Chapter 265: Ashan Script
Oliver Skye, the Eye of the Heavens, one of the most legendary Heavenly Mages of the mid-Third Dynasty, a figure who influenced an entire era...
Today, almost every mage knows how to use the Wizard's Eye—a masterpiece created by this Heavenly Mage. Oliver was called the Eye of the Heavens because of his unparalleled eyes, which are mentioned in many legends from the mid-Third Dynasty.
Legend has it that Oliver's pair of azure eyes could pierce all illusions, traverse the mists of time, and even glimpse the threads of fate. At his peak, Oliver was the empire's most powerful astrologer mage—even the Emperor himself would humble himself as a student before Oliver.
Yet, Oliver's final years were deeply tragic...
Many believed it was retribution for Oliver, a mere mortal, daring to chase the threads of fate. After his eightieth birthday, Oliver lost his mind, locking himself away in his tower to obsessively study everything about the Ashan Dynasty. He would sometimes go years without stepping outside. On the rare occasion he did, he was a shadow of his former self—wild-eyed, disheveled, grabbing anyone he met and muttering, "Run, run, he's coming..."
At first, people would ask who exactly 'he' was...
But soon, they realized that asking only drove Oliver further into madness. A crazed Heavenly Mage was a disaster for the empire—every episode brought chaos. Once, Oliver nearly killed the Emperor in a fit of insanity.
Fortunately, three Court Mages intervened just in time and managed to restrain the deranged Oliver...
Grateful for all Oliver had done for the empire, the Emperor chose not to punish the Eye of the Heavens, who was already lost to madness. Instead, Oliver was sent back to his tower, and the three Court Mages personally sealed it shut...
This strange imprisonment lasted for a hundred years.
For a century, Oliver remained in his tower. Occasionally, someone would visit, only to find nothing had changed—Oliver was still obsessively researching the Ashan Dynasty, still muttering the same words, mad as ever.
"Run, run, he's coming..."
By then, no one bothered to ask who 'he' was anymore...
For a full century, Oliver was lost in madness, rarely lucid. Year after year passed, and people nearly forgot about him—until, a hundred years later, a new Emperor ascended the throne and, on a whim, decided to visit the Eye of the Heavens who once shook the empire.
With three Court Mages personally guarding him, the Emperor stepped into Oliver's tower...
And discovered that Oliver had vanished...
At the time, this was earth-shattering news. Everyone knew how terrifying a mad Heavenly Mage could be—the new Emperor and the three Court Mages had seen it firsthand. The whole empire went on high alert, wanted posters flooding out of the capital, and the search for Oliver swept across the land.
Yet...
It was as if Oliver had vanished into thin air. The empire searched for ten years, but not a single trace of him was ever found.
Year after year, year after year...
In the end, Oliver's disappearance became one of the empire's great unsolved mysteries. Even after the empire fell millions of years later, the Eye of the Heavens never appeared in Northend again...
"This..." Leon never imagined that Oliver Skye, the Eye of the Heavens who had been missing for millions of years, would appear here...
For a moment, Leon didn't even know how to react.
How could it be Oliver...
But with the Astrologer's Staff in his right hand and the Soulstone in his left, there was only one person in all of Northend who wielded both of these Essence Relics—Oliver Skye.
Leon didn't even need to lift that black cloth.
Because Leon knew, beneath that cloth must be the legendary eyes said to pierce all illusions, traverse the mists of time, and glimpse the threads of fate—the Eye of the Heavens.
Leon stood there for a full ten minutes...
It wasn't until ten minutes had passed that Leon suddenly remembered he should check whether Oliver was alive or dead.
Of course, this kind of confirmation was hardly necessary...
Just as Leon expected, this Heavenly Mage—like all the other powerful beings encountered before—had been dead for millions of years. The corpse hadn't decayed, but not a trace of power remained.
After all this, Leon finally began to calm down.
"So, after the Eye of the Heavens escaped his tower, he really did set out on the mysterious Plane Path, just as people guessed back then. But the place this path leads to is..." After a moment of stunned silence, Leon's mind finally started working again.
When you think about it, Oliver really was unlucky...
The great Eye of the Heavens, the empire's foremost astrologer mage, suffered such misfortune in his twilight years—imprisoned in a tower for a century, then narrowly escaped only to be swept into this bizarre Plane Path...
Now, the look on Leon's face was no longer relaxed. Instead, it was heavy with worry...
Because Leon had realized that the dangers of this Plane Path were likely far beyond anything he'd imagined...
Along the way, Leon had seen the corpses of almost every intelligent race, and each had once been a legendary powerhouse. But none of those corpses had ever weighed on Leon like Oliver's did.
This chapter isn't over yet~ Please click Next Page to continue reading the rest!
After all, Oliver was a legendary figure Leon truly knew. The Eye of the Heavens left countless legends behind; the Wizard's Eye he created is still used by mages everywhere, a tool that shaped an entire era.
But now, this legend had been dead for millions of years, his corpse standing motionless, no different from the others.
And all of this happened simply because Oliver set foot on the Plane Path.
Worse still, Leon was walking this same Plane Path himself...
Just thinking about it sent a chill down Leon's spine.
"Should I turn back?" The thought flashed through Leon's mind.
But Leon dismissed it immediately.
Because the risk of turning back was no less than pressing forward.
The Plane Path only sounds like a road—in reality, it's an impossibly complex maze. Space here is completely warped. If you follow the right route, things might be fine, but stray from it and you'll be lost in the maze, left to luck whether you ever find your way out...
"Huh?" Just as Leon was thinking all this, some marks at Oliver's feet suddenly caught his eye. "Strange, what is this...?"
There seemed to be bloodstains at Oliver's feet, dried into dark brown spots—patchy and mottled...
At first, Leon didn't think much of it, assuming the Eye of the Heavens had once fought a fierce battle and these were just remnants from that time.
But on closer inspection, he realized that wasn't the case.
The dark brown bloodstains, though scattered and blurry, were distributed too evenly—not the result of natural bleeding, but more like some kind of written characters...
"Wait..." At that thought, Leon froze.
Yes, these really were characters written in blood.
It was Ashan Script!
Legend has it that Ashan Script was the first written language in Northend, crafted by primordial gods and demons. Its creation marked the beginning of knowledge in Northend—the true start of the Golden Age.
But the Ashan Dynasty is unimaginably ancient now...
So ancient that many people believe the Ashan Dynasty and those primordial gods and demons are just myths, that they never truly existed in Northend. Even now, plenty of scholars insist on calling the Golden Age the Mythic Era.