Steel torrents pioneering a different world.

Chapter 341 How did you guys manage to survive until the kingdom's downfall! Small cakes for secret treasures! (Bonus Chapter)

Sometimes, it's not the knife that kills, but the words.

Lin Li's single sentence instantly froze the fervor on the old knight Darryl's face.

It wasn't the anger of having a lie exposed, nor the sorrow of helplessness, but something deeper, a mixture of reminiscence of the past, sighs, and a complex sense of relief that couldn't be expressed.

If it weren't for the mad king of the Fire Dragon Dynasty, none of this would have happened!

[Remember this site's domain name tracking tool, ??????????.?????? Super smooth]

If anyone's to blame, it's really their king's insane behavior.

"Your Excellency, this matter—is a long story." Dai Rui's voice was dry and hoarse, as if every word was being squeezed out with difficulty from his throat.

"Oh, then I won't say anything more." Lin Li's voice was flat, no longer paying attention to this, but turning to look around at the ocean storm.

What a coincidence.

Within minutes of his arrival, the raging storms and waves that had previously been powerful enough to tear steel apart mysteriously subsided.

The raging sea storm has become as docile as a cat, with only a light drizzle and waves that are no longer so turbulent.

This area of ​​the sea suddenly became unusually quiet.

Is it a natural phenomenon, or interference from some powerful entity?

[No, it's probably because the energy from the forbidden magic released earlier has reached its later stages. The Devil's Sea is inherently unpredictable, like a sudden storm. I'm probably overthinking it.]

As he thought this, his gaze swept across the sea; the wreckage of the other two ships had sunk to the point of being invisible. In the distance, only some planks and debris remained floating on the Devil's Sea.

Further away, seven or eight survivors were crammed onto several life rafts, bobbing up and down in the waves.

They were shouting, but their voices were barely audible, and their hands were slid wildly!

Lin Li didn't speak, he just watched quietly.

His silence itself is a form of inquiry.

Old Daryl followed his gaze, and after confirming the faces of those people, a deep-seated hatred blazed in his cloudy old eyes: "Your Grace, ignore them! The loyal warriors on board have all died at their hands!"

"They are traitors! They are hyenas!"

Before he finished speaking, the distant sea suddenly exploded.

One after another, silver shadows broke out of the water, each over fifteen meters long, with sharp snouts like spears—they were a group of mutated giant swordfish!

"ah--!"

A heart-wrenching scream drifted on the sea breeze.

The chaos on the survival raft was clearly visible. One of the knights, wearing rune armor, wielded a chainsaw sword and instantly sliced ​​a leaping swordfish in two, scattering blood, flesh, and entrails across the sea.

But his companion wasn't so lucky; he was pierced through the chest by another swordfish and sent flying, disappearing into the waves.

More swordfish swarmed around, frantically ramming the small survival raft.

The knights, seemingly possessed, slaughtered one beast after another, but their movements grew slower and slower, their stamina clearly dwindling rapidly.

Finally, in the gap between his chopping strokes, the raft was completely overturned from below by a giant fish!

"Darry! Save us! For the sake of the Seven Gods!"

"Sir William! We were wrong!"

Desperate cries and pleas for mercy came intermittently, but under the onslaught of the icy seawater and the swordfish, they quickly turned into dying howls.

"Hahahaha!"

Old Dai Rui, leaning on the gunwale, looked at the sea stained red with blood and let out a maniacal laugh.

He was laughing, but tears streamed down his face, indistinguishable between rain and tears.

"Serves you right! You all deserve it! This is the fate of traitors! The God of Fire Dragons is watching you!"

He acted like a madman, venting his long-suppressed hatred and pain.

Viserys was terrified by the bloody scene, his face turning pale, and he clung tightly to his brother's clothes.

Lin Li ignored it all, as if he were just watching a boring drama. Only after the voices of those people had completely disappeared into the wind and rain did he speak again, his voice still a cold, electronic tone.

"Your ship doesn't have many magic stones left."

Daryl's laughter abruptly stopped. He gasped for breath and respectfully replied, "Your Excellency is wise. But we can still hold on. The royal treasure can slowly generate magic stones, and with your help, we will surely—"

"I'll be leaving soon."

Lin Li's words were like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing the flame that had just ignited in the old knight's heart.

Before Dai Rui could say anything more, Lin Li's metal palms opened, their light swirling, and a completely black communication tablet appeared out of thin air.

In Dai Rui's view, this thing was neither made of gold nor stone, and its surface was as smooth as a mirror, making it completely out of place with everything in this world.

"What is this?" Dai Rui was stunned.

Lin Li handed over the tablet.

