Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 169 Crazy Speculations About Ferocious Beasts

"parking!"

Everyone except Shenba shouted in unison, even though Shenba had already reined in the horses.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, everyone, including Shenba, jumped out and cautiously gathered around the skeleton.

The human skeleton was pure white, almost "clean." Only when they got closer did they notice that the skeleton was practically fused to the rock face, or rather, it was almost completely encased in the rock by the minerals in the water.

“There seems to be something in his abdominal cavity,” Yun Ji said, already pulling a long dagger from her lower back.

Seeing Cheng Lang nod to her, Yun Ji carefully used her dagger to pry open the abdominal cavity of the corpse.

With a "crash," a fist-sized stone fell down, revealing what was inside.

This seems to be
Yun Ji exchanged another glance with Cheng Lang and Yun Lan, then drew her second dagger. The two daggers worked together to chip away at the substance encased in the "scale."

This is a golden key about the size of a middle finger, with an elven design and a long, thin metal chain attached to the end of it.

As Yun Ji continued to chisel with her dagger, more and more of the metal chain was gradually peeled away, revealing another item attached to the chain—a sailor's whistle made of the same material as the key.

Sailor's whistle is part of the deckmaster's equipment, but since the sailors on the Valkyrie were Fujikyuu, this whistle was never used on the Valkyrie and therefore never appeared.

Under Yun Ji's continued chiseling, the metal chain was finally completely stripped away, revealing the last thing—a mirage horn, a mirage horn covered with a layer of gold.

"It looks like a sailor, and there are no whispers of elven spirits, so it shouldn't be an elf or a dark elf."

Yun Ji used her dagger to probe the metal chain and speculated, "Also, there's something wrong with these arrows. They're not wooden arrows from the elves, but steel arrows."

"This sailor is from Queen Eleanor's fleet."

Yun Lan held up the oil lamp and leaned close to the metal chain, observing the sailor's whistle as she said, "This sailor's whistle and the Mirage Horn also have Eleanor's fleet number on them. We can even determine the original owner of this sailor's whistle based on these numbers."

"What can we tell from these arrows?" Cheng Lang pressed.

“I can’t tell,” Yun Lan shook her head. “I only studied it in depth because I was interested in the Pirate Queen.”

"I do recognize these steel arrows."

This time, it was the big guy, Shenba, who spoke up.

"You know him?" Everyone, including Yun Ji, was extremely surprised.

"I really know him."

Shenba said, "Do you remember? When I was 14, I stole a weapon from a drunk orc sailor."

"Is it that crossbow with an exceptionally high rate of fire?!"

Yun Ji suddenly realized something, "Then what about the crossbow you used to almost kill a captain?!"

"That's right! It's that crossbow!"

Shenba said with a pained expression, "I've never seen that weapon again. I threw it into the well in the pirate market after I caused trouble."

But when I went to look for it again later, Shuijing Liu no longer had that unique weapon. I only found one of those steel arrows, which I secretly hid in my room.

As he spoke, Shenba walked to the side of the skeleton and pointed to the arrow that had pierced through the skull, saying, "Look, the arrowhead of this one is hollow in the middle, just like the one I found back then."

Although it's possible that no one else, including Yun Ji, had ever seen the steel arrow that Shenba had secretly kept when he was a child, Shenba, being an honest child, was not the kind of person who would make up lies.

"So who exactly is keeping an eye on him here?"

The same question popped into everyone's mind.

"This tunnel is still a long way off, let's keep going."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he had already taken out a whip.

Whoever banished that unfortunate sailor, this is Dwarf Mountain.

Since there are creatures like the burrowing beetle, there's no reason why there wouldn't be some dwarf creatures like the arrow beetle, and they have every reason to be careful.

They boarded the carriage again and continued their journey through the damp tunnel.

The tunnel then began to slowly ascend, even spiraling twice along the way.

Since circling the tunnel twice, it has become increasingly dry, and the murals on the rock walls have turned into all sorts of bizarre monsters.

Some of these monsters had eyes all over their bodies, some had hair all over their bodies, and some had three legs, five legs, four heads, or even several tails.

"Stop for a moment," Yun Ji said.

When Shenba stopped the moose carriage again, she immediately jumped off and touched the murals on the rock wall with her hands.

“These murals weren’t created by water erosion; they must have been carved by something extremely sharp,” Yun Ji said confidently.

