structure of the Ancient Saint Altar is a magical alloy very similar to Titan Blue Iron, yet the two differ considerably in properties. Their appearances are also starkly different: Titan Blue Iron is a deep blue, while the altar's metal shines like brilliant gold.

Suo Lim calls it "Ancient Saint True Gold."

Both metals are extremely hard and possess superb toughness, resisting high and low temperatures and corrosion; in these respects, Titan Blue Iron still has the edge.

Moreover, Ancient Saint True Gold conducts magic several times better than Titan Blue Iron, even surpassing mithril.

Fortunately, the Ancient Saint Altar is built entirely of True Gold; otherwise, a hundred‑meter‑tall pyramid made of True Gold would require an astronomical amount of metal—more than could be mined from the entire Storm Plane. True Gold is used only in the altar's critical parts, the control platform and rune arrays; the main structure employs a cheaper alloy.

Even so, Suo Lim studied for a long time but could not determine the formula for Ancient Saint True Gold.

The alloy formula is a matter of life and death; it must meet the altar's exact specifications, or the effort would be wasted.

Suo Lim had to ask Lei En for help.

That posed no difficulty for Lei En; in fact, when he first entered the Ancient Saint Altar and touched its walls, Lei En had already determined the True Gold formula ratio.

He generously told the Titan Elder and revealed that Thundercast Celestial Soldiers possess metal‑melting abilities that could aid in forging Ancient Saint True Gold.

Suo Lim was overjoyed.

After deliberation, he offered an extremely generous reward and invited the Thundercast Celestial Soldiers to help build the Ancient Saint Altar.

Lei En simply waited for them to speak, and naturally gave no refusal.

As a batch of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers entered the Ancient Saint Altar, Lei En, through their eyes, photographed every layer, every slab, and every detail, compiling hundreds of thousands of Ancient Saint Runes and script, along with a series of incomprehensible rune arrays.

The Thundercast Celestial Soldiers also inspected the other three intact Ancient Saint Altars.

These three were ordinary altars, smaller in size, about two‑thirds the height of the main Storm Temple altar—roughly seventy meters.

Lei En spent several days researching on the Augustus and still made no breakthrough.

As the emperor, he could not stay away from the Empire for long; many tasks could not be handled by a proxy, so he took most of his army back to the Prime Material Plane, leaving only an Empire‑class Star Destroyer and ten thousand Thundercast Celestial Soldiers to obey Axi Na's orders.

Returning to the Empire, it was February of New Era Calendar year 2546.

Lei En slipped back into a hectic routine: by day handling a flood of official documents, making decisions, receiving subjects; by night returning to the harem for meals with his family, playing with the children, tutoring the crown prince, and resting late.

Gradually, he grew accustomed to the daily life of an emperor.

The formation in the Ascendant Temple's array grew ever stronger; the Empire Intelligence Bureau was successfully established, with Thundercast Celestial Soldiers as its core members, spreading its reach both inside and outside the Empire. Of course, aside from Lei En himself, no one knew that every official, from the director down to informants, was an extension of the emperor.

The Department of Public Security was also swiftly completed, with Mo Se Liao serving as its first Minister of Security and joining the cabinet—a meteoric rise that inspired countless envy.

Under Lei En's diligent governance, the Empire's political situation grew ever more stable and prosperous.

In secret, Lei En kept a close eye on the construction of the Ancient Saint Altar.

With the help of the Thundercast Celestial Soldiers, Suo Lim's building speed surged; a project that might have taken decades was completed in under three months, and the foundation of an ordinary‑grade Ancient Saint Altar was laid deep underground of the Southwest Temple.

Had Suo Lim not insisted on engraving the rune arrays himself and had refused the Thundercast Celestial Soldiers' aid, the pace could have been several times faster.

At this rate, even an ordinary altar would still take four or five years.

Even once built, it might not be useful.

