Chapter 471: The Pilgrim's Strange Questions, and the Sacred Artifact Returned to its Rightful Owner

Although it happened suddenly, everyone still rushed urgently into the courtyard next door.

Here there was a neat flower bed, surrounded by a circle of small rooms; these rooms were built quite high above the ground, and while the doors were shut tight, the windows of the rooms were all open for ventilation.

"It fell here, hurry and search!" Jier was the fastest; he was the first to rush into the courtyard, and then his gaze scanned the entire courtyard incessantly.

But he was not really looking for the Sacred Artifact; instead, he was constantly searching the shadows of the buildings in the courtyard for the Shadow Bird that had forcibly transformed into bird form to fly during the intense morning sunlight.

Afterward, the others also followed and surged into the courtyard; they were much more normal, first looking up to confirm if that crow existed on the eaves around the courtyard, and only then searching among the houses and flower beds.

But the courtyard was neat and unobstructed; there was neither the presence of the Sacred Artifact nor the crow they had seen.

"Could it have flown away?" Priest Bata'er had a helpless look on his face; if it had been stolen by a crow, that would be troublesome. Who knew where those crows' nests were, or which crow had stolen the Sacred Artifact? And if they had to spend more time searching for the Sacred Artifact, what about the caravan and the matter of rescuing the villagers of Changmai Village?

On this matter, Priest Bata'er was actually able to distinguish between the urgent and the secondary; although the Sacred Artifact was bestowed by the Agricultural God, the villagers who had faith in the Agricultural God were more important.

If he really could not find the Sacred Artifact in a short time, he would entrust the task of finding it to Priest Feilina; after all, she was the Village Priest of Big Tree Village, and her methods and abilities were far stronger than his. Thinking of some ways to retrieve the Sacred Artifact from the local crows would always be possible.

Hearing Priest Bata'er's words, Jier immediately retorted: "I have been watching this area, and I didn't see any movement of birds taking flight. It must have landed here; let's search again."

Priest Feilina was quite straightforward; she took a bunch of keys from the leather bag at her waist, pointed to the circle of small rooms around them, and said: "No need to search; it must be hiding in the rooms, having entered through the ventilation windows that were opened."

Jier had also not found the Shadow Bird in the shadows of the courtyard; clearly, it was indeed as Priest Feilina said, hiding in the houses. And that was correct; unlike the open environment, it was clearly darker inside the houses, and it must be hiding from the sunlight there.

"Then let's search. Xueya Site, you and Priest Bata'er guard the two sides of the courtyard, guarding against the crow suddenly flying out. If you see it fly out, use your methods to knock it down."

As soon as Jier spoke, Xueya Site shrugged and drew the Short Sword from his waist, gesturing as if to throw it at any moment. As for Priest Bata'er, he was much more simple and direct; he unceremoniously took the Agricultural God Wooden Statue in his hand, prepared to use a Divine Power Impact at any time.

It was just a crow; it was impossible for it to block a Divine Power Impact. One strike would be enough to knock it down.

Afterward, Jier signaled to Priest Feilina, indicating for her to open the rooms one by one.

"By the way, what are these small houses for? The doors are closed so tightly, yet they still need to open the windows for ventilation?" Jier asked curiously, pointing at the small rooms surrounding the courtyard.

"They are places for storing books and documents. Big Tree Village has been established for decades, and the migrants who first built this place were not illiterate. They left behind many records about their original hometowns and what they experienced along the way, as well as the process of how they built Big Tree Village, all written in book after book. After they died, these written books were mostly bought back by the original Village Priests with money. Although most were just complaints and ramblings from the lives of those villagers, the migrants from different regions of the Empire still recorded many details of the Empire's development from decades ago."

Priest Feilina found the key to the door of the room in front of her, inserted it into the padlock on the door, twisted it with effort to open the lock, and then pushed open the door. Inside was a small space with bookshelves against three walls, piled with books of different shapes.

Those books looked like they were left behind by the original villagers here; they were mostly handmade books, with rough paper and simple leather covers—the simplest kind of affordable books. However, even for this so-called affordable book, a blank book would cost ten to several dozen copper coins at a general store in Kendall County, making it an expensive item that commoners could not afford at all.

Jier scanned the room, neither seeing nor sensing the presence of the Shadow Bird, and the Sacred Artifact was not on the floor here either. Instead, there were quite a few carcasses of small insects on the brick floor.

