In a suite at a high-end hotel in Flotz, Dorothy sat on a comfortable, soft sofa, warming herself by the nearby fireplace while examining the golden base she held in her hand, observing the phenomena displayed upon it with a curious expression.
Following her understanding and conjectures about the Key of Seeing, Dorothy tentatively poured her 'Qi' Spirituality into it. As expected, the golden base, having lost its crystal carrier, changed accordingly, exhibiting a hint of extraordinary characteristics. Upon sensing the emergence of this extraordinary characteristic, Dorothy immediately appraised the golden base.
"Guidance Base: Can simultaneously bind and link multiple Keys of Seeing, combining to form a 'Guidance Key'. When only the base part remains, it retains only the function of reading information about the status of the bound Keys of Seeing in the Grand Library."
'It can record information about the bound Keys of Seeing...'
Seeing the appraised information, Dorothy's eyes lit up. Her previous conjecture was correct; the Key of Seeing series of items had extremely high Spirituality conversion efficiency, resulting in almost no extraordinary traces left after use, bringing the item's Spirituality activity and residual level to that of ordinary items. This caused these items to show no special characteristics under general 'Light' abilities, but as long as they were recharged, their extraordinary characteristics would reappear, regardless of whether this Spirituality was bestowed by the Grand Library or by Dorothy.
And now, the experimental result was indeed as Dorothy had guessed: the golden base showed extraordinary characteristics and was successfully appraised for its function, which was exactly what Dorothy wanted.
'Ha... according to this appraisal description, if this base can read the information of the bound Keys of Seeing, then I can use the base to find the crystals, provided there is location information within this information.'
Holding the golden base, Dorothy thought this to herself, and then she began to tentatively use the golden base's function, attempting to grasp its usage. Not long after, she successfully utilized the residual extraordinary function within the golden base. From it, Dorothy could read some information about the other crystals.
Afterward, Dorothy began to carefully analyze this information. Under her powerful information processing ability, the crystal information was quickly parsed completely. After browsing through all of this information, Dorothy couldn't help but furrow her brows slightly.
This information did indeed record the location of the crystals, but it was historical location, not real-time. Dorothy could not tell from this information where the Key of Seeing crystals were now, but she could know where they had been before.
Facing this situation, Dorothy couldn't help but frown deeply, wondering why this was happening. Why could she only read the historical information of the crystals from this golden base and know nothing about their current real-time information? This was contradictory; didn't the appraisal say the golden base could know the specific status of the crystals? Why would this happen?
"Strange... this thing can know where the crystals were before, but can't figure out where they are now. What exactly is going on?"
Frowning, Dorothy gazed at the golden base before her and muttered in confusion. Then she decided to further examine what these historical records were like.
These historical records included the approximate status and location of the four crystals, with the earliest time visible being around one hundred and fifty years ago.
In the earliest information of the historical records, these crystals were together in Flotz, in the north-central part of Faloro. According to the detailed location, they were roughly in the Temple of Beauty. From the earliest recorded point onwards for roughly several decades, these crystals were mostly located within the Temple of Beauty, only occasionally wandering within Flotz city and at most going to other cities in Faloro, but quickly returning. Based on the time frame, during this period, these crystals should have been made into necklaces not long before and worn by Queen Maria and her successors, thus exhibiting this range of activity.
A little over one hundred and ten years ago, roughly close to the time of the Cold Moon Revolution in Faloro's history, these crystals suddenly left the Temple of Beauty in Flotz and moved to Bogot, the co-capital of Faloro. According to Faloro's historical records, that was the location of the Greed King Robert's palace. During Robert's reign, due to Xia Er's death, he deeply distrusted the Church and therefore moved the capital there, away from Flotz where the Church's Archbishop was stationed, and Maria's Light was clearly moved with him.
Afterward, during the Cold Moon Revolution period, Maria's Light began to move again, leaving Vigot and going to a distant place, somewhere in the eastern border region of Faloro, and then remained there motionless, never returning to Flotz. Dorothy believed that these crystals must have been taken by Frederico and secretly preserved in a Dark Gold Society stronghold.
At this location, suspected to be a Dark Gold Society stronghold, Maria's Light remained for a hundred years until last year when it underwent new changes.
