Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 64 Chimera
At the center of the fog, inside the false heart chamber at the front of the Valkyrie's cargo hold, shipwright Wilton scooped up a handful of heart blood, brought it to his lips, and drank a sip. Then, frowning, he said, "The ship is in very poor condition."

"It's very difficult?" Cheng Lang asked with a raised eyebrow, "Is it impossible to transplant the fins of the dragonfly?"

"The smell of the ship's blood tells me that this is just an ordinary ship."

As Wilton spoke, he took out a bottle from his pocket and filled it with the blood of the ship. "The best she can do is transplant a pair of dragonfly fins."

"Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Wilton," Cheng Lang said with a smile.

ordinary?
If the Valkyrie was just average, Poseidon would probably be jumping up and down and cursing bullshit.

"Don't worry"

Wilton said confidently, "I will do my best to transplant at least two pairs of dragonfly fins onto this boat. This will make your boat much faster."

"Is there anything we need to do?" Cheng Lang asked.

“Just focus on steering.”

As Wilton spoke, he pulled out a long kitchen knife from his leather apron. "This boat might run away. Be careful not to let it run aground, and don't let it leave the fog."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Lang immediately took Shenba and ran to the open-air cockpit.

"Tinisha, can you play a lullaby?" Wilton asked the Tinisha band that followed them.

"Of course," Tinissa replied confidently.

"Then play the lullaby, and don't stop until I tell you to." Wilton said as he walked towards the first dragonfish.

At the same time, Tinissa and her band members plucked the strings on their tails and began to play.

To the soothing piano music, Wilton poured a little heart blood into the gills of the first dragonfish, then cut his finger and dripped some of his own blood into it.

As the blood seeped in, the dragonfly fish gradually calmed down, and Wilton carried it up and walked into the lower cabin.

"Shenba, go to the indoor control panel and get ready." Cheng Lang said.

"Okay!" Shenba ran away before he finished speaking.

"Why do we need to use that ship's heart?" Cheng Lang asked himself.

"Dear Captain"

The magic mirror replied in a low voice, "I don't know the reason, but the Valkyrie's heart is very resistant to this kind of stitching."

"How do you know?" Cheng Lang asked curiously.

"I don't know either. It was Chuan Xin who told me." The magic mirror replied respectfully.

Hearing this, Cheng Lang stopped asking questions and just stared at everything in the lower cabin through the mirror.

With the help of the magic mirror, Wilton came to the lower cabin and swung the slender kitchen knife in his hand with clean and neat movements. He easily cut off a dragonfly fin and even cut off half of the dragonfly's head.

Then, the slender kitchen knife in his hand seemed to turn into a sewing needle, hooking out a thin blood line from the wine bottle, and quickly "sewed" the cut part to the bulkhead of the lower cabin.

"puff--!"

Wilton sprayed a mouthful of blood at the half of the fish head sewn to the bulkhead, then swung his knife to cut off another fin and half of the fish head, and used the same trick to sew it to the corresponding position on the bulkhead on the other side.

Then, the kitchen knife in his hand turned into a carving knife, and he carved mysterious symbols around the eyes of the two fish heads.

Almost at the moment when the tip of the knife left the fish's head, the ten-meter-long fin seemed to turn into gel and adhere to the bulkhead, and then merged into the bulkhead while slowly wriggling, and then stretched out from the outside of the bulkhead.

"puff"

The fin just moved lightly, and the Valkyrie began to spin uncontrollably in place under the push of the water flow.

Seeing this, Cheng Lang immediately gripped the steering wheel tightly and worked together with Shenba downstairs to turn the steering wheel to counter the sudden turn of the ship.

Wilton in the lower cabin seemed unaffected as he continued to carve mysterious symbols around the eyes of another fish head with the slender kitchen knife.

A moment later, a slender and thin fin stretched out from the other side of the Valkyrie's lower cabin under the water.

As the fish fin began to swing around, the Valkyrie, which had been circling, also began to sway from side to side. As a result, Cheng Lang had to hold the steering wheel tightly and control the ship with difficulty. He had to prevent the ship from sailing out of the fog with a radius of one nautical mile, and also prevent the ship from shaking so much that it would capsize.

