Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 148 The Third Miner's Lamp

As its name suggests, the "Red Lotus Grass Inn" was a very kind-looking establishment. As soon as Cheng Lang and his companions entered the first floor of the inn, the innkeeper poured each of them a cup of red lotus grass flower tea.

"Beautiful elves, are you looking for a place to stay?" The old innkeeper asked, unconsciously twitching her fluffy fox ears as she spoke.

Based solely on this orcish characteristic, Cheng Lang and the others subconsciously began to guess why Mr. Gerta had chosen to bring Yavso here to stay.

It's likely that this shop owner, who looks to be around the same age as Gerta, is someone's old acquaintance.

“Yes, Mrs. Ronique, we would like to stay at a hotel,” Yavso said instinctively.

"Oh?"

Mrs. Ronique looked at Yafso with great interest. "I'm sure I've never seen you before, pretty little elf. How do you know my name? My little shop isn't very well-known in Frostflower."

Just as Yafso was about to give herself away, Yun Lan spoke up in time, "It was recommended by an old sailor we met at sea. He said that only in this hotel can you experience the unique warmth of Frostflower Harbor."

"So this is a child recommended by an old friend."

Mrs. Ronique said cheerfully, “Please come upstairs. I will arrange the best rooms for you. Of course, don’t worry about the room rate; my rooms are very inexpensive.”

As she spoke, Mrs. Ronnie led them upstairs to the second floor.

This small hotel is less a hotel and more like someone who has opened their own home for business.

The second floor has a living room, a fireplace, a kitchen, and all sorts of other rooms, as well as a ring of seven or eight bedrooms.

“Apart from the room with the red hat, you can choose any of the rest.”

Mrs. Ronnie said slowly as she lit a large ship's lamp, "These are my children's rooms. Some of them have already gone to sea, and some have moved out and started their own families. Usually, the rooms on the first floor are where some of them stay. The rooms upstairs are much cleaner, so you can choose whichever you like."

As she spoke, Mrs. Ronique slowly turned and went downstairs. "Please make yourselves at home. I'll go buy some ingredients and cook some delicious dishes that can only be found in Frostflower Town."

Amid Cheng Lang and the others' thanks, Mrs. Ronnie, carrying a basket, walked out of the hotel with remarkable ease, seemingly unconcerned about theft at home.

"I almost let it slip," Yavso said awkwardly.
"It's alright, your captain has already covered for you."

Cheng Lang gestured for the three ladies to sit on the sofa by the fireplace, and asked curiously, "And this Mrs. Ronnie, and..."

“She and Grandpa Gerta are from the same village,” Yavso explained in a low voice. “We were able to get on the ship thanks to Mrs. Ronique’s son.”

“So that’s how it is”

Cheng Lang nodded, then steered the conversation back to business, "Let's talk about the next steps. We'll rest in Frostflower Town for a day, and after we've purchased the necessary supplies, we'll set off early tomorrow morning."

Before that, everyone is free to wander around, but for safety's sake, it's best to go in pairs. After saying that, Cheng Lang got up, randomly chose a room, and went inside.

Just as Mrs. Ronnie had said, the rooms on the second floor were indeed clean enough and decorated very warmly.

After closing the door and opening the backpack he had brought, Cheng Lang took out all the items he had brought with him and checked them.

In preparation for this trip to the Elven Kingdom, he not only brought the ring where Vanhart lived and the black cat doll that Princess Mistshadow had asked him to carry with him before his departure, but also all the hypocrites and the blood of Poseidon.

He even brought along the boat bottles originally used to hold fruit wine. Before setting sail, he made sure to pour as much of the fruit wine as possible into oak barrels and leave them on the boat.

I wonder what kind of trouble we'll encounter this time.
As Cheng Lang muttered to himself, he took out the travel carriage from his backpack, along with the two miners' lamps that had never been extinguished.

As the two lamps were taken out, their warm light and pleasant warmth instantly filled the room.

Seeing this, Cheng Lang put the two miner's lamps back on their canvas covers and took them outside, entrusting them to the three girls for safekeeping, as these things would make the room much warmer.

"Where is Yun Ji?" Cheng Lang asked as he handed the boat lantern to Ya Fu Suo.

She went out.

Yafso, still nestled by the fireplace and whispering with Yun Lan, replied, "It seems she's preparing to look at something based on the memories of her parents' spirits."

"Aren't you going out for a stroll?" Cheng Lang asked casually.

It's too cold.

The two sailors from the Thorn answered in unison, and carried the two ship lanterns toward their shared room.