Around April last year, the historical records of Maria's Light crystals suddenly disappeared, completely gone. From that moment on, Dorothy knew absolutely nothing about these crystals; they just vanished from their original location.
A month after this record disappearance, the crystal records reappeared, but this time they were not at their original location on the Faloro border but had moved to a different place, appearing in a city in southern Faloro. The records here only lasted for two to three hours before disappearing again.
From this point onwards, the records of the crystal's location began to become strange, becoming intermittent and sporadic. For a few hours a day, it was in a recorded state, but most of the time there was no record. This situation continued for almost a month.
After a month, the crystal's location began to change, starting to move between cities within Faloro. During the transfer process, the crystal's record did not exist, but after moving to a new city, the record would repeat the previous intermittent state, and after a period of time, it would completely disappear again, moving to another city to repeat. The furthest transfer even went abroad, moving into Iweig territory. In some transfers, it even returned to Flotz, and besides Flotz, the crystal was also taken to Bogot.
This intermittent and constantly shifting process continued for several months until it gradually decreased in the latter half of last year, completely disappearing near the end of last year, and has remained in a state of disappeared records until now. When the records disappeared, it was within Faloro and was in the process of being transferred and moved. During this strange period of activity, the state of the crystals seemed to be even more active than before.
Following the historical records of the crystal transfers seen through the golden base, Dorothy drew all the transfer routes in her mind, marking them on her mental map, trying to analyze if there was any pattern. However, after analyzing repeatedly, she was still completely confused, unable to discern any information within it.
'How strange... why would the crystal records show such a situation? Are the people from the Dark Gold Society running around with those crystals? Why are the records intermittent during the process of running? Why did the crystals seem even more active when they appeared during this period?'
Analyzing the data read from the Golden base, Dorothy couldn't help but stroke her chin in contemplation. She gazed at the Golden base in her hand, continuously analyzing the reasons behind it.
'This intermittent state of the crystal's records is very likely due to the Dark Gold Society doing something to it. What influence did they exert to create the current situation of the crystal? But the question is... why did this phenomenon with the crystal only start about a year ago? If the Dark Gold Society wanted to exert some influence on the crystal, they could have started long ago. Those crystals have been in the Dark Gold Society's hands for over a hundred years, so why did they only just remember to exert influence on it? What were they doing before?'
'Furthermore, if these crystals' records became like that due to the influence exerted by the Dark Gold Society, then it proves that the Dark Gold Society knows these crystals possess some kind of special extraordinary significance and are not ordinary mundane objects, otherwise, they wouldn't need to go to great lengths for an ordinary necklace.'
'But another problem arises. Items from the Key of Revelation series almost never exhibit any extraordinary characteristics before being authorized by the Grand Archives or actively given 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment). After this Golden base and those few crystals arrived at the Bourbons court, even Xia Er didn't notice their special nature and readily agreed to let Maria have the crystals for a necklace. After the crystals and base were separated, they completely lost the ability to receive authorization. The crystal necklace was in the Dark Gold Society's hands for over a hundred years without any problems being discovered, so why did they suddenly realize something last year?'
Dorothy thought this over in her mind. After contemplating for a while, she suddenly grasped the core of the problem, her eyebrows raising slightly.
'Wait... the problems with these crystals' records started in early April last year. If I remember correctly, at that time I was exactly in Adria, having successfully stolen the Key of Revelation that originally belonged to the Hai Sha Society from the Net Flow Church. I obtained it in mid-March last year. A little over half a month later, several Keys of Revelation preserved within the Dark Gold Society started exhibiting strange reactions. Does it feel like there's some connection here?'
Suddenly, many thoughts surfaced in Dorothy's mind. Following the train of these thoughts, she leaned back on the sofa and continued thinking. After a while, she couldn't help but shift her gaze back to the """wen hai hang zhi""" on the coffee table in front of her.
Immediately after, Dorothy picked up the """wen hai hang zhi""", placed it open on her lap, flipped back to Beverly's contact page, and began writing on it with a pen.
