Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 196 Fiery Scorpion

At the edge of Gat Canyon, the moose-drawn cart we bought was getting closer and closer to the edge of the canyon, but it showed no sign of stopping.

To make the moose pulling the cart run faster, Gerta even pulled out a dagger and stabbed each of them in the rump.

Amidst the particularly dirty howls and screams of the two moose pulling the cart, the cart sped faster and faster due to violent jolting, eventually plunging headlong into the canyon as the two moose ran in panic.

This suicidal scene clearly caught the many pursuers off guard, causing them to instinctively speed up.

As these people closed the distance to the canyon, they didn't pay attention to the few beer barrels that had been scattered along the way by the bumpy ride.

Of course, from their current angle, they couldn't see Cheng Lang and the others who had spread their wings and were hovering close to the rock wall, let alone see that they were all looking up at the edge of the cliff.

Almost as soon as the oil lamp in the pursuers' hands appeared at the edge of the cliff, Cheng Lang and Yun Lan exerted their strength at the same time, either using invisible whips to tightly restrain the scattered oak barrels, or summoning long thorns to pierce through the oak barrels.

With the two working together fairly well, the oak barrels filled with gunpowder exploded one after another.

In the violent explosion, not only were the pursuers who had run to the edge of the canyon affected, but the ice walls of the canyon also began to collapse on a large scale.

Meanwhile, Cheng Lang and the others had already manipulated their wings to glide towards the other side of the canyon.

"We've finally taken care of the tail behind us!"

Yavso shouted inwardly with a sense of elation. In addition to the mining gunpowder that Gerta had purchased earlier, the oak barrel that had just exploded also contained some spores that she had provided. She was confident that those fly-like bastards would definitely turn into dried mushrooms even if they weren't buried.

"Should we slow down now and find a place to rest?"

Shenba was also filled with anticipation, muttering to himself. He had heard from Gerta that the pelts of the Getter Wolves were even warmer than bear pelts. If he could bring some back to Pirate City as a gift...
Before he could even finish his dream and save it, Yun Ji suddenly glided past everyone and pointed to the ground beneath her feet.

Following her reminder, everyone looked down and then discovered that something seemed to be moving rapidly with them in the white canyon covered with ice and snow.

"What the hell is that?!" This question popped into everyone's mind, and they subconsciously looked at it intently.

It was a scorpion-like monster, but it was much larger than a digging beetle.

The most terrifying thing is that the scorpion's tail is not a poisonous stinger, but rather the head of a venomous snake.

Its two large pincers look as if they were borrowed from a praying mantis!
"Whoosh!"

Just then, this scorpion-like, half-mechanical, half-biological monster suddenly fired a series of huge steel arrows at the group!
"Watch out for its back!"

Yun Lan, who was being pulled along by Yun Ji, shouted a warning, "That's a war machine that the dwarves built to fight against Poseidon! The arrow holes on its back will be poisoned by the snake on its tail!"

"What kind of machine is that!" Gerta, being dragged along by Shenba, shouted out the question that everyone was curious about.

"Despair! Its name is despair!"

Yun Lan responded loudly and with extreme tension, "Each time such a war machine is built, it consumes the souls of five dwarves; those are the dwarves' last hands."

Before Yun Lan could finish her explanation, even more steel arrows rained down on them as if they were inexhaustible.

"Land! Land quickly!"

At this moment, Cheng Lang spat out the pendant he was holding in his mouth and let his body begin to fall freely.

Just before the war machine named Despair aimed its launch port at him, he re-grabbed the pendant and began to glide sideways using his wings, narrowly dodging the incoming arrow. Incidentally, he also used an invisible whip to strangle the venomous snake on Despair's tail.

Under his cover, the siblings Yun Ji, who were carrying Yun Lan and Gerta, were the first to fold their wings and land quickly. Before landing, Yafso desperately threw a bottle of spores at the giant scorpion with his hand, which was glowing with a strong green light.

Before Yafso could even land, the invisible whip that Cheng Lang had used to restrain the venomous snake was easily broken by the monster. Fortunately, he wasn't very high off the ground, so he simply folded his wings and landed, letting Yun Lan catch him with the rapidly growing, woven mat of thorns.

