Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 77: The Honest Man's Trophy
"The Candide! It's the Candide!"

On the open-air bridge in the stern deck, when Yafuso opened the letter sent by the letter-writer, he immediately shouted excitedly, "That ship is the Honest Man!"

"Drive forward!" Cheng Lang immediately gave the order.

Soon, the distance between the two boats was getting closer and closer, and they saw unexpected people from each other's boats.

"Is that a ghost?" On the Honest Man, Belvik and others looked at the translucent shadows floating all over the ship in horror and shouted in fear.

"Has the Valkyrie become a ghost ship?" The merman Tinissa and her band members subconsciously hid at the side of the ship.

"Captain, should we jump off the boat?" one of the Qinwei fishmen asked in panic, "Maybe it's not too late."

Before Tinissa could make a decision, Belvic had already picked up the ship's lantern and sent out a blunt signal, "Dear Captain, is the Valkyrie now a ghost ship?"

"Is that the lyretail fishman? Tinissa?!"

On the open bow deck of the Valkyrie, Yafso lowered her telescope and exclaimed, "Why are they on the Honest Man's ship?!"

"Tinisha is on their ship?"

Cheng Lang asked in surprise at the open-air bridge at the stern.

"Yes, it must be them." Yun Ji, who was standing nearby, said confidently, "I saw it very clearly."

"Why are they on the Honest Man's ship?" Cheng Lang also muttered.

"The pirate brothers wouldn't hide anything from us, so I guess those beautiful goldfish sneaked onto the ship again."

Yun Ji easily guessed the correct answer, and then replied with a smile, "Also, they sent a light signal, asking whether the Valkyrie had become a ghost ship."

"We'll find out later if we ask. Magic Mirror, send them a signal back to prove that we are not a ghost ship."

Cheng Lang shouted, "Ms. Silver Queen, please make our ship go faster!"

"As you wish, Captain."

The Silver Queen responded by lifting her skirt slightly and bending her knees. The dragonfly fins on both sides of the boat also swayed, causing the speed of the entire boat to increase sharply.

At the same time, the magic mirror also responded with a series of light signals, "I swear on the "Siren's Guide" hidden in your pillow that we have not turned into a ghost ship."

"But it looks more like a ghost ship than a ghost ship," Kervik sighed helplessly as he put down the telescope.

He was indeed right. The Valkyrie was indeed more like a ghost ship than a ghost ship.

The pitch-black hull, the sails that look especially tattered at night, the scarlet eyes in the sails, the small circle of red mist lingering around the sails, and now even a ghost floating around the hull - this image simply satisfies the sailors' stereotype of ghost ships.

After a moment, the people on the two ships could see each other clearly even without the help of telescopes. Even the rather simple-minded Silver Queen floated directly to the bow of the Honest Man, looked at the sailors on this ship with great interest, and saluted again by bending her knees and lifting her skirt.

"Hello, dear lady."

The pirate brothers hurriedly took off their greasy tricorn hats and imitated the nobles they had robbed before, performing a distorted hat-taking salute. The mermen had already jumped into the oak barrel in unison amid the splashing water, and only through the holes in the oak barrel could they carefully look at the huge but graceful shadow.

"Just now I seemed to see the zither-tailed fishman, Tinisha and the others?"

Before he finished speaking, Cheng Lang had already swung the whip around the mast and swung over. He was becoming more and more proficient in this skill.

"Indeed it is"

The pirate brothers breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Cheng Lang coming. Fortunately, he seemed to be alive.

"Hi Captain," Tinisha and the others popped half of their heads out of the oak barrels one by one, waving their little hands and greeting.

"What's going on?" Cheng Lang asked, "Did your ship suffer heavy damage? Are any sailors injured?"

"Valkyrie bless us, we are all fine, no sailors were injured."

Kervik, who had completely relaxed, quickly said, "Not only that, we also captured a ship before, but unfortunately, that ship was destroyed by the ghost ship."

"Captured a ship?"

Cheng Lang glanced at Yun Ji, who swung over a little later, holding Yafu, and Shen Ba, who jumped over with a "dong". He came to his senses and said, "What happened? Let's talk about it one by one. Let's start with the Qinwei fishman."

"It was Uncle Wilton who allowed us to sneak aboard."

Tinisha leaned over the oak barrel and explained stiffly, "He said there's going to be a crucial battle on Dragonfly Island soon, and he hopes we can take the piano sheet music and avoid the flames of war."

"The music sheet at the end of the piano?"

Although Cheng Lang didn't know what the other party was talking about, he still said, "He could actually tell me directly."

"Uncle Wilton didn't mean to hide this from you!"

As she spoke, Tinisha opened the beautiful snail shell on her head, which looked like a hat, and took out a small bottle from it. Then she jumped out of the oak barrel and drove the waves to Cheng Lang's side. "This is what Uncle Wilton asked me to give you."

