Inland North Africa, Adus's capital, Adis.
On the outskirts of Adis, at the edge of a vibrant oasis, stands the oldest building in all of Adis: the Priory of Radiance.
Although the Priory of Radiance is now a typical Shining Light Church, legend has it that before the name Adus officially appeared, before the teachings of the Three Saints spread to North Wu, and before the Radiant Savior saved the world, this building already existed here, witnessing the rise and fall of Adis and even Adus, and countless historical changes.
At this moment, Dorothy, dressed in traditional North Wu female robes, with a headscarf and veil, stood outside the Priory of Radiance, curiously observing the surroundings. In her eyes, besides the many ordinary Adis citizens who came to the Church to pray, there were numerous buildings with peculiar styles.
Dorothy was currently standing at the front of the Church's main body. There was a long, wide stone-paved path leading directly to the Church's main gate. Countless common people were coming and going on the path. On both sides of the path were towering square obelisks, ten meters high. These obelisks, whose tips pointed directly at the sky, were arranged at equal distances from each other. Their square bodies showed no visible carvings, and their pointed tips pointed towards the sky like spears.
At the end of the stone path was the so-called main body of the Church. It was a tall building with a triangular roof, supported by countless thick pillars. On the stone pillars were complex carvings of mysterious runes and etchings wrapped around the columns. Each stone pillar was nearly ten meters high. The entire "Church" looked very magnificent, exuding an undeniable sense of ancient grandeur.
'This place... compared to the Churches on the Main Continent, the style difference is quite significant. After all, this is a building from the Second Epoch. Although it has been converted into a Church, its original characteristics cannot be hidden. This place is more like a temple than a Church.'
Looking at the surroundings, Dorothy thought to herself. At this moment, she was not in a hurry to enter the Church, but continued to carefully examine the neatly arranged array of obelisks on the side of the road. Perhaps in the eyes of others, these obelisks had no special features, but to Dorothy, they were very interesting.
Although these obelisks looked simple and unadorned, Dorothy, as an Extraordinary of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment), could directly calculate their various data just by looking at them. Although there were many obelisks here, they were astonishingly consistent in almost all data, such as length-to-width ratio and distance between each other, with a terrifyingly small error margin, far beyond what buildings of this era could compare to, making one wonder if they were truly built by humans.
Although ordinary people could not detect such extreme details, for an Extraordinary of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) like Dorothy, such details were easily perceived. Moreover, this extreme regularity could present a very unique aesthetic to an Extraordinary of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment), which is why Dorothy noticed it at first glance.
'These obelisks were also erected by the First Dynasty civilization of the Second Epoch, weren't they? As a civilization based on 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment), there are many subtle traces of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) in many places...'
Dorothy thought to herself. After surveying the surroundings, she saw that there was even a tourist information board for foreigners nearby, so she walked over with interest. Since Adis was a city that frequently received foreigners before the war, there were many tourist facilities in the city for receiving foreigners.
Approaching the tourist information board, Dorothy curiously checked the content on the board and found that it was an introduction to this group of obelisk arrays. In the introduction, this pile of obelisks was given a very interesting name, called the Priory of Radiance Stone, but the light here did not refer to Light, but rather to lightning.
According to the tourist information, these obelisks were more likely to attract natural lightning during specific seasons. After lightning struck one of these obelisks from the sky, the lightning would strangely link and jump between the tips of these obelisks, and then disappear in an instant.
However, since there are hardly two days of lightning weather in Adis throughout the year, the opportunity to observe this phenomenon is extremely rare. Because it is so difficult to see, it is almost impossible for ordinary tourists to witness it. The tourist information board also included a simple drawing depicting the scene of lightning striking an obelisk and the electric light linking and jumping between different obelisks.
'Oh wow... these obelisks can also attract lightning? Is this related to my Path of Howling? And it also says that after lightning strikes the obelisks, it will jump and connect at the tip of the steles. What kind of scene is that?'
Looking at the text on the tourist information, Dorothy couldn't help but think to herself, and then imagined the scene described in the text.
