Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 68 Trek, Holy Grail.

Deep in the Sea of ​​Despair, the Valkyrie and the Candide had been sailing for a whole day in a thick fog that seemed to have no end in sight.

This was also the third day since they left Dragonfly Island. Although it was already morning, the sky was exceptionally dark within the sea fog, and even the sea surface was exceptionally calm.

Fortunately, although the sea breeze in this thick fog was not strong, it was able to push the sails and allow the ship to move forward slowly.

But the dim sky and slow boat speed made Cheng Lang and others drowsy and unable to concentrate at all.

Compared to them, both Fujiman and the small sailors on the Honest Man are extremely hardworking.

Under the leadership of their respective deck captains, these hardworking sailors are busy using iron brushes to polish the open decks and various parts of the hull above the waterline, and then carefully apply a layer of hot asphalt to prevent seawater corrosion. In places where people need to walk, such as the open decks, a thin layer of anti-slip gravel is sprinkled before the hot asphalt solidifies.

This is basic maintenance work that all ocean-going sailboats must perform regularly, but it is also the most arduous task.

Compared to the busyness on the deck, the scene in the lower cabins of the two ships was quite different.

In the lower cabin of the Valkyrie, after failing again and again to cultivate the enhanced corpse mushrooms for unknown reasons, the simple-minded girl Yafuso finally gave up and began to think about how to shorten the growth cycle of normal mushrooms and delicious mushrooms.

Also busy in the lower cabin was Gerta. This honest and simple orc father had used the magic mirror to direct sunlight into several compartments of the lower cabin to grow a lot of fresh vegetables. But since entering this fog, even the magic mirror could not provide sufficient sunlight to the compartment used for growing vegetables. Instead, the light emitted by the Vermillion Bird Stone replaced it.

But it is obvious that these weak lights are not enough for the growth of these vegetables, so much so that a considerable number of them have shown signs of withering.

In the cargo hold on the upper level, a long-armed gorilla was driving four goats that were originally used for milk production and a big fat pig, driving a huge millstone to rotate in circles to crush the soaked beans.

This millstone, with a diameter of nearly two meters, was urgently carved out of two pieces of granite when they docked at Dragonfly Island in order to increase the efficiency of grinding soy milk.

There is no way. Even if we don’t count the vine goblins, there are more than a hundred mouths on the two ships that need to eat various soy products every day, which is a huge consumption.

For this reason, when they set out from the Pirate City, the most food supplies they carried were various beans that were easy to preserve for a long time.

Compared to the busy lower cabin and cargo hold of the Valkyrie, the scene on the Honest Man was quite different.

This ship is much larger than the Valkyrie, but its cargo hold is also filled with supplies.

This included the supplies given to Mr. Wilton by the islanders before he left Dragonfish Island.

These supplies were basically various seafood products, with dried fish accounting for the vast majority, as well as a small amount of various dried sea vegetables, and more than twenty barrels of fish oil that were returned to them after not being used up in the previous battle.

This fish oil basically has only three uses: either as fuel for ship lights, or as a cheap lubricant for various parts of a sailboat, or as a simple waterproof coating for everything including but not limited to sails and cables.

Of course, fish oil can also be used as an arson agent, either actively or passively.

For this reason, these marine fish oils are generally stored in relatively safe bottom compartments.

The lower cabin of the Honest Man is not like the Valkyrie, which can be provided with sunlight by the magic mirror, so it is particularly dim inside.

But even in this dim environment, the twenty or so oak barrels of fish oil that had been returned were pushed open from the side.

"How many days is this?"

In the darkness, a pleasant voice asked cautiously in a low voice.

"The third day, it should be the third day." Another voice responded, "I've been staring at the pocket watch Uncle Wilton gave me."

"Do you have anything to eat?"

"there is none left"

"Hold on a little longer, we'll come out again tonight! Then we'll have a good talk with that generous captain, and he'll definitely take us in!"

"it is good!"

The other voices responded together, and the gaps on the sides of the oak barrels slowly closed and stopped moving.

