Casting spells

For the Ironborn who had lived on the barren land since childhood, even just looting a small part of Old Town was enough for them to spend the rest of their lives comfortably.

For a moment, everyone selectively forgot about the giant dragon hovering in the sky, and also ignored Euron's headless corpse, and began to discuss the possibility of success intensely.

Looking at the bustling scene on the opposite boat, Zhang Cheng couldn't help but sighed with a smile: "How did you say that? Oh, yes, people make money and birds die for food. Nothing can arouse human subconsciousness more than naked interests." Greed in

"My lord! According to your request, all the gold and silver treasures on the "Serenity" have been moved into our cabin. What do you think about this ship?" Eric appeared next to him at some point, lowering his voice. Ask for instructions.

"Leave ten sailors and thirty soldiers, plus the captives of the "Serenity", and slowly repair the ship, and return directly after repairs. Remember, move quickly, and continue to set sail for the destination in half an hour. , I don't have time to waste time waiting." Zhang Cheng responded without thinking.

"As you wish!"

Eric saluted with one hand on his chest, and hurriedly turned around and yelled at the sailors to use oars to slowly separate the two ships. The others quickly set up their sails and rode the wind and waves towards the location of the Valyrian ruins.

Seeing that everything was back to normal, Zhang Cheng left the deck and went into the captain's cabin. He couldn't wait to study the powerful magic on the horn of the dragon and the dozens of mysterious symbols engraved on it.

Perhaps in the minds of the natives in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, this thing is a treasure that can bring power, wealth and rights, but in his mind, it is a key that hides a new knowledge and even a power system...

Chapter 161 Deciphering

There is no doubt that before the advent of the steam age, it was quite boring to rely on sails and oars to sail in the endless sea. It was so boring that the captain had to keep tossing the sailors to ensure that they would not start fighting because of excess energy. , or even set off a rebellion.

Of course, these have nothing to do with Zhang Cheng. He handed over the management rights to the team leader Eric early on, and hid in the captain's cabin with Celine Baratheon to study the ancient characters and mysterious symbols on the Dragon's Horn.

I have to say that abducting "Little Lolita" may be the most correct decision he has made since he came to this world.

Because Celine Baratheon not only kept all the books left by the Targaryen family firmly in her mind, but also knew a little bit of High Valyrian language and writing.

We must know that except for a very small number of high Valyrian languages ​​still preserved in a few poems and books, no one can fully understand this ancient language and text, so even a little direction of exploration is very precious.

After a full two weeks of research and deciphering, Zhang Cheng finally figured out the meaning of most of the High Valyrian characters. The translation is actually just a sentence, or a eulogy.

"Great Clonada, you are the first dragon and the mother of all dragons. We offer sacrifices to you in exchange for the power to bind your descendants..."

While Zhang Cheng was reading this passage in a low voice, he didn't know if there were any wrong sentences, and an extremely weird expression appeared on his face.

According to the literal meaning, the Valyrians seemed to have discovered this dragon named Clonada before they discovered the dragon eggs, and all the dragons in the entire world of ice and fire seemed to be descendants of this dragon.

Obviously, this information is somewhat different from the Valyrians who had found a large number of dragon eggs in the volcano. To be precise, there is no record of the so-called "mother of dragons" in any books or legends.

In order to confirm that it was not a grammar or translation problem, Zhang Cheng turned around and asked the girl sitting on the chair: "Celine, have you read the name Clonada in the Targaryen family's collection?"

"Woo...it doesn't seem to be." The little guy frowned and hesitated for a moment, then shook his head hastily.

Since the creepy dead skin on half of her face disappeared completely, her personality has gradually changed from introverted and quiet to lively and cheerful, especially when she stayed outdoors for a long time recently, her originally pale complexion also took on a healthy wheaten color , lying in the hammock at the moment, tasked with finding out the meanings of the many mysterious symbols on the horn.

But given that the symbols themselves, far older than High Valyrian script, progress is maddeningly slow.

As we all know, written characters have always been a symbol of human beings transitioning from barbarism to civilization. During this process, some civilizations retained the original pictographic characters, such as the square characters of the Chinese Dynasty, while others slowly evolved into easier-to-learn and Alphabets understood, such as the ancestral Phoenician alphabet of all the national languages ​​of Europe.

Unfortunately, the symbols of various shapes on the surface of the "Dragon Binder" are similar to primitive hieroglyphs, but what the Valyrians later developed were letters.

This also means that there is no connection between the two at all, and it is even more impossible to deduce the meaning of oracle bone inscriptions bit by bit through some ancient books, stone tablets, etc. like the Celestial Dynasty.

Sometimes Zhang Cheng even felt that these symbols were not invented by the Valyrians at all, but belonged to a more mysterious magical civilization.