Seeing Jier curious about the small insect carcasses on the ground, Priest Feilina explained: "Every half month, I carefully fumigate these bookshelves with insect-repelling herbs; otherwise, the leather covers on these books would all be eaten by those insects."

To complete the act, Jier and Priest Feilina entered the room together and checked every part of the bookshelves, confirming there was no Sacred Artifact or crow.

"Not in this one, let's go to the next one." After Priest Feilina finished speaking, she closed the door and locked it again, then opened the next small house.

Click, the metal lock opened, and then the tightly closed door opened. Inside, there were still bookshelves against three walls, but this time the books on them were much neater.

It was not that they were placed neatly, but that the books on these shelves were all made with a uniform format, uniform size, and uniform material.

"Oh, what are these? Looks like a big undertaking!" Jier exclaimed. He knew that here, these books and the knowledge recorded within were the truly expensive things. Because of the monopoly on knowledge, the high cost of knowledge, and the lack of circulation of knowledge, these rooms of books were the second most precious treasure of the Big Tree Village Agricultural God Church.

You ask what the first most precious treasure is? Of course, it is Dashu Bi'ao, which has been growing here for a thousand years.

"Oh, these are the records of observations left behind by the Nature Sect every year or two when they come here to make a pilgrimage to Dashu Bi'ao and seek wisdom. These were not created by me or my predecessor priests, but were produced and transcribed by the priests of the Nature Sect. Each time, they leave behind two copies of their observations: one is taken back by the pilgrim for their own possession, and the other is left here, paid for by me and my predecessors to keep for them, for later pilgrims to look up what wisdom their predecessors sought from Dashu Bi'ao."

Speaking of this, Priest Feilina gave a disdainful snort; it was unclear which part of this matter she was mocking.

Jier did not ask, but clearly, Priest Feilina could not help but say it herself: "Seeking wisdom, sounds nice, but actually many pilgrims are dignitaries from various places. They are troubled by many things, but clearly, what can be recorded in books is not anything truly important."

Jier smiled: "That's true. Can things that are truly important be recorded in books for future people to look up? If it were you, would you?"

"I naturally would not; I would only record and transcribe some content that can be made public for future people to see. Warrior, would you write it down?"

Jier shrugged: "I naturally would not either; important things are either kept in one's heart or recorded in one's own private notebook, only for one's own reading and review."

Immediately, Jier sighed at these neat books: "So, these data books, which cost quite a bit of wealth to establish, only record some irrelevant, unimportant things?"

"Not exactly, many interesting things are written on them, but there are too many things, and I don't read these things either. Many of them are about the content of the Nature Sect, which does not align with my Agricultural God faith." After Priest Feilina finished speaking, she briefly checked between the bookshelves and walked out of the room.

Jier casually pulled out a book transcribed over twenty years ago and opened it to take a look.

【According to the provided terrain data, this is the optimal construction plan for the checkpoint provided by Wisdom Bio. This page to the next page.】

Inside the book was a topographical map of a certain checkpoint, data on soil composition and groundwater levels, and the next page contained the construction plan for the checkpoint, as well as the distribution and placement of the garrison, water wells, command post, underground grain warehouse, armory, and ground maintenance room.

Jier raised an eyebrow, not expecting that a random book here would contain such important data.

He closed the book, found the most recent pilgrimage record, opened the latest one, and discovered it was content from last year.

【Weilisi Shanjie, Dududanie'er Shanjie north-south orientation, focusing on fifteen high-altitude points reachable by humans, and the distribution of Magic Power natural supply points. Possible locations of simple earth vein magic power, possible locations of natural thunder magic power, possible locations of water vein magic power. This page to the following fifteen pages.】

Following that was a surprisingly detailed map, but he did not know which mountain range it was, or why one would need to break into the high-altitude points in the mountains and search for these so-called natural magic power supply locations around these high-altitude points.

As soon as Jier saw this, he knew he had seen some important classified content. But he also did not expect that something that looked important at a glance would be so casually transcribed in a book and protected by just a wooden door and a metal lock? And based on the source of these things, it turned out that those Nature Sect pilgrims came to Big Tree Village to make a pilgrimage to Dashu Bi'ao and asked for such bizarre and critical information?

