Pillars of Ita

Hearing Miss Nightingale's terrified scream, Fang He turned around and rushed into the captain's room, but when he saw the scene inside, he couldn't help but stop, shook his head and sighed - a large insect with flapping wings was buzzing around the lamp, and Miss Nightingale was huddled in a corner, staring at the thing vigilantly.

She had even pulled out the long dagger and held it in her hand, the tip of the knife moving resolutely up and down with the flying insect.

Fang He walked forward and shielded the light with his hand. The insect then flew towards him head-on. He pinched it with his hand and gently pressed down on the insect's pronotum to capture it firmly.

The insect made a sharp hissing sound and struggled hard, showing its abundant vitality. Others also came in from outside. Tianlan looked at the insect in his hand with some curiosity and tried to reach out and touch its long tentacles.

Alyssa finally relaxed and put away the knife. Goose bumps appeared all over her body. When she saw Tianlan's actions, she couldn't help but say, "Be careful, this bug might be aggressive. Tianlan, stay away from it."

Fang He turned the insect in his hand over and looked at its mouthparts, then shook his head. "Don't worry, this should be a herbivore. Just be careful not to anger it. Its mouthparts are quite sharp." "What kind of insect is this, Brother Ed?" Tianlan asked.

Fang He shook his head and couldn't help but look at the insect in his hand twice more. This insect looked like a genus under the family Cerambycidae, with a frontal process and antennae. The antennae had sixteen segments and a raised pronotum, but it had no keratinous elytra, only two pairs of feather wings.

He spread out his front wings, which were broad and grayish white. His hind wings were membranous, his abdomen was well-developed, and he had tail ants. It looked like a relative of the Blattodea. He had never seen this kind of insect before, but there were many creatures in Attalia that he had never seen.

What’s more, there is the etheric world, and this bug might be a magical creature itself.

Miss Nightingale looked at the big bug waving its six legs with disgust and stood far away, "Dear Captain, please throw it out."

"Throw it away?" Fang He shook his head quickly, "That won't work. This thing is very precious."

"precious?"

Alisa looked at him with some horror.

At this time, more insects flew in from outside. Fang He suddenly thought of something and said quickly, "Let the others go back to the cabin and close the doors and windows. These things may feed on wood. We have to prevent them from drilling into the lower deck and laying eggs there."

Everyone hurriedly closed the doors and windows. Luo Hao, the box, and the Paparars also entered the cabin from the other end and closed the hatch there. Daliel and Shesta each caught all the insects that flew into the captain's room and threw them into a wooden box.

At this moment, a deafening buzzing sound suddenly came from the fog.

Fang He's expression suddenly changed. He looked up in that direction and saw a swarm of insects flying in from the gray-green mist. They fell on the deck, hit the glass and the bulkhead like a rainstorm, and made a banging sound like hail.

"Ah, so many!?" Lian Tianlan was shocked and screamed.

She suddenly jumped up three feet high and shouted, "Oh no, Brother Ed, there's more below!"

Fang He also reacted and immediately rushed to the stairwell and came to the corridor on the lower floor - he saw that the corridor was covered with a dense layer of insects, like a crawling carpet. He felt his scalp tingling when he saw this scene, but he had to bite the bullet and step on these insects, making a squeaking sound, and move forward step by step.

He walked to the door of the room and pushed it open - inside was the dormitory of Luo Hao and others, which was already full of insects, and many of them were even flying in through the portholes. He walked over and pulled down the window, making a muffled sound.

At that moment, a bug flew out of the mist, hit the glass head-on, and splashed into a ball of colorful juice in front of him.

The others followed into the cabin, Lark, Marigold, Tracis and Ian, Celestial, Daryl, Shesta and Sylvie each went into their own rooms, and the infirmary closed the windows. The scene in the room was a bit tragic, and the ladies' screams came one after another.

Fortunately, those insects were not aggressive and only caused considerable psychological harm to everyone.

When Fang He left the room, he found Miss Nightingale standing at the stairs with a look of despair on her face, looking at the insects crawling up the stairs in layers, as if she was having a hard time.

