Learn one small skill every day

As for the others, they can only be considered minor languages.

Many of them recognized the priest and greeted him with their bows.

It seems that not every outsider gets the treatment of having a priest as a tour guide.

The priest's response to these people was also very perfunctory; he merely nodded slightly, but when he turned to Bai Miao, a smile appeared on his face again.

"Just browsing around, do you have any relics you'd like to exchange?"

After letting the crew members go free to seek their own opportunities, Bai Miao used the rated items on his person as a reference to make an appraisal, but most of the relics were not even Teth grade.

Suddenly, Bai Miao's gaze fell on a stone slab.

"what is this?"

Bai Miao asked the stall owner.

"I fished it out of my hometown. I don't know what it's used for. If you're interested, we can trade it for something, but of course, I have to be interested too."

The stone slab itself is rated Zain level by its own valuation capabilities.

Either this thing has excellent performance or some special function, otherwise it wouldn't have skipped Teth and been rated as Zain-level.

Bai Miao took out the most bloodstone from his backpack.

Bai Miao had already cultivated more of the twenty-odd bloodstones he had obtained from the Plague Doctor's clinic using other people's blood.

Bai Miao pretended to pull the bloodstone from a bulge behind him, which didn't arouse the stall owner's suspicion. The stall owner simply examined the blood-red stone and asked, "What's the use of this? Is it a gemstone?"

"You can treat it like a gemstone; isn't it beautiful?"

"She is very pretty..."

The stall owner's eyes were completely filled with the crimson glow of the bloodstone; he seemed somewhat mesmerized.

"If it looks good, then let's change it?"

"Change...change."

The stall owner nodded blankly and handed the stone slab to Bai Miao.

Bai Miao also placed the bloodstone in front of the vendor, telling him to be careful when handling it.

But the stall owner didn't care about any of that. He was completely captivated by the eerie color and appearance of the bloodstone. He couldn't wait to pick it up, only to find that his palms were cut in several places, and the blood that flowed out was all absorbed by the stone in his hand.

"hiss!"

He quickly put down the bloodstone and discovered that it had actually grown a little.

"This...this is really a good thing..."

After regaining his senses, he wrapped his hands in cloth and the bloodstone in it as well. Without thinking about the rest of his business, he packed up and boarded the boat.

The stone slab was put into the prop backpack, and Bai Miao successfully obtained the specific information.

Paradise Slate

[Description: A stone slab with ancient characters printed on it.]

The method to preserve information for about 100 million years is—to carve words on stone!

[Status: Excellent (100%)]

Rating: Zain

It really was just a stone slab.

The truly valuable thing is the text on it, but Bai Miao is currently unable to decipher it. At least some reference words and phrases are needed before linguistic decipherment can be achieved.

Check for any relevant records after you get back on the ship.

Since Bai Miao was brought by a priest, the free trade zone did not levy a transaction tax on Bai Miao, which can be considered a great concession.

The priest planned to invite everyone to lunch, but Bai Miao declined.

"Thank you for leading us, Father. We don't need to eat. Please don't worry about us at noon. We'll wait for you at the hotel."

Bai Miao noticed that Wang Xiang seemed hesitant to speak, and sensed that he had something he wanted to say but couldn't say it in front of the priest.

Then we'll just have to go to the hotel to plot it.

Chapter 112 The Gear Thief

What were you trying to say?

After returning to their hotel, the group gathered in Bai Miao's room to exchange information about their time in the free trade zone.

Wang Xiang hesitated for a moment: "Captain, how did you know the priest's name in advance? Did you have a lot of information about the priest along the way?"

"I can't explain it to you. You can think of it as me having some way of seeing the instructions these people get after they've manipulated the gears. The instructions will detail the recipient's job title and name, as well as the specific tasks to be performed. But I only have three opportunities a day."

“For example, the priest we just met, his instruction was to lead us to visit the Gear Church and explain the doctrines to us.”

"what?!"

"Is this the captain's special ability...?"

Clearly, everyone was shocked that Bai Miao could see the other party's instructions.

Wang Xiang thought for a moment: "Then we need to make good use of these three opportunities... If we use them properly, we may be able to obtain very crucial information directly. Oh, right, there's one more thing."

“Just now in the free trade zone, I noticed that some people had wounds on their heads. It felt like there used to be gears embedded there, but for some unknown reason the gears were gone. There aren’t many people with this feature; I only saw two. But the two of them also had another characteristic in common—they both stuttered quite a bit when they spoke.”

"The location of the gear may have affected their language center, but based on your findings, we can infer that these people still enjoy normal rights after losing the gear and were not expelled."

