Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 31 Misfortune Under the Mask
While the goblins were busy, all the valuables and corpses were salvaged from the demon-hunting ship that sank to the bottom of the sea, and delayed-detonation gunpowder barrels were stuffed everywhere.

At dusk on the sea, a thick sea fog with a diameter of one nautical mile was moving slowly towards Pier 12 of the Zhuniao Islands.

In the center of the fog, the hulls of three ships and the sailors were busy repairing the hulls, completely ignoring the intensive explosions coming from the seabed behind them.

In the Valkyrie's conference room, Cheng Lang was listening to Magic Mirror's excited report.

"My respected and honorable Captain, our losses in this battle were very heavy, but our gains were also very great!"

Magic Mirror's voice trembled with excitement, "We salvaged a total of 44 20-coin cannons from the sunken ship, 24 of which were inlaid with half a piece of armor. These armor pieces gave the shells fired from these cannons the ability to explode.

In addition, we also seized two one-coin-caliber six-barreled rapid-fire cannons, each of which was inlaid with an armor plate and had the same ability as the flintlock rifle you used, which did not require reloading."

At this point, the Magic Mirror cleared his throat and introduced in an even more excited voice, "Now, here's the key point. We've found a total of 1202 gold coins, and silver and copper coins worth 15 gold coins each. Adding to the gold coins we found earlier, our fund reserves are now close to 1700 gold coins!"

After another pause, the Magic Mirror took a deep breath and continued, "In addition, we also found two boxes of 102 Elven Healing Potions, 12 cups of Poseidon's Blood, 4 armor pieces, and a half-iron rubber blood core in the shipwreck!
Three hypocritical masks, a piece of armor, and a treasure map were also found on the bodies of the demon-hunting ship's captain, first mate, and pilot.

“I just wanted to ask.”

Cheng Lang picked up the three hypocritical masks placed together on the table and asked, "Is there a lot of this?"

“There are indeed many”

The magic mirror explained, “Some armors, like me, the magic mirror of the all-knowing and all-powerful Saint Barbaya.

I am the only armor in existence. Before I am destroyed, it is impossible to create a second armor like me.

But some armors, such as the Hypocritical Mask, are like the Mirage Horn. As long as you collect enough raw materials and find an armor master with the relevant production drawings, you can create them.

However, the production of Hypocritical Masks has been banned in all Star Sea countries and Pirate City for 100 years. Anyone who dares to refine and use Hypocritical Masks will have their hands chopped off and then hanged once discovered.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Cheng Lang asked in a bad tone.

"As long as we are not discovered, it will be fine," the magic mirror said indifferently, obviously not taking the laws on land seriously.

"Let's talk about this lamp. Are you sure it's a piece of armor?" Cheng Lang asked, pointing to a lamp on the table.

This lamp has a simple mushroom-like shape and is not very big. If Cheng Lang were to name it based on his understanding, he would prefer to call it a desk lamp.

“It is indeed a piece of armor.”

The magic mirror said, "This should be the work of an unknown armor refiner. Although it is made very delicately, its function is very simple.

After this lamp is lit, people within the range of the light can have a good dream, and their sleep quality will not be affected by wind, rain, and waves. "

"This is the good thing that an armor refiner should develop." Cheng Lang decided to take it for himself without even thinking about it.

On this ocean, perhaps the only thing as important as eating fresh vegetables is a good night's sleep.

"Finally, this is the treasure map."

The magic mirror took the initiative to say in a flattering tone, "I really can't help you in this matter. I'm afraid you have to find a way to solve the mystery of the treasure map yourself."

After taking a look at the pattern on the treasure map, Cheng Lang immediately lost interest. The treasure map was drawn in a style similar to a simple sketch, showing a beach and a huge anchor half-buried in the beach.

It took Cheng Lang less than 10 seconds from opening the treasure map to giving up. He was really not good at solving the puzzles of this alien world. He couldn't even figure out the ideas behind the questions and the logic of the solutions.

Decisively rolling up the treasure map again, Cheng Lang called on Tengxiao beside him for help, took all the spoils on the table and walked towards the captain's bedroom downstairs.

After sending everything except the "desk lamp" into the stairwell leading to the ship's core, Cheng Lang didn't rush to leave. Instead, he picked and chose while curiously asking, "Magic Mirror, why is this demon-hunting ship more powerful than the one we sank before? And its firepower is more ferocious than any other ship we've encountered before."

"Your Excellency, Captain, I have consulted the logbook brought back by the vine goblins."

The magic mirror explained flatteringly, "This demon hunting ship is called the Harvest. It should be the logistics ship of the Boerlan Royal Demon Hunting Group Fleet.

Before those ships you and Tundao strangled secretly entered the Sea of ​​Despair through the Needle Current, the Harvest was responsible for supplying supplies, conducting reconnaissance along the way, and carrying out armed evacuations along the route. I suspect it also served as a backup.

