Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 14 Good News

When the sun once again jumped out of the sea level, the thick fog near the Valkyrie's location did not dissipate. This was rare good news. However, compared to the good news, there was more bad news than good news.

First of all, the blood mist released from the center of the ship to repair the ship has not dissipated.

Secondly, the sea-viewing vines scattered throughout the ship began to wilt as if poisoned, and even dripped pools of dark red mucus with a foul smell.

However, the so-called omniscient and omnipotent Saint Barbaya Magic Mirror could not provide any solution to these anomalies. Like Cheng Lang, he had no idea what was going on.

Similarly, because of these abnormalities, the ship can no longer move. In desperation, Cheng Lang, who is like being trapped on an isolated island, can only release the three captives. After promising to send them to the nearest inhabited island after leaving the Sea of ​​Despair, the three captives also reluctantly agreed to help control the sail under Cheng Lang's coercion.

However, when they carefully grasped the vines dripping with red mucus, the three captives screamed one after another.

Before Cheng Lang could even react, they were entangled and wrapped by a large number of vines, and then they were embraced and pressed into the mast.

"Is this normal?" Cheng Lang, who was hiding in the indoor driving platform, swallowed and asked with lingering fear.

"It's not normal," the magic mirror replied dryly, "but I can't explain it."

"What should we do now?" Cheng Lang asked in the same dry tone.

"Let's wait. Maybe." The Magic Mirror's tone was full of uncertainty. "I don't know what to do either."

“It seems there’s nothing else to do.”

Cheng Lang paused, "Those vines won't eat me too, right?"

"No, definitely not."

This time, the magic mirror's tone was much more confident, "You are the captain of this ship. The ship's heart will never harm you."

"That's good"

Cheng Lang swallowed his saliva, turned around, went downstairs and went into the bedroom. He started vomiting as soon as he entered the bathroom. The scene of the three captives being dragged in was really too disgusting.

Only when he could no longer spit out anything did he turn on the faucet, rinse his mouth and wash his face.

Lying in bed again, unable to do anything but wait, Cheng Lang couldn't fall asleep again.

So, he ran to the office upstairs and put all his assets on the table.

In addition to the magic mirror hanging outside the bridge, he now also has a ship bottle that contains a ship but has no sailors to use, a sailor's tombstone that requires at least ten cups of Poseidon's blood to be used again, a mask, an unopenable wooden box, and a piece of armor.

Originally, he had two cups of Poseidon's blood, but after the sailor captive whose name the captain didn't even remember fell asleep last night, Cheng Lang used the only cup of Poseidon's blood to restart the mask and used another cup to copy the other's face.

This mask is truly magical. After putting it on, not only does the entire face become exactly the same as the other person's, but even the black hair turns into the same light golden color as the other person.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to use these things again.”

Cheng Lang murmured and sighed, but found that he had nothing he could rely on to solve the trouble at hand.

Feeling restless, he simply opened the door of the display cabinet against the wall, took out a book at random and flipped through it.

He recognized the words on the paper, which were also Chinese characters, literally square characters with edges and corners.

But the internal structure of each Chinese character seems to be a mixture of several never-before-seen letters.

But he knew them and knew exactly what each word meant.

For example, the book in your hand is printed by the Royal Library of the Duchy of Boerland, which introduces the products of the six duchies of the Star Sea Continent and the Star Sea Islands.

This aroused his interest. Perhaps he could find an introduction about the Vine Goblin here, or perhaps a solution to the current dilemma?
This book provides a detailed and systematic introduction to the conditions and products of various countries, even including local customs and practices, as well as the conditions of some islands.

As luck would have it, after he finished reading the introduction to the six principalities and the pirate city of the Star Sea Continent, the next place that was introduced was a place called "Iron Oak Island".

The introduction to this place is surprisingly simple, consisting of just one sentence: "Two hundred years after the fall of Poseidon, Iron Oak Island has been blocked by a mysterious poisonous fog. Birds cannot fly over it, ships corrode, and even sirens and sea monsters fear it. Navigation has not been restored to this day, and the fate of the island's residents remains unknown."

