Path of Light.

Chapter 861 862. Slave Trade Route
On the west side of the Kuei Island Pier, there are currently twenty three-masted sailing ships that were snatched from the gray dwarf bandits waiting in line outside the dock. The elven crew members in the dock are repairing these three-masted sailing ships almost day and night, taking turns.

At the same time, two three-masted sailing ships were undergoing transformation. Since Roy had obtained a large number of floating devices from the Lost Sea, he decided to transform these three-masted sailing ships into magic airships.

Roy currently owns a fairly large fleet, which currently includes thirty-four magic airships and twenty-eight three-masted sailing ships.

Most of the magic airships are in service on the Partington plane, and these twenty-eight three-masted sailing ships will be converted into magic airships after being fully repaired.

The half-elf shipwrights who were in charge of the magic airship transformation were brought over by Roy from the Partington Island Shipyard. They had a wealth of experience in transformation...

Roy, Moira, Woods, Tiffany, Sabrina and their friends were sitting on the deck of the Black Pearl, gathered around a round table.

On the round table was a thick stack of nautical charts drawn by Abbott, totaling nearly two hundred charts.

Roy planned to piece these charts together to form a detailed chart of the Endless Sea. This chart was so large that it occupied a large area of ​​the Black Pearl's deck...

And Roy and the others also clearly realized for the first time that the Endless Sea was several times larger than they had imagined.

For example, the area of ​​​​Que Island and the Lost Sea, which even extends eastward to the western outskirts of the Queen Evenny Islands, is just a corner of one of the nautical charts drawn by Abbott.

The sea area of ​​the Naga Empire is much larger than the entire Elf Continent...

If the Green Empire's ships want to pass directly through the Endless Sea, they will have to take extremely high risks.

All along, the fleet of the imperial merchant Darwin has been sailing northward along the west coast of the Elf Continent. The merchant ships crossed the Mensa Plain and found the boundary between the Frozen Sea and the Endless Sea on the west coast of the Durag Frozen Land.

Durrag is the home of the gray dwarves. This continent is made up of a narrow tundra belt and large mountains. Further south is the Mensa Plains where the tribal orcs live.

If the fleet chose to sail eastward along the northern coast of the Ladugu frozen land, it would take two months to reach the northeast corner of the eastern continent, and about another five months to cross the Twin Seas to reach the dwarf kingdom.

The Dwarf Kingdom is located in the northwest corner of Roland Continent, and is very far away from the Green Empire...

There are two ways to go from the Dwarf Kingdom to the Green Continent:

The first route is that the caravan will then need to travel by land.

The caravan can pass through the dwarf country and then head east along the New Siakis Mountains. It will take about eighteen months to get out of the New Siakis Mountains. It is dangerous to walk all the way to the city of Schloit along the Starry Lake and the Snowy Tundra. It would be safer if they could take the Pai Plateau.

The second route is that the caravan needs to take a boat to travel south via the sea.

Only after bypassing the entire Etia Alliance Kingdom and the Wild Swamp will you arrive at Qiyan City, the southernmost tip of the Green Empire.

If the fleet does not sail eastward along the Dulag frozen soil at the boundary between the Frozen Sea and the Endless Sea, but sails westward along the boundary between the Endless Sea and the Frozen Sea, it can bypass the Endless Sea...

According to the imperial merchant Darwin, this sea is about 300,000 nautical miles wide, and it takes imperial merchant ships about 30 months to reach Qiyan City.

At the time, the imperial merchant Darwin's words were also a bit vague...

Roy had asked the imperial merchant Darwin why the fleet, which had been sailing westward along the border of the Frozen Sea, first arrived at a port not the Star Sea Port in the northern part of the Green Empire's Sloyt Province, but the Qiyan Port at the southernmost tip of the Green Empire, adjacent to the Savage Swamp?

Darwin explained that it might take the fleet several months longer to reach the northern port of the Green Empire than to reach Qiyan Port.

Because the wind blows from the northwest almost all year round in the Endless Sea.

Sailing towards the province of Schluite, we were sailing against the wind all the way.

