Above the mage!

Chapter 465 Crystal Marrow Brain Worm
Once the issue of distributing the magic tree seeds was resolved, Gao De shamelessly approached Flora, the dignified Minister of Agriculture and head of the Forestry Office of Phoenix.

The task of planting trees can only be entrusted to Flora for now; no one else can take on this important responsibility.

Fortunately, Flora has always been enthusiastic about planting trees, and her enthusiasm is pure and unadulterated, which makes Gaode feel less guilty about "exploiting child labor".

For the sake of these magical tree seeds, Flora, who originally harbored resentment towards Gaode, immediately beamed with joy.

Lady Flora is like that; she's very easy to please.

With the matter of the Demon Tree Seed settled, Gao De turned to Elsa.

Since the beginning of the year, he has set two important tasks for the Ministry of Education.

One is the full implementation of compulsory education, including the construction of new schools, the training of teachers, the recording of teaching resources (video lessons), and the implementation of enrollment rates.

This is the most important task for the Ministry of Education at present, and it is also the cornerstone of Phoenix's development.

The other project is the "Northern Cultural Heritage Preservation and Expansion Project," a special project based on this global context.

This involves a comprehensive review of all books and files in Phoenix, the creation of a protective catalog of all knowledge, and the purchase of a large number of books and files from overseas.

This project is also known as the "Great Library" project by Gaode Maps.

Undoubtedly, the "Great Library" project will be a long-term project similar to the saying "It takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to cultivate a person" and "One generation plants the trees, and another enjoys the shade."

Its significance lies in organizing the lineage and history of the Northern Iceborn mages since their inception, so as to prevent the Northern tradition from being interrupted and lost over time.

Just like "Anivia" which exists in Gaode's bloodline, it is most likely a piece of history that has been lost over time.

The aim is to re-examine the records of the Iceborn mages and the Northern civilization in order to form a systematic and standardized set of rules.

The Northern civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, perhaps even the oldest, a unique historical and cultural heritage belonging to the North.

These things may seem a bit abstract at first glance, and you might not see how useful they are.

But Gao De, who was born in a country with a long cultural heritage, understands perfectly well that historical and cultural heritage will be extremely important for the long-term development of a region or even a country.

It is the spirit, soul, and root of a region or even a country, and also the source of a sense of identity.

The key is to identify useful information by cataloging and organizing knowledge, and then incorporate it into the future education system.

Finally, after the "Great Library" project achieves initial success, it aims to weaken and eliminate the world's serious knowledge monopoly.

Knowledge can be paid for, but it should not be monopolized, much less become a tool of a fixed class.

For this project, the Ministry of Education, and even Phoenix, or rather the North, will have to invest a great deal of time, energy, resources, and manpower.

But all the investment is necessary, because this is the foundational work.

Unlike the grand projects of the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Agriculture, the Northern Cultural Heritage Preservation and Expansion Project attracted almost no attention.

The entire project was carried out in an unusually low-key manner, and apart from those who were actually involved in the project, outsiders knew almost nothing about it.

In reality, the number of people actually involved in the project is not large.

Because this is a project with a high barrier to entry, it requires a certain level of wisdom and cultivation to extract useful information from a large amount of fragmented and unsystematic text and oral traditions, and then organize it into a systematic whole.

The history of the North is too long.

This long process caused them to lose parts of their belongings.

But this long process has also allowed them to hold many treasures, waiting for patient treasure hunters to explore them in depth.

As the Deputy Minister of Education, Elsa naturally became the person in charge of this great undertaking.

Clearly, after working for more than half a year, Elsa may not fully understand how great this undertaking is, or how tedious and tedious it is, but she has a deep understanding of it.

In addition, Elsa, who was also the office manager of the city hall, was already overwhelmed.

With such a meticulous and complicated project weighing on her shoulders, Elsa was somewhat resentful when Gaode approached her, making Gaode feel quite embarrassed.

However, he still shamelessly handed over the pile of books he had copied from the Sea Sentinel's library to Elsa.

Elsa picked up a book at random, flipped through a few pages, her brow furrowing and then relaxing, repeating this several times.

The wrinkles are because of Gaode's somewhat ugly characters. Gaode learned to read by Master Seda.

For Master Seda, literacy education for his apprentices was clearly sufficient, and he wouldn't have any other requirements.

