Chapter 635: West Balam

Lu Mian had heard Lugano say that ships that deviated from safe routes might disappear mysteriously, only to occasionally reappear at night years later, without lights or people.

This should be such a case.

In the past, Lu Mian might have curiously "teleported" over to confirm the state of the ship's interior while it re-entered the safe route, but after the incident with the Hant Island devil legends, he felt that having one less thing to deal with was better than having one more. As long as the unmanned ship sailing in the darkness didn't show signs of aggression or give off that feeling of imminent danger, he could treat it as a unique landscape of the Berserk Sea and just watch.

The ship, which was overall brownish-brown, drifted further and further away, with only the sails billowing; there was no other movement.

Suddenly, Lu Mian, with his excellent eyesight, saw a face quietly looking out from a window in the top cabin, looking toward this side through the open void.

The skin of that face was shriveled and pale, tightly wrapped around the bones, lacking any sense of flesh and blood. The flaxen-colored long hair hung down from both sides, resembling clumps of withered wild grass. Both eyeballs were long gone, and the remaining sockets were filled with deep darkness.

This looked like the head of a corpse, but the lips were bright and unusually vivid, as if they had just been painted with lipstick.

Lu Mian intuitively believed that this shriveled, pale face belonged to a woman, or at least had belonged to one while alive.

He didn't raise his right hand to greet the other party enthusiastically, but watched quietly as the ancient three-masted sailing ship sailed out of the safe route and into the deep, dark night, watching that blood-red-lipped, dark-eyed corpse face melt into the darkness.

Only then did he wave his hand and say with a smile:

"Goodbye!

"Never again!"

He helped Franca and the others think about plans to deal with Moran Avigny for a while longer, finally deciding to wait until "007" provided more intelligence before planning in depth.

A "Conspirator" is not a Dreamer; they cannot construct conspiracies out of thin air. They must have sufficient information to support them.

By dawn, when Lu Mian woke up, the *Berry* had sailed out of the Berserk Sea in a thick fog filled with the scent of death.

Ahead was a vast, clear blue ocean, and the sun was blazing high in the sky.

For the next day, the *Berry* didn't enter Berens Port, which was located at the northernmost tip of West Balam, but continued to sail southwest, finally arriving at Pylos Port at four in the afternoon.

This port was located in Matani and was ruled by a general named Queralir.

This place was originally a colony of the Intis Republic, but after the war a few years ago, Intis colonists withdrew from this city and the surrounding areas, and various forces from the Feysac Kingdom, who already had good relations with General Queralir, moved in one after another.

Lu Mian's target for this trip, "Siso," hadn't appeared in Pylos Port, but the two pranks he participated in were both located in Matani: one in Tizamo Town, which was on the edge of Pylos Port and closest to the jungle, and the other in Devis, a gold-mining city at the southernmost tip of Matani.

Lu Mian unbuttoned the second button of his linen shirt and said to Lugano in a self-deprecating tone:

"I feel like I'm being rejected by winter, always active in a hot environment."

Before Trier entered deep autumn, he arrived at Sangtagang, which was also quite hot in autumn and had very sufficient sunshine. Just as Sangtagang began to turn cool, he arrived at Colia Port, which was in what his sister called the tropics, having only a rainy season and a dry season, with no winter, and temperatures never dropping below twenty degrees Celsius.

Now, Trier and other places had entered the dead of winter, but the Southern Continent was the exact opposite, in the middle of a scorching summer.

This made the black woolen overcoat and the Gehrman-style trench coat with warmth-retaining effects that Lu Mian had specially prepared useless.

"Because we've been heading south all autumn." Lugano still had a say in weather and seasons.

Lu Mian put on his golden straw hat, took Ludwig's hand, and walked down the gangway toward the port.

He showed off the characteristics of the great adventurer Louis Berry without any concealment.

Lu Mian had actually planned to change his strategy and sneak into Matani with a different identity to investigate the two pranks without attracting attention and find "Siso." But after Franca described "Siso's" daily behavior in great detail to Anthony Reid, among the top few judgments in the character profile made by this "Hypnotist" was the judgment of "highly aggressive."

Thus, Lu Mian changed his mind and picked up the business of "fishing" again.

However, he felt the chance of success wasn't high. With the lesson of the sea sacrifice ritual, and since "Loki" had survived and could pass on intelligence, "Siso" should have a full understanding of the forces hidden behind him. And based on the resources and energy previously displayed by the "April Fools," they clearly didn't possess the strength to contend with the "Tarot Club," and Lu Mian had more than just the "Tarot Club" behind him.

If he were "Siso," facing this situation, Lu Mian would definitely choose to wait patiently for a month or two, waiting for the enemy coming for revenge to become impatient and start making mistakes, waiting until the strong people behind him couldn't protect him all the time, and then launch a surprise attack.

