Chapter 217 Sphinx Courtyard

Although Lind was dressed in the style of the Pentos people, his overall temperament and attire did not match at all. Fortunately, there were many businessmen, mercenaries, etc. from other places in the city of Pentos. They were dressed similarly, so he wasn't very conspicuous when walking among them.

He stayed in the manor outside Illyrio for a day, and then went to the Sphinx Court to learn about the actual situation there.

Although he has learned about the situation of the Sphinx Courtyard from Illyrio, what he knows from other people's mouths is not as good as knowing it himself, and he also needs to take a look at the collection of books in the Sphinx Courtyard. , after all, this is also one of his goals.

I don’t know whether it’s because Pantos was built on a hill by the sea, or because of the habits of the Pantos people themselves. The streets in Pantos are not very spacious, and can barely accommodate two sedans walking side by side. The streets are confusing and confusing, and coupled with the straight walls of the buildings on both sides, it is easy for those who are not familiar with the environment to get lost in the city.

Linde also fell into this huge urban maze. As he walked, he didn't know where he was. He could only judge from the surrounding buildings that this was the area where the powerful people of Pentos lived.

"If I had known earlier, I should have found a guide." Linde couldn't help but mutter in his heart.

Fortunately, he didn't get lost for too long. He soon followed some merchants' sedans out of the area and came to a relatively spacious road where he could see the roof of the Sphinx Courtyard in the distance.

I followed this road to the end, and then I learned my lesson and hired a local child as a guide. Under the guidance of the child, I walked through alley-like streets and finally arrived at the gate of the Sphinx Courtyard. .

It has to be said that Governor Pantos, who originally built the Sphinx Courtyard, had an extraordinary admiration for the school city. Not only did he replicate the pair of sphinx statues, but even the gate was completely It is modeled after the gate of the school city, but the size is slightly different.

Perhaps due to years of disrepair, many parts of the gate have corroded away, and the bronze on the surface is also covered with patina.

There is also a square outside the gate of the Sphinx Academy that is similar to the Citadel's writing desk. Apparently the builders at that time also wanted to be like the Academy, so that students from the Sphinx Academy could make money by copying books here.

However, the idea is good, but the actual implementation is another matter entirely.

The dignitaries in the city have their own servants who can copy books, but the people at the bottom can't even read and are not interested in books, so now the square has become a grocery market, with grocery stalls dotted around the square. , a large number of locals buy things here, which makes it very lively.

Linde was not in a hurry to enter the Sphinx Courtyard, but wandered around the square and bought some interesting things at the grocery stalls.

"Huh?" Linde saw an ancient-looking pottery vase at a stall that specialized in selling antiques, and his attention was quickly attracted to it.

He was not interested in the pottery vase itself, but in the patterns on the pottery vase. These patterns looked very ordinary, but in fact they were made up of many ancient runes broken up and pieced together.

Although doing this will cause the runes to lose their own meaning, it will make the shape of the pottery bottle look more beautiful.

Regarding magic, Linde did not study as deeply as Moroya, but as for runes, Linde had done in-depth research because of his own dragon runes, including the runes on the towering tower in Old Town. Text, runes on the White Walker Sacrifice Stone.

Therefore, when Lind saw the pottery pot, he immediately recognized that among the patchwork patterns carved on the surface of the pottery pot, there were some runes from the Towering Tower and the Great Wall of Impasse, just because these runes had been dismantled. , so there is no supernatural power in it.

With curiosity, Linde picked up the clay pot and looked at it carefully. After confirming that he had read it correctly, he turned to the owner of the stall and asked, "Where did this clay pot come from?"

The stall owner who was sitting at the foot of the wall immediately sat up straight when he saw the business coming and introduced the products: "I worked hard to transport this from Yi Di..."

Before the stall owner could finish speaking, Linde interrupted him directly and said, "I'm not interested in the pot itself. I just want to know where it comes from. Tell me..." He took out He picked up a Pentos gold coin and put it in his hand and said, "This is yours."

