Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 418 - 417: Immersed Once Again

Deep in the secretive underground palace within the Typhon Empire’s territory.

Bright lights from the magic crystals illuminated the circular hall. Around the ancient stone table, embedded with countless intricate magic symbols, archbishops draped in black or white robes had already taken their seats in order. The oppressive silence in the hall was broken only by the occasional twitch of the artificial nerve cords on the walls, producing faint sounds.

After what felt like an eternity of silence, it was finally broken.

Dots of deep purple light emerged above the circular table, slowly forming an indescribable shape. From the starry mist cloud, the deep voice of the Pontiff of the Eternal Sleepers was heard: "Everyone, let’s begin."

"Yes, Your Eminence," a white-robed bishop nodded, stood up, and said, "We have completed the brainwave analysis of Bishop Leimont and recreated it within the Brain Servant array. Based on previous trial runs, this fabricated brainwave can bypass the Holy Light’s filtering rules. It won’t be long before we can use it for the second observation."

"Good progress," came an emotionless compliment from within the starry mist cloud. "Remember the safety guidelines: Even archbishops shall not observe the kingdom twice within ten days. If anyone exhibits signs of muttering, stupor, sleepiness, or praying to any god after observing the kingdom, they must have their brain sealed and memories erased immediately."

The white-robed bishop bowed his head: "I shall obey your command."

Then the black-robed bishop beside him stood up: "Your Eminence, the ’Outland Wanderer’ has destroyed the old aristocratic forces in the south of Anzu, showing... power and control beyond our expectations."

The starry mist cloud seemed to pause, then re-floated: "What is he doing now?"

"He has issued numerous decrees and begun attempting to incorporate the entire southern borders under his rule, as he did with Cecil territory," the black-robed bishop said. "He exhibits traits similar to the ’Great Monarch,’ though his decrees and methods are perplexing. It seems he truly intends to establish a stable, lasting governance and build a Realm of the Mortals..."

The starry mist cloud remained silent, but another bishop couldn’t help but question: "Does he really intend to become a monarch?"

"The behavior of the Wanderers from Outer Realm defies conventional reasoning. Based on our intelligence, they typically assume one role upon arrival in a world," the black-robed bishop explained. "Judging by his actions since his arrival, perhaps his role this time is to be a monarch."

"There’s also the possibility that after establishing a strong enough Realm of the Mortals, he will destroy it," came a slightly sharp female voice from across the table, said by a black-robed female bishop. "After all, he resembles an Evil God, and we’ve seen him destroy kingdoms he’s built before."

"Even Evil Gods have purposes; only the chaos of the Deep Realm lacks purpose," interrupted a voice from the starry mist cloud, halting the bishops’ discussion and debate. "At least, we haven’t yet had a direct confrontation with the Wanderers from Outer Realm, which is a good thing."

The white-robed bishop who first spoke raised his head curiously: "Your Eminence, you mean..."

"As long as we can prolong the existence of our world, we are willing to do anything," the starry mist cloud stated flatly. "Of course, we must continue observing him for now—until we are sure the Wanderers from Outer Realm have no explicit hostility towards this world, we can’t proceed to the next step."

All the bishops bowed their heads together: "Yes, Your Eminence, we shall obey your command."

"Then, onto the next topic, Project Zero..."

...

Brief dizziness ebbed away like the tide, and Gawain found himself in the dream city’s splendid and magnificent palace walls, along the wide trails of leisurely strolling Eternal Sleepers "citizens."

He felt it had been a long time since he last entered this dream realm, although he had actually visited a few days ago to check on Daniel’s learning progress.

The real world was filled with numerous affairs, and the newly conquered southern borders required slow construction. Gawain had almost no spare time to focus on matters outside his territory’s development, even when he briefly logged in. He came and went hurriedly.

Fortunately, today was somewhat less busy, giving him time to linger in this dream realm for a while.

The scenery in dream city was much the same as always, seemingly eternally splendid and tranquil. Its serene appearance belied the extraordinary, vast data flowing beneath, and the fact that the city’s builders were notorious evil cult followers. But for Gawain now, these things weren’t of immediate concern—until the southern borders were stabilized, he didn’t have much time to care about the activities of these cult followers.

At most, he took a moment to glance at dream city, ensuring the Eternal Sleepers weren’t stirring up any major issues against the southern borders.

Gawain navigated with ease to the city center, found the Node Crystal connecting to the deep data network, and started browsing randomly within the Eternal Sleepers network. After skimming a small portion of information, he couldn’t help but smile.