Then he took out some signal booster base stations and set them up properly here to ensure that they would at least not be destroyed!

Lin Li frowned when he saw the intermittent signal.

"Hey hey~ Is anyone there? Can you hear me?"

No one answered!

It seems the signal is too weak; I can only send some information.

While Lin Li was busy, he was unaware that Old Dai Rui's worldview seemed to have been turned upside down.

The smooth, obsidian-like board and some other things simply emerged from Lin Li's palms, without any magical foreshadowing or energy fluctuations, as if it had always been there.

In this devilish sea sealed off by a time-space storm, even communication crystals fail, yet this angel can conjure objects out of thin air?

Spatial magic from the Eastern Continent can actually be used here?

No, this is no longer ordinary spatial magic.

Countless ancient texts flashed through the old knight's mind, but he could not find any power that corresponded to it.

He could only attribute it to the power bestowed by God.

After all, it's only natural that an existence that can easily traverse even the sealed land's spacetime possesses such great power.

"Looks like the signal can't be sent; it can only serve as a location signal!" Lin Li said disappointedly, handing the tablet to the other person.

Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, Dai Rui respectfully accepted the cold board.

"Your Excellency, this—how do I use this?"

"Just keep it open." Lin Li's voice was flat. "Someone will find you."

"Take this and keep heading north."

After the tablet screen lit up, the soft light illuminated Darryl's wrinkled face.

On the screen, a flashing red dot and a striking green dot appeared.

"Red indicates your current location, and green indicates where you need to go! Go wherever you want, and you'll see your reinforcements in half a day at most."

After saying that, he flipped his hand again, and with a whoosh, hundreds of magic stones shimmering with a dark blue light were piled up on the deck.

When these magic stones appeared, the energy particles in the air quickly became active and began to gather on their own.

"This is enough for you to last until reinforcements arrive. Now, lend me your royal treasures."

Old Dai Rui's heart sank.

He instinctively protected the package, which contained one of the royal family's last trump cards.

This was their only hope of gathering magic stones and maintaining their voyage in this desperate situation.

He glanced at the mountain of magic stones piled on the deck, then at the two royal children peering into the cabin. His throat was dry, and he mustered all his strength to make a final stand.

"Your Grace—this is a royal treasure, and I have no authority to make such a decision! If you wish to borrow it, you must obtain the Queen's, or the permission of the Prince or Princess!"

This was his final duty as a knight.

Although Lin Li provided a large quantity of magic stones, they would eventually run out. Once exhausted, the magic array on the ship would lose its energy, and they would become sitting ducks like those traitors from before, unable to survive more than half a day in this sea.

Handing over the secret treasure is tantamount to handing over one's destiny.

He couldn't resist the other party, but he should at least struggle!

"My time is very tight." Lin Li's electronic voice interrupted his thoughts. "Your time is even tighter."

He paused, then dropped a bombshell.

"Because your queen has been poisoned and is in a coma, and is about to die."

One sentence sent a chill down Old Dai Rui's spine, as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

Lin Li ignored the petrified old knight and turned to look at the two little ones at the cabin door, his voice softening slightly.

As if by magic, he produced several more exquisite little cakes, their soft textures covered with snow-white cream and adorned with a few bright red berries.

"Hey, you two, come here for a second!"

Viserys looked bewildered as he circled around Old Deregan and Lin Li.

"Angel, are you looking for us?"

A few minutes later.

Old Dai Rui stared blankly at the scene before him.

The noble Prince Viserys was wolfing down a piece of cake, cream smeared all over his face, and mumbling "Delicious!" incoherently.

Princess Daenerys, meanwhile, licked a lollipop slowly, her beautiful purple eyes crinkling into crescents with happiness, and her silver-gold hair flowing in the wind!

Beside them, the secret treasure that symbolized the last hope of the royal family had vanished without a trace.

An indescribable sense of absurdity swept over the old knight.

One of the royal family's hopes, the incredibly powerful Grand Treasure, was traded for a few desserts whose names he couldn't even recall?

It smells pretty good!

"However, His Highness was deceived by a few pieces of cake—and I did not stop him—"

He closed his eyes in anguish, a sense of powerlessness almost crushing him.

Is he still loyal?

When he opened his eyes again, all that remained in his hand was that cold, hard black board.

The dots on them seem to carry their last bit of life.

"First Mate, sail in this direction!!!"

The closer to land in the Demon Sea of ​​another world, the faster the storms come and go.

Just moments before, the winds and waves were powerful enough to capsize small boats, but within minutes, the sea began to calm down.

Zhao's twelve-person team is currently aboard the Exploration No. 5 armed research vessel.

