212 A Puzzle That Drives One Crazy (2/2)
Solving the puzzle through trial and error is like walking through an infinitely large maze of crystal-clear glass, even if they can see the endpoint, without a guide, they would just keep banging their heads into the glass.
'There's still something missing. Even a hint will be useful at this point.' Leon contemplated.
He spent the following six hours through trial and error and managed to light up four-fifths of the jade side. He had already lost count of the times he had to retrace his steps to get this far and even then, it didn't guarantee that the current combination sequence was the most correct one.
'The more runic lines lit, the greater the difficulty. As I thought, try to solve this puzzle purely through trial and error is a pointless endeavor.'
Leon frowned and rubbed his sore temples. After discovering the problem, just the thought of solving the puzzle was enough to give him a headache.
He had no choice but to give up on the puzzle for now and return to Elder Evergreen's dwelling in defeat. The elder had his eyes closed in hibernation, but upon hearing nearby footsteps, he was roused awake. It could be seen that he was very alert despite his idleness.
”What's wrong, child? Given up so soon? I thought you found the way to solve it.” The elder chuckled at Leon's defeated look.
Hearing this, Leon sighed, ”Knowing the way and actually solving it are two completely different concepts. For the specifics, you should go take a look, then you'll understand, elder.”
”Oh?”
Elder Evergreen was taken aback, before he said with interest, ”Then I better take a look.”
Leon followed after the elder back to back to the site and told the elder his general understanding in solving the puzzle. He mischievously chose not to mention the endless possibilities of the puzzle that made him despair. He wanted to see how the elder reacts upon realization for his own amusement.
After learning the method, the elder's long extinguished hope of solving the puzzle was reignited and said, ”That sounds pretty simple. How hard can lighting up all these lines be?”
But within 10 minutes of fiddling around with the arrangements of the runic plates, he also figured out the problem and decisively washed his hands of the matter with a simple statement, ”Yeah, Nah. That puzzle is fucked up. It's all you, child.”
Leon was taken surprise by the elder's language but laughed right after.
After a while, Leon calmed down and casually ask, ”Do you know if your great ancestor left behind any words or hints regarding the puzzle, or anything outside of the puzzle in general at all, elder?”
Although Leon was not expecting a positive answer, he was still disappointed when the elder shook his head.
'Did Arden really leave nothing else behind other than his inheritance building? How did he expect people to solve his puzzle? It would take hundreds if not thousands of years to input all the possible combinations unless there was a clue to aid them or godly luck to solve it by a fluke.'
'No, that's not right. He did leave something else behind. His diary!' Leon's eyes flickered with hope. Perhaps the hint was contained within the diary!
Leon had a strong hunch that this line of thinking was correct.
It didn't make sense for Arden, who was supposedly mortal to survive the crash of the floating city. There were many floating cities built in that era. A floating city that crashes on land would create an exceptionally large area of devastation but not enough to end the world. A floating city crash on the ocean was a different story, however. The Boundless Sea had enough water to sweep the world!
Surviving the first crash wouldn't help him survive what was to come after, not unless he had something to rely on! A secret that wasn't recorded in the diary, but most likely holds the key to unlocking that secret!
Why else would a diary that accompanied Arden throughout his life be left behind even though Arden, himself had survived that disaster?