Chapter 106 Clairvoyant Magic Rune Chains
This gray bird, to Shuxin, felt like a fake bird!
Even though the grayish-brown bird was nestled warmly in Shu Xin's palms, Shu Xin had an unusually strong feeling that it wasn't a real living being. This intuition was abstract and fragmented, like pointing at a steamed bun and calling it a chair!
After silently observing this otherworldly version of a quail for a while, Shu Xin chose to trust her intuition. She carefully placed the gray bird on the table, then closed her eyes and focused on sensing it.
After eliminating sensory interference, within Shu Xin's perception range, this gray bird completely lacked the life force unique to living creatures; instead, its lifeless, dullness became increasingly apparent.
Shu Xin's heart sank slightly. She opened her eyes and waved her staff to release a detection spell.
Within the detection magic's field of vision, the gray bird, which appeared to be merely asleep, seemed to have merged with the table, emitting not a single ray of light.
Shu Xin pursed her lips and took out the gray bird, along with its nest and eggs, from the space stone. Within the field of vision of the detection magic, she noticed that all the eggs emitted a faint glow, while all the gray birds were as dim and lifeless as the surrounding scenery.
Her intuition was right. These gray birds were no longer real creatures. Shu Xin couldn't help but wonder if their current strange state was related to their unusual flying ability.
After searching through Shu Shuxin's memories, she found the X-ray vision magic. She waved her magic wand again, targeting the flock of gray birds in front of her.
A soft magical glow spread out, and the magic took effect. When Shu Xin looked at the gray birds again, she could clearly see that beneath their long feathers was a layer of downy feathers, and beneath that downy feathers were flesh, bones, and internal organs. Moreover, the visual effect after the magic took effect was particularly like a black and white X-ray image. Shu Xin even had the illusion that she was looking at an X-ray of bones...
It has to be said that the effect of this X-ray vision magic is almost sci-fi even in a fantasy setting!
Under the perspective of X-ray vision, the gray bird appears so distinctly layered that it can be quite dazzling.
Magic is amazing, and the effect of X-ray vision is especially amazing, but the problem is that Shu Xin neither understands the internal structure of birds' bodies nor knows the laws of X-ray vision. She looked back and forth for a long time but still couldn't figure out what was wrong.
This familiar feeling, of being surrounded by blind spots in my knowledge...
If Xi were here, she would probably be able to spot something. Shu Xin looked at the gray bird with its eyes closed, seemingly asleep, and thought helplessly, "I wonder when Xi will be able to come back. You only realize how little you know when you need it. Xi is the same way!"
There was something wrong with the gray bird, but there was nothing wrong with its eggs. Shu Xin stood up and looked down from the terrace.
Shu Xin saw from afar that Nuonuo was arranging for the flower fairy slaves to clear fields and sow seeds, while the patrol team on the training ground was resting. Not seeing Peng Peng'an, she asked the flower fairy servants to call Peng Peng'an over.
There were still many empty magic workshops, which could come in handy at this time. Shu Xin instructed Peng Peng An to separate the gray birds and their eggs. After thinking for a moment, she added, "Let's put a few gray birds in the medical room as well. These gray birds seem to be acting strangely, but I don't know what's wrong with them yet. Let's pick out a few and see if healing and repair magic can help."
Peng Pengan nodded in agreement, took the space stone and was about to leave when Shu Xin suddenly called out to him, as if she had thought of something.
"What's wrong, Your Highness?" Pengpeng'an asked with some concern when she saw the Flower Fairy's hesitant expression.
Squeezing her magic wand, Shu Xin felt a little presumptuous: "Um, Peng Peng An, can I use my X-ray vision magic on you? I just want to compare the body structures of flower fairies and flower elves to see where they differ..."
“Of course, Your Highness,” Peng Peng’an said without hesitation, and even offered his own suggestion, “Why don’t you call Nonori over too? We’re different ages and our physical conditions are bound to be different. Perhaps you could also call our servants and commoners over? I think there’s a difference between men and women, and oh yes, and slaves…”
Finally, a large group of flower fairies gathered in the lobby on the first floor of the Flower Castle.
After Peng Peng An's selection process, Shu Xin now faces:
Two noble officials, one old and one young, are both male flower fairies; six servants, two old female flower fairies and two young female flower fairies; eight commoners, two old female flower fairies and two young female flower fairies; and eight slaves, also two old female flower fairies and two young female flower fairies.
Upon learning that Shu Xin wanted to understand the differences between the physical structure of flower fairies and flower goddesses, all the selected flower fairies were happy to help. Under the eager gaze of the flower fairies, Shu Xin became a little nervous. She cautiously waved her magic wand and released her X-ray vision magic.
