"...Indeed," Su Cheng looked at him thoughtfully. "Assuming you want to use them for something."
"I'm not sure," Ian seemed a little surprised as well. "I thought you wouldn't agree with me."
"Why?" Su Cheng asked strangely. "What you said makes a lot of sense, or do you think I'd find them unworthy of being used?"
"Isn't it?" he asked in return. "To you, only power is the truth. Your progenitor holds the most formidable power in the world; even the gods have to give way. Because He could destroy every plane at any time just from being in a bad mood. Even destroying the Northern and Southern continents would only take the time it takes Him to breathe a single breath of dragon fire—"
Su Cheng: "?"
Su Cheng: "What?"
The blond youth took a deep breath. "I know you are an Ancient Dragon."
Su Cheng: "..."
It was most likely because of those baffling elves.
She thought speechlessly.
That detection magic back then must have sensed the aura of the Dragon race on her.
Logically speaking, it wasn't strange—she was different from true Dragonborn. If they could detect draconic power but couldn't get a Dragonborn result, they might deduce it this way.
As for why they didn't say she was a Giant Dragon, she guessed Giant Dragons could also be clearly detected, but Ancient Dragons themselves were existences that were hard to define.
Su Cheng didn't want to bring this up, because it would only deepen her regret of not meeting the Commander before entering the Holy City.
Although at that time, she hadn't known this kind of thing would happen.
But he was probably busy with other things anyway.
Su Cheng: "This has nothing to do with who I am. I also have a... fellow clansman. He will support me in doing anything, as long as I can get what I want out of it."
The emotion in Ian's eyes was a bit weird. "Your clansman? Or your lover? I know your kind doesn't have a gender, so why do you use 'he'? Has he ever taken the form of a man to spend time with you?"
Su Cheng crossed her arms. "If you suspect I'm hiding my identity to plot against you, I was planning to leave anyway. After all, I've probably become a wanted criminal by now. I injured someone in the street, and it's hard to say if that guy is dead or alive."
"What do I have that's worth an Ancient Dragon plotting for?"
He shook his head slightly. "I don't have that kind of thought, it's just..."
Ian fell silent for a moment. "It should be fine. This place is very tolerant towards mages, and towards elves as well. Neither you nor I will be wanted. What were you originally planning to do?"
Su Cheng took a deep breath and tightly gripped her bracelet. "I'm going to look for someone."
Even if this was thousands of years ago.
—If even elves could mistake her for an Ancient Dragon, then what if she found a real Ancient Dragon?
She already had some clues now, and she wanted to verify some things.
Su Cheng: "Are you going to stay in this city?"
Ian had wanted to say something, but upon hearing this, he immediately nodded. "Yes, I've known for a long time that the library is only open to those recognized by the lord, but any elf can enter, and the same goes for half-elves. There are several highly respected high-level mages inside who frequently give lectures. I want to befriend them and then get the qualifications to teach at the academy. That way, it'll be easy to blend into their circles—"
Su Cheng suddenly remembered the past that the other Ian had recounted, about being an assistant to a certain professor and then participating in the academy's research projects.
It seemed to match up.
"Alright," she felt this sounded reasonable. "It fits your plan perfectly. So you'll be staying here for a while? If I come looking for you next time, I'll ask around for you at the library. I have plenty of ways to sneak in."
"...Even if you don't say you're a dragon, you are someone blessed by a deity. They would beg you on their knees to enter—"
Ian frowned. "I heard very few of the Dragon race can catch the eye of a deity. It's truly peculiar. You must be an incredibly powerful person. Maybe one day you will be even stronger than the one who bestowed you with power."
Su Cheng paused for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Hahahaha, I'll take your word for it! I have that confidence too!"
Ian originally thought she would deny it. After all, the martial prowess of the Chaos Dragon King was known throughout the world; that was the most terrifying God of Ancient Dragons.
Even because of that overly ferocious origin power, He was unable to maintain clear sanity, and thus slumbered year-round in the abyss of the Lightless Ruins.
Ian: "..."
He looked at the smiling girl in front of him and couldn't help but curl his lips into a smile as well. "That's great. I want to be as confident as you."
Su Cheng: "???"
She always felt the Commander was a reliable person, no matter the aspect, but he wasn't a God-Favored.
She felt that her overall combat power surpassing his wasn't some pipe dream.
Why did it sound so weird when this guy said it?
Su Cheng: "Alright, anyway, I wish you all the best. Do you still need money? I think you'd better get some flashy outfits, robes, jewelry, various props, you know. I'm not saying you have to rely on these, after all, with your status and comprehension of magic—"
"Oh," Ian nodded in sudden realization, "Don't worry, we've saved up a lot of money. Actually, I always wanted my mom to buy a noble title so we could go to a place with beautiful scenery and manage lands and a manor... Never mind, I understand what you mean. What you said makes a lot of sense."
They found a quietly situated tavern in the upper district.
Su Cheng tasted the coral shrimp and fish buns that Ian highly recommended.
Those tender, bouncy shrimp meats were skewered on sticks, alternating with diced bell peppers and onions, brushed with a secret spicy sauce. A single bite burst with juice.
Inside the buns was minced marinated fish and chicken, mixed with coconut milk and red mushrooms. It wasn't greasy, and the broth was rich and savory.
"You were right," Su Cheng gave a thumbs up, "It's really delicious—"
They sat by the window. There weren't many people in the entire restaurant.
Suddenly, two people wearing long robes walked by.
She caught a glimpse of a pattern on one of their backs. It was an hourglass mark drawn with silver embroidery thread, which looked very familiar.
