Super Righteous Player
Chapter 965 - 23 Fire Transmitter Hugo

Chapter 965: Chapter 23 Fire Transmitter Hugo

"The ’Prototype of Truth’ is the Book of Truth, and really, there’s no active way to obtain it except by luck," thought Annan.

But as the newly appointed Charioteer, Annan was Salvatore’s only friend, so there was no need to worry about this at all.

The remaining concern was the "Cycle of the Four Wheels"... his very own perpetual motion machine.

Of course, even though it was called a perpetual motion machine, its requirement was not to "extract power from the world," but rather to have its own independent energy source. It didn’t matter if the scale was not very large or if in the distant future it would be exhausted.

It simply needed to be manually replenished.

For example, the energy produced by the souls that powered the "Death of a Nation" to move skeletons was his "Cycle of the Four Wheels"; and the energy generated after their souls were purged became the "Cycle of the Four Wheels" necessary for Pardoners to become gods.

But with Salvatore’s stubbornness, wanting to complete the Cycle of the Four Wheels by himself... he probably really would end up developing a perpetual motion machine.

That was the very thing that would truly stump him. Because Salvatore was someone who stubbornly adhered to his principles.

"That’s why the sacred fire must be passed to him," said Hugo, the Tower Master.

"The sacred fire of the Heath Tower of Black is the ’Fire of Restlessness’ extracted by Prometheus using his own flesh and blood as kindling, and wisdom as fuel,"

"Just as exchanging wisdom with another person does not cause one to lose their own wisdom; using wisdom to ignite the sacred fire also does not deplete one’s own wisdom... instead, one can gain countless new knowledge.

"As long as one continues to study, think, and learn incessantly, the sacred fire will burn eternally. Even though I have now lost all my wisdom, I can still extract the wisdom of my forebears from the sacred fire, which can, in turn, add to my own."

"Just as firewood placed together makes the flames burn fiercer and brighter. This is the way of the Black Tower."

Having said that, Hugo paused slightly.

Then he said something that Annan couldn’t ignore, "Your Majesty might not be aware... the sacred fire preserved in the Heath Tower of Black is the main energy source that sustained the Great Unified Barrier of the past."

"What?" Annan was mildly startled.

He really didn’t know this—Annan knew that in the more ancient past when the Mist was still thin, the Elves had not constructed the Great Barrier; the sacred fire from the fire altar alone was sufficient to disperse the Mist.

But he had thought that the Great Barrier was a more advanced different technology... he had no idea that it was actually an optimization of the fire altar.

However, upon hearing Master Hugo mention it, he quickly realized, "I see... so the ancient Elven sages, when they meditated in front of the fire altar, were doing it to power the Great Barrier?"

"Not exactly," replied Hugo, possibly the only mortal in the world who understood what the "sacred fire" was, patiently explaining, "The sacred fire’s wisdom collection range is vast; the sacred fire of the Heath Tower of Black is even capable of gathering the wisdom of every apprentice in the Wizard’s Tower as energy. Meanwhile, the fire altar is a massive copper bowl at least thirty meters tall and up to eighty meters tall, its maximum radiation range can reach a radius of twenty kilometers.

"When those great sages pondered beneath the fire altar, it was not entirely for the purpose of providing energy... they simply felt that it enabled them to resonate with the wisdom of others and to receive inspiration. Of course, at that distance, it’s impossible... it’s just a superstitious self-comforting belief. To gain wisdom from the sacred fire, one must be fully immersed in it."

"...wait a minute, is the sacred fire’s collection range that large?"

Annan quickly grasped something alarming, "If that’s the case, the collapse of the Great Barrier back then..."

"You guess is not wrong. At least half the reason was because the fire altar could not be sustained."

Master Hugo sighed and disclosed to Annan a secret that perhaps only the Tower Master of the Heath Tower of Black would know, "It wasn’t because during the blood servitude, the neglected fire altar was extinguished... that was just a rumor.

"Because even the wisdom of strategy, conspiracies, and debates can also nourish the sacred fire. The sacred fire does not only burn pure, philosophical, and artistic wisdom... though its color and smell may change according to the fuel, any wisdom can serve as fuel to sustain its burning.

"Whether it’s the wisdom of war, or the wisdom of farmers and fishermen; the wisdom of thieves and robbers, or the survival skills of adventurers in the wild... as long as it’s the collective, political ’wisdom’ of civilized races, it can keep the sacred fire burning—even the less intelligent humanoid races can do so. The lowest standard is to have one’s own racial written language."