He noticed that the information flow within the Eternal Sleepers network had become much more orderly, and a rudimentary concept akin to a "search engine" was operational. While searching for recent mind network construction details, he frequently saw "Nightmare Bishop Daniel" listed at the end of documents.

That "student" seemed to be doing well.

With a curious thought, Gawain began searching for what he needed in the more convenient mind network. The first thing he focused on was information on Project Zero—but naturally, he found nothing.

Even using special "backdoor access" to access deep database records, he still couldn’t find information on Project Zero.

It seems that this project holds significant meaning within the Eternal Sleepers, as even Nightmare Bishop Daniel, who has risen in rank, cannot obtain anything in this regard for now.

Gawain didn’t feel any regret about this. His interest in Project Zero was merely routine and a bit of personal curiosity. Upon discovering no progress in it, he skipped that part and started searching for information related to himself in the psychic network.

After using keywords such as "south of Anzu," "Gawain Cecil," and "Outland Wanderer" as search terms, a vast amount of information virtually appeared before Gawain’s eyes—

"The southern borders of Anzu are engulfed in war, with terrifying Outland Wanderers clashing directly with the southern aristocratic group."

"A massacre at Broken Stone Ridge resulted in the instant collapse of a coalition army formed by over forty nobles."

"The Outland Wanderer army destroyed Earl Peibo’s fleet on the White River..."

"The mighty Outland Wanderers continue to hunt down retreating noble soldiers."

"The southern borders will welcome a new monarch..."

"What on earth is all this..." Gawain’s eyes widened in shock. "Can’t these evil cult followers focus on seriously sinister jobs like plotting world domination? Do they have to gossip as soon as they have internet access?"

Although he knew that much of this information was just casually posted by some Eternal Sleepers, Gawain couldn’t help but twitch his eye at the sight of some familiar phrasing. In his previous life as a keyboard warrior, he was an almost terminal meme enthusiast—he never imagined he would become a part of the meme himself!

However, having witnessed much during his time orbiting as a satellite for millions of years, Gawain only gaped for a moment before quickly regaining composure. Smiling helplessly, he continued browsing other things on the network.

He focused on the overall activities of the Eternal Sleepers in the southern borders and discovered that these evil cult followers seemed to be entering a low tide in their activities here... Their higher-ups had explicitly instructed them to operate quietly in the south... Was this out of fear of clashing with him, the "Outland Wanderer"?

Feeling somewhat amused yet relieved at this positive turn of events, he continued reading.

He then noticed that the Eternal Sleepers seemed to be observing the outbreak of civil war in Anzu but lacked any signs of involvement in the conflict so far.

Then, he unexpectedly stumbled upon some information related to the Sons of the Storm:

"The Sons of the Storm are becoming increasingly obsessed with the deep sea, seemingly intending to abandon the human world entirely?"

"It seems a large number of Sons of the Storm have disappeared at sea, possibly embroiled in a new war with the sea demons..."

"Their actions are gradually deviating from their course; perhaps the Sons of the Storm have ultimately been bewitched by the storms..."

This information was fragmented, lacking any reliable or definitive announcements. It appeared to be posted by some Eternal Sleepers connected to the Sons of the Storm in a personal capacity. Looking at this intelligence, Gawain couldn’t help but be curious—

What madness drove those Sons of the Storm into the far-sea region, engaging in conflict with those deep-sea fish spirits again?

Didn’t Tiel say that recently the sea demons were all lying on the seabed digesting food and temporarily had no time to quarrel with "land dwellers"? Did those deep-sea fish spirits digest faster than expected?

With various questions in mind, Gawain completed his reading of this section of information. He wanted to search for more information on the Sons of the Storm or the sea demons, but it seemed this was all that was available.

After browsing the Eternal Sleepers’ database for a long time, Gawain finally felt mentally fatigued and ended his connection with the Node Crystal.

The illusions before his eyes faded away, and the view of the Node Crystal Square stabilized once more in his vision.

An Eternal Sleeper came over from the side, seemingly wishing to connect with the crystal. Gawain stepped back a few steps, giving way to this Eternal Sleeper.

Subsequently, he left the Node Square, making his way along the path at the square’s edge towards the garden area.

During this process, he attempted to open the "tracking" line ordered by Daniel and began searching for a familiar brainwave in the vicinity.

Ten minutes later, on a shaded path in the garden area, he saw the person he was looking for.

The little girl Patty was sitting alone on a swing by the flower bed.