The Loisne initially built a large number of city-states on both banks of the Lorne River, and these city-states were, without exception, known for their prosperity and wealth at the time. Even now, apart from a few abandoned city-state ruins like Ge Dohe, the new towns built on the sites of other old city-states are, without exception, all very important trade hubs on the Lorne River.
When the Loisne controlled these city-states, a large amount of wealth accumulated here, and this wealth was collected by the Loisne city-state governors into their treasuries. When the Valyrian Dragonlords launched a full-scale attack, all the wealth was buried within the ruins of the Loisne.
For unknown reasons, the Valyrian Dragonlords never excavated this wealth buried in the ruins until the destruction of the Valyrian Freehold.
More than a hundred years ago, when Volantis, Kohor, and Norvos began to re-establish trade, the old Loisne city-states on the Lorne River also began to regain vitality. During some reconstruction processes, people successively discovered some treasures in the ruins of the old city-states, and thus rumors of the Loisne's remaining treasures began to circulate on the Essos continent, eventually reaching the Westeros continent.
Although rumors of the Loisne treasure have circulated for a long time, very few people have actually found the treasure. Most people have only found some scattered treasures in some ruins, and no one has ever discovered the Loisne's treasury where they stored their wealth.
There are also rumors that the Loisne's treasury is actually within the ruins of large city-states like Chayon or Na Sa Star, but some people have tried to search there, with the usual result of never returning.
Even places like Chayon and Na Sa Star have been adventurously explored, so naturally, Ge Dohe, a place with less danger, has also been repeatedly explored. As a result, all valuable items that could be found have been dug up, so by common sense, there shouldn't be any possibility of treasure.
Archmaester Marwyn narrated slowly, "I saw records of various Loisne city-states in an ancient book. That book recorded that the Loisne built a very large underground vault in Ge Dohe, specifically to store the gold refined from the Velvet Hills gold mines. According to the record, that vault stored all the gold produced by the entire Velvet Hills gold mine for five years."
"Five years?" Lynd was also stunned after hearing this.
Although the Velvet Hills gold mine is now exhausted, hundreds of years ago, it was the largest gold mine on the west coast of the Essos continent. The gold produced here accounted for more than 80% of the total gold output in the entire west coast region. The reason why the Valyrian Freehold spared no effort to attack the Loisne and the Andals back then was to seize the Velvet Hills gold mine.
At that time, the Loisne possessed the highest smelting technology in the world. They were not only the first people to manufacture and use iron tools, but also excelled in gold refining technology. Even now, most gold refining techniques still follow Loisne technology.
Therefore, the amount of gold the Loisne refined in a year was definitely measured in tons.
"That's not right!" Lynd thought for a moment, and said with a doubtful expression, "This matter isn't right! There are two inexplicable problems. One is why the Loisne would store so much gold here in Ge Dohe. Although Ge Dohe was an important transportation hub and trade center at the time, it was too close to the Andals' territory. The relationship between the two was not good at the time, and it was not safe here. Storing so much gold in such an unsafe place is unreasonable. The second problem is, Valyria should have known the whereabouts of this gold back then. Perhaps the Valyrians were not interested in scattered treasures, but this was five years' worth of accumulated gold, and at that time, the Valyrians had just destroyed the Loisne and were fighting the Andals, so military expenses should have been tight. There's no way they would have let go of such a large sum of gold."
"You think there's something wrong with it?" Archmaester Marwyn said in a deep voice.
Lynd smiled and said, "I just think that the more brightly colored a fruit is in the wild, the more careful one must be, because that kind of fruit may not bring delicious food, but rather deadly poison."
Whether or not Ge Dohe hid gold, whether the Tashi Family's actions against Kevira were to prepare for gold excavation, or whether Scholar Xiu Fu's sudden excavation of ruins in Ge Dohe at this time was also for the gold, none of this was important to Lynd. What Lynd valued was the land of Ge Dohe.
He had already prepared to organize the Greenblood River Orphans to migrate back to the Lorne River after returning to Summerhall this time.
