Chapter 223 Merging Puzzles
When the professor stretched out his fingers to rub the paper for the third time, trying to touch the dents beyond the limits of the carrier, Green finally couldn't help but stopped him.
“Even though it’s well preserved, it’s nearly a hundred years old at least, so you’d better be careful.”
"Oh, I'm sorry, I just never expected to see this thing here." Craft retracted his hand, wiped away the sweat on the hem of his clothes, and gently lifted the paper and turned it to the back.
Seeing clearly the nature of these imitations did not make him feel relieved. On the contrary, he felt a kind of unreasonable disgust, like seeing a narrative text with no distinction between priority and importance, or a face with crooked and crooked facial features that was barely put together.
That molten state adds a somewhat uneasy change to this pattern. He has not yet had the idea of connecting melting with solid stone carvings, and has no way of guessing what the purpose of this image is, or whether it is a copy of another as yet unknown form.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?"
"Not entirely right, it's not the same as what I know. It's the same style, but it should be an imitation."
The author of the manuscript left very few narratives, and the front and back of the manuscript didn't add up to much. He even omitted the time and specific location of the discovery, and scrawled a few letters in a row, contrasting them with several forms that were probably mentioned above. , still unable to make a logical and complete trace back to its origins, and can only convince itself that it is a work that comes from the author's personal wishes and is done at will.
"Two symbolic patterns were mixed together." It is much easier for people who have seen the whole picture to distinguish them, or in other words, their characteristics are indelible even after they are broken up and reorganized.
If we hadn't just happened to encounter them in the northern part of the kingdom and Dunling, it would mean that their influence was definitely spread wider than imagined.
"What do they mean?"
"I'm not sure." The arcs and straight lines point to the lonely and deep celestial body, while the winding and wandering lines depict content that still cannot be accurately formed in the mind.
The former cannot be explained; and the latter, people cannot explain to others what they do not understand clearly.
"I've only seen it on some relics and antiquities. It's absolutely correct to treat it as a pagan symbol." Kraft concluded with a more confident attitude than Green, which was so firm that it made people wonder if he had a personal grudge against Morrison.
"It has nothing to do with that kind of medicine? We have encountered some people who asked believers to take hallucinogenic drugs. Through the effects of drinking and a little induction, they can easily deceive people into believing it. From a medical point of view, is this true? possible? ”
Kraft shook his head, "The possibility is very small. I said, with such an effect, you can obtain more things openly."
There was a moment of silence around the table, as both parties regurgitated the information they had gained.
"Where did you see such a thing?"
"The kingdom is in the far north. It's a remote place that takes at least two to three months by boat and several days of horseback riding into the mountains. Even if I told you, you wouldn't know where it is."
"Then there's nothing we can do. There's still no way to investigate, and there's no point in claiming that it's a pagan symbol." Green took a long breath, raised his head and moved his neck, and looked at Kraft sideways, "If you only know These words.”
The latter has little interest in this kind of casual provoking method, and is hesitant to throw out some information that he has not confirmed. On the one hand, he is afraid of causing misleading, and on the other hand, he is not sure what he will encounter if he continues to investigate, and hopes to take the lead. The direction and progress of the investigation.
He believed that Green thought the same way. This priest who was in charge of the church system did not seem like the kind of person who would be led around easily.
And the other party can also mobilize considerable manpower and material resources locally, and can completely leave other people alone and go it alone.
After flipping through a few pages, Kraft found the remaining pages that had been collected together, and took them out from the protective paper to read: a relatively seriously damaged excavated ruins outside the city, some kind of ditch, and then a drainage channel.
"Have you ever tried to find this thing?" As far as the rubbing area is concerned, it can be inferred that it is at least larger than the paper surface. With the supporting carrier, the overall picture is no less than some inscriptions, and there may be other related ancillary parts.
And if it can be accidentally discovered by amateur architects, it probably won't be hidden in a location that is inaccessible by normal means.
"I have asked some people who like to study old architecture, and there are many people who can participate in the restoration of the cathedral. They said that if there is such a thing, it probably will not be unknown."
"Could it be underground? Look at these, such as sewers and the like. Sewers that are wide enough to allow people to enter. Have you narrowed it down a bit?"
Green gathered the papers and sandwiched them one by one between the vellums. "Will you try to find a special drop of water in the Teme River?"
"Huh?"
"The most lacking thing in Dunling is this kind of place. No one can tell which places are there and how long they are. Or conversely, we should ask where they are not."
"I don't understand." This was far from his inherent impression of the sewers of this era. It felt more like describing a large ant nest entrenched underground in the city, with tunnel traffic hollowing out building foundations.
"I would like to ask, are you digging sewers or underground rivers? Who paid for this kind of project?"