"Listen to me! You must listen to what I have to say next!"

Yun Lan shouted anxiously, "He's incredibly fast, but whatever you do, don't let him create distance! His poison arrows are terrifying from a distance!"

As soon as the first warning came out of Yun Lan's mouth, everyone immediately sped up and ran towards the terrifying monster.

"Don't get too close! His scythe is far sharper than Shenba's! And it can harm the soul just as well!"

When this warning appeared, Shenba, who was charging at the front, was the first to stop and reacted extremely quickly, using his precious scythe to block the monster's sudden slash.

"What else?!" Yun Ji asked loudly.

"Attacking the snake's head on the tail is pointless! But entering the Desperate hatch is right within the snake's head's optimal attack range!"

Yun Lan shouted a reminder, "And another thing! It can also burrow underground! And it's incredibly fast!"

"Who the hell designed this?!" Gerta shouted as she ran after them.

"Valkyrie!" Yun Lan responded loudly.

“I take back what I just said!” Gerta quickly said. “I’m the real jerk!”

"How should we deal with him?!"

After Cheng Lang tried once again to bind the opponent's mantis knife with an invisible whip, but was easily freed, he shouted and asked.

"good question!"

Yun Lan answered loudly, "If I knew what to do, I would have led Lika to conquer the Frost Duchy long ago!"

"What do you mean by that?!" Yun Ji asked, not forgetting to ask.

"Because this thing only appears in the Dwarf Mountains!"

Yun Lan shouted in response, "Can't we figure out a way to solve it before satisfying our curiosity!"

When Yun Lan's suggestion reached everyone's ears, an unavoidable question arose: how exactly should they deal with this monster?

At this point, their only consolation was that the pursuers behind them had been mostly dealt with, so they probably still had some time to put up a stalemate and think of a solution.

Of course, they were unaware that at that moment, on the icy plains outside the canyon, some masked men were efficiently killing the tails that had been following them.

"Shouldn't we go check out the canyon?"

A woman hiding in a cloak asked as she shook the blood off her scimitar.

"Need not"

The other woman beside her said with relief after killing the last of her former companions, "They cannot overcome despair, not even with the blessing of the sacred tree and the heart of the ship."

“What if something unexpected happens?” the other person asked.

“That was done by the dwarves, what does it have to do with us?” the woman replied. “Besides, how could there possibly be any accidents?”

"We can't stay here any longer!"

Inside the canyon, after another failed attempt to bind the desperate mantis blade, Cheng Lang suddenly had an inspiration. "Yun Lan! Do you still have any lubricating oil?" "There's plenty!" Yun Lan replied loudly.

"Throw it over here!"

Before Cheng Lang could finish speaking, Yun Lan had already taken out the boat-shaped bottle, unscrewed it, and threw it over forcefully.

At the same time, Cheng Lang also produced a jet-black whip, which he used to wrap around the boat bottle that was still in mid-air and flicked it hard, splashing a large amount of fish oil onto the giant scorpion.

Without any warning, the scorpion's body was already covered with a large number of thorns!
Without needing any prompting, Yun Ji, Gerta, Yafusuo, and the belatedly aware Shenba all forcefully swung the oil lamps from their waists upwards.

"Snapped!"

Under the lash of the invisible whip, the oil lamps shattered one after another, easily igniting the thorns that had grown from them, which then ignited the oil-soaked thorns on the large scorpion.

In just a moment, the scorpion became a rapidly moving campfire.

Even as he attempted to burrow underground, Yun Lan desperately caused the frozen soil he was digging to sprout a large number of thorns, while Cheng Lang, hanging in the distance, whipped his whip, adding fuel to the fire.

"Captain! I'm here to help you!"

As Yafso spoke, she placed her small, glowing green hands on Yun Lan's shoulders.

With the support of this vigorous life force, the thorns summoned by Yun Lan almost instantly enveloped the giant scorpion.

Amidst the blowing cold wind and the pouring of fish oil, a cover was finally lifted next to the scorpion's firing port on its back, and then an elf-like figure jumped out anxiously.

Before he even hit the ground, an invisible whip was strangled around his neck.