However, the voyage to Qiyan Province is smooth sailing, and the supply island infrastructure along the way is relatively safe.

After finally arranging the charts according to their actual positions, everyone gathered around the corner of the charts to rest, feeling like they had completed a huge puzzle.

Roy stepped barefoot on the nautical chart. He placed a short spear on the chart, which looked like a big arrow drawn on the map. Then he said to several friends:

"I want to lead the fleet straight through here..."

Woods immediately objected, saying to Roy:

"There have been so many failed voyage plans before, where the fleet tried to cross the Endless Sea. Don't all these lessons learned make you realize that this sea route is not feasible?"

Roy looked at Miss Tiffany and replied with a smile:

"That's because they don't have any friends among the Naga Sea Clan, but we do!"

Miss Tiffany didn't want to make such a promise, and quickly waved her hand and said, "Can I still help you convince those stubborn Naga tribes? Don't be ridiculous, I don't even believe I can do it..."

"I know this route may encounter some dangers, but since those slave traders can pass through, I think we should be fine!" Roy said.

He then added:
"I believe there must be a safe route, we just haven't found it yet."

Sabrina suggested: "Why don't we ask these gray dwarves, they should know something..."

Roy walked to the bow and looked towards the beach on the east side of the pier:

"I think maybe those imperial merchants know this route better..."

……

The night at Kui Island Pier is particularly quiet...

The waves kept hitting the seawall, and the foam they stirred up floated into the cracks in the rocks, forming patches of mottled white.

The imperial merchant Moses, his feet shackled, staggered down the steps of the seawall.

Behind him followed a row of imperial merchants and sailors, who also dragged their tired bodies and staggered down the stone steps.

Compared with the imperial merchants, the situation of the imperial crew members was much better.

They are both doing physical work, so at least their bodies can hold on...

There are about 600 imperial people in this group, of which there are only about 30 imperial merchants.

During these days, all the imperial people stayed on Kui Island to chisel stones, and their work was very hard.

Many of the Empire's merchants had their ankles worn out by the shackles, and they walked down the seawall directly, dragging their rattling chains...

The wound on the ankle was suddenly soaked in the sea. The pain made the imperial merchants' whole bodies begin to spasm just by thinking about it.

These imperial people had to chisel stones in the stone pond near the foot of the active volcano every day. The situation of the crew members was better, but the merchants had blisters on their palms and their ankles were covered with scars because they had to use hammers every day.

There were no half-elf overseers in the quarry at Shitang.

There were only some highland headhunters who dug stones with them.

However, the plateau headhunters felt that these humans were slacking off all the time, so as long as they stopped, they would be whipped by the plateau headhunters.

After a few days, more than 600 Green Empire people lost a lot of weight, their eye sockets were sunken, and their spirits were depressed.

Enduring the burning pain of the sea water on their ankles, a group of imperial people fell down on the beach to rest. Several half-blood elves came to them with buckets of fruit and gave them two apples each. The silver-haired imperial merchant looked at the two green apples thrown casually on the beach, wiped his dry lips, and whispered to the imperial merchant Moses:

"Moses, if you keep doing this, I'm afraid all of us will die here."

Another imperial merchant also suggested with a tangled look on his face:

"Can you go and talk to Boss Roy and ask him to allow us to redeem ourselves? As long as we can write a letter to our family and ask them to send us money, we can probably regain our freedom."

He hung his head and whispered some regretful words:
"I had originally planned to stop after this trip, but who would have thought that I would end up on Kui Island this time."

Other merchants from the empire also echoed:
"We were badly tricked by those gray dwarves this time..."

"We are not going to wage war against the half-blood elves. We are just here to do business with them. Why do these half-blood elves imprison us?"

The protest was a little loud, so Moses said quickly:

"Everyone shut up! Give me some time to think of a solution..."

The silver-haired empire businessman turned to look at Moses, with some negative emotions in his eyes.

"Do you think we can leave Kuei Island alive?"

He asked the merchant Moses quietly.

