Comprehensive network wizard, magic emperor.

Chapter 55 Three Relics, Sea God Faith

Friday.

After completing the morning's medicine identification work, Lin Bo went to the church. The believers of the Tower Guardian Order had already offered the first batch of relics.

The old priest placed all the things in a single storage room and even prepared a display table to arrange the things neatly.

The church in Shita Town had never been wealthy. The exhibition table was just two flimsy old wooden pieces put together, covered with the best cotton cloth to hide the holes caused by insects.

Lin Bo knew the condition of the two pine tables just by touching them. He whispered his real name. Under the linen, the wormholes in the table tops were healed and the legs were firmly embedded in the table tops.

The two exhibition tables that used to creak when touched now stand firmly.

The old priest held a whale oil lantern behind him. Lin Bo used the light to examine the old items sent by the believers one by one, and then picked out three items, namely a jewelry box, a gold ring, and a cloth doll.

According to [Star Eyes], higher-level remnant relics will cause various strange phenomena to appear around them, such as nearby creatures experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations, frequent dreams at night, or the relics changing their positions on their own when no one is watching.

Lin Bo wasn't surprised that these three items were most likely weak reverberation relics. Weak reverberations were the easiest to obtain, and were not uncommon even in a world without magic.

Reverberations of a higher level than this have some kind of mysterious nature and require the intervention of miraculous powers.

The older and more noble the relic, the higher the quality of its reverberation.

Although the birth of reverberation is inseparable from strong emotions and historical turmoil, the continuation of reverberation is inseparable from mysterious factors.

Items such as the imperial seal and battle-hardened military flags are qualified to produce high-level reverberations, but without the nourishment of miracles, even the most advanced reverberations will gradually become blurred and may only be at a weak level in the end.

This is also the main reason why it is difficult to collect reverberations in the magic-free world. It’s not that there are no good things, but that the good things have all expired.

The barbarian [Feitian Dacao], who had teamed up with Lin Bo, still complained daily in the chat room. He'd searched every museum and antique market in his country, only to find fakes or find items he'd paid a fortune for only to find faint, useless echoes.

Stone Tower Town was a small place, with the Bakery and the Lighthouse as its two major intelligence centers, allowing for a rapid flow of information. If someone in a household had a high-level Reverberation Relic and heard about it, it would be difficult to hide it from their neighbors. Once their neighbors knew about it, it was like the whole world knew about it.

So Lin Bo hoped to collect more faint remnants in Shita Town. If he was lucky enough to draw a magic copy, he might be able to establish a relationship with the mage group.

If you can't find the advanced reverberation in a small place, go to a big city. If you can't find it in a big city, go to the imperial capital. If you can't find it in Hongdu, go out of the Sail Islands, go to the Fertile Continent, and go to every corner of the planet.

Even if this process yields no results, with the expansion of the Tower Guard Order and the growth of his personal abilities, he can personally take part in promoting the development of history and artificially create high-level reverberation relics.

Not discouraged by temporary difficulties, he continued to study the path of his true name step by step, and the further he went, the greater his joy.

Lin Bo collected the three remnant relics and asked the old priest who had sent them. He wrote down their names and would give them awards at the next Thursday gathering.

The remnant relics will be damaged after being sacrificed to the Zongwang. Although this is a voluntary donation by believers, it is destroyed after all, and Lin Bo must compensate the owner.

The old priest recorded everything that each member of the order sent, and Lin Bo asked him to find out if these three people had any supplies they were short of, or if they had any difficulties at home. Of course, a reward that could solve their urgent needs would be the best.

The remaining ordinary objects without reverberation can be returned to the believers in their original condition. There is no need to leave them gathering dust in the church.

He browsed the antiques and saw some fragments of books with scriptures written in Knin script to worship the sea god. The handwriting was crude, and the spelling and grammar were quite problematic, even more unfamiliar than that of Lin Bo, a foreigner who had only studied for a short time.

"I thought the Empire only believed in the Five Gods."

Upon hearing this, the old priest took a half step forward and saw the Night Watchman holding a few fragments of scripture. He then explained, "In fact, the faith of the Sea God is the native religion of the Sail Islands. It was defeated and expelled by the faith of the Five Gods that came from the Fertile Continent."

