Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 56 The Stowaway Who Will Be Pickled Alive

Driven by the free ocean current, the Valkyrie and the Honest, still hidden in the sea fog that moved with the ship, rushed day and night towards the Sea of ​​Despair.

On the Valkyrie, there was no sailor at the helm next to the locked steering wheel, but on the mast and deck, there were many vine goblins still diligently guarding their posts.

Likewise, in the Honest Man's interior bridge, although the steering wheel was also locked, there were still small-time sailors on duty, both in the masthead tower and on the deck, keeping watch. In the captain's cabin, the pirate brothers were each lying in their beds, snoring loudly.

They shouldn't have let their guard down like that, but the captain, no, the captain of this fleet of only two ships, Cheng Lang, let them rest assured.

As for the people on guard, besides the Vine Goblin and the small sailors, there is also the Magic Mirror who has always been unwilling to communicate or contact anyone except Cheng Lang.

With the help of mirrors hung on the masthead and on the hulls of the two ships, he can monitor every change at any time and anywhere.

But even so, the accident happened in the second half of the night.

In the silent night, bursts of shrill screams pierced through the fog.

When these shrill sounds like nails scraping against glass reached their ears, those small-time sailors and those vine goblins and gorillas seemed to be possessed. They stopped their work, walked to the open deck with dull eyes, and then formed pairs and danced hand in hand!

After waiting for a while, all the drunken crew members, including Cheng Lang, walked out of their cabins one after another with their eyes closed, walked onto the open deck with dull eyes, and then started dancing in pairs!

For a moment, on the bustling deck, pairs of gorillas and pairs of sailors in pajamas started dancing and jumping.

As the screams got closer and clearer, Gerta and Shenba, who were paired together by chance, hugged each other tighter and tighter.

Because of Shenba's huge physique and tremendous strength, Gerta was almost unable to breathe!
What was even more terrible was that Yun Ji, who was hugging Yafuso, was holding the black elf dagger that was always tucked into the leather holster on her wrist!
Looking at the lone captain Cheng Lang, he also had the whip wrapped around his neck, and his entire face was almost suffocated.

The situation on the Honest Man not far away was equally grim. The pirate brothers had already hugged each other tightly and kissed each other, and the small fry had rolled into a ball. Some raised their heads and bent over, some wrapped the sails around the necks of their "dance partners", and some even opened their mouths and bit each other's necks.

Amid the sound of splashing waves, beautiful sirens, whose height, no, body length was only about 1.34 meters, with human bodies and fish tails, jumped out of the sea.

There are silk threads of different colors on the tails of these sirens.

Thanks to the "Siren Atlas" he bought in the Pirate City, if Cheng Lang, who was about to strangle himself to death, was still conscious and opened his eyes, he would probably be able to recognize it instantly.

These beautiful sirens are not mermaids, but merfolk, who are far more terrifying than mermaids.

The only difference between them and mermaids is the harp-like fish tail and the beautiful snail shell growing on their heads like hats.

Of course, there is also the relatively petite body and the sharp and long nails on the hands.

Although they often pretend to be mermaids, they are far more terrifying than mermaids who have no fighting ability. Their singing and the music played with the tail of the harp can create an illusion that is enough to make sailors and sirens lose their minds.

If they are given enough time, they can even make the sailors who are obsessed with illusions kill themselves!
But correspondingly, they are also fragile. Blocking your ears can greatly reduce the possibility of being deceived by them. At that time, even the weakest sailor can kill them with only a rusty dagger.

But at this moment, there were only seven merfolk on the two boats combined, but the merfolk had an absolute advantage!

“We now have two boats.”

The leading Qintail Fishman spoke in a pleasant voice, but that voice was inevitably filled with fatigue.

"Go find something to eat and drink"

Another fishman said weakly, while continuing to pluck the colorful strings on the fish tail with her long and sharp nails.

Before he finished speaking, the other few merfolk had already twisted their fins and driven a small group of waves into the cabin.

Soon some of the remains of dinner were brought onto the deck, along with an oak barrel filled with wine and another filled with water.

"The other boat only had salted meat, bread and fresh water, but this boat had plenty of food."

The merfolk who brought back the food said happily, she and her companion each held a piece of leftover steak in their hands.

"Tinisha, are we going to capture this ship?"

A lyretail fishman asked, "If we can seize this boat full of food, we can reach the Sea of ​​Despair."

“We are too short-staffed”

The merman called Tinissa took a piece of meat steak and a large glass of fruit wine, and said as she wolfed down the food, "We don't even have enough manpower and strength to pull the sails."