Shu Xin first cast a clairvoyant spell on herself, then lowered her head to look at her own "bone fragments." The result was completely different from when she looked at the gray bird. In the clairvoyant spell's field of vision, the flower fairy looked like a humanoid white light.
...Is this magical life? A ball of light? Or a ball of energy? Or is it that the magic of clairvoyance doesn't work on the flower fairy? Shu Xin didn't know. She looked at her hands and feet carefully, but no matter how she looked, she could only see the soft outlines drawn by the white light, and couldn't see anything else.
However, thanks to the uniform and pure color of the white light, Shu Xin quickly noticed the incongruity of her luminous body—the white light in the very center of her chest cavity appeared slightly darker than the rest of the area. But when Shu Xin tried to look closer, her eyes began to sting like needles, which made her realize that her clairvoyance magic could no longer take effect.
It seems the X-ray vision magic worked correctly; this humanoid white light is the Flower Fairy's form of existence on some level.
As for the unusually dim spot in the center of her chest cavity, could it be the flower fairy's heart? After all, the flower fairy isn't a true riverside spirit, so using a dimly lit heart to represent this imperfection would be quite apt, provided, of course, that the flower fairy actually has a heart...
Apart from this spot, Shu Xin couldn't see any other place where the light was dimmer, so she withdrew her gaze, waved her staff again, and released her X-ray vision magic towards the flower fairies flying in the air ahead.
Under the vision of the X-ray magic, the flower fairies all appeared as tiny, shimmering white figures.
However, the luster of the flower fairies was very dim. To give an analogy, if the flower fairies were a 100-watt light bulb, the noble flower fairies were nightlights. Although they were lit, they were not very bright. However, the noble flower fairies at least emitted a faint light. The commoners looked like light bulbs with insufficient voltage that were about to go out. As for the slaves, they were basically light bulbs that had completely lost power and turned gray.
Thinking that the light on the Flower Fairy's chest was particularly dim, Shu Xin focused her attention on the chests of the Little Light People. She was not surprised to find that all the Little Light People, like the Flower Fairy, had the dimmest light in the area that looked like their hearts. This was most obvious in the Flower Fairy Slaves, whose chests looked almost black!
However, among these eight flower fairy slaves with blackened chests, one flower fairy looked the whitest and brightest. If the light she emitted were any brighter, she could rival the flower fairy commoner with the dimmest luster. Shu Xin tentatively looked at the chest of this flower fairy slave, wanting to see clearly what the internal structure of his or her chest cavity was.
This time, her vision was unobstructed. When the thought of "wanting to see more clearly" arose in her mind, the dark and weak chest cavity of the little light person also became "distinctly layered": the outermost layer was a thin mist flowing, the middle layer was a slightly thicker mist, and the center, which was wrapped in mist, was a small ball with a somewhat familiar material and an irregular shape.
Shu Xin took a closer look and recognized that it was made of the material of a tree branch from the Tree of Life. In other words, a small wooden ball was floating inside the chest cavity of the little light man.
This is so strange. Could it be that the flower fairy also has such a round ball in her chest cavity? Shu Xin turned to look at the other flower fairy slaves. Each flower fairy had such a small wooden ball in her chest cavity. The shapes were also very irregular. Some were round, some were square, and some were even triangular. Shu Xin thought to herself, could this be the heart of the flower fairy or flower demon?
Shu Xin then went to look at the flower fairy commoners, and she saw that a tiny, light green bud had sprouted from the small wooden balls inside the commoners' chests—wait, these aren't small wooden balls, they're seeds?!
Are these seeds of the Tree of Life?! Are the seeds of the Tree of Life the hearts of the flower fairies? Shu Xin immediately went to look at Nonoli and Pengpengan. The two noble officials also had an irregularly shaped small ball inside their bodies, and on their small wooden balls, two tender green leaves had sprouted directly. Shu Xin was very familiar with the shape of these leaves; they were exactly like the tender leaves of the Tree of Life!
The seeds of the Tree of Life are the hearts of the flower fairies!
Shu Xin turned her head to look at the heart of the flower fairy slave from the beginning. As her attention became more focused, the seed heart became clearer and clearer. She saw that an extremely fine white mist was emanating from the surface of that seed heart and merging into the surrounding mist, making the surrounding mist imperceptibly thicker.
As Shu Xin tried to look inside the seed's heart, her eyes began to ache again. She endured the pain and strained to see clearly, finally managing to make it clear—
Inside the seed was a thick, almost liquid white mist. Countless interconnected magical runes, like chains, tightly wrapped and enveloped the incredibly dense mist. Only through the gaps between the runes could wisps of mist leak out.
That was definitely a constraint imposed on the river elves by human magicians!
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Author's Note: I've finally finished this part of the plot! Now I can shout to the flower fairies: "Seal broken!" [Just kidding]
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