Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 495 Sunset Mountains
I love mountain climbing.

The mountain is located in the Sunset Mountains, which resemble a mother embracing Francis, with outstretched arms enveloping him.

This mountain range may have had a glorious history long ago, but now it is rarely visited. The entire Sunset Range is exceptionally steep and difficult to climb, with lush vegetation and snow-capped peaks all year round.

"We don't seem to see anything strange up there."

Li Wei looked up from his observation mirror and muttered to himself. He had just scanned the Sunset Mountains with [Soul Vision] without finding anything. Then Li Wei began to focus on observing the summit of each mountain, hoping to find traces of man-made structures, but he was once again greatly disappointed.

However, that is indeed how it is described in the records.

Li Wei glanced again at the book "The Biography of Emperor Arthur" beside him; the current section was about the story after the saintess.

"She accepted the emperor's investiture and returned to her former homeland, where she built a castle. The castle was lit day and night, as if proclaiming to the people of this region that their guardian would always be here watching over them. And when the people looked up, they could see the reassuring light."

Livy tried to find clues from this literary rhetoric. First, the castle must be very tall. Second, it should have a lighthouse-like structure, since the book says that the people need to look up to see it. Presumably, this structure should be on a high mountain and very conspicuous.

Even if it collapses, there should still be some trace left.

But Li Wei saw nothing.

I must say, after carefully reading through the chapter about the saint in "The Biography of Arthurian Legend," Li Wei found that his impression of this saint had changed drastically.

At first, he had only heard the story of the saintess. In Li Wei's imagination, the saintess should have been a brave and powerful warrior or general, possessing a certain charm that made people trust her and entrust their lives to her.

However, after reading "The Biography of Arthurian Legend", Livy discovered that this saint was indeed an all-around talent.

The biography of Arthurian legend doesn't focus much on the saintess, as the protagonist is Arthur himself. However, precisely because of this, the accounts of others besides Arthur are somewhat believable. After all, this biography aims to highlight Arthur, so it wouldn't lavishly praise the achievements of others.

Even so, it will still be recorded, and it's usually not something exaggerated.

Of course, in Li Wei's opinion, this was already quite exaggerated.

For example, the book says that this saint concocted medicines that helped Emperor Arthur's soldiers successfully cross the poisonous forest, which is not surprising. After all, she was initially described as a healer who gained fame for it, so she must have had medical skills.

In addition, it is mentioned that she would observe celestial phenomena to guide the advancing army and was keenly aware of weather changes. Moreover, this saint seemed to be quite skilled in crafting weapons and armor; the book records a story of Emperor Arthur thanking her for repairing weapons during a nighttime conversation between her and the emperor.

Another passage describes a place with barren soil, unsuitable for growing any crops. After examining the land, the saint instructed them to plant a different crop, which resulted in a bumper harvest. This crop then became a local specialty…

These paragraphs are few in number and are mainly scattered throughout some miscellaneous sections of the biography, like interludes after the main content has passed.

But just looking at this information, Li Wei had already sketched out what kind of person this saintess was.

She is beautiful, intelligent, brave, and powerful. She is also proficient in alchemy and knowledgeable in multiple disciplines such as astronomy and botany. To be honest, this role is usually played by an old, wise man in RPGs. A saintess should mainly be a healer.

So it wouldn't be so surprising if this saint also knew about architecture. But there was another passage that caught Li Wei's attention.

"Protect her people and guard the borders of the empire."

Guarding? Why would she need to guard it? Think about it carefully. Emperor Arthur had already unified the world and created an incredibly powerful empire. At that time, the empire had almost no enemies, and even if it did, they were at most some barbarian tribes. So why would the saint build a castle on Mount Aegean and continue to protect her people?
Li Wei looked at the book in his hand, then at the notebook, which contained information provided by Professor Richard. According to him, although the Saintess accepted the territory, she did not exercise the power of a lord. Instead, she entrusted the position of lord to a trusted family, while she remained in the castle, only appearing when her people were threatened, leading her army to repel the enemies who threatened the area.

So, what is she doing?
Every alchemist's ultimate goal is the elixir of immortality and the panacea. Was the saint also like that? After assisting Emperor Arthur in establishing his empire, she returned to the castle and began working on the elixir of immortality, and she succeeded?

An immortal saintess, an immortal army.

An immortal saintess is understandable, but how could there be an immortal army?

Even if the Holy Maiden possessed some method to achieve immortality, it's impossible for her to be so generous as to grant immortality to everyone. And even if she were that generous, what about those who achieve immortality? They can't all just hide away in the deep mountains and forests like her, can they? What would be the point of their immortality then?

After carefully observing each mountaintop without finding anything, Li Wei had to reluctantly admit a reality.

That is, the saint may have built the castle in a place that she could not see with the naked eye.

As for where it is, there's no need to guess. Assuming there really is such a castle on the mountain, it might be located inside the mountain, just like a dragon's nest.

If that's the case, then Li Wei would have no chance of finding him anywhere outside.

Moreover, it's quite obvious that there are no dragons or anything like that in this building, so that Li Wei can be guided by his soul's radiance.

Huh? Wait, the radiance of the soul?
Li Wei blinked, and then he noticed a group of radiant souls moving up the mountain not far below. These radiant souls were white, indicating they weren't monsters. Li Wei switched back to his normal view, then zoomed in again through the observation scope below, carefully looking towards the source of the radiant souls.

Then he saw a convoy. There were more than a dozen large vehicles, all pulled by pack animals, with huge, campervan-like carriages behind them. Levi recognized these; they were Krant's transport vehicles, pulled by pack animals and with track-like wheels.

It also has the insignia of the Krant army on it.

What are these Krants doing here?
Li Wei frowned. His first thought was that his conversation with Richard had been eavesdropped on, but upon closer inspection, that seemed unlikely. The communication encryption system on the Eye of the Sky was brand new and had a wide coverage area; it was impossible for the other party to hijack it without being detected.

Besides, they moved too fast; even Levi himself didn't know where in the mountainous region they were looking for the castle. Thinking of this, Levi looked around again, and only then did he notice several campsites below the mountainside—Levi had been observing the summit and overlooked the area below, assuming it was just an ordinary village.

But upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that these camps are all Krant's military camps. What are they doing here? This isn't the border defense line, is it?
Could it be…

Li Wei's eyes lit up slightly at this thought.

Could they also be looking for that castle?

(End of this chapter)