novelonline Chapter 4028 The Answer to the Chapter on Skin
Chapter 4028 The Answer to the Chapter on Skin
Chapter 4028 Pi's Answer
Nothing major happened today, so when Shad got home tonight, he didn't need to share much with the girls. Yesterday the house was very lively, but tonight only Luvia was home. After making dinner with Winnie, she complained to Shad about the witches' behavior last night:
"I thought Galina just wanted to have it all to herself, but I didn't expect her to invite everyone. I should have come too."
However, Luvia had no interest in the disgusting relic derivative that Shad had brought back, and didn't even bother to examine it.
So after dinner, Shad set off alone to visit Mr. Copps, while Luvia stayed home to ask Winnie for more stories about the Fifth Age. He left early that evening, and by the time he arrived at the cemetery outside the village north of town, amidst the background noise of barking dogs, it was only eight o'clock.
At this moment, the moon hung obliquely in the night sky, and tonight's crimson moon was exceptionally full. According to the superstitions prevalent at the time, this lunar phase presented a good opportunity for conception. Actually, this wasn't really superstition.
The moonlight was beautiful, and Shad, not minding the time, slowed his pace slightly and looked up to admire it. A short while later, when he met Mr. Copps in the small cemetery, the pale-faced middle-aged man directly handed him the [Active Metal].
Let's check the goods.
Unlike Mr. Muñoz's containment methods in Arcadia, Mr. Cops used a large, unidentified animal leg bone to contain the silvery, mercury-like metal, and inscribed runes on the outer surface of the skeleton to activate its undead properties, forcibly suppressing the activity of the "active metal" with the power of death.
Although Mr. Copps provided slightly less metal than Mr. Munoz and at a slightly higher price, Shad was satisfied enough. Mr. Munoz had given him the discount because he had helped with the activation of the machinery.
Shad nodded, first handing over the prepared cash to Mr. Copps, and then opening the box containing the "leather goods":
"I brought this with me too."
Although Vige found the item disgusting, she still conducted a preliminary examination and determined that the skin was only equivalent to a poet-level relic. In other words, the original owner of the skin was probably just an ordinary person, and even if the skin were worn, it wouldn't grant the wearer any special powers.
Mr. Copps reached out and touched the folded leather, arriving at a similar conclusion to Vigo:
"Yes, it's only at the poet level. It must have been unused for a long time, at least twenty years. But its previous owner must have been very knowledgeable about leather goods and cherished this thing. Although leather goods are remnants and are almost unaffected by time, it's really rare to see one that's been preserved so well."
As Mr. Copps spoke, he led Shad around the hut and to the back of it.
Shad had never been here before, but there was nothing particularly remarkable about the area behind the cottage; it was simply a cemetery for burying the dead. Before Shad arrived, Mr. Copps had already prepared a ceremony in the open space beneath the back wall of the cottage:
"My [Skin Inquiry] technique isn't particularly effective against these kinds of relic derivatives, so the questions you can ask are limited."
He made a rough estimate:
"It's not that there's a limit to the number of questions you can ask, but rather that it has a limited number of words it can say. So, you need to ask your questions more precisely and try to get it to answer the key points directly."
Also, when asking questions about the dead, avoid asking pointless questions like "Can you speak now?" or "May I begin?" This only wastes your opportunity to answer.
As Mr. Copps spoke, he lit the thirteen oil candles surrounding the ritual array. The stench of burning oil made Shad hold his breath. Then, Mr. Copps carefully lifted the circular black thorn crown within the array, whispered a few incantations, and let it float in the air.
The "Skin Inquiry Ritual" is actually not complicated. Mr. Copps stuffed a palm-sized scarecrow he had made in advance into the skin, and then, in accordance with the ritual, made the specially made undead scarecrow grow larger and larger until the skin was completely attached to the scarecrow's body.
The appearance was quite comical, but also quite bizarre.
At this point, the scarecrow dressed in leather had developed a certain level of intelligence. Mr. Copps then placed the black thorn crown on the scarecrow's head for security and removed the metal charm he was wearing around his own neck, hanging it around the scarecrow's neck.
A chilling wind had made this warm spring night feel incredibly cold. Mr. Copps' final action was to withdraw from the ceremony and then blow a bone horn.
Amidst the resounding horn, he activated the ritual array using his magical abilities, and the skin propped up by the scarecrow began to sway slowly in the night breeze. Shad actually sensed a decaying vitality within it.
That was not a distorted spark of life; it was the decaying life force that belonged only to the dead and had not yet completely dissipated. It was the life force that had been corrupted by death when life left this world and let out its last wail.
