Chapter 3624

"Excuse me, Professor Daniste, did the previous bishop of the order—the lady who once wrote the 'Moonlight Sonata'—ever mention to you that she had discovered we are actually a branch of the ancient Moon God order?"

Ms. Fischer asked Xia De this while standing before the fireplace, and Xia De nodded:

"Yes, the professor did mention it to me. When I met the 【Missing Moon Secret Cult】 in the Vesta Woodlands last year, I even mentioned you all to those ladies."

"Professor Daniste discussed this matter with us back in 1854. After she left with the materials, we organized the ancient documents and predecessors' notes accumulated within the order, and subsequently discovered this."

The middle-aged sorceress took a document bag from the young lady behind her and handed it to Xia De. As Xia De opened it to examine the contents, Flora also took a peek and discovered it was a suite score, but not a simple one:

"Is this a hymn?"

The artist Miss said with slight surprise, and Ms. Fischer nodded:

"Yes, and it is not the general type of hymn performed by choirs in the current Zhengshen Sect. The predecessor who left this score transcribed it from a stone tablet in some ancient ruin and believed it to be a sacrificial song performed by believers of the ancient Moon God sect during moon worship."

"Hymns" are also divided into many types; different music must be used for different occasions such as prayers, sacrifices, and blessings, which have very strict classifications within the sect.

"According to the analysis of the melody, this piece is generally performed at the closing stage of major sacrificial occasions, that is, when the night is about to end, to express the meaning that 'the fallen moon will surely rise again on the second night.'

I once organized the order's musicians to perform it, but the performance process was quite unsuccessful. Later, I realized that this hymn can only be performed on the right occasion; it is not a piece of music that mortals can easily play."

The meaning she wanted to express was very clear:

"Your Excellency the God-Caller, we gift this hymn to you; perhaps it will be useful to you. The witch beside you may have noticed that this piece requires at least three people to perform, but this is the minimum number of people. To achieve the best performance effect, it is best to have thirteen people perform it, including both musical instrument performance and vocal singing."

"Giving it to me? That is truly too kind."

Although he had recently learned basic music theory from Dorothy, Xia De still did not understand such a complex score; the way the score was written was not even modern. So he handed the score to Flora beside him, then felt that he had suddenly found new work for Flora to do.

Ms. Fischer hurriedly shook her head:

"You don't have to say that; such a score can only belong to you. We look forward to you finding a way to play it. If we have the honor, we would also like to listen from the side. After all, due to changes in language and symbols, ancient scores passed down to modern times are already very rare."

Xia De thanked these believers of the God of Music again, but this time he did not mention giving any reward, only thinking in his heart that he owed the other party a favor.

After sending the trio away, Xia De stood at the entrance of the Snow Mountain Hall and said to Claire:

"In other regions before, I had never had so many people come to visit me."

"That is because you never appeared in public before, nor did you have reliable partners like the Fatu people."

Claire said with a smile, then talked to Xia De about whether anyone would send letters to visit later.

Flora stood two or three steps away from the two, moving her gaze from the score in her hand to Xia De:

"The fallen moon will rise again..."

The artist Miss had very strong inspiration, especially in art:

"This is a story of fate, and now this kind of thematic hymn has appeared."

She recalled what everyone had told her about Moon Bay, and she couldn't help but feel a little worried. She lowered her head to look at the score in her hand again, thinking in her heart to dismantle it as soon as possible, and then let more people on the ship try to learn them.

After the ladies of the 【Music Sect】 finished their visit, no one else came to look for Xia De. So Xia De went to find Elder Harald to ask about the dead snake carcass, and the elder indicated that there was no need to look for this thing:

"There are plenty in the warehouse; this is a very common spellcasting material locally, and you can have as much as you want."

Xia De did not need much, and the Tear Fern ship also had some. In this way, he gathered the means to go to the temple ruins. Since he had made up his mind, he returned to the ship, called people, and set off:

"Beiya, you and Xiwei go to the mountaintop with me."

Although he brought the 【Night Watcher】, calling the witches was not because he felt this trip would be dangerous, but to prevent himself from stepping out from the mountaintop after hallucinating, failing to enter the temple ruins and instead falling off the edge of the cliff.

The three arrived at the "Peak of Fate" at 3:30 in the afternoon. Because this place was also an important venue for the upcoming "Great Movement of Fate" ceremony, the summit was not empty.

A small altar had already been built, but there were no other preparations besides that.