Taking the bottle and unscrewing the wax seal, Cheng Lang took out a roll of paper from it.

The content written here is extremely simple and straightforward. In short, Wilton's wife is the head of the Fiddlehead Merman Band on Dragonfly Island. She is not optimistic about the upcoming war on Dragonfly Island and is worried that the Fiddlehead Merman tribe will be slaughtered. However, Wilton does not want to pin all his hopes on the wandering circus.

To sum up, the couple hopes to ask Cheng Lang to take the children, led by Tinisha, and the Qinwei music score, which is vital to the Qinwei fish people, away from the Dragonfly Fish Island.

In exchange, when Cheng Lang returns to Dragonfly Island again, if Wilton is still alive and if they have more boats, Wilton will be very happy to transplant dragonfly fins on their boats.

Don't put all your eggs and fish eggs in the same basket?

Cheng Lang had probably guessed the other party's intention and was not opposed to it. Or rather, no ship would not welcome merfolk as sailors - provided they were capable of protecting these fragile and beautiful goldfish.

"So can you take us in?" Tinisha asked cautiously.

"Of course!" Cheng Lang agreed readily.

"You just agreed so readily?"

Tinisha looked up at Cheng Lang with wide eyes and asked in disbelief.

"What else?" Cheng Lang asked back.

"I thought you would take away our music score," Tinisha said cautiously.

"Is that thing important?" Cheng Lang asked in confusion.

"It's very important to the people of the fiddletail fish"

Yun Ji explained without reservation, or rather reminded, "Taking away their music is almost equivalent to..."

Glancing at Tinisha, who looked pleading, Yunji paused for a moment before continuing, "It's almost like taking everything from them. Without the sheet music, they're no better than ordinary mermaids."

After another pause, Yun Ji continued, "Controlling the music score is almost like controlling the Qinwei Fishman Band."

"In that case, you'd better keep it well."

Cheng Lang looked at Kervik as he spoke, "You just said you had prisoners."

"Aren't you going to take the music away?" Tinisha reacted and asked in surprise.

"What do I need your sheet music for? I don't have a tail with strings on it."

Cheng Lang said this as a matter of course, but at the same time he muttered "hypocrisy" in his heart. He was not a fool. If he did not take the music score at the end of the zither seriously at the beginning, then Yun Ji's explanation was obviously on point.

Moreover, the purpose of Yun Ji's words was very clear - to make him be a good person.

As for the effect, it's obvious that he is a good person. If the light in Tinisha's eyes could be used as a projector, subtitles like this would definitely appear.

Before Tinisha could say anything else, Cheng Lang urged again, "What about the ship you captured?"

“It all started a few days ago.”

Kervik paused and described their experience.

The first half was similar to the experience of the Valkyrie. When the Honest Man discovered the ghost ship appearing around them, they realized that the Valkyrie behind them had disappeared.

However, the pirate brothers were indeed much more experienced in being captains than Cheng Lang, so they were very lucky to leave the thick fog.

"We discovered that ship by chance after we left the thick fog," Kervik said. "It wasn't a ghost ship. We used the fog to get close to it and robbed it, but the sailors on that ship committed suicide when we surrounded them."

"suicide?"

Cheng Lang reacted quickly, "Did they all commit suicide?"

“They all committed suicide”

Kervik said with lingering fear, "They detonated the gunpowder on the gun deck and almost sank the ship. We only had time to empty the ship of supplies. Before we could repair the ship, the ghost ship appeared."

Swallowing involuntarily, Kervik described in detail all the strange scenes he had seen before.

"Ghost Ship suicide?"

Cheng Lang frowned, "The ghost ship that failed to commit suicide sank into the water?"

"That's right"

Kervik nodded. "The captains of those ghost ships clearly weren't volunteers. They were all eventually hung from the masts by their bridles."

"Silver Queen, do you know what's going on?" Cheng Lang asked the shadow floating between the two boats.

"I am not sure"

The Silver Queen said, "But it is true that people do come to the island every once in a while, but they put away the magic box, so I don't know if they do anything to those captains."

"Do you know the origins of the people who manage that island?" Yun Ji asked the question that Cheng Lang wanted to ask first.

"I don't know. Those who came here are half-blood sirens, and they are all unfamiliar faces."

The Silver Queen shook her head and said, "They came here only once, two days before you landed on the island, and they found my child."

"Is it a ship with red sails?" Belvik asked suddenly.

"Yes, sir," replied the Silver Queen, "it is a ship with red sails."

"She called me sir, she actually called me sir, Valkyrie, she is truly a noble lady."

Belvik murmured in admiration to his brother, then raised his voice to show off their haul, "We've already destroyed that ship. No one on board survived."

"What did you seize on that ship?" Shenba asked.

