Above the mage!

Chapter 476 The Legend of the Black Sails

Time is running out.

After the Columbus docked at Lagos, it was resupplying.

On the other hand, Lanvin came forward to inform Harland of the Columbus's upcoming itinerary and asked him to help with various procedures, including the sea permit and logbook registration.

The original route reported by the Columbus was the Lagos-Oro Principality route.

Because the Principality of Oro was actually a vassal state of the Plantagenet Dynasty, this route, while seemingly an international trade route, actually fell under the category of "domestic trade," and the required procedures and reviews were simplified.

To travel to the City of Black Sails, one would be engaging in genuine "international trade," requiring the completion of numerous new procedures.

If these necessary procedures are not completed properly, it will lead to a lot of trouble later on.

Under the Plantagenet dynasty's system, if you want to do business in the long term, you can't leave any hidden dangers in terms of "laws and regulations".

This is one of the reasons why the Columbus made a special trip back to Lagos.

As for Gaode itself, it chose to "stay at home" on the ship.

It wasn't that he was putting on airs, but because of the incident in the Marco district, God had developed a considerable grudge against the local nobles of Lagos.

If he were to step in, it wouldn't be helping, but rather causing trouble and creating more difficulties.

That's why, after receiving the title of Honorary Mage of Auckland, Gao De immediately began planning to transfer the Harland Shipyard's assets to Auckland.

His past life experience made Gao De very clear that in a country like the Plantagenet Dynasty, which has strict laws and regulations and strictly adheres to its own system, having connections locally is very important for "doing business".

Since Gao De took over, Harland shipyard has been continuously expanding its scale this year, and it is considered a rising star in the local area in terms of both tax contributions and the "jobs" created by the expansion.

In addition, Haaland is generous and doesn't skimp on spending money to pave the way.

Therefore, procedures that might take ordinary people ten days or half a month to complete were completed for the Columbus ship within two hours with all the green lights.

These two hours should be enough for the Columbus to complete its resupply.

Without wasting any time, under the cover of night, the Columbus, with complete documentation, ample supplies, and a full cargo hold brought back from the North, sailed out of Lagos port and headed towards the City of Black Sails.

On the morning of the third day after leaving Lagos, the bow of the Columbus cut through the phosphorescent sea and officially entered the territory of the Drake Passage.

A touch of orange-red had just risen above the sea level when it was torn to shreds by the rolling clouds overhead.

The cotton-like clouds darted wildly across the sky, as if the clouds had been twisted into a pretzel and then forcibly torn apart.

“This is the Drake Passage.” God stood on the deck, looking up at the chaotic, cotton-like clouds in the sky.

The edges of the broken clouds had an eerie leaden gray hue, as if they were about to turn into hailstones and fall at any moment.

All I could hear was the howling and chaotic sound of the wind.

The Drake Passage is vast, spanning nearly a thousand kilometers. It is like a rift forcibly embedded by the Creator between the Nolan Continent and the Blue Flame Islands, and is the only sea route to the Blue Flame Islands.

Gaode is a typical person who likes to make thorough preparations before doing anything.

So after deciding to go to Black Sails City to attend the Anlingjie Auction, he immediately went through all the relevant nautical books and documents to learn about Black Sails City in detail, and learned many peculiar things about it.

One of the reasons is that there has only ever been one way to enter the City of Black Sails: by boat.

The fastest airships are useless in the Drake Passage.

The reason is simple: the Drake Passage is constantly surrounded by extremely turbulent and intense winds, also known as the wing-breaking winds, which obstruct the passage of airships.

According to the book, the name "Fragmented Wing Winds" comes from the fact that even birds of prey with wings are torn apart by the raging winds over the Drake Passage.

The same is true for the wings of airships.

Although Gao De is a science student, as a top student, his geographical knowledge is also quite strong; at least he can deduce the formation of the fractal wind belt from the limited descriptions in the book.

To the north of the Drake Passage lies a frozen ocean surface controlled by polar winds year-round, while to the south lies a roaring sea ravaged by the prevailing westerly winds.

The polar winds formed by the cold high pressure in the north collide with the strong prevailing westerly winds, causing the wind speed to increase sharply.

