I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

The mentor discovered that his student had unique insights into magic.

He had discovered this earlier when discussing the lab's research—although the lab was studying 'classical basic magic,' it was a new path. Even if wizards from the East were to communicate with the lab's staff, they might not be able to understand.

But this student of mine understood it immediately!
Now, he's talking to himself about 'Alexandra's scholarship'—this kid isn't talking about the book's content at all, or rather, he has completely different views on these topics from Alexandra's!

The two were talking about something very 'simple', but the tutor had a very strange feeling—his student was definitely capable of publishing several books, and those books would certainly not be inferior to those written by this Miss Alexandra!

The mentor had no idea that Alexandra was not from this era. Nor did she know that the book's contents were already hundreds of years outdated in the East.

However, the mentor was right about one thing: the student before him was by no means inferior to the one who wrote this book when Astrid Sandra was writing it—in fact, Roland's level should be said to be even higher.

In the Eastern Territory today, Roland would be considered a junior veteran. In some areas, even Dean Johnson would remark, "The younger generation surpasses the older."

Therefore, the 'Edward' standing in front of Merlin is not a magic enthusiast, but a magic representative from the East!

The mentor was unaware of all this. The more he talked with Roland, the more excited he became, but also the more puzzled he became.

Putting everything else aside, just being able to understand his ideas is already quite remarkable.

But this guy can also apply what he's learned to other situations!

The mentor couldn't help but ask, "Edward, have you ever met this Alexandra? Have you ever talked to her about magic?"

Roland's heart skipped a beat. After a moment of contemplation, he said, "We do know each other. I once met a gentleman from Vermeek, and all my books were given to me by this esteemed gentleman."

"His name is Roland, and he is Alexandra's mentor."

The tutor's expression shifted to one of sudden realization. He thought to himself, "As expected... I never imagined my student would have such an opportunity to study under such a wizard."

After a moment's thought, the mentor sighed, "Roland and Alexandra's list of wizards being followed by the church is not among these two."

"It's truly remarkable that a wizard who isn't particularly well-known in the East could write such a book."

Roland thought to himself, 'Back when my senior was that age, she wasn't really that famous. About the same as Instructor Usak. She was a rising star in the Twilight Council.'

After thinking for a moment, Roland asked, "Mentor, if you have the opportunity to go to Vermek in the future, would you be willing to meet my teacher, Roland?"

The mentor sighed, his expression extremely complicated. It was unclear whether he feared he wouldn't survive, or whether joining the wizarding world would be a betrayal of his faith.

Roland thought to himself, 'My mentor is very eager to have an academic exchange with the wizards of the East. But from another perspective, the wizards of the East are also a group of despicable invaders.'

In any case, I've successfully connected them.

At this moment, the instructor suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "Oh dear, we were so busy chatting that we took the wrong turn. But it's not exactly wrong. Go through that gallery ahead, and you'll enter the chapel. Inside the chapel, there's a back door leading to the hot springs."

The instructor smiled and said, "At this time, the guests should all be attending the banquet. The hot spring is usually not used, so you won't encounter any ladies bathing if you go in through the secret door."

Roland blinked, thinking to himself, 'Even if we run into each other, it's not a big deal. It's just soaking in a hot spring, not like getting a full-body scrub. Although I've never soaked in a hot spring in the south, judging from many of Vermeer's paintings, everyone is wearing special fabric bathrobes while soaking in hot springs.'

Roland's thinking was indeed correct. Bathing is very popular in the South, and there are more types of hot springs and bathhouses than in the North. If it is a mixed bath, and a proper mixed bath, then everyone would definitely be wearing clothes while bathing.

But the key point is that the hot spring in Greyhawk Castle is not legitimate.

It wasn't built for social interaction; it exists for baptism, healing, and 'recharging'.

During their casual conversation, the two entered the art gallery.

There were two knights guarding the entrance to the gallery. When Roland and his companion approached, they initially tried to stop them. However, upon seeing Roland's face, their gazes burned with desire as they lowered their heads.

The Lord is all-knowing and all-powerful, and he must have his reasons for coming here—without a doubt, he has come to meet Lady Olivia.

The mentor chuckled and said to Roland, "When I come here, they always stop me—only you and your father can freely enter and leave this gallery. We usually have to apply in advance to come and admire the paintings."

