Ronald Cohen's last words were rather long, with sentences jumping from one topic to another. Perhaps he was too lonely in the deep well, and had plenty of time before he died, so he rambled on somewhat neurotically, like many lonely old people.
Qingmu could imagine that final scene:
The Swordfish exhausted all its energy in the deep well, and the officers and men on board knew death was imminent, peacefully lying down in their beds. Only Captain Halsey reluctantly sat in the chair in the command room, gazing at the starry sky outside the window. In that final moment, it was unclear whether he was lamenting the insignificance of humanity in the face of the vast universe, regretting his own ill-fated destiny, or perhaps thinking of his distant homeland in a different time and space.
In the end, only Ronald remained on the entire ship. He was very old, deaf and blind, and carrying the last flashlight, he walked alone in the dimly lit corridors of the warship, with the officers' and soldiers' quarters lying with corpses on both sides.
He went into the captain's cabin, and using the last bit of energy that could still light the wall lamp, he took out paper and pen and began to write down what he wanted to say but couldn't say any more.
Fortunately, his handwriting was not as bad as he claimed; on the contrary, it was quite beautiful and pleasing to the eye, and his writing was not crude, enough to explain some very difficult concepts and things clearly.
When we got to the Awakeners' Alliance, the first page was just finished, and we had to turn the page over to see the next one.
However, this paper has been lying on the table for hundreds or even thousands of years. Although Cohen said that its conservative preservation period is 10,000 years, no one can guarantee that nothing will happen when you touch it with your hands.
People looked to Mrs. Larry, an archaeologist who was good at handling these kinds of things.
Situ and Qingmu gave up their seats, and Mrs. Larry came to the table. Su Huilan and Petru held torches to light her way.
To uncover the paper, the first step was to remove the red coral branch pressing down on it. While the pure-colored coral was certainly valuable, it held little worth at this moment, so Mrs. Larry's attention was entirely on the paper, and her right hand casually reached for the coral branch, preparing to remove it.
However, the moment her hand grasped the coral branch, she screamed in alarm, as if she had grabbed a red-hot iron, and reflexively pulled back. Such a thing rarely happened to the usually composed and serious lady, so everyone was startled.
"What's wrong, madam?" Petru asked with concern.
Mrs. Larry shook her head and said, "I don't know... that thing was so hot... I thought my hands were burned to ashes, but..." She looked at her perfectly intact fingers, "This is so strange!"
"Let me see." Petru, unconcerned about the stares of others, took the lady's hand and gently rubbed it. "It's alright, madam, you're just too tired!"
The others also thought that the lady was hallucinating. Alice, as the lady's assistant, also had considerable experience in organizing artifacts. She stepped forward to help the lady pick up the coral branch on the paper, but her reaction was even more exaggerated than that of Mrs. Larry. She screamed and fell back, and was caught by Anderson.
Everyone felt something was amiss; if it wasn't electrified, then it was definitely a ghost!
In the dimly lit cabin, only a few weak torches flickered and burned. Ronald Cohen's gaunt face appeared pale and terrifying in the firelight, as if covered by a dried white mask, revealing two dark, hollow eye sockets that the firelight couldn't penetrate, as if ghostly figures were dancing inside.
"What's wrong?" Boris, who was lagging behind, craned his neck, eagerly reaching out to grab it.
"Don't touch Boris!" Ivan stopped them. "Listen to Mr. Stone and Mr. Qingmu."
Qingmu was standing a little closer to the table than Situ. He stepped forward and reached for the coral branch. The moment he touched the red thing, a scalding, branding heat came from his fingers, making him want to pull his hand away. But he resisted.
Then, the burning sensation traveled up his arm, through his chest, and into his other hand. In that hand he held the ebony scepter of the Sangqi Tribe, which burst into flames and transformed into a flaming staff.
Wherever the heat passed, his flesh and blood burned to ashes, vanished, leaving only stark white bones. Now, he had become a demon, otherwise normal, but with only bones remaining in his arms and chest cavity, clutching a flaming scepter in his hand.
Qingmu knew, of course, that it was all his own feeling, or what could be called a hallucination. To others, his ebony staff had not caught fire, and his body was perfectly unharmed.
This is a psychological influence, like hypnosis.
The special Mental Power on the red coral branch affected those who touched it, causing them to experience a "heat" illusion. Qingmu had thought of this from the beginning, but strangely, the Mental Power on this thing seemed to have some kind of connection with the scepter in his hand, like setting fire to wood.
Suddenly, a line from an ancient scripture came to mind. "Fire is born from wood, and calamity will surely follow."
As for why he thought of that phrase, he didn't know.
He already knew that this thing, like the ebony staff in his hand and the silver staff in Situ's hand, was a special item that could control Mental Power Field, and might also be a symbol of power of some savage tribe.
Furthermore, judging from the spiritual connection felt in their hands, these scepters are related. Could they be connected by a relationship of mutual generation and restraint, similar to the Five Elements theory in China philosophy?
The fire didn't continue burning; the coral branch quickly turned into an ordinary coral branch, and it was clear that it wasn't a complete coral branch—it was only half a branch, both in length and at the break.
Qingmu carefully picked up the coral branch, examined it closely, and then handed it to Situ. Situ took it and immediately frowned. From his expression, Qingmu could tell that Situ seemed to be experiencing a more intense burning sensation than he was.
"It's alright. This thing is imbued with Mental Power, which is just affecting your perception. It's not actually hot to the touch." Situ reassured everyone, then picked up the coral branch, looked around at the people, and finally chose Su Huilan. "Neither Qingmu nor I can hold it. Only you are suitable. You can keep it for now."
Me?
Su Huilan looked at Qingmu with a puzzled expression. When Qingmu nodded at her, she reached out her hand. Situ placed the coral branch in her hand. Her hand trembled slightly, but she still caught it steadily.
"Madam, please continue reading Cohen's last words," Situ said.
Mrs. Larry nodded, then carefully turned the first page of the letter to the second page, and read it aloud:
When you see this page, it means you've obtained half of the " Soul of Fire "—oh, that's the coral-like thing pressed on the paper.
That proves that there must be Awakened among you. If you are not Awakened, or even an ordinary Awakened, you will not be able to remove this half of the " Soul of Fire," because the Mental Power of fire attached to it will make you unwilling to touch it.
If you absolutely must touch it, it will burn your consciousness and reduce your "real life" to ashes before your brain can command your muscles to pick it up.
What I am about to discuss can only be done by Awakened with powerful awakening abilities; otherwise, even if one knows about it, one can only sigh in bewilderment and will not be able to contribute to the great cause of saving humanity and the universe.
The other half of the " Soul of Fire " was hidden on the spire of an ancient church on Earth. Unfortunately, we weren't entirely confident we could enter Ramla at the time, so we didn't retrieve the other half of the Soul of Fire from the church spire. Otherwise, the two " Soul of Fire " could have been combined, and the Swordfish might not have fallen into the Spacetime Deep Well.
I activated the Altar of Fire with half of the " Soul of Fire." I wonder if the other half of the " Soul of Fire " on distant Earth will sense it? Perhaps it will unfortunately start a fire on the spire of that church...
If that great church on the Île de la Cité unfortunately catches fire, if that towering artistic spire finally collapses, please forgive my mistake!
Although the loss of civilization is insignificant compared to the cause we are undertaking, I still want to apologize! Because the disaster could have been avoided.