Dawn Spider

Chapter 184 Mirage Cloud Palace
“Little Spider, I timed it perfectly and made a special trip back to Partridge Mountain to intercept you. There’s another very important reason why I came to find you late at night: we’ve unearthed something extraordinary…”

Having reached an agreement, the King of Eshu Insects adopted a solemn tone and asked:

"Do you remember the location where the two wide main roads intersect, north of Ruins 2002?"

"of course I remember!"

"The team led by the Sumeru Insect King explored eastward along the road and successfully discovered a large-scale settlement of ordinary alien races, which we named Ruins No. 2003."

"The main road passes through Ruins 2003. Not far from the ruins, a well-preserved stone signpost, inexplicably reinforced with earth-based magic, was unearthed..."

"Two square pillars, each five or six meters thick, support a giant stone road sign that spans the entire road surface."

The King of Curcuma Insects touched the ground with its antennae, sweeping it smooth, and then carved with its toes, saying, "There are two rows of characters, one large and one small, on the road sign in the Stone Land. Take a look..."

As it spoke, its forelegs carved out the characters.

Jin leaned closer to look and understood in a second: two rows of characters, the top row being characters common to human civilization, and the bottom row being characters common to the universe, marking a place name: [Mirage Cloud Palace].

"King of the Curcuma Insects, this is a dead end. Don't dig any further."

"Why?"

"If I'm not mistaken, this road should lead directly to the Fog Sea. Without a doubt, the Fog Sea is also an alien civilization's ruins, and one of the highest-standard and largest ruins on the planet we're on, inhabited by the largest and strongest group of alien civilization warriors."

"We had the same guess..."

The King of the Eshu Insects asked, "What do these characters roughly mean?"

Jin raised his paw and pointed at the character '宫' (gong), saying, "This should be a general term for a place name, similar to..."

Jin carved the characters for "city" and "town" on the ground.

"It has a similar meaning to these two words, but its status is much higher, far beyond what is possible."

Jin then pointed to the character 'cloud' and said, "I recognize the meaning of this character; it should represent floating clouds in the sky."

"This character should represent the ocean."

Jin finally pointed to the character '蜃' and said, "I don't recognize this character, but I can roughly guess that the whole string of characters means, roughly translated, 'a settlement of alien Force warriors located above the vast ocean and above the clouds.'"

"This also coincides with the outbreak of the fog tide and the water-based abilities released by the mutated evil spirits."

Jin then said, "Actually, I don't need to analyze these characters. Just by listening to your description of the scene, I can make a definite judgment."

Before any questions could be raised, Jin asked, "King of the Eshu Insects, if I'm not mistaken, the road signs on that stone ground must have the same cloud and mist patterns that we excavated from the ruins, the same ones found on armor and weapons, right?"

The king of the turmeric insects replied, "Yes."

Jin said, "That's right. This is a huge alien group, or rather a huge power, centered on the Fog Sea. All the ruins we have excavated so far are branches of the Fog Sea ruins, just like the Great Poison Armor Tribe and the various peaks outside Partridge God Mountain."

"That makes sense..."

"You've barely managed to parse out one character message."

The King of the Curcuma Insects waved its antennae and vigorously swept the muddy ground, unleashing pure primal energy to compact the soft soil. Its forelegs then carved out two clear characters:

【Emperor Continent】

Jin's heart skipped a beat.

"The team led by the Stone Insect King started from Relic No. 2002 and traveled south along the road for about 170 kilometers, where they discovered Relic No. 2004. These are the characters on a road sign found at an intersection near Relic No. 2004. On this single road sign, only these two characters are preserved relatively clearly without any omissions."

Jin looked solemn and fell into deep thought.

After waiting patiently for a while, the King of Curcuma Insects described, "The road sign indicates that you should go east."

"..."

Jin pondered for a moment, then raised its paw and drew the characters for "city" and "town" on the ground. Pointing to the character for "city," it analyzed and said:

"Based on my observations and observations, the characters in the names of secondary-level ruins representing ordinary ethnic groups all contain this character."

With a flick of its golden claw, it pointed to the character '镇' (zhen, meaning town/town) and said, "This represents a level-three ruin where ordinary alien races live. Some ruins have this character, while others don't. If it has this character, the ruin is relatively large. If it doesn't, it's a very small ruin, and it only appears at remote crossroads."

The King of Curcuma Insects said, "This is a very obvious pattern."

Jin said, "However, these two characters appeared on the signpost for the main road of the secondary settlement ruins..."

Jin said uncertainly, "We can use the process of elimination. First, we can rule out the possibility of the level 0 ruins we dug up before, which were inhabited by alien Force warriors. We can roughly rule out the possibility of level 2 and 3 ruins inhabited by ordinary alien races... That leaves only one possibility?"