The Greenblood River Orphans are descendants of the Loisne who migrated to Westeros back then. They are unwilling to integrate into the various customs of Westeros and still maintain various Loisne customs. They still believe in Mother Rhoyne and the Old Man of the River, the son of the Lorne River, constantly fantasizing about returning to their ancestors' land.
Because of Rosso, Miracle Port and Weil City have a large number of Greenblood River Orphans residing, and have clearly become two of the most important settlements. There are also many Greenblood River Orphans in the army Lynd recruited.
Gathering enough people should not be a problem. The only problem is who will lead the team, and in Lynd's memory, the only one capable of leading the team is Rosso, the husband of Countess Obara of Weil City. However, it seems a bit difficult to get Rosso to leave his comfortable life.
Lynd had already made arrangements for Ge Dohe and no longer thought about why the nobles of Norvos would act against Ge Dohe. Whatever the reason, he would inevitably have to meet them in the end.
Because Archmaester Marwyn was his guide, Lynd did not get lost again and soon arrived on the Valyrian Road, heading in the direction of Norvos.
As the two entered the Norvos Hills, the weather began to turn harsh. The sky was often overcast, and clear blue skies were rarely seen. A biting cold wind blew from the mountains to the north, bringing a chill, as if spring had turned into deep winter.
Both sides of the road were primeval forests, mostly composed of cold-resistant trees such as beech, oak, and pine. The forest was rich in animals, and many brown bears and wild wolves would suddenly emerge from the forest to attack horses near the forest, causing the herd to panic and flee. However, they all eventually turned into hides, strapped to the horses' backs, and surprisingly, the warhorses that had fled later returned, bringing back many wild horses. In an instant, the horse herd following Lynd grew larger and larger, just like in the Disputed Lands, already numbering over a thousand.
After five or six days of travel, the two, with their horse herd, passed through a canyon and a small river, circled the edge of a forest, and before they even saw Norvos City, they heard a series of clear bell chimes.
Archmaester Marwyn listened to the clear and melodious bell chimes and explained to Lynd beside him, "That is the sound of Neil. Night is approaching, and those who have worked hard all day should return to rest."
These days, although they were all on the road, even sleeping on horseback, Archmaester Marwyn still recounted many things about Norvos during their breaks along the way. For example, Lomas Longstrider was extremely fond of Norvos, not only bestowing the title of one of the world's seven natural wonders upon the Norvos cave network, known as the entrance to the underworld, but also giving the title of one of the nine man-made wonders to the three great bells of Norvos.
Before coming to Norvos, Lynd was very interested in the great bells of Norvos, because he had already seen four man-made wonders: the Hightower of Oldtown, the Wall of the North, the Valyrian Road, and the Titan of Braavos.
Among these four man-made wonders, the Hightower and the Wall had obvious magical traces, and the Titan of Braavos also had a bit of magical trace on him. Only the Valyrian Road was purely a man-made structure.
This also made Lynd curious whether the great bells of Norvos would also contain some kind of magical power, and now, although he had not yet seen the great bells of Norvos, he already had an answer in his heart: the great bells of Norvos definitely contained some kind of magical power.
Because when the great bells of Norvos reached his ears, not only did his emotions become joyful under the influence of the bell chimes, but the Nameless King Rune in his heart also produced a faint resonance, which directly caused the Rune power to outline a brand new Rune pattern under the effect of the bell chimes.
Unfortunately, before the Rune totem outlined by this resonance reaction could fully form, the bell chimes abruptly stopped, and the Rune pattern also dispersed on its own, which made Lynd quite uncomfortable.
As they continued forward and passed through the forest, the scene before them suddenly opened up. On a plain surrounded by mountains, a river flowed through. On an alluvial riverbank formed by a bend in the river, a city rose from the ground, built along the high mountains by the river all the way to the mountaintop.
On the mountainside, a huge city wall with stone steps built on its surface enveloped the entire mountain, dividing the entire city into upper and lower parts. On the mountaintop of the upper city, a magnificent temple stood alone, and three huge bronze bells stood prominently in the square in front of the temple's main entrance, clearly visible even from a great distance.
