Struggle in the Steam Age

"Now is the time for us to share the spoils." After watching everyone express their emotions for a while, Lawrence shook the small cloth bag in his hand and proposed. "What we have harvested today is not small."

After opening the package, Lawrence took out the same things and put them on the table. Soon, these things took up a lot of space on the desktop.

There are more than a dozen dog teeth with a cold light in this pile of things, two notebooks, one new and one old, covered with cowhide, a walnut-sized translucent orange-yellow crystal with wrinkles on the top, and a painting scroll in the style of Cathay And a small bottle of something like blue smoke in a crystal bottle.

Lawrence first opened the two notebooks. The newer one was a diary, which recorded the guy's experience from a gambler to a painter, or from an ordinary person to a superhuman.

At first, this guy was just the young master of a rich family. However, after his parents died early, he lost his restraint and became a standard playboy, squandering his rich family property in just a few years.

According to the normal situation, he would either repent one day, or die silently in a corner one day. But just after a gamble, he got a notebook related to the extraordinary. After reading the notes, he learned a special supernatural power.

"Paper Doll Substitution." Seeing this, Lawrence opened the older notebook. This notebook is very special. It is not a notebook for normal recording, but a notebook that has been rebound. Lawrence found thirty or so old yellowed pages added to the center of the book.

The old pages were written in Cathay, but Lawrence could read them. This is because the place where he lived when he was a child was a small town along the line connecting the Xinzhou Republic to the west of the Great Mountain Range and the White Eagle Federal Railway to the east, and he could meet many Cathayans from the Xinzhou Republic. In order to preach, Lawrence's adoptive father was able to read and write Sinian fluently, and at the same time let Lawrence learn this language.

"What's written on it?" Seeing Lawrence flipping through the book carefully without changing his movements for a long time, Safiel immediately leaned forward and looked at the notebook and asked. She also learned Cathay as a child, but it was limited to oral communication. So now she can only recognize these words as Cathay, but she doesn't know what these words describe.

"A magic from Cathay." Lawrence explained, "This magic can cut out human figures out of paper, and then manipulate these little paper figurines to do something. With the mastery of magic and the overall level of the magic user With the improvement of the level, these paper figurines can even fight as the clone of the master."

"Listen, this is a very good magic, and it's not evil." Fatina showed a puzzled expression. "But why when that person uses it, I feel that the power held by the other party is very evil."

"That's because the idiot didn't learn it right at all." Lawrence pointed to the Cante language written on the original paper of those books. "Obviously he didn't understand Cathay, so he asked someone to translate the contents of this book. But he was worried that others would know that he had mastered this kind of magic, so he simply took these records apart and asked someone to translate them separately."

"Is there any problem with this?" Fatina still didn't understand what the problem was. She felt that when a normal person translates a document and doesn't want others to know, it is only natural to open it and ask someone to translate it. For example, her grandfather once After finding a certain alchemy note, I found other people to translate it in the same way.

"But the Sinian language is very different from the Canter language we commonly use, or the language gap between the east and west of the Old World is very large." Seifel said. "If we follow our language habits to break sentences in Sinian documents, then the translated things will be very different from the original, or even completely different."

"Give me an example," said Lawrence, pointing to a page in the book. "For example, as mentioned here, people who learn this spell need to infuse a little self-awareness into each paper figurine, so that the paper figurines can have a certain degree of self-awareness and can better complete the spellcaster's orders."

"But that guy didn't know how to split the sentence for others to read. He actually translated this paragraph into the need to restrain the human soul in the paper doll in order to make the paper doll come alive. I think the reason why he was seriously affected by the lower class later The image of space pollution is because the soul has degenerated too much during this process."

"This sounds really bad." Safiel shook his head. "However, I think the main reason why he got to where he is today is because he has a wicked mind. Even if a normal person sees such an evil practice method, he would not practice it."

"You're right." Lawrence nodded. "I guess that guy will not feel terrible after discovering the changes in his body after his soul has fallen, and he will even feel that he has found the right way to become stronger."

In fact, Lawrence is very sure of this, because as long as he does not embrace the darkness from the heart, there will always be a part of his soul that is not polluted. But the artist's soul was completely devoured by Bai Ze Xuying just now, which can only prove that he has completely degenerated, and there is no trace of humanity left at all.

After explaining the magic to the two ladies, Lawrence took the Aurora-style painting scroll and slowly spread it out. Eight beautiful female figures with their own characteristics appeared on the paper. These portraits are so vivid , even looks closer to the prototype than the photo. No, to be precise, they seem to be alive.

"This is—" The two ladies looked at the scroll with puzzled expressions, because they didn't know why Lawrence's dark color became serious after unrolling the scroll.

"It's not a simple picture, but the soul that was bound here by that guy before. He melted the hair of the dead in a special potion to make a dye, and then drew a portrait of the dead, so that the body of the dead can be bound. Soul." Lawrence said, and at the same time condensed a little magic power from his fingertips and tapped it on the scroll.

The magic soon seeped into the painting, and then the eight women in the painting moved. Some of them sing, some play musical instruments. The melodious music immediately filled the room. But seeing this happy scene, Lawrence's eyes showed a look of unbearable.

"These souls are sober, but they are bound by magic to this painting, and they can only move according to the preset content of this painting." Lawrence sighed, "The five of them with a long history are dead souls, probably That guy got it after robbing the tomb. The last three are living souls. Obviously, after the soul fell and changed himself, this guy started to satisfy his inner desires by mutilating innocent people."

"However, this does not mean that he will stop disturbing the peace of the dead. The purpose of stealing Miss Marshall's burial is probably to add Miss Marshall's soul to this painting. Obviously, in his eyes, the soul of a noble lady should be It is a precious collection, and the burial mound in the garden is better than the noble cemetery managed by the church."

"It's really disgusting." After listening to Lawrence's explanation, Syfiel's eyes on the scroll in front of her also changed. After thinking for a while, she raised her head and asked Lawrence. "What are you going to do with this scroll?"

"This scroll is the most valuable of this batch of trophies," Lawrence stroked the scroll gently with his hand. "Use it to summon and command eight female ghosts, and at the same time block some deadly attacks at the cost of consuming the ghosts inside."

"Although such a magic item is very powerful, I plan to give it and the two notebooks to the church. I remember that several churches have ways to save these unfortunate souls." Lawrence didn't notice that when he said this, Sai Both Phil and Fatina showed a relaxed expression.

"Because this thing is really beyond my bottom line, and of course because it's our common spoils of war, so if you disagree, I will give you an item of equal value to them."

"No, of course we would." Safiel and Fatina looked at each other and said, "I'm glad that we, as companions, have the same thoughts on this point, please count us in this matter one serving."