"Miss Alyssa," Fang He said, "please stay in the captain's room and close the door."

Miss Nightingale glanced at him with an unpleasant expression. Although she felt extremely uncomfortable physically, she couldn't help but ask, "What about you guys?"

"They are not very aggressive. Just block the entrance and don't let them in. The ones inside the cabin can be cleaned up slowly. These are just ordinary bugs." Fang He said.

“Well…” Alyssa nodded, “Okay then.”

She closed the door, and the others were leaving their rooms one by one. Shesta was squashing the bugs to death one by one and then sweeping them aside.

Daryl was standing aside, looking at the expressionless maid in awe.

"Brother Ed," Tianlan said to him while holding the crystal, "Miss May and Mr. Baggins have already checked the air combat deck and greenhouse. Luo Hao and the box have also been to the kitchen and utility room. The doors and windows there are all blocked."

"Where is the central control room?" Fang He was worried about the Guy generator.

Tianlan shook her head. "Jita said that no bugs have been seen in the magic engine yet."

In theory, the number of bugs should decrease, but in fact the number of bugs in the passage is still increasing.

Fang He suddenly thought of a problem - the anchor chain room - insects could crawl in through the hole for the anchor there. He acted decisively and immediately walked along the corridor through the kitchen and greenhouse to that place, but found that Luo Hao, the box and the Papara people had already arrived there.

At this time, the number of insects in the anchor chain room has become a disaster. Layers of them are piled up on top of each other, almost like a raging black mud. The Papara people are standing outside the door and shouting, "Why don't you go in?"

"Are you the nightingale or am I the nightingale?" Luo Hao said unhappily.

"Nightingales to nightingales," the Paparar slapped a bug that flew into his face with one hand, "I'm not an expert in pest control!"

"I didn't ask you to get rid of the bugs," Luo Hao said, "I just asked you to plug the anchor chain hole."

"Then how do I get over there?" Parker asked, "How about you throw me over there?"

Fang He didn't know where all these insects came from. He was about to step forward when he heard someone calling him from behind. He turned around and found that Jita had appeared there at some point.

The naturalist lady's face was a little pale, and the scar on her eyebrow left a faint mark, but she looked calm. Fang He asked, "Jita, are you okay?" The girl pushed her glasses and shook her head, "Captain, it's not just the anchor chain room, there are bugs that can penetrate into every air hole, but I have sealed those places with magic."

She then looked in that direction, and a magic book appeared in her hand. She pointed with her finger and muttered something, and a hazy white light rose from the pages. She stretched out her hand and pointed in that direction, and the white light floated towards the anchor chain room and flew into the anchor hole. The insects screamed and suddenly spread their wings and flew over.

Luo Hao, the box, and the Paparars were startled and quickly retreated. The dense swarm of insects had almost drowned the knees of the shortest Paparar. "Help!" he shouted almost in despair.

Fang He calmly took out a smoke tube, pulled the fuse and lit it, using the thick smoke to drive away the insects. These smoke tubes were also used by them to drive away insects in the dense forest of Fenris, and they have kept them until now.

After finally blocking all the openings, the bugs could no longer penetrate into the cabin. Shesta, Daryl, Luo Hao, Box and others were divided into two groups, and it took nearly half an hour to clear all the bugs in the cabin.

However, even so, there were still countless fish that slipped through the net and hid in the utility room, luggage or bottom cabin.

The insect swarm outside lasted for nearly an hour before it ended. The decks and masts were crawling with the same kind of insects, and the silver-maned spider silk sails were bitten with holes all over them - they were almost unusable.

It took them another hour to clean the deck and replace the spare sails. The corpses of the killed insects had piled up like a mountain and were emitting a foul odor. The boat was also covered with colorful juices left behind by the insects. It could not be used again until it was thoroughly cleaned.

Tianlan suddenly shouted on the deck. When everyone came to the deck, they found that the thick fog around them was gradually dissipating. In the distance, the landscape of Cape Lavia reappeared - a small town emerged between the cliffs.