After examining the obelisk group outside the "Church", Dorothy continued walking inside along the road, following the crowd who came to pray into the main building of the Church. After walking up the long stairs and entering the interior of the Church through the two towering stone pillars, a vast open scene greeted Dorothy's eyes.
Huge openings were made in the ceiling supported by countless large stone pillars, allowing the sunlight from the sky to shine directly down. On the ground between the stone pillars, stone bricks with fine patterns were neatly laid, and countless people were kneeling on them in prayer. In the depths of this open-air hall was a sanctuary that was completely out of style with the rest of the hall, with a Light style. On the sanctuary was placed the huge Holy Emblem of the Radiant Savior, while the Holy Emblems of the Three Saints, which were usually placed next to the Save the World, were nowhere to be seen at this time.
On both sides of the hall, there were many Revolutionary Army guards standing guard with live ammunition, and many men wearing the special clerical robes of the Savior Descends Faction were holding scriptures and preaching to the citizens who came to pray to Shadi.
'There are quite a few guards. This place has now been turned into the main base of the Savior Descends Faction in Adis. The original Three Saints Church has been converted by them to exclusively worship the Save the World. Of course, neither the Three Saints nor the Save the World were the original gods worshipped in this temple...'
After a brief scan of the scene in the hall before her, Dorothy thought to herself. Then, she followed the praying crowd deeper into the hall, observing the surroundings more carefully as she walked. Finally, the patterns on the floor beneath her feet attracted her attention.
The floor inside the hall was paved with large and heavy floor tiles. These tiles seemed to have naturally formed fine patterns. These patterns were unremarkable in the eyes of ordinary people, but in Dorothy's eyes, they were a different scene.
That's right, these patterns contained the Common Sense Text! Just like the promotion steles of the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society), they did not contain any Spirituality themselves, but they could trigger an Extraordinary of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) to conceive and understand the Common Sense Text. This kind of Common Sense Text could only be engraved by craftsmen who truly mastered the mysteries of the Common Sense Text, which was very different from the Common Sense Text that Dorothy wrote using the Extraordinary item, the Common Sense Text Quill.
In Dorothy's eyes, the patterns on the floor tiles of the great hall began to change, transforming into text that Dorothy could understand. At first, Dorothy thought these patterns would change into some special articles, but what she didn't expect was that the patterns eventually turned into numbers.
Yes, numbers. The content implied by the Common Sense Text hidden on these stone bricks was one number after another. Almost every one of these large floor tiles had a one or two-digit number, while a few stone bricks were completely blank with nothing. In addition, at the bottom edge of some stone pillars, Dorothy also found Common Sense Text with meanings other than numbers.
'Numbers? Interesting... It seems they didn't just write where the secret door is on the surface...' Dorothy thought to herself. She initially thought that the secret in the Priory of Radiance might be like the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) ruins under Saint Crown University, which was a secret door guided by the Common Sense Text that only Extraordinary of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) could see and open. As a result, there was indeed Common Sense Text, but it did not clearly state information like where the secret door was. Instead, it was a bunch of numbers that seemed inexplicable at first glance.
Having discovered the secret on the floor tiles, Dorothy thought to herself. Then, pretending to be sightseeing, she began to wander around the hall, recording the pattern on each floor tile. After strolling for a while longer and confirming that there was nothing else worth noting, Dorothy found a random spot, knelt down and prayed for a while, and then left the hall.
After leaving the Priory of Radiance, Dorothy returned all the way to the hotel where she was staying. After taking off her headscarf and veil, Dorothy sat on the chair on the balcony and recalled all the information she had recorded in her mind today, especially the numbers in the hall.
In her mind, Dorothy analyzed all the floor tiles in the hall. She recalled the numbers on all the floor tiles, arranged these numbers according to the original position of the tiles, and quickly discovered the mystery within.
'This... is a mathematical game...'
Recalling the arrangement of the floor tile numbers on the hall, Dorothy thought with realization. The many numbers written on the floor tiles of the temple were essentially a mathematical game.
Not all floor tiles had numbers; the tiles with numbers and those without were interspersed on the floor of the hall. By careful analysis, it could be known that these numbers were interconnected, and the numbers on the blank tiles could be deduced from the numbers on the tiled areas. On the Common Sense Text at the bottom edge of the pillars, Dorothy saw the rules for deduction.
