She stood up and Li Wen paid for the drink. Her movements were silent, as if she had never been there.
Walking out of Tavern, Port Belen at night was more crowded and chaotic than during the day. Drunk sailors sang tuneless things loudly, adventurers fought and fought on street corners and blood was everywhere. There was a dangerous atmosphere in the air.
It's not hard to find Port Belen's player gathering places. They are usually hotels with low rents or private rooms on the second floor of large Tavern. Li Wen relied on her previous life experience to quickly lock in several target areas. She finally found Fu Qingyan and his party in a hotel called "Sea Breeze House".
The hotel lobby was empty. The waiter at the front desk was fast asleep. Only a few players were sitting in the corner, discussing something in a low voice. Fu Qingyan was sitting among them, looking a little helpless.
"Monitor, I still don't understand, why would Sea Chart give something so important to a stranger?" One of the tall and thin boys complained submissively, looking like he wanted to be angry but didn't dare to be angry.
"Almost got it Yang Yi." The speaker was another female player from the Elf clan who looked weak and weak. She looked small and soft, but her tone was extremely rude. "Qingyan must have her reasons for doing this. You can stop complaining. Are you annoying the monitor every day?"
Fu Qingyan sighed and explained patiently, "First of all, she is not a stranger, she is someone who has saved us. Secondly, I have said many times that we have to take a long-term view and cannot just focus on the gains and losses in front of us, even if this is just a game... It is absolutely impossible to gain the trust of others without thinking about giving. Besides, haven't you all memorized the content on that Sea Chart?"
At this moment, Li Wen pushed open the creaking wooden door of the hotel and walked in. The hem of his cloak brought up fine dust as it swept across the threshold. The noisy conversation in the hall suddenly stopped, and six pairs of eyes looked at this uninvited guest.
"It seems that I came at the wrong time." She stood on the edge of the halo cast by the oil lamp, her eyes swept over the faces of this group of somewhat familiar people, her voice was casual and indifferent.
Fu Qingyan stood up slightly, the wooden chair made a harsh sound on the floor, a smile appeared on her beautiful face, "Miss Mephisto came at the right time, we were just discussing..."
"It's about Sea Chart." Li Wen walked straight to the table, took out the yellowed parchment from the inside of the cloak, and gently pushed it in front of her. "The property returns to its original owner."
The parchment was spread out on the rough wooden table. Under the dim light of the oil lamp, the blurred coastline and place names looked even bleaker. Fu Qingyan picked up Sea Chart and lightly brushed the marks with her fingertips. She raised her head and faced Li Wen's gaze hidden in the shadow of the hood.
"Miss Mephisto thinks that the information on Sea Chart is not detailed enough?" She smiled, as if she had expected this.
Li Wen's voice was calm, "It only marked the general range of the sea area, and did not have the specific coordinates of the ruins. Black Reef Bay and Sunken Horn, these two places are not small just by the positions circled on Sea Chart." She paused and added, "If the ruins really exist."
Fu Qingyan smiled slightly and laid Sea Chart flat on the table again. "Miss Mephisto observed it very carefully. This Sea Chart does have another mystery. Its artist seems to have deliberately hidden the most important part. It cannot be seen through ordinary methods."
She looked at her companions. The lanky boy who complained earlier looked away unnaturally, lowered his head and began to act like a turtle, while the elf girl moved closer curiously.
"Qingyan, you never said before that this Sea Chart has a secret." The elf girl asked with her big eyes blinking.
Fu Qingyan shook his head helplessly, ignored his companion's interruption, and turned to Li Wen and said, "This sea area, which is Black Reef Bay, is said to have quite complex currents and dense reefs. Ordinary ships It is impossible to navigate in it, so it is not recorded on the normal Sea Chart. The author may have hidden the key coordinates to prevent Sea Chart from falling into the wrong hands, or it is just for fun."
As she spoke, she took out a small leather water bladder from her backpack and a small piece of ordinary-looking black stone. The stone had a rough surface and some traces of shell fragments on the edge, as if it had been picked up from the seaside.