At this location, one could more clearly feel the island's chaotic elemental environment, but Xia De did not come for this this time. The Tear Fern had already been made into an extract, so Xia De only needed to take out the curved arc and burn the dead snake's carcass to put into the small spherical incense burner.

When the smelly gray smoke wrapped around Xia De like a fire snake, he drank the even worse-tasting Tear Fern extract.

I don't know if it was because the effects of these two hallucinogenic elements were truly outstanding or for other reasons, but at this moment Xia De really felt his head becoming dizzy, and Beiya and Xiwei beside him also saw Xia De starting to sway while walking.

Both witches were very worried, but Xia De had just said that as long as he didn't fall off the cliff, they didn't need to worry about him.

So Xiwei and Beiya watched Xia De sway and turn twice in place, then walk in an arc like a drunkard, gradually approaching the edge of the mountaintop platform. The two hurriedly followed, then watched Xia De constantly sway at the edge of the cliff, then stumble forward and pounce, and at the same time the curved arc in his hand shattered with a "Crack!", he disappeared directly into the air.

Xiwei stepped forward quickly to follow, while Beiya jumped directly off the cliff to see if there were any traces of Xia De. Subsequently, they confirmed that Xia De had really disappeared into thin air:

"So, this counts as a success, right?"

And Xia De, who was clutching his arm that had hit the steps, was certain that he had indeed succeeded. At the moment he was about to fall just now, he had sobered up. Unfortunately, he didn't fall, but instead fell sideways onto the steps.

The steps were carved into the side of the steep cliff, and after climbing up and looking back, the entrance to the steps was blocked by a layer of misty light curtain. Xia De could vaguely see Xiwei located behind, but she clearly couldn't see him.

【One-hour countdown begins.】

"She" reminded softly, and Xia De nodded, walking quickly up the steps.

According to the information provided by the sect, the "Mad Omniscient" named this flight of steps the "Road of Atonement," but when Xia De climbed, he only felt that every step was slipping; the dark green stone steps were frozen and shiny, with fine ice shards embedded in every level, yet there was not even a whisper that could shake his mind.

So-called atonement might just be a madman's arbitrary annotation of a long trek, or perhaps the power here had long since flowed away in the torrent of time.

When Xia De grabbed the remaining carved stone pillar of the archway and climbed over the last step, the howling wind suddenly became much gentler. The highest point of the Fatu Monster Snow Mountain was thus found by Xia De.

Looking forward, it was a silvery-white landscape; on the undulating mountaintop, the temple ruins of the Ancient God of Fate were scattered like a shattered glass cup.

Most of the broken walls were buried in waist-deep snow, only those corridor pillars carved with spiral patterns stood crookedly in the wind. Xia De ate a mouthful of snow, walked forward two more steps, and after digging away the accumulated snow under his feet, found a stone fragment that had fallen here from somewhere; the vague star map pattern on it had almost been completely worn away by the wind and snow.

But there were still some complete buildings here after all; the core temple of the ruins that hadn't been seen yet must be fine, and the high tower on the distant peak was also an exception. Looking from afar, the tower body of that gray stone tower was nailed to the high place like a wedge; although complete, it still had a fragility that felt like it would collapse with a bang in the next second.

And when Xia De's gaze swept over the wreckage scattered everywhere in front of him, the feeling of time freezing made him feel suffocated again. The carvings on the stone walls had long been gnawed into powder by the wind and snow, and the stone slabs that countless believers had once knelt or stepped on had long since shattered into stones.

When he continued to walk forward, he even doubted that since the time of the Sixth Era began, he was the first living creature to leave footprints here.

Although flying was not prohibited here, out of respect, Xia De did not fly into the high sky; he counted in his heart the purpose of his coming here:

"Look at the Ring Hall, the Oracle Plaza, and the Saint's Cliff, look for the Upper Spring, and see if the First Fire is here. If there is time, I can go to the high tower on the mountaintop to take a look, and then go to the temple entrance to curse Mr. Snake; anyway, the other party can't come out."

Thinking this way, he had quite a lot to do, but even if he could only complete one this time—excluding cursing the snake—he would be very satisfied.

The "Ring Hall" was a place for diviners to perform divination, and Xia De had no understanding of its appearance. When he saw broken walls and ruins everywhere here, he knew that he couldn't find it easily, so he just kept this goal in mind and didn't care much.

The First Fire might be hidden anywhere, and Xia De began to sense the direction of the First Fire after entering here. But he could still have some sense of the First Fire in the snow mountain, but here he had no feeling at all.

He thought this instead proved that the flame was likely here.