Before releasing the statue, they still had questions to resolve: assuming the statue could communicate, how would they understand its language.
"Can the Big Sister understand it?" Puxiu said.
"Probably not." Lu Li replied.
The Big Sister’s ability was to sense emotions, not to translate languages.
"Let’s return to the sanctuary again. They know about the ancestors, maybe they also know their language." Katerina suggested.
"But the sanctuary has already been sealed." Puxiu squatted down, kicking back to scratch his ear.
"Just dig it open again." Katerina looked at Lu Li.
"Let’s go to Vena Ice-Free Port first."
Two stoves made the Captain’s Cabin warm. Lu Li took off his black coat and hung it on the helm, assigning the task of "finding soone who knows the ancient language" to the rchant heading to Vena Ice-Free Port.
The new rchant erging from the Ashes accepted the commission; it was also tasked with finding seeds for the sanctuary. Once reaching Vena Ice-Free Port, it would stay there to rebuild the rchant system.
The old rchant continued to follow Lu Li, looking for companions.
While waiting for the new rchant to investigate at Vena Ice-Free Port, Puxiu asked the rchant: "What’s your na?"
"rchants don’t have nas."
"We need to call you sothing, more rchants will appear in the future!" Puxiu eagerly asked Lu Li: "Mr. Luli, any nas starting with ’An’ for him?"
"Andy?" Katerina recalled the na of a deceased Hunter.
"That... na... doesn’t fit."
Ophelia rasped, "We... could... call it Anthony."
The rchant’s objection was ineffective, and everyone, with a chorus of voices, gave him a new na to distinguish him from other rchants.
It seed aningless, but everyone was happy about the rchant’s new na.
The rchant, now called Anthony, relayed the progress from the rchant over at Vena Ice-Free Port:
Mayor Matteus agreed to find seeds for Lu Li; Mayor Matteus was investigating any clues related to "relics, the abyss, cultists, trees, and brown cars"; Mayor Matteus sent people to search
The first results ca from unrelated matters.
"They found Monique Alaya at Vena Ice-Free Port. She’s now the wife of a Knight Captain in the Tribunal." rchant Anthony said.
Many notes and letters Lu Li carried, including those retrieved from the sanctuary. The diary of Nasram Alaya, a sanctuary resident who died in the collapsed relics, Night Watchman Matthew’s journal from the investigator base, the letters of the Raimy siblings—
Lu Li opened the suitcase and handed Nasram Alaya’s notes to rchant Anthony to deliver to Monique Alaya.
"I’m going to die, whoever finds this, I’m Nasram Alaya, please give this diary to my daughter Monique Alaya and tell her all my wealth is under the floor next to the fireplace of our old ho, and also tell her I love her. Rember, it’s ’I love her,’ not ’you love her.’
Lu Li still rembered the final words of the diary, but now that the words hadn’t disappeared, there was no need to convey them on behalf of that father.
During this period, news about the "Shadow Church" cult, which worshipped Anna, ca in. They recently gathered at Imod Fort in the west of the Main Affinity Continent and sacrificed all the survivors there.
The place was far from the Ailen Peninsula. But if nothing was learned from the statue, and there were no traces of Anna in Himfast, Lu Li might go to Imod Fort.
Andrea caught a few fish and threw them on the deck, and Ophelia left the Captain’s Cabin to bring the fish back.
They didn’t cook the fish again. Without enough spices, everyone except Puxiu found the pot of fish unbearable, the fishy sll as intense as biting into a live fish.
Grilled fish was simple enough, and hard to ss up, but it makes you drink a lot of water afterwards, though the two rchants ensured logistics were worry-free—whatever they needed from Vena Ice-Free Port could arrive in minutes.
Clack—
The smallest fish was tossed to a black raven, which grabbed it, landed on the control panel, pecked it apart, and swallowed.
The Sanity Value Counter sounded, but no one paid heed. Katerina refused Andrea’s eager plan to "cook" the fish herself, splitting open fish bellies to clean the innards, placing several on the stove, sprinkling salt and simple spices, waiting for the skin to beco crispy and golden.
"Caw!"
The raven suddenly flapped and screeched but could not dissipate the fog; a corpse-like dense stench emitted from the fish carcass near its claws.
"Ugh... what’s that sll?"
The stench was like an invisible malice, wantonly assaulting everyone’s sense of sll in the Captain’s Cabin.
Lu Li noticed the Sanity Value Counter, using a dagger to lift the raven-pecked fish belly.
A heap of black waste, like deep-sea sludge, lay in the fish’s stomach, emitting a substantial stench.
"Ugh..."
Puxiu gagged while scratching the door, saved only when Katerina opened the Captain’s Cabin door.
"What is... this? It’s not in... the books."
Ophelia observed the foul-slling fish carcass, but she slled nothing.
"I don’t know."
Lu Li wrapped the dead fish and threw it overboard. The source disappeared, and the stench inside the Captain’s Cabin gradually dissipated.
The unknowns of the world are as nurous as the sands on a beach.
After the stench dissipated, Katerina closed the Captain’s Cabin door.
Yet, in the sense of sll of Lu Li and Puxiu, the cold air still retained the stench.
Besides the sll, nothing seed to affect the contents of the fish’s belly, and nothing happened to the raven.
Near midnight, rchant Anthony brought new news.
"Vena Ice-Free Port has found soone with the Cursed Title of [Linguist], and he can translate the ancient language."
The mont rchant Anthony spoke, the inscription of [Linguist] erged in the depths of people’s minds.
[Linguist]
[From the vibrations of air, the rhythms of breath, the emanation of consciousness, you understand the language they use, you know if they are discussing newly moved-in neighbors, or debating whether to roast or boil you]
[But be careful, they dislike eavesdropping and their language being desecrated by the weak.]
[——Language itself holds power]
"Is it a person? How can they co over, can you rchants bring them?" Katerina frowned.
"Possible, but it would be polluted by the Inner World."
"Use another thod." Lu Li calmly spoke.
This person with the Cursed Title was enough to translate the ancient language; now, the only problem left was one.
How to communicate with the ancient people.
Lu Li tasked the rchant with this matter: writing the question on paper and letting the rchant deliver it to the Cursed Title holder, then having the rchant take the translated inquiry to the ancient people, retrieve it, translate it, and send it back.
If that didn’t work, then choose the less safe alternative: bring the statue out of the Inner World for face-to-face questioning.
Whether outsiders entered the underground ruins recently; whether they rember anything related to the "abyss"; relic, abyss, cultist, tree, brown car associations—
Lu Li folded the parchnt full of questions and handed it to rchant Anthony.
Then waited for the answers.
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