"Look over there!" Tianlan shouted, pointing in that direction.

Fang He looked in the direction she pointed and found that it was a natural anchorage. The town was located in a cloud bay surrounded by cliffs. Immersed in the night, the houses were built against the mountain, layer upon layer, and there was a lighthouse on the cliff.

It was pitch black with no lights on.

"It's that Varta," Catherine said with some surprise, "The fog actually brought us here?"

Fang He looked at her and asked, "Is this your secret anchorage?" "On the surface, it is, but our anchorage is a little deeper," Catherine squinted in that direction and told him, "But there is also a pier in the town, you can just dock there."

"Does it often fog around here?" But Fang He's mind was still on the previous fog. The fog that suddenly appeared and dissipated without any warning was really disturbing. The same was true for the overwhelming swarm of insects in the fog. He asked, "Do you know what happened just now, Ms. Catherine?"

Catherine shook her head. "Like you, I still don't quite understand what the fog is and why there are so many bugs in it."

Fang He looked at her carefully and found that she did not seem to be lying.

But since this is the anchorage of privateers, they should be very familiar with the surrounding environment, or is the fog just a coincidence?

"Why, are you still thinking about what happened before?" Catherine said, "There are all kinds of situations in the sky and the sea. In fact, you don't need to think so much. There are giant whales as big as floating islands and mirages. There are many more spectacular sights than this."

She crushed a bug that had crawled to her feet. "These bugs look ordinary. They probably don't have any secrets."

Fang He said, "I'm not talking about these bugs."

These insects may seem harmless, but their ecology is very special and has never been seen before in the outside world. They live in such large groups that they should not be so unknown, unless they live in a closed and unique ecology.

What group do they belong to and where do they live? He always felt that the insects came from that huge ship, and when he thought of the ship that was broken into two pieces in the mist, he felt something was wrong.

Although the boat was as big as a mountain, could it really hold so many insects? What did they eat and survive on? Not to mention developing an ecosystem that was completely different from the outside world?

His studies are related to this. Ordinary people may not see these details, but to him these insects are full of mysteries.

"Ms. Catherine," Fang He asked again, "You also saw the previous scene. Where do you think the ship came from?"

Catherine shook her head slowly. "The Empire doesn't have ships that big. Their main battleships are much smaller than that ship. The ships of Giant Tree Hill and Corrin-Ishurian are even less comparable. The same goes for the ships of the Lotao people."

She looked at Fang He, "Why, do you think it's too much of a coincidence?"

Fang He nodded. Luo Hao, Xiangzi and Paparar all thought that the appearance of the giant ship looked familiar. In fact, he had a similar feeling in his heart. He returned to the captain's room and took out the notes of the giant ships of the shadow characters that he had sketched from memory.

But it still doesn't match.

It’s not the Shadow Man’s fleet either.

  Or is it that there are still sailboats of unknown forces in Etaria that he doesn't know about, the Numelin elves, or the legacy of the Xinsas snakeman era?

He closed his notes. However, the Seven Seas Traveler needed a place to dock anyway. After all, the ship needed to be thoroughly cleaned, biological control should be carried out, and any insects that laid eggs on the ship should be checked and any remaining insects in the corners should be cleaned out one by one.

Otherwise, when the larvae hatch, it will be a big trouble again.

What's more, Navarta is the secret anchorage of privateers in Saint Hughes. One of the shipyards mentioned by Catherine is also in this place. This was originally one of their expected destinations.

  So he made up his mind and told Miss Tata and the others to prepare to dock. So the Seven Seas Traveler hoisted the sails again and began to slowly approach the direction of Navarta. However, not long after, the female pirate leader found him again and told him:

"Little guy, tell your people to slow down," Catherine said with a vigilant look on her face, "something is not right."

