I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Richard tried bending his fingers.

The joints creaked and groaned, and bits of dry soil spilled out from the gaps in the cloth wrapping.

He looked down at his chest.

The chest cavity had collapsed most of its length, and the outline of the ribs was clearly visible against the linen cloth.

There's some kind of filling in my chest area; it feels hard when you press on it.

The contents have already been removed... they're still in canopy jars.

Good heavens, lungs, liver, intestines, and kidneys—not a single one was left.

This body can still move.

The deck beneath my feet was rocking, the ship caught a wave, and veered a few degrees to the right.

Richard stood still for a moment to regain his balance, then looked up.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: 10 ...

The ship's planks were a glossy black, covered with salt stains and cracked wood grain.

The linen canvas was sewn in several thick layers, torn in several places by the sun and sea breeze, and then sewn back together with thick thread.

A tattered flag hung atop the mast.

The flag depicts a vulture with outstretched wings, but most of the paint has faded, leaving only a deep red background.

Then there were the other ships around.

a lot of.

He stood at the stern and looked out, where dozens of boats were lined up densely on the sea.

The nearest were within a hundred yards, while the furthest were half a nautical mile away. They came in all shapes and sizes, with different colors and styles of canvas.

The few ships flying the vulture flag recently, just like the one at his feet, indicate that they are all merchant ships from the Black Soil River basin.

Further away, different flags were hanging.

The anchor-patterned flag of Levante;

There was the crescent sail of ancient Libya;

There were several light merchant ships with Greek-style triangular sails;

There were also two of Albion Trading Company's own armed merchant ships with extremely deep drafts.

A whole mixed fleet.

Dozens of merchant ships from different countries and ports lined up in a loose queue in the anchorage area before entering the port, waiting for the tide to clear.

Richard quickly made a judgment in his mind.

The seed gave him a first-person perspective.

The Sphinx seed was thrown into an underground water dungeon, where he had to walk fifty steps through black water to pass the test.

This time, he was directly stuffed into a body.

This must be the vessel through which that Black Soil River expert resides his power.

He could feel the connection between the mummy and the other side, extending from the back of his neck into the depths of the curtain.

On the other side was the true master, enormous and silent, anchored behind the curtain in a place where he could not perceive the whole picture.

This shell is just a hand that split off from the main body.

The shell contains the mysterious origin—name, mirror, substitute.

However, its reserves are far less than those of the original organism.

To give an analogy, if the main body is a well, then the shell is a large bucket of water scooped out of the well.

Enough is enough, but we can't waste it.

Moreover, if this bucket is smashed, the well will also feel pain.

There were about a dozen sailors on the boat beneath his feet.

They walked barefoot on the deck, their skin a deep purple, their ribs protruding, and their foreheads calloused.

No one looked at Richard.

They were all busy with their own things and walked around him.

Richard took a step forward.

The shadows of all the sailors on deck twitched simultaneously.

A dozen or so shadows should have been lying at their owners' feet, with the sun on the left and the shadows leaning to the right.

But as soon as Richard moved, all the shadows bowed and kowtowed in his direction.

Richard stopped.

The shadows stopped and returned to their places.

He gently raised his finger again.

The shadow twitched again.

A dozen or so shadows peered out from the deck, all stretching their arms toward him.

It feels great to have this power.

That time in Nail Alley, after the copper lamp was pried open, the shadows struggled to break free from their respective owners.

Now, there's no need to pry it open anymore.

The body was standing on the deck, and the shadows cast by it were already too heavy to stand.

Richard lowered his hand, and the shadows obediently shrank back to their feet, as docile as could be.

He started walking around.

With each step, the shadows on the deck would tremble, then quickly return to their positions.

Richard surveyed the entire ship from bow to stern, silently assessing the strength at his disposal.

The shadow naturally obeyed the body without the slightest resistance.

They are crushed by the kinship ties that are ingrained in their very being.

This mummy, steeped in millennia of priestly inscriptions and offerings, shares the same origin and roots as the Shadow Order of the Black Earth River Basin.

Before it, all shadows are subordinates.

Richard walked to the bow of the ship and glanced at the nearest sailor.

Just that one glance.

Everything about that sailor was laid out before him like an open ledger.

Her name is Hep, and she is twenty-three years old.

I've made six voyages to the open sea, and I'm afraid of scorpions.

Half of my left little toe is missing; it was knocked off by an anchor.

He had something on his mind that he hadn't told anyone: his fiancée from his hometown married his cousin the year after he went to sea.

No one told him this information; he just glanced at it and knew it all.

This is a mirror.

Standing in the mirror, one can see the other's reflection.

It was reflected so clearly, more clearly than what the person saw when looking in a mirror.

Richard looked away and then turned to "look" at another sailor.

The same effect: the name, the fear, and the unspoken thing all came rushing in.

The third, the fourth... each person, after he looked at them, became a book that automatically opened.

Richard suddenly felt a strange sense of alienation.

He was completely unmoved by what he saw about Hep's fiancée.

Normally, he would at least feel sorry for the guy who got cuckolded.

At this moment, there is nothing there, it's empty.

That Hop was just a figure of account in his mind.

He tried to recall his name.

Richard Williams.

His name is still there; he knows who he is.

But what does "tired" mean?

I thought about it for a long time, but I still couldn't figure it out.

What about "pain"?

There was an old, dry, cracked wound on my arm.

The dark red dried meat embedded in the flax was a shocking sight.

He poked it with his other hand, but felt nothing.

I pinched it again, but still felt nothing.

This empty shell was filled with priestly inscriptions and the faith of the worshippers.

The master himself is also nourished by those things that are engraved in his body.