Among the old items presented by believers, there are several others that are related to the local belief in the sea god, but they are not ancestral property, but obtained through trade.

According to the old priest's recollection, when he was a child, a group of "Sea People" would often come to Shita Town in dugout canoes every ten days or so. They would exchange minerals, bird feathers, herbs, and handicrafts for whale oil and whale bones. Trade between Shita Town and the Sea People had a long history, but it had been almost ten years since the last time people saw them.

“…Maybe all those people are dead.”

Lin Bo seemed to be lost in thought. He remembered that last night the Fungus-Talking Seagull had found out about an abandoned human village on a nearby island, as well as a human living alone. Perhaps that was the last believer of the sea god.

"The craftsmanship of these people is quite stylish." Lin Bo checked the trade items of the Sea People, which were pendants, flutes, and rosaries carved from whale bones.

Even though they had not been maintained for many years, these instruments were still soaked in oil. When the wizard touched them lightly, he would get a deep silence in response. This was also his trick for distinguishing whale products.

These whale products all contain magical energy and are capable of carrying high-level reverberations. Unfortunately, they are just ordinary handicrafts. They neither carry the emotions of their users nor have they experienced the turmoil of the world.

However, this also gave Lin Bo a clear direction for searching for remnant relics. In the future, he should pay more attention to whale artifacts with a history, especially bone carvings handed down from ancient times.

Seeing Lin Bo's interest, the old priest explained, "Sea God believers believe that whales are the children of God. In ancient times, the Windward Islands were the only ones qualified to use whale bones to make statues, totems, or other religious objects."

The old priest had some knowledge of religious struggles in his homeland, a period of history that many common people in the empire could not access.

Whaling was once strictly prohibited in the Windward Islands. Only during certain Poseidon festivals would special convicts go out to sea to hunt whales. After they brought back whales, according to tradition, these brave sailors had to be killed to use their blood to appease the Poseidon's grief over the loss of his son.

However, sailors who could hunt whales were excellent laborers in any era, and wasting them in this way seemed extremely cruel and inhumane. Therefore, human sacrifice was only carried out a few times in history before it was banned by the kings of the archipelago and replaced with burning puppets.

Ordinary people were not allowed to touch the skin, fat, bones, and organs of all whales. Instead, they were used in special religious ceremonies. Only the flesh and blood would be distributed to believers for consumption after being offered, which was considered a holy communion at the time.

It was precisely because of the strict control of the Poseidon Cult on whaling that the people of the archipelago began to develop the whaling industry without scruples until the Five Gods Faith replaced it.

In less than a few years, the country, relying on abundant whale oil fuel, rapidly entered the era of the Industrial Revolution.

Contemporary historians often lament that backward indigenous beliefs hindered technological development.

"Are whale products passed down from ancient times still common?" Lin Bo asked.

"It's rare. During the religious struggles, the Five Gods sects often destroyed the relics of the Sea God. Now, they are only occasionally unearthed in ancient dynasty tombs. Some are collected in museums, and the rest are circulated among the people, in the hands of some religious enthusiasts and collectors."

"What a pity." Lin Bo put down the bone flute in his hand.

He instructed the old priest to entrust the merchants in the order to go to Jinbei City to inquire about the seller of whale bone artifacts as soon as possible.

Then, he turned and went out of the storage room.

The old priest took a step behind and quietly lifted a corner of the tablecloth. Seeing the mirror-smooth tabletop, he showed an expression of as expected. He murmured in praise of the saints for their generosity and sighed for the poverty of the order, which was really disgraceful.

Back in the church hall, the lighthouse keeper was still there, talking to a seagull that had landed on his shoulder.

The huge white bird chirped softly in the night watchman's ear, and he nodded in agreement from time to time, speaking a strange and melodious language, communicating with the seagull back and forth.

Several servants hid behind the pillars and peeked out, fascinated by the scene. The old priest waved his hand to drive them away. They looked back every few steps and left reluctantly.

After a while, Lin Bo released the seagulls and pondered.

The only human on the deserted island discovered by the reconnaissance bird flock yesterday was sighted again by seagulls this morning. This person has already left the island and is sailing eastward.

Does that person know the whereabouts of the Poseidon Cult's relics?

(End of this chapter)