"In that case, please keep an eye on my things in the room for me. I'm going out for a stroll."

"Leave it to us!"

Yun Lan replied, "We'll be there in a bit."

After thanking the other party, Cheng Lang went downstairs alone, picked up a boat lantern, and walked out of the Red Lotus Grass Inn. He stood at the door and looked around.

In the distance, a lighthouse glows from the ice core; nearby, various buildings are covered with thick snow; and even a statue carved from ice blocks stands at a roadside intersection not far away.

Of course, there were also sleds running all over the streets and various kinds of orc children, all of which gave him the illusion of being in a fairy tale world.

"Who says orcs are only tauren berserkers?"

Cheng Lang muttered something to himself, then took a step toward the direction he had just chosen.

However, before he could even land, a snowball slammed straight down on his feet from above.

He subconsciously looked up, only to find Yafso, now sporting a traditional elven face, standing by the window, waving excitedly at him, "Come on up! Come on up!"

I just came down.
Although Cheng Lang was puzzled, seeing the expression on the other person's face, he turned around and went back into the hotel to the second floor, where he was pulled into the room that Ya Fusuo shared with Yun Lan.

“Captain, look at these two lamps!” Yavso said, pointing to the two gleaming silver miner's lamps on the table.

"What about them? Hmm?"

Cheng Lang moved closer and noticed that the flames of the two lamps had turned into two small flame figures, one large and one small, and both of them had their arms outstretched, embracing each other in the same direction.

“I just tried it in another room, and no matter how I changed it, they all maintained the same posture in the same direction.”

As Yun Lan spoke, she extinguished the oil lamp that was already in the room. Immediately, Cheng Lang noticed that a fiery red spot of light had appeared on the floor. Although this spot of light, which should have been inside the Vermilion Bird Stone, was not large, it was extremely directional.

“I think it’s necessary to go and see in the direction those two lights are pointing,” Yun Lan suggested. “We might find some surprises.”

"I'll take a lamp and go look."

Cheng Lang said, "We need someone to watch our luggage; all our valuables are here."

"also"

“Captain, let me go with you!” Yavso volunteered. “I’m quite familiar with Frostflower Town, so I might be able to help you.”

“Let her go with you,” Yun Lan said. “I can take care of my luggage myself.”

"Alright, let's go."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he picked up a miner's lamp, gently pulled off the thick canvas lampshade to block the light inside, and led Yafso back downstairs and out of the hotel.

"That's the direction!" Yavso pointed in a direction and said, then asked expectantly in a low voice, "The ship?" "Call the captain."

Cheng Lang reminded him in a low voice, "We are elves now, and elves can't be captains."

"Makes sense!"

Yavso immediately changed her tune, "Captain, it's that direction!"

"Go, go."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he took a step forward, asking curiously, "I didn't notice the flames changed like that when I gave them to you. Did you do something to these two lamps?"

"Sister Yunlan felt a bit cold and wanted to turn the flame up a bit, and that's how it turned out."

Yavso immediately replied, "The other lamp turned up its flame and became like that too."

"Let's go see what's over there."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he quickened his pace slightly, while listening with great interest to the little girl Yafso's frequent use of the prefix "I heard my grandfather say" when introducing Frostflower Town.

Simply put, this is not only an important port of the Frost Duchy, but also the first choice for most elves who choose to go to sea—just like elves preparing to set sail would go to the Sea Tavern to drink a cocktail infused with the ship's blood to bless their voyage.

Of course, on the other hand, although Frostflower Town is nominally a town, in reality, its size and area are comparable to the royal city of the Frost Duchy.

As for why it's still named as a "town," it's simply because towns pay less tax.

Of course, she had also heard all of this from her grandfather, Gerta.

As Yafso chattered on, the two followed the flame of their miner's lamps and walked step by step toward the center of Frostflower Town.

However, the target indicated by the miner's lamp was farther away than they had anticipated. So far that they had to rent a sled halfway through the journey, driven by Yavso, to continue.

Finally, after driving on and off for more than an hour, Yavso drove his sled away from Frostflower Town, following the direction indicated by his miner's lamp.

Further ahead lies a large pine forest covered in snow. Although the forest is vast, the pine trees are generally not very tall.

"Are we going in?"

Yafso swallowed hard, asking with a hint of fear. The sky was still dark, and the area outside Frostflower Town was much darker than inside the town due to the lack of lights. In the pine forest ahead, even with some reflection from the snow, the dense pine trees made it impossible to see anything.