All of these tasks require sufficient firepower to quickly resolve the battle."

"Does the log mention where the Dark Elves were captured?"

While asking, Cheng Lang began to pick and choose among the numerous spoils. Including his previous discoveries, he now had 12 cups of Poseidon's blood and six pieces of armor, which was a huge fortune.

But he had to give part of these things to the Flamingo Merchant Corps, otherwise the friendship they had worked so hard to build through exchanging ship armor would have no meaning.

"The logbook doesn't mention the exact time of capture, it simply mentions that they were gifts for the prince. We can't even be sure which prince these gifts were for."

"Are they awake?"

As Cheng Lang spoke, he had already selected the spoils from the stair compartment to share with Senfa.

This includes 300 gold coins, two armor plates and four 20-coin cannons inlaid with half an armor plate, as well as 50 elven healing potions and a precious iron oak blood core.

There used to be at least a hundred iron rubber blood cores in the Valkyrie's ventricle, but Cheng Lang was too quick to feed them all to the ship's heart. So when he saw this half iron rubber blood core, he still felt heartbroken.

But now, the Valkyrie is still in a state of indigestion. Instead of keeping this iron-rubber blood core, it is better to give it away as a favor.

At least he was sure that both the Crucible and the Flamingo needed the Iron Oak Blood Core.

Although they captured the demon-hunting ship together, Cheng Lang was generous enough to share so much.

After all, the Flamingo had obtained a prisoner ship before. Even though Senfa kept saying that Cheng Lang had invested, it was ultimately just a verbal agreement.

Just as the captain was painfully choosing a gift, the surviving goblins replaced the Valkyrie's original cannons with 20 salvaged 20-coin cannons inlaid with half an armor plate.

Not only that, even the two captured one-coin-caliber six-barreled rapid-fire cannons were fixed on the deck of the open-air bridge at the stern.

After all this busy work, the Valkyrie, which had suffered heavy losses, was finally able to upgrade its weapons.

As for the replaced cannons of this ship and the 20-coin cannons without armor plates, they will also become spoils distributed to the Flamingo.

After carefully picking and choosing the battle bonuses that had been distributed, Cheng Lang finally found time to visit the two surviving dark elves that the vine goblins had rescued.

At this time, the two of them were resting in a room on the side of the conference room.
This was originally Gerta's room, but now there were two black elves, one big and one small, lying on the bed in this room.

The bigger one was a burly man about 1.9 meters tall, almost as big as the large-sized Vine Goblin.

His body was big and strong, but there were many large and small festering wounds all over his body.

Some of these wounds looked like whip marks, some looked like burns from a branding iron, and some seemed to be caused by knife cuts or even piercing the body. Without exception, all of the wounds looked like they were caused by deliberate torture.

At this time, he was using the elven healing potion given to him by Yafuso to treat his wounds to the best of his ability.

Sitting next to this big guy was a tall girl about 1.7 meters tall.

She was wearing a thick or rather bulky silver armor, and above her neck was an armored helmet with a raised visor.

But around the helmet, there were seven or eight iron chains as thick as fingers locked together with the armor, with only some of the matted black hair showing through the gaps.

"Captain, can you find a way to open this armor?" Yafuso asked Cheng Lang pitifully.

Cheng Lang didn't answer the question. Instead, he sat on the double sofa in the small room and started asking questions, "What are your two names?"

"Yun Ji"

The tall dark elf, who seemed to be forced to wear armor, said in a hoarse voice, "Next to me is my younger brother, Shenba."

"Yun Ji? Shen Ba?"

Cheng Lang couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, "Are Yun and Shen your surnames?" Upon hearing this, the black elf who called herself Yun Ji looked at Cheng Lang strangely.

"Yun and Shen are the only two surnames in the Elf Principality."

It was Yafuso who answered this question, "All women use the surname Yun, and all men use the surname Shen."

"What about you? Why are you an exception?" Cheng Lang, who was distracted just now, asked subconsciously.

"My name was given by Grandpa Gerta. I have never lived in the Elf Kingdom, and no one has ever given me an Elf name."

After explaining, Yafuso asked, "Captain, can you help her take off this armor?"

Coming back to his senses, Cheng Lang suppressed his doubts and stood up to help Yun Ji check the helmet on her neck. There was indeed a keyhole the size of a peanut on the back of the helmet.

Not only the helmet, but also the back of her armor, and even the armor on her arms and thighs, also have a similar keyhole.

"Why did they put this armor on you?" Cheng Lang asked curiously.

"They're worried that I'll run away," Yun Ji answered truthfully, "and they're also worried that I'll kill them."

"Will you kill me?" Cheng Lang stopped his inspection work and asked.

"will not"

Yun Ji was quite rational, "Although you are a blonde, you saved me and saved Ya."