Although there seemed to be many differences, this mathematical game was still similar to Sudoku in Dorothy's previous life.
The floor tile numbers in the hall were divided into two parts: a large problem area and a very small answer area. The answer area was located in front of the sanctuary, where basic number structures similar to zero to nine were written on the floor tiles. When combined, they could yield the numbers on the blank floor tiles in the problem area.
Dorothy guessed that the secret hidden within the temple required her to solve this otherworldly version of Sudoku before it could be revealed. She needed to step out all the answers in the solution area in front of the sanctuary, offering a "Sacred Dance" to the deity that this temple was originally supposed to worship. This seemed to be a traditional First Dynasty ritual.
'Indeed, worthy of an ancient civilization that inherited 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment). Even their rituals involve mathematical games. Fortunately, the difficulty of this mathematical game is not high; I should be able to figure it out with a little calculation.'
Dorothy thought to herself, then closed her eyes and began to seriously calculate the large otherworldly Sudoku puzzle using the entire temple floor as the paper, wanting to figure out all the answers. But after calculating for a bit, her brows furrowed slightly.
'Something's wrong... No matter how I calculate... I can't get a result. Is my calculation wrong? No, that's not right. He didn't provide enough conditions!'
Suddenly, Dorothy, in the midst of her calculation, discovered that there was a problem with the calculation problem of this mathematical game. It seemed to be missing the number on one floor tile. On a tile that should have had a number, there was only blank space. And precisely because this necessary number was missing, the entire problem became invalid. The conditions were insufficient, lacking a necessary piece of data, and the problem could not be solved no matter how she tried.
'Missing a number on a floor tile... What's going on? Is the problem designed incorrectly? Or has that tile been damaged? But the traces don't look like it...'
The calculation activity became stuck, and Dorothy fell into thought for a moment. She rubbed her chin, trying to recall what was wrong, and finally, she thought of the series of obelisks at the entrance of the hall that were rumored to attract lightning.
'If I remember correctly, Plar's third notebook mentioned that the First Dynasty humans worshipped lightning and sacred numbers. They regarded text and numbers as gifts from the gods, and they believed that wisdom was brought to the human world by lightning, thus lightning symbolized enlightenment.
'Thinking about it now... perhaps those obelisk arrays that can attract lightning are guiding enlightenment. According to the tourist information, after lightning strikes one obelisk, it will jump to the tips of other obelisks, and at that time, several obelisks will be connected by electric light.'
Dorothy thought this way, and then carefully recalled the simple drawing on the tourist information that depicted this scene of lightning connecting light. In the drawing, the electric light connecting the obelisks, when viewed from a top-down perspective, seemed to form a number in ancient Wu African text. Associating this with the number, Dorothy immediately understood where the missing number in the hall came from.
'So that's it. Those obelisk arrays are precisely ritual tools for seeking the enlightenment of lightning. After lightning strikes one of the obelisks, different electric arcs will be generated between the tips of the steles. When these connections are combined and viewed from above, they form a number, a certain number in the First Dynasty script.
'If this number is entered into the mathematical game inside the hall, the entire game can operate successfully. All the problems are solved, and since the number generated by each lightning strike is random, the appearance of the entire game is also random and different when entered into the mathematical game, and the final answer is also different.
'In a sense, this is lightning posing problems for humans. For the people of the First Dynasty, who respected lightning and numbers and believed that lightning brought enlightenment and wisdom to living beings, this was a very meaningful way of ritual.'
Nodding silently, Dorothy thought to herself. Now, if she wanted to solve the puzzle in the temple, she only needed to guide a lightning strike to hit an obelisk. After obtaining the number enlightened by the lightning, she would input it into the puzzle in the hall for calculation, and then step out the answer in front of the sanctuary.
All these operations were not difficult for Dorothy, but the problem was that all these operations had to be performed in the Priory of Radiance, and the whole process would cause quite a stir. However, the Priory of Radiance was now the territory of the Savior Descends Faction, with Extraordinary of the Crimson Tier stationed there. Would she dare to perform these operations right under their noses?