At dawn, in a desolate wilderness in Faloro, on a collapsed great mountain, the powerful and sturdy Haolin Shigui, who had been imperishable for hundreds of years, was meeting his end. The rapidly turning tide of battle was bringing him a deathly conclusion.
When Dorothy fired her second electromagnetic cannon, Frederico, who had been wounded before, had already begun to protect his damaged areas while desperately escaping, attempting to directly burrow into the mountain and descend to a depth where no one could reach him. However, what neither Frederico nor his Xie Zhi Yi (Machinery Intelligence Instrument) expected while he was escaping was that Dorothy's target for this electromagnetic cannon shot was not him, but a hat suspended in the air.
When the scorching orange beam shot into the black top hat, it passed through the special spatial link within it and emerged from another hat. This hat was located within Frederico's body, inside the Baoku (Treasure House) he was heavily guarding.
No matter how sturdy a fortress, it can be breached from within. This principle is not only applicable to military strategy but also to the Extraordinary battles of Extraordinary individuals. A powerful impact erupted from within Frederico's body, breaking through the outer shell of his slightly damaged Baoku (Treasure House) and his relatively fragile internal structure compared to his outer skin.
Ignoring all dodges and defenses, the powerful impact force from the internal core instantly destroyed the already fragile outer wall of his Baoku (Treasure House) within his body. From inside out, from bottom up, it surged through his chest cavity and throat in one go, erupting and venting from his wide-open mouth. From the outside, it looked as though Frederico had spat out a large burst of scorching fire light.
After the fire light erupted, the severely damaged Baoku (Treasure House) within Frederico's body, which served as his power core, began to become extremely unstable. The various elemental forces stored within it started to go out of control, running rampant. Different elements began to conflict with each other inside Frederico's body. The Xie Zhi Yi (Machinery Intelligence Instrument) tried its best to control and adjust, but it had almost no effect. Finally, the completely out-of-control elemental forces, after the chaos reached a critical point, began to explode.
"Boom!!!"
Accompanied by the cracking of Frederico's sturdy skin, his entire being directly exploded. After a strong flash of light, lights of different colors erupted from within his body—flames, ice, storms... A massive amount of chaotic elemental force wildly poured out in all directions, sweeping and engulfing everything around with fierce shockwaves.
Dorothy was aware of the phenomenon that would occur after Frederico's elemental Baoku (Treasure House) went out of control. After firing the second electromagnetic cannon, she had herself and Neff quickly fly away and retreat. But when the real explosion came, even though they had retreated hundreds of meters, they were still affected by the elemental forces that reached that far. Fortunately, the elemental forces that reached them had been sufficiently weakened. Dorothy used magnetic control to create various metal shields for defense, successfully protecting herself and Neff.
After the massive elemental explosion ended, Dorothy removed her magnetic defense and then looked towards the direction where Frederico had originally been. What she saw was a scene of utter devastation.
The mountain body near where Frederico had been hovering was now blasted into a huge crater. The radius of the entire crater was nearly three hundred meters, which was clearly caused by the explosion of the fire elements stored within Frederico's body. Around this crater, there were countless sharp cracks extending further, radiating outwards from the explosion crater for about a kilometer, as if sharp knives had sliced through the earth. These were clearly the traces left by the wind elements. As for water and ice, it seemed Frederico had stored less of them, and they had melted, evaporated, and canceled out much of the fire during the explosion. There were not many residues at the scene, only the snowflakes currently drifting in the sky proving their existence.
Looking at the chaotic scene before her, Dorothy extended her hand and caught a snowflake falling from the sky. After watching the snowflake melt in her hand, she couldn't help but say with emotion,
"In this world, there is one less Scarlet."
...
After completely defeating and ending Frederico, Dorothy immediately began the usual battlefield cleanup work, clearing the current scene to see if there was anything useful.
Although Frederico was very wealthy, due to the explosion caused by the elemental loss of control, his entire body was blown into pieces. Along with the numerous treasures and other Extraordinary items in the Baoku (Treasure House) within him, they were also destroyed in this explosion. This couldn't help but make Dorothy feel a little regretful; so many treasures were a considerable sum of money. If she could have seized all of them in the end, she could have made a fortune.
