"Of course, living hunters are always better than those who are dead." Anderson accepted the words with an unchanged smile, not caring about the two people's reactions.

Eric glanced at him and then noticed a problem that he had ignored until now.

"Don't you know each other?"

When he saw Said arguing with this man before, Eric thought they were acquaintances, but now it seems that this is not the case.

So, why did Mr. Mr. The Strongest Hunter seek out Said?

The giant brown bear-like man shook his head:

"No. But it's a good thing we haven't heard of his name. At least we know he's not on the wanted list with a reward."

Seeing that the two people were focusing their attention on him, Anderson generously stated his intention:

"I was introduced by the manager of the Red Brick Street Market, who said that your craftsmanship in making fine ironware is one of the best in this port...Wait a minute, how do I remember saying this when I walked in?"

"I seem to have heard you talk about this." Said scratched his head, and the expression on his face gradually became confused, "But after you saw the wood carving, you said you hoped to buy her, and you always wanted to persuade me to change my mind...

Seriously, what did you do here?"

Anderson sighed helplessly:

"I just want to do business with the eyes of a treasure hunter. One of my clients is a weirdo who really loves this kind of works. In addition to mermaids, he is also interested in Nagas, elves, demons and other alien species. He is willing to spend money

Spend a lot of money to buy statues and paintings that look like they were found in some ruins... Haha, of course, the premise is that these 'antiques' must be artistic creations with the theme of female aliens."

"But, what I carved is not a mermaid statue." Said showed a staggering persistence on this point.

As if he didn't hear the loud correction from the big brown bear man, Anderson showed his neat and white teeth, smiled and played with the money bag he took out from nowhere:

"Originally I just wanted to entrust you to help create a few special items. Now, I have become a little interested in the 'Daughter of the Deep Sea' you mentioned, so I decided to accept the invitation and take a look at your prayer ceremony."

With the relatively cooperative attitude of the bystanders, Eric and Said worked together to move the wooden statue into an empty room that had been prepared in advance. According to the ritual requirements, they filled a shallow-bottomed wide-mouth pot with half of the water into it.

A large wooden barrel was placed in front of the statue, kerosene lanterns were lit at the four corners of the room, and the curtains were drawn to block the natural light that penetrated the doors and windows.

The ritual tools, the on-site decoration... almost none of them are based on the basic theories of modern mysticism, and I am afraid that the subsequent process may not go like a normal ceremony.

The young man who calls himself Ken Held has some occult knowledge, but his mastery is not solid. From the details of his movements and demeanor when placing the utensils, he can see an obvious sense of unfamiliarity and nervousness, not to mention that he does not seem to have any knowledge about it.

Know how to create a clean and peaceful environment without even building a spiritual wall...

Even if this kind of ritual can be successfully performed, it may be accompanied by unpredictable consequences, and may even directly attract the dangerous attention of evil gods...

Do you want to just listen and run away?

Anderson seemed to be leaning against the wall behind him, looking very relaxed and unconcealed of curiosity, trying to ask the giant brown bear next to him for specific information about the woman of the deep sea, but in fact he was ready to run away.

A good hunter is a hunter who is alive.

However, unlike the host of the ceremony who held a wide-mouthed silver cup and began to recite prayers in an unknown language in a low voice, the giant brown bear man was not at all worried or uneasy. He thought he was suppressing his voice and described what he was doing with great interest.

Understand the teachings of the Daughter of the Deep.

"She sleeps in the sacred and great city of the deep sea. She usually doesn't pay much attention to believers on land, but she allows us to pray at 11 o'clock in the day and 11 o'clock in the night. If we are lucky, we can hear her.

Wisdom conveyed to believers through the echoes of the deep sea language...

Not to mention, I tried secretly a few days ago and asked her to cure my wife's rheumatic pain. The result... the result was exactly what Ken said! I heard the deep sea language, the deep sea language that only I can hear.

! And I have never heard that kind of language. I have learned to speak like that, but I can understand what she means... Uh, I mean, she asked me to find some white willow bark and soak it in water for the patient to drink. I

I did so and the next day my wife said she felt much better..."

The giant man almost talked about whatever came to his mind, without paying any attention to logic or key points. Anderson could only understand two things through his messy description.

1. The Daughter of the Deep Sea seems to be a very lazy guy. She (let’s call him Him for the time being) is too lazy to care about what believers do in daily life, and is too lazy to ask for sacrifices and rewards. She only occasionally listens to believers’ stories about their troubles in life, and then kindly helps them.

solve.

Second, during the holy hour on the 0th of each month, which is 11 o'clock in the day or 11 o'clock in the night, the Daughter of the Deep Sea allows believers to hold a prayer ceremony before God, but the specific function of this ceremony is only Ken who presides over the ceremony.

Helene just found out.

"So, what honorable name did you call the Daughter of the Deep Sea by when you prayed?" Anderson glanced at the young man who was pouring the water in the silver cup onto the ground, and continued curiously.

"Name? What name... Oh, that paragraph added before the prayer content? I read it according to the note Ken gave me. I haven't memorized it yet, but the pronunciation of the beginning should be-" Sai

De tried hard to remember, and spit out the not-so-standard ancient Hermes language from his mouth, "The sky is rich in soil, the stars are pulsed..."

Fortunately, the chanting of the honorable name that made Anderson's heart beat faster and his pulse quicken stopped right there, otherwise he doubted that he would have taken the initiative to interrupt the opponent directly.

