The windows on the top floor of the clock tower were closed, and the air was filled with a very strong stench of mechanical lubricating oil. On the floor illuminated by kerosene lamps, spare parts and maintenance parts for the clock tower machinery were stored.
On the west wall, there is a complete maintenance operation manual. The black lines outline simple pictures and describe the details of the maintenance operations as detailed as possible.
"For a ring sorcerer, knowledge and power are actually the same."
The doctor continued to speak, but he had now bent down and placed the suitcase on the ground, and after carefully opening it, he revealed the expensive ritual materials that Shade had prepared for the occasion.
"You are really willing to spend money. Even if you can buy cheap smuggled goods, these materials will not cost less than four figures in gold pounds."
The doctor sighed and started to make arrangements with Xia De.
"Yes, for a ring sorcerer, knowledge and power are almost equal."
Xia De agreed and placed the suitcase he was carrying against the wall very carefully, because it contained dangerous items.
They squatted on the floor together, using blue chalk to outline the lines of the ritual array. Dr. Schneider was much better at drawing circles with his bare hands than Shade was. The array of this ritual was roughly in the shape of a complex nested clock face.
"Those who are obsessed with power will be lost, and those who are obsessed with knowledge will also be lost. I have heard a saying that for wise people, wisdom is their greatest enemy."
The doctor said, and Xia De also smiled and added:
"I have also heard a saying that knowledge is the bait in the ocean of ignorance."
He put down the chalk, ground the clock stone into powder, and mixed it with the heart extract of the two-headed red-eyed demon wolf. After confirming that the color had turned into the blue color mentioned in the ritual records, he dipped the small brush made of gray rabbit tail hair and brushed it along the chalk mark drawn by the doctor.
The blue liquid mixed with the blue chalk mark actually formed a gray mark.
“But the desire for knowledge is also the most fundamental driving force for human progress.”
The doctor was still imparting life experience to Shade. In his opinion, Shade, who had only been a ring wizard for half a year and was the youngest in the group, was far from mature:
"I am older than you, and I have personally witnessed how the world has changed in the wave of the steam revolution over the past thirty years, so I can better appreciate the importance of knowledge and wisdom. Unfortunately, knowledge and wisdom are dead, but people are alive."
He snorted and laughed:
"To you, Lajins Prisha may be the first madman seeking knowledge you have ever met. But to me, I have seen many cases like Lajins Prisha. If the ring sorcerer's loss of control is not related to the influence of the relic, it is mostly because he cannot control his inner desires."
Xia De nodded, stood up and corrected the position of the ritual formation:
"So, doctor, what do you think knowledge is, and what is wisdom?"
"I'm just helping you with the ritual tonight. Why are you asking such a philosophical question?"
The doctor stood up, simply arranged the ritual array, and placed the symbols in the empty circles. He was almost ready to carry out the "time perception" enhancement ritual that Shade had been looking forward to for a long time.
Shade was not sure whether he was the first person to perform this ritual, so he did not know whether people in history had given a new name to the sublimated thaumaturgy of "time perception".
The two took out the five antique pocket watches that Shade had rented from the box and adjusted the time to 1:03, 5:17, 11:00, 15:21, and 23:40 respectively. The pocket watches were still in the 12-hour format, but there were up and down arrows on the side of the dial to indicate whether it was morning or afternoon. They paused the pocket watch time and then took out eight silver hourglasses of the same size. These were sterling silver antiques that Shade had borrowed from Miss Carina's estate.
The candles were lit, and Shade drank the potion that assisted in enhancing perception. He held the leaves of eternal youth, which served as an auxiliary item for the ritual, in his mouth. And the most important item, the suitcase by the wall, was also opened by Shade with extreme caution.
"But if we really want to talk about what knowledge and wisdom are."
The doctor had already left the ceremony site and leaned against the fence, watching Shade open the suitcase. Moonlight shone through the window into the top floor of the clock tower, illuminating the ceremony site and Shade's profile, while the doctor stood completely in the dark. Behind him, huge gears of different sizes drove the chain to rotate, which in turn drove the hands of the clock on the outside of the wall to rotate.
"Knowledge is a tool to gain power; wisdom is a way to use power. Knowledge and wisdom are what helped me pass the exam."
"This answer is really pragmatic."
Xia De smiled, and because there was a leaf in his mouth, his voice was a little unclear.
He looked at the square stone in the suitcase. On the surface of the stone, the holy emblem of the God Mr. Dawn and prayers were carved by Priest Augustus himself. Moreover, this stone was a floor tile dug out by the priest from the main hall of the church.
There is a brass lock nailed on the surface of the stone. After opening the lock, the upper part of the stone is removed, and the antique hourglass embedded in it can be seen.
Three thin colored glass columns surround the main body of the glass hourglass. The fine sand in the glass is shining silver, as if the stars are imprisoned in it. The thin colored glass columns are hollow and filled with golden fine sand, while the upper and lower domes of the hourglass are made of an unknown silver-green stone material that feels extremely smooth.
The stone dome is polished to be extremely smooth, with patterns of clock faces and giant trees on it.
The entire hourglass was about the size of two palms. After Xia De grabbed the thin column on the side and lifted it up, tiny streams of light flew around the three thin glass columns and then wrapped around Xia De's hands. He had an inexplicable feeling at this time, as if what he was lifting was not an hourglass, but a long river.
The flying lights were like dancing elves. In Shade's eyes, they formed ancient elven inscriptions, which probably meant:
Time will treat all living things fairly.
"That's what you said..."
The doctor asked in surprise, and Xia De nodded:
"Yes, the angel-level relic that I borrowed."
In fact, it is unknowable, but Xia De is afraid of scaring the doctor.
When the Unknown Relic was rewinding, since no information was available, Luvia and Augustus only knew that it could rewind time, but they didn't know how to start or how to end it normally. However, this relic was extremely sensitive to Mr. Dawn's power and was almost completely suppressed by the power of this righteous god. Therefore, since it had been suppressed under the statue for a long time, the whispering element was very weak at this time, and there was no need to worry about the relic itself suddenly losing control.
It's just that Shade must return it as soon as possible, otherwise other accidents will definitely happen. When Luvia and priest Augustus took it in, they only saw the relic itself and instantly lost all the ability to perceive time. If Luvia hadn't taken the hourglass in time, the priest's consciousness would have been lost in the turbulence of time.
Of course, neither he nor priest Augustus or Luvia had thought about figuring out the characteristics of this relic and using it in daily life. Unknown-level relics had no possibility of being used by mortals.
If relics of other levels are used with caution, then Level 0 relics must never be used for anything other than containment... The only exception is when the Thirteenth Ring Warlock uses them to deal with enemies that humans cannot handle.
"Doctor, we can start now."
As Xia De spoke, he carried the very light hourglass in one hand and walked to the center of the ritual array. After lying down carefully, he placed the hourglass on top of his heart.
The doctor nodded silently and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a scarlet light flashed in his right eye. The ancient demonic power instantly affected the area. The power that should not exist in this era immediately stimulated the ritual.
A faint white mist rose from the ground, and in half a minute, it covered Xia De who was lying on the ground.
Xia De opened his eyes and watched the thick fog covering his vision, and then he heard the pocket watches that they had stopped making a clicking sound. Eight antique hourglasses glowed in the fog, and the sand that was originally at the bottom flew upwards as if time was reversed. The time that Xia De held seemed to melt into his body, sinking little by little in his chest until it completely disappeared in his chest.
A slight stabbing pain came over Xia De's heart, and the corners of his mouth twitched. He felt like he was lying in a flowing river.
He endured the strange feeling and silently said in his heart:
"Praise the Father of Infinite Trees. May the World Tree protect me in time."
Sha~Sha~Sha~
He heard the sound of the treetops swaying in the wind and felt the breeze blowing through his body. So he followed his feelings, covered his aching heart, sat up in the fog, and saw the giant tree in front of him that seemed to connect the sky and the earth.
Ancient trees record the stories of the years, and every leaf carries the song of time.
Xia De was quite familiar with this tree, and even this fog, because what was before his eyes was the shadow left behind by the ancient god Infinite Tree Father after his departure.
The shadow of the giant tree was reflected in Shade's eyes, and his heart ached as the treetops trembled when the wind blew over them. The stories of time were all recorded in the annual rings of the World Tree. Looking at this tree, he already knew the stories of the past.
Stranger, you have come into contact with a "miracle".
The breeze of time blows open the curtain of the years and brings the stories of the past to you. When your soul touches the truth of time in the long river of time, what awaits you at the end is the figure of the Father of Infinite Trees.
Outsider, the thaumaturgy of "time perception" has been sublimated.
You have acquired the magic of "Contacting the Father of the Infinite Tree", which allows you to perceive the truth of time in more detail.
Xia De opened his mouth slightly and looked at the giant tree in front of him:
"Perceiving time has turned into perceiving the shadow of the tree father. This... makes sense. So, the time point I am at now is..."
The truth that was being explored finally appeared in his mind at this moment, and the long river of time finally became coherent in Xia De's eyes.
There was no surprise at this moment, only a sudden calmness, as if everything had lost its meaning of attracting him.
The white mist gradually dissipated, and the magic sublimation ceremony ended in a brief vision. When Shade came to his senses, he found that he was still lying on the floor, and the back of his chest was still there.
Holding the relic in one hand and supporting himself on the floor with the other, he sat up. Using the new magic after sublimation, after hearing the pleasant sound of the treetops rustling in the wind, Shade got the answer:
"The current time is 8:05 p.m. on Thursday, the second day of the first month of the Universal Calendar, the sixth era of the present world, the year 1854."
"The present world" is the translation made by the outsiders themselves, corresponding to the past world, the Sixth Era, which has already passed.
"After the end of the Fifth Epoch of the Witches, it was the Sixth Epoch of the Past, and then it was the Sixth Epoch of the Past again, and then it was the Sixth Epoch of the Past again... It turns out that this is not the first time."