"What should we do then?" asked the fishman who brought back the food.

“Fill your stomach first”

Tinissa said, "Then we hide in the cabin and wait until nightfall to regain control of them."

"No, this is too risky!" said the merman who first suggested occupying the Valkyrie. "We should kill them!"

"This current can only take us to the edge of the sea of ​​despair"

Tinisa said, "There is still a long way to go. It is impossible for us to swim to our destination alive by ourselves. And don't forget, there are enemies behind us."

Seeing her companions around her in confusion, Tinisa urged, "Hurry up and fill your stomach, then we'll go hide in the cabin!
Also, don't hurt those sailors. We chose to go to the Sea of ​​Despair to avoid being killed. Let them return to their cabins."

Upon hearing this, the other fishmen who plucked the fishtail strings looked at each other. One of them, who was responsible for plucking the fishtail strings, nodded, took the cold steak handed to her by her companion, and took a big bite. At the same time, the tune she played by plucking the strings of the fishtail harp became much more soothing.

Under the control of the piano music, Cheng Lang and others, who had not even opened their eyes, were like puppets, either letting themselves or their "dance partners" go. Then they lined up and walked into the stern deck, returned to their respective cabins, and then fell asleep to the soothing piano music.

Even the gorillas were easily coaxed to sleep and lay down on the ground.

The same was true for the Honest Man. No matter the pirate brothers who were kissing each other or those small sailors, they were all lulled into sleep by the soothing music played by the mermen in turn - a beautiful dream that made them forget the nightmare they had just had.

Of course, there are always exceptions, just like the sentry magic mirror couldn't hear the screams and piano sounds of the harp-tailed fishmen.

These wandering fishmen, whose stomachs were filled with leftovers, had no idea that when they drove the waves that served as "mounts" into the cabin and hid in the oak barrels that were large enough for them to hide and replenish their strength, everything was recorded by the mirrors that were everywhere.

After the incident that almost cost everyone's life, the Valkyrie and the Honest Man were still wrapped in the fog that moved with the ship, and continued to sail towards the Sea of ​​Despair on the free ocean current.

In the sea not far from the two ships, a group of sirens holding scimitars were riding small sea monsters shaped like seahorses and speeding across the water.

However, when they arrived at the area of ​​free ocean current, they mysteriously lost the scent of their target.

"Where are all those running harps?!"

The leading siren, a man with shark fins on his back, asked while flaring his huge gills, "Why can't I smell them?"

"They must have gone with the current!" his men exclaimed immediately. "The current must have carried away their scent!"

"Chase!"

The siren immediately waved and bent down to issue an order, and the siren team immediately changed direction and caught up with them on the ocean current.

Before daybreak, the Sirens finally saw the Valkyrie and the Honest Man drifting in front of them!

"Captain, respected, honorable captain, wake up!"

In the captain's bedroom, the magic mirror, which had been waiting all night, discovered the group of sirens outside the fog and finally found a reasonable time to wake up the captain.

"What happened?"

Cheng Lang, who was awakened from a sweet dream, got up and asked, and then he felt particularly uncomfortable in his neck.

"Sirens! A group of sirens appeared behind us!" said the magic mirror, and the scene behind them appeared on the mirror.

"Why is there a siren here?!"

As Cheng Lang spoke, he strode out of the captain's room and rang the alarm bell hanging on the side of the indoor bridge as quickly as possible.

At the sound of the alarm bell, the other sailors also woke up one after another and climbed up. The small sailors lying on the ground on the Honest Man in front of them and the pirate brothers in the cabin also woke up one after another and saw the signal sent by the mirror in the captain's room.

"Did I fall under the bed last night?"

Gerta muttered as he walked out of his cabin, "I feel like every bone in my body is going to fall apart."

"Now is not the time to talk about this, prepare for battle!"

Cheng Lang issued the order, and at the same time noticed that everything that happened on the ship last night and the merfolk who had hidden in the oak barrels in the lower cabin flashed quickly in the mirror next to the control panel.

Nodding towards the mirror, Cheng Lang called out, "Wukong!"

"Oh!"

Wukong, who was just stretching, immediately responded and ran over. He also had a good sleep last night and had a dream, which was a magical experience for Fujiman.

"The person who notified you should cover his ears," Cheng Lang whispered in the other person's ear.

"Oh"

Wukong also responded in a low voice, then ran into the cabin, first found some tattered canvas and tore it open, then whispered the captain's orders to everyone one by one, and personally supervised his men to plug their ears with the tattered canvas.

