In the southern suburbs of Flotz during the early morning, within the Temple of Beauty at dawn, a graceful dance with almost no audience was gradually coming to an end.
On the empty Yizhang Square, upon the triple overlapping stages of brokenness, halo, and water curtain, Adele, in full dress, leaped upon the pieced stones, twirled within the water curtain, and bloomed under the morning light, recreating the dance steps of the king who boasted in the long-gone dynasty palace.
As the morning sun slowly rose from the edge of the eastern sky, the lotus halo from the top of Caiqiong Hall gradually dissolved, and Adele's movements also gradually slowed down. After her final spin, she spread her hands and slowly squatted down, concluding this silent performance.
When Adele's dance completely ended and her entire posture became completely still, strands of crimson light flowed over her body, traversing her exposed skin, and finally gathered at the top of her head, transforming into three red petal marks, which then gradually disappeared, seemingly merging into her skin.
'It seems... it worked, I really didn't guess wrong...'
Then, the small Corpse Puppet guarding the surroundings saw this scene, and Dorothy, still in the distance, thought this in her heart. Seeing the unusual marks that appeared on Adele after her dance, she confirmed her previous speculation.
Among the riddles left by the King in Full Dress, only by dancing on the triple stages simultaneously could one become a 'flower'. That is to say, to truly glimpse the legacy of the Full Dress, one needed to dance simultaneously on the three hidden stages within the Temple of Beauty.
Among these three stages, only the second water curtain stage was immobile. The essence of the broken stage was not the ground in the Hall of Singing, but the puzzle floor pieces. The halo stage, with the sun's rising and setting around the day of the audience banquet, would change positions along a central axis. Therefore, one only needed to move the floor pieces from the broken stage onto the water curtain stage and then wait for the halo stage to overlap with it as the sun changed.
And if one did this, the light projecting the halo stage could not be the westward light from the setting sun, but required the eastward morning light. Dorothy had carefully observed and calculated that for the halo stage to achieve perfect overlap with the other stages, the required light was not the twilight of the audience banquet day, but the morning light of the day after the audience banquet. The audience banquet could actually be held on the two adjacent evenings of this morning. This morning was the true time for the ritual, and the audience banquet was merely a preliminary sacrifice. Only on this morning could the triple stages achieve perfect overlap.
The holding of the King in Full Dress's audience banquet served two purposes: firstly, it could use the superposition of the double stages to strengthen the loyalty of the lords from various regions. Secondly, it was a confusing maneuver, making others believe that the audience banquet was the key to the important ritual, causing a certain degree of misdirection. This way, while consolidating his own authority, he also hid the most crucial process of the ritual. And the Tayi Sect was clearly somewhat misled by the audience banquet. Seeing the King in Full Dress dance in the Hall of Singing at sunset every year, they concluded that the correct time for the ritual should be then.
In fact, the King in Full Dress also gave a hint in the name of the building. The fountain, which served as the second stage, was called the Morning Glow Fountain, implying that it should be a stage used during the morning glow.
This was why Dorothy asked Sansone for the right to use the Temple of Beauty this morning. She wanted Adele to complete her dance on the full triple stages, which would fully activate what the King in Full Dress wanted to leave behind. And judging from the situation currently displayed on Adele, she had succeeded.
After completing her dance steps and the unusual phenomena on her body disappeared, Adele opened her eyes, then slowly stood up on the stage. She then scanned her surroundings, taking in the scenery of the Temple of Beauty, and a hint of melancholy appeared in her eyes.
"How is it? Adele, how do you feel now?"
At this time, Dorothy used the consultation channel to communicate with Adele, and after hearing her words, Adele let out a slight sigh of relief and spoke in her heart.
"It's alright... I felt many things I hadn't felt before, it's a wonderful experience... Elusive, passionate, yet dazed, this is probably the most unforgettable dance I've ever performed in my life..."
"Hearing your words, it seems you're in a good state. I noticed the Extraordinary changes on you. How is it? Have you been promoted to Scarlet now?" Dorothy then asked Adele using the information channel, and Adele replied with a smile.
"Heh, how could it be that easy... Although my level is higher than before, I am still a Chalk body. To become Scarlet, I still need to perform two more dances."
"Two more? So, although you haven't become Scarlet yet... you've already grasped the promotion ritual?" Hearing Adele's previous words, Dorothy asked curiously, and Adele answered without concealment.