"Such an ordinary boat has such a high degree of matching?" In the lower cabin, Wilton muttered to himself and turned to look at the second dragonfly fish.

Soon, the fish's fins and head were "sewn" to the left and right bulkheads, and the Valkyrie became increasingly difficult to control.

“Can we continue to add more?”

Wilton touched the Valkyrie's bulkhead, then looked at the still-intact brains of the two dragonfish on the floor.

After a moment's hesitation, he quickly ran onto the open deck, pulled a whistle from his pocket and blew it.

A moment later, Wilty's wife, a lyretail fisherman, leaped directly onto the open deck on a dragonfish.

"Please prepare another dragonfish for me."

As Wilton spoke, he carried the dragonfish controlled by the piano music and quickly returned to the lower cabin. At the same time, his wife simply turned around and jumped into the foggy sea.

Soon after, when the dragonfish's fins were also sewn to the inner wall of the lower cabin, the Valkyrie became more difficult to control and Wilton's expression became more and more strange.

"what happened?"

Wilton muttered to himself, then quickly ran up to the open deck and carried down the second dragonfish his wife had brought.

While the couple was busy, one dragonfish after another was carried into the lower cabin. The Valkyrie became increasingly difficult to control, so much so that Cheng Lang had to take out a whip and tie himself firmly to the ship's bell base to avoid being thrown out.

Finally, when the fin of the ninth dragonfish was sewn to the bulkhead, Wilton, whose expression had become numb, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He could feel that the ship was finally reaching its limit.

"It's rare to meet such a docile ship heart. Let me see where your limits are."

As Wilton spoke, he had already changed to a kitchen knife and peeled off a piece of fish skin neatly. He still used the ship's blood as thread and the knife as a needle to sew it to the floor of the lower cabin.

Just like when he had just sewed the fish fins, as he used a kitchen knife to carve mysterious symbols on the fish skin, the fish skin gradually turned into gel and merged into the floor, and then a layer of skin similar to fish skin grew from the bottom hull outside the cabin.

When the first piece of fish skin was completely integrated with the hull, Cheng Lang immediately noticed the change. The Valkyrie became more difficult to control.

If he had to think of an appropriate analogy, it was as if someone had turned up the sensitivity of his mouse, so that he had to turn the steering wheel more carefully and subtly to ensure that the ship would not break out of the fog with a radius of only one nautical mile.

"This ship may not, but this ship will definitely become a legend in the Sea of ​​Stars and the Sea of ​​Despair!"

Wilton murmured obsessively, but at the same time he quickened his hands' movements, peeling off piece of fish skin after piece and sewing them on the floor of the lower cabin.

Finally, when all nine pieces of fish skin had been integrated into the floor, Wilton breathed a weary breath. At this point, a lively dragonfly eye had been embedded in each of the walls of the lower cabin, and outside the cabin, below the Valkyrie's waterline, a layer of delicate fish-skin-like skin had been applied.

On top of this skin, on each side are nine slender fins that are folded like wings and flap from time to time.

Every time these fins flapped, the Valkyrie would suddenly rush forward or stop in the fog.

In the indoor control room, Shenba had already obediently held onto the pillar behind the control room, and at the same time used his feet to hold the ship's bell base tightly to prevent himself from being thrown out.

On the open-air bridge, Cheng Lang, who was tied to the ship's bell stand with a whip, was like driving a speedboat in a swimming pool. He turned the steering wheel back and forth frequently, trying hard to prevent his vehicle from rushing out of the fog.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long. Wilton changed to a larger kitchen knife, cut off the brains exposed to the air from the bodies of the nine dragonflies, put them in a wooden basin and sent them into the fake ship center pool on the upper level.

When these brains, each only the size of a fist, were devoured by the ship's blood one after another, the flapping fins also calmed down one after another, and the Valkyrie finally stopped moving and finally stopped completely.

"It's over. It's over?"

Cheng Lang asked, feeling his hands trembling.

"Respected Captain, it should be over."

The Magic Mirror replied flatteringly, "The boatman not only transplanted nine pairs of fins for the Valkyrie, but also sewed a layer of fish skin for the bottom of the boat."

"Only nine pairs?" Cheng Lang asked.

“That’s probably a lot.”

