Pillars of Ita

Chapter 1150 Shipyard

"It seems that Navarta has undergone a drastic change. A cliff near the north of the anchorage was flattened and disappeared out of thin air. A third of the pier also disappeared. The port authority building there was cut in the middle, leaving only half, and the cut surface is as smooth as a mirror."

"The town was deserted, and everyone seemed to have just left. The stoves were still warm, and the food they left behind had not completely spoiled. But there was no sign of packing, and no clothes, utensils, or even portable belongings were taken away."

"There are no signs of fighting in the town, and the flattened mountains don't seem to be caused by magic. Most of the buildings we entered had no signs of fighting or destruction. Everything was in its original place, and there was not even any sign of rummaging through boxes."

After Elisa returned from the dock with the others, she reported to Fang He with a heavy heart that everything that happened in Varta was as strange as the gray fog before, as if the people in the town had disappeared out of thin air not long ago, but other than that there was nothing unusual.

There were neither ambushing enemies nor those strange things seen before - insects, huge ships in the fog. The results of the investigation did not seem like the Blood Shark Pirates had ever visited this place, but more like something stranger had happened in Navarta itself.

"Ms. Catherine," Fang He turned around and asked Catherine, "Do you think the Blood Shark Pirates can do all this?"

"If they could do such a thing, they would have unified St. Hugh's long ago." Catherine said sarcastically, but she also looked at everything at the moment with a serious face. Although everything in this anchorage is the property of the Corrin royal family, and few of the people in the port are hers - this is a place she was familiar with after all.

This happened, and she also felt a little confused, and after the doubts, she felt a strong sense of uneasiness.

Fang He carefully observed the expression on the female pirate's face, and after confirming that she was not lying, he fell into deep thought.

He was not asking a superfluous question, as this was something that a dragon knight could not do even with his power. Of course, it did not mean that a dragon knight could not destroy a mountain or a town, but most mortals could not control their power to such a precise level.

A mountain was flattened with almost no impact on the nearby town, one-third of the dock was divided into two, and the port authority was cut through with a mirror-like cut, while the objects in the building were not damaged at all.

Such a thing may sound incredible, but in Attalia it is more like a miracle.

  But what kind of divine power would manifest itself here? Would the Orli Saints make all the residents of a town disappear out of thin air? You know, most of these people are their believers, but if it was the evil priests or the dark saints, how could the forest altar and the statue of the goddess of commerce in the town not react at all?

Apart from divine power and extraordinary strength, the only things that could create all this are probably some rare objects, such as holy objects, or several evil objects of the same level in legends. However, most of those artifacts have owners or have been destroyed long ago, and the few that are missing are unlikely to fall into the hands of the Blood Shark Pirates.

Fang He couldn't figure it out for a moment. This incident was most likely related to the gray fog not long ago. But judging from the traces left afterwards, the people in the town had left for about one or two days, which did not match the time when the fog occurred.

Unless they also moved forward in time while sailing in the fog - thinking of this, Fang He asked Eliza and Miss May to go to the town to investigate clues, clocks and calendars that could verify this.

But soon, everyone brought back the opposite conclusion. The town's calendar was still two days ago, which matched the logbook on their ship. The speed of time passing when they were sailing in the fog was consistent with normal.

Although there are many mysteries in the deserted Navalta at this moment, after investigation by the people who landed, it was at least proved that this quiet town did not pose any threat, and the crew members who went to various places to investigate alone did not suffer any attacks.

Apart from looking a little weird, everything seemed normal at this anchorage.

Although this seemed quite abnormal in itself, it was impossible for the Seven Seas Traveler to weigh anchor again just for "suspicion", and there was no more suitable place to dock nearby. Fang He considered it for a moment, and took out the communication crystal and gave an order to the ship.

Let the Seven Seas Traveler dock in the port.

But the ship responded with an equally disturbing message:

Balosha is missing.

"Barosha escaped!?" Catherine reacted even earlier than Fang He. She was very excited and her voice was even louder. She suppressed her anger and asked, "How did you keep watch on him?"

"This has nothing to do with the people guarding him," Luo Hao responded calmly on the other side of the communication crystal, "Pay attention to my statement, Ms. Catherine, I said that Balosha disappeared, not that he escaped."

Catherine raised her eyebrows and asked pointedly, "What's the difference between the two?"

But Fang He realized something and interrupted them, asking, "What on earth happened?"

"When I said Balosha was missing, Captain, I meant that he and his restraints disappeared as well," Luo Hao replied. "In order to control him and prevent him from committing suicide and reviving, we used a special restraint, including a cage and a shielding device. This way, even if he committed suicide, he could only be resurrected on the Seven Seas Traveler."