"That's right. During the dance just now, I came into contact with the information hidden within the Extraordinary system in this Temple of Beauty. This place was originally an important site for the faith of Fertility in the Faloro region before the epoch. It was the temple of one of the Fertility Goddess's subordinate deities, the Goddess of Love and Dance, the Flower Mistress 'Astarte'. When King Xia Er in Full Dress was searching for Fertility relics throughout the country, he found this abandoned temple hidden underground here. After that, he repaired and transformed it into the current Temple of Beauty."
"Astarte... This... Could this be the name of this goddess?" Hearing Adele's response, Dorothy replied with a curious expression. This was the first time she had heard the true name of a deity.
"Yes... According to the information provided in this temple, the Flower Mistress, who was originally at the pinnacle of The Path of Depravity, was called this. I don't know much about this mistress; almost all of my knowledge comes from my mentor. According to her, she might no longer exist now. However, at the time of her fall, her ultimate powerful strength still protected the entire branch path, preventing unrecognized inheritances from touching the path's power."
"Except for recognized inheritances, others cannot be promoted even if they know the promotion ritual. The Taiyi Three Teachings have been trying to break this protection for thousands of years. The mistress's power also seems to have been constantly weakening over such a long time. Recently, Placenta has finally been able to initially break through this protection..."
Adele slowly recounted her understanding of this goddess to Dorothy, who couldn't help but nod after hearing her words.
'So, the deities at the top of all branch paths have some degree of influence over their respective paths... Perhaps the higher the position, the greater the influence, just like that Scarlet wolf from the Wolf Blood Society... It's clear that the more he fights, the more he is dominated by wildness, which might be due to the influence of Gluttonous Wolf. But Edward, as a traitor of Ebergrass, doesn't seem to have been affected by the Abyssal Serpent. Is it because he wasn't injured too much, so the influence couldn't be exerted? Or is it because the Abyssal Serpent's power is weaker than Gluttonous Wolf's? What about the Spider Queen? If Grego is promoted to Scarlet, will he be affected by the Spider Queen?'
Dorothy quickly thought about this in her mind. After thinking for a moment, she refocused her attention on the current scene and continued to ask Adele.
"I generally understand about the temple. You just said that to truly become Scarlet, you need to perform two more dances. What exactly is going on? Wasn't what you completed the promotion ritual for Scarlet?"
"Yes... but it was only part of the ritual. I have just accessed the complete Scarlet promotion method for The Path of Depravity from the Flower Mistress's temple, which requires me to perform three dances."
"The first dance is the Dance for Others, the second dance is the Dance for Oneself, and the third dance is the Dance for the Divine. What I just completed was actually the third, the Dance for the Divine."
"The third dance is a dance offered to the divine. It needs to begin at a sacred moment within a suitable temple, and at the end of the dance, one receives the Spirituality blessing from the temple. What I just completed on the triple stages was the Dance for the Divine. At the moment of performing this dance, I didn't need any permission to truly control this temple and turn all its Spirituality into my own use."
"Without external acceleration, the Flower Mistress's temple can naturally fill up with Spirituality every sixty years. After I finished dancing on the triple stages at the saintly time, all the accumulated Spirituality inside transformed into a blessing bestowed upon me, giving my Scarlet a certain boost. This is part of the entire promotion ritual. Normally, it can only be used once every sixty years, and since the King in Full Dress used it last time, no one has been promoted here again. Therefore, the Spirituality here is almost full, enough to bless me. This is the residual power of the Flower Mistress, giving me guidance here."
Adele said this to Dorothy. After listening to her account, Dorothy nodded silently, and then spoke again.
"Once every sixty years? That's really quite a long time... What are the other two dances?"
"The second dance is the Dance for the World. I need a large-scale performance where I actively influence at least fifty thousand people with my ability in one go, and complete the dance within the absolute intoxication of these fifty thousand spectators." Adele continued to explain to Dorothy, and Dorothy also spoke with a slight frown.
"Fifty thousand... That's quite a number requirement..."
"Yes, actively influencing fifty thousand spectators with my ability simultaneously in one breath is extremely excessive for a Chalk-level Extraordinary. It's far beyond the ability limit of Chalk. To achieve this effect, I need to find ways to get a lot of external assistance, greatly increasing my own ability limit in a short time through rituals, talismans, drugs, props, and other methods to complete this dance."
