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According to the city-state law, nine out of ten divine stones mined by each household in Duke Town must be handed over to the city-state, leaving one of them. However, the law also stipulates that each registered miner must pay at least one divine stone every season in spring, summer, autumn and winter, which is the basic tax.

Adults in the town love to drink, including middle-aged women. Whether mining or forging iron embryos, they are extremely heavy physical labor. Legend has it that wine is a magical thing with some mysterious power. It seems that it can relax the spirit and relieve physical fatigue, but drinking too much is not a benefit. Amon's father is addicted to alcohol, especially indulging in expensive wines with rich fragrance, and his hands have trembled more and more severely in recent years.

In addition to wine, the residents of Duke Town also like various delicious meat, but in addition to the small flocks of sheep nearby and the occasional prey they catch in the mountains, most of the meat almost needs to be transported from other places. Amon's father got the money and then enjoyed it, and the divine stone for the tax this season has not been paid yet.

Mayor Dusty, who is in charge of the collection and taxation power of Duke Town, is usually very kind and does not force too much to the occasional arrears of miners. After all, mining divine stones requires not only hard work and skills, but also luck. Even if it is temporarily delinquent, it is not impossible to make up for it when luck is good. Because of this, Mayor Dusty has long been favored by the residents of the town and lives a very comfortable life.

However, three days ago, the mayor ordered that all families who owed the divine stones must be paid within three days to make up for the rest of the country. All the families in the town have made up for the rest of the year, and everyone has a surplus for the past years in case of emergency, except for the Amen family. The mayor's order may be related to the noble Lord Aju who came to the town three days ago. Amen is not sure what happened, and it is not his turn to ask about it.

When Amon's father just arrived in the town, he replaced the last divine stone in his hand with fine wine. When the mayor ordered, he realized that his tax mission this season had not been completed, so he went to Nietzsche, the old madman in the town to borrow it, but only borrowed a mined mine core. The old madman assured Amon's father that there must be a divine stone in it.

There may not be divine stones in the mine core, but divine stones will only appear in this kind of mine core. My father's hand trembled and could not control the mine hammer, so he was called fourteen-year-old Amon to try it.

The rules of Duke Town since ancient times, after a man is over 16 years old, he will be qualified to learn the unique craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation after he is at the age of sixteen in the Temple of Goddess Muyun and receives God's blessing. Only when he is successful in his skills can he open the mine core and remove the divine stone. People who do not have this qualification can only do some auxiliary work, such as finding the mine core in the mountains and mining it, logging wood and burning charcoal to provide fire fuel, etc.

Amon's father felt that his physical failure was getting faster and faster in the past two years, and his hands were trembling more and more violently. He waited step by step until that day, he was afraid that he would not have time to get Amon to take over his mine hammer, so he privately taught his local miners' skills to his son in advance. After two years of practice, Amon had mastered quite proficiently, which surprised his father. Generally speaking, the teenagers in Duke Town wanted to master this unique way of controlling power, and started learning from the sixteenth, and it was probably not possible to get started until he was twenty years old. It was impossible to use it so skillfully.

My father was surprised, but Amon was even more surprised. It was not because of how fast he learned. Didn’t the priest and the priest say that only by the blessing and grace of the patron saint could he learn the unique skills passed down from generation to generation? He did not experience that solemn and sacred ceremony, how did he awaken the sleeping power in the legend? He did not ask his father but asked the old madman Nietzsche, who scoffed at it and answered disdainfully, but also told him to keep it secret and not to talk nonsense.

When Amon waved his sledgehammer and hit the mine core, his father looked very nervous, and his hands were trembling involuntarily, while Amon's expression was very focused and calm. His father thought it was his first time to complete this job, but he was not aware of the same thing. Amon had done it many times at the old madman's house. Not only his father is the only one who teaches Amon's skills in private, but also the old madman in the town. The old madman often watched Amon help him work while drinking.

The sledgehammer hit the mine core, which controlled not only the power. At the moment of contact, a penetrating shock wave with penetration spread into the extremely hard mine core. The room also heard a long-lasting oscillation and buzzing echo. Then, countless fine cracks appeared on the surface of this ore core that was harder than pig iron. The cracks continued to stagger and stretched into dense, and the mine core gradually became grayish white and dull.

When the cracks extend to the extreme, the ore core will naturally open or disperse, just like falling fine sand. If you are lucky, a divine stone will appear in the center of the gray sand particles.

The divine stone cannot be taken out by brute force alone. It is very strong and it is difficult to damage it with ordinary power. However, it is very fragile when it is still in the mine core. If you are not careful, it will turn into powder with the mine core.

All divine stones are exactly the same shape and size, about the size of a cat's eye, and are a perfect dodecahedron. It has thirty sides, twenty corners, and twelve faces, and each face is a standard regular pentagon. It is said that in the far northwest of the Tianshu Continent, a sage named Teatede once said that there are only five types of dodecahedrons in the world, and dodecahedrons are the most special ones.

It is the outline of the world that God outlines, contains the mysterious information of the fifth element, and is the source of mysterious power and symbols. The most common divine stone is colorless and transparent. When you hold it in your hand from different angles, you will show various unpredictable pentagram shapes, which are so perfect, dazzling, charming, and amazing about the magic of the Creator.

