Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 493 - 57: Sea Emperor Crown_1

Chapter 493: Chapter 57: Sea Emperor Crown_1

The water surged and the massive door fell with a loud crash, before drifting up with the current, colliding against the ship’s ceiling. This was the most spacious room in the entire ship, akin to a large hall. While the other rooms each had beds for resting, this one did not. It likely served as a meeting place. At the far end of the room, placed directly in the center, was a statue of a deity that almost touched the ceiling. The ship’s deck beneath the white jade statue had decayed, causing the statue’s base to tip over onto the ground, and now lay there in three pieces. Diagonally in front of the statue was a throne facing the cabin door, its prominent golden backrest emitted a frosty light amidst the seawater.

The wall behind the statue had been blown wide open, revealing the ocean floor buried under the ship’s hull. Likely due to this, nothing remained except for a few heavy objects. Any other items had long since been swept away, carried off by the currents to who-knows-where.

About ten meters in front of the throne lay half of a body. Its upper half wore exquisite armor that bore patterns and emblems that were still visible despite the many millennia under the sea. However, its lower half was completely missing. Everything from the spine down, including both legs and the pelvis, was nowhere to be seen as if cleanly cut. The figure did not seem to have been wounded here, instead, it looked like it had barely managed to drag itself back to this cabin despite its fatal wounds. On the path from the cabin entrance to the spot where he died, one could still faintly spot rows of finger holes dug into the decking, leftover from his struggles. One could imagine that, if they had arrived several millennia earlier, they might see traces of his blood and intestines smeared on the deck in his dying struggle. The corpse’s left hand was deeply embedded within the deck while the right one tightly held a white crown. Even though he had decayed into mere white bones, his phalanges were still clutched tightly around the crown. One could only imagine how tight his grip must have been as he was dying.

Catherine, holding a shield in front of her, walked slowly into the cabin. She used her shield to guard her body and did not immediately inspect the corpse but took a moment to survey the surroundings of the room. Everything appeared to be normal within the room: no signs of life, no shadows, no undead. Apart from the floating door that had just fallen, nothing else was moving. She took a few exploratory steps in the doorway and still detected nothing unusual. Only then did Catherine gesture for Lina to enter. With a spellbook in one hand and a hammer in the other, Lina stepped inside, motioning for a safe distance between them. Upon entering, Lina pressed her hammer onto the spellbook, and a burst of vitality erupted from the book, sweeping quickly over every part of the room. The divine spell with purifying effects could cleanse all forms of death and darkness, even if it could not completely destroy them, it left them nowhere to hide.

When the purifying white light vanished, Lina gave Catherine a thumbs-up. Catherine gestured with her sword-holding hand and then Freya, with her enormous body, squeezed through the cabin door, almost breaking the door frame in the process. Once inside, Freya hid behind Lina, re-released her mana-killer and was swiftly surrounded by a metallic, cone-shaped barrier. Only then did Vivian rush into the protective range of the mana-killer. She gestured to Catherine to securely shield her before waving her magic staff, creating a force field around each of them that offered protection from distant weapons.

"This is strange," Lina frowned as she said, "I felt a dark, heavy presence of death outside the door. Why can’t I detect anything now? Moreover, even though the holy light couldn’t detect anything, I can still sense the evil and unease in here."

"This seems to be the ritual hall of the Demos Sect," emerged a voice from the shadowy corner of the room, it was Pannis. The girls have learned by now that if Pannis used the realm to hide, there would be a brief surge in energy at the moment of his appearance and disappearance. But if he used rogue skills to sneak and hide, there would be fewer restrictions but no dramatic energy changes. Pannis did not bring any energy fluctuations this time; it was the first time the girls had known that someone could be lurking in the water. While the girls were setting up their defenses in the Great Hall, Pannis had already hidden his figure beside them and whispered, "Does Demos belong to the Grimreaper’s System?"

"I’m not sure." Lina shook her head and said, "I haven’t read any explicit records. But logically, half-living beings like mares shouldn’t epitomize light and vitality, that would be ridiculous."

"If they truly belong to the System of Darkness or Death, then the aura you sensed may have been left behind by the ritual hall itself," Pannis conjectured, looking around and saying. "After all, it was once the territory of a deity. Even if they’ve fallen into slumber, they were once divine beings. Moreover, this statue of a divine being might be from their main temple. Maybe it was brought along on this important mission to augment their power. Therefore, it doesn’t seem strange for it to emit such a powerful aura."