Moses was about to shake his head when he heard a team of half-elves running over from the port. Soon there were some footsteps, and they were carrying a box of magic herbs and throwing them directly on the ground.

These magical herbs almost all promote wound healing.

The half-blood elves placed the magic herbs on the beach, and one of the half-blood elf officers said to the merchant Moses with a cold face:

"Boss Moses, please come out for a moment."

Moses stood up from the team, then walked up to the half-elf officer and looked at him with confusion.

"Please come with me..."

The half-elf officer said very politely.

Although his legs were a little slow to move, he still nodded and followed the half-elf officer, limping towards the dock.

The chains on my feet made a clinking sound from time to time.

The merchant Moses came to the dock and walked along the dock for a while before coming to a ship with leaves growing everywhere.

Roy sat on a chair, holding a skewer of grilled fish in his hand. The aroma of the grilled fish wafted far away...

Seeing Roy motioning him to sit down, Moses sat silently on a circle of lounge chairs under the mast.

Roy said to the merchant Moses:

"In this battle, we have more than 12,000 half-elf guards injured, and 1,800 half-elf guards died in this war. Some of these were completely avoidable, but obviously you didn't make things develop in a good direction, so I confiscated all your property, including the two merchant ships."

Roy stared at the businessman Moses and said slowly:
"I know these merchant ships have been involved in the slave trade. You will transport elves and dwarves to Roland Continent for sale, and you will also transport some lizardmen and orcs from Roland Continent to Durrag. Of course, you will also do other business. According to the laws of the elves, you will stay in prison until you die."

"Of course, if you have the courage, you can dedicate your life to the sea or the volcano. I believe no elves will stop you..."

Roy said nonchalantly.

There was a painful smile in the eyes of merchant Moses, and it was obvious that he did not want to die.

But he didn't want to live in such pain...

Roy continued:
"If you want to live, you must repent for the crimes you have committed."

"You are now prisoners of the mine guards. I have some questions for you. You don't have to tell me. I don't care whether you really don't know or you just don't want to tell me. It doesn't matter!"

"I don't care whether you say it or not, but you can't tell lies."

"If I decide you're lying, I'll send you to the mines. Do you understand?"

Miss Tiffany stood by and translated.

The imperial merchant Moses nodded repeatedly.

Roy sat back in his chair and waited for a long time before he asked the Empire Merchant:

"Moses, do you know the Lost Sea?"

"know."

The Empire merchant Moses immediately gave Roy a positive answer. Apparently, they must have been to the Lost Sea...

Roy fell silent again. Merchant Moses waited for a long time before Roy asked him again:
"Which route do you usually take when you cross the Endless Sea from the Elf Continent to the Roland Continent?"

Although the merchant Moses opened his mouth, no sound came out of his mouth!

Cold sweat flowed down the businessman Moses' cheeks...

There is indeed a sea route connecting Roland Continent and Elf Continent, which is the slave trade route that Roy mentioned.

He was hesitating whether to say it... or not!
Once the information about this route is revealed, it is estimated that slave ships may be severely cracked down by Roy's fleet in the future.

That's why the imperial merchant Moses was so conflicted.

At this moment, Roy stared into the eyes of the imperial merchant Moses and said:

"You only have one chance. You can keep silent and at most go to the stone pond to dig stones. But if you dare to lie, once it is confirmed, you will have to dig in the dark and damp mines. So what is your choice?"

"I don't know. We are just an ordinary merchant ship. Even this time, we transported the gray dwarf bandits to the dock of Kuei Island because those gray dwarves forced us to do it."

The businessman Moses shouted this sentence almost in one breath.

Roy nodded without comment, pointed to the ship building behind him, and said to the half-blood elf guard:
"Send him up there and wait. Don't let him make any noise."

The half-elf guards escorted Moses to the roof of the ship.

There was a flower bed here, and Moses stood in it, so that the people on the deck could not see him at all.

Soon Moses discovered that the silver-haired merchant was brought onto the deck by the half-elf officer. The silver-haired merchant looked at Roy with a pale face. Roy said the same thing to him, but he said nothing...

(End of this chapter)