"No, we rarely bother with drainage."
"Are you going to tell me that these sewers grew by themselves?" Planning a city's drainage and sewage system, especially a big city the size of Dunling, which is wide enough to walk on, is definitely a big project.
However, what he didn't expect was that Green nodded and approved the statement, "You can say that."
"They are there, Dunling just used them, and they may have had a negative effect - in fact, only a part of them, a relatively small part, was built by the 'Dunling people'. You have to know that the Dunling people are a kingdom A concept that emerged only after its establishment.”
"What about the rest?" "I don't know, they have always been there. They are one of the many ruins. You can see them in most places in the city and surrounding areas, just like other old buildings." Green took it for granted. road.
The most indispensable thing in this land that lacks change is the ancient things. A foundation of Notre Dame Cathedral has to be multiplied by the age of the manuscript in hand to catch up.
"Then who built them?"
"Maybe everyone? Each generation will improve on the basis of the previous generation, and then it becomes like this, probably." The experience of reading church classics could not make the tone firmer.
Unlike above-ground buildings, the underground parts of cities have always received little attention, and their use as sewers makes these spaces more difficult to attract visitors.
"It's suitable to accommodate all things that are not suitable to appear on the ground, sewage, garbage, including some people who are not tolerated by the law. Occasionally, we can find a hiding place in it, so that we have to go down and dig them out. ”
"So I know how big it is. There are countless forks, branches, and height differences. It is a spider web made of bricks and stones. Even the gang members who use this to avoid the search dare not go too far."
It is reasonable to speculate how the ability to draw a sword in the dark was acquired. Actual work creates technical requirements.
"Can't even try with the manpower of the Inquisition?"
"The Inquisition is not my office. Even the bishop cannot let everyone go into the sewers because of a piece of incompletely confirmed news. There are many people who have some opinions about a colleague with a bad background and will be happy to have one more person impeached. Reason.”
"Okay, I admit it's a bit troublesome." Kraft roughly understood the problem before him.
There are clues, but not many. They are most likely hidden in the sewer, and you need to fish them out with your own hands. Moreover, the scale of this sewer is a little larger than expected.
In addition, they don't know whether this clue is useful. They just rush blindly towards the only light source in their field of vision like lost travelers in the dark night.
But Kraft had another idea, an idea that seemed to be able to piece together the clues in both parties' hands.
"According to this, the sewers under our feet should be quite dense, so dense that we can dig through them just by digging anywhere."
"It's a bit exaggerated, but it's almost the same. Cavity collapse when digging a foundation is nothing new."
"What if it's a quarry?"
"What do you mean?" Green asked, and almost at the same time, he remembered today's trip to track Kraft, "You mean"
"Not long ago, I looked through the borrowing records in the college's warehouse - don't worry about how I saw it." Seeing Green's suddenly anxious look, Kraft pressed down his palm to signal for peace of mind.
"It just so happened that I knew the handwriting of one of the professors. He repeatedly used the excuse of contact with patients with severe infectious diseases to invalidate and not return surgical instruments. The same process was repeated many times, for several months."
"Hypothetically, and I mean hypothetically, what is the significance of this? Whether it is a careless omission or a hint of conscience on the part of the bureau, I can only think of one place where a plague patient rejected from a common cemetery is most likely to ”
“The problem then was, I didn’t know what to look for.” The blind search was enough to destroy any trust in its own reasoning.
【But I probably know it now】
"This doesn't prove anything." After being speechless for several breaths, Green controlled the urge to summon people immediately and re-examined this purely subjective speculation from an objective perspective.
"Not to mention the possibility of being a simple excuse, this can also mean that the targets they lure are patients seeking to be cured. Under the threat of death, as long as they give a little hope, it is unacceptable to pay almost no price."
"Currently, there are no cases of surgical cure of infected patients. The academic community generally believes that it depends on medicine, although it is not very useful."
"Isn't inserting a needle into the chest considered a traumatic surgery?" From a purely layman's perspective, it is easy to question, "What's more, Morrison also has a special medicine that can easily create a 'miracle' effect."
"But currently we only have this one clue. If you want to continue catching tomb robbers on the streets, you might as well give it a try."
"."
"Wardin, tell our people that I will see them here tomorrow, in regular clothes."
Kraft took off his gloves and stretched out his hand to Green, "My grandfather told me that on the battlefield, when they needed a little temporary trust, they would take off their gauntlets to show harmlessness, and then shake hands. This represents the simplest alliance. .”
The two hands were tightly clasped together, briefly touching and then separated. Bystanders could vaguely hear a weak popping sound as the joints were pressed.
"By the way, don't let people in the academy know, I don't want to lose my reputation in the industry."
"It is indeed the simplest alliance."
(End of chapter)