Chapter 1095: Sea Battle
However, the Endless Ocean wasn’t a calm place. Even though every part of the sea seemed to be the same, the area under the sea was the territory of marine magical beasts. The large ship, The Star, was sailing in one direction, and it was impossible not to alarm those magical beasts along the way.
After killing the nine-headed sea dragon, the rest of Lin Li’s trip was just like a hunt on the sea. He encountered gigantic magical beasts that could swallow an entire commercial ship in one gulp and tiny stingrays that were the size of a fingernail, but were capable of penetrating steel plates like a bullet. There were also sea demonesses that tried to lure sailors on sea with their alluring singing.
Although the variety of marine magical beasts had allowed Lin Li to gain a lot of knowledge, those battles were not too significant for high-level Sanctuary powerhouses like him. After all, Sanctuary powerhouses were considered to be existences who were at the top of Anril no matter what era they were in. There were barely any that could really threaten him.
Of course, such a situation also allowed Lin Li to vaguely deduce that The Star should not have entered the depths of the Endless Ocean yet. Rumor had it that many of the marine magical beasts in the depths of the Endless Ocean were at the peak of the Sanctuary-realm. That was the very reason that the Endless Ocean was considered a forbidden area of Anril even the Sanctuary powerhouses dared not step into.
The Gilded Kingdom claimed to have dominated and traversed the Endless Ocean, but they actually hadn’t explored the Endless Ocean, and merely covered the areas that were closer to Anril. The fleet of the Gilded Kingdom only dared to explore a little deeper into the Endless Ocean when there were Sanctuary powerhouses present.
Lin Li stood on the deck of The Star and gently waved his hand out against the sea breeze, after which a thunderbolt shot out with a loud roar at a marine beast that had just revealed its head at a spot near him. Lin Li had already gotten used to such battles. If not for the fact that the marine magical beasts wanted to obstruct The Star, he wouldn’t have bothered to deal with them.
However, just when Lin Li was feeling bored, a few battleships with black sails appeared on the horizon in the distance. The merchant and fishing boats that sailed on the sea usually had white sails, and only pirates would hang black sails with their respective emblems painted on them, indicating the identity of their group. Hence, when Lin Li saw the black sail on the ship, he immediately knew that he had encountered pirates.
Although Lin Li had sailed all the way there on The Star, and encountered the attacks of many marine magical beasts along the way, it didn’t mean that there weren’t other ships sailing on the sea. In fact, Lin Li encountered the attacks of so many marine magical beasts mainly because The Star had been sailing straight in a single direction, and constantly invading the territories of the marine magical beasts.
Be it commercial ships, warships, or pirate ships, all ships that sailed on the sea would have their own fixed routes which would deliberately avoid the marine magical beasts. Although that did not mean that it would be 100% safe to travel on the Endless Ocean, it meant a great reduction in the risk of getting attacked by the marine magical beasts.
In particular, pirates would never be able to survive on the sea if they didn’t have any secret safe routes, regardless of whether they were hijacking a commercial ship or escaping pursuit. At this point, Lin Li finally understood why there was a sudden decrease in the number of attacks launched by magical beasts lately. It turned out that The Star had coincidentally clashed with the pirates’ route.
Those several pirate ships seemed to be equipped with good arms, and although they could not compare to the alchemical battleships of the Gilded Kingdom, they were probably on par with the naval fleets of the land kingdoms like the Felan Kingdom. At the same time that Lin Li discovered the pirate ships, the pirates obviously also discovered the massive ship, The Star.
Under normal circumstances, given the massive size of The Star, pirates would probably immediately flee upon discovering it. However, when the pirates whom Lin Li encountered saw The Star, they did not flee, and charged towards it instead, which seemed to be an overestimation of their own abilities.
Lin Li found it rather strange too. The fact that those pirates could possess such a massive ship was clear evidence of their good development. Lin Li reckoned that they shouldn’t have been so ignorant as not to realize what was going on. However, no matter how puzzled Lin Li was, it was a matter of fact that the pirates had charged over and begun firing at The Star.
The first thing that was shot at The Star was a few beams of mana, which should have been fired from the Magical Crystal Cannons. From that point alone, he could tell that those pirates were extraordinary. Even the Felan Kingdom and the Ledin Kingdom could not bear to use their Magical Crystal Cannons casually. The consumption of magical crystals was like a bottomless pit. However, the pirates did not seem to value the magical crystals much as they immediately began attacking with the Magical Crystal Cannons.
However, the defensive abilities of The Star were not for show. Even if Lin Li did not deliberately open the strongest Magic Canopy, there were several passively activated Alchemy Arrays and defensive mageweaths on The Star. When the mana were about to hit the hull of The Star, several mageweaths emerged from the deck abruptly, and a magic shield immediately appeared to block the mana.
Lin Li was just about to test the attacking power of The Star when the pirates showed up on their own accord. How could he miss the opportunity? He immediately activated his Space Robe and zoomed in a flash to the main control room, where there was a large crystal ball with a human head which was displaying the surroundings of The Star. The crystal ball was the control center for the offensive weapons, and Lin Li could control all weapons and launch attacks freely through it.
Lin Li placed his hand on the crystal ball, and adjusted the scene that was displayed on it. He then injected his mental strength into it, and selected several cannons that were facing the pirate ship. Apart from cannons that utilized mana like Magical Crystal Cannons, there were also weapons that fired magic and giant spears on the ship. Lin Li chose such a complicated combination of weapons because he wanted to test their power.
