Chapter 1136: Empty Sea Area
Lin Li subconsciously wanted The Star to catch up immediately, but after the Void Spirit Mageweath was activated, there were changes on the island which caused him to pause for a moment. With the huge amount of mana gathering on the island, the barren island seemed to be filled with gas as it suddenly started growing rapidly, turning green and lush in front of him. At the same time, the beings on the island also began to go through growth spurts under the catalysis of the mana. It was as if millions of years passed instantly as the creatures began growing rapidly.
In just a few hours, the island had been covered by a dense forest, and the creatures had also mutated into strong and powerful magical beasts. In the process, magical beasts from other areas were constantly being attracted over too, and among them was the Nine-headed Manticore that Lin Li had personally killed.
Of course, at this point, the Nine-headed Manticore was left with only one head, and thus could be considered an extremely ordinary manticore. After dashing onto the island, the manticore immediately began fighting the magical beasts on the island and charging towards the center. At the same time, the other magical beasts were also surging towards the tower, their eyes filled with an incredible desire. It was as if there was something in the tower that was attracting them, and they were even willing to kill their own kind in order to vie for the opportunity to get closer to the tower.
As soon as the Manticore reached the tower, its second head began to grow, and it fought with the other magical beasts even more intensely for the chance to enter the tower. After all, the Manticore carried the bloodline of a prehistoric magical beast. After a tough battle, it finally shot into the high tower, and the gates shut tightly.
After seeing this, Lin Li did not stay behind any longer, and instead accelerated The Star to follow the Immortal King closely. However, to Lin Li’s surprise, the Immortal King did not just build that one tower. During his flight, he changed his direction, and left the same magic tower on six other islands.
While following the trail of the Immortal King, Lin Li annotated the six islands that had the tower on the nautical map in order to explore them after he returned to the outside world.
The Immortal King built a total of seven towers in the Endless Ocean before he finally stopped changing directions, and flew straight ahead in one direction. Upon sight of that, Lin Li couldn’t help but feel elated. It seemed that it was finally time for the answer to be revealed.
However, Lin Li maneuvered The Star to make it follow the Immortal King for two consecutive days, only to lose track of the Immortal King in the space above an ice-covered island that should have been located to the north of Four Seasons Island.
Although Lin Li couldn’t find the Immortal King most of the time during his previous pursuit too, the Immortal King’s unique aura gave him a very clear guidance. However, the Immortal King had not only now vanished, even the special aura had disappeared without a trace.
Seems like there’s something very wrong with this island! Lin Li did not recklessly dash towards the island, and instead began exploring the area around the island by maneuvering The Star. He finally realized the island had a large surface area. Although he didn’t know if it could be compared to Four Seasons Island, he reckoned that it should be considered a rare fairly large island in the Endless Ocean.
However, the fact that he couldn’t find out any information about it from the Gilded Kingdom made Lin Li bewildered. Besides, when he stopped and looked at the nautical information of the Gilded Kingdom, he found that the existence of this island was not recorded on any maps.
In fact, even the small islands which the Immortal King had created Magic Towers on similarly weren’t annotated on the maps. However, those islands were relatively remote and small, so even if they were not recorded, Lin Li didn’t find it too strange. However, the current island was different. Even if it was of no value, the Gilded Kingdom shouldn’t have ignored it.
The Immortal King’s trail disappeared, and Lin Li had no way to continue tracking him. However, he felt that the Immortal King’s disappearance should be related to this island. He didn’t land on the island to explore, because, after all, he couldn’t leave the Gilded Kingdom for too long. Who knew how much time the exploration would take? Moreover, he also planned to go back to the Gilded Kingdom, and find out more about the island.
Hence, Lin Li sailed further away from the island, and when he returned to the pilothouse, he returned to Geresco’s Meditation Land through the Teleportation Portal there.
After walking out of the inverted tower, Lin Li thought for a moment. If he could find out about the island from the Gilded Kingdom, he would probably need more manpower to explore the island.
When they went to the Gilded Kingdom, the team consisted only of Lin Li and the group of sailors he had recruited, as well as the mages who were about to be trained. He didn’t bring his Undead servants at all. If the two Undead servants had been on The Star when Delano and his men had raided it, Delano probably wouldn’t have been able to seize The Star even if he had brought many subordinates with him.
Therefore, when Lin Li returned to the Gilded Kingdom this time, he called the two Undead servants, Ujfalusi and Norfeller, along. On the other hand, Connoris and Angelano who had initially been responsible for keeping an eye on the modification of the Sky Castle had already completed their respective duties, and thus they were also brought over by Lin Li.
As for the Tower of Dusk’s mage legion, Lin Li did not intend to bring them over this time, and decided to wait until he found out more about the situation on the island before contemplating if he should bring them. Anyway, with his current ability, it wouldn’t take him much effort to break through the space and bring the mages along.
After the two Undead servants, Connoris, and Angelano arrived, Lin Li waved his hand to open a spatial rift, and stepped into it with the four of them. By the time they stepped out of the rift, they were already in the embassy room that the Gilded Kingdom had arranged for the Tower of Dusk.
Lin Li made some arrangements for the four of them, and soon a servant came over to report that Sendros and Englos had come to visit. Although the two of them regretted not getting to cozy up to Lin Li and building connections with him, they had learned lots of pharmaceutical knowledge from Lin Li. Hence, after detecting the abnormal waves in the space, they hurriedly rushed over eagerly.
