Gao Wen was stunned for a moment, then slowly sat down behind the desk with a serious expression. He raised his head and looked at Veronica's eyes, and saw that the expression of this ancient disobedient was more serious than ever before... and even solemn to a point of depression.

The gentle smile that was similar to a "mask" had disappeared from her face at some point. In this occasion where no outsiders existed, the real Ophelia Norton was standing in front of Gowen.

"There are some things you don't want to say, so I haven't asked," Gao Wen looked at Veronica and said slowly. "As an ancient Gondor soul who has survived to this day, you have never explained in detail how you survived the imperial explosion, nor how you exist now. As a disobedient wandering in the human world, you have never explained where your information about the wasteland came from."

Veronica stood quietly opposite the desk, and after a few seconds of silence, she whispered: "If you must know, now I can..."

"No, if you don't want to speak, I still won't force you to speak," Gao Wen shook his head. "I just want to say that I have given you enough trust and...tolerance, which requires some reciprocity. You have the right to keep your own privacy or your bottom line, but I hope you can tell me calmly about things that may pose a threat to the country outside the barrier."

Veronica closed her eyes slightly, then suddenly bent down gently, saluting Gao Wen with a very solemn tribute. Her voice was as soft and pleasant as ever, but seemed to be a little warmer than before: "Please forgive my unauthorized decision in this area before. I did not intentionally conceal it, but was too accustomed to the logical and data deductions, but ignored the variability of ordinary human society in the development process. Now I will tell you everything I know, and how to deal with it... it is up to you to judge."

Speaking of this, she paused, as if she was looking for a suitable topic to start, and then continued: "The Deep Blue Well... is actually still running."

Gao Wen's pupils contracted instantly. The shocking news made his heart pound, but then he remembered the vision he observed when he looked down at the wasteland of Gondor. Although the entire wasteland was shrouded in a powerful energy field and heavy clouds, and the satellite's surveillance perspective could hardly see any details on the land, but at a certain time when the conditions were right, he did see a strong flash in the center of the wasteland, which was exactly the location of the deep blue well in the past!

The surveillance records a long time ago were suddenly confirmed, and the shock in his heart quickly calmed down. Gao Wen's expression changed slightly and returned to calm. He stared at Veronica's eyes: "How was it preserved? The Big Bang 700 years ago... The Deep Blue Well should be at the core of the explosion."

"You are more calmer than I thought, because you have some information in some way?" Veronica looked at Gao Wen unexpectedly, but she wisely did not ask, but answered the other party's question, "The Deep Blue Well is indeed the core of the big explosion, but in fact the details of the explosion are not the same as those of later generations - this involves the 'essence' of the Deep Blue Well itself.

"In your impression, what is the Deep Blue Well?"

Veronica suddenly raised a rhetorical question, which made Gao Wen think and quickly gave the answer, and it was also the answer that most people who knew the Gondor Empire could give: "That was the energy core of the ancient Gondor Empire, the largest magic focus ever. It consisted of four reaction towers, four arcane reflux chambers and a major magic source nozzle..."

"This is indeed the public's cognition, but in fact, these things, including the reaction tower, the arcane reflux cavity, and the gushing source nozzle... are just 'attachments' built by humans to facilitate the extraction of energy from primitive magic energy," Veronica nodded. "Before the builders of the Gondor Empire built these things, the energy rift in the core of the Deep Blue Well had gushed on this continent for many years - its history exceeded the human civilization itself, and even exceeded the records of the silver elves. It is first of all a natural magic focus, and secondly the extraction devices in people's cognition, and the real scale of this magic focus... Perhaps far exceeds everyone's imagination.

"The surging 'magic spring' in the former Gondor imperial capital should be essentially just a tributary of the deep blue well exposed to the material world. Its true complete veins are hidden in all the elemental fields connected to it, semi-plane and even the borders of the Kingdom of God. We don't know how far it extends in the depths of this world, but it is certain that it is part of the structure of our planet and a large part. For a planet, even if the kingdom above it is destroyed countless times, even if its ecosystem is reset countless times, the planet itself is completely unscathed.

"So what the Dark Blue Well explosion destroyed were only those artificial extraction devices. As the body of the 'well', the energy cracks in its core can be said to be intact after completing an unprecedented release of magic energy - more than 700 years ago, I noticed the abnormality of the 'Blue Well and its real structure at the last moment, and tried my best to use its own huge underlying structure to buffer and guide those magic energy that has nowhere to be released. Overall, I failed, and the chaotic magic energy that gushed out of the well formed a demon tide impact. According to today's view, it formed a 'little demon tide' and destroyed the entire empire, but in fact I still succeeded a small part..."

Gao Wen frowned slightly: "A small part?"

"I saved my research base and the main conduit of the Deep Blue Well," Veronica said, "just below the Deep Blue Well."

Gao Wen suddenly realized that the broad imagination accumulated in his previous life and the many experiences in this life made him quickly deduce many things. He stared at Veronica: "So, you are actually still in that research base now?!"

Veronica showed a somewhat surprised expression again, and she looked at Gao Wen: "Actually I... well, yes, I'm still in that research base."

She said as she smiled: "I really didn't expect you to think of this layer immediately. This does not conform to my perception of you, nor does it conform to the way of thinking of ordinary people... Do your keen insight really only come from wisdom?"

"It's just a flash of inspiration," Gao Wen said casually, and then asked, "Which research base is still running? What else is there?"

Veronica nodded gently and replied: "There is also an Ironman Corps that is still in service - on this basis, I spent centuries restoring and rebuilding the Ironman Corps' production, maintaining facilities, and renovating the above-ground structure of the Dark Blue Well main conduit from which to extract magic power to maintain the operation of all facilities."

