171: Craftsman's Eye, Crimson Coordinates

Wang Dalong picked up the exquisite magnifying eyepiece and turned it over repeatedly. "Just this thing? I thought it was some kind of treasure... Isn't it just a magnifying glass?"

"No."

Lin Feng took the eyepiece from his hand, his eyes filled with fanaticism.

He didn't use the eyepiece to look at anything; instead, he held it directly under the light and carefully observed the lens itself.

Under the strong light, a halo of extremely abnormal, rainbow-like light refracted around the edges of the lens.

"This isn't ordinary crystal," Lin Feng's voice trembled slightly with excitement. "This is... a Polarizing Lens Set! It's custom-made!"

He immediately returned to the computer and pulled up a file.

It was a piece of private stationery from Mr. Howard Cavendish, filled with daily correspondence between him and a friend; the content was unremarkable.

Wang Dalong looked on, completely confused. "Brother Feng, why are you looking at this? There can't be gold hidden in a letter, can there?"

Lin Feng ignored him and pressed the special eyepiece against his right eye.

Then, he leaned closer to the screen and re-examined the letter through the eyepiece.

A miracle happened!

In Wang Dalong's eyes, it was still just an ordinary piece of stationery.

But in Lin Feng's field of vision, between the lines of the originally empty stationery, rows of dense, tiny light-blue characters like a colony of ants emerged!

Micro-engraved Ink! Invisible writing that could only be revealed using a specific wavelength of light!

This was an encryption method used only by the top spies and artisans!

"Holy crap!" Wang Dalong watched from the side, dumbfounded. "This... is this... magic?!"

"It's not magic; it's science."

Lin Feng's right eye was glued to the eyepiece, his left eye tightly shut, as he immersed himself entirely in deciphering the hidden information.

It wasn't ordinary English, but an encrypted language based on clockwork parts and celestial orbits, uniquely created by Howard Cavendish.

Fortunately, within the vast knowledge base provided by the system, deciphering a craftsman's code of this level was as easy as lifting a finger.

Time passed minute by minute.

Lin Feng stood motionless in front of the screen, like a petrified statue.

Yet his face grew increasingly solemn and pale as the deciphering progressed.

An hour later.

Lin Feng took off the eyepiece, his body swaying; luckily, he braced himself against the table in time. The prolonged, intense mental concentration had his brain nearly at its boiling point.

"Brother Feng! Are you okay? What did you find?" Wang Dalong hurried to support him.

Lin Feng waved his hand, caught his breath, his eyes full of shock and fear.

"I was wrong," he spoke slowly, his voice hoarse. "We were all wrong."

"What's wrong?"

"Howard Cavendish wasn't simply kidnapped. He was 'recruited'."

Lin Feng recounted the content he had seen through the eyepiece in the simplest language possible.

The Schutzstaffel squad that took Howard belonged to an organization called the "Ahnenerbe." This wasn't a combat unit, but the most core secret agency of the Nazi, composed of Germany's top scientists, historians, and archaeologists at the time.

Their mission wasn't to plunder gold, but to search worldwide for any ancient relics and supernatural powers that could prove "Aryans are descendants of a divine race."

They needed Howard's craftsmanship to unlock the ancient mechanisms and puzzle boxes plundered from around the world that couldn't be opened by conventional means.

"...That diary mentioned a specific coordinate." Lin Feng pulled up a map and circled an area with his finger. "Deep in the Bavarian Alps on the border of Germany and Austria, a secret base codenamed 'Valkyries Slumber.' That's where they hid most of their spoils."

"The treasure was found?!" Wang Dalong's eyes lit up instantly.

"That's not treasure," Lin Feng shook his head. "That's Pandora's box."

He paused and spoke the final, and most terrifying, part of the diary.

"Howard wrote in his final diary entry: They brought back a 'thing' from the East. That thing has no physical form; it's like a mass of living energy. Everyone who came into contact with it, without exception, went mad. The high-ranking Schutzstaffel officers named it—the 'eye of odin'."

"They believed that thing was the source of divine power that could understand all things and foresee the future, obtained after the legendary Germanic chief god Odin sacrificed one of his eyes."

"And the ultimate goal of their 'recruitment' of the old Earl was to use his artisan hands to create a vessel that could carry and control that power. An... artificial god."

Lin Feng looked up at the dazed Wang Dalong and said word for word:

"The old Earl was originally a fanatical believer in the occult. He agreed immediately after being recruited. For him, nothing was more joyful than searching for and uncovering the truths of the world."

Wang Dalong felt his back instantly drenched in cold sweat.

"Brother Feng..." Wang Dalong's voice was trembling. "Then... then we..."

Lin Feng didn't answer.

He just silently opened the quest panel.

【Quest Objective: Find the lost treasure of Nazi Germany's "SS Heir of Glory Project" and ascertain the final whereabouts of the first Duke of Cavendish—Howard Cavendish.】

【Current Progress: Key location "Valkyries Slumber" base locked.】

【System Prompt: The nature of the quest has undergone a major change. The danger level has increased to "Extremely Lethal." Please choose carefully, Host.】

【New Side Quest Activated: 'eye of odin'】

【Quest Objective: Ascertain the truth behind the "eye of odin."】

【Quest Reward: ???】

Lin Feng closed the panel, the shock and fear in his eyes gradually receding, leaving only an unprecedented resolve.

He looked at Wang Dalong and said calmly:

"Fatty, we might really be in big trouble this time."