Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 151 The Digging Beetle
At the entrance of the verdant hunting tent, Yafso forcefully threw a glass bottle into the tent.

As the glass bottle was shattered by two thorny bushes that suddenly sprouted from the ground, a large amount of nutrient solution sprayed out.

After a period of rapid growth, the spores inside the tent quickly began to decay. Standing at the door, Yavso clapped her hands confidently and said, "Alright, it's safe inside now, let's go in!"

Before she finished speaking, she was the first to enter the hunting tent filled with the strong smell of mushrooms, where she saw elves lying on the ground with blank expressions.

"This is the team leader."

Yun Ji immediately spotted their captain among the hunters; his attire was clearly different.

“Strip them of their clothes and copy their appearance,” Yun Ji said.

“Captain, why don’t you copy this captain’s appearance? You two are about the same size,” Yun Lan said to Cheng Lang. “We can use his face when we go to sell his men.”

"So poisonous."

While Cheng Lang muttered to himself, he didn't stop distributing Poseidon's Blood, which was necessary for replicating the appearance of the Mask of False Benevolence, to everyone. He even generously gave each person an extra bottle just in case.

Soon, everyone chose an elven hunter and stuck the mask of hypocrisy, which was soaked in Poseidon's blood, onto their faces.

Because of the captain's generosity, even the extra four were not wasted; their faces, which could potentially make money in the future, were used to borrow their talents.

With all preparations complete, Shenba personally washed the green paint off the faces of the elven hunters who had been stripped of their clothes. Then, using blankets found in the hunting tent compartments, he wrapped them up tightly and bound them into a food that did not exist in this world—zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

After loading all the elven hunters and the female elf's corpse onto the sled, Yun Lan, the last to leave, only did a little research before successfully folding up the hunting tent and turning it into an ordinary-looking umbrella.

"There can't be too many people selling these elves later."

Yun Ji said, "Gelta, you and I will go with the captain to sell goods. Yun Lan, you, Shenba, and Yafuso will take the captain and the female elf's corpse to the location of the Void Shipyard and wait for us."

"Didn't we agree that I would go?" Shenba muttered in disappointment.

"Don't you think your figure is too conspicuous?" Yun Ji said helplessly.

However, after she finished speaking, Yun Lan's eyes lit up and she quickly said, "Yun Ji, I have an idea. Perhaps we should really let Shen Ba do this kind of thing."

“I think Sister Yunlan is right!” Shenba said immediately.

I haven't said anything yet.

Yun Lan patted her forehead, then explained, "There are so many taverns in Frostflower Town, just pick one and have Shenba borrow a siren sailor's face."

"Also, let's go sell the elves together, Captain. I did this before I went into slumber, so I know how to sell them. Also, I need to borrow a face—the face of a half-siren."

"Take it"

Cheng Lang, always eager to stir up trouble, didn't even wait for Yun Ji to express her opinion before taking out the last two cups of Poseidon's Blood he was carrying and handing them to Yun Lan and Shen Ba. He also asked the question that had been bothering him, "Have you ever sold elves?"

"They weren't elves, but a few fools trying to deceive me."

As Yun Lan accepted the blood of Poseidon, she said nonchalantly, "If they were still alive, they would probably have forgotten what happened by now."

"So, Yavso, Gerta, and I are going to the Void Shipyard?" Yunji asked.

“Let’s interrogate the prisoners while we’re at it,” Yun Lan suggested. “That captain must know something. We’ve invested so much of Poseidon’s blood; we need to recoup some of the costs.”

"Take this."

Cheng Lang simply handed the dock key to Yun Ji; he had already taught all of them the key's password on the way here.

After agreeing on the next steps, everyone boarded a sled and immediately set off back to Frostflower Town.

With Gerta, the local bigwig, leading the way, Yunlan and Shenba didn't have to put in much effort to find enough drunkards to choose from in a tavern.

After some preparation, two sleds carried the group that had just arrived in Frostflower Town back to Frostflower Harbor, and finally returned to the ice surface with their backs to the crystal-clear, gleaming ice core lighthouse.

Halfway there, Yun Ji, Yafuso, and Gerta rode in a sled carrying the captured hunter captain and the female elf's corpse, heading towards the Void Shipyard. Cheng Lang and his two companions arrived at the shadowy bow of a huge flower boat.

"What do we do next?" Shenba, who was in charge of operating the sled, asked in a low voice.

"Don't worry"

As Yun Lan spoke, she drew a dagger and tapped it lightly on the anchor, saying in a low voice, "This is a rule from the pirate city decades ago. I wonder if it's still relevant."

Before she could finish speaking, a small door opened in the anchorage, and a hoisting frame was pushed out. After the frame was secured, a masked woman looked down and then stepped into the frame.

At the same time, Cheng Lang and the other two also put on masks, only revealing the eyes of their fake faces.