Roland's eyes flickered slightly as he thought to himself, 'I didn't expect this gallery to be a forbidden area. No wonder those two knights acted like it wasn't convenient to go in right now.'

Soon, Roland followed his mentor into the gallery.

The gallery was filled with tapestries, and the overall layout looked very familiar to Roland.
Many of these tapestries depict Heracles. After examining them, Roland's expression subtly changed.

These paintings are all related to the Old Testament of Heracles!
You could even say they are just old scriptures hanging in the air!
To the average person, these are just paintings depicting mythological stories, but for those with extremely devout faith, or even gods, they can interpret many things from the paintings.

Therefore, this gallery doesn't actually need anyone to guard it, because those who shouldn't see the Old Church won't see it in the paintings. Only those who should see the Old Scripture can see its contents in the paintings.

Roland couldn't help but take a second look. His sanity wasn't high enough to deliver that kind of sudden, profound insight. But he still gleaned something remarkable from the painting.

This painting is titled "Goddess Bathing," and it depicts a goddess bathing in a river.

The goddess is bathing downstream, while upstream there is a raging flood!
In the painting, the land upstream is not land, but a strange, fragmented sea—if this river is the River Styx, then it means that the River Styx has been torn apart by the 'sea'!

The flood came from this chaotic sea.

The painting also depicts many tiny human figures. Judging from the flags, these figures come from various factions, including not only members of the church and ancient nobles, but also some flags that were later deliberately blurred out.

Among the banners of ancient nobles, the banner of the Dracula family stands out! The knights of this family guard the goddess, protecting the river alongside her.

Besides humans, there are many strange angels in the river. Under the illumination of the sun, moon and stars, they constantly fly out of the river and rush into the flood with humans to fight the flood.

In the sky above humans and goddesses, the sun, moon, and stars hang simultaneously—a sign of the gods' attention.

These stars are arranged in a way that corresponds to their real-world counterparts. If one understands astrology, one can identify which stars represent which deity.

However, there were many dark stars in the sky, but they were all very, very dim, and looked like they were about to fall.

Moreover, there is no 'Heraca the Shepherd of the River Styx' among the stars in the sky, which means that the goddess of the Styx, Heracles, has either fallen or is not in the sky—she is in the river!
Roland's gaze fell upon the bathing goddess. Upon closer inspection, he realized that she looked completely different from Diana!
Roland thought to himself, 'So this is what Lady Heracles originally looked like? But come to think of it... why does she look so familiar?'

Roland racked his brains but couldn't recall ever seeing that face before.

He could only temporarily attribute the 'familiarity' to having seen Heracles in his dream. At this moment, Roland noticed that there were some areas in the sky of the painting that were completely devoid of stars—from some traces, it could be seen that these areas originally had stars, but they had been deliberately removed.

Roland strongly suspected that these artificially erased stars were 'Wizard Gods'.

He also strongly suspected that 'Styx Shepherd Star' might not have existed in the painting at all—Heracca might not have held a divine position back then! She was a sorceress!
The goddess in the painting is washing a strange banner—the original design on the banner is being washed away, and starlight is redrawing the banner.

Roland made a bold guess.

In the ancient 'Era of Madness', the Mad Gods tore the world apart. They came from the lower realms and the first place they appeared was the Netherworld—the Netherworld was directly pierced through, and more than half of the River Styx was gone!

After breaking through the Netherworld, the mad gods, like a flood, surged into the human world through the broken channels of the River Styx—the land upstream of the river was also shattered, indicating that half of the human world was gone.

If the human world is breached, they will go to heaven.

In this situation, the gods and wizards had no choice but to unite and fight against the raging flood.

In this struggle, people need to rely on the power of the gods of the underworld and the Styx, but the star of the underworld has already dimmed—not to mention that these gods of the underworld are going to die, the entire underworld has been breached!

The River Styx may have been shattered, or it may have disappeared!
At this moment, a witch stepped forward and transformed into the new River Styx, stopping the flood!

The "Goddess Bathing" painting is the coronation image of this witch! The gods are baptizing her and crowning her!

She abandoned her original wizard banner, and starlight painted a new pattern on it—this witch was Heracles.

There should have been many wizards among the humans on the ground—those without flags were all wizards!

The painting was altered, so the wizards' banners were deliberately erased by the church.

Among the stars in the sky, there should have been many 'sun, moon, and stars' belonging to the wizards—but they were all artificially erased by the church.

