Chapter 612 - Alchemy God's Blessing (Patreon)

Gandolf did not waste any time. He delivered the bad news directly and narrated everything Leyvi had told him earlier.

The Red Eye Craze phenomenon could potentially be the beginning of an extinction-level event.

Most of the Protectors found the claim difficult to accept. The extreme nature of the news made it hard to believe right away. Nothing they had imagined came anywhere close to something of this scale.

What do you mean by human extinction? How is that even possible?

That would have been their immediate reaction if there had never been a precedent in the past.

The problem was that a precedent did exist.

The greatest mystery of their history was the complete disappearance of the ancient alchemy civilization. If something like that could happen once, who could say it would never happen again?

Still, could they simply trust the words of a young man? This was not the kind of claim they could accept without solid evidence.

They had already read the reports. The crazed demonic beasts possessed a powerful repelling force that guarded their inner consciousness space. Even Sherlock, who had the strongest spiritual sense among them and was a master of soul-searching arts, had failed to overcome it.

And yet Leyvi claimed he had succeeded?

Extraordinary claims required extraordinary evidence.

They needed to see the proof for themselves first.

Among the Protectors, two men looked particularly disturbed. Their expressions showed that a long-held fear had suddenly become real.

Those two were Sherlock and Newton.

They had been working closely together for the past decade to investigate the Red Eye Craze phenomenon and possessed far more in-depth information on the matter than anyone else present. They even had new findings that had not yet been compiled into a formal report, so the others remained unaware of them.

Yet the very details that only the two of them should have known had just come out of Gandolf’s mouth. That meant the scenario they had been most afraid of was becoming more and more likely.

Unlike the others, Sherlock and Newton did not doubt the news at all. They were simply frustrated that their worst suspicions had been correct.

The atmosphere in the hall grew heavy with gloom as everyone processed the unwanted information. Would they truly have to face an event of this magnitude?

Gandolf observed their reactions carefully. He understood exactly what they were feeling right now, and he already knew what they would do next.

“I find it hard to believe that he can decipher the ancient language,” Jade was the first to speak after a long silence, voicing the exact doubt Gandolf had expected.

She stared at Leyvi with clear skepticism.

Most of the surviving ancient relics were kept here at the headquarters. Aside from handling the general affairs of the continent, one of the ways she liked to pass the time was by studying the ancient texts and attempting to decipher them. She was always present at the headquarters, after all.

She believed herself to be the person most well-versed in the ancient language on Cloud Continent, even more so than Newton, who led a dedicated group that studied the texts intensively.

Even with all that effort, they had barely managed to decipher much of it. So how could a young man like Leyvi possibly succeed where they had failed?

“Scholars have been trying to figure out the ancient language system for so long, yet they failed miserably even with numerous texts left behind. Why? Because the ancient language system is completely different from ours. The ancient language is categorized as a logographic-semantic language,” Jade said.

Logo… what? Leyvi was completely unfamiliar with the term.

“It means the symbols are designed to communicate ideas and concepts directly, rather than representing the sounds of a spoken language the way ours does. We use a phonetic-based language,” Jade explained.

Leyvi listened carefully to what she wanted to convey.

“What makes the ancient language a nightmare to decipher is that it gives zero phonetic clues on how to pronounce the words. Being an isolated language makes the problem even worse. We have no related languages to compare it with, so it is nearly impossible to figure out the grammar or how the sentences are structured.”

“Furthermore, a logographic system relies heavily on combining symbols to create new words. Without any cultural dictionary, we can sometimes guess what the individual symbols mean in a physical sense, but we can never truly understand the abstract metaphors behind those combinations.”

Leyvi nodded. By this point he was already quite familiar with the ancient language, so he understood exactly what Jade was describing.

“The only reason we have managed to decipher even a tiny portion of this language is because of the drawings that often accompanied the texts, most commonly alchemy formulas and other alchemy-related materials. Beyond that, we know almost nothing.”

