Chapter 350 The King's Golden Stool (Part 1)

"Swish, swish..."

The endless waves of the Atlantic Ocean hit the ship, the bow mast broke through the waves, and sailed against the wind against each wave crest.

Before returning to Kinshasa, the capital of Bantu, Lin An commanded the ship to leave the accompanying fleet and follow the shells given by Mother Kumu to find the place to meet with [San Shen].

After repeated tests, he determined that [San Shen]'s base camp was located in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

"If Maui had such a great compass, he would not need the help of his four brothers to find the island of the goddess of death. Perhaps humans could have eternal life."

In the captain's room, the Maori were very curious about the shells, and kept finding excuses to circle around Lin An, trying to grab the white shells flashing with coordinates.

"If Maui didn't have his four brothers, perhaps Kiwi North Island would still be a complete land." Lin An said calmly.

Maui is a demigod in Maori culture. He once used a magical flax fishing line and a hook made from his ancestor's jaw to catch a giant fish that looked like a ray. The huge fish shocked his four brothers.

It is said that this is the origin of the North Island of Kiwi Bird Country today. To this day, the Maori name of the North Island is still Te Ika a Maui.

When Maui went to call other people in the tribe, the brothers who stayed behind couldn't help but cut the fish into pieces, so the North Island on the map was full of islands and there were few complete continents.

"Okay, ranger, how can I get this shell?" The Maori heard the implication of Lin An and asked with a pout.

"After it takes me to my destination, you can do whatever you want with it. After all, we have deviated from the original route, and it is all thanks to your guidance that we can return to Kinshasa."

"Your distribution is fair." The Maori pounded his chest covered with black tattoos with his fists, "I will tell Mr. O'Connor that his choice to invest in the World Tree is very wise."

It would be better to ask him for another 200,000 Youle for me. The second recruitment meeting will cost a lot of money. Lin An thought to himself.

"Mr. Forest Ranger, look!"

The captain who was silently steering the helm pointed forward, and a small black dot appeared on the horizon. Lin An raised the shell to the opposite side of it, and the guide and the black dot formed a straight line.

"Oh, we found an island!" The Maori made a telescope with his hands, closed one eye and looked into the distance, "Hmm? It's shaking... Is there a volcano nearby?"

"Don't stare at that point." Lin An patted the Maori and the captain's shoulders with his hands, "Stop the boat on the high seas and wait for me to come back."

Just as the headquarters of the Saint Anilof Foundation has the structure and characteristics of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, the San Shen Base cannot be just a simple Atlantic island.

Turning the [Philosopher's Stone], Lin An continued to move forward according to the guidance of the shell.

The strange black spot floated on the rolling sea surface. He stared at it and suddenly felt a shake, followed by a slight loss of consciousness, and the black spot changed its appearance.

As if by God's command, a platform standing in the ocean replaced the black spot, and the metal shell was particularly eye-catching in the bright light of the equatorial sun.

Artificial island?

As Lin An approached steadily, the outline of the platform became clearer every moment.

Finally, he saw the whole picture of this thing.

The base of Sanshen looks like an illustration from a children's picture book, a platform in the trees surrounded by a fleet of small fishing boats painted in blue, red and white stripes.

On the platform stands a magnificent palace, with walls hung with silk and satin around the atrium, chandeliers shining, and a ceiling full of glittering lapis lazuli and night pearls. A man sits on an extraordinary snakeskin chair.

Around him, animals come and go, tigers, leopards, lions and jaguars, wearing crowns and holding their heads high.

Not only that, the palace is full of beautiful maids, who are graceful and busy preparing hot tubs for bathing, as well as milk and saffron oil.

A flagpole rises from the top of the palace, and the pattern of a four-armed cross flutters in the wind under the blue sky.

According to legend, the king of Ashanti is the incarnation of the sun god Nyakopen. Since the color of sunlight is similar to that of gold, the king usually wears various gold ornaments.

The symbol of Nyakopen is a cross with four arms. The four colors divided by lines represent the four directions of the time compass. The concept is similar to the Kalenga Line and belongs to the Central South Asian cultural circle.

Unlike the Bantu, the Ashanti Empire's research on gods is limited to the sky and has not yet developed to the universe.

The pattern of the flag indirectly explains the identity of the owner of this place. Lin An looked back at the man on the red chair.

Is this the gathering place of the [scattered gods]?

Is he the successor of the Ashanti Kingdom?

Sensing the peeping, the man in the center looked at Lin An through the glass of the palace and smiled warmly at him.

A familiar aura flashed, and a faint haze came over the face. The scene of the platform mountain suddenly changed. The strange and gorgeous palace was replaced by an Iroko tree rising from the ground.

The maids walking around became barefoot priests, with thick colorful rosaries hanging around their necks and bloodstone-inlaid crutches in their hands, which jingled as they walked.

