Chapter 3849: Mount Karas · Moon Ruins

The target of Xia De and Danister's trip, "Mount Karas," is not a very high mountain. It is located on a peninsula in the northern part of the Old Continent, with no large cities around, and is part of the continuous Walter Mountains.

The travel plan Danister made was very simple: take the train from Tobesk westward at ten in the morning, and arrive at the traffic hub in the west of Tobesk—Crossroads Town—Kovos Town at twelve.

After lunch, take off in the fields. Although they need to bypass the detection rituals above large cities and need to slow down to prevent being sensed by some detection rituals for wild dragons, they should be able to reach the foot of Mount Karas on Monday evening.

The plan went very smoothly. Although the train was half an hour late, it didn't delay the two's lunch time. And then when flying holding hands, Danister unexpectedly found that Xia De's flying technique had improved a lot, so she used "testing flying technique" as an excuse to compare the difference between aerial kissing and ground-based kissing with Xia De.

She was very focused on such professional experiments, so much so that the two almost flew into the range of the important city in central Delarion—Golden Spike City—Escaris City.

This was Xia De's first long-distance flight, and he felt everything was so fresh. Danister also noticed Xia De's rare childlike nature, so she deliberately slowed down the flight speed so that he could better enjoy the scenery from the air.

Nothing worth mentioning happened during the journey. After saying goodbye to the wild geese flying together, they arrived at the foot of Mount Karas on Monday evening.

Looking down from high altitude, there was no human smoke in the continuous mountains. At the foot of the mountain, there was a remote town called "Karas Town." Because there were trains passing through here, the scale of the town was medium, but Danister's itinerary did not include staying in the town.

The sunset reflected the forest at the foot of the mountain red. Because there was a map before setting off, Danister took Xia De's hand and fell directly toward the "Moon Tower Ruins."

That place was not the highest point of the entire mountain range, but it was the highest point of the entire Mount Karas. The forest did not spread to such a high position. The edge of the high forest was gray stones, and continuing upward was the ridge of Mount Karas.

And at that highest point on the cliff, was the original location of the high tower.

At this moment, the dim yellow sunset swept across the cliff tip in winter, plating the gray-brown rock wall with a layer of cold, astringent crimson. The remaining tower base was embedded alone at the edge of the cliff. The weathered stone bricks were covered with cracks, the remaining arches were crooked and about to fall, and the black-brown stems of dead vines were like solidified snakes, entwined on the broken moon relief.

Below the cliff, the forest was like a silent giant beast under the gradually dimming sky light. The dead branches pointed straight to the sky, and the bare branches were twisted and intertwined, weaving into an airtight net in the twilight.

At the same time Xia De and Danister landed in front of the tower base, the last ray of sky light was disappearing. The shadow of the tower base was pulled thin and long on the snow, and this scene was really lonely and desolate.

"This is..."

The Outlander had thought many times about the scene when he arrived at this high tower, but no imagination could be more tragic than the scene at this moment. From the tower base, it can be seen that the area of the high tower that once existed here would not be smaller than the 【Myriad Manifestations Tower】 on the snow mountain.

But now, apart from the base, nothing really remains here. The tower collapsed in the spring of 1853, and it has only been two years since now. Time has taken away too many things.

"But why is there only the base? What about the other parts of the high tower? Is it possible that someone can clean up the wreckage in such a remote mountain forest?"

Xia De asked, and Danister stood in the last ray of residual sun, also looking at the remaining tower base with complex expressions:

"Other parts are below the cliff. When that tower collapsed, it collapsed toward the direction outside the cliff."

"The sound was very loud at the time, and the townspeople in the town at the foot of the mountain also heard it, but they thought it was the thunder of the night, so the archaeological experts from Delarion took a long time to discover that it had been damaged here."

This high tower, which had been discovered by scholars of the Kingdom many years ago, was beautiful because when night fell, the high tower standing alone under the moon was beautiful. Therefore, although it was remote, it was considered famous, so Xia De saw the news about it in the newspaper when he first arrived in this world in early 1853.

"I can't feel the traces of abnormal elements."

Xia De said softly, and Danister nodded:

"Yes, I guess it won't be so easy for us to find clues... Let's investigate after night completely falls, set up camp and eat first. It is Monday evening now, and I plan to stay here until Friday morning."

"No problem, since we have already arrived, there is no need to be in a hurry."

Xia De threw out a gold nugget to cast a spell to summon the camp, and Danister took out the prepared ingredients for simple cooking. Xia De also released the cat. Little Mia was held by Xia De and also looked toward the tower base, but soon shifted its gaze to the pot on the campfire.

Investigating the Moon Tower certainly had to be done at night, so the two planned to investigate at night and rest during the day for the next few days.

The last ray of sunset disappeared completely, and the stars and the three moons floated above their heads. Camping under the starry sky was quite romantic, but Xia De and Danister were both thinking about many things in their hearts, so they hurriedly finished dinner and immediately started the investigation.

The first thing to do was not to examine the ruins, but to release detection sorcery such as "Strong Spatial Perception" and "Echoes of the Past" to determine whether there were supernatural traces around.

Besides sorcery and incantations, Danister also prepared rituals for detecting the power of the moon, as well as the Sage-level relic 【Master Marcus's Crystal Ball】 specifically borrowed from the Academy library for detection. As long as this crystal ball is placed and activated, it will continuously collect clues around until it finds what the user wants to see and reveals it.

The disadvantage of using it is that if the clues are hidden very deeply, it may take a long time for the relic to take effect. However, the two have patience to wait for it to operate slowly. As for the negative characteristics of the relic, that is, it is extremely easy to attract evil things that are sleeping or sealed in the surrounding area when used, Danister is responsible for supervision to ensure that it will not be triggered.