"Finally I see someone more unlucky than me"

Cheng Lang muttered something with a sense of gloating, but soon, the expression on his face froze because of the next sentence.

"Iron Oak Blood Core, a specialty of the Iron Oak Forest on Iron Oak Island, is the perfect material for repairing ship cores. Before the toxic fog blockade, each one was worth 1000 Poseidon gold coins. Each one can repair major damage, including a broken keel, once.

Today, iron-rubber blood cores are almost extinct, and the value of each iron-rubber blood core has risen more than a hundredfold, yet it is still priceless in the market."

"Snapped!"

Cheng Lang, who was originally gloating, threw the book in his hand away.

“Why am I so unlucky?”

Cheng Lang wailed as he ran down the stairs, into the stairwell, and finally into the ventricle.

At this moment, the heart of the boat was beating extremely violently as if it had taken drugs. Not only the water in the pool, but even the surrounding walls were dyed blood red!

Even if he was an amateur, he could already tell that this was due to indigestion caused by overfeeding!

Thinking back, he threw in at least a hundred iron rubber blood cores at once!
No, no, no, can’t think about it!
Cheng Lang, his heart bleeding, ran out of the ship's ventricle as if escaping. He even vaguely guessed that the current state of the ship might be related to the fact that he fed it too much iron rubber blood core.

Cheng Lang, who had just arrived, naturally had no idea what the truth was. He could only pray that the heart of the ship would not be blown to death, that the pursuers behind him would not find him so quickly, that the thick fog around him would not dissipate, and that the vine goblins would come back to life as soon as possible.

In such prayers, time passes by minute by minute, even day by day.

When Cheng Lang ate all the seafood in the kitchen that had not yet spoiled and began to try to collect some recognizable seaweed in the sea, it was already the fifth day.

In fact, the thick fog had completely dissipated as early as the third day, and the duration of the fog had far exceeded his expectations.

On the fourth day, the red mist in the center of the ship used to repair the ship finally dissipated.

Because of Poseidon's curse, although the damage to the ship had been repaired, the black mold still remained. Furthermore, a faint red mist lingered above the sails, something that hadn't been there before.

When the sun set, the sails that were in good condition during the day became tattered again, and began to be surrounded by a layer of faint black fog, which was not there before.

Although he didn't know how to lift Poseidon's curse, when Cheng Lang went underwater to look for edible aquatic plants as usual at noon today, he discovered that a long and ferocious conical ram had appeared below the waterline of the Valkyrie's bow!

"Is this the missing unicorn?"

Cheng Lang, submerged in the water, eyed the ram suspiciously. It lay almost beneath the surface, its deep blue color making it extremely concealed. The front half of the ram was conical, while the back half was held by three human skeletons.

If he hadn't come down to collect edible seaweed, he wouldn't even notice the horn.

Although it looks a bit scary, these seem to be signs that the ship is getting better.

This good news also increased Cheng Lang's appetite, as he had hardly eaten well in the past few days.

Unfortunately, although my appetite has returned, there is not much to eat on this boat.

That night, when the sail became tattered again, the wilted Wanghai Teng seemed to wake up suddenly, unconsciously pulling the sail up and down, making a loud clattering noise.

"The Vine Mandrill is about to be resurrected!"

The magic mirror shouted in surprise, "Quick! Pour the wine! They need the wine!"

"Boom!"

Cheng Lang simply took off the boat bottle hanging around his waist, unscrewed the cork, and began to pour the fruit wine directly through the ventilation grille.

"Enough, enough! Stop now!" The magic mirror that had been monitoring the situation in the lower cabin shouted shortly afterwards.

Before Cheng Lang could put the cork back in the bottle, the Wanghai vines that had spread all over the ship began to surge, and huge fruits covered with thorns began to grow all over the ship.

"Boom!"

As the first fruit fell on the deck, the rest of the fruits also fell down with a crackling sound.

At the same time, Cheng Lang also noticed through the magic mirror that the vines in the lower cabin were also producing large, round fruits.

"Crack!"

