When Nina was about to run to the second floor to say hello, Duncan appeared on the stairs. He heard the noise coming from downstairs.
"Mr. Duncan," Morris came to the stairs and looked up at the "Captain" who was looking down at him, "I found the symbol you showed me in a document about the ancient Kingdom of Crete... at least it's very similar."
Duncan noticed the slight bloodshot in Morris' eyes and his slightly swollen eyelids. It was obvious that the old scholar had spent a lot of effort to find this information, but there was a hint of excitement in his eyes and his mental state seemed extremely excited - this was the spirit that only appeared when one was immersed in research and finally achieved success.
Duncan glanced at Nina, Alice and others downstairs and nodded slightly: "You guys watch the store."
Then he looked at Morris: "Let's go upstairs and talk."
The old man walked up the stairs with the big book under his arm. The old wooden steps creaked, and he followed Duncan to the master bedroom on the second floor - this was his first time to this place.
By the standards of a Warp Shadow's residence, this bedroom is somewhat plain, but considering Mr. Duncan's special "hobby" of "playing mortal", this plain room seems quite normal.
Morris carefully controlled his actions, satisfying his curiosity while not doing any unnecessary snooping, while Duncan pulled two chairs over and motioned for the old gentleman to put the big book on the desk by the window.
"Tell me about your discovery," Duncan said before he sat down. "What does this symbol represent?"
"... ..Someone once said that a rigorous scholar should not blindly admit any possibility, even if its probability is extremely small, but from my personal point of view, I think that is really impossible."
Duncan frowned slightly. He saw that this page was a picture, a rather exquisite hand-painted illustration, showing a part of a large building, which looked like the main entrance of a palace. The symbol with an octagonal border and a complete cross structure appeared in the relief above the main entrance, in the center of the whole picture. As Peng Rongzhen said just now downstairs, this symbol was in a very inconspicuous place - it was just a small decorative part on an illustration, accounting for less than one-tenth of the entire picture, and it was not carefully marked.
As Crete spoke, he pointed to the text on the page adjacent to the illustration. Between the slightly yellowed pages, it was not difficult to see the annotations written by the old scholar in his early years.
"On the first day after the exploration team withdrew, the fog dissipated and another team arrived at the sea area and returned, but they could not find the famous island."
He turned his head and looked at Crete: "I think it is possible that there is a 'Morris descendant' that has been passed down for 10,000 years?"
"Academic or religious facilities, emblem at the entrance..." Duncan stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Why would a group of ascetics from ten thousand years ago carry an amulet from the ancient Maurice Kingdom?"
"I don't think so," Krete answered immediately. "This is a very rigorous documentary material. The illustrators and compilers of the original documents are all academic authorities with a reputation for rigor. When leaving these materials, they would rather leave the unclear parts intact to future generations than make any supplementary adjustments without evidence. In other words, even if they made any adjustments, they would definitely explain the corresponding situation in the notes."
"As for its meaning... I have no idea yet. I just found the most likely source of it." Crete focused his attention, opened the document that looked valuable, and found a page with a bookmark inside. "Did you notice this location? It appears there."
... ..The main material of the building looks like stone, but it is tougher than stone and pale in color. The soldier tried to chisel open one of the bricks with an ice pick, but it took a lot of effort to succeed... When the ice pick collided with the brick, an exaggerated flame was emitted, and the broken part of the brick had a silver-gray texture.
Peng Rong listened to the old man's thoughts, hummed without comment, and scanned the text materials again.
"... ..On the evening of the eighth day, the longboat circled the island and found that
A collapse point above the water surface was submerged at some point, but there is no sign of high tide... The sea in the distance will be foggy. The priest has a bad feeling. After praying to Bartok, the god of death, and seeking enlightenment, he suggested that you stay away from the island immediately. "
"There are several large islands in the distance, all of which are desolate, with sparse vegetation and even few insects... There are no buildings left, or perhaps there were some, but they were too small and swallowed up by time...