He had thought they would ask some traditional classic questions, such as how long I can live, how to obtain powerful strength, and whether my lover truly loves me—the kind of questions that often appear in stories.

No, the strange thing was not this, but that those dignitary pilgrims would actually ask a tree that could not even move about such natural magic power locations thousands of miles away, and could Dashu Bi'ao really answer this content?

So, is this Dashu Bi'ao a wish-granting machine that answers every question? Or is it a tree-shaped artificial intelligence computing cluster?

Snap, Jier closed the book, and after putting it back, he walked out of the room with a strange expression.

He asked Priest Feilina, who was preparing to close the door: "No, Priest Feilina, have you read the data recorded by those pilgrims? They ask these professional and difficult questions? And Dashu Bi'ao can answer them?"

Jier had a weird look on his face, feeling that this world was a bit strange; a tree in a remote village could actually answer such professional questions asked by pilgrims who had traveled from afar.

What was even stranger was that everyone felt this was normal.

But Priest Feilina's answer also surprised Jier: "I flip through the new pilgrimage records every year, but I only flip through them simply; I can't understand those things anyway. But you ask if the content they ask is professional and difficult? Isn't that a matter of course? If they were easy questions, why would those pilgrims spend money every year to maintain this place and specifically travel a long way to this remote little place of Big Tree Village? They could just find a scholar nearby to solve them themselves, couldn't they?"

"As for why Dashu Bi'ao can answer their various questions, I can only say it is very smart; being crowned with the title of wisdom is not something that happens easily. Besides, if there is something Dashu Bi'ao doesn't know, it can also ask other existences. There are always great existences that can answer the various tricky questions raised by pilgrims. Of course, Warrior Jier, you must know that the things that can be recorded in books are only recorded after there is an answer. Every time pilgrims come to make a pilgrimage, there are many questions that have no answer, or the answers to which the pilgrims are dissatisfied with; these are not officially recorded by the priests of the Nature Sect."

Priest Feilina's explanation cleared up Jier's doubts.

Afterward, the two opened the door to the third room. As soon as they entered, they could see a semi-illusory wooden bowl turned upside down on the floor among the scattered insect carcasses.

"Found it! Found the Sacred Artifact!"

Jier shouted, immediately attracting the other two people in the courtyard over.

The four people surged into the small room together. Priest Feilina was the first to curiously pick up the inverted wooden bowl on the ground. She carefully held this semi-illusory Sacred Artifact, formed by the gathering of infinite Agricultural God Divine Power, in her hands, carefully observing the appearance of this Sacred Artifact and the composition of the Divine Power inside with her eyes.

"So, this is the Sacred Artifact? This structure, this Divine Power that comes directly from the gods! It is truly incomparably profound."

After sighing at the wonder of the Sacred Artifact, Priest Feilina immediately turned her head and flew into a rage at Priest Bata'er: "So, Luosa!! You held it and only knew how to use it to drink alcohol, is that it? Didn't you feel it? What kind of miraculous great power the great Agricultural God used to make the Divine Power condense into such a precise structure of Divine Power?"

Priest Bataer wore a bitter smile as he accepted the criticism: "Feilina, say no more. I don't understand what you're talking about. I've only had it for less than ten days, and I usually treasure it by keeping it close to my body, fearing it might get bumped or scratched. I haven't even looked at its structure carefully at all."

Priest Feilina rolled her eyes: "To say something disrespectful, even if this Sacred Artifact fell into molten lava, it wouldn't suffer the slightest damage. There's no need for you to guard against it getting bumped or scratched. What you should really be wary of are animal thieves like crows, and those bold professional pickpockets."

Xueya Site added specifically: "I know, the professional thieves from the Thieves Guild, right! They specialize in stealing all kinds of high-value treasures!"

Jier had no interest in speaking. He pretended to inspect the crow hiding in the room and to be curious about the contents of the books in the room, using his hand to brush over the books on the shelf one by one. In reality, he was letting the Shadow Bird, a tiny ball of light hiding in the shadows of the bookshelf, be clamped between his fingers. Then, with a casual movement, Jier let his right index and middle fingers brush over his right eye, taking the Shadow Bird's ball of light into his right eye.

Having retrieved the listless Shadow Bird, Jier finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, the Sacred Artifact had been returned to its rightful owner, and he had also retrieved the Shadow Bird that had performed meritorious service; finally, his mind could relax.

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