"So besides the pirate queen Eleanor, there are other living beings here?" Cheng Lang asked.

“Or some kind of machinery,” Yun Lan added, “which the dwarves once made.”

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Just then, muffled footsteps came from deep within the tunnel directly ahead.

"Yunlan, digging beetle, burrow into the rock wall! Shenba, drive the cart and follow!"

As Cheng Lang spoke, he had already torn off the firefly necklace and thrown it on the ground.

"But what if there's something in the rock face?"

"Get inside! Go into the rock formation that just swirled around. Everyone else, get inside the beetle! Hurry!"

As Cheng Lang spoke, he placed the oil lamp in his hand at the edge of the tunnel.

Urged on by his own footsteps and the distant, muffled sound of footsteps, the group hurriedly crawled into the digging beetle.

Before the metal elytra could fully close, Yun Lan had already piloted the burrowing beetle into the rock behind her.

Fortunately, because of the recent ascent, there was no water in the rock formations here.

Under Cheng Lang's command, Yun Lan manipulated the beetle to block the tunnel that had just been drilled in behind her, then turned the beetle around and drilled out a cone-shaped hole with an opening only the size of a fist.

At the same time, Shenba had already put away the carriage.

After Cheng Lang put away the digging beetle, everyone immediately gathered around the cone-shaped hole and carefully observed what was going on.

Thanks to the oil lamp that Cheng Lang had left behind, even though Yun Lan's night vision wasn't as good as the others', she was able to clearly see what was outside the deliberately left hole.

As the muffled footsteps grew clearer, the group gradually came into view of the monster emerging from the depths of the dark tunnel.

It was indeed a monster; it had a spider-like lower body and an elf-like upper body.

However, the upper body of this elf had a pair of not very lush antlers.

The crossbow held in the monster's hands confirmed Shenba's earlier guess about the steel arrow on the skeleton.

"Ding!"

Before anyone could see the monster's movements, he shot out the oil lamp with an arrow, plunging the tunnel outside the hole into darkness that Yun Lan could not see.

Before she could react, Cheng Lang had already grabbed her waist and pushed her aside.

At the same time, Yun Ji pushed Ya Fu Suo away in a similar manner, and also kicked Shen Ba behind the knee, forcing him to squat down uncontrollably. "Ding!"

Amidst the flying sparks, a steel arrow pierced through the hole dug by the digging beetle, almost grazing Shenba's head before embedding itself firmly in the rock wall behind him.

"Shh-"

As Yun Ji and Cheng Lang covered the mouths of Ya Fu Suo and Yun Lan respectively, they also issued a shushing warning in the darkness.

Startled, Shenba instinctively covered his mouth.

Immediately afterwards, everyone heard heavy, thumping footsteps approaching rapidly, followed by a strong, fishy stench emanating from the cone-shaped hole.

Along with the increasingly strong stench, they also heard long, deep breaths.

At one end of the cone-shaped hole, everyone held their breath and tried their best to remain quiet.

They all sensed a deadly threat from the monster outside the hole.

But the monster seemed unwilling to leave; the rustling sounds made one wonder if it was peering into the hole with its eyes pressed against it.

Seeing that Yun Ji had slowly drawn her dagger, Cheng Lang reached out to stop her, then slowly shook his head.

Just then, the monster outside let out a low roar, and then with a "clang!" it pressed its crossbow against the cave entrance, rapidly firing a series of steel arrows that sparked and embedded themselves into the rock wall!
Amidst the flying rock fragments, Cheng Lang and the others huddled together, enduring the scattering of debris, but dared not utter a sound.

Finally, after an exceptionally long burst of rapid fire, the monster outside slammed its crossbow into the rock wall.

But that wasn't the end of it. After the monster smashed the opening a little wider, it actually stretched out one of its hands!

Fortunately, the burrowing beetle had burrowed deep enough that even if it could stretch out its arm, it couldn't touch anyone.

This time, Yun Ji stopped Cheng Lang from cracking his whip and, just like Cheng Lang had done before, slowly shook her head.

As everyone waited, holding their breath, the arm was finally slowly pulled out amidst the scraping sound of it scraping against the rock.

Finally, the heavy breathing and the pervasive stench gradually faded away with the receding heavy footsteps.

Only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

"Don't move yet."