However, upon meeting them, Lin Li discovered that three of them had arrived, and the one who followed Archbishop Englos was Prince Jeremiah from the Ledin Kingdom. Although there was some unpleasant conflict between him and Prince Jeremiah, Lin Li would compromise as long as Jeremiah didn’t harm his interests.
Besides, when Lin Li returned, he was considering how to inquire about the island in the Gilded Kingdom. After all, the Gilded Kingdom was upset because of Delano, and he was almost certain that they would definitely give him lots of excuses if he sent his subordinates to find out some information from them.
Hence, Lin Li decided that he couldn’t send his people to find out about the island, and that it would be better to get someone from another force to do the talking. Englos and Sendros had extraordinary status, and they represented the Brilliance Shrine and Darkness Shrine, respectively. Hence, they were likewise not suitable candidates for finding out information for him. Besides, the inquirer could not be too close to the Tower of Dusk, so he naturally didn’t have to consider the members of the forces in the Breezy Plains.
When he saw Prince Jeremiah who was with Englos, Lin Li finally found his candidate. Given Prince Jeremiah’s identity and lofty character, others would definitely not think that he had an ulterior motive for asking the Gilded Kingdom about the island. They would simply think that he was just curious.
However, Lin Li could not directly leave the matter to Jeremiah to handle, because if his agenda was too obvious, it would certainly still cause others to have suspicions. In particular, a noble like Jeremiah might get set up by others before he could even get any information.
Hence, after chatting with Englos and Sendros for a while, Lin Li gradually shifted the topic from pharmaceutics to sailing. They also talked about sea specialties and herbs. He even took out the nautical information that he had cheated the Gilded Kingdom out of.
Pointing to a nautical map, Lin Li talked about the various precious herbs he found growing in the area of the Endless Ocean during his journey. They were extremely enticing to Englos and Sendros. Although Prince Jeremiah was not very interested in pharmacy, he was very concerned about the value of those herbs. When Lin Li mentioned some herb, he would often ask how much it could be sold for on the mainland.
“However, this area is really odd,” Lin Li said, pointing at a certain area on the nautical map, which happened to be where the ice island was. However, it was blank on the map. Or rather, it was just illustrated as part of the Endless Ocean.
Prince Jeremiah was thinking about sending a fleet of ships to obtain some precious resources from the sea to sell. When he heard Lin Li’s sudden remark, he looked at the map, and asked, “What’s so odd about it? Isn’t it just an empty sea?”
Lin Li shook his head slightly, and patiently explained, “Look at the oceanic information annotated on this map. If this information is accurate, there should be something that exists in this ocean here. However, given the advanced level of nautical information in the Gilded Kingdom, there is no reasonable explanation for such a mistake to occur.”
“Master Felic, do you mean that they’re hiding something here?” Jeremiah knew nothing about sailing in the sea. However, his imagination was quite rich, and immediately wondered if the Gilded Kingdom had some great secret.
“This nautical map is the very same one that is used by the military of the Gilded Kingdom, it seems that they were intentionally downplaying the significance of this sea region. The subsequent maps were also based on this one. I’m afraid that even the ordinary people of the Gilded Kingdom are unlikely to know what’s actually there now. Maybe only the senior-level executives of the Gilded Kingdom know the truth.” After saying that, Lin Li stopped dwelling on the matter of the sea region. Instead, he shifted the topic back to the herbal and mineral resources of the Endless Ocean.
However, although Lin Li did not mention it, Jeremiah did not stop feeling curious, and he suddenly said, “This matter is very simple. After arriving here, I got to know a lot of nobles in the Gilded Kingdom. I’ll ask them to inquire about it. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out something as long as it isn’t a core secret of the Gilded Kingdom.”
“Oh, alright. If you find out anything, I can give you a copy of this nautical map, Prince Jeremiah.” Lin Li promised to do Jeremiah a favor nonchalantly.
As soon as he heard that, Prince Jeremiah’s eyes lit up immediately. If he wanted to set up a fleet, having a copy of the Gilded Kingdom’s military nautical map would definitely bring them greater benefits and convenience. Moreover, it would also be very helpful for the future development of the Ledin Kingdom and its expansion to the sea. He thought that he would definitely be praised by the king.
In the subsequent conversation, Lin Li never mentioned the matter of that area in the sea again, but Jeremiah already bore it in mind. As for the sly old foxes Englos and Sendros, they could actually already tell that Lin Li was setting Prince Jeremiah up, but none of them revealed it. Instead, they cooperated with Lin Li to continue discussing the issues regarding pharmaceutics.
“Oh, right. Excuse me, I have a gathering to attend with some new friends I met, and it’s almost time, so I’ll take my leave.” Prince Jeremiah was already in a daze when he was listening to the discussion about pharmaceutics. His obsession with finding out more about that sea area grew more and more intense, and he couldn’t help but take his leave.
After leaving the embassy of the Tower of Dusk, Jeremiah gave it some thought, and decided to head straight to the venue of the gathering with a few nobles and princes of the Gilded Kingdom, which he originally wanted to pass on. After all, the most complete and detailed nautical map would be useful to the kingdom and individuals, so Prince Jeremiah decided to go to those people and inquire about it from them.
When he arrived at the gathering place, Jeremiah knew that he definitely couldn’t ask them about the sea immediately. After socializing for a while, he decided to take the opportunity when a nobleman was introducing the glory of the Gilded Kingdom. He suddenly asked, “Hey, why didn’t you mention the sea area to the north of Four Seasons Island? Is there nothing interesting in that sea?”
“The sea area to the north of Four Seasons Island?” A nobleman of the Gilded Kingdom looked at Jeremiah like he was an idiot instead of answering his question immediately.