"Captain, we seem to be lost."

In the captain's office of the Valkyrie, Yun Ji, who had just entered, spoke without waiting to stop.

"Lost?" Cheng Lang looked up in confusion. "How could we be lost?"

"Please come with me and take a look," Yun Ji invited.

Without hesitation, Cheng Lang immediately stood up and followed Yun Ji upstairs to the indoor control panel. At her signal, he carefully looked at the scale pointed by the compass needle on the ship's clock base.

"Let's go up and take a look," said Yun Ji as she walked towards the open-air cockpit above her head.

Just by looking up and down, Cheng Lang frowned. The pointing angles of the two ship compasses differed by as much as six or seven degrees!
"Let's go to the bow and take a look," said Yun Ji, who had already grabbed a vine and swung from the stern to the bow.

Seeing this, Cheng Lang immediately swung the whip, wrapped it around the horizontal mast, and swung over skillfully.

They arrived at the second-floor open deck at the bow, and Cheng Lang immediately walked to the ship's bell base not far from the crossbow.

When he saw the angle pointed by the needle of the ship's compass, which was as big as a washbasin, his brows furrowed even deeper. The angle pointed by this compass differed from the two identical compasses at the stern by at least 30 degrees!
"How did you find out?"

While Cheng Lang was questioning Yun Ji, he tapped the mirror on his wrist with his fingernails. His meaning was obvious, "How come you didn't notice it with your broken mirror?"

"Grandpa Gerta discovered it."

Yun Ji said, “He had just taken over the helm from Shen Ba and was about to switch from the open-air bridge to the indoor bridge when he noticed the deviation in the direction angle, but the steering wheel was locked at the time.

He was worried that there was something wrong with the compass, so he sent Yafusuo to the bow to check, and then he discovered the problem.

At this point, Yun Ji said, "You know, it's impossible for three ship compasses to have problems at the same time."

“So the only problem is this sea of ​​fog.”

Cheng Lang looked around as he spoke. The sea fog around him was thicker than the one he summoned with the Mirage Horn.

If the Honest Man in front had not hung enough ship lights, he would not even be able to see the outline of the ship.

"Stop the boat first."

Cheng Lang knocked on the mirror again, but found that the ship light on the top of the mast did not send any signal.

"To be on the safe side, catch up with the Honest Man and notify them to stop." Cheng Lang immediately realized that something was wrong and quickly corrected the order.

Upon hearing this, Yun Ji, who had not let go of the vines just now, immediately swung back and accurately conveyed the captain's order to Gerta who was at the helm.

"Magic mirror? Come out!"

Cheng Lang, who was standing beside the bed crossbow, looked at the mirror hanging on the ship's clock base and asked.

However, the mirror surface seemed to be interfered with by the signal at this time. Although he could see the magic mirror gesticulating and saying something to him, he could not hear the magic mirror's voice at all this time.

Not only that, even the pale green figure in the mirror appeared intermittently, so that he could not see the other person's lip shape at all, let alone the Chinese characters displayed in the mirror.

Isn't that omniscient and omnipotent?
Cheng Lang muttered to himself, and he finally understood it belatedly.

This so-called "omniscient and omnipotent magic mirror of St. Barbara", the "omniscient and omnipotent" is probably not used to describe the mirror, but to describe St. Barbara.

Not wanting to bother to figure out whether this was just a game of words played by the unreliable magic mirror to gild itself, Cheng Lang manipulated the dragonfly fins through the center of the ship to gently swing them to increase speed, and easily caught up with the Honest Man.

However, when the two ships started to move side by side, everyone became nervous because the ship that had been moving in front of them was not the Honest Man!

"Where's the Honest Man?!"

The same thought came to everyone's mind.

"This looks like a ghost ship?"

Immediately afterwards, another completely consistent guess emerged in everyone's mind.

Ghost ships are real, and even ordinary people in the Elf Principality far away from the ocean know about it.