As Cheng Lang spoke, he pulled a blanket out of his luggage, crumpled it up haphazardly, and threw it over the cone-shaped hole. With the help of the thorns summoned by Yun Lan, the observation hole, which was already as thick as a thigh, was blocked.

"Don't stand up," Yun Ji reminded them, "The enemy's crossbows are very powerful and have a long range."

When Yavso lit the oil lamp, the hastily cleared cave was illuminated by the light, and they saw more than a hundred arrows scattered all over the ground.

Ladies and gentlemen, I...

Yun Lan's tone was more flustered than ever before, but she still tried to suppress her panic and continued, "I have a bold guess that can be described as crazy."

"What guess?" Cheng Lang asked first.

"Speculation about the monsters outside"

Yun Lan took a deep breath. "I suspect that someone has altered the history of the Star Sea Continent."

"What did you say?" Yun Ji asked in astonishment.

"The monsters outside, I mean that monster just now, and those monsters on the rock wall, they... they might be ferocious beasts."

"A ferocious beast?"

Yun Ji paused for a moment, then fell silent, as if she had realized something.

Let's set aside the various historical records about ferocious land beasts.

Yun Lan said, "Ferocious beasts... Ferocious beasts may be the offspring of elves and orcs."

"What did you say?!" Shenba exclaimed in surprise.

"How did you come to this conclusion?" Cheng Lang and Yun Ji asked in unison.

"This is Dwarf Mountain"

Yun Lan's flustered tone revealed a hint of excitement after suddenly realizing something, "The ancestral mountain of the dwarves, the final resting place."

But the dwarves can see this from Van Hart; they are adept at using the spirits of ferocious beasts.

However, ferocious beasts and sea monsters are equally terrifying beings; the prerequisite for using the undead spirits of ferocious beasts is being able to kill them.

Taking a deep breath, Yun Lan's speech quickened a bit, "Since dwarves are good at using the undead of land beasts, then they must have the ability to kill land beasts. So when are land beasts easiest to kill?"

"Right after birth." Cheng Lang and Yun Ji answered in unison again, having followed Yun Lan's train of thought.

"Yes, they are easiest to kill when they are just born."

Yun Lan sighed, "Moreover, the parents of the ferocious beasts need to not have that high combat power."

"Elves and orcs?" Yafso and Shenba followed her train of thought.

"Do you remember our casual chat about the Dwarf Mountain at sea?"

Yun Lan continued, "The dwarves emerged from this mountain and eventually sealed themselves away in Dwarf Mountain, disappearing without a trace. However, Rika signed a pact with the Elf Duchy and the Orc Duchy a long time ago."

The Elven and Orcish Duchies will help defend Dwarf Mountain, even though they are at war with Rika.

"Also, elves and orcs are forbidden from intermarrying."

Yun Ji murmured, "So all of this is to prevent the birth of ferocious land beasts?"

"Perhaps there are other conditions, but I think I already know what terrible mistake the pirates made when they came ashore."

Yun Lan shuddered as she spoke, "Wolfskin Town, those elves who, because of the poisonous mushrooms, spent a night with the wolf-men. They..."

"They'll give birth to ferocious beasts?!" Yafso exclaimed, her little face filled with terror—the poisonous mushrooms had grown from the spores she had dropped!
"I do not know"

Yun Lan shook her head. "Giving birth to a ferocious beast may require other conditions. In the past few hundred years, there must have been elves and orcs who broke the taboo, but there is no record of ferocious beasts appearing."

“Even so, we still need to be vigilant about this matter,” Yun Ji said worriedly.

I also have a guess.

At this moment, Cheng Lang carefully considered his words and said, "Considering that Boran has been hunting dark elves and seems to be using them to create gods."

After a brief pause, Cheng Lang asked, "What if... what if it were a union between a dark elf and an orc?"

The probability of a dark elf appearing is small enough that even if one does appear, they will be banished and wanted by the demon hunters.

With such a small population, the probability of them falling in love with orcs and mating is even lower.

"For safety reasons"

Yun Ji suggested, "I think it's also necessary for our fleet to temporarily uphold the ironclad rule that elves and orcs cannot unite."

"It all seems to make sense now."

Cheng Lang sighed. He had a strong premonition that they had touched upon some secrets of this continent and this sea.

(End of this chapter)