They vigilantly observed their surroundings, protecting the research team as they salvaged and recovered the deep-sea exploration equipment.

"This awful weather!" Zhao Chong spat into the sea, cursing, "It changes its mood faster than turning the pages of a book. Xiao Li, how far are we to the next recycling point?"

A response came from the cockpit: "Reporting, Captain, three nautical miles!"

Have any large, dangerous groups of organisms been detected approaching from nearby?

"Report: No findings. However—just five minutes ago, our main control radar detected a high-priority signal source more than 150 nautical miles to the southeast! The signal's clearance level is extremely high!"

Zhao frowned: "More than 150 nautical miles? That's too far, beyond our mission area."

Their mission is to recover scientific research equipment within a radius of 100 nautical miles and to compile hydrological and biological information for the subsequent opening of the north-south shipping routes.

This research vessel is advanced, and it even incorporates sea-avoidance devices used by dwarves.

However, its firepower is severely insufficient, and its safety cannot be guaranteed if it ventures into unknown waters.

"Captain, what are we going to eat after we finish work?" Xiao Zhou leaned over, looking expectant.

Zhao glanced at him and said irritably, "Didn't we put all the food in the insulated boxes when we arrived? You want to start a fire on the ship? Have you forgotten the maritime safety regulations?"

"I was just asking," Xiao Zhou chuckled. "I've been eating seafood every day for the past few days, and I feel like I'm growing gills. I even had a dream the other day that I was gnawing on mountain delicacies."

A researcher operating a drone nearby chuckled upon hearing this: "Xiao Zhou, you should be content. We'll have more delicacies when we get back!"

After the last sea monster invasion, they obtained over a million tons of seafood. The logistics engineers prepared it in various ways, and they still hadn't collected all 108 ways to eat seafood. Given the thrifty nature of the pioneering team, how could they possibly drastically replace other things?

"How can they be the same? Domesticated animals are not the same as gourmet delicacies!"

Just as the group was chatting casually, the air on the bow deck suddenly distorted, and Zhao and the others immediately drew their weapons.

"Watch out for enemy attack!"

As soon as Zhao Gang shouted, the crew members instantly went into combat mode, their dark gun barrels all pointing at the uninvited guest.

Other researchers disregarded everything else and immediately got into battle mode!

A blue light appeared out of thin air and condensed into a tall figure wearing dark green armor.

Zhao suddenly raised his hand and lowered the gun barrel: "Wait! Don't fire! It's that friend!"

Lin Li's clone completely ignored the tense humans. He walked straight up to Zhao Chong as if he were in his own backyard.

His movements were swift and decisive; an antique box, intricately carved with patterns, was handed to him.

It was the very thing that Lin Li had taken from Old Dai Rui.

"This is a token used to contact those people. It contains the ability to condense magic essence stones. You can study it for a while and then return it to those humans."

Immediately afterwards, the tactical terminal on Zhao's wrist vibrated, and a nautical chart and two flashing dots were connected.

"At this location, on a ship, are members of the royal family of the Southern Human Fire Dragon Kingdom. They are in grave danger and need rescue!"

Lin Li's voice continued, concise and clear.

"Save them, and you'll get more clues about the Southern humans, and—a chance!"

Before he finished speaking, his figure transformed into countless points of light and vanished into the air.

From appearance to disappearance, the entire process takes no more than ten seconds.

On the deck, only a group of crew members looked at each other in bewilderment, and Zhao held the heavy, mysterious box in his hand.

"Team—Captain—" Xiao Zhou swallowed hard. "What—what was that just now—?"

"Who else could it be?" Zhao took a deep breath, trying to calm his wildly beating heart, his eyes fixed on the box in his hand and the coordinates on the terminal.

"Report to Captain Zhao! The coordinates of the signal we just detected have been confirmed; it's the high-priority signal source we were just looking for!"

""

Zhao's expression kept changing.

"Immediately connect to the rear command post!"

A few minutes later, the message was quickly relayed back to the rear command post.

The pressure has been put on the rear!

To go or not to go?

Going there meant deviating from the course by more than 150 nautical miles, venturing into uncharted waters fraught with danger, and risking the lives of everyone on board.

Not going?

The intelligence delivered personally by the mysterious person, along with the substantial reward, was undoubtedly substantial.

What's more, the mysterious man said that it was the royal family of the Southern Human Kingdom!

If this can be saved, it will likely have extraordinary significance for the future strategic planning of the entire human pioneering team!

Soon, the order came in: "Helmsman, prepare to change course! Reinforcements will be arriving to take the expedition team back; we'll go rescue them!"