Hunger, pain, fear, cravings, nostalgia, and a soft heart... these feelings won't disappear in a day.

They were taken away little by little.

With each step deeper into the curtain, one item is taken away.

By the time one reaches the expert level, almost nothing remains but the shell.

The shell is filled with power, mystery, and rules.

The only thing that wasn't taken away was the original "hunger".

The scars from the sacrificial ceremony have been drained, and the belongings from my old home have been taken away.

It must eat.

Richard stopped at the bow of the ship.

He looked down at the sea in front of him.

The distribution of ether beneath the entire ocean surface is clearly visible in minute detail.

At the same time, he also saw two lights on the distant coast.

One patch of gold, one patch of dark red.

They had already laid a trap on the shore.

Richard stared at the two lights in the distance for a long time.

The difference between the two beams of light and the container was not as significant as I had initially feared.

But there are two opponents on the other side, and they are on the defensive.

They were able to wait in comfort and take full advantage of the terrain.

A thought popped into Richard's mind.

I'm a pro?

Is it one against two?

real or fake?

He then looked at the dozens of boats on the sea.

There were seven or eight merchant ships on the Black Soil River, which were not conspicuous among the entire fleet.

The rest of the Levantine, ancient Libyan, Greek, and Albion merchant ships were all genuine merchant ships.

They come to the capital's port to do business, and have nothing to do with the grudges between the people.

It's impossible for those two guardian masters to destroy the entire fleet just to stop his container.

The port is the lifeblood of the capital.

Even the most skilled would not openly slaughter merchant ships from half the continent.

The consequences would be extremely bad; there's no need to do it.

This is why the Black Soil River expert chose this time.

They choose to enter the port during its busiest trading season, hiding themselves amidst the hustle and bustle.

Richard stood there for about fifteen minutes, going over the situation in his mind.

It's impossible to force it through.

One container can take down two defenders; facing them head-on is like handing them a free kill.

Then let's take a roundabout approach.

He has two things he can use.

The first thing is the shadow.

This body has a natural dominion over shadows; all shadows are subordinate to it.

He can separate his shadow and attach it to others, using "substitute" to enter someone else's shell.

The second thing is the fleet itself.

Dozens of merchant ships from neutral countries are about to enter the capital's port.

An idea took shape in his mind.

The mummy remained on the merchant ship on the Black Soil River, motionless and not entering the port.

He divided his shadow into several strands and, under the cover of night, crept along the sea to other neutral merchant ships.

Once on the ship, use the "mirror" to identify the sailor, and then use the "substitute" to slip into their place.

After the shadow replaced the neutral crew members, those ships entered the port, docked, and unloaded cargo normally.

The golden light shone down, illuminating Greek sailors, Levantine merchants, Captain Albion… all clean and ordinary people.

The mummy was left on a merchant ship on the Black Soil River in the open sea as a backup plan.

Richard went through the plan once.

It should be feasible; he even thought that the expert from the Black Soil River had used this method to get ashore.

He first selected three target ships.

One of them was a Levantine three-masted sailing ship, located in the middle of the fleet, in an inconspicuous position;

One is a light Greek merchant ship with a shallow draft; it will probably dock at the small pier in the inner harbor... close to the museum.

The last one was an armed merchant ship of the Albion Trading Company. It was the largest, had the most people, and was a good hiding place in the chaos.

Richard crouched at the stern of the boat, casting three shadows from the mummy.

Be extremely careful when dividing the pieces.

He did not use the shadows of the other sailors on deck.

Although those shadows are naturally obedient to him, removing them would create etheric fluctuations.

Even the slightest fluctuation can be detected by an expert.

He only moved the shadow of his own body.

Each strand was small, slithering out of his hand like a snake.

The shadows climbed down the gunwale, skimming the water's surface and moving in different directions.

It had already turned from dusk into night.

The moon was in the sky, but the clouds would occasionally cover half of it.

The shadows moved between the alternating moonlight and cloud shadows.

When the moonlight shines, they lie beneath the waves.

When the moonlight is blocked by clouds, they peek out from the surface of the waves and move quickly.

The first glimpse of shadow reached the Levant's three-masted ship.

At the stern, a sailor on night watch was dozing off, leaning against a pile of mooring ropes.

The shadow touched the sailor's feet.

Richard used a "mirror" to look at himself from afar...

Male, in his thirties, from Levant, working the night shift; other minor details are unimportant.

The shadow climbed up from the sailor's feet, wrapped around his calves, and moved up along the inside of his trousers.

The replacement has begun.

The mummy, two hundred yards away, shuddered slightly, and its shadow passed into the sailor's body.

Replacement complete.

On the Levantine sailing ship, the night watchman opened his eyes.

A glint flashed in his eyes, then he returned to his usual sleepy state.

The second shadow arrived on the swift Greek merchant ship and replaced a deckhand.

The third shadow arrived at the Albion armed merchant ship and replaced a cargo handler.

All three shells are in place.

Richard maintained contact with the three substitutes.

Maintaining them consumes the reserves of this split entity, but not by much.

Now we wait for dawn so the fleet can enter the port.

Dawn broke quickly.

The signal flag for tide clearance was raised from the port lighthouse.

The fleet began to enter the port one by one.

The first batch consisted of the shallowest small boats, with Greek light merchant ships leading the way.

Richard piloted the Greek ship's replacement vessel, working alongside the other sailors.

They furled the sails, lowered the anchor, and tied the mooring lines, performing the entire process exactly like a real sailor.

The "mirror" read all of the sailor's memories, including how many years he had worked and how he tied knots.

The nimble merchant ship docked at the small pier in the inner harbor.