Chapter 984: Chapter 489: Confession and the Collector_2
Ellison and Lorin were siblings, and at the same time, their full names were "Elison Morton" and "Lorin Morton."
The noble scion "Lailo Moerton" whom Xia Nan was looking for, the one suspected of carrying the key to the Dream Weaving Corridor, was their father.
The development of events began at the point recorded in the Druid’s notes. Lailo Moerton, once an adventurer himself, lost most of his teammates due to an accident during an expedition. Disheartened, he decided to come to the Southern Islands to enjoy his retirement life in the sun and sea.
During this period, he found love, and his wife gave birth in turn to his two children, Ellison and Lorin.
According to what Ellison said, their childhood life was fairly stable.
Lailo had been born a noble scion, with a well-off family background. Even after he left the family, he still carried a great deal of wealth on him. Combined with his identity and strength as a professional adventurer, he barely needed to go out, take missions, or risk himself; doing a little small business at random was enough to support his family in comfort and dignity.
If things had continued like that, without a doubt, their family would have become yet another success story among retired adventurers.
Until many years ago, on what seemed like an ordinary sea voyage, Lailo Moerton never returned.
As for what exactly happened that day, Ellison and Lorin did not know any more than Xia Nan.
But perhaps due to differences in personality, the siblings had completely different views on this matter.
Lorin regarded their father’s death as reality, abandoning pointless illusions. She treated that damned beast "Algae Scale" who attacked Lailo as the target of her revenge, swearing to offer the other’s blood and head as a sacrifice to her dead father, and took this as her goal, striving ceaselessly.
Becoming an adventurer, frantically improving her strength, forming a team of her own...
Everything she did was for this.
Ellison, however, felt that Lailo Moerton’s disappearance was extremely suspicious—after all, no corpse of Lailo had been found on the ship, and the powerful image his father had built up before him since childhood also made Ellison feel that his father would not die so easily. Instead, he believed that because of some unknown reason, Lailo had been trapped somewhere, or else had been forced to leave this place.
All these years, Ellison seemed immersed in fishing, but in reality, he had always been searching for traces left by his father.
Unfortunately, the results were minimal, and he had not discovered anything special.
In fact, the reason he and Lorin were so interested in those Exotic Realm items from the Twin Canyon on the black market, and then so disappointed when they found those were not what they were looking for, was precisely due to the influence of the Molton family that Lailo had been born into.
"Perhaps... Lorin is right."
After saying all this, the middle-aged man before him suddenly seemed to have aged many years. The eyes that were already full of vicissitudes gradually dimmed.
Xia Nan wanted to comfort Ellison with a few words, but for the moment did not know how to open his mouth, and worried that speaking rashly would only make the other feel worse, so he could only remain silent.
He did not know how much time had passed.
Ellison suddenly sat up, drained the last bit of tea in his cup in one gulp, and forced a smile onto his face:
"Anyway, thank you for completing my commission."
"If you run into trouble in Suo Yu Bay, or in the Southern Islands, you can come find me."
Xia Nan had never imagined that Ellison and Lorin had such a deep connection with the Lailo moerton he was searching for, and felt a subtle emotion at the thought that he had successively built ties with the two of them without knowing any of this.
The brother-sister conflict between the female captain and the old fisherman was their own family matter; Xia Nan was well aware of this.
Whether their relationship would worsen or gradually ease in the future was not something he should get involved in.
Right now, what Xia Nan was thinking about was that, as for Lorin, he had previously regarded her only as a channel for participating in the Moon Tide Banquet, a temporary, reliable, and powerful teammate.
But now, having learned this female captain’s goal from her elder brother, he could not help but form a few more thoughts in his heart.
After all, in a certain sense, he and Lorin shared a common target—"Algae Scale" Dodd.
He wanted to obtain clues about the key to the Dream Weaving Corridor from that man, while Lorin wanted to use his death as a tribute to her lost father.
Perhaps... in the not-too-distant future, they could cooperate?
Of course, there was no need to rush into that conversation. He could first sound her out a little and see what Lorin’s attitude was.
Xia Nan thought so in his heart.
As for Ellison...
To be honest, there was indeed something he wanted to ask him.
"You mean, where did I get the information about these Exotic Realm items?"
Ellison was slightly surprised by Xia Nan’s question, but he did not pursue it. Instead, he frankly told him through which channels he had been searching for Lailo moerton’s tracks all these years.
"First is the black market in Suo Yu Bay."
As the central town of the entire Southern Islands, this place gathered a massive number of adventurers traveling through various sea regions. Whenever there was any change in the situation in nearby waters, or some strange phenomenon appeared, information would always arrive here first.
The black market in Suo Yu Bay further gathered all kinds of bizarre things that these adventurers brought back from different places. Almost every so often, Ellison would stroll through the black market, searching for anything that looked familiar.
For Lorin, it was the same.
Perhaps she went far less frequently than Ellison, but every time she finished a mission, she would enter the black market to take a look.
"Then there’s the Three-legged Sea Dog Tavern and the adventurer association."
The reasons were the same as above: the extremely high mobility of adventurers meant that this group had a very keen Perception for all kinds of information.
Many times, even something trivial that should never have spread—if some big-mouthed adventurer found out about it—would become that very night’s story at the drinking table, known to every colleague in the Tavern and spread rapidly.
Just as Xia Nan liked to stay in the main hall of the Tavern to eat while broadening his horizons, Ellison would often collect information in places where adventurers gathered.
"Lastly..." At this point, Ellison’s words carried a hint of hesitation, as if he was wondering whether it was appropriate to say this. After a moment, he still did not conceal it.
"I know a collector."
"He’s well-informed and very knowledgeable, with great wealth and a wide network of channels. He has a particular interest in items with an Exotic Realm flair."
"I have some ties with him and can often collect information through his contacts."
A collector?
Xia Nan’s reason for asking Ellison about Exotic Realm items was actually very simple: he wanted to obtain more information about suspected Secret Realms.
After all, for someone like him who could touch the core of a Secret Realm, the Secret Realms themselves were equivalent to Attributes, Equipment, Battle Skill, and wealth; every Secret Realm was a tremendous boost for Xia Nan.
And right now, the current charge of the Dream Weaving Corridor was still far from enough for the Level 2 Heavy Tide, and he needed Secret Realms to provide more Energy.
Hearing that Ellison actually knew such a person, Xia Nan inevitably felt a spark of interest.
He did not even need to speak up; Ellison, experienced as he was, immediately sensed what was on the mind of the young Black haired Adventurer before him.
In fact, the very fact that he brought this up to Xia Nan on his own meant that he was already prepared to introduce this channel to him.
"In a few days." Ellison nodded to Xia Nan. "I’ll find an opportunity and introduce this channel to you."
"He’s probably not in Suo Yu Bay right now."
"Be patient and wait for a while. You can do whatever else you like, but try not to go out on missions. Once there’s news, I’ll inform you immediately."
He had already planned to rest for a while with the Vengeance Blade Blade Squad, and since Ellison had said as much, Xia Nan naturally had no objection, and simply waited for this resourceful and mysterious collector to have time.