"External items like rituals, props, etc... If you're determined to find them, you can, it just takes a little more time. Compared to these rituals, getting a performance opportunity that can gather fifty thousand spectators at once is also difficult, isn't it? But with your fame, Adele, it shouldn't be too hard... So, what is the last dance?" Dorothy continued to ask, and Adele looked at her hands, then slowly spoke with a serious expression.
"The first dance is dedicated to myself. This is a solo dance, a test of my own limits. I need to find an absolutely safe and quiet place to perform a cruel, enduring dance there."
"I will be the only one performing this dance; no audience is needed. Once this dance begins, it cannot stop until it is completely finished. To complete this dance according to the correct rhythm and the full process, it will take a total of seventy days and nights, during which no external assistance is allowed."
"Dancing continuously for seventy days? Can you endure that?" Hearing Adele's words, Dorothy said seriously, and Adele replied.
"Yes... dancing continuously for seventy days without eating, drinking, or resting, this is a huge test even for a Chalk Extraordinary who belongs to the 'Cup'. It's a dual test of body and spirit. Within these seventy days, the dancer must constantly dance. In this extremely long dance, I cannot make a single mistake in any movement. The first twenty or thirty days are fine, but the further it goes, the harder it is to persevere. The increasingly intense saintly boredom and exhaustion will continuously torment the dancer's body and mind until they completely break down. In the end, even if the body can barely hold on, the spirit might become dazed due to the prolonged dancing, leading to mistakes in movements. And if there is even a slight mistake in this dance, all previous efforts will be wasted, and it must be started over."
"A long dance that takes seventy days to complete, and you have to start over if you make a slight mistake, that's too harsh." Hearing Adele's words, Dorothy couldn't help but exclaim like this, and Adele replied with an explanation.
"That's right, it's that cruel. Therefore, according to the formal promotion sequence in the Fertility Church in the past, this is actually the first dance that needs to be performed. This dance is said to be dedicated to oneself, but it is more about testing oneself, testing whether one has the qualifications for promotion. Generally, a Chalk without the qualifications will find it difficult to pass this test even if they spend decades. Only those who value both body and spirit, possess both patience and precision, whose bodies are strong and wills are equally strong, truly excellent dancers, can pass this test. And only such dancers are qualified to receive help from the Fertility Church to perform the next two dances."
"After all, among the three dances, only this first dance can be performed solely by the dancer themselves, without needing to invest any extra resources. Only dancers who can complete the first dance are qualified to receive resource allocation to become Scarlet."
Adele explained the significance of the first dance to Dorothy in this way. After hearing this, Dorothy couldn't help but slightly sigh in her heart about the difficulty of the Scarlet promotion ritual on The Path of Depravity. However, thinking back, a formal Scarlet promotion should not be easy. Her own ritual of collecting six divine artifacts was also incredibly difficult in some ways.
One should know that after these divine artifacts are used in the promotion ritual, they will be marked in a special area within the consciousness world, forming a certain connection with the promoted person in the consciousness world. Divine artifacts with this connection cannot be used again to promote a new True Mentor. This means that in the past First Dynasty, the promotion of every True Mentor required time and effort to collect six divine artifacts. The Extraordinary resources invested in the birth of each True Mentor were enormous, and the consumption of Extraordinary resources alone was definitely higher than that for Scarlet on The Path of Depravity.
"So, after you go back now, are you planning to immediately start preparing for the promotion?"
Ending her brief contemplation, Dorothy continued to ask Adele, and Adele quickly gave her reply.
"Of course, I plan to perform the first dance first, and then during this process, entrust others to collect the materials needed for the second dance. After I finish the first dance and come out of seclusion, I can immediately plan to perform the second... which for me is also the last dance, and then I can perfectly promote."
"Speaking so naturally, it sounds like you are very confident about completing the first dance. Aren't you afraid of failing repeatedly and dragging it out for several years?" Hearing the confidence in Adele's tone, Dorothy said this, and Adele immediately replied.
"How could I fail? Little Detective, you know, I am the most excellent dancer, and also the most excellent Chalk. I am very confident in completing this dance in a short time~" Adele waved her hand, saying lightly to Dorothy, while Dorothy responded calmly.
"Alright, now that the matter at the Temple of Beauty has been successfully resolved, let's quickly head to the next stop. We still have other things to do today."
"Okay, it's time to handle your affairs now, Little Detective."
Saying this, Adele raised her head again to look forward, and after finally glancing around the Temple of Beauty from the stage, she began to cross the water curtain again and walk down the stage.
