Alien Knights

In the empty darkness, the sound of water droplets falling on the stone slabs echoed endlessly.

Karin, covered in bandages, lay on the cold stone bed. Every inch of her body felt as if it was being burned by flames.

"water……"

With all her strength, Karin squeezed out a word from her throat.

After a long wait, just when she thought the world had abandoned her, a cool stream of sweet water touched her lips and tongue.

Opening her dry and cracked lips, Karin swallowed the water greedily, feeling the power of life return to her body.

After taking a breath, Karin, who didn't know how long she had been unconscious, tried hard to open her eyes and see where she was.

After some attempts, she discovered to her horror that everything was in vain, and there was still darkness in front of her.

She stretched out her hands to touch her face. The thick bandage made Karin panic: "My eyes! What's wrong with my eyes?! I can't see anything!"

No one answered her.

Struggling to get up from the stone bed, Karin was about to get off the ground, but her weak body caused her to stumble and fall to the ground.

A pair of strong, strong hands lifted Karin up, as if holding a priceless treasure, and carefully placed her back on the stone bed.

Frightened, disturbed, and annoyed, Karin coughed violently and asked loudly: "Who are you?! Let me go! Let me go!"

No one answered her.

Karin huddled in a corner of the stone bed, her hands constantly groping around, trying to grab anything she could to defend herself.

Suddenly, she remembered the soul space.

But what she didn't expect was that no matter how she called for the soul space, the response she received was only dead silence.

Ten minutes passed.

After some struggle, Karin gradually despaired.

She leaned her back against the wall on the side of the stone bed, sat there blankly, and asked, "Where is this place?"

No one answered.

"What do you want to do with me?"

No one answered.

…

Karin hugged her knees with her hands, buried her head, and cried softly.

The owner of those big hands was a little overwhelmed when he saw Karin crying and made some strange noises.

Finally, he left.

Karin was alone, sitting alone on the cold stone bed, crying even louder.

Half an hour later, to Karin's surprise, the strange man came back again.

As the footsteps got closer and closer, Karin, who could not see anything, was so frightened that she stopped crying and kept hiding backwards.

A gift was delivered to Karin.

The aroma that hits your face is mixed with the taste of barbecue and spices.

Karin swallowed, then stubbornly turned her head away.

The weirdo moved the food closer and mouthed some unexplained bytes.

Karin quickly reached out and grabbed the barbecue wrapped in oil paper. She didn't care about the temperature coming from the paper and the oil attached to it, and stuffed the meat into her mouth like a hungry wolf.

Seeing that Karin was finally willing to eat the food, the weirdo happily made a strange sound of "Hehe".

Turning her head towards the source of the sound, Karin yelled, "Shut up!"

The weirdo quickly covered his mouth with his hands and turned around obediently, not daring to look at Karin again.

Outside the door of the room, standing from beginning to end, was a haggard old man.

He said nothing, remained motionless, and just watched all of this quietly.

Imperial Capital, University of Baghdad, Hall of Truth.

"I don't understand, how could there be an invisible force pulling everything downward? Where does this force come from? How is it formed?"

An imperial student wearing white clothes and a turban stood on the podium holding a book called "Introduction to Guidance", shook his head and said: "The ideas of this Muxi City scholar are too whimsical. I only saw assumptions and inferences without any defensible evidence.”

Another student in the audience stood up and retorted: "Any discovery of truth starts from assumptions and inferences. It would be too arbitrary to deny this book on this basis."

The latter student continued: "Take a famous example written in the book. Stones and iron blocks of the same size and different weights are allowed to fall vertically from a height. No matter when and where they are, they will eventually fall. They all fall to the ground at the same time. Therefore, things with different weights and materials fall at the same speed in the air, which proves that there is the same huge force from within the earth pulling all objects toward the ground."

"Absurd!" the first student retorted: "Let me give you a counterexample. If you drop paper balls and iron blocks of the same size at the same time, the iron block will definitely be the first to hit the ground. How can you explain this?"

Listening to the students in the Hall of Truth quarreling over the theories in the book, Saladin, the imperial caliph sitting in the guest seat, not only showed no anger, but nodded frequently.

Ilam, captain of the Caliphate's Guards, frowned and approached Saladin and whispered: "These students are too noisy and are not good for your health. How about I ask them to keep their voices down?"

Saladin shook his head and said: "You don't understand that the voice of truth should not be silenced, should not give in, and should not compromise."

Elim scratched his head, looking puzzled.

Saladin looked at his guard captain and said with a smile: "Don't worry about my body."

Elim glanced at the emperor secretly. The man's increasingly thin body and bloodless face made him lower his head and sighed secretly.

After some debate, the students still did not form a unified opinion.

Saladin waved his hand, signaling them to calm down.

Everyone immediately stopped arguing and debating, and stood in the hall with their heads bowed, respectfully waiting for the Caliph's admonition.

"This "Introduction to Gravitation" was written by scholars from Muxi University. Although Wenxianyuan has just completed the translation, it was completed two years ago."

As soon as Saladin said this, the whole hall was filled with surprise.

"Starting from this "Introduction to Guidance", Muxi University has published "Spatial Analysis of Gravity", "Introduction to Rigid Body Statics Research", "Equivalent Analysis of Equilibrium Mechanics", and "Mechanics" in the past two years. "Vector Theory", "Frontiers of Fluid Mechanics", "Theory of Primary Structural Mechanics" and a series of other works."

Saladin smiled bitterly and said: "The scholars at Wenxian Academy are working overtime to translate these works, but due to the technical terminology and theoretical basis, the translation work is difficult."

"Why am I telling you this today?"

Saladin patted the book in his hand: "I heard that many of you often feel complacent and brag about solving a so-called problem or making an interesting machine."

"What you don't know is that there is such a kingdom, such a university, and such a group of scholars in the north not far from the empire. No one in our country can understand all the books they wrote!"

Saladin's voice became louder and louder, until finally he stood up and shouted almost at the top of his lungs.

The students looked at each other, their faces flushed with shame, and they remained silent.

"Blind arrogance is a blasphemy against God and a sign of abandoning the truth." Saladin gasped and sat down tremblingly: "Starting today, I will distribute these teaching materials to everyone. Go up. Of course, there will be the same books on my desk, and I will study with you."

A guard walked in from the gate, walked to Elim's side, and whispered something in the latter's ear.

Soon, Elim came to Saladin's side and whispered a word.

"The throat bone is back."