"Let me go! Let me go!" the man pleaded desperately as the flames scorched him.

"Who sent you?"

As Cheng Lang asked the question, he also moved the whip rope, making the other party move closer to the center of the "campfire".

Instantly, under the intense heat, the prisoner's silver hair began to singe and curl. But Cheng Lang knew that the prisoner certainly didn't care about that.

"Panini! I am Lord Panini!"

“I’d bet Panini’s soul that he wouldn’t send a dwarf like you.”

As Shenba spoke, he swung his scythe with force, precisely slicing off the other man's calf—sure enough, his wound didn't bleed at all, but instead sent various metal parts flying.

"Your chances are numbered. Next up is your second child."

Before Cheng Lang could finish speaking, Yun Lan, the spoiled, expired princess, also caused a sharp, thick thorn to grow in the "bonfire" and be lit.

"The wandering circus! I am a member of the wandering circus!" the dwarf exclaimed.

"Have the wandering circus joined you dwarves too?" Yun Lan asked.

"No! No! They don't know I'm a dwarf!" the dwarf prisoner cried out as he drew ever closer to the fiery thorn.

"Tell me your purpose," Cheng Lang asked.

"I was ordered to capture you alive! I'm telling the truth."

"puff!"

"Sorry, my hand slipped."

As Cheng Lang sincerely expressed his apology, he also looked back in the direction he had come from.

"Looks like they really are friends from a traveling circus."

As he spoke, Cheng Lang waved in the direction he had come from. He could vaguely see two people wrapped in cloaks hiding at the edge of the canyon.

However, after he waved back, the two men simply turned and left.

"It seems they're not planning to take this big bug with them."

Cheng Lang turned back to look at the war machine named Despair, still engulfed in flames. While using his whip to remove the burning thorns, he shouted anxiously, "Put out the fire quickly! Don't burn my giant scorpion!"

"I knew it"

With her back to Cheng Lang, Yun Lan silently mouthed something to Yun Ji and the others, then manipulated the thorns to knock away the burning thorns.

After some effort, the flames on the giant scorpion were finally extinguished, but Yun Lan stopped everyone else.

"Who knows if there are traps inside? We'd better be cautious."

As she spoke, Yun Lan drew her rapier and gently tapped the scabbard. "Xiao Bao, go inside and take a look!"

The spirit Xiao Bao performed a proper chest-touching salute, then floated to the open hatch.

However, he seemed to be blocked by something and couldn't get in at all. Even so, the undead Xiaobao still drew his bow and aimed at the inside of the hatch.

His action immediately alerted Cheng Lang and the others, who then retreated to create distance.

After a brief standoff, Yun Ji suddenly ran up—and it really was a run—as if walking on flat ground, she ran to the scorpion's tail and stood head down on the frozen snake's head.

"It's a ghost."

Yun Ji said loudly, "It's probably because of the silver urn that Xiao Bao can't get in, and the spirits inside can't get out."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Lang swung his whip, ensnaring the snake's head that the other was standing on, and swung up. Standing at the hatch of this war machine, Cheng Lang also spotted the undead that Xiao Bao was pointing an arrow at.

However, these are the spirits of the dead.
Cheng Lang couldn't help but exchange a glance with Yun Ji, who had already run to his side. This spirit was not from a human, a humanoid, or even a sea monster. Instead, it was just the spirit of a bird, a very small bird, and it was kept in a cage that seemed to be made of silver. Even the cage was smaller than an oil lamp.

"What is this?" Cheng Lang asked.

"I do not know"

Yun Ji shook her head. "Princess Yun Lan might know. Also, that birdcage has the royal crest of the Lika royal family on it."

Before she finished speaking, Yun Lan had already lifted her skirt with both hands and walked up the thorny steps one by one.

"Do you recognize this?" Cheng Lang asked, pointing to the birdcage hanging inside the cabin door.

However, before Yun Lan could speak, the ghost bird in the cage spoke first!

"Greetings, Your Highness Princess Bakla."

The little ghost bird, smaller than a sparrow, greeted us with a clear and melodious voice, and even spread one wing and placed it on its chest, performing a proper chest-touching salute!

(End of this chapter)