At the same time, the rest of the sailors also prepared for battle.

Under Cheng Lang's control, the Valkyrie first hid its hull, and then, with the help of the hull, sank underwater at the fastest speed. At the same time, the Honest Man also spread its sails, using the wind to offset the force of the ocean current.

In the light signal communication controlled by the magic mirror, the two boats, one above the water and the other hidden under the water, are in a sense "stacked together".

They had just adjusted their battle positions when the sirens rushed into the range of the artillery.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!"

Kervik, who was also staring at the mirror, shouted and issued orders. With the help of the power granted by the heart of the ship, the cannons on the ship fired at the maximum range, covering the more than one hundred sirens rushing up with dense artillery fire.

However, apart from the damage caused to the unprepared Sirens by the first round of bombardment, as they began to spread out and look for blind spots in the sky, the Honest Man's artillery also lost its deterrent effect.

But he did not move the ship in response to the light signal command in the mirror. Instead, he asked his brother to lead the sailors to prepare for boarding and light up the various ship lights around the ship.

On the underwater Valkyrie, Cheng Lang had already squeezed out of the boat again and swung the whip, trying to release the poison in the whip - he wanted to replicate the scene of his last battle with the sirens.

Now all the conditions are the same as last time, the people and the boat are underwater, and the enemies are basically sirens. He doesn't believe that he still can't use that trick.

As he swung hard, the long black whip whipped out a series of bubbles in the dark water, and the circle of ship lights around the Honest Man above his head reflected various psychedelic colors.

However, as the sirens waving scimitars and riding seahorses got closer and closer, the whip in his hand seemed to have gone on strike and had no reaction at all.

Could it be that it’s broken?

Cheng Lang's mind raced as he manipulated the heart of the ship, causing the repaired hull to release the ink sac that the sea monster Panini had helped install on the hull.

Suddenly, a large amount of ink gushed out from all parts of the ship's hull, and in the blink of an eye, the sea water around the two ships was dyed pitch black.

The ink not only easily wrapped around the Valkyrie, but also wrapped around the bottom of the Honest Man. It also swallowed up Cheng Lang, who was still waving his whip and floating between the two ships above and below the water, as well as the sirens rushing over from the surrounding area.

Similarly, this ink can easily take away the sight of anyone within the ink, or the sirens or even the magic mirror.

"I shouldn't have needed it if I had known!"

As Cheng Lang spoke, he waved the whip even harder, fearing that a mermaid riding a seahorse would suddenly rush up and stab him.

However, he did not notice that at the moment when the ink dyed the surrounding sea water black, the whip in his hand quickly turned from pitch black to snow-white, and the black mold spots all over the Valkyrie also disappeared.

What's even more bizarre is that this ink, which has already carried a deadly toxin, does not seem to be affected by the ocean currents. It neither dissipates nor fades.

On the deck of the Honest Man, Belvik had bound his eyes with the cloth given to him by the heart of the ship. He held a scimitar and a flintlock in his hands respectively, and he led the small sailors around him who had forgotten their fear to wait vigilantly for the siren debris to emerge from the sea and jump onto the deck.

However, as time went by, although the morning sun had not yet jumped out of the sea level, it had already dyed the skyline red, but the enemy still did not jump out of the water!

At this time, Cheng Lang, who was still waving the whip, also noticed something was wrong. He felt tired, exactly the same tiredness as last time.

However, everything around him was pitch black mixed with ink. Even if he brought the whip closer, he could not see the color of the whip at all.

In desperation, he could only try to manipulate the whip to extract the toxin that might have been released.

Suddenly, as his body gradually regained a little strength, he was able to confirm that he had indeed successfully released the deadly toxin in the whip into the sea water.

Pulling the rope tied around his waist, he squeezed back into the boat. Cheng Lang, with limp hands and feet, slumped down on the watchtower at the top of the mast. He waved at the mirror hanging next to him and said weakly, "Tell the honest people to move aside."

"I'm already sending the signal, respected captain." The magic mirror said flatteringly, and the Honest Man above its head began to move slowly.

"Has the mildew on the boat just now disappeared?" Cheng Lang asked while leaning against the mast.

"It disappeared, all the mold spots disappeared, but they just grew back again." The magic mirror said sadly.

Hearing this, Cheng Lang breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up and then maneuvered the ship's center to retract the hull, allowing the Valkyrie to float. At the same time, the surrounding black ink was automatically absorbed by the ink sac attached to the hull, saving it for future use.