“There are a lot of things”

Belvik said, "Various supplies, some gold coins, several bottles of Poseidon's blood, a large amount of armor, and, oh, a dozen bridles."

"More than a dozen bridles?" Cheng Lang was stunned. "And a large amount of armor?"

"Yes, there are 15 bridles in total."

Kervik took over and said, "In addition to the bridle, there are also 15 cups of Poseidon's blood, 5 armor pieces, and those strange armors. These are the main gains.

The rest of the finds were strange, worthless items like logbooks, nautical charts, rings, coats of arms, and the like.

"Where is the thing?" Cheng Lang asked, "Can I go and take a look?"

"certainly"

Kervik said immediately, "The valuables are in the captain's cabin, and the rest are in the cargo hold. Please come with me."

Cheng Lang followed Kervik into the captain's room, and Yun Ji introduced the Silver Queen to everyone. Yafso had already gathered with Tinisha and others, who had become friends for a long time, and hugged each other happily.

"Your captain's cabin is much cleaner than the last time I came."

Cheng Lang said as he walked into the room, he was telling the truth, pirate brothers, no, it should be said that the sanitary conditions on most ships in this ocean are rather worrying.

“This is all thanks to Tinisha and the others.”

Kervik said, "These diligent fiddleheads kept the boat very clean."

“It seems like you guys get along well.”

Cheng Lang sat in the captain's seat, and Kervik also opened a cabinet and took out the captured spoils.

Without touching the blood of Poseidon, armor pieces and gold coins, Cheng Lang looked directly at the armor.

There are two large boxes of these armors, probably hundreds of them. They look like beautiful conch shells, but each of these conch shells is inlaid with an armor piece.

"We can confirm that this thing is probably armor, but we can't tell what it is used for," said Kervik.

"Silver Queen, Magic Mirror, do you two recognize these things?"

Cheng Lang asked, and then added, "Kervik, I won't introduce you. You can get to know each other later."

"Okay, Captain," Kervik said respectfully.

"The sailors on that red sailboat wore this when they entered the fog."

The one who spoke these words was the Silver Queen, who had come through the wall. As she wiped the mirror in the room, she said, "If they wear these things on their ears, they can avoid being bewitched by the Mist Spirit and the Wrathful Dance Box."

"It should be a specially designed armor."

At this time, the magic mirror emerged from the mirror that the Silver Queen had just wiped and said, "These armors are artifacts on that island, but they are garbage outside of that island."

"So this thing is useless?" Cheng Lang asked disappointedly as he picked up a conch shell.

"It's not nearly as useful as those bridles," the magic mirror reminded. "But perhaps you could try throwing it into the Silver Queen's ship's center pool. You might find some surprises."

"I'll deliver it myself later."

Kervik said that although he didn't know who the Silver Queen was, he didn't mind giving these conchs to Cheng Lang. He believed that these things that he couldn't use would always be exchanged for rich rewards - after all, they followed a generous fleet captain.

Throwing the conch shell back into the box, Cheng Lang took out a bridle from another box.

At this time, these tassels looked more like necklaces and there was nothing special about them.

"It seems someone is already mass-producing bridles."

The magic mirror said worriedly, "This may be the only weapon that can threaten the sea monster."

"Can this be used as a weapon?" Cheng Lang asked with a frown.

"Why do you think Panini is willing to protect the Pirate City?" It was not the Magic Mirror who said this, but Kervik.

Hearing this, Cheng Lang widened his eyes, "You mean..."

"Rumor has it that Lord Panini's true form was bound to the Pirate City by the only true bridle, even before the time of Poseidon."

Kervik said, "Of course, no one can prove the truth of this rumor."

"The rumors are false"

However, the magic mirror revealed a shocking secret at this moment, "The Sea God's bridle was actually made by Panini. He doesn't have any special fetishes, so why would he tie himself up?
Also, the bridles you seized are not Panini's work.

These bridles are strictly speaking more like armor, and they draw on the power of Poseidon."

At this point, the magic mirror frowned and reminded, "Captain, it seems that we have accidentally ruined a dangerous organization's conspiracy. In addition, I wonder if this matter is related to the war on Dragonfly Island?"

"The War on Dragonfish Island?"

Cheng Lang thought for a moment and shook his head. "It's just a Dragonfly Fish Island, so we won't need these. So, Kervik, you, the Silver Queen, and the Magic Mirror should first get to know each other, and then the three of you will take inventory of the supplies.

I have a feeling we need to get out of here as soon as possible, as this area is about to become dangerous."

"I'll take them to count the supplies."

As Kervik spoke, he left the captain's room quickly and headed straight for the cargo hold without even picking up the spoils on the table. At the same time, he was listening to the self-introductions of the Magic Mirror and the Silver Queen.

(End of this chapter)