Fang He looked at her, and she shook her head and said, "I hope I'm overthinking it, but the situation in Varta is not what I thought. This place is very remote, but it's not as bad as this. The people at the dock haven't seen us yet, and they haven't sent anyone to ask about our purpose—"

"Are you worried that something happened to Valta?" Fang He asked, "Did the Blood Shark Pirates or the Imperials get there first and control your people first?"

Catherine's tone was a little confused. "I can't rule out this possibility, but if I were a member of the Blood Shark Pirates, I would never reveal such a flaw. Even if they sent a ship, we wouldn't be able to see anything in such a dark sky and at such a long distance."

"So what is Ms. Catherine's opinion, stop? Or turn around and leave?"

"No," Catherine shook her head. "I just want to remind you to be careful and guard against any possible changes. This area is a privateering pirate industry, and we can still use that shipyard."

Fang He thought about it for a while and decided to release the small boat first and send someone to the shore to take a look.

He walked to the deck and released the second batch of elves - this time these small and flexible structures did not encounter any obstacles and flew smoothly into the town of Navarta. However, when these sophisticated copper structures flew past the town, they found that there was no one on the dock or in the town.

Fang He had to ask them to lower their altitude and scout around the town, but still found nothing. He became alert and sent a few clockwork fairies into the buildings - but the interiors of all the buildings in the town were almost pitch black, without any lights.

He silently let the clockwork goblin fly back.

At this time, a sampan had been lowered on the Seven Seas Traveler. Daryl, May, Elisa, Box and Paparar were all incorporated into the advance team. Fang He himself served as the commander of the advance team, and Catherine was also on the boat.

The others stayed behind to guard the Seven Seas Traveler.

The sampan paddled for a few miles before gradually approaching the town's pier - the temporary pier was not very big, with only two semi-arched piers extending into the open sea, which was a common style in the south of Caulin-Ishurian.

The dock was piled with boxes of all sizes and fishing nets, as if a batch of supplies had just arrived and had not yet been shipped away. Catherine sat at the bow of the boat, watching this scene and explaining to everyone, "There is a sailboat that regularly delivers supplies to the town, and it arrives about once every two weeks."

"So the sailboat is actually an asset of the Cowling Navy?"

Catherine nodded.

Fang He was not surprised at all, as he knew the trick too well. The residents of this town said that they were explorers from the Changhu area, but in fact they might be spies of the royal family. The whole town was built just to cover up their tracks.

What was concealed was, of course, the secret anchorage of the privateering pirates behind it.

He was not too worried that these people would recognize the Seven Seas Traveler, because Catherine must know this better than he did. Since she didn't say anything, he naturally pretended to know nothing.

The Cowling royal family is out of reach of Saint Hugh's. The people who stay here will either obey Catherine or the kingdom. One only needs to look at the attitude of this female pirate to understand that she does not take His Majesty the King seriously at all.

"It depends," Catherine said, "it just left not long ago."

Fang He frowned.

Just now the Clockwork Fairy discovered that the town was empty, but it could also be said that after this legendary female pirate was betrayed, the Blood Shark Pirates also attacked her forces left in Saint Xuan'an. In order to preserve their strength, these people had to hide.

But this cannot explain why the sailing ships transporting supplies are still operating as usual, and even if the other party arrived here and found that the place was deserted, they would not unload the transported supplies at the dock and leave them here without anyone paying attention.

This doesn't make sense in any way.

He thought about this question and looked up subconsciously, but the next moment, Fang He vaguely realized that something was wrong.

A faint red light enveloped the cliff where Varta was, the Cloud Bay, and the forest on the nearby hilltops. His mind was filled with these complicated thoughts, and he had not noticed that the moon tonight seemed a little abnormal.

But the silver moon was half hidden in the clouds and mist, and there seemed to be nothing wrong, except that there was a hint of red in the moonlight.

However, after a moment, Fang Yu realized that the red light was not emitted from Etalia's moon, but from the second moon on the other side of the sky, which was shining with it - a red "moon" hanging high in the sky.

It was the size of a human head, covering the earth with an eerie, vermilion light.

"Blood Moon——"

A term subconsciously popped up in his mind.

...(End of chapter)