“Masta Xia, can you introduce Candlekeep to me in detail?”

Qin Lun’s eyes lit up. When he was beside Milleras, the knowledgeable Prince Sun Fairy had introduced him to many famous events and regions in Ferren Continent. There was also information about Candlekeep, but there were only a few sentences. Milleras did not know the details.

“Of course!” Highland Elves wasn’t surprised that Prince Elves didn’t know about Candlekeep.

In fact, although Candlekeep was famous in Ferren Continent, most of the people who knew about it were knowledgeable historians and arcanists. Ordinary people, even the aristocrats of various countries, did not know much about this place. They only knew that it was a fortress-type library occupied by arcanists.

Candlekeep and Belfast, an important trading city on the Gulf Coast Highway, face each other across the sea on a major road known as the Lion Road.

This gathering place of knowledge stood on a towering cliff overlooking Sword Bay. It was a hexagonal prismatic fortress with a high tower of mages at the corner of each side.

It was the home of the great prophet and great sage Alandor, and the great library here holds many of his historic prophecies about Ferren, the most famous of which was the emergence of the Devil Sunflower.

Candlekeep used to be a gathering place for a small number of scholars who studied Alandor’s prophecy. As they left behind more and more research works and knowledge inheritances, this place gradually became a famous large library and arcane sacred land throughout the continent.

(Arcane spells are not just magic. They also cover all areas of magic spells, such as enchantment, alchemy, magical creatures, ancient runes, and divine arts. There are also philosophy, music, architecture, forging, politics, and economics.)

There were two costs for outsiders to enter the castle. One was large amounts of gold coins, and the other was knowledge or rare documents that Candlekeep did not have. Normally, the rumors on the continent were to provide Candlekeep with a new book.

Candlekeep was surrounded by powerful multiple defensive spells to ensure that nothing but wick and wax oil burned, and that not a single piece of book paper could be burned in the castle. The shield also blocks destructive spells, kills bacteria and worms, and bars anyone who doesn’t wear the Candlekeep mark from entering the central library.

However, this defensive spell that enveloped the entire fortress consumed a lot of magic crystals, so the annual cost of maintaining it was an astronomical figure.

Candlekeep has an absolute rule: “Anyone who destroys knowledge, whether with ink, fire, or sword, is suicidal. Here, books are more important than human life!”

There are two types of permanent staff in Candlekeep. One is research scholars, usually dressed as monks, who show more loyalty than the most devout religious believers. They call themselves propagandists and disseminators of knowledge and commission agents to buy valuable books and texts.

The other resident personnel in Candlekeep were Arcane Researchers. They were usually powerful Magicians and Great Sages. They signed contracts with successive generations of advocates in Candlekeep, who provided them with the knowledge of books and tower laboratories they needed, while they provided Candlekeep with military protection.

One of the most powerful was called the Guardian of the Scrolls, and his assistant was called the First Reader. He was both the traditional second-in-command and the most knowledgeable great sage and diviner in Candlekeep.

Below them were other great readers, chanters, professors, and tower guards.

The central tower of Candlekeep, the Central Library, is surrounded by beautiful gardens and other buildings. Includes visitors’ residences, griffin stables, barns, debris warehouses, hospitals, Ogma Abbey (God of Knowledge), as well as a shrine to Daniel, Gondor and Millille, the outermost of which is a hexagonal prismatic wall and a tower of mages.

Foreign visitors are normally allowed to stay in the Candlekeep until the tenth day at a time and cannot re-enter for a month after their departure. Visitors are not allowed to write records in the library, but scholars here can be entrusted with copying them.

Each ordinary codex was worth a hundred gold coins. Magic books and some precious documents were even more expensive. Usually, the price was between several hundred thousand gold coins. Curse-forbidden spells were not allowed to be read or leaked out.

Candlekeep’s most precious documents are preserved in the vault of the underground labyrinth, along with the tombs of scholars who have contributed their lives to knowledge over the ages.

Although these scholars would not treat books as burial objects when they passed away, their tombs would often leave behind personal inheritance items and spell notes. This was definitely a very precious treasure. Under normal circumstances, only their recognized successors can take them out of the tomb.

The security here is so tight that no intruder can really enter Candlekeep from the underground maze. Even if a legendary thief entered, he would still face Miriam, the strongest guard of the maze.

Miriam was the ghost of an ancient silver dragon, bound here by the great Warlock Torres a thousand years ago to protect Candlekeep’s scholars, buildings, and books. With the support of Candlekeep’s defensive array, Miriam was an undying spirit. Unless he used a forbidden spell to destroy the entire Candlekeep, even if he defeated it, he would still be resurrected in a short period of time.