Gao Wen was stunned: "You said there is a running Iron Man Corps deep in the wasteland? And you have repaired the relevant production and maintenance facilities, and even partially restored the Deep Blue Well?!"

“Yes – but you don’t have to be so excited, they are all small, smaller than you think.”

"So over the years, while doing these things deep in the wasteland, you are projecting your spirit into the human world outside the wasteland in some way, just like ‘Veronica’ at this moment," Gao Wen looked serious, and couldn't help but sigh, "A iron man army... To be honest, if you didn't hear what you said in person, I really can't believe it is true. How did they escape the powerful impact of magic energy at the beginning?"

"I created a large-scale anti-magic shield in the underground facilities - supported by the main conduit of the Deep Blue Well itself, which allowed it to withstand the powerful magical impact at that time," Veronica replied. "In fact, even so, the preserved Iron Man was only a small part. At that time, a total of sixteen Iron Man Corps were stationed near my research base as garrison troops. I set up independent anti-magic shields for each place. As a result, fifteen of the stationing points failed to withstand the impact, and only one survived."

Gao Wen rubbed his eyebrows and digested the explosive intelligence that suddenly came to him. While his thoughts were gradually sorting out, he looked up at Veronica: "So you are actually trapped in the deepest part of the wasteland - although you repaired a base as your refuge and a running Ironman Guard, these things are obviously not enough for you to retreat from the center of the wasteland to outside the magnificent wall..."

"I didn't think about evacuating there... Although in a sense, I was indeed trapped in the center of the wasteland," Veronica shook her head gently. "I still have a mission that has not been completed, including continuing to study the structure of the Deep Blue Well and observing the changes in the wasteland. And by casting the God of God, I can also be active outside as I am now, so it doesn't matter to me whether to evacuate there."

"Well, this is your choice, and to be honest, I can't help you now," Takawan nodded, and did not forget what the topic was at the beginning. "Now I have a general understanding of your situation and the truth about the Deep Blue Well - we can talk about the cultists who are ready to move in the wasteland. Are those cultists related to what we just talked about? Are they planning the Deep Blue Well?"

"It's not just about being ready to move, I suspect they are taking some action," Veronica said with a serious expression. "In recent times, some abnormal signs have appeared in the core area of ​​the wasteland. I have lost some signals from some Iron Man soldiers. Some soldiers have found signs of damage or transformation of the energy conduit near the base boundary during patrols. The technique is very superb, and it cannot be done by those wandering distorted or unconscious mana spirits."

Gao Wen's brow frowned slightly, and he unconsciously tapped the table with his fingers and asked casually: "Didn't you see anything directly?"

"...For some reason, I could only stay in the core of the base deep underground," Veronica replied. "The iron soldier patrolling the surface and the few sensors near the energy conduits, and the monitoring device is my only channel for understanding the external environment. This may be a bit ironic... In that harsh environment, my understanding of what is around me is even worse than my understanding of the city of Cecil, which is thousands of miles away, because compared to the layers of limited body, this interactive medium called Veronica has at least complete freedom of movement and can touch the real world."

Gao Wen couldn't help but feel extremely curious about Veronica Ophelia's "originality" now, but he knew that this matter had already involved privacy, and it seemed that the other party was reluctant to talk about it, so he did not ask questions on it. He quickly turned his attention back to the cultists: "According to the information we received from Belltila, the branch of the Death Society inside the Magnificent Wall should have been active in the wasteland of Gondor for a long time... Have you never caught them for so many years? Have you never dealt with them head-on?"

"I said that my 'territory range' in the wasteland is actually very limited. The Iron Man Corps can only move in the ruins of the old imperial capital and areas with very narrow edges of the ruins. The sensors arranged along the conduit can only operate within this range," Veronica said with some regret. "Compared with the entire wasteland, my perception range is very small, and those cultists should have been moving near the magnificent wall before, which is my blind spot in sight. In fact, if you hadn't uprooted everything, I wouldn't even know that there was still a force hiding outside my shelter."

"It sounds a bit terrifying," Gao Wen stopped pounding the tabletop, and he pinched his chin thoughtfully. "You don't know them, but the cultists obviously know you, at least they know that the Deep Blue Well is still running - they have been in peace with the Deep Blue Well for the past few centuries, as if they were intentionally moving around you, but recently they suddenly became bolder, even stealing your soldiers and stealing your energy... There must be a reason for this."

"Steal...yes, they are indeed thieves," Veronica said in a deep voice, but there was no anger in her tone. In fact, in most cases, her mood fluctuations were extremely weak, just as if her human emotions had been wiped out in hundreds of years of work, and her gentle and kind appearance on weekdays was just a mask simulated by experience. "I couldn't imagine why they had taken action suddenly recently, but perhaps this was related to the demise of everything outside the magnificent wall and would be wiped out."

"Half of them have been wiped out, and the other half has begun to take some backup plan," Gao Wen thought, and the sound of unstable spring in late spring came from the open window. "It seems that it is necessary to confirm this with Belltila... but I think she may not be able to help. The end-of-life religious believers who are operating in the wasteland are too mysterious, and there are many secrets that are even hidden from the sight of the former prime minister Franken. Besides... If there is really a 'backup plan', Belltila should have reported it long ago."

He shook his head, and wrote down the matter for the time being, and then asked, "Do you have any ideas about the purpose of those cultists? They are obviously planning to dig the Deep Blue Well...What do you think they want such a huge amount of energy to do?"
Chapter completed!