Lei En knew this better than anyone: reverse‑engineering is hard, and the more advanced the product, the harder to replicate. Without grasping the principles and essence, a copy would likely be a hollow shell that cannot function.

But Suo Lim had no better option; he could only press on blindly.

Lei En had his own ideas.

During these three months, his many avatars and the Thundercast Celestial Soldiers hidden throughout the Empire's cities collected troll knowledge daily—books, relic inscriptions, excavated artifacts, previous scholars' notes—leaving no troll‑related material unchecked.

The vast, cloud‑like trove enabled Lei En to master over a dozen troll scripts and languages.

He now possessed a clear understanding of the Troll Era's history—its destruction, division, wanderings, and resurgence—spanning tens of thousands of years.

"No one in the world knows trolls better than I do."

Lei En thought this repeatedly, joking, "Including the trolls themselves."

The trolls' history after the end of the First Era can be called a saga of racial blood and tears.

If summed up in one word, it is "tragic"!

After their empire fell, countless trolls scattered across the world, some fleeing into other planes.

Former world rulers survived in remote, barren lands, their tenacious vitality and adaptability keeping them alive, yet their civilization and intellect regressed, leading to divergent branches in varied environments.

To date, over three hundred known troll varieties exist worldwide!

Even in the harshest terrains, troll traces are found; they grow like weeds, impossible to eradicate.

During the Second Era, trolls, like other races, became slaves to dragons and giants, the lowest‑ranked of all.

During the Third Epoch, the number of trolls rose again; in the early epoch there was a brief revival, even an attempt to reclaim the position of world overlord, but they were quickly defeated by the elves. Although the elves also evolved from trolls, the elves never acknowledge it.

During the Fourth Epoch, which is the present New Era, trolls are still everywhere.

Trolls in the New Era still inhabit remote barren lands, such as the cold north‑wind belt, arid deserts, the depths of the death forest sea, the gloomy swamps, and so on.

Human transcendants who venture out encounter trolls as their most common enemy.

Eat, sleep, slay trolls!

This sentence, to some extent, sums up the transcendants' adventure experience.

Although everyone has heard that trolls were the earliest natives of the Ai Lun E Si world, once achieved glorious feats and founded the world's first Empire, today many regard trolls as little better than beasts, reduced to a kind of "wild monster".

The reality is the same.

Of the trolls humans encounter in the wild, not even one out of ten may possess intelligence enough to communicate verbally.

The other nine are aggressive and hostile toward humans, many even have a habit of cannibalism.

The majority of trolls are no longer considered an intelligent race.

Lei En has studied trolls in depth and gathered abundant data, but unfortunately still cannot decipher the Ancient Saint runes.

Nevertheless, it is not a total loss.

In the process of compiling troll history, he uncovered many clues, all pointing to the same place—the South Continent!

In the First Epoch, trolls populated the entire Prime Material Plane, their presence visible in every region from the Old Continent to the New Continent. The troll Empire underwent more than a dozen dynastic changes, yet its core dominion never shifted—it remained on the South Continent.

However, roughly three hundred years before the end of the First Epoch, when the first Abyss invasion occurred, the troll Empire had already fragmented.

This differs from people's impression.

The troll Empire was not destroyed by Abyss demons; rather, after more than three hundred years of collapse, it was powerless against the Abyss demons' assault, dooming the entire world. This occurred over twenty thousand years ago, and the truth has long been erased by the river of time.

Subsequently, two more epochal transitions occurred, and the related records have long vanished.

Nevertheless, Lei En still found a few threads of evidence.

The cause of the troll Empire's collapse lies in the South Continent; about twenty‑thousand‑eight‑hundred years ago, the continent suddenly lost contact with the outside world!

No one can enter the South Continent.

After that, the entire South Continent became a forbidden zone, completely cut off—no entry, no news. It was as if the South Continent had vanished from the Prime Material Plane, and even today it remains the world's most mysterious place.

