Chapter 453 – All Things Are Permitted
Chapter 453 – All Things Are Permitted
The Frost Queen’s subterranean abyss program half a century ago was to identify and solve the problem of boiling gold underneath the city-state, and successive generations of consuls have passed down secrets about boiling gold, the Queen, the curse, and the ancient gods of the deep sea, and the power of the Profound Holy Lord has formed a substantial projection in the city-state and infiltrated this huge hollow area …… Every piece of information about this is Shocking.
But to Duncan, all of these pieces of information together are not as shocking as “the ancient god that invaded the city state is a replica”.
Vanna also realized the shocking information contained in these words, this Inquisitor who specialized in dealing with heretics and evil spirits looked unusually serious at the moment, she gazed at the “giant pillar” that supported the entire cavern for a long time before she spoke: “First of all, first of all, this is indeed the ‘Ancient God’ that has invaded the city-state, it is a replica of the ‘Ancient God’ that invaded the city-state. The remaining part of the ‘Ancient God’ that invaded the city state …… and the source of this thing is still located in the deep sea below the city state, so there are actually two explanations for what Agatha just said about the ‘fake’ matter. ”
“Yes, two explanations,” Duncan nodded, “The first explanation, that ‘source’ located at the bottom of the ocean is the genuine article, so in a sense, that source projects into the city-state the ‘eroded body’ can then be viewed as a replica, or a fake, and for the second explanation ……”
He paused and looked up at the giant pillar that supported the entire cavern for a moment before letting out a breath.
“The second explanation, the ‘source’ at the bottom of the sea is also a replica – the other Agatha touched at the last moment not only this ‘cave’ the tentacle of the Ancient God in it, but also learned the truth about what was going on in the deep sea through that tentacle, but due to time constraints, she was too late to leave too much of an explanation behind.”
The scene was a little quiet for a moment, and Alice looked up, her curious gaze sweeping over everyone – she hadn’t quite caught on to what everyone was talking about, but she was trying her best to listen and understand, and it was a long while before she tugged on Duncan’s arm, “Sound a little scary? ”
“Yes, and it’s hard to tell if the first possibility is more scary or the second,” Duncan said ‘scary’ with a hint of a smile under his eyes, he pressed Alice’s hair, comforting the doll who didn’t understand the situation but seemed to be getting nervous. He pressed Alice’s hair, reassuring the doll who didn’t understand the situation but seemed to have gotten nervous, “You don’t have to worry so much, things aren’t going to be any more troublesome than a Mirror Frost.”
“Yes, it won’t be any more trouble than a Mirror Frost – provided that that ‘source’ at the bottom of the ocean isn’t allowed to continue,” Agatha spoke up, turning her head and “look” Duncan in the eye, “As you said last time, we will need to probe beneath the Frost again after all, to see if the ‘Ancient God’ that invaded the real world is still there… …”
Duncan let out a soft ‘hmmm’, knowing that Agatha wasn’t idle and must have already begun preparations for this, he didn’t push, but just then, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw something else.
There was some sort of glowing thing flickering in Agatha’s right hand, and it seemed to be some sort of metal product.
“Agatha, what is that thing in your hand?”
“In my hand?” Agatha instantly froze, subconsciously raising her hand, and it was only then that she suddenly noticed the touch of a foreign object coming from the center of her hand – cold metal, yet as if it had been muffled a little by body heat.
It was a strangely shaped brass key.
“The key ……” Vanna looked at the object in surprise, then reacted immediately, “Ah, it’s the one you mentioned earlier – Consul Winston’s last handed over to the other ‘Agatha’? The key left behind by the Frost Queen?”
Duncan’s eyes changed slightly, “Show me.”
“Of course.” Agatha did not hesitate and immediately handed that key to Duncan.
The key made of brass, the handle part is a thick material “infinity” symbol, the front end of the key is not serrated, instead of a round rod structure with grooves, just like the “clockwork key” used by …… to wind up the dolls. “The key is not serrated.
Alice curiously came over, grasping Duncan’s arm: “Let me see, let me see …… ah? This is a key? Why is it different from the keys I’ve seen …… What is it for?”
No one around said anything.
A gaze fell on Ms. Mannequin.
“Why are you all looking at me?” Alice reacted as an afterthought and raised her finger to point at herself, “What did I mess up again?”
“You don’t feel anything special looking at the key?” Duncan lowered his head and looked into Alice’s eyes, “Like a sense of familiarity, or an urge to touch it?”
“No. ……” Alice shook her head, looking confused, “I haven’t seen it before.”
Vanna, who was on the side, came over and spoke in a whisper beside Duncan’s ear, “Captain, do you think ……”
“I remember Nina mentioning it,” Duncan said slowly, “Alice has a keyhole in her back.”
Agatha sniffed and looked at the gothic figure in surprise.