"Let's go in and take a look," Cheng Lang said.

He discovered that even the excellent night vision of the dark elves could not alleviate most girls' fear of the dark—unless they were warriors like Yun Ji.

After securing the sled, Cheng Lang drew a flintlock pistol and, with Yavso carrying a miner's lamp behind him, led the way into the secluded pine forest.

The fact that every step you take is easy through thick snow that's above your knees tells you that no one has been here for a long time.

With the crunching sound of their footsteps on the snow, the two gradually walked deeper into the forest, and the miner's lamp in Yavso's hand became brighter and brighter.

It was under the increasingly bright light that the two of them gradually saw that there was a not-so-large wooden house between three pine trees directly in front of them.

Looking at Yafso behind him, Cheng Lang lit another large ship lantern he had brought.

With the help of the brighter lights, the two were able to see clearly that the wooden house was actually suspended above the ground by the three trees.

As Cheng Lang continued walking, he saw that on the trunk of one of the pine trees, which was as thick as a waist, hung a wooden ladder. Its length was just enough to reach the doorway of the wooden house, which was suspended in the air and was about the height of a person.

"Don't move."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he gently placed the large ship lantern in his hand on the soft snow, and then pulled out an extra flintlock pistol and handed it to Yavso.

"The ship—no, Captain, be careful," Yavso warned, gripping the flintlock pistol that had been handed to him, suppressing his fear.

"If you spot danger, fire upwards."

Cheng Lang gave him a worried warning, as he didn't want to be taken down by Yavso with a single shot, especially with a flintlock pistol whose accuracy depended entirely on luck.

"Okay! Okay!" Yavso immediately raised the flintlock pistol, which he had been covering with his hands, and aimed it at the night sky above.

Oh well, at least it won't hit me.

Cheng Lang was quite content. He gripped the flintlock pistol in one hand and took out a whip in the other. Using the light behind him, he walked step by step toward the suspended wooden house.

Finally, he stood at the door of the wooden house, listened for a moment, and then circled the house once. Cheng Lang cracked his whip, which wrapped around the wooden stick holding the door shut. With a strong pull, the wooden door creaked open slowly.

Although the wooden house was pitch black, Cheng Lang could still see everything inside clearly.

In this wooden cabin containing only a bed, a table, and a fireplace, the corpse of an elf is pinned to the wall facing the door by arrows.

She had long silver hair, but her pointed ears, which were cut off and pinned to the wall with an arrow, had been cut off and attached to the wall. A silver ship lantern was also hanging on the arrow.

After a moment's hesitation, Cheng Lang did not climb the ladder. Instead, he walked back to Yafso's side and described the scene he saw inside.

"What...what position was that woman in?" Yavso asked, her face pale.

"His two palms and two soles were pressed against the wall, pinned to it by arrows."

Cheng Lang paused, then added, "His ear was cut off and pinned to the wall with a single arrow, and..."

"An arrow pierced through both ears," Yavso said, her face pale, describing the scene she hadn't seen at all, yet which was exactly as she had described it.

"That's right," Cheng Lang nodded.

"That was the exile ceremony for the dark elves."

Yafso shuddered involuntarily. "Legend has it that this method binds the spirit of the dark elf inside the corpse, forcing it to repent to everyone who passes by. But you just said that there wasn't a dark elf inside."

"What are you repenting for? These pointy-eared people are seriously ill."

Cheng Lang snorted, started walking again, and said as he walked back to the cabin, "What would happen if I pulled out those arrows?"

"There won't be any consequences, but the spirits in the corpse will attack the person who pulled out the arrow."

Yafso paused, "But I'm not sure if this kind of banishment ritual works on normal elves."

"You'll know once you try it."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he placed the ladder at the entrance of the wooden house and climbed up step by step.

Entering the wooden house, Cheng Lang carefully brushed the snow off his legs. He first swung his whip around the roof beam and then gently wrapped it around the female elf's corpse. He then took the large scissors that Yafso handed him, gently cut the arrows that were piercing the female corpse's left and right ears, and slowly pulled them out.

"Danglang"

The broken arrow landed softly on the floor. Cheng Lang then cut the arrows off the hands and feet, and finally gently placed the body, which was bound by a whip, on the bed.

"call!"

Almost the instant Cheng Lang pulled away the whip, the silver miner's lamp, which was still hanging on the arrow along with the two pointed ears, suddenly lit up. The flickering flame gradually transformed into a tiny figure, no bigger than a fingertip, with outstretched arms.
(End of this chapter)