"But the cage and the shielding device were gone. We also checked the icons on the ship and there was no sign that anyone had been resurrected. Moreover, we left people on guard in the confinement room and the resurrection room. The person on duty at the time was Box. He did not see anyone leave that cabin."

"By the way," Luo Hao said, "that cage was built by the captain. You should know that it is impossible to take it out of the confinement room because of its size, unless someone dismantles it. But I can't think of any reason why Balosha or the Blood Shark Pirates who came to rescue him would do so."

"In other words," Fang He asked, "Barosha disappeared out of thin air?"

  Luo Hao nodded, and Catherine shut her mouth. Suddenly, she thought of what happened in Walta. Didn’t the people in the town also disappear out of thin air?

She couldn't help but show an expression of disbelief. Could there be a connection between the two, or was it really related to the previous fog? When the fog was thick, the ship was attacked by a swarm of insects, and everyone had no time to take care of other things. Balosa must have disappeared during that time.

Fang He also recalled that the last time they checked the confinement room was around six or seven in the evening. At that time, the pirate king was still unconscious in the cage, and then the Seven Seas Traveler entered the gray fog.

Then comes now.

The two of them couldn't help but look at each other - it must have been the fog.

But other possibilities could not be ruled out. Fang He cautiously instructed Luo Hao, "Let the Seven Seas Traveler stay where it is. The remaining people on the ship should check carefully in groups of two to confirm that Balosa is not hiding on the ship."

He reminded: "Let Miss Shesta protect Sylvie."

"I understand." Luo Hao nodded.

Fang He frowned and confirmed the condition of the Seven Seas Traveler with Miss Tata. He learned that nothing unusual had happened before, but Balossa seemed to have disappeared out of thin air.

He was unable to come to any useful conclusion for the moment, so he had to temporarily ignore the fact that the pirate king's bounty might have slipped away from him. The only thing to be thankful for was that it was Balossa who was missing, not the other members of the Seven Seas Traveler.

  But why Balossa?

Luo Hao asked about the situation in the anchorage again, but he couldn't explain the equally strange situation in Varta for a while, although he and Fang He were both considered "community experts" and knew about many strange rumors after the Star Gate, including super competition.

But they had never heard of such a thing.

Finally, he had to tell Fang He that he could ask Jita, the naturalist lady who stayed on the ship. Fang He did not object to this. He had actually asked Miss Tata just now, but Miss Longhun also said that she needed to check the knowledge in her memory. One more person means one more guarantee. Jita's knowledge mostly comes from two magic books. Among them, the dark knowledge from the deep sea that she saw in the snake's eye 'Eye of Karl Laye' may not be collected by the Silver Library.

"Captain, have you noticed?" After a pause, Luo Hao asked again, "The moon tonight is a little special."

Fang He then raised his head and looked at the blood moon in the night sky. The eerie red moonlight enveloped the night in a layer of hazy red silk, making it hard not to notice it.

There are two moons in Etalia, one of which is the Sea Moon Coni, which hangs alone above the empty sea. When the moon is at its fullest, it appears light blue, which is where the name Sea Moon comes from. When visibility is not so high, it appears silvery white.

The second moon is a bright moon that has never been seen by ordinary people and only appears in legends. It is also called the Holy White Moon. It is not the moonlight belonging to the sky sea, but the moon that belongs unique to the sea of ​​ether. Its rising and setting cycle is still a mystery to astrologers.

But no one has ever heard of a third moon above the sky, a blood moon emitting red light. The mist had long dissipated and there were no clouds in the night sky, so the illusion caused by the refraction of light in the clouds could be ruled out.

That is the color of the moon itself.

In fact, the location where it appeared was not quite right. It seemed to be farther away than Haiyue Kony, shining in the distance, more like a star.

But where is Haiyue? Fang He seemed to realize that Haiyue Kouni had disappeared. He looked around. Normally, Haiyue should be in the western sky at this time, but the place where it was originally located was empty, with only a bottomless darkness.

According to some legends of the Wand Coast, there used to be seven moons in the sky, but after a mythical battle, five of the moons disappeared, leaving only the Sea Moon and the Light Moon.

However, those legends have never been confirmed and are mostly circulated among the mountain people. The legends also do not describe what the disappeared moon looks like. Most people believe that the seven moons and the epic battle may refer to the war between the seven kingdoms in the Xinsas era.

No conclusion could be drawn just by looking at this strange moon. The Seven Seas Traveler could not dock for the time being, and those of them who were still on the shore naturally could not just stand there and stare blankly. Fang He did not plan to return to the ship for the time being, so he simply let Catherine continue to lead everyone to further investigate the anchorage.

Although the town was empty, they actually had another purpose for coming here. Fang He had not forgotten that purpose. They had originally come here to inspect the shipyard, but the previous situation had prevented everyone from taking care of other things for the time being.