"Oh right, I have another question I want to ask you. Speaking of the news that the former president of the Hai Sha Society, Azamu, held an item capable of locating the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) ruins and donated it, does the Dark Gold Society know about this?" Dorothy wrote this on the page, and before long, Beverly's printed text appeared before her, responding.
"Since we all know, do you think the Dark Gold Society wouldn't know? Garib only succeeded in usurping the throne because he cooperated with the Dark Gold Society, and he broke the contract with us because of the Dark Gold Society. On this matter, the level of detail the Dark Gold Society understands is definitely higher than ours. There's news that they even obtained a large amount of relevant documentation left behind by Azamu through Garib. With their research capabilities, their understanding of that item is probably higher than that idiot Garib's."
"I even think that the cooperation between those guys from the Dark Gold Society and Garib is fake. They even wanted to exclusively possess that Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) item from the start. After waiting for Garib to steal the item from the Church's exhibition hall and attract the Church's hostility, they probably planned to double-cross Garib and claim the item for themselves. But they didn't expect you to intercept it in the end."
Beverly's printed characters quickly appeared before Dorothy. Reading these sentences, Dorothy couldn't help but stroke her chin, an expression of realization appearing in her eyes, and then she continued writing on the page.
"I understand. Thank you for informing me, Miss Clockwork. When I get back, I'll treat you to some good quality oil. What brand do you want?"
"I drink what I make myself. If you really want to treat me, just buy back some high-quality ones from the market, and I'll mix them myself."
Beverly quickly responded by writing. After glancing at it, Dorothy couldn't help but inwardly grumble, was she mixing cocktail oil? Would mixing multiple brands be okay?
After grumbling, Dorothy closed the """wen hai hang zhi""" again and continued her analysis according to the train of thought she had just developed.
'According to the Clockwork neighbor, the Dark Gold Society definitely knows about the existence of the Key of Revelation, and because they've studied the texts left behind by Azamu, their understanding of the Key of Revelation is probably better than Garib's. If that's the case, then all of this could have happened in this way.'
'The Dark Gold Society knew about the existence of the Key of Revelation and planned to double-cross Garib after he succeeded, as the Net Flow Church in Adria didn't usually have a Scarlet Archbishop guarding it, so Garib could succeed no matter how he planned it. But the Dark Gold Society didn't expect that in the end, Garib not only failed but was also captured by the Church.'
'Normally, in such a situation, the Dark Gold Society would assume the Key of Revelation fell into the Church's hands. However, the rumors in Adria stated that the item lost by the Net Flow Church was the crown of emmanuel, something that absolutely couldn't be the Key of Revelation. The Dark Gold Society thus discovered the anomaly.'
'Afterward, the Dark Gold Society likely waited for the situation to cool down before going directly to the Net Flow Church to investigate. From the Church's records, they found out about the other items stolen along with the crown of emmanuel on the night Garib acted, which were never recovered, and they found the record of that crystal of the Key of Revelation, especially the photographic record.'
'Through their previous research on Azamu's legacy, they might have concluded here that the stolen crystal was the item capable of locating the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) ruins, but they were unable to find further clues to track where the crystal went amidst the chaos of that night, and in the end, they could only reluctantly give up.'
'Afterward, the members of the Dark Gold Society in Adria likely reported the information about the crystal back. Then, the photographic information of the Key of Revelation fell into the eyes of the Dark Gold Society's higher-ups. That Frederico... or other higher-ups who had come into contact with the maria's light might have thus seen that photo and recalled the maria's light... Since I can see the similarity between the Hai Sha Society's Key of Revelation and the maria's light crystal, the Dark Gold Society certainly can too.'
'Therefore, the Dark Gold Society's higher-ups, realizing the extraordinary nature of Maria's crystal, immediately ordered the maria's light to be taken out of their keeping and immediately began a series of studies. This explains why, shortly after I stirred up trouble in Adria and obtained the Key of Revelation, the records of the maria's light crystal showed abnormal conditions. The Dark Gold Society has begun to realize the importance of the maria's light and has started its own research targeting it!'
Dorothy thought this in her heart. At this moment, she looked again at the Golden base placed on the coffee table. She wondered, if she was currently looking for the crystal, would the Dark Gold Society be looking for the base?