Su Huilan looked up at the sky, Hanran was in her arms, got wet from the rain and meowed.
Petru stood not far away, his body still in that advantageous, defensive stance, but his face showed a blank expression. He couldn't figure out where he was, whether he was dreaming or in someone else's dream.
When even dreams became unreal, Petru realized that the heights a spiritual master could reach were beyond his current reach and even imagination.
Looking at the dark clouds in the sky and the drizzling rain, Su Huilan asked, "How did you do that?"
Qingmu said, "It's nothing, it just happened to be raining. I was just moving the scene into Ruxue's dream."
Su Huilan said, "I almost thought you were some ancient demon who could summon wind and rain!"
Qingmu smiled and said, "Why did you guys stop talking?"
Su Huilan looked at Petru and said, "It's raining, let's go somewhere else?"
Petru snapped out of his daze, relaxed his tense body, and carefully assessed the situation to make sure he was no longer in anyone's dream. He reached up and wiped the rain from his face, let out a long breath, and said, "Come with me."
Petru turned and walked towards the other side of the hillside.
Su Huilan said, "My suitcase is still in the woods, you guys go first."
Qingmu said, "I'll go get it. It doesn't look good for a lady to have her clothes wet."
Su Huilan said, "Then I'll trouble you, gentleman!"
Petru turned to Qingmu and said, "There are two wooden cabins on the left side of the valley behind the mountain, but I don't live there. I live in a cave behind the cabins; that place is a bit secluded."
Qingmu pointed to the Crow overhead and said, "Don't worry, I have a guide."
Back in the woods, the Crow asked Qingmu, "Hey, are you really a thousand-year-old demon?"
Qingmu asked in surprise, "Why do you ask that?"
The Crow said, " Guagua, caw, I think Su's suspicions are valid. I've often felt you're not a normal person, but I've never come up with such a profound term—'a thousand-year-old demon'! Guagua! Perhaps you're a thousand-year-old piece of wood!"
Qingmu laughed, "If I'm a thousand-year-old piece of wood, then you're a thousand-year-old bird!"
The Crow raised its head and thought for a long time, finally deciding that it wasn't a good name.
A raindrop got into its eye, and it cried out, raising its wings to cover its head, saying, "But there was no sign of rain when I was flying in the sky just now. Where did this rain cloud come from?"
Qingmu said, "I don't understand either. Maybe that's just the climate on the island! Besides, don't you think this place is strange?"
The Crow nodded and said, "Caw, caw! The hillside is completely bare, not a single feather grows on it, and it's covered by an invisible mental shield. And that guy's gun, why can it be mentally locked onto?"
Qingmu said, "I suspect there's a strong radioactive substance buried underground, which is why nothing grows here. Petru must have stored the weapons here for a long time, and most likely buried them in the ground to avoid detection. The bullets, having been exposed to radioactive contamination for so long, have also acquired the same radioactivity."
The Crow jumped up with a start. "What! Radioactive material! Will we get cancer? Will our genes mutate? Oh my god, I don't want to turn into an ugly prehistoric monster."
Qingmu said, "That's hard to say!"
When they returned to the hillside, Su Huilan and Petru were already gone. Qingmu then pulled the suitcase down the hillside and into the valley behind it.
Petru's place was indeed hard to find. The two wooden houses seemed to be just a decoy; his real residence was in a very hidden cave on the cliff. Without careful searching, it would be difficult to spot the cave from the outside, but the view from the cave entrance was excellent. You could see the entire bay outside the canyon, and the only mountain path leading down from Tapu was also clearly visible.
The cave was very dry and equipped with basic necessities, as well as lights and a computer; I don't know where he got the power cord from.
When Qingmu went in, Hanran was lying on the simple wooden tatami mat eating. It seemed that Petru's "home" had a lot of good food stored up.
Su Huilan and Petru sat opposite each other across a stone table, on which lay several tattered sheepskin maps.
Qingmu had already heard Petru "tell" the story of Redbeard in Ruxue's dream, so he probably knew where these maps came from.
When Petru saw Qingmu come in, he stood up, poured him a glass of water, and handed him a dry towel.
Qingmu said thank you, dried his wet hair and Crow feathers with a towel, and walked over to sit down at the stone table. When he got close to Su Huilan, he sniffed hard, but couldn't smell anything. However, the scene of that summer night in the bar stubbornly appeared in his mind.
Su Huilan seemed to sense something and asked, "What's wrong?"
Qingmu smiled and said, "You smell nice."
Su Huilan wasn't sure if Qingmu had sensed something, or if it was just flirtatious talk from a man in front of a woman. She was very well-maintained; if you ignored her demeanor and only looked at her face and skin, she would still appear to be a young woman in her early twenties. That was already attractive enough, but her aura was even more captivating. In the presence of such a beautiful woman, any man would feel a slight stirring in his heart.
But can this block of wood flirt? Su Huilan unconsciously shook her head.
She knew she must have given herself away when she was using the " Fragrant Hypnosis " technique to hypnotize Petru.
This is actually a very ancient method of hypnosis. Thousands of years ago, people used the aroma of special plants to confuse people's minds, thereby greatly reducing their mental resistance.
However, Fragrant Hypnosis is a psychological technique that directly affects the olfactory center of the brain, and no aromatic chemical molecules are dispersed in the air. In theory, only the person being hypnotized can perceive the fragrance; those around them cannot "smell" it.
Su Huilan stopped thinking about it. Anyway, there would be plenty of opportunities to ask him later, and she believed that Qingmu also had many questions to ask her, but now was just not the right time.
She looked at the parchment on the table and asked, "Is this what you stole from them?"
Petru nodded. "Yes."
Su Huilan picked up the nautical chart, looked at it against the light shining in from the cave entrance, and exclaimed, "What an unexpected find!"
Petru asked, "Do you know what this is?"
Qingmu also looked at Su Huilan with curiosity.
"If I'm not mistaken," Su Huilan said, spreading the nautical chart back on the table and pointing to the triangle in the center, "That's the location of the underwater pyramid, and also the place where our research vessel sank."
Qingmu looked at the nautical chart on the table in surprise. These yellowed parchments were pieced together to form a complete nautical chart. Many islands were scattered on the chart, and sailboats were drawn in the sea between the islands, but the sails were not the same. Some were single-masted, some were double-masted, and some were triple-masted. He didn't know anything about navigation and didn't know what it meant.
In the center of the nautical chart is a triangle that looks like a shining Sun, radiating out many lines, each connecting to the surrounding islands. Only one line, pointing vertically downwards, starts from the center of the triangle, passes through the lower vertex, and connects to the edge of the map, making it seem as if there is another island that has not been drawn on the map.
But Qingmu immediately remembered that symbol, and the Mirror Pyramid model that he had discussed countless times with Professor Mei.
He felt that the line wasn't connecting to an island, but rather to another map, which should also have a similar triangle at its center, with a straight line connecting the two opposite vertices.