Chapter 3393: Anecdotes of the Archipelago Kingdom

At the bottom of this short message written on animal skin was the signature and date. Xia De calculated that the time was the fifteenth year after the priest left the island. So if he had truly returned here, he should have been able to see this letter.

"But this letter doesn't look like it has been moved by anyone else."

Xie Wei said. Although the possibility that the priest saw this letter and then put it back couldn't be ruled out, Xia De didn't think he would leave it behind once he saw the letter:

"So although he returned to the island, it is highly likely that he never returned here at all."

Xia De looked at the dilapidated house. Although there was snow on the ground under the holes, there had been no traces of human life in other places for a long time:

"The other party might have been worried that their home would still be monitored, but the news I got was that the people in the tribe had never monitored this place. And this letter..."

Xia De hesitated for a moment, rubbing the ink on the animal skin that hadn't faded in nearly two hundred years with his fingertips. Xie Wei leaned in front of Xia De to look as well, her dangling hair sweeping across Xia De's face:

"Is there a problem with the ink?"

"Luweiya has recently been trying to make a peculiar kind of ink. The ink used in this letter is very similar to the ink she is making. But hasn't the ink been lost for a long time... Right, two hundred years ago, it might not have been lost yet."

Although the priest hadn't returned, the matter of the ink was still worth the two of them searching the house carefully. Although the family took most of their belongings before moving away, many things were left behind.

It seemed the male owner of this house was once a stonemason. When Xia De ventured into the dangerous basement, he even found a map of the small open-pit stone mine nearby and a small portion of stone materials left behind.

"Snake Scale Stone?"

He found the unique stone needed to prepare the "ink" among those stone materials, which made Xia De more certain that the ink used on the animal skin was similar in composition to the ink Luweiya was trying to make. Although not exactly the same, this ink from two hundred years ago definitely contained some ingredient unknown to them, which might provide new ideas for Luweiya.

So Xia De didn't put the letter back in the end, but planned to let Mr. Sargent, the "Potion Merchant", distinguish the ingredients after returning to Kyle-Todd Town. If the letter had no other use in the end, Xia De would put it together with the only remaining hand bone of the defecting priest.

Although he didn't see his mother's letter, lying with the letter in the end should be nice too.

"You are always so gentle."

This was Xie Wei's evaluation of Xia De.

Afterward, the two went to check the direction where the three people from the Seer Society appeared, but the seers, like them, tried their best to erase the traces of their actions. Xia De even tried to use 【Echoes of the Past】 to listen to the three's conversation, but the sound he heard was rustling, and he couldn't distinguish the specific content of the conversation.

This showed that those seers had even thought about guarding against peeping from the other end of time.

Seeing that there were no clues in the small village, Xia De planned to head to the last stop of this trip with Xie Wei. The grave of the priest's younger brother, who died accidentally on the snowy mountain, was deep in the snowy mountain, so they didn't return to the sea, but set off from the village gate and walked all the way toward the snowy mountain.

Elder Harald had already prepared the most suitable route into the mountain for Xia De. Xia De was originally worried that the group from the Seer Society would also go there, but fortunately, no traces of them were found along the way.

Along the way, he continued to talk about the scenery with Xie Wei, chatting about the past and the future. Xie Wei shared her sailing experiences with Xia De and told Xia De that if this wasn't near the Old Continent, but in the Archipelago Kingdom, then the dangers they would have to face would be more than just humans.

"What else would there be?"

"The most common are Sirens, a kind of creature with bird wings, a body similar to a female human, feathers and scales covering the body surface, and legs like sea snakes. They will disguise themselves as stranded young girls on beaches or shipwrecks to wait for prey to approach, but more often they nest in groups on the tops of coastal peaks."

She shared her experiences with Xia De:

"There is also the abandoned village we went to just now. If this were the Archipelago Kingdom, that place would have long been occupied by water ghosts or fishmen as a coastal nest. As for the underwater cave we went to this morning, it might also be treated as their territory by things like sea monster snakes."

"Are there so many alien creatures in the Archipelago Kingdom?"

Xie Wei nodded:

"The further away from the Old Continent, the more common alien life is. So the Archipelago Kingdom was one of the main sources of supernatural materials before the New Continent was discovered."

The tribes on the archipelago also retain ancient living habits like the Fatu people today, and are extremely brave and good at fighting. Although they value honor, their moral sense is not very strong, and plundering ships traveling between the new and old continents is the main source of income for many people.

"Is the probability of sorcerers being born among them as high as the Fatu people?"

