Chapter 107: Tail Ship 25
"What contest?"
The captain was still answering, he hadn't realized that this was a message recorded by the Lord in the past. The mysterious Lord had predicted that there would be a fight today.
He anticipated that Joan would not be a reliable captain, and that sooner or later cracks would appear in the happy ship he commanded.
He also knew that the guy who was about to confront Joan was not here to bring true happiness. Even more amazing was that he seemed to know that an outsider would show up at the scene.
He seemed to have higher hopes for this person than for Joan.
The rusty scale that conveyed his voice was held in Jiang Yuelu's hand. The soft golden light it emitted was like a ball of thin golden gauze, making his face even more unclear.
"Joan should have told you about the [tears]."
"He must have told you about the [Exam], too. That was my suggestion to him. I told him that if [Tears] were really hard to find, he could try the method of the Wizarding Academy... You know, I'm not like other Lords who hate the Academy. I quite admire those wizards who have a clear distinction between love and hate and want to kill me."
Dad snorted, "It turns out that even this idea wasn't yours."
The captain's face turned slightly red, he coughed and turned his head away uncomfortably.
"I trust Qiong very much. After all, I promoted him." The Lord of the City said in an elegant and gentle voice, "But I am too far away from you at this moment. Time will erase my instructions and my traces, and wear my previous words into something else. Perhaps the [exam] Qiong mentioned is completely different from what I imagined."
"Will you be unprepared at this time?"
He smiled softly, "But don't worry too much."
"As long as you have participated in this [Exam], you will be influenced to a certain extent. After all, the two of them are like twin brothers born from the same origin. Looking in each other's mirrors, they always have similarities..." When he mentioned the twin brothers, there was a subtle turn in his tone, as if he remembered something, which made him feel not so good.
"I've heard a theory."
Tong Mian wiped the blood foam from the corner of his mouth and said in the lowest voice: "Among the four ghosts of [Happiness, Anger, Sadness and Joy], there is a pair of twin brothers."
"It seems like they died before they were born. No two dead fetuses living in their mother's wombs are as powerful and vicious as them. Moreover, their viciousness is different from that of other ghosts."
Ghosts are the extension of human beings after death. They have abandoned the bright part of human nature and are only connected to the dark soil, which is why they become vicious and cruel.
Tong Mian whispered, "But a dead fetus has never been alive."
It has never been exposed to the sun, nor has it smelled the fragrance of grass.
He had never been gently embraced by his mother, nor had he been gently rocked on the shoulders of his father.
"They became ghosts before they were born. Their understanding of the world is not complete at all. They don't know what love, hate, happiness, or pain are. This makes them innocent and vicious in a different way. They don't know how insidious their actions are. Just like us getting up in the morning to eat, plundering and fighting are just their instincts."
After Tong Mian finished speaking, he immediately shut up and turned off the power.
Even though he knew that this was a recording from the past and that nothing he said would be heard, he still felt a little restrained and his heart was tense as the legendary Lord of Ghost City was so close.
It seemed like he was about to get sick again... He pressed his chest, trying his best not to fall on Leng Wenhan's shoulder, "I'd better stay away from you... I can't take advantage of you too much."
Leng Wenhan was too lazy to pay attention to him and put him on his shoulder.
"Fuck?! You're a girl, why are you so rude??"
The scale hasn't "spoken" for a long time.
The Lord was in a bad mood after he mentioned the twin brothers, but this also gave Jiang Yuelu time to digest the information. He thought about the information given by Tong Mian.
"Among the four words [happiness, anger, sorrow, and happiness], what has a similar meaning?"
Tong Mian: "Oh, I understand what you mean. You think that they are more like twin brothers because they have similar meanings, right? I have thought so before. From this point of view, [Xi] and [Le] are the most likely ones."
Jiang Yuelu shook her head, "Not necessarily. The opposite is also possible."
"On the contrary... it's Ai. He definitely won't be the captain of this ship."
Jiang Yuelu nodded, "It's possible."
After their discussion came to an end, the city lord seemed to have recovered from his bad mood and turned into a leisurely and elegant young man again. He was calm and collected, and picked up the wine glass and shook it gently.
"I have reserved three places for you. Qiong, your opponent, and the person who wakes me up." The scale in Jiang Yuelu's hand was slightly hot. The other party seemed to be able to see him and sent an ancient greeting.
"You can bring your teammates, but only three people. When you are ready, go to the entrance of Happiness Lane." The young man suddenly changed his vocalization habits, and the words he uttered next sounded like ancient chants, with a wonderful tone, but even so, it was still extremely elegant.
"The tears of the sky are buried on the left."
"The tears of the earth flowed to the right."