Although Dorothy's harvest was small, it wasn't nothing. In that fierce elemental explosion, Frederico still had a few things that survived, such as his incredibly sturdy metal outer shell.
The metal skin of the Haolin Shigui is extremely sturdy, much stronger than the treasures and other internal structures within the Haolin Shigui's Baoku (Treasure House). Even though it was torn into countless pieces by the elemental explosion from within, most of it still survived, scattered around the explosion crater.
In Dorothy's opinion, these fragments of the Scarlet Haolin Shigui's metal outer skin were rare materials. She collected every piece, planning to ask Beverly to forge some suitable equipment later, such as electromagnetic cannon shells. This stuff was much tougher than ordinary steel and could definitely withstand the output of a Scarlet-tier electromagnetic cannon.
Besides the remnants of the Haolin Shigui's outer skin, the other things Dorothy harvested were two Extraordinary items: one was the giant warhammer Frederico had used before, and the other was his Xie Zhi Yi (Machinery Intelligence Instrument). These two items seemed to have survived the previous elemental explosion because they were very sturdy, although they were blown very far away.
However, even so, these two Extraordinary items were still severely damaged, to the extent that Dorothy's appraisal couldn't take effect on them for a while. But Dorothy ultimately chose to take these two items back, thinking of having Beverly try to repair them later.
Besides the above items, Dorothy had one more unexpected gain: she found a strange crystal at the center of the explosion crater. This crystal was about the size of a finger and glowed with multiple colors, looking very beautiful. Dorothy used an appraisal technique and found that it was an elemental crystal, storing multiple spiritual elements within it.
The appraisal technique did not provide any information about the function or usage of this strange crystal, which indicated that it could not be utilized in this state. However, Dorothy still chose to take it back, planning to show it to Beverly later to see if she could figure something out.
...
After collecting all the seemingly valuable items, Dorothy immediately left the scene with her team. They finally stopped in a remote small town very far from the scene of the incident and began to rest there. During this process, Adele found Dorothy.
"I never thought... that one day, I would be involved in a murder targeting a Scarlet, and not even a Scarlet from the Tayi Sect."
During the day, on a tree-lined path in a small town park, Adele, wearing a lady's trench coat, and Dorothy, wearing a thickened coat and dress, were walking together. As they walked, Adele looked at the blooming flowers in the grass by the roadside and said.
"So, you still have a pretty low opinion of yourself. You're considered top-tier among the Chalk, haven't you ever thought about reaching... or even obtaining the power of the Scarlet?" Hearing Adele's words, Dorothy responded with a question, and Adele shook her head.
"I am indeed an outstanding Chalk. It is extremely rare in the entire hidden world for someone my age to become a Chalk, and my achievements can certainly be praised as genius. But so what? This world does not lack geniuses, and the number of geniuses is far greater than the number of Scarlet. There are countless Extraordinary in this world, but too few can become Scarlet.
"In this world, to obtain the power of the Scarlet, one needs talent, opportunity, and background. I am confident that my talent is outstanding and meets the standard of the Scarlet. But unfortunately, talent is the least important of these three standards, and there are too few people with opportunity and background.
"Especially background... this is the most important factor, and it is what I lack the most. My teacher was at most a Chalk and has long since passed away. The Church only sees me as a tool to deal with the Tayi Sect in the future. My path is extremely rare, so I originally did not dare to hope that I could one day truly reach the realm of the Scarlet. Like many other Extraordinary, I could only look up to the power of the Scarlet."
Adele said with a tone of emotion, and Dorothy thought for a moment before replying.
"So you also thought the Scarlet was out of reach? But I didn't see you look surprised after I successfully advanced?"
"Because there was no need to be surprised. The Scarlet is rare, but you, little Detective, are even rarer. I said that the most crucial factor for an Extraordinary's advancement is background, the full support of a powerful force behind them. Little Detective, you are the inheritor of the 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) path, which has been extinct for thousands of years, and the spokesperson for the mysterious deity akasha in practice. No one can catch up to you with this background. I was already surprised by you a long time ago, so I will not be surprised by your advancement to the Scarlet or even higher positions.
