"You?"
Almost everyone was surprised, including Qingmu and Su Huilan. They had come to the island with Petru, especially Su Huilan.
Petru was the one she found. Although the series of events that occurred on Tubuai Island were somewhat bizarre, and the nautical chart in Petru's possession was also unexpected, she had investigated the pirate's background and knew his life story inside and out. Moreover, she had hypnotized him. The subconscious mind doesn't lie to her, and it's difficult to hide anything. It's like when you're facing an interrogation, you want to conceal the truth on one hand, but you can't lie to the police officer interrogating you on the other—that's simply impossible.
"Could it be that you really have some connection with that Redbeard from over four hundred years ago?" She recalled the origin of the other half of the Soul of Fire mentioned in Cohen's last words.
Petru nodded, rubbed his face with his hand, seemingly thinking about how to organize his words to explain his question clearly, his Redbeard under his chin becoming a mess from rubbing.
"This is a unique characteristic of our family," he said, stroking his beard. "I'm not saying others don't have it, but very few people have a beard as pure red as mine, and my hair, you see, not a single other color. My father was like that too, and so were my grandfather, great-grandfather... My family has passed down this for countless generations, and the color of our hair has never changed. This must be very rare, right?"
He looked at Mrs. Larry.
Mrs. Larry said, "Red hair originates from a genetic mutation in Scandinavians, which, according to current biological and archaeological evidence, can be traced back thousands of years. The exact time and circumstances of this mutation are unknown, as is the number of people who acquired the red hair gene. However, redheads now make up less than 2% of the global population, and their numbers are rapidly decreasing due to globalization. Offspring of redheads and other races typically do not develop completely red hair; instead, their hair turns brownish-yellow or pale yellow, and after two or three generations, no trace of red is visible. Only when purebred redheads interbreed can the hair color remain unchanged. Therefore..."
She looked at Petru's large, red beard, which gleamed in the firelight, and asked, "Does your family practice inbreeding to maintain the purity of your bloodline?"
Mrs. Larry spoke of this with great seriousness, as if giving an academic presentation, without a trace of jest. But the word always sounded a bit strange to others, as if Petru were a monster born of inbreeding.
"No, no!" Petru quickly denied. "I've never heard of such a thing. In fact, my mother is Turkish and my grandmother is Italy; they both have dark hair. Not all my family members are like me. At least some of my relatives, like my uncle, have red hair but not a red beard; and my father's cousin doesn't have a single red hair on him."
"However, there have always been a few people in our family who retain the red hair feature, and it has never been interrupted. These people are considered the purest heirs of the family, and then they are told about the family's history and mission. In my generation, there is only one. So, I can prove part of what Cohen said. Well, I mean 'part,' and I can only prove 'part,'" he emphasized.
Which part?
"Our family's mission is to protect a Awakening Sacred Land and to retrieve the ' Soul of Fire.' Yes, the great pirate from four hundred years ago— Redbeard Hayreddin— was my ancestor. He died for the Soul of Fire Soul of Fire and reclaim it at all costs, to protect the Sacred Land of Fire for eternity. This is almost identical to what Ronald Cohen said, but I don't know why he did it, nor do I know what our relationship is with Gaia. So I say I can only prove part of it; at least what Ronald Cohen said about Hayreddin and the Soul of Fire should be true."
"So your awakened ability wasn't learned from any Pastor, but rather comes from your family's heritage!" Su Huilan said.
"No, not entirely. I did have lucid dreaming abilities from a young age, but my father passed away when I was very young. When he died, he only had time to tell me about Redbeard and the Soul of Fire. As for other things, such as the Awakeners' Alliance, he didn't mention a word before he kicked the bucket."
Petru shrugged helplessly. "So I didn't lie to you. The Pastor was my mentor. You've been in my dreams, so you should believe me. My subconscious can't lie to you. If my father had died a little later, perhaps I would know more, and my Mental Power wouldn't be so weak!"
Su Huilan thought about it carefully and felt that Petru's words didn't seem to have any flaws. At this moment, in front of so many people, she was too embarrassed to enter his dream to confirm it. Even if she were to, it wouldn't be her turn, there were still Situ and Qingmu.
"So your later becoming a pirate, stealing nautical charts, and coming to the South Pacific were all done with a purpose?"
"I can't really explain it. I was forced into becoming a pirate, and the nickname ' Redbeard ' wasn't something I made up myself. In fact, before that, I wasn't particularly interested in my father's dying words. What did Hayreddin and the Soul of Fire have to do with me? It sounded like the nonsense of an old charlatan. Until I became Redbeard, suddenly becoming the same kind of person as my ancestor from four hundred years ago, sharing the same nickname, I felt that there was a divine will at work, God, or maybe Gaia, guiding my life in the direction He wanted it to be. Perhaps there really was some mission for me to complete, or some mystery for me to unravel. But it seems that another mysterious force is preventing me from getting closer to the truth—"
The Holy Land our family is tasked with protecting... well, there's no point in hiding it—it's the Egypt pyramids, or more precisely, the three Great Pyramid of Giza. Most of my ancestors operated along the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea coasts for this purpose. As for what they were protecting, or how they were protecting it, I know nothing. My father never had the chance to tell me, and I've never had the opportunity to explore the vicinity of the pyramids. You know my relationship with the Egypt government..."
"You mean, you're wanted by the Egypt government and can't get near the pyramids, and this is all the work of powerful groups behind the scenes?"
"I'm not saying that anyone or any force is targeting me. I think that before I became the Redbeard King, apart from having participated in mercenaries and having decent individual combat skills, there was nothing about me that would warrant special attention. But my intuition tells me that someone is watching me and deliberately guiding me. I feel like a puppet, a stupid pig in the eye of a storm, being swept up into the sky, unable to see anything around me."
Later, I became increasingly interested in Hayreddin, the pyramids, and the Soul of Fire, and also learned some things about the Awakened. Obtaining that sea chart was completely accidental. I followed the chart's guidance to the South Pacific, spending several years searching for the islands marked on the chart and finding the corresponding Tapu. The Tapu's Mental Power Field amazed me; my power was strengthened there. But what surprised me even more was that underwater pyramid.
Have you been to the underwater pyramids?
Petru nodded. "I don't know if I was the first to discover it. I found most of the Tapu according to the markings on the chart, but the triangle in the center of the chart puzzled me because there was nothing there. I thought it might be the legendary Ghost Island, frequently appearing and being observed in that area. Later, a thick fog caused me to lose my way, but I unexpectedly discovered underwater ruins and an inverted pyramid. Of course, at that time I didn't know it was a pyramid. I didn't have the ability to investigate what this underwater wonder was on my own, so I took a few photos, found a professor's email address online, and sent an anonymous email."
"So it was you who sent the email to Professor Silva!" Mrs. Larry exclaimed in surprise.