Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 145 Miner's Lamp and First Class Guests on the Miracle of Life

Two sleds returned to the Valkyrie one after the other. By this time, Gerta seemed to have finished selling vegetables and fruits, and there were only some cargo boxes on the ice that had not yet been moved onto the ice.

"Are they all sold out?" Cheng Lang asked.

"Sold out, all sold out."

Gerta said happily, "I traded fruits and vegetables for the specialties of the Bear Clan's boat-pulling people."

"Is it a red lotus flower?!" Shenba asked immediately.

"I'm not stupid, why would I switch to that kind of garbage?"

Gerta said disdainfully, "I traded two ice cores bigger than oak barrels, some walrus hides, and a few staghorn antlers, which are essential materials for making sleds."

"An ice core bigger than an oak barrel? Traded for with vegetables and fruits?"

Cheng Lang asked in astonishment. He clearly remembered that he had bought a piece the size of a human head for five gold coins, and now that piece had melted down to only half its original size.

"These two ice cores are the most expensive, but pieces this large are indeed rare."

Gerta said with particular pain, "To get them, I gave up ten baskets of vegetables and a bucket of fruit, plus a bucket of juice."

It seems he really overpaid back then. Cheng Lang is starting to feel the pinch.

"Red lotus flower".

"That stuff isn't worth much. As long as you mine the ice core, you'll find plenty of that kind of wild grass growing around it."

After saying that, Gerta pointed behind her, "Let's go into the cabin later and take a look. There are still some growing around those two ice cores. If you like, you can use them to make tea, but that kind of stuff only tastes good in places like this. If you go to a slightly warmer place, drinking a sip will be torture."

At this point, Gerta looked curiously at what they had bought. "What did you buy? Shenba, were you scammed in that awful place like the shipwreck dismantling workshop?"

"Why me?" Shenba asked, dissatisfied.

“I don’t think anyone else will be fooled by such a clumsy tribal trick,” Gerta said matter-of-factly.

"I"

"Let's unload the truck first."

Cheng Lang didn't give Shenba a chance to explain, and also gave Gerta a wink.

The three of them called to the gorillas above them to lower the hanging basket and send up all the things they had bought. By the way, Shenba also asked Gerta about the source of the strength of the bear-tribe boatmen.

"They can draw upon the power of the War Bear."

Gerta said unsurprised, "But that only applies to this kind of icy, snowy place. If we send them to Pirate City, they'll probably have to carry an ice core with them just to walk."

While explaining these things, Gerta took out an orange to send the little guy driving the sled away, and then looked at the oak barrels frozen together on the deck, and even the corpse.

"Let's melt the ice first."

As soon as the order was given, the vine demons immediately brought buckets of hot water and carefully poured them onto the ice cube blind boxes they had bought.

As thick steam rose from the deck, Yun Ji and the others arrived back in their sleds.

How much were you scammed out of?

Yun Ji glanced at it only once before asking Shenba, who looked completely innocent.

"You're my sister! How could you even..."

"Who else but you would buy such a fraudulent thing?" Yun Ji asked matter-of-factly.

"This isn't me."

Shenba pointed and gestured incoherently, but didn't know how to explain it, so he could only look to the captain for help.

He said he heard the call of the dark elves inside.

Cheng Lang finally offered an explanation for Shenba, and also pointed to the corpses and oak barrels that were about to be peeled off from the melting ice.

Upon hearing this, Yun Ji's expression became slightly serious. She reached out, pulled out a dagger, and lightly wiped her fingertip with it before dripping blood onto the ice and closing her eyes.

However, after a long while, she shook her head, "I can't sense any voices from the dark elves."

"Me too," Cheng Lang and Yafso said in unison.

“Well, I can’t feel it anymore,” Shenba scratched his head, “but I definitely heard it very clearly back then.”

"We'll find out when we open it," Cheng Lang said, then changed the subject, "Did you guys buy anything?"

“Buying some fur coats will make our trip much warmer,” Yavso quickly replied.

"Didn't you buy any red lotus flower tea?" Shenba asked expectantly.

"Only a fool would buy that kind of thing," Princess Wuying's matter-of-fact reply immediately shut Shenba up.

"Alright, move these to the cargo hold." Cheng Lang clapped his hands. "Neither Shenba nor I bought any."

"Shenba, you've grown up. You're finally not fooled by such obvious tricks anymore." Yun Ji's praise, though seemingly gratified, didn't make Shenba happy at all.

Follow the gorillas carrying the blind boxes into the cargo hold located below the gun deck, where a thick canvas with asphalt on both sides has already been laid out.

“The sound is coming from the oak barrel,” Shenba said, already drawing the sickle from his waist.

Scared?
There's no reason to be afraid. Putting aside everything else, there are more undead than living people on the Valkyrie, and everyone gets along fairly well. There's absolutely no reason to be afraid at this point.

With a "snap," Shenba easily pried open the first oak barrel with his sickle.