Almost at the same time as the Valkyrie emerged from the sea, an orange-red head also emerged from the distant junction of sea and sky.

With the dim morning light, everyone noticed that there were seahorse-like sea monsters floating on the surrounding sea. The strange thing was that these seahorses had skeletons on their backs that were slowly disintegrating into parts as the waves hit them.

"what is that?"

"Seahorse"

The magic mirror explained, "Or rather, they are the cousins ​​of seahorses. They are indeed a type of seahorse, but as you can see, they are not as petite as seahorses, so these large seahorses are considered sea monsters."

"Sea monsters? Their fighting power?"

"No, no, no, they don't have much combat power except for their great endurance and their speed in the sea."

The magic mirror explained, "They are a type of sea monster that was domesticated and bred. They are very docile, just like horses on land."

At this point, the magic mirror flatteringly suggested, "Dear Captain, these sea horses are not only used as riding tools by the sirens, but can also be used to pull boats."

"Towing a boat? You mean?"

"That's right!"

The Magic Mirror said flatteringly, "They can pull the Valkyrie forward! This will increase our speed a lot."

"What do they eat?" Cheng Lang asked a key question.

"Seaweed, and fresh water."

"that's it?"

"That's all," the magic mirror replied. "It won't matter if there's no fresh water. Fresh water is more like seasoning to them."

“Strange sea creatures”

Cheng Lang muttered to himself, and at the same time, he was wondering whether he should also take a look at the part about sea monsters in that eye-catching Siren Picture Book.

At the same time, he was also thinking about another more crucial problem alone. The toxin just released in the sea water easily dissolved the sirens, but did not cause any harm to the sea horses.

Is this because these sea horses are more resistant to toxins, or is it that the toxin in the whip only affects the sirens after being released into the sea?
This is bound to be a question that requires repeated attempts to get an accurate answer. As for now...
As the morning sun jumped out of the sea level, the first thing to do was to collect those sea horses for one's own use as soon as possible. The second thing was to deal with those dangerous stowaways in the cabin.

"What's with those fiddle-tail fishmen?"

When Cheng Lang asked this question, he couldn't help but touch his neck. He had no memory of what happened last night, but the bruises on his neck and the discomfort in his throat were real.

"I am a mirror"

The magic mirror said guiltily, "I can't hear anyone else's voice except yours. That's why I didn't want to interact with the other sailors, and why I didn't notice anything unusual. Last night, when those gorillas started dancing, I couldn't wake you up."

"The siren encyclopedia I bought said that if you plug your ears you can increase your resistance to them?" Cheng Lang asked.

"That's right"

The magic mirror quickly said, "But there is a better way."

"What's the solution?" Cheng Lang said as he reached out and pulled out a piece of rag from Xin Weng's nest not far away, tearing it open and preparing to plug his ears.

"Get them drunk!"

The magic mirror grinned and said, "As long as we pour some strong liquor into the oak barrels where they are hiding, we can make them drunk. Then we just need to cut off their nails and let all the crew members and sailors eat them."

"Eat their nails?" Cheng Lang looked at the magic mirror strangely. This was too disgusting.

"Yes, eat their nails"

The magic mirror explained, "The merfolk appear in bands. If you eat the fingernail of any merfolk, it will get stuck in the swallower's throat for seven days. During these seven days, the swallower will become mute."

But from the moment the nail was swallowed, the merfolk of the band could no longer use their singing and piano music to bewitch the consciousness of the swallower.

After seven days, not only will the swallower regain the ability to speak, but the singing and piano playing of the merman band will also change from harsh screams to beautiful music.

And before all the merfolk in the band die, whoever swallows the nail will gain a beautiful singing voice."

"Really?" Cheng Lang asked suspiciously. Eating other people's nails was a bit disgusting after all.

"of course it's true"

The magic mirror replied, "Saint Barbaya has a band of lyre-tailed merfolk who sing and play for her every day. She has also learned many love songs from them.

Dear Captain, instead of killing those beautiful merfolk, it would be better to keep them on board. If they are willing to stay on board, we won't have to worry about being attacked by sea monsters in the future."

"makes sense"

Cheng Lang rolled his eyes, plugged his ears with the rag he had just pulled out of the bird's nest, then climbed down the mast and took Wukong and his men into the lower cabin which was full of cargo.

Of course they had strong liquor. Cheng Lang specially kept several large barrels of it as cooking wine. He just didn't expect that he would have the chance to pickle the Qinwei fishman alive.

(End of this chapter)