Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 163 Who are the pirates who have come ashore?
"In a sense, the Elven Duchy, located at the very center of the continent, serves as a buffer zone for the other countries on the continent."

Cheng Lang said quietly, "Once the Elf Duchy is divided, war on the continent will be inevitable."

“War means death, many people will die,” Yun Ji said. “It will also distract the continental nations from matters at sea.”

"It seems we've found the mastermind."

Cheng Lang frowned and said, "But what conditions did they offer that made the Frost Duchy willing to do this?"

Before Yun Ji could answer the question, the burrowing beetle had already crawled over at high speed, spraying grayish-white foam all the way.

"Come up quickly!"

Before the metal elytra could be opened, Yun Lan, who was sitting inside, hurriedly called out, "We have completely blocked the entrance, but there seem to be a lot of people outside, and the entire town of Funeral Valley seems to be on fire. We need to leave here quickly."

"Sailors coming ashore, esteemed Captain."

While Cheng Lang was dragging the bound undead archer inside, Fan Hart, who was in charge of piloting the digging beetle, gave his suggestion: "I suggest... wait, this undead is a bit special."

What's so special about it?

Cheng Lang asked curiously. Speaking of which, this undead was quite obedient. After being bound by the whip and trying to struggle to no avail, it obediently adopted an attitude of "whatever happens, happens".

"This undead looks older than me."

Fan Hart circled the undead bound by the whip, then tapped the mask on its head and said, "That's a restraint mask made of silver urn, similar in principle to a traveling carriage."

As he spoke, Fan Hart pulled a large pair of tweezers from his ghost backpack, inserted them into the eye sockets of the mask, poked it left and right, then twisted and turned it.

When he pulled the tweezers out, the tips of the tweezers had already clamped onto a gold chain.

"Click"

Before anyone could react, Van Hart violently snapped the delicate gold chain in two.

“Alright, the people outside can’t control him now, Captain. Please release him. With the restraint mask on, he won’t run away or resist,” Fan Hart confidently assured him.

Cheng Lang placed enough trust in Fan Hart and put away the whip almost without thinking.

He now had reason to believe that if Fanhart, this eight-legged undead, wanted to harm them, he wouldn't need to go to such great lengths.

As expected, although the whip was taken away, the strange ghost remained obediently in place like a dummy, not moving an inch. Even when Yun Lan tried to lift one of his hands, he didn't know to put it down.

“I think I know him,” Yun Lan said, frowning. “I know this undead.”

"You know this undead?" Cheng Lang was taken aback, then his eyes widened. "You're not trying to say...?"

“The guard in the royal dungeon of Lika, that immortal idiot,” Yun Lan sighed. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen him like this.”

"What was he like before?" Yun Ji asked Cheng Lang the same question.

"Previously, he wore a very heavy suit of armor."

At this point, Yun Lan shuddered, a hint of fear creeping into her voice. "Don't let his grotesque appearance fool you, he's a demon and a nightmare for everyone in the dungeon. He has so many torture techniques at his disposal that they could fill a book."

"So Rika was involved in this too?" Yun Ji frowned. "No, that's not right, he was."

"Bo Erlan," Cheng Lang and Yun Lan said in unison.

The imposter Princess Bacla, who is even more convincing than the real princess, has already married into the royal family of Perrland. While it's hard to say whether she will take this spirit with her as part of her dowry, if she were willing to do so, the royal family of Rica would probably wholeheartedly agree.

Ladies

Cheng Lang snapped his fingers. "Since this unnamed necromancer is so skilled at interrogating us, does he happen to be imprisoning quite a few fake elves next door?"

“I have no objection, but I refuse to watch the torture process.”

Yun Lan shuddered uncontrollably. "And I strongly suggest you don't watch it either, it really will give you nightmares."

"Fan Hart, do you have any way to get this undead to obey our commands?" Cheng Lang asked Fan Hart.

"certainly"

As he spoke, Fan Hart had already inserted his tweezers back into the eye sockets of the mask on the undead's head and started fiddling with them, while asking, "Do I need him to obey everyone's orders or only yours?"

"Let him," Cheng Lang thought for a moment, then said with a smile, "just let him obey only Princess Yunlan's orders."