For a moment, it was as if everything was connected, dots across time and space, twisting and turning into threads in this cave eroded by the ancient gods.
The key left behind by the Frost Queen and the doll “Abnormality 099”, which looked exactly like the Frost Queen, were the two endpoints of this line across time and space.
However, under the gaze of several eyes, Alice only looked around blankly, then raised her arms and groped her back vigorously.
“I didn’t feel it,” she said, a little aggravated and apologetic, “it’s blocked by the dress.”
“Go back and talk about it, this is something …… that needs to be done discreetly,” Duncan spoke in a hushed voice, breaking the somewhat stagnant atmosphere in the cavern, and then he looked up at Agatha immediately afterward, “I’m going to take this key, is that okay? ” “…… Theoretically, this key is the inherited object of successive generations of Frost Consuls, and according to Consul Winston, it also has the ‘information’ left behind by the Frost Queen coalesced in it, however ……”
Agatha paused, then shook her head gently.
“It’s all in the past, so of course you can take it away.”
“Thanks.” Without further ceremony, Duncan simply handed the key to the dove perched on his shoulder, and with a flash of ghostly green fire, Aye and the key disappeared over his shoulder together, and in the next second, the dove returned, but the key was gone.
It had been sent to the ship, to Duncan’s own body.
Duncan fiddled with the key that had just been delivered to him aboard the Lost Country, while in the underground cavern of the Frost City State, he glanced back at the giant pillar that supported the cavern, and reached out to tap the hard, cold stone of its exterior again.
“It’s time for us to leave.” He said.
The cavern was so large that even with the aid of the Spirit Body Fire, the area the party had explored so far was only a small portion of the hollow, but for Duncan, the information gathered so far was more than enough.
He needed time to slowly organize and digest what he had gained here, while the subsequent exploration …… could be handed over to Agatha, and Agatha’s subordinates.
After confirming that there is no residual ancient god contamination in the cave, and that the cave itself has a solid support structure, Agatha can already bring her subordinates here with relative peace of mind.
Following the path left behind by the Spirit Flame, the group safely withdrew from this huge cavern, and then took the elevator to return to the mine passageway on the upper level.
On the way out of the Boiling Gold Mine, Duncan curiously asked Agatha, “What are your thoughts on the hollow area down here?”
“Ideas?” Agatha pondered briefly, “I should lead a few more explorations to at least get a handle on the surface of the cavern and the area around that massive pillar, and if there are any valuable discoveries in the process, I will be the first to share the information with you, and as for after that ……”
She paused here, seeming to consider it very seriously before slowly speaking, “After that, I will suggest that the city-state find a way to mine the boiling gold in the cave, and find a way to transport the boiling gold there under the premise of avoiding the collapse of the cavernous area and avoiding destroying that ‘pillar’. Of course, the exact execution of this part will depend on the skills of those professionals at City Hall.”
“Not worried about the ‘hidden dangers’ of all that boiling gold?” Duncan asked casually, “After all, that could be something left behind by the ancient gods.”
“The …… city-state has to survive first and foremost before anything else can be considered,” Agatha shook her head gently, “And after ‘seeing’ what’s going on in that cavern situation, something occurred to me.”
“Oh?”
“If the boiling gold in the Frost Underground is a product left behind after the forces of the Ancient Gods have infiltrated it, what about the other city-states on the Boundless Sea? Is the underground …… of every city-state really all fine?”
The scene quieted down.
“After the veins dried up in the Queen’s time, Frost extracted another fifty years of Boiling Gold from the Mirror Worlds – we instinctively assumed that the Boiling Gold that was extracted from the Mirror Worlds also belonged to the same category of ‘fakes’ as everything else in the Mirror Worlds ‘, but the truth is, after the destruction of the Mirror City State, the Boiling Gold didn’t disappear, and even left new ‘rich mines’ in that underground cave we just discovered …… The only possible explanation is that the ‘Boiling Gold’ generated by the power of the Ancient God generated ‘Boiling Gold’ is not ‘twisted’.”
“Boiling gold generated by the power of the Ancient Gods is not distortion – it would have to be a natural part of the world,” Duncan intoned, “which already sounds a little close to those Annihilationists’ ‘Holy Lord of Creation’ theory.”
“Yes, it already falls into the category of deviant content.” Agatha admitted calmly and openly.
“But you don’t look shaken.”
Agatha paused as she slowly raised her head, her eyes gazing silently ahead as if through a black band of cloth.
At the end of the passage was the above-ground exit from the mine, and bright sunlight was pouring in from there, warm, bright.
To Agatha’s perception, the whole world was still cold, as cold as the grave.
But she knew the sunlight was warm.
“As I said earlier, the city-state must first live,” the pious goddess official said softly, hands folded across her chest as if she were praying to someone, “There is only one kind of heresy in the world – that which prevents us from living is the heresy; beyond that, all things are permitted.”
(End of chapter)