"Friends from Pirate City"

The masked woman standing in the suspended frame stepped down before the frame even touched the ground, and looked at the canvas-covered sled with interest. "Do you have anything good to sell?"

Let's inspect the goods.

As Yun Lan spoke, she untied the rope binding the canvas, then lifted a corner of it to reveal the elves lying folded inside the sled, stripped down to only their shorts and clothes.

"It's been a long time since I've seen such high-quality goods. Where did you get them?"

The woman squatted down, carefully examining each face as she asked questions—she was gently pulling on the skin of each face to see if there was any hypocrisy or pretense.

Yun Lan covered the canvas again, and said with extra caution, "Friend, haven't we broken the rules?"

"It was my fault for being so talkative," the masked woman said, surprisingly agreeable. "Name your price."

"Forget about the gold coins."

Yun Lan said, "Poseidon's blood, armor pieces, or even armored weapons are all acceptable."

They're not worth that much.

The masked woman lifted the canvas again and examined each person. "Poisoned?"

"It's just a dream. I'll probably wake up in about two days," Yun Lan said confidently.

"These seeds may look healthy enough, but even if you put them all together, they wouldn't be worth a cup of Poseidon's blood."

The masked woman thought for a moment and said, "However, I can offer you something special in exchange."

"What is it?" Yun Lan asked curiously.

"Let me think"

After a moment's thought, the masked woman snapped her fingers and reached into her robes to pull out a Vermilion Bird Stone the size of a fist.

"This is enough to allow you to cross a warm enough ice sea."

The masked woman said, "If you're willing to trade, it's yours. This is Frostflower Harbor. If you're patient, there's plenty of this kind of cargo available outside the Seafood Tavern."

“We also need 300 gold coins and three legitimate identities,” Yun Lan said, putting away the Vermilion Bird Stone that was slowly emitting warmth.

"make a deal"

The masked woman took out three bags filled with gold coins from her bosom and tossed them to Cheng Lang and the other two. Then she took out three pieces of animal hide and handed them over, saying, "Help me put them into the hanging frame."

"Thank you"

Yun Lan took the animal skin and waved her hand. Shen Ba immediately threw the elf prisoners, who were tied up like dumplings with only their faces showing, into the hanging basket.

Having successfully completed the transaction, Cheng Lang and his two companions boarded the sled again and sped off towards Frostflower Port.

When the flower boat behind them was completely shrouded in the night and the rising snow, they saw Yun Ji and the other two waiting for them ahead.

"Come on up quickly!"

Yun Ji gave a call, and Cheng Lang and Yun Lan immediately followed her instructions, taking off their cloaks and jumping onto their sleds. They left the valuable Vermilion Bird Stone, the three animal hides, and all their gold coins on the sleds. Afterward, everyone threw oak barrels filled with ice and snow onto the sleds they had been riding in.

With a slight tug on the reins, the sled veered northward, and Shenba, who had also removed his cloak, jumped over.

"How did your transaction go?"

As Yun Ji asked in a low voice, she also handed each of the three of them a new cloak.

"all the best"

As Yun Lan spoke, she had already reverted to the face she had borrowed at the Sea Fish Tavern when she first landed in Frostflower Town.

"Did you find out anything from your place?" Cheng Lang asked as his expression changed.

"I found out."

Yun Ji, whose expression was also changing, said, "It's something extraordinary. No wonder the Green Hunters have been looking for them for so long, and no wonder that ship sold for such a high price."

"So what exactly is it?" Yun Lan asked, pulling her cloak tighter around herself.

"The spirits in the lamp wick are Captain Erlin of the Sinful Gold Mine Guard, his wife, and their dark elf son."

Yun Ji placed a miner's lamp that could release plenty of warmth in the middle of the sled and sighed, "A few months ago, the Sin Gold Mine accidentally unearthed an abandoned mine left by the dwarves, and found dwarven digging beetles inside."

"What?!" Yun Lan was the first to exclaim in surprise.

"What is a burrowing beetle?" Cheng Lang and the ignorant Shenba asked at the same time.

"A strange beetle used by dwarves to dig mine tunnels"

Yavso immediately explained that she would never admit that she had asked the same question not long ago.

"The disaster began with that digging beetle."

Yun Ji sighed, “There is a spy planted in the guard by a viscount named Shen Fei. Viscount Shen Fei not only plans to possess the beetle, but also plans to use the miners’ defection as an excuse to silence them. He also asked Erlin to help him, but he doesn’t know that Erlin’s child is hidden among the miners.”

"And then?" Yun Lan pressed.

"Ellin kidnapped and killed Viscount Shenfei."

Yun Ji said, "He also used the digging beetles to seal off the entrance to the Sin Gold Mine and a large part of the tunnels, and then led the miners to escape the encirclement smoothly along the abandoned mine tunnels left by the dwarves."