When all the crew members of a ship have a civil conflict and all die on the ship, but the heart of the ship is not destroyed, there is a certain chance that the ship will become a ghost ship.

The ghost ship is also the nightmare of all sailors at sea, because it will plunder any sailor it encounters, but the emptiness in its heart can never be filled.

"Keep your distance!"

As Cheng Lang swung the whip, he and Yun Ji shouted almost at the same time. Gerta immediately turned the steering wheel and coordinated with Cheng Lang's control of the dragonfly fin to make the two boats distance themselves at the fastest speed. In the end, only the other party's ship lights could be seen vaguely in the fog.

"Did you see it clearly just now?" Cheng Lang asked with lingering fear. Just that one glance just now, and he felt the urge to board the boat and embrace the heart of the boat.

The one who reacted more violently than him was Yafuso. If Cheng Lang hadn't just wrapped the whip around her waist, she would have probably jumped over there by stepping on the side of the boat.

"Look, it's clear."

Yun Ji, with a pale face, took a deep breath and said, "That ship is not the Honest Man."

"Is it really a ghost ship?" Cheng Lang asked.

“Really”

Yun Ji shuddered uncontrollably. "I looked carefully. There was no one on the boat, not even a ghost. And did you feel it?"

As she spoke, Yun Ji pointed at Yafusuo, whose waist was still bound by Cheng Lang's whip, and said, "That's the best evidence."

"I feel it"

Cheng Lang nodded, "I have the urge to go on that boat and embrace the heart of the boat."

"People lured into the ghost ship eventually jump into the center pool"

Yun Ji's face was still pale. "It will dissolve in the blood of the ship's heart and become the nourishment of the ship's heart."

"This is troublesome," Cheng Lang frowned.

“It’s a really big problem.”

Yun Ji said, "We must find the Honest Man as soon as possible, in case they are lured."

"But how do we find it?"

Shenba came over and asked, "How about we try to attack that ghost ship?"

"Snapped!"

Yun Ji stood on tiptoe and hit Shen Ba on the back of the head. "Fool, do you want to kill us?"

"Is it not possible?" Cheng Lang asked.

"Ghost ships cannot be sunk"

Yun Ji sighed, "The ghost ship is essentially no longer a ship but a kind of undead creature. The only thing that can kill it is sunlight.

I should have thought of this before entering this thick fog, but what kind of ghost ship could summon such a huge...

At this point, Yun Ji's face suddenly turned even paler and panicked. "No! A ghost ship can't possibly summon such a large fog! There are so many! There must be a lot of ghost ships here! Captain, we must leave here as soon as possible!"

"But which direction are we running?"

Shenba covered the back of his head and asked, "We can't see the sun or the stars, and the compass is messed up. We can't find our way at all."

"Let me take care of it," Cheng Lang said as he walked downstairs and into the captain's bedroom.

"Magic mirror? Magic mirror?"

Cheng Lang shouted in despair, but there was no response at all in the mirror in the room except for the occasional fleeting green spots.

Stepping into the compartment under the stairs, Cheng Lang took out the box he had found in the temple on the Savage Island.

Carrying the box upstairs to the office, Cheng Lang took out the eight-sided metal bowl that was only the size of an ashtray, and the pair of sea-blue cups and blocks from the box.

The metal bowl was filled with a liquid similar to mercury, and a Valkyrie, shrunk to the size of a dumpling, was floating on it.

According to the note in the box, if you throw the Holy Grail three times in a row, you can escape from being lost in the sea. If you throw the Holy Grail nine times in a row, you can even get clues about the reverse scale.

Of course, if you throw the divination blocks when you have a clear direction in your heart, one of your fingers will be cut off.

Now is the time to trek
Cheng Lang muttered something to himself, then took out a metal can from the drawer which served as an incense burner. He then took out three homemade incense sticks, lit them, bowed respectfully, and inserted them into the metal can.

Picking up the pair of divination blocks and clasping them together in his palms, Cheng Lang emptied his mind and gently tossed them upwards.

