“Is this place Denizoya?” Lin Yiyi looked around and asked curiously.
Although the official name of the United Kingdom was Denizoya & Fildes Archipelago United Kingdom. However, the disparity in the prosperity of “Denizoya” and “Fildes Archipelago” was significant.
Previously, Lin Yiyi stayed at Treasure Diamond Island for a day to satisfy the advancement conditions.
Although she did not get any essential items, she learned a couple of pieces of information.
Ascending from “Treasure Diamond Island Guard Knight” to the Silver Rank tank profession of “Blue Guard” required the person to be at Treasure Diamond Island.
The group had to buy Treasure Diamond Island’s specialty — the sapphire mirror.
The sapphire, which the people referred to, was not necessarily blue.
It was a ritual item called “sapphire mirror”, a non-curse ritual material composed of chipped gems in six colors: pink, blue, yellow, green, white, and gray. The requirement was that the chipped gemstone could not be adjacent to other gemstones of the same color.
Azure Sage’s advancement ritual required the person to acquire chipped gems, mirrors, and adhesives, which were then glued together in Edict Wizard’s specially made “Sinless Room”. Then, the person had to use this mirror to fall asleep with the rays of the setting sun reflected on his face.
Treasure Diamond Island’s chipped gems were cheap, like grocery prices.
It was not a description, but actually at the price of cabbage!
Three-quarters of Treasure Diamond Island was composed of rich red and sapphire veins [1]. Moreover, this ore vein was cursed thousands of years ago. It would devour the creatures that touch the core of the ore vein and absorb the curse, flesh, and blood to generate new gems continuously.
This rule was later learned by the mine owners on Treasure Diamond Island. They carried out blood sacrifices to extend the life of the veins.
Treasure Diamond Island had no farmland, iron ore, or coal mine, and the only work available was mining. There were more than 50,000 native miners consistently mining gemstones. The number was limited to the registered gemstone miners, not counting the migrants from other islands who accept employment work. In the past ten years, the United Kingdom alone had exported more than one ton of gemstones and gemstone-related products, 100% of which came from Treasure Diamond Island. The difference was whether it had undergone processing.
The Azure Diamond Tower was built on the ore vein, continuously mining from the depth of the ore vein.
At Treasure Diamond Island, only rubies larger than a pigeon egg could be considered expensive; sapphires were even less worthy, generally less than half the price of rubies of the same quality and size.
If the chipped gems were under five carats, they were not much more expensive than the same amount of glass.
Their main purpose was to sell them to Denizoya’s costume designers, to polish them as shiny decorations on new fashion clothes, or to sell them to the Edict Wizards as spell casting materials.
Lin Yiyi also learned that many of Edict Wizard’s spells require gems and ore powder as spell casting materials.
With the idea of ”buying souvenirs in travel”, Lin Yiyi used all her pocket money to buy two pockets of chipped gems.
Each pocket was 150 grams.
Then, she reserved half a pocket of them as the spell casting material and would probably give everyone half a sack as a souvenir. The rest of them would be sold back to Noah. With that, she should be able to get her start-up fund directly.
Carrying more than 100 grams of gemstone was forbidden when leaving Treasure Diamond Island. Otherwise, the person had to pay some taxes. Luckily, Old Bread Daryl’s reputation was useful. Many big shots knew him. Thus, no one had searched Lin Yiyi, nor was she examined by the Edict Wizards.
A big shot even gave her a flower-shaped gemstone hairpin. It was made of five flower-shaped pink diamonds and a flower heart set with many honey-yellow sapphires.
To be honest, it was pretty heavy.
Lin Yiyi dared not to accept it, but Bishop Daryl motioned her to take it directly.
So Lin Yiyi accepted the gift, like a child who said “no” to a red packet [2] but gladly accepted it smilingly.