It contains white, solidified grease that looks like an oversized candle.

It's fish oil.

Gerta was the first to identify what it was: "Sea fish oil turns into this grotesque form in the extreme cold of the icy sea."

"open to take a look"

Before Cheng Lang could finish speaking, Shenba had already wielded his large scythe to peel off all the planks around the oak barrel, cutting the frozen, stone-like sea fish oil inside into fist-sized pieces.

To see if anything was hidden inside, Shenba used his sickle to pry open the second wooden barrel. Inside was still solidified fish oil; still nothing was hidden.

Next, the third and fourth oak barrels were pried open one by one, and they were also full of fish oil.

Finally, when the fifth oak barrel was pried open and the solidified fish oil was cut open, something finally appeared inside.

Hidden inside these fish oils were two leather pouches, each only the size of a fist.

The first leather pouch was opened, and it was filled to the brim with gold coins. Even with just a cursory glance, there were probably seventy or eighty of them.

This leather bag alone makes the bet worthwhile.

“It’s yours,” Cheng Lang said to Shenba.

"Thank you, Captain!" Shenba didn't mind the dirt at all and happily hung the greasy money bag on his belt.

At the same time, Yun Ji opened the second leather pouch. However, everyone was stunned when they saw what was inside—it contained a mask of hypocrisy!
Everyone instinctively looked at the last oak barrel, the same one the corpse had been holding in its arms.

With a "click," Shenba carefully pried open the lid of the oak barrel this time.

As the wooden lid was slowly lifted, everyone immediately saw a little boy wrapped in animal skin, curled up in the barrel—a little boy with black hair—another dark elf, a dark elf on the run.

The little boy, who looked no bigger than Princess Mist Shadow, was wrapped in an exceptionally thick white animal hide. In his arms, he held two silver boat lanterns and a teapot carved from ice cores.

Everyone present knew that this teapot was for drinking red lotus flower tea, and just one cup would make the whole body feel incredibly warm. But there was no tea left in the teapot, and the teapot itself had even broken in two.

"I can vaguely sense that there are indeed undead spirits here."

It was the Silver Queen who spoke, "And there are two of them, each hiding in one of the two ship lanterns, but they have fallen into a deep sleep."

"Inside the boat lanterns?" Shenba said, already pulling out the two gleaming silver boat lanterns.

These two ship lanterns were only the size of an arm, their excessively slender shapes consisting of two-thirds transparent crystal lampshades. The lower part of the oil storage tank was not only carved with vines and flowers, but also inlaid with some vermilion bird stones the size of fingertips. In particular, at the bottom of the oil storage tank, there was even half a piece of armor. "Is this armor?" Cheng Lang asked.

It can't really be considered armor.

The magic mirror explained, "These patterns seem to originate from the royal family of the Elven Kingdom; I suspect they might be from noble families."

“These two miner’s lamps are not something nobles use,” Yun Lan suddenly said.

"Mining lamp?"

"That's right, a miner's lamp."

Yun Lan said with absolute certainty, "Do you still remember the locations pointed to by the two treasure maps we're looking for, one in the Frost Kingdom and the other in the Elf Kingdom?"

"Of course, they are frost."

"What separates the two places is the Dwarf Mountain, which belongs to Rica."

Yun Lan said, "Although Dwarf Mountain belongs to Lika, the spurs on both sides belong to the Frost Duchy and the Elf Duchy respectively."

The spurs of the Dwarf Mountains, belonging to the Frost Duchy, are the only mining area on the entire Starsea Continent that produces lubricating oil. However, the spurs of the Dwarf Mountains, belonging to the Elf Duchy, produce sin gold.

"What is 'sin gold'?" asked Wuying, a child who had come to listen to the commotion, just as Cheng Lang had been wondering.

"gold"

Yun Lan said, "There are rumors that those gold mines were the vaults of the ancient dwarves. After all the dwarves died, their spirits would go to those gold mines to guard their wealth and release large amounts of explosive poison gas."

This is precisely why mining that gold comes at a huge cost.

"so."

"Therefore, those who mine that gold are basically criminals, criminals who will never be released from prison. For this reason, the gold of the Elven Duchy is also known as sin gold."

Yun Lan sighed, "These miners' lamps were made specifically for mining Sin Gold. They can emit enough light to illuminate the veins, and because they are inlaid with Vermilion Bird Stone, they also emit a comfortable temperature so that the miners won't freeze to death from the low temperatures in the mine. In particular, these specially designed miners' lamps will not ignite the poisonous gases in the mine."

"Could this gold mine also be connected to a natural gas vein?" Cheng Lang wondered to himself, but did not express his opinion.

"So these two mining lamps are also suitable for use in the frigid Arctic sea?" Yun Ji asked.

“Who knows?” Yun Lan shrugged. “I recognized it by the patterns on it.”

“Let’s look at the other body,” Cheng Lang said.

"Let me do it"

As Yun Ji spoke, she drew a long dagger from her lower back and carefully cut open the icy cloak, hood, and mask covering the corpse.