The elves are now searching for the missing burrowing beetle, and other things that don't seem like something the Ellin family and those gold miners could have taken.

What does "what" mean?

"Gold equivalent to 1.2 million gold coins, more than 240 cups of Poseidon's Blood that inexplicably appeared in the Sin Gold Mine and were stolen, and more than 900 doses of golden healing potions that would never be given to the miners."

There were even various weapons I'd never heard of before, but enough for every miner to have one, crafted from the branches of the Evergreen Sacred Tree.

Yun Ji scoffed, "These weapons and resources are enough for the miners to take over the Sin Gold Mine."

"They're treating them like Sun Wukong, ordering them around!" Cheng Lang suddenly realized.

"Although these things could obviously not have been taken by that captain of the guard named Erlin and those miners, Erlin did kill Viscount Shenfei and take the digging beetle with him."

Of course, those gold miners had indeed all escaped. This Verdant Hunter squad had been stationed in Frostflower Harbor for a long time, their main task being to find the miners who had fled.

At this point, Yun Ji pointed to the miner's lamp in the middle of the sled and said, "In addition, after we sent that body back to the Valkyrie's lower deck and put it together with the other two bodies, the three miner's lamps also changed a bit, but it's not convenient to demonstrate them right now."

"Where is the prisoner?" Yun Lan asked.

"It's been left in the dock."

As Yun Ji returned the dock key to Cheng Lang, she said, "The residents of Dragonfly Island need some news, so leaving him there is just right."

"A pretty good arrangement."

Cheng Lang took the key and said indifferently that he had a premonition that this cautious dark elf had other purposes in keeping that elven hunter captain around.

Without asking any further questions, the group boarded the same sled and headed to Frostflower Port once again without stopping.

When they returned to the Red Lotus Grass Inn, it was already evening of the next day.

Of course, for Frostflower Harbor at this time of year, there is not much difference between day and night.

"You're finally back!"

Mrs. Ronique, the innkeeper, said, “I was about to go to all the taverns to ask if anyone had seen a few drunk elves. Frostflower Harbor isn’t as safe as you think. Many elves who come here for the first time are sold to pleasure boats, which is not a pleasant experience.”

Upon hearing this, everyone exchanged smiles and casually made up some excuses to brush it off.

Back on the second floor of their rented apartment, the group of six went into Cheng Lang's room. Yun Ji removed the canvas covers from the three miners' lamps and placed them on the table.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the tiny figures resembling a family of three began to hold hands and dance in circles again, but what was reflected in the flickering light and shadow was no longer a picture, but a recurring "animation".

In this short animation, the family of three elves still stands on the edge of the beautiful lake, but on the low hill in the middle of the lake, a strange-looking beetle has crawled into a rock and blocked the entrance with pebbles pushed out by its hind legs.

"Is this the burrowing beetle?" Cheng Lang asked curiously.

In this animation, the beetle, which glows with a dark golden light, looks just like a giant rhinoceros beetle.

Cheng Lang's so-called "extra-large" means that if this beetle stood up, it would probably be as big as four Shenba tied together, plus a Yafuso on top of it!

This was almost the most accurate description of the beetle's size that he could think of—perhaps it would be more accurate if Yavso were to hold a little princess of the Mist Shadows in his arms.

"That's right"

Yun Lan's answer dispelled Cheng Lang's wild thoughts: "That is the burrowing beetle, a mysterious machine left behind by the ancient dwarves."

"Is this kind of big insect very precious?" Shenba asked curiously.

"Precious? Of course it's precious."

Yun Lan said, "It's at least much more valuable than the travel carriages we found before. In my time, only Gotland and Rica possessed burrowing beetles. And there were probably less than 10 of them in total. Even so, it made the mining industry of the two countries far surpass those of countries like Poiran."

"About ten years ago, one was also discovered within the territory of the Frost Duchy."

Yun Ji said, "But it is said that it was bombed by people from other countries, and the wreckage was sent to the underground auction in Pirate City."

Actually, what I wanted to say was...

Yavso and her grandfather Gerta exchanged a glance, then Yavso pointed and said, "That lake... I think I've seen it before, haven't I, Grandpa?"

"Yes, we have indeed met."

Gerta, who hadn't said a word the whole way and had even seen the scene in the dock, finally spoke up at this moment, "On our escape route, Yavso and I even rested by that lake for one night."

"What...no, that's not the point."

Before Yavso and Gerta could speak, Cheng Lang asked, "Have we purchased everything we need for the journey?"

"The purchase is complete"

Gerta quickly replied, "They're all in my room. We just need to rent two more carriages and we can set off anytime."

"Go rent a horse-drawn carriage, let's set off immediately."

Cheng Lang made a decision immediately—money can move people's hearts, and that big bug was too attractive.

(End of this chapter)