Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 439 - 7 - Troubles of The Sea Race_1

Chapter 439: Chapter 7 - Troubles of The Sea Race_1

Lanna’s expression changed subtly, and a voice as tempting as a dream came out: "You knew my mother?"

The three girls, hearing this voice for the first time, looked at Lanna in surprise. Growing up, they’d heard various folktales and were well aware of the charm of a mermaid’s voice. But without having actually heard it, they could never have imagined that her voice had such an irresistible allure.

"So beautiful." Catherine was somewhat bewitched and exclaimed softly, "Miss Lanna, your voice is like a dream that one does not wish to wake up from."

"Thank you for your compliment, but on land, this voice of ours can often be troublesome for our race." Lanna said shyly, her cheeks reddening as she cast her eyes down. "But is what this gentleman has said true? Does your friend know my mother?"

"Ahaha, he might." Pannis gave a vague and uneasy laugh, "Perhaps he heard it from his other friends and was just boasting about it to me."

"Is that so? What a pity." Lanna sensed that Pannis was not being completely truthful, but she didn’t press any further. "Your friend must be extraordinary. After all, my mother has not left the deep sea for more than a hundred years and has only been known by her priestess title since she became a priestess of the ocean. Knowing her real name is very difficult."

"Mm, yes, yes, very difficult." Pannis nodding furiously, "So he was obviously just boasting, hahaha."

"Enough, stop laughing like an idiot." Catherine cast Pannis a disdainful glance and then turned to the two members of the Sea Race, "Let’s get to business. The Sea Race is much more powerful than humans, but you two came all the way from the deep sea to find us. I am guessing that there must be something which the Sea Race finds inconvenient to handle or perhaps the incident occurred on land. That’s why you sought our help, right?"

"Indeed. There’s been an issue in the ocean." Lanna nodded, "The matter has alarmed the Storm Temple, so we’ve come to land seeking aid. Under ordinary circumstances, we could handle it ourselves. But currently, there are other issues in the northern sea territories that need to be dealt with. The Storm Temple could not spare the power to tackle our issue, so we hope to enlist the aid of our friends on land."

"By telling us this, shouldn’t you be concerned?" Catherine asked, confused, "Isn’t this a private matter for the Sea Race? Won’t it be inappropriate to share this with outsiders?"

"You don’t have to worry about that." Lamia took over the talk to relieve Lanna, "The princess is not accustomed to communicating verbally on land. The reason you were approached is that we found that your race on land seems to be troubled by the same issue. Therefore, resolving this problem would not only be of help to us but also to you. If not addressed timely, it may result in deteriorating relations between the land and sea."

"An issue troubling the land dwellers?" The three girls sat politely while Pannis was sprawled out comfortably on the table, his chin resting on his arm. Squinting one eye, he said, "Let me guess, you’ve encountered the same problem as the elves did recently. Members of your race have mysteriously disappeared on shore, and you couldn’t find their bodies, right?"

"You’re correct." Lamia fell silent for a moment before nodding in confirmation, "Nine of our people have disappeared due to this. However, it’s not that we haven’t found the bodies. The bodies of three were found on the shore. We could then confirm that they were suffering from the same kind of attack as the people on land because their bodies also showed signs of stolen time."

"Wait a second." Pannis interrupted Lamia, sat straight and asked, "What did you say was stolen from them?"

"Time." Lamia spoke without any change of tone, "All the remaining time in their later lives."

"How did you determine that their time was stolen?" The adventurers looked at each other; each had thoughtful expressions. After a moment’s silence, Catherine asked, "Could there be another possibility?"

"We are not entirely sure. It’s just a guess." Lamia replied, "After the bodies were returned to the deep sea, the clans deliberated about this issue. This was the preliminary conclusion. To put it simply, someone seemed to have taken the entirety of their time from the moment of the incident to the point of their death, reducing them directly to a state of aging and death."

"Hold on, we don’t understand." Catherine appeared to be confused and shook her head, "Let me think. This is a little hard to grasp. Um... Can time be stolen? How can such a conceptual thing be stripped from a person? Other than deities, no one can do this?"

"Regrettably," Lamia stated without showing any signs of regret, "we consider this as the most logical assumption."

"Catherine, it does make sense." Pannis nudged Catherine’s arm and explained, "I had never thought about it before, but listening to what they’ve said, it really seems to make perfect sense. I have a mage friend who once told me that there’s a type of magic known as time magic in the world. No one knows what this magic can do now, but judging by its name, it must be related to the manipulation of time."