Roland strongly suspected that among the stars in the sky that hadn't been erased, there must be 'wizard gods'. But the church didn't know that those stars were actually wizards.

If these speculations are true, it means that in the Old Church era, at least in the Age of Madness, the gods must have regarded the wizard gods as their own kind, otherwise the wizard stars would not appear in the painting.

Today, the gods no longer recognize wizards. But they do recognize those wizards who have ascended to heaven—and it's even possible that there are quite a few wizard gods among the gods.

But one's position determines one's perspective, and no one knows their views on the magical revolution in their homeland.

Roland looked at the angels constantly emerging from the river in the painting and thought to himself: 'Of course, none of these things matter. What matters is that this painting depicts the banks of the River Angels, and here, the church can summon angels from the river!'
I should have thought of that sooner!

Roland had previously considered whether wizards could use the unique environment here to cultivate mysterious creatures.

Now there's no need to guess; it's definitely possible. Not only can they cultivate them, but they can even utilize the power of the lower world to create mystical creatures directly from the 'river'—because the Church intends to do just that!

No wonder the church was so determined to take over this place!
Angel River, the birthplace of angels—this is truly a place where angels can be born!

This is a 'unit production base' left over from the age of gods!
The creation of angels requires divine grace and power. Without the well of faith, the church will no longer receive abundant divine grace. However, if the church ceases to send faith to heaven, then that faith can serve as fuel for the creation of angels!
They even created gods!

"Edward, take your time looking at it. I have to go," the tutor said.

Roland snapped out of his daze, gave an awkward laugh, and said, "Mentor, you can stay put these next few days. If you need to do anything, let me know in advance—don't talk to my father too much, and don't believe him. If anyone can save the lab, it will be us."

The mentor sighed and said, "I know what Barr and his group are up to. He won't harm me, but they really can't help me in this matter."

Roland reached into his pocket and pulled out an exquisite brooch inlaid with lake gemstones—this was not, of course, in his pocket; he had retrieved it from the dimensional belt hidden at his waist.

After handing the brooch to his mentor, Roland said, "Keep this with you at all times."

The mentor took it and examined it with a puzzled look. His expression then changed slightly. He said, "This is a rare artifact from the wizards of the Eastern Realm? Wonderful, wonderful! This gem is also extraordinary; I've never seen such superb alchemical technique before!"
"Did Mr. Roland give it to you?"

Roland remained silent. The brooch did indeed come from a wizard he had once killed—most likely the Bloodthirsty Wizard. Or it was a relic of the Twilight Wizard that he had looted from the Storm's captain's cabin.

Regardless of who the brooch originally belonged to, it would be considered an elite status in the Eastern Territory.

This brooch is a protective artifact; as long as the magic is sufficient, even a formal wizard cannot harm its holder.

There are many energy crystals in the lab; the instructor should know how to recharge them.

But that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that when Roland first took the ring, he secretly cast his demonic spell on it.

Once the brooch is broken, the magic will be activated. The wearer's SAN will suffer a severe blow.

The mentor was indeed very skilled in magic, but his own abilities were not even as good as those of a junior apprentice.

He possessed many powerful treasures, but in Roland's eyes, these treasures were of no use whatsoever. They couldn't defend against his magic.

Given the mentor's own strength, he was no match for Roland's attack. Therefore, if the brooch malfunctioned, the mentor's SAN would be immediately wiped out by Roland's magic.

Therefore, if anyone tries to harm the mentor, Roland can devour the mentor instantly.

To put it bluntly, this strange object is a substitute. But the substitute for the mentor is not the ring, but Roland himself.

After bidding farewell to his mentor, Roland walked alone through the gallery toward the chapel ahead. As he climbed the steps, a strange chill ran down his spine.

He knew it wasn't that someone was targeting him. Rather, it was a psychological shadow left by his time in Bloodstained Fortress—the layout of this gallery was too similar to that gallery in Bloodstained Fortress.

So when Roland went up the steps, he couldn't help but think of 'Lady Wendissa's dress'—or rather, the scene of Lady Heraka swallowing people.

Roland couldn't help but think about a question.

What Olivia fears most is the count, or the god behind him?
Could there be a Wendysa in Grey Falcon Castle?

Or rather, someone being slept on top of Lady Heracles? (End of Chapter)