"Oh, I'm so sorry, madam! I didn't know things would turn out this way." Petru looked somewhat annoyed. "I only wanted the expedition team's help. You know, I'm a pirate, wanted by many countries, so..."
"I'm not blaming you. On the contrary, from a scientific point of view, we should all thank you," Mrs. Larry said. "Nobody wanted things to turn out this way, but we're slowly getting closer to the truth, aren't we? If we can truly unravel the mystery of the origin of humanity, or even life itself, then even if everyone here today were to sacrifice their lives, it would be worthwhile!"
Her words seemed to lift the gloom in the cabin considerably, as if an invisible light had shone in, giving everyone hope that even in death, glory would shine upon them.
"Do you still have that nautical chart you mentioned? Can I take a look?" Mrs. Larry asked, looking at the bag that Petru was always carrying on his back.
Petru was stunned for a moment before he remembered that the nautical chart was with Su Huilan, while Su Huilan had almost forgotten about it.
Fortunately, her backpack was still there and had some waterproofing, so the contents were intact. She took the backpack off, rummaged through it, and found the nautical charts, which she then gave to Mrs. Larry.
Mrs. Larry took the nautical chart and flipped through it one by one. Suddenly, she became a little excited, and you could clearly see her hands trembling.
The sharp-eyed Alice exclaimed, "Ah, I've seen it before! I've seen these charts! This... this is Mr. Yeger's chart!"
"Ah?" Petru's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Madam... is this... really true?"
Mrs. Larry closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them again and said, "It is indeed Ludwig's stuff. You see, his initials 'L' are on it."
Petru certainly knew that there was an "L" written at the bottom of the chart, right under the longest straight line. That line was strange; it radiated straight out from the vertex of the central triangle and stretched all the way to the edge of the map, as if suggesting that the map was incomplete and that there was another half. He had always thought that the "L" represented the meaning of the straight line, but he never expected it to be the initial of Mrs. Larry, Ludwig Yeg.
"So what does this line represent?" Petru asked.
Mrs. Larry pointed to the triangle in the center of the nautical chart and said, "Many years ago, Ludwig predicted the remains of the Gendaya Civilization and a pyramid on the seabed, but no one believed it at the time. He also said that this pyramid was not isolated, but must correspond to another pyramid, forming a spacetime mirror effect, something only a highly advanced civilization could achieve. Through the study of the Egypt pyramid complex and the comparison of continental plate movement, Ludwig boldly predicted that the pyramid on the seabed corresponds to one of the three Great Pyramid of Egypt, and their coordinate positions are geocentrically symmetrical."
Unfortunately, he never found the underwater pyramid. People said he was obsessed with fame, no one believed his views, his papers had nowhere to be published, and he died without fulfilling his wish.
Silva forwarded your email to me immediately after receiving it, but I have been unwilling to face Ludwig's death and have been running away from certain things, so I did not join the first expedition team.
Subsequent events proved Ludwig right. After several months of effort, Professor Silva's team finally determined that the size and structure of the underwater pyramid were exactly the same as those of the Pyramid of Khufu.
The triangle on the nautical chart points to the inverted pyramid on the seabed; it's upside down. The line extending from the apex was drawn by Ludwig, going outside the map. There should be another map there, a map of the Egyptian pyramids. This line connects to the apex of the Great Pyramid of Giza. If two pyramids are represented by a triangle, it would be a triangle with its vertices meeting, which matches the symbol I saw at the altar in the Ramlasanchi tribe.
"But this nautical chart looks at least several hundred years old. It can't all have been drawn by Mr. Yeger, can it?" Su Huilan asked.
The lady said, "He drew the lines on the map. He got the original map from an old man in Polynesia. According to the old man, he was once a pirate in the Caribbean Sea. He stole this map from another pirate. That pirate's ancestor had followed Hayreddin Barbarossa across the Mediterranean Sea. After Hayreddin's death, they crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. He believed it was a treasure map, and that Hayreddin must have hidden his looted wealth in the South Pacific. So after getting the map, he stopped being a pirate and came to Polynesia. Unfortunately, he searched for most of his life but never found any treasure."
He had no children and in his later years, he became a believer in God, repenting for the evil deeds he had committed at sea. He considered Ludwig a good man and gave him a nautical chart, instructing him to donate a portion of any found treasure to good deeds as atonement. Ludwig keenly sensed the chart's unusual nature and conducted extensive explorations in the South Pacific. Later, he died, and the chart disappeared. I've always felt that his death was related to this chart and his exploration of ancient civilizations, but unfortunately, I know nothing about it, and I even strongly opposed his research into the elusive Gendaya Civilization.
Mrs. Larry's face paled slightly, and her voice became a little hoarse. Petru reached out to put his arm around her shoulder, but then felt it was inappropriate, so he hesitated for a moment before withdrawing his hand.
"I'm sorry, madam, I also bear responsibility for Mr. Yeger's situation," Alice said, her head bowed. "I should have stopped him, or at least kept up with him."
"No, it has nothing to do with you," Mrs. Larry said. "He chose to detach himself from the group, and even I couldn't keep up with him, let alone you! When I found him, he had already been bitten by a snake. Those coral snakes are common in South America, and their venom isn't very potent. We often encounter them when exploring Maya ruins, so we're quite experienced. Logically, Ludwig shouldn't have been so careless as to be bitten by a coral snake. Even if he had, with timely treatment, it wouldn't have been life-threatening. But when I found him, he was already unconscious. I dragged him back to camp, and during the final check of his belongings, I discovered that his nautical charts and a batch of manuscripts were missing."
"Oh, I... I don't know how to say it, madam, I'm so sad!"
Petru sense Mr. Yeger's importance to Mrs. Larry. She had always been reluctant to mention Yeg, even wanting to change her own surname, probably because she didn't want to recall painful memories. Petru was indeed very sad, for Yeg, and also for himself.
"It's nothing, it's all in the past. This thing has passed through centuries, starting with Redbeard and returning to Redbeard's hands. It's truly a cycle of fate," Mrs. Larry said.
Su Huilan took out the half of the Soul of Fire Situ had just entrusted to her for safekeeping, glanced at Situ and Qingmu, and seeing that they did not object, handed it to Petru, saying, "You can take this; consider it returned to its rightful owner."
Petru said, "This... it seems my ancestors had the other half, Cohen said it was on the church spire."
Su Huilan said, "We'll look for the other half when we get back to Earth. Once we find it, we mustn't let them separate again."
Petru nodded solemnly, his face filled with gratitude, and ceremoniously accepted the Soul of Fire. He was a little nervous, as if waiting for something to happen.
After a moment of silence, he said with some confusion, "Huh, didn't you say this thing is hot to the touch? How come I... don't feel anything at all?"