...An hourglass?
Su Cheng couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen a similar mark somewhere before.
Ian noticed her gaze. "Those seem to be people from the Sand Oath Society, followers of the God of Time—do you not know them? Or do you dislike that deity?"
Su Cheng pondered the conversations they had had and gave a gentle, bitter smile. "To be honest, whether you believe it or not, the time I've spent in human society is very short."
"I believe you," Ian said. "That God of Light you mentioned before was probably just made up by some locals, but you seemed to take it seriously. Actually, I haven't spent much time in human towns either. My mom told me a lot of things. If you want to learn more, maybe you could go check out the library."
They didn't travel together, but entered that magnificent grand library separately.
Su Cheng didn't bring up the Ancient God's blessing. Instead, she went to the Magic Guild to get a level certificate, and incidentally got a formal identity document issued.
—The process was unbelievably smooth.
Ultimately, those people were all too eager to serve a grand mage, and they desperately wished for another sixth-tier mage to reside in their city.
Su Cheng could actually continue to raise her tier, but she didn't want to attract too much attention. Therefore, she even made up the lie that she was one hundred and twenty-three years old.
Absolutely no one doubted her.
Relying on her identity as a sixth-tier wind mage, she easily entered the library and even ran into the orator who had been talking so highly earlier in a certain corridor.
Seeing the emblem on her chest, the man even smiled and nodded at her.
Su Cheng had absolutely no desire to pay him any mind and merely gave a cold nod. The man didn't find this strange at all and walked away on his own.
Then, she found a lot of information here.
For example, the Sand Oath Society that Ian had mentioned. They worshipped an ancient god whose authority was linked to the concept of time.
The book described this deity as the physical incarnation of time, both the instant and eternity, the beginning and the end, the bestower and the reaper, devouring the past and deducing the future.
In a sense, this deity was quite similar to the Endless Door—the God of Space. Neither of them were the type to incarnate as humans or mingle in the human world.
The God of Joy might still dance at banquets and drink with people, even if the consequence might be leaving someone forever drowning in His radiance and laughter.
But for ancient gods like the God of Time, their contact with humans would at most be a momentary enlightenment.
The book noted that the blessed of the God of Time were extremely, extremely rare, far fewer than those of the God of Space—the latter's numbers were already small, but the former's were even fewer.
However, once favored by the God of Time, one could potentially master incredibly powerful abilities.
Some could easily reverse their own time, achieving immortality in every sense, while others could use similar mechanisms to grant themselves more time.
The book did not describe specifically how to do this, but it mentioned some great mages who, because they possessed more time, achieved accomplishments that ordinary people could hardly imagine.
One year for others might be a hundred or even a thousand years for them.
So in the eyes of bystanders, they might have only taken a few days to learn incredibly profound and mysterious magic.
The God of Time also had many believers. These people longed to receive His blessing, but very few truly had their wishes fulfilled, and no one knew exactly how that deity chose His people.
Su Cheng continued to flip through the ancient tome in her hands.
What was incredibly bizarre was that all the names recorded here had vanished thousands of years later, turning into false gods of the void.
Such as the so-called Serpent of Truth.
In this era, He still held many titles and appellations.
Guardian of Endless Wisdom, Master of Arcane Tomes, Oracle of the Double Crown, Twin Shadows of the Wise Hunt, Light-Bearer of Destiny—
The two-headed serpent formed by the Seeker of Knowledge on the left head and the Observer on the right head, the God of Wisdom and Truth, Logos.
Her fingers slowly glided across the page, tracing the majestic outline of the coiled, rearing two-headed serpent, its snow-white scales, and the blue eyes flashing with an eerie luster on its heads.
Legend had it that in ancient times, during an era when humanity was not yet civilized, it was this God of Truth who bestowed wisdom upon them, teaching them to create value with their own hands.
He also imparted those profound magics to them.
However, due to the short lifespans of humans, the two-headed serpent still preferred elves.
It was said that many elderly elders in elven tribes had once served at His feet, listening to His teachings.
Turning another page, the book mentioned the followers of the God of Wisdom.
An incredibly complex geometric composition appeared in the illustrated book.
It was a peculiar crystalline labyrinth. The erected outer walls and the layered partitions inside were all a translucent deep gold, looking as if they were formed from solidified light.
With exquisite brushstrokes, the artist depicted countless hazy silhouettes, all displayed within those crystal-clear walls.
A king being crowned in a magnificent temple, a bustling commercial street full of voices, a battlefield littered with broken swords and filled with smoke, a shepherd playing a flute in the green pastoral fields.
These scenes were sealed upon it.
Su Cheng infused a bit of magic, and they quickly turned into lifelike dynamic images, as if they were all incredibly real pasts.
And between these scenes, there were thousands of golden rays of light weaving through, converging into a flowing galaxy of time.
Then they blended into a single point right in the center.
At the very bottom of the picture, which was also beneath the labyrinth, the entangled lines took on a grayish-blue hue, sinking into a black vortex like a dry well.
Beside it was an annotation written in an ornate script.
The final work of the Court Chief Mage, Aldrich.
According to his last account, he was not illustrating memories, but transcribing them.
The day this painting was completed was the moment Aldrich vanished from all existing records.
It was said that some of his friends also forgot his existence, as if this person had never appeared in their lives.
Su Cheng looked down.
In the corner of the painting was a line of neat text, seemingly left by the artist.
"A tribute to the Inscriber, the Pale Echo, the Lord of the Labyrinth of the Mind..."
"...the loyal apprentice of the Supreme Wiseman, the God of Memory, Galmos."