"crash"

The pair of divination blocks fell onto the wide table, with the two yang sides representing the laughing cups.

Seeing this, Cheng Lang clasped the divination blocks together again in his palm, silently thinking about his current predicament and the need for a safe way out, and then gently tossed them up again.

"crash"

The pair of divination blocks fell on the table again, one yin and one yang, and this time the Holy Grail was finally thrown out, but at the same time, he also felt great physical fatigue, as if the Holy Grail he had just thrown out had drained his strength.

Picking up the divination blocks again, Cheng Lang silently recited his wish and tossed them lightly.

"crash"

As the cups and the table collided again, he threw the Holy Grail again, but at the same time, his eyes went dark, his knees went weak, and he almost fell to the ground.

One more time left.
Cheng Lang leaned against the table, reached out and picked up the pair of divination blocks, clasped them together in his palms again, tried to stand up straight, and staggered as he silently recited his request in his heart again.

"crash"

In another collision between the divination blocks and the table, he finally threw the Holy Grail for the third time, but his body went limp and he sat down on the carpet.

Cheng Lang tremblingly took out a bottle of elf healing potion. Not caring whether it was useful or not, he smashed it open at the corner of the table and poured the green potion inside into his mouth.

After pouring this strange and disgusting potion into his mouth, he finally regained a little strength. He struggled to get up and sat on the high-backed chair beside the table. He turned his head to look at the octagonal metal bowl on the table.

At this time, the bow of the Valkyrie, which was only the size of a dumpling, had turned around, and a clear track appeared at the stern.

Feeling a little relieved, he tremblingly opened the drawer, pulled out a flintlock, and pulled the trigger towards the floor-to-ceiling window behind him.

"boom!"

Accompanied by a gunshot and rising smoke, a bullet hole appeared in the floor-to-ceiling window behind him. Soon, Yun Ji, Yafusuo, Shenba and even the leader of the Tengxiao, the Great Sage, ran in one after another.

"Go get me some candy"

Cheng Lang, who had been staring at the metal bowl, said weakly, "Also, change course and head in the direction I'm pointing now."

After looking at the direction that Cheng Lang was pointing with his hand which he couldn't even lift, Shenba turned around and ran out of the captain's office. Yafuso followed him downstairs, retrieved a jar of sugar from the kitchen in the captain's bedroom, ran back, and put it to Cheng Lang's mouth with a spoon.

After taking a mouthful of the greasy sugar, Cheng Lang turned around and took a sip of the fruit wine Yun Ji handed him. "At least one of you should stay here and help me pass on instructions at any time."

"Let me do it"

Yun Ji said, "Yafuso, go get some food."

"I'll go right away!" Before Yafuso finished speaking, she ran out of the office.

At the same time, the Valkyrie also turned course in the thick fog and headed towards the direction of Cheng Lang's finger. The small boat in the metal bowl also turned and gradually pointed towards the bow of the Valkyrie.

Even the center of the ship sent out small crabs, which climbed up the floor-to-ceiling windows silently and released fine bubbles to repair the broken windows.

After running like this for about an hour, Cheng Lang finally regained some strength after eating the dessert brought by Yafuso. He finally stopped feeling dizzy and nauseous.

"Help me get to the indoor driving platform"

Cheng Lang stood up weakly, picked up the metal bowl, and with the support of Yun Ji and Yafuso, he staggered upstairs and sat on the recliner next to the control panel. He controlled the dragonfly fins through the center of the ship and began to swing them, gradually increasing the speed of the Valkyrie.

"Ship lights, there are ship lights over there!" Yafuso suddenly pointed to the front right and said.

Turning his head to look at the ship lights that were faintly visible in the thick fog, Cheng Lang shook his head slightly, "Never mind him, we..."

"It also appeared in front of the left," Yun Ji reminded Cheng Lang before he finished speaking.

“Keep moving forward”

As Cheng Lang spoke, he secretly clenched the octagonal metal bowl that only he could see.

(End of this chapter)