In addition, the vertical airflow here is also exceptionally intense.

The cold air currents from the northern frigid zone and the warm, humid air currents from the southern tropics converge above the Drake Passage, twisting into countless rotating columns of air, much like iron wire being repeatedly hammered in a blacksmith's forge, becoming more and more tangled the more it is twisted.

This convergence of air currents continues, so the fractal wind belt over the Drake Passage is always present and never stops.

With such chaotic airflow and wind belts, the airspace above the Drake Passage has become a no-go zone for airships.

In such a natural environment, if an airship were to enter the Drake Passage, it would be no different from a kite with a broken string in the face of the broken-wing wind belt. It would be unable to maintain its direction and would only gradually fall apart after being violently blown by the wind.

What you learn from books is different from what you see with your own eyes.

Even though he was mentally prepared for the existence of the blowholes, when the Columbus actually entered the Drake Passage and the blowholes were right above him, Gao De was still shocked by the sight before him:

The clouds, torn into spiderweb shapes by the gale, deformed and spread out in a very short time.

The sea breeze swept over him, making the hair at his temples stick tightly to his cheeks.

Under the captain's command, both mainsails of the Columbus were furled before entering the Drake Passage.

But instead of slowing down, the Columbus seemed to be being pushed forward by an invisible hand.

Gao De held onto the gunwale and looked down; the seawater displayed strange layers.

The surface was dark green seawater, dotted with white waves.

At a depth of about fifty meters, a deep blue ocean current is surging westward at a speed visible to the naked eye, so deep that even sunlight can hardly penetrate it.

【Circulating Flow】

The warm, moist air currents above the Drake Passage meet the cold and tropical winds to form a violent winged wind belt, while the seawater below the strait is a confluence of cold and tropical ocean currents, which also form the unique, fastest north-south dual circulation ocean current on the Nolan continent.

To the south is a swift current that flows clockwise, carrying ships at breakneck speed through the Drake Passage and heading straight for the Blue Flame Islands.

The ocean current to the north is known as the Return Turbulence, a counter-clockwise vortex that can quickly propel ships heading towards the Blue Flame Islands out of the Drake Passage. Visibly, even with a tailwind, the Columbus's maximum speed was only eleven or twelve knots, yet its speedometer had jumped to an astonishing eighteen knots.

This is still the cruising speed; it occasionally breaks the 20 knot mark.

At this speed, the Columbus could cross the Drake Passage in less than two days.

As Gao De watched the white wake left by the ship's stern being quickly swept into the deep blue ocean current, he couldn't help but marvel at the wonders of geography.

Although the climate and environment of the Drake Passage seem extremely dangerous, that only applies to airships.

For ships sailing on the sea, this is actually an extremely stable and convenient route.

The swirling current acts like a silent navigator, always keeping the ship firmly in the safe channel.

Even when the winds of the broken wings create towering waves overhead, the water currents below the surface never deviate from their predetermined course, and even provide powerful free propulsion.

This is also one of the important reasons why Black Sails City became the most famous black market city in the entire Nolan continent and even the entire plane: it used natural barriers to isolate the airship fleets of powerful forces, but opened its arms to all ships.

At noon on the last day of the harvest month, the bow of the Columbus slammed into an invisible "wall".

It wasn't a physical obstacle, but rather a sudden change in the atmosphere.

The fierce wind overhead disappeared, replaced by a warm, humid air current carrying a salty smell, and the sunlight poured onto the deck like molten gold.

This means that the Columbus has broken through the Drake Passage.

Looking back, the gray horizon of the Drake Passage is receding, like a charcoal mark erased by a giant hand.

At this moment, they were only half a day's journey away from the Blue Flame Islands.

This vast sea area connecting the strait and the Blue Flame Islands presents a scene of a flowing "international port," with all sorts of strange and unusual ships appearing, yet keeping a wary distance from each other.

A three-masted ship with a tattered Stars and Stripes flag came into view ahead, one of its masts broken.

The broken part was charred black, as if struck by lightning or hit by a cannonball. The sail had more than a dozen patches, and it was unknown what it had been through.

On the sea to the side, in the vision of Mandora's Eye in Gaode, a two-masted sailing ship without any flags is speeding along.