Therefore, the whole process is somewhat similar to cramming education, which focuses on practicality and is very utilitarian.

Under this educational philosophy and method, Gaode learned to recognize and write characters in a haphazard way, but naturally, the characters he wrote were not aesthetically pleasing.

Elsa, having received an elite royal education, instinctively finds such "ugly" writing somewhat unacceptable.

Elsa was relieved because she discovered that the knowledge recorded in these books was extremely valuable and useful, far surpassing the miscellaneous books that Sunefa had purchased through the air routes.

"Where did all these books come from?" Elsa put down the book in her hand, temporarily putting her resentment aside, and asked curiously.

Such valuable knowledge, and it's a handwritten copy, seems to have some questionable origin.

Gaode didn't hide anything, and simply told the truth about what he had done.

After listening to what Gao De said, Elsa was stunned for a moment, then let out a long sigh and exclaimed, "Your Highness, you really are unconventional."

For the King of the North to personally undertake such a task is more than just being unconventional.

At least in Elsa's traditional understanding, this is simply unthinkable.

"Given the current situation in the North, we should naturally do our part whenever we can." Gao De didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

"According to what Your Highness said at the beginning, most of this knowledge and classics will be open to the people of the North in the future?" Elsa hesitated for a moment, then asked for further confirmation.

"Most knowledge that doesn't involve the extraordinary will be made freely available to all citizens of the North. Knowledge related to the extraordinary will be housed in the academy's library and will be free for students, while it will be available to all Northern mages for a fee. Of course, this will have to wait until the monetary system is established," Gao De explained his initial plan.

Elsa remained silent for a long time, lost in thought, before finally saying with deep emotion, "Neither universal compulsory education nor free access to knowledge are things I've never imagined."

"It is also an extremely great and difficult project, so," Gao De patted Elsa's shoulder heavily and said earnestly, "Minister Elsa, you have a long way to go!"

“We don’t have enough manpower.” Elsa glanced at Gao De expressionlessly, then said slowly.

"Uh..." Gaode was suddenly speechless.

Knowledge-based talent is the most scarce resource in the North.

The shortage of teachers is already too large to be filled in a short time, and now we have to spare some people to organize, summarize and transcribe books. It's like trying to cook without rice.

Gao De naturally understood the difficulties involved, but the project had to be done.

So after much deliberation, he decided to take on the task and shift the pressure to Elsa.

Elsa has always been a quiet person; even if something is a bit unreasonable, she still takes on the task without a second thought. Gao De, feeling guilty, then resigned himself to being a hands-off manager.

Who would have thought that after working on this for more than half a year, Elsa would actually "learn" to ask questions.

"If we hold on for a while longer, once the first batch of students in compulsory education graduate, we should be able to barely solve part of the manpower shortage," Gao De replied somewhat awkwardly.

Elsa remained silent, only staring intently at Gaode.

Until Gaode could no longer withstand the "scorching" gaze and chose to surrender, saying, "Alright, alright, I know that distant water can't quench immediate thirst, I'll think of another way."

Upon seeing this, Elsa's lips curled up slightly, revealing a rare mischievous expression, and she then said with a smile, "Your Highness, take a look at this first."

She slightly raised her chin, and the light flowed across her delicate skin, outlining the graceful curve of her swan-like neck.

Gao De's eyes lit up slightly.

It's not because of Elsa's long neck, of course.

Elsa flicked her fingertips and took something out from deep inside her collar.

It was a necklace adorned with gemstones.

The main body of the necklace is made of mithril and thorny vines forged from adamantite, forming a complex six-petaled flower base.

Elsa took off her necklace, placed it in her palm, and showed it to Gaode.

"What is this?" God asked Elsa.

He knew, of course, that it was a necklace, but it was clearly more than just a necklace.

Elsa silently opened the complex base made of mithril and adamantite.

Gaode noticed that the hollowed-out base frame was also engraved with miniature, ever-changing chains of runes.

The base is removed, revealing the "gem" inside.

It was a sophisticated multifaceted crystal, crystal clear overall, with sparkling light flowing inside like a galaxy.

As the crystal emitted a soft glow, a faint, static-like arcane fluctuation appeared in the space around it.

The overall impression is one of mystery and intricate strangeness.

Gao De activated his Mandora's Eye and glanced at it briefly, only to be surprised to find that the crystal had a facet of a staggering one hundred.

