Chapter 1254: Welcome With A Smile
Lin Li no longer stood on ceremony, and took the crystal card. He said, “Okay then, I will accept this crystal card, but I don’t see the need to take an item from your collection. However, there’s indeed something on my agenda that I haven’t done yet.”
Grand Duke Vidi thought that the matter would be over after he saw Lin Li accepting the crystal card, but he didn’t expect that Lin Li would reject his suggestion for Lin Li to take something from the auction item collection. He could tell that Lin Li probably had some other request, which made him really nervous, for he was afraid that Lin Li would raise some conditions that the Gilded Kingdom could not accept.
However, it was impossible for him to turn Lin Li down. Grand Duke Vidi came here this time by order of King Bradlor, who demanded that the former try to improve the relationship between the kingdom and Lin Li at all costs. Even though Vidi was well aware that Bradlor wasn’t really going to ignore whatever consequences there might be, he still had to hear what Lin Li’s request was.
Thinking of this, Grand Duke Vidi seemed to be caught in a dilemma, and he cautiously asked Lin Li, “President Felic, what do you have on your agenda? Please feel free to let me know if there is something that requires the Gilded Kingdom’s help. We will definitely help you as long as it’s within our means.”
Grand Duke Vidi was very conscientious, and had deliberately brought up the Gilded Kingdom in his answer. Only the authorities of the Gilded Kingdom would know if it was within their means. In other words, if Lin Li’s request was beyond the expectations of the Gilded Kingdom, they could use the excuse of being incapable of meeting it.
However, Lin Li didn’t take Grand Duke Vidi’s intentions to heart, and simply nodded in acknowledgment, as if he couldn’t tell what Grand Duke Vidi meant. He then said, “Apart from the fact that I had been invited by the Gilded Kingdom, another reason that I’m here is mainly to purchase a batch of ship cannons. I’m sure the Gilded Kingdom is capable of selling the cannons to me. Also, please rest assured that I will pay as much as the cannons cost. I won’t take advantage and shortchange you.”
Purchase cannons? Grand Duke Vidi was aware that the Tower of Dusk had previously bought ship cannons from the Gilded Kingdom, and that the Gilded Kingdom had deliberately caused a huge delay in the order’s fulfillment back then. However, at that time, the Gilded Kingdom regarded the Tower of Dusk as an enemy that would hamper their development in the Breezy Plains. Hence, they naturally hadn’t agreed to the deal resolutely.
However, things were different now. When Grand Duke Vidi arrived, he heard King Bradlor say that he wanted to form good relations with Lin Li, a Guru of Inscription, at all costs. In that case, selling some ship cannons to the Tower of Dusk was not quite big of a deal.
Hence, Grand Duke Vidi once again sighed in relief after hearing that those were the only conditions Lin Li needed him to fulfill. Even if they had to give Lin Li a batch of ship cannons free of charge in exchange for the chance to get closer to Lin Li, who was a Guru of Inscription, the Gilded Kingdom would definitely be able to accept it. Besides, Lin Li had just said that he would be paying for it.
Of course, even if this request was nothing to the Gilded Kingdom, Grand Duke Vidi could not really say it out loud. Instead, he thought about it while looking rather conflicted before answering, “President Felic, it’s actually not difficult for the Gilded Kingdom to sell some cannons to you, but the manufacturing process for the cannons is quite difficult, and even our fleet has only a small number of cannons in reserve. President Felic, how many Magic Crystal Cannons would you like to buy?”
Grand Duke Vidi was afraid that Lin Li would ask for too much, so he told Lin Li of his side’s difficulties. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to sell the magical crystal cannons to Lin Li, but rather that the Gilded Kingdom didn’t have many in reserve for their own use, either. In his opinion, Lin Li wouldn’t make the Gilded Kingdom sell him all the magical crystal cannons they had, regardless of how thick-skinned he might be.
After hearing that, Lin Li smiled and gently touched the Ring of Endless Storm that he was wearing with his fingers. He said, “Hah, Grand Duke Vidi, don’t worry, I also heard from Elder Zumar and the others that the magical crystal cannons are quite difficult to transport due to their massive size. Hence, I’ve already discussed it with them, and they said that they would sell me as many as I can transport.”