“So how is it that you are able to decipher them?” Jade asked, her gaze fixed on Leyvi.

After Gandolf introduced Leyvi, Jade had quickly looked up every available piece of information on him through her own channels. She could even access the records gathered by various information brokers, so by now she knew the complete available history of Leyvi Leyan.

She noticed that after he married his first wife, his life had changed completely. He had risen to prominence at a startling speed and was now widely known across the South Region as the Sex Fiend.

Based on that history, she could still accept that Leyvi might possess spiritual sense powerful enough to succeed where even Sherlock had failed. But the claim that he could understand an entirely different language system that offered not a single phonetic clue felt completely unbelievable to her.

There was no record anywhere that Leyvi had ever been involved with the ancient language. He had never studied it, nor had he associated with anyone who was trying to decipher it.

The only vaguely related information was that the Leyan Family appeared to be searching for ancient steles that recorded alchemy formulas. That detail alone, however, did not explain how he could possibly know the language. It simply did not add up. Where had he learned it?

At that moment, even the worried Sherlock and Newton could not help feeling that something was off.

That was right. How did Leyvi know specifically what the woman in the memory had said?

They did not doubt the overall story, yet there was clearly something more to it.

Leyvi had already expected this issue to be raised again. Since he had proven the ability to Gandolf earlier, he did not mind demonstrating it once more. It was not a particularly big deal to him.

But before Leyvi could say anything, Gandolf spoke first, answering Jade's question on his behalf.

"This kid has an innate mental ability that can automatically translate any language he sees or hears. He can even understand any demonic beast or demonic plant. That's how he was able to do it." He explained.

"WHAT? Gandolf! Is this true? Don't lie about this!" Newton shot to his feet in shock.

He could already imagine the possibilities if this were real.

Unlocking the ancient language meant they could finally uncover the secrets of the past. It would be a massive discovery.

The others were also surprised to hear this. An ability that could translate any language was something they had never heard of before.

Aside from Newton, the person who became the most excited was the Alchemy Emperor.

If the ancient language could finally be deciphered, all the alchemy knowledge from the past could be brought to light once again.

Others might not know this, but as one of the most knowledgeable alchemists in the world, he was aware that the ancient civilization's level of alchemy still far exceeded the Cloud Continent's current level.

If he could study all of that knowledge, perhaps he could advance one step further.

Although he was an unprecedented alchemy prodigy who had single-handedly raised the current level of alchemy to where it stood today, at the end of the day he was already old and his remaining time was limited.

His own efforts alone could never match the accumulation of millions of years of alchemy knowledge left behind by an entire alchemy civilization.

If that knowledge could be completely unlocked, Cloud Continent would definitely experience a new wave of alchemy revolution.

Now everything made sense.

The completely unfamiliar alchemical residual scents lingering around Leyvi must have come from the ancient alchemy products his wife had refined.

If it had only been a few unfamiliar scents, it would not have drawn much attention. An alchemist might simply have created a handful of new formulas on their own.

But there were hundreds of unfamiliar residual scents clinging to him. That amount was simply absurd. It was precisely because of this that he had wanted to meet the young man’s alchemist wife.

The revelation about Leyvi’s translation ability had finally solved the mystery.

They must have discovered a large number of ancient alchemy formulas during their Mystic Realm expedition, and Leyvi had translated every one of them for his wife.

Alchemy Emperor Edward could not help but look at Leyvi with the utmost interest now.

In his eyes, Leyvi was no longer just a young man. He was a blessing sent by the Alchemy God to bridge them with the golden knowledge of the past.

Meanwhile, Leyvi felt the weight of those stares settle on him like a physical pressure. The intensity of the expectations radiating from several people in the hall made his shoulders tense. He could almost sense the unspoken hopes piling onto him one after another.

Holy! What is this heavy expectation pressing down on me? Stop looking at me like that! I'm scared.

Leyvi shouted internally.