Claire was momentarily stunned, then immediately asked in surprise, “You know him? Who is he?”
Sules said, “Do you remember the man we ran into just after leaving the guild, before we came to Bu Lu Si’s place? The tavern owner.”
It was only yesterday, so Claire naturally couldn’t have forgotten completely.
Hearing Sules say this, she immediately recalled, “Oh! That’s the friend you said took advantage of you!”
Sules nodded.
“That’s him. I had a bad feeling about him back then, but I never imagined he actually intended to kill to cover his tracks.”
“Did he kill that whole family because of you?”
Claire asked worriedly.
Sules shook her head.
“No. Our deal back then wasn’t that serious. If he wanted to take action, he wouldn’t have waited until now. Since it wasn’t because of me, it must have been because of Bu Lu Si’s family. He probably saw the Laind brothers behind me and followed us to Bu Lu Si’s place.”
Hearing that it wasn’t their fault that Bu Lu Si’s family was wiped out, Claire visibly relaxed.
Although Bu Lu Si’s family’s schemes were disgusting, in Claire’s view, Sules’ revenge was already enough.
Murder was too extreme.
“Then why did he want to kill Bu Lu Si’s family?”
Claire asked.
Sules thought for a moment.
“For that, we have to check out his tavern. He lives there, and usually watches the place himself. Any secrets he has should be hidden in that tavern.”
Without hesitation, they set off.
But before leaving, they had to clean up the scene.
Sules didn’t hesitate to kill him with his own knife, then thoroughly erased any traces of herself and Claire from the house, finally staging the scene to look like Laind and the killer died together.
After finishing everything, she washed her hands and left the house with Claire.
The two didn’t hire a carriage but took a shortcut, reaching the man’s tavern before dark.
Using the key taken from the man’s body, they unlocked the tavern door and immediately went inside, locking it behind them.
The tavern looked exactly as Sules had seen it before — plain and unremarkable.
She and Claire split up and began searching.
Sules immediately went to the chest the man had flipped through when fetching her a drink.
It seemed he had hidden quite a few valuables there.
Sure enough, after rummaging through it, she found many good bottles of liquor, and at the bottom was a wallet containing two gold shells.
That was a nice surprise. Sules put the gold shells in her pouch and continued searching.
Neither of them really knew what they were looking for, but it was always right to collect anything strange or hidden in obscure corners.
Soon, they had gathered a pile of items from the tavern.
When she was exhausted, Sules stopped searching and found a chair to sit down.
She didn’t rush to examine the items, instead taking out the Array Blueprint and the attached note she had stolen from Bu Lu Si’s home.
The note described the materials and functions of the array.
Most of the materials were common—only an Array Blueprint drawn with a pen using a mix of 70% carbon powder, 20% carbon powder, 5% silver, and 5% gold powder was useful.
This ratio applied to most arrays.
As for the array’s function, Sules couldn’t help but say that Bu Lu Si’s father was truly brave.
Because the array’s function was not the simple “consumption of potential and neutralization of vitality” that Laind claimed, but rather the ability to randomly neutralize at a cost.
By placing the two things to be transformed inside the two circular fields of the array and activating it, their differences could be neutralized.
The smaller the difference between the two, the easier it was to neutralize the largest gap.
It was a bit hard to understand, but using the Laind brothers as an example: as twins, they were very similar except for a big difference in vitality.
So the array prioritized neutralizing their vitality difference, at the expense of Laind’s potential.
This was probably why Bu Lu Si’s father chose them to perform the neutralization.
What interested Sules even more was the last line of the note — “When the dark array merges with the light array, the Secret Treasure can be reactivated.”
Obviously, this array had a corresponding counterpart.
Claire was reading the note beside Sules, and upon finishing that last line, she suddenly exclaimed, “I think I just found another Array Blueprint!”
Sules’ eyes widened.
“You found it? Where?”
Claire immediately dug through the pile and handed her a piece of paper.
“Here, see? It also has strange patterns, but there was no attached explanation, so I didn’t realize what it was at the time.”
Overjoyed, Sules took a look.
The two blueprints clearly came from the same place — the paper’s yellowing and texture were identical.