The privateers' secret anchorage and the shipyard belonging to Catherine were actually deeper in Navarta, but when they arrived there, they did not encounter any unnecessary situations along the way.

This anchorage is now like a dead city, but apart from its deadness, it does not seem to pose any other danger.

The huge shipyard lay quietly in a harbor. The tall buildings were now shrouded in the red moonlight. The dock was also empty, but the shipyard itself had not suffered any damage.

Just as Catherine described, it could have been used to repair several battleships in the privateering fleet - fourth- or third-class large ships. The tall shipyard was naturally more than enough to build the new Seven Seas Traveler envisioned by Fang He.

But manpower remains a big problem.

Fang He spent some time checking the tools in the shipyard. Most of them were in good maintenance, and some were even new equipment. The conditions were even better than the shipyard they had used in Istania. It was indeed a royal asset.

"But they all belong to me," Catherine gradually came out of her uneasiness and looked at the shipyard with some pride. "Although I begged them all from the Corin people, I built this shipyard brick by brick over the years. The prime minister only needed the privateering fleet to obey the royal family's orders, so he placed a lot of people among my people, but they didn't think much of these fixed assets."

"After all, compared with Goland's shipbuilding industry, this shipyard is nothing. Compared with the shipyard itself, it costs the royal family a greater price to secretly transport these equipment here. They do this in order to maintain a secret force that obeys their orders. As for the rest, it doesn't matter." Elisa knew a lot about the politics of Corin-Ishurian. After all, she had also been in the Dragon Cult for some time - and those people had considerable infiltration into the Corin royal family.

But now, only 70% to 80% of this force has been lost.

Fang He was not sure whether Catherine's betrayal was the work of the Corin royal family, or whether the Prime Minister had noticed her relationship with Stargate Port and made arrangements in advance.

But the Colin royal family could not have imagined what would happen afterwards. All the personnel in the anchorage disappeared - regardless of whether they were planted by the royal family or not. In addition, Catherine's main fleet was attacked by the Blood Shark Pirates, and this privateering fleet is now in name only.

However, the Prime Minister and the self-willed King seemed to always repeat the same mistakes - unnecessary suspicion of those around them, and then clipping their own wings due to paranoia - according to Sylvie, her father was not actually an opponent of the young king.

On the contrary, in the process of arresting the knight's "henchmen", many factions were pushed to the opposite side of His Majesty the King. Now, most of the resistance forces that have sprung up from the south to the north of Corin-Ishurian are due to this.

But Sylvie had told him, "Don't be surprised. This may be exactly what that evil villain needs. The more isolated and helpless the young king is, the more he will rely on our prime minister. Besides, isn't everything that has happened now a testament to what he said?"

"The South, the North, Elpahin, Kapka, the elves, and even the dwarves, those people really questioned the legitimacy of his throne. Doesn't this prove that these people are the 'traitors' that our Prime Minister has mentioned? In this way, our King will be even more obedient to the Prime Minister."

Fang He looked at his ship officer with some surprise, "But what does he want?"

The ship officer shook her head slightly. Not only her, but even Princess Brianne couldn't understand what was going on with the royal family.

Back to reality, Fang He couldn't help but look at Catherine beside him. Although she said she didn't care, she looked at the shipyard calmly with a somewhat lonely look on her face. She sighed and said, "Little guy, it's yours now."

"I don't need a shipyard," Fang He shook his head. "I will go to the Second World sooner or later. The assets here are actually of no value to me. I just need to borrow it temporarily to build a ship that I like."

Catherine looked at him in surprise. "So you don't really care about this 'base'?"

"I don't care much about Saint Hugh's either," Fang He replied, "I just want to come and see this famous free port. The Seven Seas Traveler is bound to pass through here before heading to the Giant Tree Hill. As for who is the King of Saint Hugh's, it doesn't really matter to us."

The female pirate was silent for a moment, "Then you agree to cooperate with me?"

"Although you have deceived us, Ms. Catherine, you have also helped us," Fang He replied, "We are originally a cooperative relationship, and it is reasonable for me to help you. But this favor is just like what you said, it does not mean that the Seven Seas Travelers will participate in the fight with pirates."

"Hmph," Catherine snorted softly.

She replied stiffly, "Little guy, I don't need you to intervene in anything. On the contrary, you need a large number of manpower to get this shipyard running again. Only I can find a way for you. I was born in Silver Chain Island, and many people there will give me face."

Fang He shook his head. That was exactly the content of their cooperation.

However, Catherine could probably only find ordinary workers for them. As for those reliable shipbuilders, without Princess Rupert to help them, they could only rely on themselves.

……