Grand Duke Vidi was completely relieved to hear that. The Magical Crystal Cannons were usually used as the main weapon on the Gilded Kingdom’s giant alchemical battleships. Hence, they were naturally much larger than ordinary ship cannons and ballistas. It could be said that Elder Zumar wasn’t wrong when he said that even the largest cargo ships could transport at most only three to four Magical Crystal Cannons at a time.
Although Grand Duke Vidi had seen The Star before, and knew that it could be called the largest of all battleships, it was the only battleship that the Tower of Dusk had. Even if they took up every inch of space in the ship, how many Magical Crystal Cannons could it fit? Of course, the Tower of Dusk could also spend money to charter some cargo ships, but even if they chartered 100 large cargo ships, they could at most transport a little more than 300 Magical Crystal Cannons at a time. The Gilded Kingdom did have a little more than 300 Magical Crystal Cannons to spare. Besides, Lin Li might not necessarily be able to find more than 100 large cargo ships to transport the cannons.
“President Felic, you’re right. The Magical Crystal Cannons are large, and ordinary cargo ships can at most fit two each, while the largest ones can fit three or four. When you were in the Breezy Plains, the logistics issues had indeed made the transaction very troublesome. President Felic, why don’t you let me know how many Magical Crystal Cannons you intend to purchase? If the transportation is inconvenient for you, we can provide you with some help.” Grand Duke Vidi knew that Lin Li couldn’t transport that many Magical Crystal Cannons at once, so he generously offered to help. Of course, there was still a limit as to the help they could give Lin Li, and it mainly depended on how many Lin Li actually wanted to purchase.
“I’ll buy as many as I can fit in my storage space. Grand Duke Vidi, you don’t have a problem with that, do you?” Of course, Lin Li wasn’t going to reveal the number of Magical Crystal Cannons that he intended to buy. God knew how many the Gilded Kingdom had in stock. Given the enormous capacity of the Ring of Endless Storm, he would have no problem loading all the battleships of the Gilded Kingdom into it, let alone just some Magical Crystal Cannons.
Grand Duke Vidi would never be able to guess that Lin Li had an incredible item like the Ring of Endless Storm, and he merely instinctively felt that something was wrong, though he couldn’t put a finger on it. He simply thought that he had been reading too much into it, and thus nodded resolutely. “Alright, in that case, I will not persuade you further. You may come to me when it’s convenient for you, I’ll take you to collect those Magical Crystal Cannons.”
Although they had only come to a verbal agreement without writing the terms down in the form of a contract, Lin Li believed that the Gilded Kingdom would not go back on their word and back out. After all, their attitude was clear. Lin Li could tell that they were obviously trying to butter him up.
Besides, once the Magical Crystal Cannons were loaded into the Ring of Endless Storm, it wouldn’t be easy to make Lin Li take them out again. In this case, even if Lin Li took away all the Magical Crystal Cannons, they would have no choice but to suck it up and accept it.
After agreeing on the matter of the Magical Crystal Cannons and a simple exchange of words, Grand Duke Vidi stood up with a gleeful expression, and bade farewell to Lin Li. In his opinion, since he had made up for his mistake at the auction and reached an agreement with Lin Li regarding the Magical Crystal Cannons, he should have completed the task that King Bradlor had given him.
After sending Grand Duke Vidi away, they received several batches of guests again in the embassy of the Tower of Dusk. Lin Li was familiar with some of them, such as Sendros, Englos, Prince Jeremiah, and Prince Johnathan, as well as the representatives of the forces of the Breezy Plains. There were also some whom Lin Li wasn’t familiar with, such as Elder Ronald of the Jellyfish Clan and Prince Manson of the Thunder Eel Clan, both of whom were from forces of the Endless Ocean.
Lin Li was not an unfriendly person, so he welcomed his visitors smilingly without putting on airs, unlike most inscribers who were often lofty and arrogant. That made the visitors, especially those who had not known Lin Li prior to this, have a good impression of him.
After all, what they originally heard about Lin Li were his notorious acts of brutally putting the Gilded Kingdom to shame, which made them think that Lin Li was ill-tempered and difficult to get along with. However, after this brief interaction, they felt that Lin Li was completely different from what the stories and rumors made him out to be.
In fact, Lin Li was the type to treat those who respected him with even greater respect. He would never put on airs in front of those who expressed goodwill to him, even though he was powerful enough to just disregard them. As for those who liked provoking him and inviting trouble, Lin Li would never mind using some ruthless means to teach them a lesson.