"Like this? Is there anyone who can still use this kind of magic?" Catherine asked urgently.

"My mage friend has been studying time magic for a long, long time now. I heard that he’s made some progress, and he should be the person who has the deepest understanding of time magic in the world. However, even he would find it difficult to do something like this. At present, he can just about manage to borrow his own time to cast a spell five times." Pannis explained, "However, just because he can’t achieve it doesn’t mean nobody else can."

"The friend you’re talking about is Master Philarx, isn’t it? One of the thirteen lords of the Kingdom of Mages?" Vivian asked, a little taken aback, "He’s one of the heroes from over a hundred years ago, the pride of the mages, and has used time magic to embed himself in a temporal crack slowing his own time by several times, that’s why he’s still alive."

"Yes, it’s him. I happened to meet him by chance." Pannis nodded, "I heard he’s quite a powerful mage."

"Of course, he’s a demigod mage, and a partner who fought alongside Lady Nellie." Catherine’s eyes lit up at the mention of Nellie, but she still managed to control her emotions and asked, "You said he has the deepest understanding of time magic and he can’t do it, but then you said someone can, isn’t that contradictory?"

"Vivian, you know about the origin of time magic, right?" Pannis asked.

"Yes, I know that it originated from the... " Suddenly, Vivian stood up abruptly and exclaimed, "I understand now, that’s how it is."

"What do you understand? You startled me!" Catherine tapped Vivian on the head and urged her to sit back down, "Speak clearly, what did you remember?"

"Just because a human can’t do it doesn’t mean a magic array can’t." Vivian knocked on the table and said, "Do you remember the magic array we found in Diersalem City? The one that caused so many people to die horribly? Pannis, didn’t you once say that the array has the same origin as the Sacrifice Array of the Divine Servant? And about the Sacrifice Array, you mentioned it originated from the First Epoch, and the inscriptions on it are divine script. Does that mean the magic that steals others’ time also originated from the First Epoch? Since time magic just happens to be the most powerful magic of the deities from the First Epoch, the suppositions from both ends fit."

"That’s why I think the conjecture of the Sea Race is the most reasonable." Pannis nodded, "No wonder the organization is called Sands of Time, it turns out they aim to steal others’ time."

"So, can we consider these two groups as one entity?" Catherine asked, "As their means are of the same origin."

"I’m afraid not." Lina spoke up, "I remember quite clearly, in City of Innocence, the ghoul of the Divine Servant said before its death that they were merely allies, not a unified entity."

"Perhaps what drew them into an alliance is precisely the time-stealing magic array." Catherine felt her ideas became more and more coherent, "This clue apparently needs to be disclosed to all our contacts. We might be able to... oh, sorry, we got so caught up in our discussion that we forgot about the two of you. Princess Lanna, this information was provided by the Sea Race, may we relay it to various Guilds and nations?"

"Certainly, we don’t mind," answered Mermaid Lanna, seemingly quite delighted despite being overlooked, "How wonderful that even you people on the land could accept such speculation."

"Princess Lanna, it’s alright to refer to you like this, right?" Pannis suddenly grew serious, sitting up straight with his chin supported by his clasped hands, and said earnestly, "Let’s get straight to the point. If you had done a detailed investigation, you would know that we simply cannot solve this problem for now. It’s not a matter of lacking power, but no one has found a key lead on the two organizations: Divine Servant and Sands of Time. I’m not ashamed to say that right now, all the forces are being toyed with by Sands of Time. Hence no one could possibly complete your mission - at least not at the current stage. I believe this is something you must be well aware of."

"You’re right," Princess Lanna admitted shyly, keeping her gaze averted from Pannis’ eyes, "Please continue."

"Nevertheless, you still came to see us. This implies that your true mission is not what it appears to be on the surface. Otherwise, you’d just be wasting your time." Pannis honed in, "And to present this question as a mission, I believe there are three intentions."

"Which three?" Lanna, her head still lowered with a slight smile on her lips, asked.

"Firstly, to test whether your conjecture might be accepted by the people on the land. Secondly, to test our capabilities, not in battle strength but in handling complex problems - whether we can quickly sort out the right line of thinking. And thirdly..." Pannis paused, raising a third finger, "If this lead is revealed by us to all the other factions, it would noticeably boost the reputation of our adventure team - this acts as a form of advance payment."

(To be continued. If you like this novel, we warmly welcome your recommendation votes and monthly votes on Qidian. Your support is our biggest motivation. Mobile gadget users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)