...
In the morning, inside a suite of a high-end hotel in Flotz City.
Adele, dressed in an ordinary plain dress, sat in her room, smiling on the sofa in the suite's living room, surveying the surroundings. At this moment, a group of figures stood in the room.
Among these figures, some men and women looked focused, dressed in various ways, standing vigilantly beside Adele, guarding against the situation ahead. In front of them stood several men in uniform black suits and black hats, five of whom held a briefcase in both hands.
In an atmosphere of silent solemnity, the five men holding briefcases walked forward and placed a total of ten large briefcases on the coffee table in front of Adele. After the coffee table couldn't fit any more, they placed them on the floor, then uniformly opened them. When the lids of the briefcases were lifted, what appeared inside were neatly arranged old volumes, with various numbers and classifications written on them in Faloro script.
"These are archives retrieved from the National Museum's archives, which record the registration lists of various cultural relics acquired by Faloro from North Wu during its history of over two hundred years, starting from the late Bourbons Dynasty. These volumes initially record the appearance characteristics and origins of the cultural relics, as well as simple information such as the acquisition date and method. Although no more in-depth research has been conducted on them, they should meet your requirements.
"According to that superior's instructions, these documents will be temporarily stored in this suite for five days. We will return to collect them after the deadline. If you need to look for anything, please do so quickly. Please do not take these items out of this hotel. If you do not find any clues you want in this batch of lists, you can tell us later, and we will prepare the next batch."
After putting down and opening the briefcases, the leading black-clothed man spoke solemnly to Adele. And Adele also narrowed her eyes and replied softly.
"Is that so... but I estimate it won't take as long as five days. Anyway, thank you all for your hard work. Please thank that superior on my behalf when you go back."
Adele responded in this manner. After listening to her words, the leading black-clothed man bowed slightly forward, then turned around with the other black-clothed men and walked out of the suite door. After all the black-clothed men had left and closed the door, Adele began to carefully examine the boxes of old documents in front of her again.
"These things... are just registration lists? The lists alone have accumulated so much, filling these boxes, and there's more than one batch. How much did Faloro plunder from North Wu?"
Looking at the document boxes in front of her, Adele muttered in disbelief in her heart, and soon Dorothy also responded to her with her voice.
"Faloro colonized North Wu for two hundred years, plundering countless treasures. It's not surprising that the lists alone have accumulated so much. After all, the First Dynasty had a solid foundation and enough things for them to dig up.
"Alright, it's time to get to work now. Hopefully, these bandits have registered the stolen goods in detail..."
In her hotel far away, Dorothy, who was sitting by the fireplace drinking hot milk, said this to Adele in her heart. Then she began to control the Corpse Puppets on her side to get moving, carefully taking out the documents from the briefcases one by one, then distributing them in various corners of the room, quickly reviewing them with clear division of labor. After glancing at the Corpse Puppets busy around, Adele also took out a Faloro fashion magazine and leisurely read it with interest.
For a time, the entire room was filled with the sound of rustling pages turning, like being in a library scene.
Using several Corpse Puppets, Dorothy reviewed the documents sent by Sansone's subordinates at an extremely fast speed, carefully looking at all the information on them, understanding what good things Faloro had obtained from North Wu over the years.
To be honest, Dorothy was relatively satisfied with Faloro's cultural relic registration work. Every cultural relic registered in these archives had detailed information such as origin location, registration time, and acquisition method. In addition, each cultural relic here also had a detailed appearance record and was accompanied by three-view sketches, allowing Dorothy to have the most intuitive understanding of the item, which was very important.
The times of these archives varied. Some were very old and needed to be handled carefully when flipping through, and could themselves be considered cultural relics. Others were very new, with illustrations of the relics directly using photos instead of sketches. The registered content was also very diverse, from noble ritual objects to ordinary daily items, from small and exquisite handicrafts to entire large statues. All sorts of things were registered, which proved the wide scope of Faloro's collection.
Dorothy's Corpse Puppets' review work continued in an orderly manner. The archive volumes that had been fully reviewed were stacked up one after another. The rhythmic sound of rapid page-turning was like a lullaby, making Adele, who was lying sideways on the sofa reading a magazine, yawn. Finally, after about an hour of extensive flipping and reviewing more than half of these lists, she finally found something interesting among them.
