Navigator: I have a double six-story house

Su Qing followed the leader and walked deeper into the forest.

As he walked, he noticed something was wrong; the sensation under his feet was off.

He looked down and saw that the soil beneath his feet was very firm, while the bushes on both sides had been cut with a knife.

It seems this is not a path naturally formed by footsteps, but a road that has been deliberately modified by humans.

His gaze fell on the leader walking in front.

This group of indigenous people not only knows how to use encirclement tactics, but also has infrastructure capabilities.

After walking for about ten minutes, the canopy of trees ahead began to thin out, and the light became brighter and brighter.

The moment Su Qing stepped out of the forest with the leader, she was stunned.

Before us lay a vast, reclaimed open space.

It looks to be about the size of a football field, surrounded by a two-meter-high wooden wall.

The walls were made by sharpening whole tree trunks and inserting them into the ground, with even spacing between them, and filling the gaps with vines and soil.

Although it looks simple in structure, it is very sturdy.

Every so often, an indigenous person holding a wooden bow stood atop the wall, scanning outwards with their eyes.

After exchanging a few words with the local inhabitants at the entrance, the leader led Su Qing and her group forward.

Su Qing walked over the wall and saw more things that he found interesting.

Inside the wall, there was a lot of reclaimed land, not very large, but surprisingly, irrigation ditches had been dug.

There was a crop he had never seen before growing in the soil.

It looks a bit like corn, but the kernels are wrapped in purple husks and emit a faint glow in the eternal night without sunlight.

After crossing the fields, Su Qing came to see the houses.

Rows of wooden houses appeared before his eyes, varying in size, some single rooms and some terraced houses.

Several young indigenous children squatted at the door of the wooden house, drawing something on the ground with smooth, rounded stones in their hands.

The smoke from the chimneys rose from between these wooden houses.

Walls, farmland, houses, patrol posts.

This is not a temporary settlement; it is a village.

A village that has taken root on a dungeon island.

Su Qing withdrew his gaze; the situation on this island was more complicated than he had anticipated.

The leader led them through the passageway between the wooden houses, and the residents on both sides stopped what they were doing and stared at Su Qing and the other two with curiosity.

Their eyes held little hostility, but rather a great deal of curiosity.

It's like visitors to a zoo discovering a new species.

A bold child ran over, circled Wang Yao twice, and reached out to touch his plate armor.

The cool, metallic texture made the child pull his hand back, grin, and then run away.

Wang Yao grinned and then made a funny face.

"Stop joking." Su Qing glanced at him.

"He's just a kid." Wang Yao composed himself, but a smile still lingered on his lips.

Selena walked half a step to Su Qing's right, her gaze sweeping across the village.

Su Qing noticed that her gaze lingered on the glowing crops for two seconds.

"What did you figure out?"

"Uncertain." Selena lowered her voice. "There's no record of this crop in the Windrise Merchant Guild's agricultural catalog. It's either an undiscovered new variety or a product unique to their exclusive shipping route."

"Is the experience value high?"

"I don't know..." Selena paused, "but I feel it will be at least a little more expensive than ordinary ingredients."

Su Qing didn't ask any more questions.

At the end of the passageway lies the very center of the entire village.

An altar.

The platform is made of polished gray-white stones, about one meter high, and the surface is covered with a whole dark animal hide.

The edges of the animal hide drooped down, covered with densely packed symbols and patterns whose specific meanings were unclear.

On either side of the altar stood a wooden pillar, with the skull of some kind of animal tied to the top of each pillar. The remaining horns on the skulls curved upwards, like two scimitars.

Above the altar, a figure sat quietly cross-legged.

He wore a long robe made of various animal hides, with broad shoulders and a straight back.

Although he was just sitting there, Su Qing could sense a sense of composure and calmness emanating from that figure.

Su Qing glanced around.

The patrolmen on the wall, the residents on both sides of the passage, all looked at this figure with the same expression.

In awe.

The leader walked three steps in front of the altar, knelt on one knee, and began to report.

He speaks very quickly, but in a respectful tone.

Using the common language, Su Qing roughly understood the conversation: three outsiders, one man and two women...

No, it's two men and one woman, coming from the sea by boat, saying they're looking for that door.

That door suggests that there really is an entrance to a dungeon on the island.

After the leader finished speaking, he lowered his head and waited for a response.

The figure on the altar remained motionless.