With a crisp sound, the first fruit that fell on the open deck unfolded, and a two-meter-tall chimpanzee stood up straight, beating his chest and letting out a low roar.

"Is this a vine goblin?" Cheng Langnan asked in a low voice.

"Maybe. Maybe it is." The magic mirror replied in the same dull tone.

It’s no wonder that they and the mirror reacted this way. It’s just that these reborn vine goblins have changed too much.

These vine goblins on the open deck have a skirt made of two hexagonal tortoise shell pieces on their waists. Similarly, they also have a tortoise shell-like protective plate on their chests.

Even their shoulders had a bowl-shaped shoulder guard that seemed to be made of coconut shells, and on top of the shoulder guard, there was a small conical ram - just like the ram of this ship.

In addition to these, there is also a helmet-like thing on their heads, which seems to be made of coconut shells.

But, perhaps because of the three captives who were dragged in, the faces of these vine goblins had lost their bestial outlines. Although they were still clearly different from humans at first glance, at least their long mouths were gone, as were the overly thick facial hair, and even their skin had become a little whiter.

Looking at the lower cabin in the mirror, the vine goblins there were smaller in size as before, but their appearance was also closer to humans, and they also had a few more tortoise shells on their bodies for protection, the only difference being that they lacked shoulder horns.

"I guess I know the answer," the magic mirror said as if it had suddenly realized something.

"What's going on?" Cheng Lang asked.

"The tortoise shell pieces gifted to us by Swallow Island and the Valkyrie have a symbiotic relationship in a sense, just like the relationship between Wanghai Teng and this ship."

The magic mirror explained in an extremely uncertain tone, "When we were attacked, the tortoise shells helped us withstand a lot of damage, but they were also used as ship repair materials by the ship's hearth.

After the boat's heart absorbed the tortoise shell from the Swallow Island, it also developed his appetite for anything, so it ate the sea rhino horn in revenge."

After a brief pause, the magic mirror continued to speculate, "At the same time, the death of the vine mandrill also made them eager to become stronger, so they became the horrible state they are in now."

“It really looks like a ghost.”

Cheng Lang said in astonishment. At this time, the vine goblins in the lower cabin had taken off their helmets and used them as wine bowls. They scooped up the fruit wine in the lower cabin that had not been absorbed by the Wanghai vine. They passed it to the open deck like an assembly line and poured it into the helmets taken off by the large vine goblins.

As the coconut shell helmets were removed, the vine goblins returned to their original terrifying appearance.

When all the goblins were holding helmets full of red wine in their coconut shell helmets, the joyful shouts of these goblins with scarlet eyes could be heard again from the boat.

"call--"

Cheng Lang, who had been on edge for the past few days, finally breathed a sigh of relief. With a long-lost smile on his face, he said, "That's right. This is what the Valkyrie should look like."

"I was moved to tears by the gorillas"

In the magic mirror, tears were flowing on the pale green face, and at the same time, a pale green hand was holding a big red handkerchief and wiping left and right busily, and finally blowing the nose hard.

"Let these big guys celebrate."

Cheng Lang turned and walked towards the captain's room while saying, "We will set off after dawn!"

"Dear Captain, are we ready to leave the Sea of ​​Despair?" the magic mirror asked knowingly.

"That's right, leave the Sea of ​​Despair."

Cheng Lang took a deep breath and said with great enthusiasm, "I can't wait to see what the civilization of this world is like."

"Xinghai will remember this day"

The magic mirror said flatteringly, "I have a feeling that you will become a great pirate whose fame resounds throughout the Star Sea Continent, every island, and every sea."

"Pirates? Forget about pirates."

Cheng Lang muttered something without commenting, and his high spirits began to drop.

He didn't want to be a pirate, and he had no interest or desire in the profession of pirate.

From the time he inexplicably came to this world until this moment, every step he took was forced, and he didn't even have the opportunity or right to choose what was in front of him.

"How can you find the secrets left by the Valkyrie without becoming a pirate?"

The magic mirror also muttered something in a low voice. He seemed to be certain that Cheng Lang would become a pirate, or rather, he was certain that the captain of this ship must be a pirate.

(End of this chapter)