"Pick up the stone of birth in the middle, and the door to the past will appear."
The light dimmed.
It was a long time before the boat owner broke the eerie silence. He seemed to have recovered from the shock of seeing the Lord of the Capital. "Looks like we need to go to Xingfuli."
Dad: “That’s what I meant.”
The two teams rushed to Xingfuli in a hurry. Jiang Yuelu and others were the only ones left in the ruined room. In a short time, Tong Mian had already made a prediction. He gasped, "It's very bad, this time we're going to end up in a dead end. Don't even think about getting out unless you lose half your life!"
Leng Wenhan waved his hand, and the wandering souls stood at attention and disappeared. His white pupils were covered with a thin layer of light, which showed that he was using his eyes.
"I saw it." He shook his head. "It's not very good."
Jiang Yuelu looked at them with a smile, "So, do you want to go?"
"Raise your hands if you're going."
Two hands were raised quickly.
Tong Mian said excitedly: "This is the test paper issued by the Lord of the City - the Lord of the Ghost City! I have never participated in an exam of this level. Will there be ghosts that I have never seen? The kind that have disappeared in legends? Ahhhhh, I am so anxious, I am so anxious!"
Leng Wenhan was calmer, "You have to pass the exam."
When the word "exam" was mentioned, the three of them felt as if they were in another world.
Since boarding the ship, they have been pushed by various soldiers and horses and swept into different torrents. They have somewhat forgotten the original intention of coming to the stern ship.
Jiang Yuelu: "Originally we came here because the ghosts sent out a bounty order. They seem to have followed the academy's example and used grammar instead of martial arts. They want to give us a test, and we can only pass if we pass it."
Tong Mian's eyes lit up, "So, now is the time for the test questions to be officially unveiled?"
But he couldn't figure it out again, "What about before that? What were we doing for so long? We almost visited every corner of the ship."
Jiang Yuelu seemed to be thinking about something.
Could it be that everything they experienced after boarding the ship was part of the test? A long question stem. Now that they had the content, they began to work on the solution.
He murmured: "We are going to write the characters now..."
"Solution? Where is it written?"
After a moment, happiness entered the mouth.
Two rows of people had already lined up in two rows, like a welcoming team.
On one side, led by the ship owner, the slogan is "Let the sweat of happiness sprinkle on the noble sky!"
On the other side are Dad and his children, whose slogan is "Despair should be on an equal footing with happiness, and there must be no distinction between high and low in the ghost market!"
They each brought three men with them.
Jiang Yuelu was more familiar with the old man's side, Drake, Gurian and Jin, all of whom were familiar faces he had seen before. But he didn't recognize the ship owner's side, he only remembered a ghost named Joe.
The ship owner stared at him fiercely, fire in his eyes.
Jiang Yuelu wondered: "Why is he looking at me like that, as if I stole his things."
"Uh. You did steal his things." Tong Mian gestured a length, and Jiang Yuelu suddenly realized, "Oh, right, the scale."
"That's something only I can use... It was left to me by the Lord!" The ship owner cursed without any manners, "You shameless and despicable thief!"
"Sir, you shouldn't use the word shameless or mean to insult someone. You should say he is noble—"
"Shut up!"
Dad was happy to see them quarreling. He was still friendly to Jiang Yuelu, but not as friendly as before. "Now that everyone is here, let's start looking for the [Exam Paper]."
The owner: "I'm still here. Is it your turn to start?"
Dad: "Oh, please, please, please. Great ship owner."
Jiang Yuelu ignored them and recited to herself the riddle poem left by the Lord.
"The tears of the sky are buried on the left. The tears of the earth flow to the right... Pick up the stone born in the middle, and the door to the past will appear."
Derek pondered, "What does that mean?"
"Tears, could they be related to water? Let's look for a puddle or something like that."
"It flows to the left... to the right... could it be a stream that will separate?"
"Hey! Look here!" Drake was pleasantly surprised to find a canal along the corner, but the others shook their heads and avoided it. "Asshole, look carefully, that's a sewer!"
The boat owner seemed to be enjoying the fun. "Water flow? What a joke. The old master really overestimated your intelligence. In my opinion, this is probably a puzzle."
"Oh, what a useful thing you said. We can all see that this is a puzzle." Derek couldn't help rolling his eyes. "All we have to do is crack it and find the correct answer."
Both sides were arguing so loudly that they ignored the existence of another team.
Derek glanced at Jiang Yuelu and the others and couldn't help but ask, "What good ideas do you have?"
The boat owner glared at them: "What do they know? A bunch of outsiders!"
Jiang Yuelu said calmly: "I do have an idea, but I don't know if it's right."