In addition to the colorless and transparent divine stones, Amon knew that there were four other divine stones, which were blue, red, black and white. According to the explanation of a distant sage, Enpedocle, they symbolize the mysterious information of the four elements of water, fire, earth and energy that constitute the world. Of course, these Amon were all told by the old madman, and he could not tell whether the so-called distant sages really existed. Perhaps they were all made up by the old madman himself.

Regarding the divine stones, the old madman Nietzsche also has a rebellious saying, they are the crystals of bones after the fall of God, and can be called the skeleton of God. Amon couldn't believe this, and once asked the old madman - will the eternal gods also fall?

The old madman asked back: The legendary people were created by gods, and people would die, so who created the gods, why can't they die? In the oldest legend, the area around Dukezhen is the place where the gods fell in the battle between the ancient gods.

The old madman also said that when he was traveling to the mainland in his early years, he met a monk from the far east, calling the divine stone the relics of the earth. Amon didn't understand what it meant. When he said this, the old madman's messy beard was covered with bright red wine sauce, and his smile seemed very despicable. Then he squeezed his eyes to Amon and said, "The legends about gods in many countries on the mainland are transformed by the bodies of ancient gods. What's wrong with the divine stone being the skeleton of the god?"

Amon could only regard these as drunken words of the old madman after drinking, but he didn't dare to say that it was impossible, so he stopped thinking too much and still focused on doing his own thing - this was his best habit.

Although Amon did not understand what the divine stone was, he was very clear about the type of divine stone. The number of the four special divine stones was much smaller than that of ordinary divine stones, and the probability of being mined was only one hundred. It was not clear how valuable it was. The special divine stones that appeared in Duke Town were taken away by the city-state as important tributes.

But tonight, after the mine core turned into gray-white fine sand scattered on the anvil, Amon was stunned, and the heavy sledgehammer was fixed in the air. His father, who was watching, also settled there, his eyes wide open, and he forgot to close it with his mouth. His hands holding the wine glass were still trembling, but he did not realize that the wine had splashed on his clothes.

I saw a divine stone lying quietly among the gray and white fine sand. It turned out to be light golden, translucent, and seemed to have a strange luster flowing mysteriously, as if it contained tears that were still falling - what kind of divine stone is this!

When this divine stone appeared, a mysterious wave spread silently around. Amon noticed it keenly, but the unexpected surprise made him not care too much, and his father was completely stunned. Time was not long, and a polite voice outside the door made the father and son come to their senses-

"Is anyone at home? I am Fayol Judah, the clerk of Lord Rod Dick, the head of the Eju Empire, and came on the order of Lord Dick." As he spoke, the speaker had already pushed open the door, walked through the room and walked into the backyard, and came to the door of the workshop.

He heard his voice very well, but his behavior was very casual. He walked in without his master's permission. Two fully armed soldiers guarded the gate, and two other soldiers followed on both sides behind him. When Amon came to his senses and turned his head to look out the door, Fayor happened to cross the threshold with one foot, showing a look of shock and ecstasy.

Fayor was in his thirties, medium figure, slightly brown skin, curly hair, and a robe in a linen, and very clean. His lips were a little thin, his eyes were a little thin, and he always looked thoughtful. Only in front of the noble adults like Rod Dick would he show an expression of great concentration. But now, there was only the divine stone with a light golden luster in his eyes.

"Thanks to the great Goddess Isis, thanks to the mercy of the gods, the light of God always shines on Eju, and protects the cape city-state forever..." While Amon was puzzled, Fayor had already crossed the threshold, touched his forehead with one hand and leaned on the ground with the other, and knelt down on one knee. The two warriors outside the door also knelt down on one knee with Lord Fayor, with the long sword in his hand leaning on the ground, and his breastplate collided with heavy sounds.

After saying that, Fayol took out a bag and placed it on the anvil, reached out and picked up the tears of the gods, put it in a golden box she carried with her, and turned around and walked out. Amon's father saw him doing this, and his lips stammered and tried to stop him but did not dare to speak.

By the time Amon reacted and stood up, Fayol had already left, and two warriors followed him to protect him, and the hilt of the sword touched the armor and made a cold and majestic sound.

This voice made Amon understand that even if he chased him out, it would be useless. This strange divine stone that he had never seen before was taken away by the uninvited guest, leaving only a purse. The man said, "Thanks for his contribution", just as Amon voluntarily presented the divine stone to him.

Amon was angry and unwilling to accept that his father would pay a divine stone tomorrow. This strange divine stone could have completed the task, but now it has been taken away. Then he thought that the divine stone was taken away by the Lord Dick. If the mayor wanted to pursue the matter, he should go to Lord Dick. Their family did not have taxes.

A lot of thoughts flashed in his mind in an instant, but Amon did not think of another thing at this moment - Fayol did this, which would reveal that he had learned the skills of the miners in Duke Town without permission.

**

Note from Mr. Xu: Thanks to the book friend "Disciples of the Three Dreams Sect" for making the schematic diagram of the twelvehedral divine stone in this chapter.

List of characters in this chapter—

Amon's father: the miner and blacksmith in Duke Town are drunkards.

Nietzsche: a resident of Duke Town, an old friend of Amon, nicknamed the old madman.

Fayol-Judas: Rhodes-Dick's clerk
Chapter completed!