The entrance to the cave was rather narrow, so they walked in with their heads down and backs bent. The leader led the way, with Ernest bringing up the rear.
They walked for a long time, and the cave became increasingly dark. Fortunately, they had brought lights. After a while, they felt that the cave had become more spacious, and they could walk upright.
Phil Gray walked along, examining the cave walls on both sides, but there was nothing special about them; they were just ordinary soil without any patterns or anything.
They walked until they reached the end, where there was a very large space, at least ten meters high, where they looked incredibly small.
"There's such a world inside!" Patrick exclaimed.
“There are rock sculptures up there!” Mrs. Dean exclaimed, pointing upwards.
Unlike the earthen passage, the inside was surrounded by rocks, which were covered with densely carved patterns. The top ring was filled with glowing beads, making this opaque cave world as bright as the outside.
Above them were rock-carved statues, and upon closer inspection, they were statues of the god of fate, with another deity standing beside him.
Patrick and Ernest immediately wanted to kneel down and pray, but considering their current undercover identities, they had to restrain their impulses.
“Who is the other god?” Phil Gray asked.
Dwyer said, "This should be the deity of the Eternal Church, Watton, the god of time and space."
"It seems this is not just the ruins of the God of Fate, but the ruins of two gods." The leader's eyes revealed surprise.
Phil Gray looked around like everyone else until he saw the brightly colored murals on the far left.
Others saw it too and came over.
The painting depicts two deities drinking wine. Their faces are not shown, but they are surrounded by golden divine light. Judging from their figures and attire, they are the god of fate and the god of time and space. A person is kneeling beside them.
Then the painting depicts a kneeling figure looking pleadingly at the deity, as if speaking.
The next painting depicts the god of fate, Ansel, taking out a scale, with divine light painted around it, shining upon the person.
“Here, here are the words!” Patrick pointed to the smaller words below.
The writing was somewhat blurred, but the script from a thousand years ago was no different from what we use today, and Phil Gray could easily understand it.
"This is the greatest honor for a believer! The god I believe in has descended to earth and enjoyed the wine I brewed for him! If anyone is fortunate enough to see this record I left behind, please spread this story. I am Duke Pope, the chosen one of the gods of destiny."
The gods of fate and time and space descended upon this place, and I offered them fine wine. I felt ashamed that earthly wine was unworthy of the gods' dignity, but I never expected to receive praise from Ansel and Watton.
I also expressed my request to the gods: life is finite, and I will be old and frail in a few years, but I still want to travel all over the world of Weil and brew more fine wine for the gods.
Vaton said that the power of life lies in the hands of the god of life, and the power to avoid death lies in the hands of the god of death; He cannot grant me eternal life. But my God has a way. He brought out the scales, and divine light shone upon me. I know that even in a decade or so, I will be able to offer Him the finest wine of the world again!
"What does this mean? The God of Time and Space has no way, so how come the God of Fate has a way?" Phil Gray asked in confusion.
But then he saw everyone else looking at him. "You understand all of this?" Patrick asked.
“This is script from a thousand years ago. Although it has almost evolved to resemble modern script, some parts still retain the style of ancient script. For example, we still don’t quite understand this part.” Mr. Allen pointed to the last paragraph.
The world of Wel has a recorded history of civilization spanning tens of thousands of years, but this ancient history was written in primitive script. Later, the script evolved into ancient script seven or eight thousand years ago, then into an intermediate form of script that evolved from ancient script to simplified script nearly a thousand years ago, and finally into the simplified script we use today.
This passage is from the period when ancient characters were evolving into simplified characters. They could understand most of the characters, but there were still some they couldn't understand.
But Phil Gray could understand all the fonts in it.
Could this be another privilege bestowed upon me by the god of fate? Phil Gray thought to himself, but he didn't show it on his face. He smiled and explained, "You know I enjoy reading. I bought a book on ancient scripts before and learned some things from it."
He then explained to everyone the specific meaning of what he had seen.
Phil Gray pointed to the last paragraph, “The believer asked the gods to grant him eternal life. Watton thought the believer was being disrespectful and refused his request, but Ansel agreed. He took out the scales, and the ending says that even after more than ten years, he will be able to continue offering wine to the gods.”
He then looked at Dwyer, the chosen one of the gods of knowledge and wisdom, who must have a better understanding of ancient scripts, and wanted him to confirm what he was saying.
Mr. Dwyer nodded after hearing his words, "That's exactly what it says."
“If I were Watton, I would refuse him too. The greatest blessing is that the gods are willing to enjoy his wine. For him to use this to ask the gods for eternal life is just asking for more!” Patrick said.
"So, is the purpose of the scales of fate to grant immortality? The god of fate shouldn't have that kind of authority." The leader stared intently at the scales in the painting.
“That’s hard to say, but I’ve never heard of any believer who lived a long time collecting fine wines. His name was Duke Pope, right? I’ve never heard of him either.” Patrick shook his head.
Setting aside their curiosity about the text for the moment, they began to explore it again.
Phil Gray ran his hand over the intricate patterns carved around him. Some of the patterns were familiar, the emblem of the Church of Destiny, the Flower of Destiny, but he didn't quite recognize the other rectangular patterns.
“This is the emblem of the Eternal Church,” Eli explained.
"I thought their emblem was an hourglass or a clock or something."
"The churches of the six main gods are as old as the history of this continent. Back then, these things you mentioned didn't exist, so naturally they wouldn't be their emblems."
Eli was explaining when he saw Phil Gray glance at him and point to the indentation among the many emblems.
This is the shape of the flower of destiny.
Eli had a flash of inspiration, and a Flower of Destiny appeared in his hand. For Eli, a master of flower collecting, this was exactly his forte.
Phil Gray took the flower and gently placed it into the indentation, smoothing out the petals so they fit perfectly.
Just as I was about to criticize my childish actions, I saw only white light in front of me, and all the sounds around me disappeared. The entire cave fell into silence.
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