However, Miriam did not usually kill infiltrators. Her soul was too lonely, so she preferred to talk rather than fight. She would often appear in front of visitors and use the historical legends she knew to exchange information on major events that had occurred in modern times.

Of course, if you try to deceive Miriam with false information, or attack her. Then the silver dragon’s ghost will throw out a large pile of dragon language magic without any hesitation, directly blasting you to pieces.

One more thing to note in the face of Miriam is that you can’t carry books with you, either Candlekeep’s or yours. The silver dragon ghost will insist that you surrender and return the book “correctly” to Candlekeep.

(In Miriam’s view, all books belong to Candlekeep, inheriting the tyranny and evil taste of all ancient dragons: mine is mine, and yours is mine.)

Every scroll in Candlekeep has at least one copy, and there is a rumor that a complete “mirror library” is hidden somewhere in Ferren. All the books in Candlekeep bear the castle’s logo-the candlelight tower at the top of the castle.

…

“Linda, is that Candlekeep’s stronghold in the Border Gate area ahead?” Mastasia turned around and asked.

“It’s not a big stronghold. It’s just a relay station for transferring magical materials.” Linda curled her lips and said, “My teacher also has some investments here. We can borrow their Horned Eagle to return to Candlekeep and save you some precious time.”

When everyone heard this, they looked at the hillside in front of them. In the sparse woodland, they could indeed hear some eagle-like cries.

At this moment, they were half a day away from the Giant Demon’s Claw. With the help of the giant eagle that Elistine had transformed into, the group of people left the top of the waterfall cliff safely. They could be considered to have truly escaped from the Giant Demon Mountain Range.

The Blood Thorn Trio, Seaver and Old Steward Mason had parted ways with them. In order to express his gratitude, Qin Lun gave some of the gold coins the three murderers had received from the Amberry Church to Rick and the others, while leaving some to Siv Hulan, who had once again become poor in order to save them.

Actually, the three Apostle were now following Mustacha, and they no longer needed gold coins to pack up along the way. In any case, gold coins were useless to Apostle, so it was better to give them to Rick and the others to leave a good impression on Highland Elves and Linda.

As for whether they would need money after arriving in Candlekeep, Qin Lun and the others didn’t need to worry about this question. Even without Linda, Mastasia would still think of a way to deal with it.

Rick and Seaver didn’t reject the gift. Whether it was the knight returning to the Kingdom of Xia or the Seaver Reconstruction Caravan, they needed a lot of money.

The only thing that surprised Qin Lun was that after experiencing so many tribulations, Idria actually followed them to the Northern Lands. Lauvita’s followers were indeed indescribable madmen and masochists.

Because the plot of the Santalin Society was right in front of their eyes, Qin Lun and the others had no time to feel the sadness of parting from their friends when they left the troll claw, so they had no choice but to set off again and rush to this place in front of them.

This was the closest Candlekeep stronghold to the northern exit of the troll’s claw. More than a dozen adult horned eagles were kept all year round for the transportation of precious items. Usually, they were precious books, documents, magical materials, and alchemy items used by the Mage Tower.

After climbing up the hill, a simple double-decked wooden house appeared in front of everyone. In front of the wooden house was a small horned eagle stable. Although it was a small stable with only a dozen or so horned eagles, the horned eagle was a large flying bird. Normally, its range of activities was very large, and its area was much larger than the stables.

“Miss Linda! Aren’t you supposed to be in Candlekeep at this time?” The magic apprentice stationed in the wooden house obviously knew Linda and was surprised to see her.

“Hey, Lasco!” Linda’s expression was very unnatural. Apparently, she thought of the teacher’s anger in this apprentice’s body. “It’s a long story. Let’s prepare some food for us first. We’re going to starve to death! Also, get some No.7 Holy Water for my companions. They’re all seriously injured.”

Throwing away the heavy burden of the past half month, Qin Lun felt that his sleep this time was incomparably sweet. Even with his self-discipline, when he opened his eyes again, it was already dusk the next day. The others weren’t much better than him, so they had to stay in the woodshed for another night.

However, this recuperation was necessary. Although Sacred Water No.7’s healing effect was powerful, it would still take some time for it to take effect. Especially Elistine and Idrea, who had suffered a lot. Even now, their hidden wounds had not completely healed.

At dawn on the third day, everyone finally regained their spirits, rode on the Horned Eagle and flew into the sky, heading towards the Holy Land of Knowledge-Candlekeep.