Under Lin Li’s manipulation, one of the Magical Crystal Cannons began to attack by launching an extremely solid white light. The surface that had been swept by the light seemed to be about to rip open. In an instant, the magical shield of the pirate ship was torn apart like a piece of paper as the white cannon light came into contact with it. Immediately afterwards, the part that was exposed above the sea was devoured by the mana.
That was only one of the numerous cannons on The Star, and there were still main cannons and more powerful cannons that Lin Li had not used yet. The power of this cannon alone was several times stronger than the main cannons of the Gilded Kingdom’s ships. Hence, Lin Li couldn’t imagine what it would be like when all the cannons of The Star fired at the same time.
Of course, it would definitely be a spectacular scene, but Lin Li was not senseless enough to use the cannons to create fireworks. After the cannon destroyed the pirate ship, they should have found the situation tricky and fled. However, to Lin Li’s puzzlement, the remaining pirate ships not only did not flee immediately, they charged towards The Star instead, as if they had realized that using long-range weapons would not be beneficial to them, and thus decided to board the ship to attack.
However, that was good too. Lin Li was also happy to take that opportunity to test out the power and functions of the cannons of The Star from various ranges. Unfortunately, there were only a few pirate ships, and they were not enough to contend with the cannons of The Star, so Lin Li could not test all of them. In particular, each cannon of The Star was incredibly powerful, so it would usually take out a pirate ship with one shot.
In the end, when there was only one pirate ship left, the pirates seemed to have finally backed away timidly as they hurriedly turned the ship around to escape. However, a ball of fire was shot from The Star, and it then accurately landed on the pirate vessel before engulfing the latter, and causing it to blow up in flames.
Looking at the wrecked ship that was sailing on the sea, Lin Li shook his head helplessly. Although he had owned them, he felt like an adult bullying a child. Compared to The Star, the pirates’ ships were insignificant. How could Lin Li be thrilled?
However, just as Lin Li was about to leave the pilothouse, he suddenly realized that there was another fleet that appeared at the horizon of the sea displayed in the crystal ball. The new vessels were much larger than the pirates’ ships, and seemed to be about the same size as the Gilded Kingdom’s alchemical ships. However, they had a much more elegant and sleek design, which was unlike the bulky ships of the Gilded Kingdom. They didn’t have any sails; hence, they should be moving with the power of alchemy. Besides, there were beautiful flags hung on the battleships, and it was obviously a regular naval fleet.
At this moment, Lin Li also understood why the pirates had been so insistent on attacking, and refused to retreat even though they were obviously unable to contend with The Star. It turned out that the pirates were not brave, but rather that they had been chased by the naval fleet. Hence, they had had no choice but to charge towards The Star instead in hopes that the latter was just large. Unfortunately, the pirates had made a mistake as they couldn’t resist the power of The Star at all, and would only end up as ashes.
Looking at the fleet of ships in the crystal ball, Lin Li could not help but frown slightly. He couldn’t remember any other kingdom or force in Anril apart from the Gilded Kingdom that could have such a fleet. However, based on the appearance and style of the battleships, he could tell that they were obviously very different from those of the Gilded Kingdom as they were much more beautiful and elegant. They looked like pieces of art.
Just as Lin Li was feeling bewildered, the vessels displayed in the crystal ball became clearer and clearer, and the figures moving on the deck finally revealed their true appearance. Upon sight of the appearance of those figures, Lin Li was immediately shocked, as they were not humans, but High Elves that had been extinct in Anril since thousands of years ago!
Why are the High Elves here!? At this moment, Lin Li suddenly realized that he had probably entered the world that existed during the Dark Age. Everyone knew that Geresco had led the rebellion to overthrow the High Elves more than 1,300 years ago, causing them to be wiped out. In that case, the High Elves’ navy obviously wouldn’t have appeared after the Dark Age.
Just as Lin Li was thinking about the issue of the time period, the fleet of the High Elves had also discovered The Star, and immediately got into a battle formation. Without asking, they began to fire their Magical Crystal Cannons.
Sensing the strong magical waves, The Star‘s main defensive Magic Canopy immediately shrouded the entire ship when the dense mana attacks of the cannons were about to blast at it. Immediately afterwards, he saw the Magic Canopy being bombarded by the mana cannons, forming ripples like raindrops on a calm lake.
The High Elves showed how brutal they were when they launched such a fierce attack without hesitation. Of course, even if the High Elves’ fleet did not attack, Lin Li had already long wanted to use it to test the attacking power of The Star. After all, the pirates he had just encountered had been too weak.
Under Lin Li’s control, the main cannon of The Star slowly pointed at the High Elves’ fleet, and the silvery white barrel shone brightly under the sun. The muzzle had a diameter of about 10 meters, and it soon converged a mana light that was almost too blinding.
At this juncture, the fleet of the High Elves seemed to have realized that The Star was not to be trifled with, and they immediately stopped their attacks. One of the battleships also raised their flag to request the people on The Star to clarify their identities. Unfortunately, Lin Li knew nothing about marine communication, and thus had no idea what the High Elves were talking about. Even if he did, he wouldn’t bother to respond to them.
When the light from the main cannon of The Star shone at its peak brightness, a mana cannon shot that could engulf everything was unleashed at the High Elves’ fleet. That mana cannon attack was almost as powerful as a Sanctuary-level magic spell. Even if the mana source was a peak Legendary magical crystal, it would be turned into ashes in an instant.
When the main cannon of The Star was building up mana, the fleet of the High Elves opposite had already felt the threat posed by the cannon. Hence, when they wanted to interact with the people on The Star, they also activated all the defensive power of their battleship.