Chapter 1138: Strange Positioning
“Just a blizzard?” Jeremiah did not expect the disaster Pedro was talking about to be a blizzard. A natural disaster like a blizzard might be very terrifying for ordinary people, but Legendary powerhouses would be able to overcome it.
However, Jeremiah thought about what Pedro just said, and he soon realized what the problem was. The ones who went on the island belonged to the First Fleet of the Gilded Kingdom, and given the Gilded Kingdom’s power, their fleet definitely had plenty of Legendary powerhouses. If even the Legendary powerhouses were instantly frozen, a blizzard would indeed be considered a terrifying disaster.
Indeed, after hearing Jeremiah’s question, Pedro didn’t lose his temper, but he looked at him with contempt as if to say, “What do you know?” He continued, “The Gilded Kingdom managed to remain independent in the Endless Ocean in the Dark Age. Apart from the balance between the High Elves and the sea race, the kingdom’s strength was also very important. Without it, it would have been destroyed by the sea race or the High Elves. The naval troops that went to the island could be considered the kingdom’s ace fleet, and consisted of nearly 100 Legendary powerhouses. Even the weakest one had strength above level-15. There wasn’t a lack of Legendary powerhouses among the commanders, either. Their strength was far from what the other fleets could compare to.”
“There were so many powerhouses, did no one escape?” Jeremiah did not believe Pedro entirely. After all, Pedro’s information was from thousands of years ago, and could be considered a myth or a legend. However, I’m certain that there are Legendary powerhouses in the fleet.
“Yes…” Pedro nodded, and seemed to find it incredible. He frowned, and said, “None of the many powerhouses managed to survive that disaster which caused the fleet to lose contact with the kingdom. When the kingdom sent people to check again, they saw a h.e.l.lish scene. All the battleships were frozen, and the soldiers with various expressions on their faces were standing frozen on the decks. After learning of the situation, the kingdom immediately began to research on some rescue measures, but when the rescue fleet entered that sea again, they found that everything had disappeared without a trace, even the island covered with ice had vanished.”
“Uh, so everything was gone?” Jeremiah asked, feeling a little amused at this point. It sounded so dire, but in the end, there was nothing left, and all evidence had disappeared. Could the cursed island not be real?
Pedro could tell that Jeremiah was filled with some suspicion. In fact, even many of the Gilded Kingdom doubted the authenticity of this legend. However, Pedro became his father’s a.s.sistant, and began to handle the maritime affairs of the kingdom. That was the only reason he could know more about things that others didn’t. Hence, he said to Jeremiah, “In fact, the kingdom also obtained plenty of information afterwards. Some sea merchants and fishermen reported that the cursed island was once seen in that sea. However, according to what they said, the kingdom would miss it whenever they sent someone to check. Hence, in the end, the kingdom had to designate the sea as a restricted area, and even removed the island from the map.”
Hearing the myths and legends, Jeremiah could not distinguish the truth, but it fortunately had nothing much to do with him. He just had to bear them in mind and relay them to Lin Li so as to obtain the precious sea maps.
After chatting with Pedro for a while, Jeremiah could not sit still any longer, as he was afraid that he would forget what he had just memorized. Hence, he once again asked Pedro to leave. At this moment, it happened to be the end of the gathering too, so Pedro did not make him stay any longer. However, when sending Jeremiah away, Pedro gave him a few more reminders, and told him not to have the slightest curiosity about the Ominous Land again.
Although it was already close to midnight by the time he left the gathering, Jeremiah nonetheless rushed to the emba.s.sy of the Tower of Dusk. He was being so sneaky that he was almost mistaken as a thief.
After getting the report from his men, Lin Li paused his meditation, and got someone to bring Jeremiah to a room. He actually did not expect Jeremiah to be that efficient in handling that matter—there were actually results by midnight even though he had only put him to the task in the afternoon. It seems this kid is not useless.
After seeing Lin Li, Jeremiah immediately relayed the information that he had found out with great excitement. He almost repeated everything Pedro said wholesale. Of course, he also gave himself lots of credit during the process, and praised his ingenuity for being able to find out the information.
After listening to Jeremiah’s relay, Lin Li could not help but fall into deep thought as he could tell from the information that the island was definitely not simple. A single blizzard actually froze an entire fleet immediately, and none of the hundreds of Legendary powerhouses managed to escape. That was probably something that even an ordinary Sanctuary powerhouse was not capable of.
In particular, what caught Lin Li’s attention was not those matters, but the fact that someone had discovered powerful magical objects. He reckoned that those people must have also destroyed something on the island while retrieving the items, which triggered the shocking changes. Hence, could everything that had happened on that island be related to the Immortal King? Lin Li recalled the scene that he had seen in his previous life, and felt that it seemed that he was supposed to explore it himself.
Lin Li snapped out of his contemplation, and saw that Jeremiah was staring straight at him, after which he immediately remembered the benefit he had promised to give Jeremiah. He wouldn’t go back on his word, since it was just a map. Hence, he took out the scroll from the Ring of Endless Storm, and handed it to Jeremiah. “Okay, Prince Jeremiah, thank you so much. This is the map for you.”
“Master Felic, you’re being too polite. It’s my honor to be able to help you. There’s no need to thank me. I shall accept this map, then,” Jeremiah said with glistening eyes when he saw the map in Lin Li’s hands. Although he was speaking politely, he was quick to take the scroll.
Of course, for Jeremiah, the gains far exceeded just a map. More importantly, he also managed to become friends with Lin Li, the young Sanctuary powerhouse. When he returned from the Sky Castle, he got scolded by the king of the Ledin Kingdom for offending Lin Li. Besides, he had not only obtained a precious map this time, he even managed to get closer to Lin Li. He reckoned that he would be awarded great credit after he returned this time.