"Don’t kid around. It’s clear none of your friends were orthodox priests in the past. Those two young girls also aren’t orthodox priests, otherwise, you wouldn’t think like this. The statue in the main temple is equivalent to another sacred body of the deity. Who would dare to move it recklessly?" Lina rolled her eyes as she said, "However, you do have a point. This is probably a statue with the strongest divine strength boost within a sect. The sinister and deadly auras I sensed indeed seem to be emanating from the statue. Now we can feel a bit more reassured. It should not pose much danger."

"Um, that’s good then," Catherine breathed out a sigh of relief, relaxing her guard slightly, "Everyone can relax a bit but don’t let your guard down completely. You mustn’t spread out either. I’m going to examine the corpse now."

Catherine crouched down, holding her round shield up in front of her, and carefully moved the armor on the body. The armor, being forged from an amalgamation of Magicsteel and pure gold, was still robust despite being submerged for several millennia. She lifted various parts of the armor to reveal the corpse beneath which had already rotted down to the bones. Most of the skeleton was covered in fractures and a few of the rib bones were snapped. Other than these, there were no other items around.

"This person was critically injured. Look at the fractures on his bones. Even under the protection of heavy armor, a third of the bones on his upper body was fractured, and a few ribs were broken. Of course, his fatal wound was to his waist. Perhaps his lower part was bitten off by that deep sea magical beast," Catherine stated, continuing her inspection as she spoke, "Lina, this is likely the captain from the second cabin."

"It should be." Lina nodded, "The style of the armor is similar, and the personal emblem is the same. But the captain of the guard should be the strongest one in the church, I didn’t expect him to die in such a shameful way."

"The question now is, what exactly is this crown." After hesitating for a moment, Catherine finally reached out and touched the skeletal finger of the corpse. The tendons between the bones of the corpse had rotted, and the finger bones scattered as soon as they were touched, floating up with the seawater, leaving only the white crown resting on the floor of the sunken ship. Catherine picked up the crown, the white crown seemed to be made of bone, it didn’t feel heavy in her hand, and there were several pearls embedded in the outer ring of the crown, which still emitted a faint white light even in the deep sea.

"Is this crown... also one of their sacred items?" Catherine questioned: "It doesn’t look like it, but if it isn’t their sacred item, why did he hold onto it so tightly before he died, as if he cherished it very much?"

"Let me see." Pannis took the crown from Catherine, backing into her lamp to take a closer look against the light. The crown was very delicate, besides the embedded pearls on the surface, there were also countless exquisite patterns engraved inside and out. The patterns were clever and intricate, each line contained a mysterious power that would involuntarily evoke a sense of respect after a long gaze. Even after thousands of years, not only was the crown intact, but even the patterns on it were not at all blurred, an practically impossible achievement. Pannis gently stroked the patterns on the crown with her finger, furrowed her brows and thought for a moment before saying, "This... seems like the style of the Sea Race."

"Sea Race?" The girls were stunned, none of them had thought of this possibility: "Was the captain of the guard clutching a possession of the Sea Race at his death?"

"I’m not sure." Pannis said, "I’ve never heard of this crown, I can’t recognize what it is, but looking at its craftsmanship and the style of the patterns, it looks very much like the work of the Sea Race. Moreover, the choice of materials and craftsmanship is too good, I can’t figure out what material it is at all, it’s not like metal, nor bone, nor mineral, yet it mysteriously can be placed for thousands of years without any damage - I believe no matter what the material is, it is definitely not ordinary stuff, it must be of great importance."

"Could it... belong to her?" Catherine subconsciously covered her lips, her gaze landing in the direction of the corpse of the giant beast outside the sunken ship: "Was the dead Sea Race the true owner of this crown?"

"Very likely." Pannis’s eyes lit up, nodding, "Very likely indeed."

"What’s the matter with you?" Vivian asked curiously, "I feel you’re extremely excited, did you think of something?"

"Weren’t we wondering before, if they really had some secret to control the Sea Race, why then could the mermaid outside still attack them, resulting in both sides perishing?" Pannis said, "And we were also unclear as to why only she was controlling the magical beast to launch an attack on them, right?"

"Are you saying, this is the answer?" Catherine also said excitedly, "The mermaid was able to approach this group of fanatic followers undetected and launch an attack thanks to this crown? And the rest of the Sea Race couldn’t approach this sea area without this crown, so they could only watch her fight the enemy alone?"

"I think it’s very likely." Pannis nodded, "Although there’s no evidence to confirm this."

"Well, if that’s the case." Lina played with her silver hair with her fingers, murmuring, "Could this be the Sea Emperor’s Crown mentioned in that story?" (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it with recommendation and monthly tickets at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)