This is a silver-haired male elf, whose hair has been trimmed to just a stubble, perhaps to avoid drawing attention.

On one of her pointed ears, she wore a large gold earring.

"pat"

Just as Yun Ji gently parted her icy outer garment, a semi-transparent plaque fell out from inside her clothes.

The sign is engraved with a sailboat outlined in gold paint, and on the other side it reads "First Class Guest of Miracle of Life".

Miracle of Life?
Cheng Lang subconsciously looked at Shenba, who also widened his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Yun Ji was the first to notice that the two of them looked strange.

"Keep searching, see if he has anything else on him."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he described the frenzied bidding they had witnessed at the shipwreck dismantling workshop.

At the same time, Yun Ji also took out the last few items from the corpse that was kneeling on the ground with its arms outstretched.

The first item was a spider bow and a bag of wooden arrowheads; Yavso had the same thing.

The second item was a slender, curved sword, only the length of an arm. This sword was exceptionally beautiful in design, yet also exceptionally sharp.

The third item surprised everyone; it was two golden sleds, each only the size of a palm!
“This is a skid from the Miracle of Life!” Gerta and Yavso were the first to recognize the skid.

Before anyone else could ask, Yafso said, "When my grandfather and I escaped from Frostflower Harbor, the Miracle of Life was moored next to us. That ship had a skid at the front and a skid at the back."

I also heard from the sailors on the cargo ship we were on that the Miracle of Life was so fast and very stable because it used two skids.

"My friend who saw us off from the Frost Duchy also mentioned this in a casual conversation."

Gerta began, “This set of skis is very special. The captain of the Miracle of Life received it from Lord Panini more than a decade ago.”

"I think I know why the Miracle of Life fetched such a high price," Cheng Lang muttered to himself. "Silver Queen, Yun Lan, set sail immediately, quickly, we have to be fast."

"Let's go back to the Thorn."

As Yun Lan spoke, she beckoned Gerta and Yafso to the open deck. At the same time, the Silver Queen controlled the bridle anchor to loosen the anchor point and directed the gorillas to raise the sails.

"Captain, shall we continue sailing towards Frostflower Harbor?" the Silver Queen asked.

"That's right"

Cheng Lang, who was still in the cabin, said, "Fog rises 10 nautical miles later. Fog can rise in a place like this, right?"

“Of course,” the Silver Queen replied confidently.

"After 20 nautical miles, we'll turn north and find a place to hide temporarily," Cheng Lang gave his second order.

"Captain, tell me your guess." Yun Lan appeared in the mirror as the Thorn Ship began to move.

"The people bidding in the workshop are most likely after this set of sleds."

As Cheng Lang walked towards the conference room, he said, "This set of skis couldn't have ended up in the hands of this first-class VIP, could it? He couldn't have just picked it up, could he?"

"So it was he who stole the skid from the Miracle of Life, which is why that ship..." Shenba's eyes widened; he had, for once, guessed Cheng Lang's guess correctly.

Seeing Cheng Lang looking at her, Yun Ji nodded, "Doing these things is not difficult for a combat dancer, at least not for me."

"I'm afraid some people will be disappointed," Cheng Lang said worriedly, but he showed no excitement at having unexpectedly found a treasure.

"Captain, what should we do with those things and the corpses?" Shenba asked, pointing behind him.

After a moment's thought, Cheng Lang instructed, "Shenba, go and nail out a coffin. Didn't Uncle Gerta trade for two ice cores? Place the coffin around the ice cores. Put the rest of the items in the Eternal Coffin for now."

"I'll do it right away!"

Before Shenba could finish speaking, he stopped in his tracks. There was plenty of raw materials in the cargo hold.

"We might as well take the opportunity to play the role of pirates," Yun Ji bluntly suggested.

“If we don’t need to infiltrate the Elven Duchy to gain the approval of that great tree, I certainly wouldn’t mind making some extra money.”

Cheng Lang said, "But it's better if we don't attract attention now. After all, I'm already wanted, and I guess it won't be long before you are. If we attract attention now, the wandering circus that's been keeping an eye on us will probably notify the Elf Kingdom immediately."

"That makes sense."

Yun Ji was easily persuaded. At the same time, the Valkyrie and Thorn gradually caught the wind and began to glide faster and faster on the ice.

Soon after, the two boats disappeared completely into the night and the rising cold fog.

Not long after, the two boats, one on each side, were tied together with the Miracle of Life, which was frozen in the ice. Propelled by the wind, they hurriedly left the Bear Clan's boat-pulling tribe, and also released a large number of letter-bearers.

Less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea later, two more boats hurriedly chased after them into the darkness, and each of them released more than a dozen Noboru flying in different directions.

"Turn north"

After leaving the Bear Clan's boat-pulling tribe, Cheng Lang gave the order, and the two boats immediately turned away from the channel, racing northwards.

(End of this chapter)