The old man smiled and said, "You can talk about it first." Although they are competitors, if they can't even enter the door of the [examination room], there is no so-called competition at all. Therefore, he will maintain a friendly attitude towards this group of people for the time being.
"Have you noticed that the door at the entrance of Xingfuli is a little strange?" Jiang Yuelu said.
"Door?"
Everyone looked up at the door they passed by every day. It was old, dark copper, and extremely ordinary, without even any extra patterns. Compared with the prosperous building behind it, this door was too shabby and stingy. The ship owner wanted to tear it down and rebuild it countless times.
At this moment, he seemed to remember something, "Right. Xingfuli was originally built with this place as the center and then slowly expanded... This is... the starting point of all happiness."
"I think tears and water have nothing to do with each other." Jiang Yuelu said, "It should just be a symbol, and it is also related to the two tears that the Lord wants. One on the left and one on the right is also a certain image. Doesn't it look like a scale? The two ends of the scale are also divided into two, one on the left and one on the right."
Speaking of the shipping scale, the ship owner was so angry that he didn't want to talk. "Come on, don't keep me in suspense. What's the answer?"
"These days, when I was walking on the boat, I found that the positions of happiness and despair were exactly opposite to each other in the entire boat. If viewed from a high altitude, they were like corresponding positions in a Yin-Yang Bagua formation." He mentioned the Yin-Yang formation on the ghost's territory, causing a gasp.
But everyone gradually discovered that Jiang Yuelu had no other intentions, he was just simply immersed in answering the questions.
“So I think the left and right may correspond to the positions of happiness and despair. ‘Pick up the stone born in the middle’ is for us to find the middle between these two places.”
"Then the door to the past will appear."
Dad groaned: "Well, it seems to make sense."
"Then..." Joe glanced at the ship owner carefully.
"What are you looking at? Go find it!" The boat owner yelled, "Look for that bullshit middle position!"
-
Soon, the ghosts came to a crossroads.
In the middle of the intersection stood a waterless demon statue. Strangely, he had a pair of horns on his head, but he had a smile on his face, a long tongue hanging out of his mouth, and he was wearing a wide white cloak.
Tong Mian hummed, "Bai Wuchang?"
"That's not right. The pale face, the smile, and the tongue, it looks like Bai Wuchang. But shouldn't it be wearing an official hat? It should also say..."
Leng Wenhan: "It makes money as soon as you see it."
"Yes, yes, yes. That's it. But why is it a pair of horns? It looks too much like a Western demon... It's a bit out of place."
"Since this ship has a combination of Chinese and Western architecture and ghosts, it's not surprising that a statue like this appears." Jiang Yuelu said, reaching out to touch the stone statue, "It's made of stone. That should be it."
The middle stone.
"Thank you for your efforts." Tong Mian smiled and praised them separately: "One of you provided the ship model drawings left by Will, and the other provided the information about the deep alleys in the ship. Without your help, we would definitely not be able to find this place."
The ship owner snorted coldly and turned his head away.
Just as he was feeling proud of himself, he heard his subordinate say, "Sir, why are they expressing their gratitude... Isn't this the job of the ship owner?"
He was furious and was about to lose his temper when his father interrupted him.
"Drake, go and move it."
"Wait - we need to send someone too." The boat owner kicked Joe's butt, "Go!"
The strong Drake and the pampered Joe each lifted one side of the stone statue. The black flying insects that flew out instantly covered their eyes, and everything was submerged in the tide of ink.
I can't see anything.
-
I don’t know how long it took.
Jiang Yuelu finally woke up. He had a splitting headache. He stood up and looked around.
Candle lights were lit here and there, but the lighting capacity was limited and most of the view was still dark. One could only roughly tell that this was an indoor place. There were not many objects placed on the ground, so it was very spacious, but also seemed particularly empty.
The feeling on my hands is not good, probably because they are covered with dust.
This was an empty place, and it seemed that no one had been here for many years. They were the first to set foot here.
A groan came from the side: "Head... My head." Tong Mian covered his head and tried to stand up. One hand groped for a support point beside him and finally touched a table. But as soon as he put his hand on it, a switch sounded with a "click" and cheerful music suddenly spread everywhere.
"What?!"
"Happy birthday to you~Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to my lovely daughter...Happy birthday to you~" Joyful singing echoed throughout the hall, mixed with intermittent laughter.
A song that should have appeared at the end of the banquet, appearing here, is particularly inappropriate.
Who are you wishing happy birthday to?
Is there anyone else in this empty house?
Jiang Yuelu: “Ah.”
He remembered where this place was.
"Is this the No. 1 Mansion?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