In other sea areas, especially those under the jurisdiction of the Plantagenet Dynasty, ships sailing without displaying flags indicating their identity would be mistaken for smuggling vessels or pirates and attacked by patrol fleets.

Only in the City of Black Sails could such a scene occur.

Further out on the sea, a group of strangely shaped barges were crowded together. Some of them had their hulls pieced together from whale bones, and their sails were patched with colorful fabrics that rattled in the wind, making them look like tattered funeral banners.

The deck was piled with boxes of spices, and several men wearing turbans stood on the deck, their bodies tightly wrapped in a black robe. One of them had a small, thin monkey perched on his shoulder.

Judging from their attire, they are most likely a smuggling gang from the continent of Terra.

All the ships within sight maintained a safe distance from each other with remarkable tacit understanding.

Because in the lawless gray area of ​​the Blue Flame Islands, the evil of human nature is amplified to the extreme, and any ship may be tempted by money and turn into a pirate ship at any time.

Therefore, when sailing in this sea area, everyone follows an unspoken rule: you must maintain a safe distance and not easily approach other ships, especially those fully loaded with cargo, otherwise you will likely be regarded as someone with malicious intent.

Gaode, on the other hand, is not worried at all about possible attacks or malicious attacks.

Because the Four-Ringed Mage, Lanwen, was on board.

In the Blue Flame Islands, the strongest combat force is only a fifth-ring mage—mages above the fifth ring are not allowed to enter the Blue Flame Islands or the waters surrounding them.

With a fourth-circle mage in charge, the Columbus, while not lawless, can at least protect itself without any problems.

And all of this stems from a legend:
Legend has it that beneath the Blue Flame Islands lies a seventh-tier sea beast known as Abaddon.

It's important to know that in the mage realm, although there is a level called the ninth ring, the most powerful mage on record so far is the eighth ring mage.

This means that Abaddon, at rank seven, is considered one of the top predators in the entire mage plane.

According to legend, the Blue Flame Islands are all creations of Abaddon, formed from parts of Abaddon's body that were exposed on the seabed and secretions that accumulated while he was asleep.

The island is rich in eerie blue flame crystals, which may contain Abaddon's energy crystals. They emit a cold, eerie blue light, and in some areas, eerie blue flames may also appear.

This is also the origin of the name "Blue Flame" for the Blue Flame Islands.

For some unknown reason, Abaddon was in a state of near-eternal deep slumber, with its metabolism at its lowest and its consciousness dormant, somewhat similar to hibernation, except that its hibernation period was extremely long.

Its slumber was a prerequisite for the existence of the Black Sails City.

Even in its slumber, Abaddon's immense life energy and the extraordinary force field it unconsciously emanates still envelop the entire Blue Flame Islands and the surrounding seas, forming a unique domain of its own.

Within this area, spells of the fifth ring and below can be cast normally without any impact.

However, spells above the fifth ring, including ascending spells, may be too powerful to coexist with Abaddon's domain. Once cast, they will be attacked unconsciously by Abaddon's domain.

Firstly, the immense magical power channeled by high-level spells will be absorbed/neutralized by Abaddon as nourishment or a source of interference, causing the spell to annihilate the moment it is cast, resulting in casting failure.

Secondly, mages who cast high-level spells are considered a threat by Abaddon because their energy is too powerful, once exposed.

It's like a foreign object entering the immune system, triggering an instinctive rejection that manifests as persistent mental pressure and aggression.

This can cause severe physical discomfort to the caster, such as splitting headaches, temporary dementia, and in severe cases, even permanent mental damage.

This makes the Blue Flame Islands and the surrounding waters a forbidden zone for high-level mages and even high-level ley line creatures.

The Plantagenets possessed the power to confront Abaddon, but the price they would have to pay was too high.

The gain was merely the razing of a black market city that posed no threat to them, which was clearly unnecessary.

Yes, this is the primary reason why Black Sails City has become the most renowned black market city in the entire plane.

Abaddon's biological domain and the formidable Fragmentation Belt together forged the city of Black Sails.

Otherwise, how could the Plantagenet dynasty have sat idly by and allowed such a "city of sin" to be located beside it?
(End of this chapter)