After getting the maps, Jeremiah enthusiastically asked if there was anything else he could help Lin Li with. Only after hearing Lin Li say no did he leave the emba.s.sy of the Tower of Dusk reluctantly.
When Jeremiah left, Lin Li thought about it for a while before waving his hand to open up a spatial rift and stepping into it. He shuttled through the spatial rift, and had already returned to The Star, which was docked in Helena Port. Afterwards, he sent his subordinates again to get Black-beard Julio and his brother Jack to come back and see him.
What Jeremiah had inquired about should be considered the official version of information from the Gilded Kingdom. Hence, Lin Li intended to ask Julio and Jack about it, and find out what kind of knowledge they had about that so-called Ominous Land.
“Captain, do you have any orders for us?” Julio asked after saluting Lin Li. At this point, it was already midnight. Although sleep was no longer mandatory for those above the Legendary-level, he felt that it was still an urgent matter since he was summoned at this time.
Lin Li gestured for the two to come forward, and then pointed at the Ominous Land annotation on a sea map on the table that had already been opened. He said, “Do you guys know anything about this sea?”
Julio and Jack took two steps forward towards the table, but when they saw the location that Lin Li pointed at, Julio was the first to react. He scrutinized the map, and then said in an anxious tone, “Yes, this is known as an Ominous Land of the Gilded Kingdom. There’s a cursed island in the sea, and a powerful fleet of the Gilded Kingdom was once destroyed there.”
Hearing Julio’s answer, Lin Li was a little surprised at first, but after thinking about it, he felt that there was nothing strange about it. Julio was an experienced pirate who had been active on the Endless Ocean for many years, and even belonged to a family of pirates who had a rich heritage of more than 1,000 years. Hence, they naturally had plenty of information that ordinary people in the Gilded Kingdom did not.
“So, what else do you know about this Ominous Land?” Lin Li asked.
“Actually, this area of the sea is precisely the reason we managed to escape from the blockade of the Gilded Kingdom’s navy.” While Julio was saying that, his expression became unnatural, perhaps because he was feeling a bit scared about the choice he had made back then. However, under such circ.u.mstances, they would’ve definitely died if they had fallen into the hands of the navy of the Gilded Kingdom. When they had barged into the cursed sea, they at least had a chance of survival.
“Have you been to this sea before?” Lin Li asked. Julio’s answer had instantly aroused his interest. After all, what Jeremiah had found out was information from thousands of years ago, while Julio had been to that sea before. Hence, he probably knew some different information.
“Yes,” Julio said with a nod, and looked at his brother Jack, both of them looking horrified. They said in a slightly shaky voice, “Besides, we seem to have seen that cursed island too.”
Immediately afterwards, Julio told Lin Li about the cursed island that he had seen. What Julio said was basically not much different from what Jeremiah had found out, especially the fact that hundreds of the Gilded Kingdom’s battleships were instantly frozen when they were in the vicinity of the island. That went to show that both parties were talking about the very same island.
“So, if you were asked to find that island now, would you still be able to find it?” Lin Li asked, once again gesturing for them to look at the map. After all, although that sea might only take up a small part of the Endless Ocean, the actual area was probably even larger than the Felan Kingdom. Finding an island was indeed a tough order.
In particular, Lin Li remembered what Jeremiah had said when he arrived—the Gilded Kingdom had wanted to rescue the fleet that was frozen, but failed to find the island later on. Although that didn’t seem convincing, because the Gilded Kingdom had very advanced nautical technology, the environment of the Endless Ocean had always been unpredictable. Hence, it wasn’t strange for the sea to have been affected by something, triggering changes that would make someone get lost.
Julio hesitated for a while, but he nonetheless went forward to look carefully at the map while recalling how they had escaped and pa.s.sed by the island while calculating the distance in accordance with the speed of the ship. After all, there wasn’t a proper route near that sea, and Julio couldn’t pinpoint the exact location of the island at the time. Hence, he could only make deductions based on the various circ.u.mstances.
Hence, after nearly two hours of calculations, Julio finally managed to pinpoint a location in the sea.
“If I calculated correctly, the island should be near this area. There might be some error, but it should not exceed this range,” he said while circling out an area.
However, when Lin Li saw the location pointed out by Julio, he seemed rather doubtful and apprehensive because the location pointed out by Julio was thousands of nautical miles away from the location identified by the Gilded Kingdom which Jeremiah had found out. Logically speaking, the Gilded Kingdom should not have been unaware of where its fleet was buried. However, they allegedly really could not find the island afterwards.
What’s going on? Is someone lying? Or is there some unknown mystery? Lin Li could not tell immediately. After all, Jeremiah seemed to have no reason to deceive him, and he reckoned that no one would deliberately mislead Jeremiah.
It seems that I still have to go and explore it myself! Lin Li knew that there was only so much he could inquire about the island, and it was unlikely for him to find out more without putting in any more effort. Hence, he decided not to delay any further, and go to the cursed island to explore further in a bid to see if it was related to the Immortal King.
After developing that thought, Lin Li immediately ordered his sailors to get ready to set sail on The Star. Immediately afterwards, he opened the spatial rift once again, and brought the two Undead servants, Ujfalusi and Norfeller, as well as Connoris and Angelano to The Star from the emba.s.sy.
While The Star was docked at Helena Port, they had already repaired all the previous damage and rectified the problems discovered during the battle a long time ago. Hence, there was actually nothing much to prepare, especially since Lin Li did not want the news of The Star‘s departure to spread too quickly. Hence, there was no need for them to disembark and replenish their food and water.