"This is 'Ink Soaking Stone', a common stone on the beach near Port Belen. It has no special value, but it has a strange reaction to some special inks." Fu Qingyan explained. She pulled out the stopper of the water bag, and a faint smell of sea wafted out. "And the water bag contains sea water just brought from the dock this morning."
As he spoke, Fu Qingyan dipped a corner of the black stone into the water bag, soaked it with some sea water, and then carefully wiped the area marked "Black Reef Bay" on the Sea Chart. Her movements were very gentle, as if she was afraid of damaging the fragile parchment.
Li Wen watched quietly without making a sound. She could feel that there was no magic fluctuation on Fu Qingyan, which seemed to be purely utilizing the characteristics of the material itself.
As Ink Soaking Stone moved slowly on Sea Chart, a wonderful scene happened. After being contaminated with a small amount of sea water and in contact with Ink Soaking Stone, the color of the originally blurry ink stains began to gradually deepen, and in some specific locations, some small lines and symbols that did not exist before faintly emerged.
Fu Qingyan looked focused, and fine beads of sweat oozed from her forehead. The area she wiped gradually expanded, and more and more new lines appeared. They were connected and intertwined with each other, outlining a more complex and specific pattern on the originally empty sea map.
About a quarter of an hour later, Fu Qingyan stopped and let out a long sigh of relief. "Okay."
Sea Chart on the table has changed its appearance. In the dark ink of "Black Reef Bay", a spiral mark composed of countless fine red lines clearly emerged. In the center of the mark, there was a small, almost imperceptible black dot, and a series of numbers marked with special symbols appeared next to it, which looked like some kind of positioning parameters.
"These are the precise coordinates of the ruins." Fu Qingyan pointed to the black dot with a hint of contentment in his tone. "The painter used a double-layer ink. The surface layer is ordinary ink, and the bottom layer is mixed with a seaweed extract that only develops color under the catalysis of a specific salinity and Ink Soaking Stone. If I hadn't accidentally heard rumors about this from Old Joey, I probably wouldn't have been able to unlock this secret."
Li Wen didn't care about this. Her eyes fell on the black dot, and she secretly compared this location with the scattered clues about Soul Lord in her past life memory. Although she could not be completely sure, this was undoubtedly a very valuable discovery.
"Thank you." Li Wen nodded slightly. She knew that the next step was to negotiate terms.
Sure enough, Fu Qingyan changed the topic. "Since Miss Mephisto already knows the secret of Sea Chart, then about the reward..."
She looked around at her companions, and all five pairs of eyes looked at Li Wen with either expectant or nervous expressions.
"There are six of us in total." Fu Qingyan's voice was clear and firm. "We all hope to embark on the path to transcendence. So, Miss Mephisto, what we need is enough material for all six of us to complete the promotion ceremony."
Ceremonial materials for six people are not a small sum of money. Even for the most basic path promotion, the core materials required are often quite rare and expensive. If it were before encountering "Impurities", Li Wen would have been available, but now...
"Do you mind if I take a look at the promotion ceremony you have mastered?" Li Wen asked.
Everyone's eyes moved to Fu Qingyan. The girl nodded slightly and smiled, "Of course there is no problem."
As she spoke, she struggled to take out a palm-sized slate from her backpack, and then carefully placed it on the table. Everyone's eyes were focused on this small stone slab, and they later discovered that there was nothing surprising about this stone except that it was filled with incomprehensible characters and patterns.
Li Wen only glanced at it and recognized that this was the promotion ceremony of Knowledge Path's Stage One Seeker of Knowledge. Knowledge Path belongs to the Origin Essence genealogy, which is a path that focuses on gradually revealing oneself and exploring the truth through the accumulation, understanding and application of the inner knowledge system. In summary, the more you know and understand, the stronger you will become.
Li Wen had expected this. In her previous life, Fu Qingyan was a transcendent who became Knowledge Path, and she even advanced all the way to Stage Five.
After confirming that it was Knowledge Path, Li Wen felt relieved. The materials for the ceremony to promote Seeker of Knowledge were not difficult to find. There were quite a few of them in Fairy Pocket. In addition, many of the materials were interchangeable with each other. By piecing together, six copies should be collected.