Even for the luxurious Treasure Diamond Island, the city’s urban style was like Noah’s rural areas. It even felt like the infrastructure was not as good as Freezing Water Port, at least Freezing Water Port used to have a gallery and a theater despite being obsolete now.
The Elegant Elder and Silver Sire were deities who directly announced their cities. Just like the fear of the Silver Sire that might appear at any time, everyone was inclined to behave courteously, easy-going, and politely. This situation applied similarly to Denizoya because of the Elegant Elder.
The capital of Denizoya was also called Denizoya. After all, the Noah Kingdom and the Denizoya Kingdom were both countries built around the “city where a deity resides”.
But unlike Silver Sire, the Elegant Elder rarely roamed the street.
He always stayed in His home.
It was a comprehensive office, appearing like any other office in Denizoya. The only difference was that the owner was an upright deity.
Many painters, writers, playwrights, costume designers, and poets who dream of becoming famous overnight would regularly send their works to the Elegant Elder. The Elegant Elder would send His comments on the splendid and poor works. Singers and the actors would also participate in the Elegant Elder’s rituals like a talent show regularly… and then get roasted.
Indeed, most of them were charred.
The biggest difference between the Elegant Elder and the Paper Princess was that He had no tolerance even for a slight artistic flaw.
No matter how good the work was, the Elegant Elder always pointed out its shortcomings. Moreover, the flaws pointed out by Him tend to be critical. Therefore, the artists who heard the opinions would quickly become angry.
Unless the Elegant Elder found a candidate who was particularly pleasing to the eye, He would provide vital pointers in a friendly way.
Otherwise, He gave the most critical roast.
Still, the artist could not help much because the Elegant Elder was better than them.
In the face of a crappy singer, the Elegant Elder would display a gorgeous singing voice on the spot; when facing an actor with embarrassing acting skills, the Elegant Elder would also use the same performance to slap the candidate. Not to mention painting, sculpture, writing, etc…
The Elegant Elder was the founder and innovator of many artistic genres, a living ancestor in the true sense. He had never stopped learning, researching, and creating. New work might come out at any time. Each piece was undoubtedly the “best” of that era, and the latest art was always the “best”.
The key to Nicholas’ cemetery was in the hands of the Elegant Elder.
The Elegant Elder personally designed and guarded the barrier of Nicholas’s cemetery.
However, according to the non-disclosure agreement, Lin Yiyi was not allowed to go to the cemetery. First of all, she must beware of the possibility that someone would take the opportunity to release and resurrect Nicholas and steal the body in the name of checking the body. This approach was also common.
Lin Yiyi also dared not stay with the Elegant Elder.
She had seen the Elegant Elder from a distance… Wearing a beret and glasses, the thin-faced old man looked like an elderly version of Zun [3] and like Osamu Tezuka [4], who had lost weight twice.
The Elegant Elder did not seem to have a good temper.
Still, the group did not have to see it personally. After all, they only came here to confirm the matter.
Lin Yiyi and the others already knew before they left Noah as to what happened to ‘Nicholas II’. Although she did not know why, the Silver Sire and the Elegant Elder were calm about this matter, which she found a little strange.
But when Bishop Daryl returned, Lin Yiyi realized that things might be more severe than she thought.
“It’s bad, Yiyi,” said Bishop Daryl solemnly.
“So, the corpse is really gone?”
“More serious than that.” Bishop Daryl took a deep breath.
He touched his bald head and said slowly, “It’s because Nicholas’ body is still in the grave.”
“The body is still there?!” Lin Yiyi was stunned.
Daryl nodded, “Not only that but there is no sign of anyone entering or leaving the barrier …at least not in the past five years.”
Annan, who observed this from Lin Yiyi’s perspective, was also stunned.
He also immediately realized that the problem might be serious.
Nicholas II had regarded himself entirely as the real Nicholas. All the evidence points to him as “Nicholas”. He just forgot some memories and thought he was an artificial human.
But if Nicholas had not been resurrected, then who was that Nicholas in the royal capital?