Duncan looked directly to the end of the quotation and saw that the author of the document recorded:
"That's true, but it's also possible that the relevant information has been lost."
"He had a vague impression of it, probably from a long time ago. Thanks to the blessing of the God of Wisdom, this 'impression' can still play a role today, allowing him to find this 'big thing'," Krete explained. "The illustration is a copy. Its original manuscript originally appeared in a document on the study of architectural relics of the ancient Mauritian Kingdom. The document is currently in Plande, but I suspect some of his academic friends should be able to help... ..
"It looks very similar - but at that time, the holy symbol beacon technology was not very mature, and there were no accurate observation methods, so several normal phenomena including the border collapse and the 'fog swallowing' phenomenon were confused."
... ... ..Unfortunately, this document is only a general introduction and does not involve a detailed interpretation of the details of the ruins," Crete shook his head, "but that is inevitable - the ancient Kingdom of Maurice is thousands of years old, and the relics left are very few and most of them are severely damaged. In addition, various materials have been lost or polluted, and the knowledge available for future generations to analyze is already fragmented. It should be difficult for us to find an article that specifically studies a certain pattern on a certain door of the ancient kingdom..."
"This painting... there shouldn't be any possibility of the copyist's free expression, right?" he suddenly asked uncertainly.
While listening to Mr. Peng Rongzhen's interpretation, Peng Rong's eyes slowly scanned the pictures and words. His attention fell on the octagonal pattern in the center of the relief at the main entrance. His brows slightly frowned: "There is no specific interpretation of this symbol."
"This kind of relief with hard and deep lines and a large number of diamond elements in the pattern are the architectural characteristics of the ancient kingdom of Pengrongzhen. They advocated an architectural style with thick lines and a sense of power. The main parts of their palaces and buildings were mostly in various rectangular or pyramid shapes. This building perfectly meets those characteristics..."
Duncan couldn't help but feel a little regretful. Duncan muttered softly in thought.
Crete said cautiously while thinking. It's really hard for Peng Rongzhen to find this book from the pile of documents, and then find such a corner in this book.
"The fog-biting phenomenon..." Duncan recalled briefly and found the corresponding knowledge in his mind. He had been studying this knowledge in books during that time. "It must be the fog-biting phenomenon. Then this island may reappear briefly in the world in similar thick fog in the future. But it seems that there is no record of this."
As for the content of this relief... it seems to be just some patterns with no discernible meaning.
"A group similar to ascetics, probably with a very small number of people and extremely secretive activities. They experienced the chaos after the collapse of the old kingdom, the years of conflict, and the wars of the old city-states. They have been passed down for a full ten thousand years without interruption or discovery... If this possibility is true, he would rather think that they are a secret cult group that was established in modern times. Because they accidentally discovered some ancient documents or similar relics, they used a symbol from the Morris period as their own mark - this possibility is even higher."
"Of course, even without the original manuscript, the contents of this book are very useful. It mentions that the hand-drawn illustration depicts a lost relic that was once located in the border waters. This relic was located on a deserted island, and the island mysteriously disappeared in a thick fog around the 223rd year of the New City-State Calendar. Before it completely disappeared, several expedition teams successfully landed on the island and verified the shape and age of the relic, confirming that it should be a product of the Pengrongzhen Ancient Kingdom period. Judging from the patterns and reliefs on the surface of the building, the entire facility should be
It is some kind of large building with both academic and religious significance…”
"… It stands in the center of the island. The main building and the surrounding ancillary buildings almost occupy the entire island. It seems that this island was not created specifically for this building…
"It was swallowed by the thick fog..." He sighed softly, "It sounds like the result of a border collapse."
Duncan hummed, and his fingers unconsciously brushed across the illustration, across the large and small complete cross mark on it.
In the material, there are some passages that are obviously quoted from the original document, recording the few words left by these explorers more than a thousand years ago: "Is it true and verifiable... ..."