Lin Li spent three days receiving guests and seeing them off over and over again. The magic scroll that could suppress Wild Whale Rabu had allowed Lin Li to rise to great fame in the Gilded Kingdom. Besides, due to the fact that the Sea Market was open during this period of time, the forces of various sizes from the Endless Ocean, and even the entire Anril, were gathered there. After the Sea Market ended, Lin Li would conceivably become a household name in Anril.
Three days later, Saint Edmund and Elder Zumar came to the embassy of the Tower of Dusk again to inform Lin Li that they had made all the preparations, and were ready to set off to the Cursed Island again.
Since he had already agreed, Lin Li didn’t find any excuse to procrastinate, and instead first checked the inscription materials that Saint Edmund had brought over. The Illuminati had been in operation for thousands of years, so they naturally had plenty of good items in their collection. Besides, the Sea Market was being held during this period of time, so even if they lacked something, they could find it easily at the Sea Market.
Besides, the quality of these inscription materials could be considered the best, and they even included two full bottles of magical ink produced by the Octopus Clan, which was condensed with the power of the Octopus Clan’s bloodline. It was just as important as blood was to a human. Generally, it would be difficult to purchase such magical ink at the Sea Market, not to mention one that contained the magical wave of the Sanctuary-realm.
After checking, Lin Li found that the inscription materials were to his satisfaction, and there was nothing wrong with the processing, either. Thus, he said to Saint Edmund, “These things are not too bad. There aren’t any problems with them, we can set off now.”
Saint Edmund couldn’t help but be nervous when Lin Li was checking the materials. After all, he did not have high attainments in the field of inscription like Lin Li did, so he didn’t know whether the things he had prepared were suitable for use or not. However, when he saw Lin Li nodding, he finally heaved a sigh of relief, and suppressed the joy within him before calmly saying, “President Felic, we are relieved to hear that there are no issues with the materials.”
After some discussion, they decided to travel to the Cursed Island by boat. With the Sanctuary-level power of Lin Li, Edmund, and the others, it would be much faster to fly there directly, but they hadn’t explored the island fully, and so no one knew if there were really no more powerful enemies there.
Although Lin Li did not care about the depletion of mana, because he had a massive amount of mana, not everyone was as powerful as him. If they all flew there directly and ran into opponents that were at the peak of the Sanctuary-realm, such as the Twin Serpents of Light and Darkness, they would be in huge trouble.
Of course, there was no need for them to split up and go there in separate vessels this time, because with The Star around, Lin Li could just have the Illuminati’s team on board with him as he made his way there.
In addition to the Sanctuary powerhouses Edmund and Zumar, Priest Richard of the Chaos Sanctuary was also part of the Illuminati’s team. Richard could be considered the direct subordinate of Saint Edmund, and his strength was at the peak of the Legendary-realm. This time, the Illuminati’s team was not as large as the one that headed to the island the other time. Although there were only 40-odd members, they all had Legendary-level strength.
On the other hand, Lin Li told Norfeller and Ujfalusi to stay behind, and took Connoris, Angelano, as well as the mages of the Mage Legion with him instead. Ujfalusi was still working on the Ice Phoenix’s corpse, while Norfeller was secretly watching the auction’s vicinity for the Bellerophon’s Coral Staff.
However, even without these two Undead servants, Lin Li still had great combat power. Although Connoris was still a tiny step away from the Sanctuary-realm, he would have no problem dealing with ordinary Sanctuary powerhouses. Meanwhile, Angelano’s Alchemy Colossus was now equipped with the Divine Sea Pillar, which gave him a considerable increase in strength even when he was in the sea. As for the mages, they were all Legendary-mages who were on par with, if not stronger than, the Illuminati’s team.
Soon, the massive sea fortress, The Star, once again set sail away from Helena Port, and sailed at full speed towards the waters around the Cursed Island.
Since Lin Li had left his mental strength seal there, he wasn’t afraid that he would lose track of the island as it drifted around this time. After over 10 days, they arrived at the island again.
After stepping onto the island, both teams started rushing to complete their goal without further delay. Along the way, they indeed had previously encountered the interference of some magical beasts, but those magical beasts were simply courting death by attacking them. In fact, the only thing that gave them trouble the last time they were there was the Ice Phoenix.