“This is the most special gift I’ve ever received,” Yun Lan said with a seemingly deeper meaning.

“He is a ghost of Rica, and it is only right that you, the princess of Rica, should manage him.”

Cheng Lang said matter-of-factly, "Besides, I already have Fan Hart as an undead, and I don't want another one by my side."

"What an oblivious man, isn't he?" Yun Lan said to Yun Ji with a smile.

“Give it to me if you don’t like it,” Yun Ji said more bluntly than Cheng Lang. “This undead is extremely powerful.”

"Forget it, you're such an unromantic woman." Yun Lan rolled her eyes, then did what Yun Ji usually did—patted her forehead.

"You're just trying to seduce me and then plot against my fleet," Cheng Lang thought smugly to himself. He was too smart for that kind of trick!
"I am the deputy fleet commander!" Yun Ji thought smugly, also believing she had guessed the scheme of this expired princess.

"Are those two damn dark elves idiots?"

Yun Lan sighed helplessly to herself, beginning to wonder if the dark elf had some kind of innate defect in matters of the heart.

Amidst the three individuals' increasingly outrageous yet never-to-be-compared thoughts, Fan Hart asked Yun Lan for a hair and sent it into the eye socket of the undead mask.

"Now he can obey orders."

Fan Hart said smugly, "When I'm not busy, I can make him a set of armor suitable for the undead."

"Stand up"

At the same time, Yun Lan began issuing commands such as "stand up," "sit down," "shake hands," and "scratch your itch," which the undead archer obeyed without hesitation.

While the two fellow villagers were getting to know each other, Fan Hart had already manipulated the burrowing beetle to join Yavso and the others.

Tragically, even though they escaped underground in such a timely manner, and even though Yun Lan used another precious golden healing potion on the arrow-struck elf, he still did not survive.

However, at the same time, Cheng Lang and the others, thanks to the dark elf's talent, could clearly hear his spirit pleading again and again to save the children as soon as possible.

"Leave this undead interrogator here to play with those imposter elves."

Cheng Lang suggested, "Let's go rescue the other elves and dark elves. Also, how far is the place where those elves are hiding from here? Can the burrowing beetles burrow there?"

"It's in a cliffside cave just outside the town, not far away."

The surviving pointy-eared elf said, suppressing his grief, "But I don't know which way it is." "He knows," said the other elf, "he said it's in that direction."

The dark elves, including Cheng Lang, answered in unison and pointed in one direction together.

"This beetle still has plenty of energy."

Fan Hart said, "Even if I don't have enough energy, I can just grab an undead and stuff it in."

“In that case, Yun Lan, you, Ya Fu Suo, Gerta, and the children stay here. Yun Ji, Shen Ba, and this lady, each of you drive a carriage and travel with the beetles.”

Cheng Lang gave the order, and then, guided by the elven spirit that had been constantly hovering around the female elf, he rode a beetle and rushed over from underground.

Unbeknownst to them, the fire that had surrounded the town of Funeral Valley had already attracted the attention of the dark elves hiding in the cave. Moreover, because the fire had dispelled the miasma, even the cave where they were hiding was about to be revealed. But at this moment, there was nothing they could do but hide in that luxurious hunting tent and silently recite the prophetic poem they had heard over and over again.

As the fire gradually spread towards the center of the town, the miasma thinned out, and finally, some elven hunters noticed the entrance to the cave that had been hidden by vegetation and miasma.

"what should we do?"

"We absolutely cannot let them exile the children."

"Ladies and gentlemen, take up arms for our children, who are not wrong for not having pointed ears and silver hair."

"You're right!"

Encouraged by each other, these elven parents either took off their spider bows in the form of rings, drew their scimitars crossed on their backs, or began loading bullets into their flintlock muskets.

Under the desperate gaze of these legitimate elves, some elven hunters had already begun to climb toward the cave entrance, and arrows with ropes and grappling hooks were already flying up, gripping the cracks in the rocks and taut.

Just then, a slight noise came from the ground beneath their feet, followed by the opening of a hole. The surviving female elf, her face still streaked with tears, ran out, waving frantically and calling out in a low voice, "Quick! Let the children in!"