A large and bulky woman sat in front of the Iroko tree. When she saw Lin An, she waved her hands happily.

"Haha, ranger! You're here! Come on, freshly fried coconut cake, cola nut seafood soup, and grilled whale meat! Try it. Although its meat is red and rough, it tastes sweet and will definitely leave you with an endless aftertaste!"

It was Kum's mother.

The temptation of whale meat did not make Lin An lose his mind. He rashly entered the ever-changing strange platform. With a thought, green data appeared in front of Kum's mother.

"Kum, we meet again. Thank you for the invitation. I'm not hungry for the time being."

"It's so hard to come here. Don't let the food go to waste, ranger! Here - I also made sea crabs!"

"Maybe Mr. Ranger wants to take a bath before eating your greasy dishes, Kum."

When the second male voice was heard, the images of the Iroko tree and the gorgeous palace overlapped. The man sitting on the snakeskin chair changed his posture and supported his chin. The maids wrung out the towel and stared at Lin An in the air with watery eyes.

Before the two scenes faded, the third female voice interrupted.

"Whichever you choose, I believe you would like to pair it with a glass of palm wine. I randomly mixed pineapple, passion fruit, honey, ginger, spices and pepper in it."

What's going on.

I remember that I came to the base of a mysterious organization, not a spa!

Lin An narrowed his eyes and his mouth twitched.

Observing with the "naked eye", three layers of textures appeared on the platform, overlapping with images of different transparency, fighting for each other, and no one could occupy 100% of the entity.

The unpredictable scene was like a precursor to madness, making him dizzy, and guessing in his heart that these scenes were most likely the illusion of energy, not the real reality.

Speaking of which, Lin An found that the three of them were each sitting on a chair made of beast skin.

Mother Kum mentioned that the status of [San Shen] is determined by the chair.

Are these three people the current three senior executives of the organization?

Or...

Their quarrels gradually made Lin An lose his patience. He took out [God's One Eye], the rose cloud stretched out, and one eyeball opened wide. Lin An felt that his sight suddenly rose, the illusory mist dissipated, and the true appearance of the platform was revealed.

It turned out that there were four people sitting on it, three women and one man, and the chairs under them were high and low.

Sensing Lin An's sight, the only woman who didn't speak raised her head, and five eyes looked at him at the same time.

"Sorry, they are just trying to get closer to you in their own way." Her voice was hollow, like the echo of a cave, coming from all directions. "The [Sanshen] Council welcomes you, Forester."

"Greetings to you, lady sitting on the lioness skin chair. I have heard some of your plans from Kum - a so-called [tyrant] from South Continent is about to attack Lakong'o and Bantu, and the Sanshen hopes that the World Tree will delay him for a while."

"Yes, Forester."

"I have two main problems here. First, due to the terrain, unless the tyrant is willing to bypass the entire turbulent Kuba River and attack Bantu from the Swahili below, his marching route cannot bypass Lakong'o."

"It is an inevitable choice to capture Lakong'o and then attack Bantu." The five-eyed woman nodded, her pupils were light blue, shining on her dark skin.

"Put it aside for now, ma'am. The second question is - the World Tree has no obligation to bear the attack for you. If you can't give a particularly strong explanation, I will let the World Tree watch from the other side and collect some information about the [Tyrant]."

"Rewards always come with danger."

The woman's eyes blinked from left to right in sequence. In Western legends, not blinking at the same time is a symbol of the devil.

She paused for a moment and brought up an irrelevant topic.

"The Ashanti family system is matrilineal, with Abusua (big family) as the basic social unit, distributed throughout the empire. A social unit has a common female ancestor, who is worshipped by all members."

Lin An glanced at the three people, Mother Kum, who had quieted down at some point, and said, "Are you this 'female ancestor'?"

"You can call me 'Queen Mother Charo'."

"Sorry, you don't want to see my queen mother either."

Queen Mother Charo licked her silver lips with her tongue and continued.

"Although ancestor worship plays a positive role in maintaining society, the continuation of a matriarchal clan cannot be without male leadership, at least not in the Ashanti Empire."

Due to the ambiguity of the name, some modern people think that matriarchal clans are societies where women are respected. In fact, in most primitive matriarchal tribes, the brothers or nephews of the female ancestors are the real power holders, and they are in charge of the property related to each relative.

The Ashanti Empire is also like this. Their throne is inherited by the male of the royal maternal relatives. He is not only the spiritual leader of the country, but also the highest administrative officer, in charge of the army, and handles all foreign affairs on behalf of the country.

Glancing at the man looking around on the snakeskin chair, Lin An excluded him from the position of "king".

"Have you heard the story of 'Friday's Golden Stool'? It represents the Ashanti throne and is a symbol of royal power..."

The five-eyed Queen Charo narrated slowly in an echoing voice. She clasped her hands together, and the others sitting on the chairs repeated her actions.

"And it's here." (End of this chapter)