Qiao Mu nodded calmly, took out a purple arcane array disk from the ring, injected magic power into it and lit it up.
After he made some slight manipulations, a full map of the island suddenly appeared in mid-air above the formation plate.
At the same time, a faint green bright spot suddenly lit up, flashing in a blurry shadow area above the island, between the endless blue ocean.
"It seems that the location on the north side of the island, five miles outside the sea, coincides with the location of the underwater ruins."
After looking at the map, Qiao Mu expressed the survey results with some confusion.
"It stopped at that underwater ruin? It didn't leave?"
Anvis glanced at the map in confusion. The bright spot representing the ship was indeed hidden in the depths, making it appear extremely abrupt and conspicuous.
According to the old explorer Bergson, the underwater ruins are related to the Moon Calling Secret Cult.
Originally, Anvis had no intention of going there due to his sense of danger.
But the black ship was able to go to the mainland and then successfully return more than once, which shows that there is a high probability that it has a magical device for guidance.
After hesitating for a moment, Anvis finally made up his mind.
"Okay, let's go around far away, try to get the guidance device on the ship, and then leave immediately."
.….….
The northernmost point of the island mountains, the top of the mountain.
The lonely castle hangs precariously on the edge of a cliff, with a huge steel suspension bridge connecting it to the top of another mountain.
Surrounded by many gray thorns and weird roses, the outer walls of the towering castle are covered with dark green vines. A large number of vines even partially penetrated into the stone arch windows, giving people an ancient feel.
And a gloomy feeling.
The full moon rises, and the pale purple moonlight envelopes the castle. When it penetrates into the thick arched windows of the castle, it unabashedly emits a cold and biting feeling.
The whistling mountain peaks blew past the sharp and towering spiers, bastions, and round towers of the castle, and shuttled back and forth between the narrow windows and semicircular arches, making strange whistling sounds.
Deep in the castle, a half-elf girl holding a beautiful and slender one-handed sword in her right hand and a warm yellow lantern in her left hand was moving forward carefully.
After searching around for a moment, Claire triggered the switch, opened a secret door, and carefully continued towards the bottom of the castle.
It's almost time, she has already felt that the thing calling her softly is right in front of her.
During the exploration, she also encountered some dangers, but for her, an experienced explorer, it was not too difficult.
The most dangerous one was when the tower on one side of the castle suddenly collapsed due to "age and disrepair".
But luckily, she's used to escaping from collapsing buildings of all kinds.
Just before the thousands of tons of ancient rock collapsed like the sky, the girl rushed out of the black steel tower in advance and survived.
There was a strange power fluctuation permeating the castle, which was completely different from anywhere else on the island, but Claire did not sense any danger, and instead felt strangely familiar with it.
It was as if she had known him for a long time.
In front of the last secret door, the girl stopped.
The secret door is made of ancient blue-black metal, with a strange ancient symbol carved on the surface.
For some reason, she suddenly felt something in her heart.
Under the prompt of this perception, she slowly let go of the lantern in her left hand and gently placed her white palm on the surface of the symbol.
The symbol lit up slightly, and the girl felt her fingertips tingle slightly. A drop of blood was sucked out from her fingertips and blended into the symbol.
As if meeting certain conditions, the door slid upwards silently, revealing a long spiral staircase hidden deep behind it in the darkness.
The surface of the black wooden stairs was covered with bright red carpets. The part where the secret door opened was in the middle of the stairs. No matter up or down, Claire could not see the end.
Standing at the door, the girl clearly realized that the source of that attraction was at the top of the spiral staircase.
The warm yellow light illuminated the darkness of the spiral staircase. The girl held her sword and climbed cautiously towards the top of the building.
Although it may have been the end, Claire still did not let down her guard.
She has seen many negative cases in which explorers accidentally fell into danger due to relaxation at the last moment of the expedition, resulting in disability or even death. She is well versed in the principle of "A person who travels a hundred miles will get half a mile".
Although the spiral staircase seemed long, as the girl continued to climb, the exit at the end finally appeared in front of her eyes.
After walking out of the spiral staircase, a wide rock hall appeared in her eyes.
Ancient silk flags are hung on the walls of the hall, and the scarlet flag with gold edges is embroidered with a strange symbol, as if it is the symbol of an ancient country that has been destroyed for a long time.
On the stone throne in the center of the hall, something radiating light firmly caught the girl's attention.
It was a beautiful and illusory fragment, with a bit of dreamy luster around it. The wonderful color was even difficult to describe in any words.
Looking at the fragments, an indescribable feeling of intimacy came from the girl's heart.
It seemed that she had been very familiar with it a long time ago.
"You came……"
When her eyes touched the fragment, a soft female voice suddenly flowed in the heart of the half-elf girl like a clear spring.
"Are you calling me? Can you solve the problem for me that will bring misfortune to my companions?"
Looking at the floating fragments on the throne in confusion, Claire asked softly.
"Yes... our 'core'..."
A circle of gentle ripples emanated from the surface of the fragment, brushing against the girl's soft and white cheeks, seeming to express approval.
"What did you call me?"
The girl was slightly startled.
"core……"
The fragments rippled gently.
"There is no need to doubt that you are one of the 'fragments', and you are the most important, indispensable, and only core fragment..."
"The power of the 'fragments' to merge into one will spontaneously attract you, and the 'bad luck trait' in you will probably only be related to our body..."
"Am I a 'core' fragment?"
The girl was a little shocked. She instinctively raised her hand to comb her golden hair and asked a question.
"So, before it was broken... what were the fragments?"
"A broken mirror cannot reflect one's whole face...A damaged body tissue cannot know one's identity in life. The same applies to us..."
The illusory fragments are gently undulating, and the light spots on the surface sometimes disperse and sometimes condense.
"If there is really any fragment that may record what I looked like when I was complete...then I'm afraid it can only be you as the core, as the brain..."
"Touch me, absorb me, and you will know everything I know..."
"Okay...if I absorb you, will your consciousness disappear?"
Claire nodded slightly, but because of the unspeakable kindness in her heart, she couldn't help but ask hesitantly.
"I am you and you are me. We are one and there is no way to disappear."
The fragmented female voice finally sounded, and at the same time, a scene of a huge purple moon in the sky outside the window suddenly appeared in the girl's heart.
"Go, deep under the castle, there are the legacies we left to ourselves. Take them, and then leave here, leave this island that is about to end, with our common desire to be reunited!"