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

He heard movement coming from downstairs.

"Mr. Duncan," said Morris, as he came to the staircase, looking up at the "Captain" who was looking downwards, "I found the symbol you showed me in a document about the Old Kingdom of Crete...... At least very closely. ”

Duncan noticed the slight bloodshot under Morris's eyes and the slightly puffy eyelids, and it was evident that the old scholar had taken a great effort to find the information, but there was a sparkle of excitement in his eyes, and his state of mind was unusually high—a look that only comes when one is immersed in research and finally achieves something.

Duncan glanced at Nina, Alice and the others downstairs, and nodded slightly: "Look at the store." ”

Then he looked at Morris, "Let's go upstairs and talk." ”

The old gentleman stepped up the stairs with the large book in his hand, the old plank staircase creaking, and he followed Duncan to the master bedroom on the second floor, which was his first time in the place.

By the standards of a subspace shadow, the bedroom is a little plain, but given Mr. Duncan's special "hobby" of "playing mortal", this modest room seems quite normal.

Morris carefully controlled his movements, satisfying his curiosity without any superfluous prying eyes, while Duncan pulled two chairs from the side and motioned for the old gentleman to place the large book on the desk by the window.

"Tell me about your findings," Duncan said as he sat down, "what does that symbol represent?" ”

"About what it means...... I don't have a clue yet, I've just found one of its most likely provenances," Morris paused, opening what seemed to be a valuable document and finding a bookmarked page inside, "Have you noticed this location?" It's here. ”

Duncan frowned slightly, and he saw that the page was a drawing, a rather beautiful hand-drawn illustration, which should have been part of a large building, what looked like the main entrance of the palace, and the symbol with the hexagonal border and broken cross structure appeared in the relief above the main entrance, in the center of the whole picture.

As for the contents of the relief...... It seems to be just some patterns that don't have a meaning.

As Morris had just said downstairs, the symbol was in a very inconspicuous place—it was only a small decorative part of an illustration, less than a tenth of the whole picture, and it was not specially marked.

It's hard to see how Morris could find this book in the piles of literature, and find such a corner from the book.

"I have a dimly dim impression that I saw it a long, long time ago, and thanks to the blessing of the god of wisdom, this 'impression' still works to this day and allowed me to find this 'gadget,'" Morris explains, "The illustration is a copy, and its original manuscript originally appeared in a document on the study of the architectural remains of the ancient Cretan kingdom, which is not currently in Plant, but I believe some of my academic friends should be able to help......

Of course, even without the original manuscript, the book is useful for mentioning that this hand-drawn illustration depicts a lost relic that was once located in the border sea, on a nameless desert island, which mysteriously disappeared in a thick fog around the year 223 of the New City State, and that several expeditions had successfully landed on the island before it completely disappeared, and that the shape and age of the ruins were examined, and that it should be a product of the Old Kingdom of Crete, judging by the ornamentation and reliefs on the surface of the building. The whole facility should be some kind of large building with both academic and religious significance......"

As he spoke, Morris pointed to the text on the adjacent page of the illustration, and between the slightly yellowed pages of the book you could see the annotations that the old scholar had written in his early years.

"This kind of relief with its hard, deep lines and the abundance of diamond-shaped elements in the pattern are characteristic of the architecture of the Old Kingdom of Crete, which admired the architectural style of thick lines and a sense of power, and the main part of the palace buildings was mostly in various cuboid or pyramidal shapes, and this building perfectly fits these characteristics......"

While listening to Mr. Morris's interpretation, Duncan's gaze slowly swept over the pictures and words, and his attention fell on the hexagonal pattern in the center of the relief at the main entrance of the picture, and 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 it is inevitable that the Old Kingdom of Crete is 10,000 years old, and the ruins left behind are few and most of them are badly damaged, coupled with the loss or 'pollution' of various materials, the knowledge that can be analyzed by future generations is already fragmented, and it should be difficult for us to find an article dedicated to the study of a certain pattern on a certain gate of the Old Kingdom......"

"Academic or religious facilities, the emblem at the entrance......" Duncan touched his chin thoughtfully, "why would a group of 'ascetics' ten thousand years later carry with them an amulet from the Old Kingdom of Crete?" ”

He turned his head and looked at Maurice: "Do you think it is possible that there is a 'Cretan remnant' that has been passed down for 10,000 years?" ”

“…… It's been said that a serious scholar shouldn't blindly deny any possibility, even if it's very unlikely, but from my personal point of view, I don't think it's really possible. ”

Morris said cautiously as he pondered.

"A group of ascetics, who may be very few in number and whose activities are extremely secretive, have experienced the great chaos after the collapse of the Old Kingdom, the years of strife, and the wars of the old city-states, which have been passed down for a full 10,000 years, and have neither been broken nor discovered in between...... If this is true, I prefer to believe that they were an occult society that was founded in modern times, because they stumbled upon some ancient texts or similar relics, and used a symbol from the Cretan period as their own mark—this is a little more likely. ”

Duncan listened to the old gentleman's thoughts, hummed noncommittally, and his eyes swept over the written materials again.

In the material, there are some passages that are apparently quoted from the original manuscripts, describing the words left by the explorers more than 1,000 years ago:

“…… It stands right in the center of the island, and the main building and the surrounding outbuildings occupy almost the entire island, as if the island was built specifically for this building......

“…… The main material of the building appeared to be stone, but it was tougher and pale in color, and it took a lot of effort for the soldiers to try to chisel through one of the wall tiles with an ice axe...... The ice axe and the wall tiles emit an exaggerated fire when they collide, and the broken wall tiles have a silver-gray texture.

"There are a few small islands near the island, all of which are very desolate, with sparse plants and not even insects...... There are no buildings left, and there may have been, but they are too small and have been swallowed up by time......

“…… On the evening of the third day, the dinghy made a tour of the island and found that a collapse site that had been located above the water had been submerged by the water at some point, but there was no sign of high tide...... Fog began to rise in the nearby seas, and the priest had a bad premonition, and after praying to Bartók, the god of death, and seeking revelation, he advised us to stay away from the island immediately. ”

Duncan looked directly at the end of the quote and saw that the author of the literature had written:

"Seven days after the expedition team withdrew, the fog cleared, and another team arrived near the area, no longer able to find the nameless island."

Duncan couldn't help but feel some regret in his heart.

"It's just swallowed up in the fog," he sighed softly...... "It sounds like the result of the border collapsing." ”

"It looks like it – but there was no very mature technology for the Holy Emblem Dao Mark, and there were no accurate enough observation methods, so several anomalous phenomena, including the border collapse and the 'fog devouring' phenomenon, could easily be conflated."

"The fog devouring phenomenon ......" Duncan recalled, and then found the corresponding knowledge in his mind - he had been making up for this common sense through books during this time, "If it is really the fog devouring phenomenon, then it is possible that this island may briefly reappear in a similar dense fog in the future, but it seems that there is no record of this kind of survival." ”

"That's true, but it's also possible that the relevant information is scattered."

Duncan hummed, his fingers involuntarily brushing over the illustration, the small broken cross mark on it.

"This picture...... There shouldn't be any possibility for copyists to 'play freely', right? He asked suddenly, uneasily.

"I don't think so," replied Morris at once, "this is a very rigorous document, and the illustrators and the compilers of the original documents are scholarly authorities who have left their names with rigor, and when they leave these materials, they would rather leave the obscure parts to posterity as they are, rather than make any 'additions' in the absence of evidence, or even if they do make adjustments, they will definitely specify the corresponding situation in the notes." ”

"Is it real to be tested......"

Duncan muttered softly thoughtfully.

(End of chapter)