"quick!"

The other elves realized what was happening and quickly told the dark elves hiding in the hunting tents to jump into the cave entrance. Then they put away the hunting tents and jumped down one after another.

Almost at the same time that the digging beetle sealed off the entrance, an elven hunter wielding a sharp dagger in both hands jumped onto the entrance.

He naturally saw many traces of life left here, but looking around, there was not a single person in this not-so-large cave.

"They escaped from here, they must not have gone far. Notify the men below to surround this area!"

"Yes!" came the immediate response from the elven hunters down the mountain.

As a mountain breeze blew by, the miasma drifting from afar and the thick smoke rising from the valley town once again enveloped the area.

Meanwhile, inside the tunnel, the rescued elves and dark elves embraced each other and wept with emotion, repeatedly expressing their gratitude to the pirates who had come ashore.

"Let's go back first. At this point, it's better to hide underground than to escape," Cheng Lang urged. "Hurry up and get in the carriage."

The newly rescued elves had no objections and quickly climbed onto the three carriages, heading back ahead of the digging beetles. Meanwhile, the beetles controlled by Van Hart sprayed grayish-white foam that could seal the tunnels as they went.

When they returned to the underground, Yun Lan's interrogation had not only ended, but the undead had also retrieved the spoils and arranged them on the ground.

"Is that all?" Cheng Lang asked in astonishment, looking at the things scattered all over the floor.

"That's right"

Yun Lan, whose face was slightly pale, nodded and then shuddered uncontrollably, saying with a look of fear, "That demon cut a wound on the wrist of one of the sirens, and then peeled off his skin completely by blowing air into the wound. Then the others confessed everything."

"gollum"

This time, not only the elves who returned with them, but also Yun Ji couldn't help but swallow hard and look once again at the spoils of war they had seized.

"There are a total of 64 masks of hypocrisy, and there are also 64 cups of Poseidon's blood to go with them."

Yun Lan shuddered again and continued, "In addition, there were 64 elven weapons and seven hunting tents, and we also seized 138 tubes of green elven healing potions, and nearly a thousand gold coins in total."

"ask"

Shenba swallowed again. "Did you get anything out of them?"

"They were all pirates recruited from Pirate City in the last six months or so."

Yun Lan said, "From the moment they arrived at Frostflower Harbor, they received a commission of five gold coins every day without doing anything. However, they had to work for a full year to receive all the commissions. Before that, they only received a salary of one gold coin per day."

Even so, it's already quite high.

Yun Ji said that she came from Pirate City and knew what kind of madmen she could hire for that price.

"yes"

Yun Lan said, "Before the operation, they were all hiding in several pleasure boats outside Frostflower Harbor. Among them was the pleasure boat from which we dispatched the hunters."

"Is this also part of the net weaving?" Cheng Lang couldn't help but ask.

“It seems they received a different prophecy than we did,” Yun Ji sighed. “Couldn’t they find out who the employer was?”

"I got the question out."

Yun Lan sighed, "It was Viscount Shenfei, the Viscount Shenfei who was killed by the spirits in the miner's lamp. He went to the Sin Gold Mine to raise the commission for hiring so many pirates."

"How many pirates?" Shenba asked.

"More than a thousand pirates"

Yun Lan gave a number that made everyone's jaws drop: one thousand—that's almost the combined number of sailors from ten to fifteen pirate ships!

"These pirates, besides besieging Burial Valley..."

Yun Lan took a deep breath. "After they were hired, they did something else, something even more terrifying."

"Let's finish talking at once," Cheng Lang urged.

"They themselves couldn't say for sure how many mermaid eggs, stored in oak barrels, they sent to various towns in the Elf Duchy and the Frost Duchy under the guise of fruit wine."

"The web of fate has been woven, and the pirates who came ashore have made a grave mistake."

Cheng Lang sighed, "So, we weren't the only pirates who came ashore."

"Ladies and gentlemen."

Yun Lan said, "We probably need to hurry to the Elf Kingdom. War could break out at any time. Once war breaks out, we—I mean you—may not have a chance to gain the approval of the Verdant Sacred Tree."

(End of this chapter)