"Compared to being surprised by your advancement, what truly surprises me is your attitude towards me. You are actually willing to expend so much effort to help me towards the path of the Scarlet. This is something I never expected. Compared to me, you should have more suitable... or more powerful 'friends' to choose from." Looking at Dorothy beside her, Adele said, and Dorothy shrugged.
"Help... is that how you feel? I always thought we had a mutually beneficial relationship."
"Mutually beneficial with the force behind you, little Detective... Heh, I really feel like I can't handle it. Not to mention the power behind us, our current statuses are not equal, are they? Although I haven't interacted with other Scarlet Tier before, in fact, according to some rules of the hidden world, I should address you as Captain..." Adele chuckled and said, and Dorothy waved her hand.
"Forget it, forget it... I'm not used to those titles. Just call me whatever you're used to. By the way... you've also finished helping me with what I asked this time. What are your plans next?" Dorothy continued to ask Adele, and Adele looked at the sunny sky and replied.
"I plan to return to Prit now and begin the next two steps of my advancement ritual. I will go into seclusion for a period after I am fully prepared to complete the Dance of Self, and then find a way to prepare for the second Dance of Others.
"So, for a period of time in the future, if you, little Detective, have any problems and come to me for help, I'm afraid I won't be able to help you directly." Adele said lightly, and after listening to her words, Dorothy nodded silently, and then also looked up at the sky and spoke.
"I see, then I wish you a smooth ritual."
...
After seeing Adele off, Dorothy returned to the hotel where she was temporarily staying in this small city, in a relatively comfortable room. She sat in front of a desk, which was a strange Golden artifact, precisely the Golden base that Dorothy had obtained from the Faloro National Museum.
After examining the Golden base for a moment, Dorothy took out a small bag from her clothes and took out four crystal clear crystals from it. These crystals originally belonged to Queen Maria of Faloro's precious jewelry and belonged to the First Dynasty. Although they were stolen by Frederico of the Dark Gold Society, just before he finally lost control and self-destructed, the phantom thief transformed by Neff stole them back from the greedy Haolin Shigui and finally handed them over to Dorothy.
Now, what Dorothy had to do was return these crystals to their original positions, so that they could guide her forward.
Very seriously, Dorothy inserted the four crystals into the four slots on the Golden base and perfectly embedded them one by one. After all the crystals were installed, the originally incomplete Golden base became a beautiful and intricate work of art. The Golden and crystals shone brightly in the sunlight, and the originally ugly base now looked extremely beautiful.
Key of Guidance, this was the correct name of this ancient artifact of the First Dynasty. At this time, Dorothy was holding it in her hand, carefully examining it. After using appraisal to determine its usage, she spoke directly.
"Reveal to me the direction to the prototype world through the path of pure reason."
Dorothy murmured slowly. After she finished speaking, the Key of Guidance in her hand was silent for a moment, and then the four crystals on it began to emit a faint pale blue Light.
As time passed, this Light became brighter and brighter, gradually filling the entire room and illuminating the entire space with a quietblue color.
Under the illumination of this strange blue Light, countless regular fine lines gradually appeared in the empty space of the room. These lines continuously spread in the air, intersecting and connecting with each other, forming and constructing one three-dimensional shape after another, just like graphic software performing extremely high-speed 3D modeling.
Under the outlines of these lines, tall buildings rose from the ground, majestic city walls continuously extended, lifelike statues of gods were constructed, towering Stone pillars supported magnificent temples, and countless suspended buildings appeared in the air.
In an instant, a miniature model of a magnificent city without color, only structural lines, appeared before Dorothy's eyes. Based on its scale, the size of this city even far exceeded Tivian and Flotz.
Dense buildings spread out on the ground towards the distance, with palaces in the style of the First Dynasty distributed everywhere. Countless suspended temples stood above the city, and huge obelisks stood in a circle around the city. In the center of the obelisks was a pyramid-shaped giant building, which was the tallest building in the entire city. At the top of that pyramid-shaped building, on a huge Benben Stone, a clear, open eye symbol was depicted on it.
Before Dorothy's eyes, after the magnificent city model was completed, a series of Common Sense Text appeared out of thin air, displaying:
"Land of divine enlightenment—Heopolis"