The South Continent's coast is shrouded in mist, with eerie tides, unnatural whirlpools, and terrifying storms that prevent any ship from landing.

From the edge of the South Continent, people gaze at the land and see an endless expanse of primeval forest.

However, once set foot on the continent, one becomes lost; an invisible yet massive magical force seems to block entry, causing travelers to return to their starting point or appear on the perilous shoreline, dying from unknown attacks.

Portals, teleportation spells, and various magical means cannot bypass this magical barrier.

If a caster approaches within a hundred li of the South Continent, any teleportation spell inevitably fails.

Not even Holy Soul Wizards or Grand Mages are exempt!

The South Continent has been isolated for so long that almost everyone has forgotten its existence; the few records about it are scant and repetitive.

In any case, it's simply inaccessible.

Lei En heard of the South Continent's mystery early on, but did not know that it had become this way over twenty thousand years ago. After two epochs, the South Continent remains mysterious, showing how powerful that magical force is.

The gods surely have made attempts.

This suggests that either even deities cannot break the magical seal on the South Continent, or the cost of breaking it is too great for them to bear.

Previously Lei En could not guess the truth, but now the answer is obvious.

Ancient Saint altar!

The South Continent must host numerous Ancient Saint altars, forming a massive system, like a sealed plane, isolating the entire continent from the outside.

Trolls are the only race that ever contacted the Ancient Saints, being the first to receive their teachings. If trolls still survive on the South Continent before the end of the First Epoch, they likely possess knowledge of the Ancient Saint runes!

Thus, securing the South Continent becomes inevitable for oneself.

Regardless, it must be tried; once entering the South Continent, even if trolls have long been extinct, the still‑functioning Ancient Saint altars hold immense value.

"Even if we establish a Magic Energy Network in the future, it cannot bypass the South Continent."

"Looks like we have to make a trip."

Lei En made a decision, but did not set off immediately; seated at the center of He Palace's office, he uttered a single incantation, and ten Thunder‑forged divine weapons located in a demi‑plane of Gotham City began to move.

Each Thunder‑forged divine weapon is Legendary High‑rank.

They shed their golden armor, war hammers, and Bolt Guns, donned adventurer gear, altered their forms, and quickly disguised themselves as a soul‑hunting squad.

Moments later.

The Thunder‑forged divine weapons passed through a teleportation array, underwent two jumps, traveled south along the New Continent's eastern coast, and arrived at the Wind and Thunder Archipelago.

This archipelago, composed of one large, three medium, and four small islands, lies at the junction of the New Continent and the South Continent.

Between the two continents runs a narrow, winding land bridge, like an umbilical cord, its thinnest point only a few dozen li. During the Third Epoch, elves excavated a canal at the narrowest point, called the Torihos Canal, linking Wu Jin Zhi Hai with the Fallen Star Ocean, opening a maritime route between the two shores of the New Continent.

The Wind and Thunder Archipelago lies on the west side of the canal, less than a hundred li from the mainland.

The island hosts a port and pier; looking toward the canal, one sees cargo ships and passenger vessels shuttling, and the island itself is a scene of prosperity.

In the past decade‑plus, as reclaimed territories on both sides of the New Continent grew, the Torihos Canal, the sole gateway linking the two maritime routes, gained increasing importance. The island's population swelled, commerce thrived, and the archipelago and canal are controlled by an "Island Alliance" composed of several large mercenary companies; merely collecting tolls makes them roll in wealth.

Through the eyes of the Thunder‑forged divine weapons, Lei En saw the prosperity of the Wind and Thunder Archipelago.

"We must take this place back."

"Such an important maritime chokepoint must be claimed for the Empire."

Lei En, in a moment of contemplation, decided the fate of the Wind and Thunder Archipelago. Simultaneously, the Thunder‑forged divine weapons entered a secluded alley of the port and cast a teleportation spell toward the South Continent.

(End of Chapter)