The Magic Mirror explained, "According to the information I found in the Pirate City Library, even during the peak of dragonfly fin transplantation, most transplants only involved one or two pairs of fins. More than five pairs were rare, and there's no record of more than ten pairs."

"What's the matter with that fish skin?" Cheng Lang asked as he put away the whip.

"Transplanting fish skin can make ships have less resistance to movement"

The magic mirror explained, "Also, not many shellfish or shipworms will grow on the bottom of the boat. Most importantly, it can make the dragonfly's fins explode with greater power."

"But energy is conserved," Cheng Lang said subconsciously.

“What a brilliant summary!”

Sunglasses flattered him, "The dragonfly fins consume the power of the ship's core. This is probably why the Valkyrie's core resists this transplant."

"So it's the power of the fake ship's heart that's being consumed?" Cheng Lang asked with a frown, "And where does its power come from?"

"Yes, the power does come from that false ship heart."

The magic mirror explained, "The corpses of sirens and half-sirens thrown into the center pool of the ship can become its source of power. If necessary, you can even add some to it."

"Blood of Poseidon," Cheng Lang said as he had anticipated before the other party finished speaking.

"That's right," the magic mirror nodded and confirmed Cheng Lang's answer.

"I knew it." Cheng Lang muttered secretly. He even began to sympathize with Poseidon, the unlucky guy who seemed to have violated the laws of heaven.

"Dear Captain, the boatman has gone uphill." The magic mirror reminded in time.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Lang immediately left the open-air bridge and walked towards the deck.

“Your boat gave me a big surprise”

Wilton, whose face was slightly pale and seemed to have lost weight, exclaimed in admiration when he saw Cheng Lang.

“You also gave us a huge surprise.”

Cheng Lang said politely, "I don't even know how to thank you."

"It's enough that you helped Dragonfly Island drive away the Sea Cavalry."

Wilton changed the subject immediately after speaking, and said with a sense of boasting and pride, "I transplanted nine pairs of dragonfly fins for your boat, which is enough to make the boat run fast enough."

"Is it okay when there is no wind?" Cheng Lang asked the question that he cared about most. In this relatively primitive world, the doldrums are the most terrifying.

"Indeed, it is possible, but it will consume a lot of energy in the heart of the ship."

"Even with just a pair of fins, it's a huge load on the heart of the boat when there's no wind," Wilton said.

“But just now.”

"That's just because dragonfish don't have good brains."

Wilton tapped his temple with his fingers. "They're acting like this because they think their fins are still on their bodies, but now their brains have been eaten by the ship's heart. The ship's heart is much smarter than the dragonfly."

"All right"

Cheng Lang wasn't disappointed. He warmly invited Wilton to the conference room to sit down and rest, and asked, "Mr. Wilton, I wonder how much these nine pairs of dragonfly fins can increase the speed of the boat?"

“It’s hard to say.”

“It’s different when you’re sailing with the wind and when you’re sailing with the wind, and it’s different when you’re sailing with a current and when you’re not,” Wilton said.

If you don't actively manipulate these dragonfly fins, they will move unconsciously, which can also increase some speed and make the boat more stable. If you actively control them, the speed will be even faster.

And I've never seen or heard of a boat that has nine pairs of fins, so I don't know how fast your boat will be."

At this point, Wilton took a sip of the wine glass handed to him by Cheng Lang, then changed the subject and said, "But I must remind you, young captain, if the nine pairs of dragonfly fins exert force at the same time, your ship may indeed gain a fast enough speed.

But the heart of this boat will probably stop beating due to exhaustion. Once the heart stops beating, the dragonfly fins will die along with it, and your boat will probably never be able to transplant dragonfly fins again."

"I'll keep an eye on this."

Cheng Lang quickly said that the purpose of his coming to Dragonfly Island this time was just to make the boat speed a little faster to reach the average level. Now what Wilton said was an unexpected surprise.

"After you help us drive away the last wave of sea cavalry, I will help you transplant dragonfly fins on the other ship." Wilton said proactively.

“Thank you for your generosity.”

Cheng Lang said in surprise, this is an unexpected good thing.

"Remember to let your little sailor teach me how to grow those ingredients," Wilton said, raising his glass towards Cheng Lang.

"certainly"

Cheng Lang also raised his glass filled with fruit wine and clinked it with the other person's.

(End of this chapter)