Archmaester Marwyn had been to Norvos before, and he had some connections there. He directly found a local horse merchant and sold all the horses to him.
The Norvos horse merchant was somewhat surprised to see that most of these horses were Dothraki warhorses, but he understood the rules and said nothing, quickly completing the transaction.
Lynd did not immediately go to find the Tashi Family. Instead, he temporarily found an inn to wash up. He planned to go to the temple fortress on the mountaintop tonight to see the three bronze bells before dealing with the Tashi Family's affairs.
Lynd asked Archmaester Marwyn if he had connections that could allow him to go directly to the mountaintop, but Archmaester Marwyn could only shake his head and express regret, as his relationship with the Bearded Monks of Norvos was not good, and he had already been listed by the Bearded Monks as a criminal forbidden from approaching the city wall.
As dusk gradually fell, the lower district of Norvos became lively. Taverns and brothels opened for business, and lights and human voices enveloped the entire city, filling it with vitality, even dispelling the biting cold wind.
In contrast to the lively lower district, the upper district appeared extremely desolate. On the stone steps outside the massive city wall, numerous monks prayed silently, taking one step up the stairs with each prayer, their actions incredibly devout.
On the middle platform of each step, there were more than a dozen slave soldiers forming a holy guard, standing guard. These holy guards wore leather armor, had slave collars around their necks, and held long-handled great axes in their hands, looking very strong.
Due to the practice of slavery, although both were members of the Free Trade City States, Norvos and Braavos had no direct trade or even political relations.
Braavos had once considered dealing with Norvos as it dealt with Pentos, to make it abandon slavery on its own, but ultimately did not implement this plan, because Lorath, Pentos, and Kohor were all secretly supporting Norvos. Once war broke out, Braavos would have to face a joint siege by four city-states. No matter how confident the Sealord of Braavos was, he knew very well that he could not fight one against four, so he could only express his dissatisfaction by not establishing direct diplomatic relations with Norvos and not engaging in direct trade with Norvos.
Lynd did not intend to take the stone steps, because only the Bearded Monks and devout believers could take the stone steps to the temple fortress above. Others, even the powerful figures in the city, could not approach the stone steps by a single step. If Lynd, an outsider, were to take these steps, he would probably be intercepted along the way and even accused of blasphemy.
Lynd circled half of the city at the base of the massive city wall, found a smooth section without stone steps, and directly used the Storm Dragon Rune to create a whirlwind to lift himself up and fly towards the temple at the top.
In less than a minute, Lynd landed steadily on the platform at the top of the temple.
At this moment, some kind of prayer ceremony was taking place in the temple. Numerous Bearded Monks were reciting the same prayer in a melodious voice, a reading style that seemed to imitate the sound of the bronze bells.
Lynd did not approach the temple. He walked along the edge towards the square, because the Bearded Monks were all inside the temple, and the slave guards were all stationed on the stone steps. The square was empty, with only three huge bronze bells standing on it.
Even though the wind was strong on the mountaintop, an ordinary person could even be blown off the platform if they didn't stand firm. Yet, in such strong winds, the bronze bells remained completely still, as majestic and unmoving as the mountain beneath them.
An ordinary person seeing this sight would only think that it was due to the weight of the bronze bells that they were not blown by the wind, but in reality, in Lynd's eyes, the reason the bronze bells did not sway was entirely because the magical runes on their surface were at work. These magical runes hung down like flowing water, connecting to the ground, making the three bronze bells look more like three pillars.
Unlike the magical runes of the Hightower and the Wall, Lynd did not feel that strong sense of oppression from the bronze bells. They appeared very gentle and harmless.
Furthermore, they were completely different from the Titan of Braavos. Their magical power fluctuations were much stronger, and the magical runes on the three bronze bells were all different, yet connected to each other, as if they were inherently one.
Lynd couldn't help but reach out and touch one of the bronze bells. The moment his finger touched the bell, three different magical runes simultaneously appeared around the Nameless King Rune, then combined into a new rune, integrating into Lynd's heart. At the same time, a method for crafting a bronze bell also appeared in Lynd's mind.
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 40 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"