The King of the Curcuma Insects asked, puzzled, "What other possibilities are there?"

Jin raised his claw and pointed north, saying, "Like the Cyathea Mountain, a first-class relic of extremely large scale!"

After finishing his sentence, Jin added, "Of course, it could also be an unexpected situation. The road leads to a large level-three ruin, but the name of that ruin doesn't contain this fixed character." A level-one ruin like the Cyathea Mountain!
The King of the Curcuma Insects instantly became alert, its mind racing as it analyzed the situation, weighed the pros and cons, and tentatively asked:
"Jin, you mean there's a pretty good chance it leads to a massive, first-class ruin?"

Jin replied definitively, "More than 50% chance. I can't imagine where a road built by a foreign civilization could lead."

"That's true……"

The King of Eshu Insects thought for a moment, its antennae held high with confidence, and said, "Purple Hair, two character messages, 100 primal crystals, I'll give them to you next time."

After saying that, run away.

"and many more!"

Jin hurriedly called a halt, saying, "The King of Curcuma zedoaria is a small business; we do not offer credit."

The King of the Curculigo Insects said unhappily, "It's only 100 original crystals. Do you think I would renege on my debt? I didn't bring any with me. I'll pay you next time."

Jin raised his claw and pointed in the direction of Partridge Mountain, saying, "It's not far. Go back and get it. I'll wait for you."

The King of Eshu Insects suppressed his mental energy and said, "Are you really that clueless, little spider, or are you just pretending? I sneaked back."

Jin pointed out, "Then you can secretly go back to the mountain and get it again."

"How could that be? Do you think all those insects on the mountain are idiots?"

The King of Curcuma Insects bent its antennae backward, pointed to its two horns covered with dark golden down, and said, "Racial talent, a Lord-level Poison Armor Warrior can sense my presence even from ten kilometers away."

Impressed!

Even the King of Insects, who should be here, has ended up in such a pathetic state. You can't argue with that.

Jin drew out six strands of spider silk, its forelegs and chelicerae flashing in afterimages, and soon, a detailed IOU was woven out.

Jin explained, "I created a script based on the characters of an alien civilization I discovered during underground excavations. This is an IOU I wrote using my own script."

“具体内容为：商陆14年，6月17日，鹧鸪神山大毒甲部族莪术虫王欠焰蛛王国丝葵山焰蛛战士金遗迹勘探咨询费用100万原石。限期3个月，承诺于9月17日前偿还。如不能按约如数偿清，莪术虫王需向金支付违约费用1万原石/天。”

King of the Curcuma Insects: "..."

Jin asked, "Is the King of Eshu Insects alright?"

The King of the Eshu Insects roared, "Little spider, what kind of insect do you take me for? It's just 100 Primal Crystals, is it really that big of a deal?"

“King of the Curcuma Insects, we have a good relationship and are old friends. However, the closer the relationship, the more we should settle accounts to avoid misunderstandings and disputes.”

Jin spoke slowly, controlling the IOU to float and hover in front of the Eshu Insect King, saying, "It's very simple, just use your mental power to imprint a mark on it."

"..."

The King of Eshu Insects stared at the IOU and examined it carefully.

The drawings are distorted and abstract, the characters of the Flame Spider Kingdom are complex and bloated, and some characters from other civilizations are mixed in. There are also circles and crosses used as substitutes, probably because no suitable characters could be found to represent them.

The IOU was pieced together from a jumble of random characters, but the '1000000 raw stones' in the middle stood out clearly.

"Little spider, what's the point of this thing? Besides yourself, is there any other insect that can recognize it?"

"As long as I can recognize the 100 million raw stones, it will be meaningful to imprint them with my mental energy."

"That could also mean you owe me 100 million raw stones. Can I turn the tables and sue you for 100 million?"

"No. Impossible. If I owed you 100 million primal stones, I should have left a mental imprint on you and kept the IOU in your hand."

"..."

The King of Eshu Insects pondered for a moment, and it seemed to make sense. Hesitantly, he released a beam of spiritual energy and branded the mark.

“Eshu Insect King, the repayment period is 3 months. If you are late, I will charge a high penalty.”

Kim Sun-yi reminded everyone to be careful when collecting IOUs, as income can easily become a burden.

"Enough, you little purple-haired brat. I'm the Insect King, after all. Do you think I'd renege on my debt to you?"

The King of Eshu Insects was annoyed and muttered unhappily, "I have to pay extra for the original crystals from digging up these ruins."

—Let you brag like that~
—This comes at a price.
Jin Xin chuckled, his expression grave, and advised again, "Eshu Insect King, I think it would be better if you told everyone, so we can all share the consultation costs."

"I don't need you to teach me!"

"I go first."

The King of Curcuma Insects was agitated and turned to disappear into the darkness.

(End of this chapter)