I don’t know whether to call it naive or crazy to allow such ignorant ordinary people to come into contact with the extraordinary world. Or maybe these believers in the "Daughter of the Deep Sea" also have similar ideas to the "Iron Cross" and believe that the extraordinary is not possible.

Instead of being secretive, you should be the ruler of the world.

The treasure hunter subconsciously touched his pocket, regretting that the "Language Understanding" charm had long been used up and he could not understand the obscure prayers spoken by the ceremony leader.

However, the beginning of that honorable name seems to have nothing to do with the deep sea, right?

Anderson thought endlessly, and together with Seid, who had calmed down, they focused their attention on the beautiful statue that was almost as tall as a human in the center of the room.

At this moment, Eric also poured the completely transformed liquid in the silver cup into the clear water in front of the statue, and after reciting the last ritual incantation, he suddenly recovered from the transcendent and ethereal feeling of the ritual.

He realized that he had completed the ritual in a state of near sleepwalking.

But reality will not deliberately leave time for him to savor the aftertaste of a dream-like awakening, but will directly push the destined result to everyone's eyes——

The liquid from the silver cup showed a deep and dark color, and did not spread when entering the water. It just settled at the bottom and gradually condensed into a fish-like silhouette. In contrast, the liquid was originally only covered by four kerosene lamps.

The interior of the room that could provide lighting instantly became dim, as if it fell from noon to midnight in the blink of an eye, and the deep shadow seemed to absorb the light of the lights, emitting a bright but not dazzling soft white light.

"I..." Should I say goodbye?

Anderson was about to find an excuse to run away when he saw the young man presiding over the ceremony looking over. His eyes, which should have been mainly gray and blue, turned as deep and dark as the deep sea, with an unusually calm look.

Feeling of emptiness.

"Xima, the daughter of the deep sea, has agreed to our pilgrimage. Please also stand in the water with me. Xima, the daughter of the deep sea, will send an envoy to take us to the holy city of the deep sea." Eric's tone was uneventful.

He said, no longer surprised or surprised by the voice that suddenly sounded from the bottom of his heart.

The prayer ceremony before God... is it a ceremony that can truly bring the souls of believers to God? After this ceremony, you can see the Daughter of the Deep Sea?

And this outrageous ritual seems to have been successfully completed?

"Going to the Holy City of the Deep Sea? Can we directly see the Daughter of the Deep Sea?" Said, with a loud voice, had already expressed Anderson's doubts.

Eric just said calmly:

“You’ll know once you go there.”

Anderson was very doubtful about the authenticity of those previous speculations. He was worried that he would be in danger if he walked into the shallow water that was emitting light. He was also curious about what tricks the "Daughter of the Deep Sea" hidden behind the ritual wanted to play. He was tortured by the desire for knowledge.

Had to struggle a lot.

In two seconds, his thoughts flashed rapidly as he weighed the pros and cons. He even deliberately recalled his past experience of joining the "Iron Cross" and eating and drinking. Finally, he decided to trust his hunter's intuition and take a gamble.

Take a look at the situation.

Yes, I just went to take a look. As long as I'm careful and don't easily agree to any exchange conditions from the other party, I should be fine.

After confirming that the strong man like a brown bear had not encountered any unexpected danger when he walked into the water, the determined treasure hunter took the last step into the large wooden barrel with a shallow bottom and a wide mouth. His eyes were always looking around, waiting vigilantly and curiously.

The "Deep Sea Messenger" may appear; while Said was a little excited and nervous, muttering something in the native language of the Oradec Islands in a low voice, while holding Eric's shoulders tightly with both hands, as if

It's like trying to embolden yourself.

The next second, the three of them lost their senses of sight and hearing at the same time, and fell into a deep darkness that was almost deathly silent.

But after just a few breaths, the three pilgrims who stepped into the water, including the ordinary man Said, saw the outline of things in their field of vision again.

And this is no longer the dark room with the statue of a human body and fish tail standing just now.

The empty, cold rocky surface extended all around, and more than a dozen rough columns that stood, were severely worn, or collapsed formed the basic structure of the hall, which allowed them to see clearly where the light source came from.

In the grooves of the pillars, clusters of illusory light, like blue ghost fires, quietly lit up one by one on both sides, driving away the deep darkness that lingered in the hall as if it had been silent for thousands of years.

...Is this a holy city in the deep sea? Stop joking, okay? There is not even a drop of water in this hall. What kind of deep sea is this?

Anderson quickly touched his cheek, touched the corner of his clothes, and blew on the dry back of his hand to make sure that this place was definitely not water.

He cautiously used his ability to control flames without coming up. He planned to pass through the relatively intact columns and go to the walls of the hall to look for any murals, coats of arms or obvious architectural features that could prove the age. However, he noticed

The two people standing next to them took two steps forward without saying a word, then stopped and opened their mouths with expressions of shock or confusion.

What's ahead?

At the moment when he came to this judgment, he instinctively squinted his eyes and looked in the direction where the other two people stopped.

"No, look directly."

The layers of echoing unknown languages ​​intertwined with a sound as clear as spring water, and Anderson strangely understood its meaning.

He stared stiffly, staring at a severely cracked rock tile. The afterimage reflected in the peripheral vision looked like a huge, weird and evil illusory long tail gently swinging, and countless seaweed-like floating blue tiles.

The threads overlap and overlap, just like the source of nightmares that are best at arousing human fear, twisting and tearing apart ordinary people's cognition.

There is something in the center of that giant blue net.

...Hallucination? Illusion? Dream? Or reality?

Anderson inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to distinguish everything in front of him.
To be continued...