She quickly put both away, beginning to form a vague guess about the tavern owner’s identity.
“This guy actually has such a blueprint too. No wonder he followed us to kill Bu Lu Si’s family. Most likely, he was one of the people who went on the mysterious sea expedition with Bu Lu Si’s father. Bu Lu Si’s father thought he was the only survivor and didn’t know this guy made it out alive as well.”
Claire understood and continued along Sules’ line of thought.
“Then when he saw the Laind brothers that day, he immediately recognized them as the kids who looked a lot like their father, guessed Bu Lu Si’s father wasn’t dead, and planned to kill them all.”
Sules nodded.
“And if I’m not mistaken, his goal wasn’t just to cover his tracks by killing, but also to see if Bu Lu Si’s father had another blueprint. Either way, this was a big gain for us. Let’s keep looking and see if we can find the instructions for the other blueprint.”
However, they searched for a long time without success.
With night approaching and the tavern sure to get busy, they couldn’t linger any longer.
They packed up their finds and slipped out quietly.
Walking through the streets, Claire looked a bit lost.
The day’s events had been so bizarre she didn’t quite know what to do next.
“Sules, what do we do now? Go back to the ship?”
Sules shook her head casually.
“Why go back to the ship? We need to find an inn first to safely get through the rainy season.”
Claire looked worried.
“But we just witnessed a murder and then stole from the killer’s home. Aren’t you afraid we’ll be discovered and arrested?”
Sules scoffed, “What do you think the East Sea is?”
When playing the “Sailing Game,” Sules often checked out the continent.
In the free East Continent, public murders and bodies lying in the streets were common, and no one cared.
Besides the Sea God Shrine, which barely interfered, there was no real authority to maintain order.
Crime ran rampant.
Because of this, Sules dared to act so recklessly.
The East Sea was a hiding place for all criminals, the most chaotic of the four great seas.
Claire, raised at sea and rarely ashore, retained a bit of innocence.
But her impression of the East Sea was correct, and upon hearing this, she immediately realized she was overthinking.
“Then let’s find a place to stay and study those two blueprints.”
The two walked the streets searching for an inn.
Suddenly, a drizzle began, lightly pattering on them.
Sules stretched out her hand and caught a few raindrops.
The scent of earth was refreshing after so long smelling the sea.
Claire also felt the rain and sighed, “The rainy season is starting.”
It was Sules’ first time experiencing a real rainy season.
Curious, she asked, “Really? The rainy season here has special characteristics?”
Claire was hooked.
“Of course. The early rains that fall every June are the best forecast. The first rain of June signals that continuous rains will fall soon.”
Sules raised an eyebrow and pointed to an inn.
“Let’s ask there.”
After inquiring, they found the inn had a room available.
Sules and Claire promptly paid for a week and moved in.
Once settled, they took out the two blueprints again for a closer look.
Both were roughly circular, but the one from Bu Lu Si’s home had two small circles inside the big circle, used to hold the two things being exchanged.
The one from the tavern had no circles inside — it was a complete array.
Claire looked puzzled. “How do these two things merge? Neither has a gap.”
Sules thought for a moment.
“They’re the same size; they should just be overlaid.”
Saying so, she placed the two blueprints on top of each other and held them up to the light outside the window.
The two arrays did merge, forming a new array.
Claire excitedly said, “Sules, you’re so smart! Once the rain slows down, I’ll buy the materials needed to make the array!”
But as soon as she said it, her excitement faded and she frowned.
“Wait, I’m being unrealistic. That’s the mysterious sea — how can we go exploring there?”
Sules knew Claire was right.
The mysterious sea was too dangerous.
Although Bu Lu Si and company only went to the periphery, it wasn’t a place for amateurs like them.
If they were lucky, they might survive — but luck wasn’t guaranteed.
She put the blueprints away and straightened up.
“Alright, I’ll get stronger eventually. Then this blueprint will have its use. For now, we just need to get through these two months of the rainy season safely.”
Claire nodded.
“Should we find some small jobs to earn money? Most people stay home during this time, so there should be work. Earning some cash to cover expenses sounds good.”
Sules nodded, then shook her head mysteriously.
“We do need to earn money, but not on the continent — out at sea.”