The stall owner's eyes lit up when he saw the Pentos gold coin in Linde's hand, but he still deliberately hesitated to see if Linde would increase the price.

Seeing this, Linde stood up, put the gold coins back into his pocket, and prepared to leave.

When he saw that Linde did not increase the price as he expected, but was about to leave, the stall owner immediately stood up and said, "Wait, wait! I'll tell you where this thing comes from."

As he spoke, he couldn't wait to reach out to Linde. After Linde put the golden dragon in his hand, he motioned Linde to come forward, and then whispered: "This thing is from the Sphinx Courtyard behind. To make it, you can ask the Xiufu Bachelor, he is responsible for making this thing."

Hearing this, Linde was also a little surprised, but after thinking about it for a moment, he felt that it was reasonable. Even a silver bachelor like Xiu Fu had to use his knowledge to make fake antiques for sale. This undoubtedly proved that Yili Leo was right, the Sphinx Courtyard is now at the end of its rope.

The gate of the Sphinx Courtyard was ajar, and there was no guard at the door. There were only a few people dressed as students setting up stalls at the door, writing letters or reading letters for the people of Pentos, and placing some on their tables. There were some books for sale, but judging from the age of the book covers, it was obvious that no one had cared about these books for a long time.

The students at the door did not prevent Linde from entering the college. For them, except for the books of slight value, there was no other property worthy of the thieves in the building behind them, so there was no need to send someone to guard it.

After entering the Sphinx Courtyard, Linde saw an empty hall. In the middle of the hall was a stone platform that looked a bit unexpected. Sitting on the platform was a Silver Bachelor, who looked similar to the school manager. Like the pavilion, the bachelor on this high platform should be responsible for receiving visitors.

However, now the bachelor's spirit seemed to be very depressed. He rested his head with his hands and dozed off behind the high platform.

Linde walked to the high platform, reached out and knocked on the table of the high platform, pulling the bachelor out of his drowsy state.

"What's the matter with you?" The bachelor rubbed his eyes that were not fully opened, then looked at Linde and asked.

Linde said: "I want to see the Master Xiufu."

The bachelor shook his head and said: "I'm sorry, the bachelor was invited by Governor Pemo early in the morning to go to his manor to appreciate antiquities for him. He may not come back until the afternoon."

Lin De saw that it was a coincidence and did not say anything. He continued to ask: "I heard that there are some very ancient books in the collection of the Sphinx Academy. I want to take a look. Do I need to go through any procedures?"

"No formalities are required, as long as you have enough money." It seemed that this was not the first time that the bachelor had to deal with people like Linde who came to read books. He directly picked up a piece of paper from the table and placed it in front of Linde, saying : "All books are classified according to the time of writing. You can see for yourself which type of book costs what."

Linde took the price list and looked at it briefly. He found that the cheapest among these books only cost one Pantos copper coin, but the more expensive ones, such as the related books left by the ancient civilization that Lind wanted to read this time, cost two. Pentos gold coins, and it is not a book that can be read unlimitedly, but there is a time limit. Every time an hourglass time passes, you have to pay once.

Seeing this situation, Linde couldn't help but shook his head. No wonder no one would come to the Sphinx Courtyard to borrow books. The cost is not only expensive for ordinary people, but also for the powerful. For those For people with poor reading and memory skills, they may have spent more than a dozen gold coins without even finishing a single book.

The Sphinx Academy is also very aware that this reading mechanism is very rough and has problems. However, because this reading rule has been established from the beginning, and it is very closely related to many academy rules, the people behind it want to modify it. The rules may involve other rules of the Sphinx Academy, so in line with the principle that more things are worse than less things, the presidents of the Sphinx Academy in the past generations have not taken the initiative to modify any rules, including the reading rules.

Although this kind of reading rule is very unfriendly to ordinary people, it will not affect Lind. His memory is very strong and he can basically remember all the contents after reading it once.

So, Linde directly took out a bag of Pentos gold coins and placed it on the table, and then asked the bachelor behind the high platform to take him to the bookshelf where the oldest books were stored in the library, and then started with the outermost books on the bookshelf. Start reading.