Simply by pondering near the fire altar, the ’sparks of wisdom’ that erupt will cause the sacred fire to burn even more vigorously.

"In fact, it was the extinguishing of the Sacred Flame Altar that led to the collapse of the great barrier, followed by the ’blood service.’" It was the historians who later used ritual detection to discover that the Sacred Flame Altar went out around the same time the blood service began, leading them to surmise that it was during the blood service period, when the scholars neglected the Sacred Flames, that they were extinguished.

"The principle is actually very simple, just think about it... If the scholars’ thoughts could maintain the Sacred Flames, then not everyone would need to take refuge within the great barrier erected by the True God."

Hugo said as much.

...Indeed.

Annan nodded.

If the scholars’ debates and brainstorming alone could sustain the continuance of the Sacred Flame Altar, they could have simply moved a few Sacred Flame Altars to encircle an area, placing them at the four corners of the city gate, and then holding debates every day in the city center, with just a few university libraries and research centers at each corner.

They could have similarly dispelled the Mist, so why insist on a great barrier?

In that case, their war objective would have shifted from fighting for control to competing for the Sacred Flame Altars.

But the truth is... no one actually bothered to move those heavy Sacred Flame Altars.

They didn’t even pay them any mind. To this day, those sporadic Sacred Flame Altars remain as sightseeing spots in various locations.

"So it was because the extinguishing of the Sacred Flame Altar preceded the collapse of the great barrier..."

Annan murmured.

Before Annan could continue pondering, Tower Master Hugo continued: "And so many Sacred Flame Altars, all of their Sacred Flames come from the primordial Sacred Fire at the Heath Tower of Black. Only a ’madman’-level scholar need volunteer for immolation sacrifice, and they could transport the Sacred Fire to other places.

"The specific method is to submerge oneself in the Sacred Fire, to conduct the ’Fire Transmitter Ritual’. Thereafter, their entire body would be engulfed in flames... but this fire would not make them feel heat, instead, it would bring them peace.

"And this flame would rapidly consume their wisdom and the arcane knowledge they’d acquired. What they had to do was to travel on foot, and before they were completely burned, rush to the target Sacred Flame Altar to perform the second part of the ’Fire Transmitter Ritual’ while seated upon it.

"Within this Sacred Fire, they would quietly lose their lives. And their remains could burn for seven times longer than the time spent transferring the fire. Once their remains were completely consumed, the Sacred Flame Altar would then be completed, and the Sacred Fire could be passed on again... to even further reaches.

"All of the Sacred Flames originate from the ’primordial Sacred Fire’ at the Heath Tower of Black. When the salvation monk came to me seeking the Sacred Fire, he hoped to become a ’Fire Transmitter’.

"Being both the Philosopher’s Stone and a Fire Transmitter, carrying many souls within him... with the Philosopher’s Stone, he could activate the soul’s element, revitalize and awaken these souls; then using their wisdom as fuel for the Sacred Fire, allowing it to burn eternally; and with the Fire of Restlessness, heal himself... thus achieving an immortal body."

"The only time the Philosopher’s Stone actually needed to be consumed was at the start. Once the cycle was complete, this system he devised could grant him infinite life, infinite Magic Power, endless resurrection, unlimited Elemental Power—the only requirement being possession of the ’soul’s element’ when pushed to its limits, with a Philosopher’s Stone in hand and many ’sage’s souls’."

The reason he began collecting these scholars’ souls was to consecrate them to the Sacred Fire.

This was the true path to godhood of the salvation monk.

It was through this action of the salvation monk that Hugo realized the value of the Sacred Fire.

Apart from serving as a power source for Heath Tower of Black... it also had the potential to become a Perpetual Motion Machine.

He himself could not achieve it because he was unable to maintain "uninterrupted thinking." As soon as the Sacred Fire left Heath Tower of Black and lacked the wisdom of those apprentices and mentors as consecration, the Sacred Fire would extinguish while he slept.

But Salvatore was unique.

—He might sleep, but his thoughts would never cease.

Because... even as he slept, another "Salvatore" remained awake!

"I am not trying to make him the Tower Master, to become a prisoner of the Black Tower. I am looking to usher him into immortality—not to create a True God, but to let someone as purely good as Salvatore become a True God."

Hugo answered firmly: "I believe that our legacy, passed down through generations... is precisely for moments like this."