The reason is simple. Everything the Valyrians have created far exceeds the average value of civilizations in other regions of A Song of Ice and Fire by dozens or even hundreds of times. Strictly speaking, it is impossible for a country with the scientific and technological level of the century to emerge.

unless……

Unless the Valyrian civilization was not a native civilization from the very beginning, all the technology and magic they mastered came from another civilization.

boom! boom! boom!

Just when he was lost in thought, there was a sudden knock on the door outside the captain's room.

"My lord, the watchman has just discovered that there are many islands ahead. If you don't go outside, you should have arrived at your destination. I need you to come out and confirm which island we are going to land on." Eric's slightly excited voice came through Passed in through the crack of the door.

"Oh? Really?" Zhang Cheng immediately opened the door of the captain's cabin upon hearing this.

"Yes! Through the binoculars, we can already see traces of rock people's activities on some small islands. We'd better be careful when we land, or we will be in trouble if we get infected with greyscale." Eric explained, While making way to open the passage, he made a gesture of please.

"Don't worry, I have a way to deal with greyscale. In addition, let the soldiers prepare for battle, and clean up the stone people on the island as soon as possible after landing. I don't want these irrational guys to cause damage at a critical moment. After that, Zhang Cheng picked up the chart and stepped out of the cabin, standing on the highest point of the deck and looking into the distance.

By constantly comparing with the sea chart, he quickly locked the target from countless reefs and small islands, and ordered without looking back: "Have you noticed the island with a half-high tower standing on the starboard side?" ? Directly lean over!"

"As you wish!" Eric bowed slightly, and began to yell at the sailors to adjust their course.

In less than an hour, the warship named "Enlightenment" dropped its anchor and docked in the bay near the island. Following the crew, they put down five or six small boats and boarded the beach in an orderly manner.

Before they could gain a firm foothold, a dozen or so stone people covered in dead gray skin suddenly rushed out, lashing out at the person closest to them.

"Careful! Spearmen ready!"

The soldiers who had been prepared for a long time quickly lined up, holding the shield in one hand, and grasping the spear more than four meters in the other hand, forming a solid line of defense.

The stone people who rushed to the front had undoubtedly completely lost their minds. They didn't care about the gleaming spear tip at all, and bumped into it abruptly, allowing the spear to penetrate their body.

The rest were not much better. There was no trace of humanity remaining in their eyes, and they followed suit like moths to a flame, being pierced by spears and chilling their hearts.

Their horribly contagious blood splattered everywhere, so that the soldiers in the first row had to retreat and frantically scrubbed their blood-stained shields and weapons with sea water. They didn't want to be infected with greyscale, It was also abandoned on a deserted island to fend for itself.

After killing all the stone people, Eric directed the sailors to gather the corpses and burn them, and then found a good place that was easy to defend and difficult to attack to build a temporary camp, and transported some supplies from the ship.

Chapter 162 Exploring the Ruins

In order to have a safe logistics base, the experienced Eric let the sailors and soldiers spend several hours, cutting down all the trees and weeds around the camp that might block the view, and using the fallen wood to build two A simple watchtower and arrow tower, in order to keep abreast of the situation in the surrounding area and the sea.

Although most ships avoid the cursed waters for a variety of reasons, occasionally pirates or smugglers pass by.

He didn't want the warship docked in the bay to be sunk and captured by the sudden appearance of the enemy because of his negligence.

The heavy physical labor lasted until the evening before Zhang Cheng left the "Enlightenment" and walked into the camp standing on the hillside.

At this moment, more than a dozen tents have been set up, and most people are busy with bathing and cooking.

Due to the long-term lack of fresh water at sea, they haven't bathed for half a month. In addition to the hot weather, everyone emits a pungent sour smell. Now that they are ashore, they naturally need to clean up. .

In addition, bad bacon, rat-eaten rusks, and hard beans made them eager for a change.

All of a sudden, all kinds of seabirds, beasts, fish, crabs, and shellfish on the island were devastated. The hungry sailors didn't even let the turtles go, they killed them and threw them into the pot for dinner.

Feeling the smell of meat in the air, Zhang Cheng turned around and asked Eric who was following him: "Don't you think they are a little too relaxed? We are located in the center of the ruins of Valyria. There may be emergencies."

"Hahahaha! Don't worry, my lord, these lads are just venting, and they will calm down after a few hours at most. After all, they are all suffocated after staying at sea for so long." Eric glanced and gathered together The chatting and laughing sailors shrugged their shoulders indifferently.

In his opinion, any adult man who has been at sea for more than a week will inevitably do some outrageous behaviors after landing, such as taking out all the money in his pocket to find a hotel to have a drink, and then Another night of crazy tossing with the woman.

In fact, nine out of ten people who have been sailors for a long time will often drink heavily and whoring, so hunting and improving their food are simply normal behaviors, and it is not worth making a fuss at all.