Walking on the small path at the entrance of the mountain, Xia De continued to ask curiously. Xie Wei immediately shook her head:

"I didn't know about the Fatu people before, I only learned about them this time because of Claire. I bet the Fatu people are definitely the group of people with the highest proportion of sorcerers among existing humans. This mountain is really protecting them."

As for the large number of supernatural beings in the three major academies, it is naturally because of the alien races.

"The situation in the Archipelago Kingdom is exactly the opposite of what you think. The proportion of sorcerers among the people there is extremely low. Once a sorcerer is born, they basically become a 'wizard' or 'prophet' of a tribe or settlement, and then learn the inherited arcane arts and spells. Therefore, although the power of the Five Gods Sect in the Archipelago Kingdom is far inferior to the Old Continent, there are actually very few problems between sorcerers there."

Xie Wei said, catching the hand Xia De handed over. Xia De pulled her to a higher cliff:

"Why are so few sorcerers born? Is it a racial issue?"

"No, I have read several papers. Although the arguments are different, the mainstream view is that they are far from the civilization hinterland of the material world, and their own level of civilization is far behind the steam-era Old Continent, so the number of sorcerers born is relatively low.

Xia De, do you remember why the fate ring of a sorcerer is brass-colored?"

Xia De recalled the beginning, what Dr. Schneider told him:

"Because this era is the era of steam and machinery, so the fate ring emerges from the steam, forged by the bombardment of a giant hammer, presenting a brass color. For us in this era, civilization is the most powerful force."

At this moment, at the foot of the snowy mountain, recalling the doctor's words from that midsummer, Xia De had a different feeling. At that time, he didn't even know what a relic was, and now he has mastered two words of sublimation and witnessed countless ancient secrets.

The doctor's words at the beginning were so precise. For this world where the end is coming and is about to head toward total demise, civilization is indeed the power that people can still continuously create.

Xia De and Xie Wei both liked this atmosphere of chatting while walking through the snowy mountains, so they didn't deliberately speed up their pace. Coupled with the fact that they met a mountain goat that wasn't afraid of people and came to ask them for food along the way, Xie Wei watched Xia De feed the goat, which took some time, so it wasn't until 3:30 in the afternoon that they arrived near the grave.

"Let me check the map... It should be below."

Standing on the edge of the snow-covered cliff, Xia De looked down:

"The accident that boy had back then should have been here. The map says the grave is in the canyon below the cliff. Let's go, let's go find it."

He reached out to Xie Wei, and then the two jumped down together. The cliff below was only more than ten meters high, but after landing on their feet, they didn't see the shadow of the grave.

But this was also normal. This was originally a snowy mountain area that was difficult for ordinary people to reach, and coupled with the fact that the boy had passed away for two hundred years, naturally no one would sweep his grave every year. And letting the graves of these people who died on the snowy mountain eventually merge with the snowy mountain is actually the purpose of the Fatu people.

"The area of the canyon below this cliff is so large, where exactly is that grave?"

Xie Wei asked again. Xia De shook his head:

"The people who buried the boy back then wouldn't have thought that someone would look for him again hundreds of years later, so the records about the grave are not very clear. Being able to find this place is already something the elders determined after reading many documents. There is still some time before dusk, and we have already found one relic, so let's search slowly."

"Then there should at least be a tombstone, right?"

Xie Wei asked Xia De again. This time Xia De nodded: "Yes, but don't have too much hope for that tombstone. The elder said that these graves in the snowy mountain are generally made by placing a circle of pebbles from the seaside around the grave mound, and then erecting a large stone dug nearby in front of the grave, with an epitaph carved on the stone. In this way, because the tombstone itself comes from the snowy mountain, it will soon merge into the snowy mountain again."

"In other words, there might be nothing left of that grave now?"

"Yes, but if the third relic taken away by the boy's brother is here, we should be able to perceive faint whispers of elements."

Summoning fire to melt the snow to find the possible tombstone or grave should be the most convenient way at this time. However, out of respect for the snowy mountain, Xia De didn't do so.

The area below the cliff is actually a canyon that is not very deep but exceptionally wide. The snow here is extremely thick. If it weren't for Xia De's ability to walk directly on the snow surface, the snow would probably have submerged his knees with one step.

With such deep snow, Xia De was unwilling to clear it away, so searching for the grave could only rely on the perception of whispering elements. But fortunately, Xie Wei didn't care at all whether she found any grave. That was Xia De's task, and for her, continuing to enjoy today's time with Xia De was the most important thing.

But it happened that on this last leg of today's journey, they still encountered someone who broke the peace. ===== CHAPTER 3394 =====