Just as Nina was about to run to the second floor to say hello, Duncan appeared on the stairs.

He heard some 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 gentleman walked up the stairs, holding 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 after he sat down. "What does that symbol represent?"

"As for its meaning... I have no idea yet. I just found the most likely source of it." Morris calmed down, opened the document that looked valuable, and found a page with a bookmark inside. "Did you notice this location? It appears here."

Duncan frowned slightly. He saw that the page was a picture, a very exquisite hand-painted illustration, which should be a part of a large building. It looked like the main entrance of a palace, and the symbol with a hexagonal border and a broken cross structure appeared in the relief above the main entrance, in the center of the entire picture.

As for the content of the relief...it seems to be just some patterns with no discernible meaning.

Just as Morris said downstairs just now, this symbol is in a very inconspicuous place - it is just a small decorative part on an illustration, accounting for less than one-tenth of the entire picture, and it is not specially marked.

It's amazing that Morris could find this book among piles of documents and find such a corner in this book.

"I have a vague impression of it. I must have seen it a long time ago. Thanks to the blessing of the God of Wisdom, this 'impression' can still play a role today and let me find this 'little thing'," Morris explained. "This illustration is a copy. Its original manuscript originally appeared in a document on the study of architectural remains of the ancient Cretan Kingdom. That document is not in Pland at the moment, but I believe some of my friends in the academic world should be able to help me...

"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. The relic was located on an unnamed deserted island, and the island mysteriously disappeared in a thick fog around the year 223 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 Ancient Kingdom of Crete. Judging from the patterns and reliefs on the surface of the building, the entire facility should be some kind of large-scale building with both academic and religious significance..."

As Morris spoke, he pointed to the text on the page adjacent to the illustration. Between the slightly yellowed pages, one could see the annotations written by the old scholar in his early years.

"This kind of relief with strong and deep lines and the large number of diamond elements in the pattern are the architectural features of the ancient Kingdom of Crete. They advocated an architectural style with thick lines and a sense of power. The main parts of their palaces were mostly in the shape of various cuboids or pyramids. This building perfectly meets these characteristics..."

While listening to Mr. Morris's interpretation, Duncan's eyes slowly scanned the pictures and words. His attention fell on the hexagonal pattern in the center of the relief on the main entrance. His brows furrowed slightly, "There is no specific interpretation of this symbol."

"...Unfortunately, this document is only a general introduction and does not involve a detailed interpretation of the details of the ruins," Morris shook his head, "but this is inevitable - the Ancient Kingdom of Crete is 10,000 years old, and the relics left behind are very few and most of them are severely damaged. In addition, various materials have been lost or 'contaminated', 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..."

"An academic or religious facility, with an emblem at the entrance..." Duncan stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Why would a group of 'ascetics' from ten thousand years later carry an amulet from the ancient Kingdom of Crete?"

He turned his head and looked at Morris: "Do you think it is possible that there is a 'Cretan remnant' that has been passed down for ten thousand years?"

"…Someone once said that rigorous scholars should not blindly deny any possibility, even if its probability is extremely small, but from my personal point of view, I think it is really impossible."

Morris said cautiously as he thought about it.

"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, I would rather believe 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 Cretan period as their own mark - this possibility is a little higher."

Duncan listened to the old man's thoughts, hummed noncommittally, and glanced over the written materials again.

In the material, there are some passages that are obviously quoted from the original document, recording the few words left by the explorers more than a thousand years ago:

〖…It stands in the center of the island. The main building and the surrounding ancillary buildings almost occupy the entire island. It seems that the island was created specifically for this building…

...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 brick had a silver-gray texture.

There are several small islands near the island, 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 have been swallowed up by time...

...On the evening of the third day, the boat went around the island and found that a collapse point that was originally above the water surface had been submerged by water at some point, but there was no sign of high tide...Fog began to form in the nearby sea area, and the priest had a bad premonition. After praying to Bartok, the god of death, and seeking enlightenment, he suggested that we immediately stay away from the island. 〗

Duncan looked directly to the end of the quotation and saw that the author of the document recorded:

[On the seventh day after the exploration team withdrew, the fog dissipated and another team arrived near the sea area, but could no longer find the unnamed island.]

Duncan couldn't help feeling a little regretful.

"It was swallowed by the thick fog..." He sighed softly, "It sounds like the result of a border collapse."

"They look very similar - but at that time, there was no mature holy symbol beacon technology, nor were there sufficiently accurate means of observation. Several abnormal phenomena, including the border collapse and the 'fog swallowing' phenomenon, were easily confused."

"Mist-biting phenomenon..." Duncan recalled briefly and found the corresponding knowledge in his mind. He had been studying this knowledge in books recently. "If it is really a mist-biting phenomenon, then this island may reappear briefly in similar thick fog in the future. But it seems that no records of this have been passed down."

"That's true, but it's also possible that the relevant information has been lost."

Duncan hummed, and his fingers unconsciously brushed over the illustration, over the small broken cross mark on it.

"This painting... there shouldn't be any possibility of the copyist's 'free expression', right?" he asked suddenly with concern.

"I don't think so," Morris replied 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 vague parts intact to future generations, and would not make any "supplementary adjustments" without evidence. In other words, even if they did make adjustments, they would definitely explain the corresponding situation in the notes."

"Is it true that it can be verified..."

Duncan muttered quietly in thought.