Su Qing wasn't in a hurry and waited quietly.

A few seconds later, a voice came from the altar.

It wasn't the leader's rough, hurried voice.

The voice was gentle and deep, each syllable was pronounced slowly, like a stream flowing over a stone.

Su Qing used common language to break down the passage and piece together its general meaning.

"The arrival of outsiders is their destiny, and also our mission."

"All of this is the arrangement of the gods."

Su Qing's expression remained unchanged, but she silently complained in her mind.

It has that flavor.

An ancient tribe that has been protected for thousands of years encounters a destined hero from the outside world, and together they are about to uncover a mysterious past that has been sealed away.

He had seen too many of these kinds of plots when he was on Earth: classic openings from cheap, mass-produced literature.

The voices from the altar continued to ring out.

"However..." the elder's tone changed, "before that, the brave warrior from afar needs to rest."

"Tonight, we will host a banquet, and after the banquet, we will take you to find that door."

Upon hearing this, the leader turned to look at Su Qing, his face bearing an expression that said, "The elder has spoken."

Su Qing thought about it and did not refuse.

He was looking for an opportunity to get some seeds of that crop and try planting them.

More importantly, he hadn't yet figured out the situation of this tribe, and the banquet was a good opportunity to gather information.

He decided to try responding in the indigenous language.

On the way, through conversations with the leader, he had memorized some basic vocabulary and grammatical structures.

The general language aid has been quite effective in helping me learn; although my pronunciation is still a bit halting, I can express the basic meaning.

Su Qing cleared her throat and spoke.

"Thank you... Elder... for your kindness, we... are honored."

The pronunciation was slow and the intonation was stiff, like a foreign student who had just learned Chinese reading a textbook.

But he was certain that there were no major problems with the grammar and word choice.

However, he had just said the word "honor".

The figure on the altar suddenly turned around.

The movement was so large that the animal skin robe draped over his body swung around.

Su Qing finally saw that face clearly.

He was stunned.

It was a square, broad face with thick eyebrows, large eyes, a sunken nose, and wide, fleshy cheeks.

Although there were colorful stripes painted on her face, Su Qing couldn't possibly mistake her features, bone structure, and proportions.

Wang Yao reacted even faster than him.

"Li Daniu?!"

Wang Yao's voice boomed throughout the entire village.

All the indigenous people turned their heads in unison to look at the loud-voiced, armored man.

The "elder" on the altar also turned around completely, without changing his cross-legged posture, and faced the direction of Su Qing and the other two.

Su Qing looked at the face and knew without a doubt that it was Li Daniu.

Orphans at Sunshine Orphanage.

He was three years older than Su Qing and Wang Yao, and was the oldest boy in the orphanage.

He was sturdy, strong, and never slacked off at work; Zhang's mother always called him "Little Ox".

After being conscripted as a crew member during the Seventh Age of Exploration, he disappeared without a trace.

Su Qing had always thought that he, like the other recruited sailors, was seeking survival on the sea routes of the Age of Exploration.

I never expected to end up here.

A dungeon island on a special shipping route from the Age of Exploration, on the altar of a primitive tribe.

In the capacity of an "elder".

Li Daniu stared at Su Qing and Wang Yao, the composure of a "wise man" completely vanishing from his face.

His lips moved slightly, and two words popped out of his mouth.

It wasn't the language of the indigenous people, but standard Mandarin.

"Xiao Qing?" Then her gaze shifted to Wang Yao, "Xiao Yao?"

The air was deathly still.

Wang Yao was the first to break the silence, pointing at Li Daniu on the altar with a very interesting expression.

"How dare you be a chief here?!"

Su Qing took a deep breath.

His gaze moved from Li Daniu's face to the altar behind him, then to the aboriginal people around him who were looking at the "elder" with awe, and then back to Li Daniu's face.

My mind is full of questions, all lined up waiting for an exit.

But he only asked one question.

"Brother Niu," Su Qing looked at him, "how did you get in?"

Li Daniu's expression was complicated.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again, looked down at the animal skin robe he was wearing, and when he looked up again, his eyes were already red.

"The child has no mother; it's a long story." His voice was hoarse.

The surrounding indigenous people all stared blankly at this scene, and the leader looked completely bewildered.

The elder they had revered for three years was speaking to three outsiders in a language they had never heard before.

Moreover, the elder's eyes seemed to be wet.