The first wave of detection did not find too obvious traces. There was no problem with space and time nearby, and no one had been here recently. However, Danister's incantation "Metal Detection" found some man-made metal items underground not far away. Xia De recorded the location and planned to look for them later.

The ritual for detecting the power of the moon was arranged at eight o'clock in the evening. With the shattering of thirteen precious silver gems, the ritual detected that a long time ago, there had been an explosion of super-strong moon power on this cliff.

Because the power explosion was so strong that it exceeded the detection threshold of the ritual, the ritual could not give the specific time of the power explosion.

The relic's detection had not shown results, and Xia De and Danister's subsequent inspection of the tower base and other parts of the tower below the cliff did not yield good results.

Other parts of the tower below the cliff were extremely severely damaged, and combined with the tower base, only a few remaining patterns could be seen, which proved that the original patterns and decorations in the tower indeed existed besides moon patterns, and there were also sun patterns.

At ten o'clock in the evening, Xia De put the cat, which was already a bit sleepy, into his coat pocket, and found a blocked cave with Danister at a position slightly lower than the top of Mount Karas.

This looked like a mine, but it only extended hundreds of meters toward the mountain body before collapsing. After clearing the collapsed rocks and mud with sorcery, the deepest part revealed dozens of white bones buried here, as well as the metal tools just detected by Danister, such as small carts and shovels.

"It looks like a production safety accident... What are they digging here?"

Xia De was quite puzzled, but Danister could give an answer:

"I once mentioned to you that the 【Truth Society】 had found the notebook of that astrologer Mr. Euclid in the ancient high tower of Mount Karas (Chapter 1081)."

"That should be before the spring of 1853, that is, before the high tower collapsed. The 【Truth Society】 had professors conducting certain research near here. I think the deceased here may be related to the 【Truth Society】."

"Is it possible that this high tower was knocked down by the 【Truth Society】?"

Xia De put forward a guess, and Danister shook her head:

"The 【Truth Society】's way of doing things would not be so rough, and it can be seen at a glance that the work of these deceased has not been completed. The 【Truth Society】 will not waste human resources like this."

Although both were curious about what was being dug here, since the sorcerers of the 【Truth Society】 did not choose to cast spells to dig, and did not even choose to continue digging after the passage collapsed, Xia De and Danister did not choose to continue to extend this passage for the time being.

However, since 12 of the 23 people died here, it is possible that the bodies of the remaining 11 people are also nearby, and among them, someone may know more things.

The inspection of the bodies was carried out by Danister. Centered on the tower base on the highest cliff, they found new bodies at two o'clock in the morning below the cliff. The bodies were not in the tower wreckage, but in the mud deeper than the tower wreckage.

Xia De found those bodies one by one while trying not to touch the tower wreckage. The damage to the 7 bodies was extremely severe, and there were even traces of wild animal bites on the bones of many bodies.

The subsequent spiritualism successfully summoned the soul, but this batch of souls was quite ignorant, and the information given was intermittent. Xia De finally summarized:

"The time of death of these seven deceased was from the 23rd to the 30th of the Month of Wind in 1853. After the first batch of 12 people were buried due to safety production accidents, the rest were unable to rescue and were unwilling to continue digging the dangerous cave."

"So they were assigned other tasks, that is, trying to excavate in other locations. As a result, seven people died of unknown diseases one after another during this period. To prevent the spread of the plague, the foreman decided to bury the seven people in the forest below the cliff."

Xia De dispelled the last soul:

"It seems that those bodies were later turned out by wild animals, and then smashed into the mud again when the high tower collapsed, so they looked so broken."

"Four people are still missing. What do you think they will do?"

Danister asked Xia De, and Xia De said very affirmatively:

"If it were me, I would definitely choose to give up this job. 23 people died and only 4 were left. This is too terrifying. And although it is remote here, the road down the mountain is not difficult to find. Once down the mountain, there is a train home in the town. If you really want to go, you can always find a way."

"Assuming no one intercepts... continue searching."

The discovery of 19 bodies originally made Xia De and Danister think that they would soon approach deeper secrets, but until dawn on Tuesday, they could not find any other meaningful traces.

Danister was not discouraged:

"Last night was just the first and roughest search. Starting tonight, I will combine astrology and moon phases to try to crack the special nature here. You are not guessing that behind the normal high tower, there is a hidden Moon Tower that can only see one moon? I will find it."

The two said while eating breakfast, and then dived into the tent to start sleeping. Xia De slept very lightly and woke up after three hours. At this time, Danister also opened her eyes. Obviously, she was not as unconcerned as she showed.

Xia De comforted Little Mia, and seeing that everyone didn't want to rest, he took Danister to the town at the foot of the mountain for lunch. Regarding the rumors about the collapse of the high tower on the mountain two years ago, the people in the town had heard some, but investigating all afternoon that day did not have any practical significance.

Dinner was also eaten in the town. Seeing that Danister was in a bad mood, Xia De did not rush to return to the mountain with her, but went to the "dating holy land" introduced by the enthusiastic restaurant owner, which was the town clock tower, to take a look.

The scenery here was not very good, but the concern shown by Xia De really made Danister feel much better.

So the investigation on Tuesday night continued. Regarding the 23 people pulled by the 【Truth Society】, it was impossible to continue the investigation for the time being. Danister planned to arrange for correspondence students near Thorn Bay to investigate whether anyone had luckily returned among those who went out and did not return two years ago: