The Six Hundred and Seventh Key
On the top of a hill near Gramorn, by the side of Twinkling Star Lake, at this very moment, an elderly man stood alone in the gentle breeze blowing over the lake.
This elderly man had sparse hair, bulging eyes, deep wrinkles, and a pale complexion. His entire body was emaciated and hunched, wrapped in a large, dark robe adorned with spike and spider motifs. He leaned on a rotten wooden cane with his withered hand, and his murky eyes gazed at the vast lake before him.
This elderly man was one of the high-ranking members of the Eight Pinnacle Nest, known as the Spider Fang Priest. Currently, he stood atop one of the hills beside Twinkling Star Lake, looking down at the entire lake with a serious expression, as if he were searching for some precious treasure.
He stood alone on the desolate hilltop, unmoving for tens of minutes, no matter how fiercely the wind blew from the hilltop, he did not waver in the slightest, like a piece of rotten wood.
“Huh… still trying so hard. Watching during the day won’t reveal anything. It’s better to save your energy for nighttime.”
At this moment, behind the Spider Fang Priest, a woman’s voice came. Hearing this voice, the Spider Fang Priest, who had been motionless like a piece of rotten wood, slowly turned his head to look in the direction of the sound. Then, he saw a tall woman slowly approaching him.
This woman had long curly black hair, dark red eyes, wore a wide-brimmed ladies’ hat, dressed in a dark dress with spider web motifs, and had bright red lips and thick eyeliner, making her a strikingly beautiful female.
This woman appeared to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. Compared to ordinary women, she was tall, almost a third taller than the hunched elderly man, measuring about 180 centimeters in height. When she walked up next to the Spider Fang Priest, he shifted his gaze back to the vast lake before him.
“We’ve been searching here for several days now, but we haven’t found the entrance yet. We’ve always focused our search efforts on nighttime, but there’s been no results. I think we should change our approach and try something during the day,” the Spider Fang Priest continued looking at the lake and said slowly. Listening to the Spider Fang Priest, the woman who had changed her stance sneered and spoke.
“Trying something during the day? Don’t make jokes. How could the secrets of that moon harlot’s temple appear during the day under the light of the source of the lamp? Acting during the day would be a waste of energy. If we cover such a large area of the lake with blood mist during the day, both our spirituality and physical bodies might not be able to handle it. Our restoration clearly can’t keep up with the consumption. If we don’t get any results for several consecutive days and exhaust our spirituality, what will we do if something unexpected happens?”
As she spoke, the woman slightly narrowed her eyes, revealing a hint of danger in her dark red pupils.
“Don’t forget, according to the intelligence from Tivyán, there are more people here besides us. The alert faction within the royal family and the Black Dog Bureau, as well as the mysterious Judge of Heaven Church, may all know about this place. If they take advantage of our vulnerability and act, the consequences would be unimaginable… Ed…”
The woman slowly said these words, carrying a warning tone in her voice. Hearing the woman’s words, the Spider Fang Priest was taken aback, then recalled the lightning bolt that split the sky he witnessed in Tivyán half a year ago. At first, he didn’t understand what kind of extraordinary power could trigger such lightning. It wasn’t until several months later when news of the Judge of Heaven Church’s resurgence spread from Adus in Northern Ufeiga.
“The Judge of Heaven Church… Why would a society whose activities are clearly limited to Northern Ufeiga suddenly interfere with the affairs of Prit? Those undead from the First Dynasty aren’t busy fighting among themselves but have the leisure to meddle in the affairs of this land of wind and stone…”
Spider Fang Priest Berard muttered, listening to Berard’s words, the woman continued to speak calmly.
“Most of those thousand-year-old undead are madmen whose minds are already broken; it’s not surprising what they might do. The key now isn’t to speculate on their motives, but to handle the current situation properly, find the temple of that moon harlot from this damned lake, and ensure nothing goes wrong in between.
“According to your suggestion, deploying blood mist during the day, the lake would be crowded with boats and people, increasing the difficulty of control. Even if we don’t find the entrance in a short time, severe damage to our spirituality, coupled with a decrease in our ability to control the lake at night, would allow hidden enemies to take advantage. According to the information from the Night Demon, compared to that cult, those people are much more likely to be part of the royal family’s alert faction. If they fully hide themselves and infiltrate, we won’t be able to stop them without blood mist monitoring the lake…
“Looking at Berard beside me, the woman spoke very seriously. Listening to the woman’s words, Berard couldn’t help but pause and then sighed slightly.
“You’re right, Gethsmoor, it indeed shouldn’t waste spirituality to cover the blood mist during the day… But that doesn’t mean we should completely give up exploring during the day. We can still send a few people out to patrol the lake, perhaps something might be discovered.”
“Suit yourself, you can use your own people, I don’t care anyway. Just don’t touch anything on my end,” the woman casually waved her hand after hearing Berard’s words, then said with a somewhat disdainful attitude. Seeing this attitude, Berard couldn’t help but furrow his brows.
“Gethsmoor, the nest sent us both here to execute such an important task, shouldn’t we work together? What’s wrong with asking you to contribute more?” Berard said solemnly to the woman beside him. Hearing Berard’s words, Gethsmoor was not particularly grateful.
“Work together? You seem to have misunderstood something. I’m not here to cooperate with you and be ordered around. My mission here is to provide backup for you. To prevent you from screwing things up again like you did at the beginning of the year, causing the nest to have to spend a lot of effort this year. Don’t forget my identity. You’re a priest, but I’m the ‘shaman’. I’ve already given you face by cooperating with you at night. Do you really think you can order me around now?
With a slightly arrogant posture, Gethsmoor slightly squinted her eyes, looking down at Berard with disdain. Hearing her companion’s words, Berard tightened his grip on the cane, seemingly suppressing a surge of emotion before speaking.
“I admit your status is noble, Gethsmoor, but you must also understand that if something goes wrong with this task, your status won’t exempt you from punishment…
“Something goes wrong? Huh… As long as I maintain my spirituality and don’t listen to your crazy suggestions like deploying blood mist during the day, there won’t be any problems. I’ve said before, my main responsibility here is to provide backup for the entire operation. As long as I’m here, even if there are two or three Red Tiers hiding, we don’t need to fear them…
“So, even if something goes wrong during this operation, it certainly won’t be because of me. It can only be because you’re too useless, unable to find the door after searching for many days, leading everything into a deadlock… In that case, it will all be your responsibility. After all, finding the temple of that moon harlot is your task…”
With a teasing tone, Gethsmoor said to Berard. In her words, she pointed out the difference in responsibilities between her and Berard in this task. Listening to Gethsmoor’s words, Berard fell silent, staring intently at the tall woman before him with a serious expression, saying nothing more, as if he couldn’t find any reason to refute her.
“I’ll plan tonight’s search…”
Berard simply said to Gethsmoor and then turned to dissipate into a cloud of blood mist, vanishing completely into the air in just a moment.
Watching Berard disappear, Gethsmoor nodded in satisfaction, then turned her gaze to the vast lake before her, looking at the many small boats sailing and fishing, as well as the reflection of the sun and the mountains.
“Actually thinking of searching for the secrets of that moon harlot during the day, truly don’t know which nerve is wrong with that person…”
After saying this, Gethsmoor also dissipated into a cloud of blood mist, leaving the small hill by the lake completely calm.
…
At this moment, on the vast surface of Twinkling Star Lake, among the pleasure boats and fishing boats, there was a small boat slowly sailing on the water. On this seemingly ordinary pleasure boat, a man wearing a coat and a low-crowned hat sat on it. He was none other than Dorothy’s zombie puppet, Ed.
Sitting on the grass in a forest by the lakeside, Dorothy controlled her zombie puppets to search for the traces of the invisible door across Twinkling Star Lake. She made her puppets disguise themselves as tourists and fishermen, rowing small boats across the vast lake.
Dorothy sat on the grass, her spirit observing the situation around Twinkling Star Lake through multiple perspectives provided by her zombie puppets.
Based on Dorothy’s previous calculations, the door to the Mirror Moon Temple existed in the reflections of different lunar phases on Twinkling Star Lake. Since the lake was completely controlled by the Eight Pinnacle Nest at night, Dorothy could only choose the invisible lunar phase that appears only during the day to enter the Mirror Moon Temple. The gate corresponding to the new moon phase could possibly lead to the Mirror Moon Temple.
Not long ago, the crescent moon in the night sky had completely disappeared, marking the arrival of the new moon. Today was the first day of the month, and it was the only chance Dorothy had found to locate the invisible door.
To find the invisible door, Dorothy needed to locate the reflection of the new moon on Twinkling Star Lake. However, since the new moon appears entirely during the day and is completely obscured by strong sunlight, it’s impossible to see its reflection directly. Fortunately, besides looking, Dorothy had other methods to find the shadow, which was calculating.
Although Dorothy couldn’t see the reflection of the new moon on the lake, she could calculate its position based on the positions of other lunar phases she had observed from the mountain and combined with the moon’s location in the sky. Dorothy calculated where the hidden shadow of the new moon should be located in the lake. This calculation process wasn’t difficult; Dorothy had already calculated the position of the new moon’s reflection and directed Ed to approach that location.
After a while, the zombie puppet Ed controlled by Dorothy finally reached the fixed point and stopped. She had Ed survey the surrounding lake scenery and the dazzling sunlight in the sky, then instructed Ed to check the underwater conditions. After a round of inspection, there were no abnormal situations, and the waters around Ed’s boat were clear.
Seeing this situation, Dorothy immediately controlled her fish puppet scattered in the lake, swimming toward the location of the new moon’s reflection. Soon, it swam under the boat Ed was riding. Dorothy instructed the fish puppet to search the underwater area, but found no unusual points, causing Dorothy to furrow her brows slightly.
‘Nothing? Could it be that I miscalculated? Is the door not here?’
Dorothy thought anxiously in her heart, then recalled her attempt to enter the Enlightenment Mark Temple in Adis. At that time, she hadn’t used a puppet to enter the semi-realm domain of the temple.
“It seems… some things must be done personally…”
Thinking this way, Dorothy murmured and then stood up from the grass, heading towards the lakeside.
After a while, pretending to be boating with her father, Dorothy and a puppet playing her father rowed to the projection point she had calculated. Here, Dorothy began to explore the surrounding lake surface with an umbrella, once again searching for the trace of the “door.” However, during the initial attempt, she found nothing unusual. Just as Dorothy was pondering how to continue her search, she suddenly felt something strange.
Sitting on the gently rocking boat, Dorothy reached into her small bag and took out her magic box. After opening the magic box, Dorothy took out an item, which was the trophy she had taken from the withered wing during her encounter with Karmalo—the fragmented black jade!
At this moment, the black jade in Dorothy’s hand emitted a faint silver glow, and in resonance with the black jade, the shadow barrier ring left by her mother also emitted a similar faint glow.
Seeing this scene, Dorothy momentarily remembered another part of the riddle prayer, which stated that the door to cross the mirror required a key.
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Note: The translation maintains the original narrative style and structure while ensuring clarity and coherence in English.