It was a rather old archive volume, old enough to be placed in a museum itself, probably over a hundred years old. Between the yellowed pages, Dorothy saw something that caught her eye, which came from the record of one of the cultural relics within it.
"'Groove-inlaid Crystal Golden Carved Triangular Pyramid', October 11, 1221. Discovered in the local king's palace by the 5th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Southern Expeditionary Army after suppressing the rebellion of the local king of Menkutuna. Preliminary assessment indicates it is an ancient object from the First Dynasty, with no Extraordinary signs, and its specific use is unknown."
The above is a brief introduction to the cultural relic on this page. What attracted Dorothy's attention even more than the introduction was the sketch of this cultural relic. It was a triangular pyramid-like object, the main body of which was made of gold, covered with mysterious patterns. At the center of the pattern was an open eye, resembling the symbol of ""enlightenment"".
The four corners of this golden body were not gold, but were replaced by four sharp crystals. The crystals were inlaid on the golden body, forming the four corners of the golden body. According to the sketch diagram, these crystals could be detached. The detached crystals and the golden body also had separate sketch diagrams.
"The ancient object is an equilateral triangular pyramid as a whole, with a side length of 30 centimeters. The crystals at the four corners are all detachable. Although it does not possess Extraordinary characteristics, its texture is extremely excellent. Although it matches the golden body, it may have other uses."
This was a supplementary description on the page, but Dorothy's attention was not on these descriptions. Her gaze, through the Corpse Puppet, was still fixed on the sketch on the page, especially on the sketch of the crystal.
The appearance of this crystal felt extremely familiar to Dorothy. She immediately found the source of the familiarity. The shape and style of this sharp crystal were extremely similar to the Key of Insight she had obtained from the Hai Sha Society before, almost identical!
Key of Insight? Could this be the Key of Insight that can connect to the Grand Library? Seeing the sketch of the crystal, Dorothy's heart immediately became excited. If this was truly a Key of Insight, wouldn't she be able to search for information from the Grand Library again if she got her hands on it?
'Similar... too similar. The appearance of these crystals is basically identical to the Key of Insight. And as an authorized receiving device of the Grand Library, there is more than one Key of Insight. This is highly likely to be other Keys of Insight!
'However, there are actually four Keys of Insight here at once, and all four are assembled together, and there is also a golden main body. This is somewhat different from the single Key of Insight I obtained before. What is the reason for this? Is the main body of this golden object itself a container for holding the Keys of Insight? Or do these Keys of Insight form a higher-level whole together with this golden main body? What an interesting difference...
'But no matter what, it's better to get my hands on this thing as soon as possible. This thing did not exhibit Extraordinary characteristics when it was discovered, so it was treated as an ordinary object. If this is indeed a Key of Insight, and its mechanism is consistent with the one I obtained from the Hai Sha Society, then these... or rather, this Key of Insight was used sometime before it was discovered by the Faloro army, and when it was discovered, it was in the cooldown period for re-authorization, so it wasn't immediately noticed.
'But this thing has been lying in Faloro's Baoku (Treasure House) for over a hundred years. No matter how long the authorization cooldown period is, it should have passed by now. Logically, it should have long since returned to a usable state and regained its Extraordinary characteristics. I wonder if the relevant personnel in Faloro have noticed it.'
Using the Corpse Puppet's vision, Dorothy thought silently in her heart like this. After contemplating for a while, she finally decided to ask directly first to confirm the state of this object.
...
Another day quietly passed. After receiving Adele's initiative contact, Sansone's trusted subordinates, still those few black-clothed men, arrived at the hotel where Adele was staying ahead of time on the morning of the second day. When they entered Adele's suite again and saw the archives in the opened boxes that had been reorganized, some people's faces couldn't help but show a subtle complexity.
Looking at Adele, who was still sitting on the sofa drinking morning tea, the leading black-clothed man walked directly forward and spoke to Adele.
"Miss... you informed us to come over, saying that you have finished reviewing these documents?" The head of the black-clothed men spoke softly to Adele with an uncertain tone, while Adele silently picked up the archive volume placed on top of one of the boxes in front of her, and said with a smile.
"That's right~ Our side seems to have pretty good luck. We found something useful not long after you left yesterday. It seems the total time will be far less than five days."
Saying this, Adele put the archive volume she was holding back in its place, and then continued to speak.
"Now, I want to see the actual item of a certain cultural relic. Your superior said I have this authority, right? So please lead the way now."