"Don't pre-set a plan; consider it after finding clues." Lu Mian whispered to himself, walked out of the port with a large number of passengers, and came to a public carriage station.

Nearby were parked quite a few rental carriages and coffins, either pitch-black or vermilion.

*Coffins? * Although Lu Mian had read quite a few travelogues describing the customs of West Balam, he still couldn't help but feel absurd when he saw coffins parked on the side of the road.

Before the invasion by the Northern Continent countries and before West and East Balam were artificially divided, the Balam Empire worshipped the "God of Death"—this was also the "Underworld Emperor" from the "War of the Four Emperors." Therefore, the people here valued coffins, loved coffins, and regarded them as items that could bring peace and tranquility and the favor of the God of Death. In daily life, they would lie in them and be carried by people or pulled by horses or unicorns.

Of course, this was a means of transportation for those with a certain amount of wealth; ordinary people couldn't bear to lie in coffins.

After a brief moment of daze, Lu Mian said to Lugano and Ludwig with great interest:

"Do you want to take a coffin? I plan to try it."

"I, I'll pass." Lugano didn't think lying in a coffin was a good omen; he couldn't accept it.

Ludwig cast his gaze toward the street vendors nearby.

The scent of corn and potatoes intertwined, making every passerby's saliva secretion become vigorous.

"You guys are really boring." Lu Mian scolded with a smile, walked up to four locals with messy black hair and dark brown skin, raised his right hand, and pointed to the pitch-black coffin placed under the shade of a tree.

"How much?" Lugano asked in rather raw Dutan before Lu Mian could.

He did have a talent for languages. From departing Sangtagang to arriving at Pylos Port, it had been less than a month, and he could barely communicate with people in Dutan. Of course, it was limited to the most daily and shortest words and phrases.

One of the locals, who was naked from the waist up and wearing linen pants, replied in Dutan:

"40 kopeks for a short distance, 1 felkin for a long distance."

Seeing that the inquirer was a foreigner, he didn't convert the price into the local currency "Delisi"—"Delisi" was what the Intis people called the local currency, meaning copper coins.

*It's quite cheap. This is a coffin carried by four people; one carried by eight should be much more expensive... Hehe, they can actually use felkins and kopeks directly. As expected of a former Intis colony that was lost only a few years ago... * Lu Mian's mastery of Dutan was actually better than Lugano's because he had used up his only medium-level "Tongue of the World" charm on the ship.

Learning this language while in a state of understanding Dutan was naturally easier and more effective.

As for the charm being used up, Lu Mian didn't care at all. In his view, items were meant to be used; there was no such thing as a pity. Being able to exert an effect was the most important thing. He couldn't be like some misers who worked hard all their lives, unwilling to spend this or that, and finally died, leaving all their savings to others. Anyway, if he really needed a "Tongue of the World" charm, he could just buy it at the "Curly-Haired Baboons Research Society." If the gathering time really didn't match up, he could also "teleport" to various cities in Lenburg and buy it from the Church of Knowledge.

"Okay." Lu Mian nodded to Lugano. "We're going to the Aurella Hotel."

After Lugano paid 1 felkin, the local who had just quoted the price lifted the thin coffin lid, revealing the dark red thick cloth inside and a rather hard neck pillow.

Lu Mian took off his golden straw hat and lay inside with great interest. A chill immediately spread over his body.

In the scorching season, this effectively dispelled the damp heat.

*Is it because of the coffin wood or the black paint used to prevent sun exposure, or is it because it was placed in the shade? It's like entering a morgue in summer; it's quite comfortable... * Lu Mian watched the thin coffin lid cover him, feeling the shadow expand rapidly, finally ruling this world.

In his ears, the sounds from outside also became blurred.

The coffin was then lifted and moved forward with a slight sway.

Lu Mian's vision was pitch black, and the surroundings were gloomy and cool, giving him an inexplicable illusion that he was walking toward death and touching death.

"Excluding the psychological discomfort, it's actually quite good. It's just easy to fall asleep..." He evaluated this means of transportation in a good mood. "And it's not suitable for men and women to ride together; it would be quite awkward. Hehe, I wonder if 'romantic' Intis people have ever had affairs in this state?"

Nearly two quarters of an hour later, the coffin stopped in front of the Aurella Hotel.

Lu Mian stepped out of the coffin and saw a small, man-made deep valley.

Rows of rooms built of gray-black giant stones circled the inner wall of the "deep valley," constantly deepening until they reached the bottom.

This was the most famous Aurella Hotel in Pylos Port.

It once belonged to a descendant of the Balam royal family, Aurella Aigris, and was built for the purpose of being close to death. Later, it was occupied by Intis colonists.

After the Feysac people arrived here, they felt that it had the symbolic meaning of going deep into the earth and returning to the earth, so they transformed it into a large hotel.

(End of chapter)