Chapter 229: Stone of Sun Glory (S)

"Still nothing."

Pushing the door open and stepping inside, Gu Xiaobei was disappointed once again. However, Lan Qingyou, who was standing behind her at the doorway, offered a smiling reminder.

Since Lan Qingyou was currently inside the cabin, she was hovering in the air while holding her Magic Broom.

"Open that wooden box under the table. There should be something inside."

A box?

Gu Xiaobei glanced at Lan Qingyou, then looked down at the wooden box beneath the table.

Speaking of boxes, the first thing that came to the mind of a gaming fanatic like Gu Xiaobei was a mimic.

'But... given Big Boss Lan's character, she probably wouldn't play a prank at a time like this...'

Thinking this, Gu Xiaobei, whose thought process was always a bit unconventional, reached out and slowly opened the wooden box.

It was an irregular white sphere, about the size of a soccer ball, half-buried in fine white sand. It did not look like anything particularly special.

"This thing should be the absolute core of the Sealing Magic array."

Lan Qingyou took one look from the doorway and nodded in understanding.

"What is this?"

Gu Xiaobei looked at Lan Qingyou.

Although she lacked the situational awareness of someone like Magician, she knew better than to touch the object before Lan Qingyou gave the word.

"An S-rank Stone of Sun Glory. It is a type of stone that produces Salt of the Sun. They say it is a naturally formed magic item born from meteorites that split off from the sun in the sky."

"Salt!"

Hearing this word, Gu Xiaobei's eyes lit up.

She immediately looked at the white sand, scooped up a tiny bit with her finger, and placed it on her tongue.

It tingled on her tongue. It was indeed salt, and the flavor was quite good, with a high concentration.

'This is good stuff!'

In the beginning, Gu Xiaobei used salt obtained from Supply Boxes as a seasoning.

Because she could get quite a bit of this sort of thing from Supply Boxes back then, she had not paid much attention to it.

But after the Supply Boxes stopped appearing, she had to figure out how to produce her own seasonings.

Fortunately, salt was relatively easy to find.

Whether from salt mines or seawater, it could be made.

Therefore, Gu Xiaobei still hadn't worried too much about it at the time.

However, as her stockpile of table salt began to dwindle, she realized it was time to start gathering more.

Yet, even though The Abandoned Land had a coastline and seawater was practically worthless, evaporating it in the sun to make salt was basically impossible.

As a result, the salt she currently used was almost entirely boiled down in pots.

Because the flavor was only mediocre, she had to put a massive amount of effort into producing and using it effectively.

'Now that this stone right in front of me can produce salt, doesn't that mean I won't ever have to worry about salt again?'

"I claim this Stone of Sun Glory."

Gu Xiaobei raised her hand like an elementary school student, declaring her sovereignty over the item to Lan Qingyou and Wheel of Fortune.

"I don't mind. If you can use it, take it."

Wheel of Fortune, who was also standing at the doorway looking in and had no interest in the item, shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands.

"I have a use for the Stone of Sun Glory, but you can come and collect the salt it produces at any time."

Knowing exactly what Gu Xiaobei wanted the Stone of Sun Glory for, Lan Qingyou directly offered a condition the other woman could not refuse.

After all, she needed salt too.

Salt of the Sun. She remembered how exhausting it had been when she used to evaporate salt on her balcony.

Now, she just had to let the stone produce it automatically. What a wonderful thing.

Of course, the most important reason Lan Qingyou wanted the Stone of Sun Glory was that her core was still missing a stone exactly like this.

The Stone of Sun Glory represented yang and light, while the Stone of Rest represented yin and darkness.

Since she already possessed the yin and dark-attribute Stone of Rest, now that the sunlight-representing Stone of Sun Glory had appeared, there was no reason for Lan Qingyou to pass it up.

With this stone in her possession, the defensive energy of her Five Dragons Reincarnation Magic Array could be elevated to an entirely new level.

Or, to put it more directly, its defensive power would increase by at least eighty percent compared to its current state.

"I see. That works too."

Since Lan Qingyou had made her terms so clear, Gu Xiaobei naturally understood.

So, she nodded and agreed.

However, just like the Ark of the World Tree, this item could not be moved at the moment. Therefore, Lan Qingyou had Gu Xiaobei close the box and push it back to its original position.

Afterward, the three of them returned to the deck.

As they left, Gu Xiaobei kept looking back over her shoulder every few steps, gazing at the captain's cabin with extreme reluctance.

After all, unlike the massive ship, this item was quite small. Leaving it sitting here truly made her feel uneasy.

"How are things? Are there any problems?"

Returning to the deck, Lan Qingyou asked the two people waiting there.

"No problems, aside from the Pope passing out."

Sun pouted her lips as she looked down at the Pope lying on the ground.

Lan Qingyou cast a glance at the unconscious Pope before turning her attention to the deathly pale Magician standing beside them.

"What about you?"

"I'm alright. Losing so much blood is just a bit uncomfortable, and the spot where I was stabbed still has some phantom pain."

Magician smiled bitterly, clutching his chest.

He never would have expected to fall victim to a sneak attack in a place like this.

And to be outsmarted by a monster that hadn't even shown its face yet, no less.

Could he blame the Pope?

Could he really blame the Pope for this?

No, he couldn't.

As far as he understood mental-type attacks, there was simply no way to defend against them at this stage.

In his eyes, he and the Pope were nothing more than a pair of 'randomly selected lucky audience members'.

After all, under those circumstances, the monster could have chosen anyone to launch a sneak attack against anyone else.

"I am asking if you can still fight. Don't tell me that phantom pain is going to affect your combat ability."

Lan Qingyou curled her lip, speaking without the slightest hint of sympathy.

'She really is hardcore.'

Magician sighed internally as he looked at Lan Qingyou's cold, detached face.

"It would be a lie to say my combat power hasn't been affected, but I can still hold on."

Being stabbed completely through was not a pleasant experience. It wasn't just excruciating at the time; even now, with the wound already healed, his body's stress response still lingered.

Because of this, Magician didn't dare to make any absolute promises.

"The Merfolk, who are capable of fighting in seawater, were the first to be taken out. It seems that even if the enemy lacks a proper mind, it at least possesses combat intelligence."

Looking back down at the Pope lying on the deck, Lan Qingyou muttered under her breath.

Uh...

That single sentence instantly shattered Magician's emotional defenses.

'I thought I was just a "lucky audience member", but does this mean I didn't even qualify to be an "audience member"?'

"However, this actually works out in our favor."

Seeing the dumbfounded expressions on everyone's faces, Lan Qingyou chuckled.

"How so?"

Li Huai frowned slightly.

"The fact that the enemy targeted our strongest underwater combatant right out of the gate proves that its arsenal includes at least mental-type attacks."

"Aside from physical attacks, if its magic is limited to just mental-type and water-elemental attacks, isn't that a good thing for us?"

Indeed.

Lan Qingyou's logic was sound.

"Therefore, Li Huai, maximize the wind-elemental defenses and protect the ship."

Before Li Huai could even respond, Lan Qingyou immediately kicked into high gear and soared out over the ocean ahead.

Upon reaching the targeted area of the sea she had chosen, Lan Qingyou began dropping massive bottles of Explosion Potions from the sky, raining them down in a straight line like an aerial bombardment.