Mr. Copps gestured to Shad that he could begin asking questions, and then left temporarily, having no intention of prying into Shad's privacy.
Shad had already decided what he wanted to ask on his way there, so when faced with the constantly shaking scarecrow, he went straight to the point:
"Peggy Nicolas Flamel, the sorceress codenamed 'Redstone,' has she ever worn you?"
The scarecrow spoke in a hoarse male voice, the voice of its original owner. However, because it was currently a half-dead being, the voice also possessed a uniquely ethereal quality characteristic of the undead.
"Yes, when she put on me, she called herself Nicolas Lemaître."
Vige had mentioned that her mother sometimes appeared in the form of a man, using this alias at those times. Now, Shad knows that her disguise isn't illusion or an alchemical artifact, but a genuine transformation of identity, somewhat similar to using the [Transformation Ring].
"Alright, at what point in time were you obtained by this sorceress?"
The scarecrow continued to provide a smooth answer; Mr. Copps's skin-searching technique remained remarkably consistent.
"Autumn of 1821."
Vigo was born in 1830, so she is 25 years old this year. In 1821, Ms. Lemaître had not yet appeared in the Arcadia region and was most likely still affiliated with the Truth Society.
Shad hadn't expected the skin to have such a long history. He was about to ask how the skin was made when he suddenly remembered Margaret's information, namely that Vigo's mother had an officially recorded marriage before arriving in Arcadia.
"No way!"
Even after experiencing so much, the outsider was still startled by his own guess and immediately asked:
"What was your relationship with that lady before you became a leather goods seller?"
He was terrified that this persona was actually that of his "ex-husband," but thankfully the story didn't unfold that way:
"Absolutely not. In 1378, I was tricked into the Leatherworks by a lady who was infatuated with me and made into leather goods. In 1620, I was taken out of the guild through a transaction and then passed through many hands. In 1807, I entered a ring sorcerer organization called the Truth Society, where I was studied and then sealed away. In 1821, I was acquired by Lemaître."
Although its words refuted Shad's bold conjecture, they still confirmed that Vigo's mother did indeed belong to the "Truth Society." Miss Pavo's claim of looking for the descendants or heirs of those who had broken away was actually her search for Vigo.
He was momentarily speechless, various thoughts swirling in his mind, before asking again:
Do you know about her marital status before she arrived in Arcadia?
"When she put on me, she pretended to be her husband to avoid some unnecessary trouble by maintaining a complete family."
Xia De breathed a sigh of relief; he at least had some good news to tell Viggo—her mother's so-called first marriage was indeed a ruse, and Peggy Lemaître's so-called ex-husband was indeed Nicolas Lemaître. But his next question was the main reason he soon headed to Arcadia:
"So, what's the most memorable thing she did to you?"
This time, Pi did not answer immediately. Just when Shad thought that the effect of "Asking Pi" had ended, or that Pi did not have "memory," suddenly dense bronze runes appeared on the surface of the skin.
This type of rune looked very familiar to Shad; these were the symbols used in the alchemical ritual when Viggo's necklace and the symbols in the book were combined to form a small box containing relics.
As these symbols appeared, the entire skin swelled up like an inflated balloon, and Shad immediately realized that it was about to get out of control. The strange whispering elements rapidly increased to a level almost comparable to a normal Guardian-level relic, but at that moment—
hum!
The black thorn crown atop the scarecrow's head and the runes hanging on its chest simultaneously emitted a dazzling golden light, the ancient element of miracle directly suppressing the creature's rampage. The whispering element was crushed by the element of miracle, and after a dozen seconds, the skin miraculously returned to its original state and even spoke.
"Mr. Copps's magic is really that powerful?"
"Humans are divided into men and women, the heavens have the sun and the moon, and the world has above and below. Above and below combined are the world; the sun and moon combined are sacred; men and women combined are nature."
This statement actually bears a resemblance to a phrase deep within Wei Ge's soul—"The lower is like the upper, and the upper is like the lower, thus achieving a unique miracle." Xia De felt that he was probably about to receive some truly significant news, and he even speculated that it was related to the "Jade Record."
"This is the origin of creation. The union of man and woman is the right path to perfection. And by conceiving a perfect child, one can find the path to the origin of creation. However, men and women have differences in spirituality and mind, and therefore cannot perfectly merge. So, natural reproduction can never give birth to the so-called 'unique miracle'."
Shad remembered these words, but he didn't expect what he would hear next.