The fact that vendors can set up stalls in the free trade zone demonstrates, to some extent, that the city of Cadde does not reject those who have lost their cogs in the machine.

"I suggest that our next conversation with the priest start from these points: what the Gear Cult worships, what the principle of the gear is, why some people lose their gears, and who designed and built the giant steam engine."

Bai Miao nodded: "Good idea, I'll ask him."

About two hours later, the priest came and knocked on Bai Miao's door.

Upon opening the door, besides the priest, Bai Miao noticed a blonde woman dressed in a white Heaton costume standing nearby.

This woman also has three gears on her head, but the central gear is a full circle larger than the two end gears.

“This is Tina, a priestess of our Gear Cult.”

The priest explained.

Tina flicked the gear back and forth with her hand, preventing it from rotating; this was a ritualistic gesture of the Gear Cult.

May the gears guide you.

Tina continued, “I heard from Father Barton about some guests who have come from afar, and the gears have guided me to come and meet you, so please allow me to accompany the priest on the afternoon tour.”

"The priest and the priest came together... We are really flattered. We are just outsiders who have just arrived here. You must have a lot of things to do every day. Is it really okay for you to spend your time on us?"

There's always something fishy going on when things seem unusual, and I felt that the thing behind the gears was being overly excited about our arrival.

"The guidance of the Gear is absolutely correct. I will lead you to the Gear Church for a visit and explain its doctrines."

Father Barton said sternly, glancing at Bai Miao and the others, "No matter what method you use."

The words already carried a threatening tone.

Priestess Tina nodded in agreement, saying, "No one can disobey orders. We hope you all realize that we are carrying out this mission with good intentions. Under the guidance of the gears, we have built good relations with the surrounding areas and maintained the stability of the entire region. We sincerely hope that you all understand the guidance of the gears."

Bai Miao smiled slightly: "Of course we understand, but we also want to have a good tour of Card City. After the tour this afternoon, we will go to the Gear Church with you two."

If we keep dragging this out, the other party will probably get impatient too.

After all, now that both the priest and the priest have come to invite them, it would be somewhat disrespectful to keep them hanging on.

Hearing Bai Miao's affirmative reply, Father Barton's expression softened considerably.

"This afternoon, I'll take you on a tour of our gear manufacturing plant, where you can experience the guidance of gears more closely."

After the group left the hotel, Bai Miao took the opportunity to ask, "I just saw some people with head wounds in the free trade zone. Did they lose their gears?"

You can ask about the Gear Cult's beliefs during the explanation of its doctrines, so Bai Miao directly asked about the Free Trade Zone.

Father Barton seemed quite angry when he heard the question: "It's all the work of those damned gear thieves!"

"These heretics only target us poor Gear Cultists, forcibly taking their gears."

Tina's voice was tinged with sadness: "May the gears still guide them forward."

"What kind of group are the Gear Thieves? Do they specialize in stealing gears from people's heads?"

"These heretics, unable to obtain guidance from the gears themselves, try every means to steal the blessings of others. Their methods are outrageous. Those whose gears are stolen almost always die immediately, and those who are lucky enough to survive live in the shadows for the rest of their lives."

Tina sighed deeply: "You're right. They want to use this to make people panic and refuse to accept the blessing of the gears, but their methods are too extreme. They've ruined the destinies and futures of countless people just to achieve their own goals."

Opponents of the Gear Cult, huh?

Bai Miao truly hadn't expected that such an extreme force could emerge in a place not much bigger than London.

Logically speaking, there's no way these people could hide.

"Can't the gears' guidance uncover the true identities of these people?"

"The Gear showed great tolerance towards these heretics, without pointing out their specific identities to us. This was an opportunity given to them by the Gear, but they failed to seize it and committed heinous crimes time and time again."

Oh, so I didn't get the answer.

It seems this thing isn't a panacea after all.

Of course, it's also possible that, as the priest said, the gears don't care.

As the group walked and talked, a commotion suddenly broke out in the crowd when they passed the central square. Bai Miao saw a man dragging another dying old man to the fountain in the central square and slit his throat with a sharp blade.

The fountain was instantly stained crimson with blood, turning into a pool of blood.

Only after the throat-slitting was completed did security personnel arrive, lift the assailant who was sitting there dumbfounded, and carry him away.

After a brief moment of shock, the crowd dispersed as if nothing had happened.

"What...what does this mean? Why are the guards just standing by and watching?"

“Oh, because he killed him, it was the cog in the machine’s direction, so we can only condemn him based on his actions after he has completed the task.” The priest explained, “We cannot interfere with someone’s completion of an instruction unless interfering with someone is also an instruction.”

Chapter 113 I Heard It!