Although the price of reading books is very expensive, it is still worth the money, because the books that Lind saw not only include the original books, but also the research of these ancient books by later scholars and bachelors of the Sphinx Academy, such as The study of the language used in books, such as the study of book content, etc.

In other words, when Lind read through an ancient book, he also learned the ancient characters used in the book.

However, Linde did not read the books here to learn a new language. He was interested in the contents of those ancient books about the mysterious civilization of the past.

Unfortunately, there is not much content related to various mysterious civilizations. The most content among all books is Loras's Giant Labyrinth. Almost half of the ancient stone tablets were found by adventurers in the labyrinth, and the research materials are also Very rich, after all, there are real objects there.

Among all the research materials, there were research notes left by a gold scholar named Gubet that attracted Lind's attention. This scholar Gubet seemed to be a traveler and adventurer. He had been to Asshai, Yi Di, I have been to the continent of Sothoros, and also to the north of the Great Wall of Despair.

During his travels, he discovered that those ancient buildings seemed to have a connection. Asshai in the east, Old Town in the west, Fifth Base and Kadash in the far east, Lorath's Giant Labyrinth, Westeros Magnificent buildings such as the Great Wall of China on the mainland have similar architectural styles and black stone building materials.

In his notes, there are detailed records of some mysterious runes. Some of these runes are the magic runes hidden on the surface of the towering tower, and some are the magic runes on the Great Wall. Obviously this Gubite scholar is not a different person. , he should have special vision like Linde and be able to see traces of magic.

It's a pity that this Gubet's notes are gone now. I don't know if he had an accident, or if his later notes were destroyed or hidden by others who knew their value.

"Where can I find the books and notes of this Gubite scholar?" Linde did not search randomly on the bookshelves in the library, but directly found the bachelor on the high platform and asked.

"Just look for Bachelor Xiufu. All Master Gubet's books are there." The bachelor of Sphinx Academy naturally knew everything about Linde, a big customer he hadn't met for a long time. He thought He answered without thinking.

After getting the answer he wanted, Lind also lost interest in continuing to read here. For him, the books here will sooner or later be sent to the Summer Hall along with the Sphinx Courtyard. Then he can read whatever he wants. See, there is no need to continue wasting time and money.

So, he casually picked up a history of the Free Trade Cities, sat on a stone chair on the side of the hall, and passed the time while reading.

Not long after noon, Linde saw the monk Xiufu, who had met once outside the city, holding a thick book in his hand and walking in panting from the outside. Judging from the expression on his face, Look, things don't seem to be going very well.

"Senior Xiufu, how was your harvest today?" The bachelor on the high platform immediately stood up and ran over, took the book from the bachelor's hand, and asked with concern.

"Don't introduce this kind of idiot to me next time. You will never be able to explain the authenticity of an item to an idiot." Bachelor Xiufu took a big breath and calmed his breathing a little, and said angrily.

The bachelor on the side smiled awkwardly, then thought of something, pointed at Linde who was sitting next to him, and said, "By the way, this gentleman has been waiting for you all morning."

Bachelor Xiufu was stunned when he heard this, and looked at Linde. His eyes quickly looked at Linde, and it was obvious that he did not recognize Linde.

Linde stood up, walked up to Bachelor Xiufu, and said hello: "Hello, Bachelor Xiufu."

Hearing the voice saying hello, Bachelor Xiufu was stunned for a moment, as if he heard something. Then he asked tentatively: "Your Excellency Wenstein?"

"Bachelor, you can actually hear my voice?" Linde was also a little surprised. Although he did not deliberately change his voice when wearing the lion armor, the lion helmet could play a similar role.

"I am more sensitive to sounds." Bachelor Xiufu smiled, and then volunteered: "Since you are here, I will take you around the academy as promised! Although it is not very big, there are many things worth seeing. place."

Linde did not refuse and asked Bachelor Xiufu to lead the way. After wandering around the Sphinx Courtyard for half an hour, the two went to Xiufu's study and residence.