According to gemological grading, a gemstone with one hundred facets is called the "Imperial Cut," which represents the pinnacle of gemological craftsmanship.

But what truly amazed Gaode was the natural perfection of the crystal's facets; it didn't seem like the work of craftsmanship, but rather like it was born that way.

A naturally occurring multifaceted crystal?

It's amazing just thinking about it.

But clearly, no matter how stunning or precious the crystal is, it has nothing to do with their current topic.

So Gao De looked at Elsa, waiting for her explanation.

"The Heart of Westminster," Elsa smiled slightly, giving the necklace its name.

"It is the national treasure of our Xidian Duchy, an extremely special and extraordinary object, and the most important reason why I still face relentless pursuit even after fleeing to the Golden Plantagenet Dynasty."

Gao De's heart stirred slightly.

Before Gao De could ask further, Elsa had already begun to explain with great self-awareness: "Of course, the Heart of Westden is the name we gave it. Its essence is actually the brain crystal of the Crystal Brain Worm."

"Crystal brain worm?" Gao De immediately searched his mind for relevant information, but unfortunately found nothing.

"This is an extremely special existence. It is a huge, semi-transparent, segmented worm-like creature, usually 10 to 100 meters long. Its skin is not fleshy, but covered with a tough, crystal-like chitinous shell, which is pale blue, light purple or milky white."

"The interior of the crystal brain worm is filled with flowing, shimmering energy streams and fine, spiderweb-like crystalline filaments."

Its head lacks prominent eyes or mouthparts; instead, it possesses a complex cluster of crystals, known as the brain crystal, which it uses to sense the surrounding energy and vibrations.

"This is an extremely rare creature that exists only near the deepest and oldest energy nodes in a plane or near unstable rifts where planes intersect."

"They are pure information and energy symbionts."

"The crystal brain worm can absorb and store information from the environment through its brain crystal, and can create offspring worms with abundant energy. The offspring worms can share the information in the crystal brain worm's brain crystal, as long as the crystal brain worm is willing."

“In most cases, the crystal brain worm is extremely inert, lying dormant like a giant crystal sculpture.”

"When it senses an insurmountable threat, it will choose to destroy its own brain crystal."

"Its brain crystal is the crystallization of information absorbed, processed and stored throughout its life. As it ages, the brain crystal becomes purer, more complex and larger, and the amount of information it contains increases exponentially. Once it self-destructs, the resulting energy shock can destroy any powerful enemy."

"Therefore, this is a creature that, although it has little offensive capability, is one that almost no one dares to provoke."

"Moreover, the crystal brain worm theoretically has no upper limit on lifespan. Therefore, theoretically, it is almost impossible to obtain the brain crystal of the crystal brain worm."

"That?" Gao De asked in surprise.

Where did the brain crystal of the brain worm in Elsa's hand come from?

"I don't know the specifics, but our ancestors actually discovered a Crystal Brain Worm that shouldn't have died naturally, and then obtained this pure brain crystal from the corpse of this naturally deceased Crystal Brain Worm."

"Finally, using this brain crystal as raw material, the Westland Kingdom's heirloom treasure, the Heart of Westland, was created."

"What's it used for?" Gao De asked curiously.

Elsa has "told" so many stories, the final product should be worthy of those "stories".

Elsa smiled slightly: "Your Highness, please take a look."

She held the Heart of Western in her hand and poured her inner magic into it.

The next moment, one of the hundred facades of the Heart of Westland suddenly flashed with light, which expanded and transformed into a soft, fan-shaped light curtain, enveloping the handwritten books that Gao De had brought back.

Under the shimmering light, strange streams of energy floated up from the books, flowing continuously into the Heart of Westland like a river.

The whole process probably takes less than ten seconds.

Elsa stopped channeling her magic, and the light emanating from the Heart of Westminster immediately dimmed.

"Your Highness, all the information in these books has been stored in the Heart of Xidian."

Under Gao De's shocked gaze, Elsa said, "Simply place the Heart of Westin near the target material, give it energy, and activate it. It can then rapidly acquire information from the object's carrier, including books, scrolls, letters, stone tablet inscriptions, maps, blueprints, and even runes on certain magical items, as long as the information is visible."

"After obtaining this information, it will be instantly analyzed and permanently stored in the Heart of Western in the form of an energy flow."

(End of this chapter)