She didn't finish her words but her eyes widened. Not only her and her brother Shenba, but even Yafusuo looked incredulous.

Because at this time, Cheng Lang had already taken off the hypocritical mask on his face, revealing his original face and black hair.

"You are also a dark elf?!" The three people in the room exclaimed in unison.

"What do you think?"

Cheng Lang handed the power of judgment to the three people present. He also wanted to know whether he was a "black-haired human" or a "black elf."

"I can't tell," Yafuso said first.

"Can you hear the whispers of the elves and the dead?" Yun Ji was the first to calm down and asked.

"Yes!"

A look of surprise appeared on Yafuso's little face. She immediately pulled out the black elf dagger from her waist, touched it with her fingertips, and dripped a drop of blood on it.

At that moment, Cheng Lang did once again vaguely hear someone whispering in his ear, but he couldn't hear what was said at all.

After telling him his feelings truthfully, Yun Ji shook her head. "You must be related to the dark elves, but I've never encountered such a thing, so I can't judge. Also, can I touch that undead dagger?"

"Wait until I find a way to help you take off this armor."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he put the hypocritical mask back on his face, restored his disguised appearance, turned around and walked out of the room, and walked into the lower cabin where a large number of corpses were piled up.

In order to prevent the bodies from floating to the Zhuniao Islands and causing panic and attention, these bodies, which had all valuables removed, had to be taken away.

Because of this, he easily found several sets of keys from the captain's body which was placed alone.

Trying these keys one by one, soon, with a light "click", the iron helmet on Yun Ji's head opened in the middle and split into two halves, revealing her dirty cheeks and tangled black hair.

He continued to use the key to open the lock on the back of the armor. With the second sound, the heavy breastplate was separated into two parts, front and back, and fell to the ground with a clang, revealing the slim leather armor worn by Yun Ji inside the armor.

He used the key to open the locked arm and leg armor one by one, and an unignorable stench filled the room.

"Take her to take a shower and change clothes," Cheng Lang kindly reminded, "Also, remember to cover the mirror."

"Thank you"

Yun Ji responded with a hoarse voice, and with the help of Yafuso, she left the room and walked to the room on the other side of the conference room.

Throwing the keys in his hand onto the table, Cheng Lang asked Shenba, "How were you caught?"

“My sister and I were deceived.”

Shenba explained, "Three months ago, someone on Shipbreaking Island near Pirate City spread the news that they had found a treasure map with a hypocritical mask drawn on it, and they were looking for help to find the treasure."

At this point, Shenba clenched his fists and said in a tearful voice, "When we arrived there, almost all the sailors who applied had black hair. The captain of the adventure ship also had black hair. He asked all the black-haired people to board the ship, and he also said that he hoped that all the poor black-haired people could get a hypocritical mask.

But soon after we left the pirate city, we were targeted by the demon-hunting ship. It was the black-haired captain who betrayed us. He had a hypocritical mask on his face.

Everyone on board was captured, but my sister and I were the only dark elves left. The Boeran demons took us both aboard the witcher ship and killed the rest of the dark-haired sailors on the adventure ship.

"They want to use you to make black elf poison?" Cheng Lang asked with a frown.

"I am the only one who will be transformed into the black elf poison."

Shenba choked up and said, "They said my sister would be a gift to the prince, so they just put her in that restricted armor.

But from the day I was arrested until I was rescued by you, they tortured me all the time."

"How old are you?" Cheng Lang asked helplessly. He didn't expect that this big guy was a crybaby.

"17 years old" Shenba reported an age that Cheng Lang never expected.

"You're only 17?!"

Cheng Lang couldn't help but look at the other person again. He didn't look like he was only 17 years old at all.

"I'm really 17 years old," Shenba said, "but in another month, I'll be 18."

"How old is your sister?" Cheng Lang asked.

"19 years old"

Shenba replied, "She is one year and two months older than me. Her 19th birthday was the day before we boarded the ship."

"So you were living in Pirate City before you were caught?" Cheng Lang asked a new question with a more patient attitude.

“I’ve lived in Pirate City for as long as I can remember.”

Shenba, the crybaby, wiped away his tears. "Our parents ran a hotel, but five years ago, our father was hanged for illegally refining a hypocritical mask, and our mother died of illness two years ago."

"So you are very familiar with Pirate City?" Cheng Lang said, taking out all the healing potions he carried with him from his pocket and handing them to the other party.

"Thank you"

Shenba took the glass tubes, sniffed, and replied, "At least I'm familiar with the main city. My sister and I grew up in the main city."

"Take a shower and have a good rest later."

Cheng Lang stood up as he spoke, "I'll go find you some clothes to change into and get you something to eat."

"Thank you"

Shenba muttered something as he looked at Cheng Lang's back, then couldn't help but look at the suit of armor scattered on the floor. He never thought that he and his sister would have a chance to survive.

(End of this chapter)