Chapter 483: Clues of the Spirit Dragon

On the deck of the "Future", Ni Na handed the two items she retrieved from the seabed ruins to Jia De Li Ya, earning a reward that lets her drink a bottle of Sunia Bloodwine today.

"Long live the captain!" Ni Na excitedly hoisted Pa Si on the deck, cheering, ignoring Pa Si's resistance, and took it into the cabin.

Jia De Li Ya turned her head to glance at Ke Lai En leaning against the rail, then quickly withdrew her gaze and walked toward her captain's quarters.

In the cabin of the Future, layers of emerald vines suddenly recoiled, hurling Lei Kedun out of that strange space.

He gazed solemnly at the room ahead, now fully restored, his figure becoming swiftly translucent, turning into sparkling starlight that surged upward toward his own upper room.

Thump~ Thump~

Ke Lai En stood in the room next to his, lightly knocked on the door; there was no response from inside, and as he prepared to return to his own room, an image suddenly flashed in his mind.

On the other side of the door, fragments of starlight reconvened inside, revealing Lei Kedun's figure.

Did he just leave the Future? Does it relate to the feeling of being watched I just sensed? Are there any other hidden secrets aboard the Future?

As thoughts drifted, Ke Lai En heard a squeak; the door before him was opened from inside by Lei Kedun.

Lei Kedun glanced at Ke Lai En, then chuckled lightly and said:

"Have you finished exploring that seabed ruin?"

Ke Lai En nodded, repeated Nina's description of the seabed, and then added:

"The rusted iron chunk whose original shape is unrecognizable, along with the seabed mud, are with Jia De Li Ya; if you're interested, you can go find her."

Lei Kedun gave a slight nod, his gaze lingering on Ke Lai En's chest, and said:

"You're ill; you can ask Fu Lan Ke for some therapeutic fruits. Though he sometimes behaves oddly, as the Future's best physician, he's still very reliable."

"Fruits with healing effects?"

Ke Lai En was stunned; he found it hard to link medicine and fruit. Can these unrelated things be hybridized? In Fu Lan Ke's eyes, is everything pairable?

"The effect is quite good," Lei Kedun shrugged and replied.

Ke Lai En nodded, turned toward the Future's galley; it was nearing noon, and at this time Fu Lan Ke was usually busy in the galley, swapping some provisions for his experimental products.

8 p. m., Beckland Empress District, inside the Hall family's luxurious villa.

Ao Dai Li sat at the desk with interest, leafing through a historically significant notebook she had just received today, a note from a Luen soldier during the twenty‑year war, a task from the Psychic Alchemy Society.

"Aside from a grammatical habit resembling Dragon Tongue, there are no major issues, and no trace of hidden clues; what does the Psychic Alchemy Society want with it?"

"If the notebook's content is fine, then the Psychic Alchemy Society is after the notebook itself?"

"I recall Mr. White Tower has considerable research on dragons; ordinary extraordinaires favor Guhemis language, yet he habitually uses Dragon Tongue. That must be a habit he retained from his low‑sequence days, when he must have encountered a lot of dragon‑related information."

"Could I ask him to study this notebook for me? If still no gain, it shows the Psychic Alchemy Society needs the notebook itself."

She muttered softly for a moment; Ao Dai Li's eyes flashed, a joyful smile spread across her face, and she couldn't help turning to the golden retriever crouching beside her.

"What's wrong, Ao Dai Li?" Su Xi responded with a puzzled look, barking once.

Ao Dai Li blinked, restrained her emotions, and turned to the golden retriever, saying:

"Su Xi, I plan to use a mystic method to study this notebook; you stay outside and guard, don't let anyone disturb me."

"The mystic method? Didn't you just use it earlier?"

Su Xi's knowledge has grown, making her harder to deceive. Ao Dai Li sighed inwardly, then said:

"It's a new method; if it still fails, I intend to try the 'Magic Mirror Divination'."

"Don't worry, I have a safe object of prayer."

"Okay." Su Xi hesitantly examined Ao Dai Li for a few seconds, and after confirming she was sincere, nodded, then rose toward the doorway.

When Su Xi left the room, Ao Dai Li began to pray to the Fool, voicing her thoughts.

On the Future, amidst overlapping ethereal prayers, Ke Lai En moved skillfully into the washroom, using Mr. A Zi Ke's bronze whistle and Will Ang Sai Ting Zhe's folded paper crane as mystic shielding, then stepped back four paces into the gray mist above.

Next door, Lei Kedun, who was playing with a cat, paused; he looked up at the wall on his left, his gaze passing through to see a pale‑white and mercury‑woven mist, not dense, within which he could vaguely discern Ke Lai En's silhouette.

He quickly withdrew his gaze, restored the room's gravity to normal, allowing Pa Si to successfully grab the floating dried fish.

Pa Si let out a meow, landed lightly, and, licking the dried fish, asked curiously:

"Meow~, what's this ability? I've never seen such a non‑human power that makes things weightless."

"This is an ability beyond the twenty‑second sequence path, drawing power from the stars, extremely dangerous."

Lei Kedun gave a brief explanation, swiftly grabbing Pa Si's tail; the black cat's tail felt fluffy at first, then firm with muscle when tightened.

Pa Si, while licking the dried fish, stiffened briefly, then its tail burst with force, pulling itself out of Lei Kedun's grasp.

"Meow!"

Pa Si glared at Lei Kedun in displeasure, then, clutching the dried fish, darted out of his room.

Lei Kedun chuckled lightly, summoned an invisible hand to close the door, then collapsed onto the bed.

He just closed his eyes to rest when dense gray mist surged in his vision, within it crimson light flowed, then instantly coalesced into a vague figure; the voice of "Justice" Ao Dai Li echoed in his ear.

Calmly after hearing "Justice" Ao Dai Li's account, Lei Kedun mused, directing his gaze toward the figure seated serenely on a high‑back chair, obscured by the thick gray mist, and said:

"Can you manifest that notebook from the twenty‑year war before my eyes?"

As the words fell, a strange vibration accompanied by scarlet watery light swept by, and Lei Kedun instantly felt a wondrous, unique link with a great will high above.

"The War Bishop's 'Spiritual Communication'!"

With the Spiritual Communication established, some memories not his own surfaced in Lei Kedun's mind—memories of Ke Lai En's recollection of that notebook.

"The Spiritual Communication is indeed convenient; now I don't have to pull you up into this gray mist, and you can also keep an eye on the Future's core."

He paused, then sank his thoughts, gradually recalling the notebook presented in his mind by Ke Lai En.

So Sunia Bloodwine is brewed like this; I'll have Fu Lan Ke try it another day.

Let Fu Lan Ke try it? Didn't he already breed fish that produce wine? Do you want him to swap the fish for cows or mushrooms?

Don't follow Fu Lan Ke's line of thought; you'll be led astray. The Southern continent has a fruit similar to a coconut; wouldn't it be great for Fu Lan Ke to cultivate a plant that turns its juice into red wine? Pick and drink fresh.

If Fu Lan Ke thought like you, he'd already be a cardinal in the Earth Church, not a pirate on the Future.

I've finished reading; the notebook's content is fine. The author must have directly contacted a spirit dragon of at least a certain sequence, even lingering in its mind and dreams, leaving some imprint. You could try divination; most dragons aren't adept at the fate domain and can't conceal their traces well.

Divination? This is still something to try next.

The era of the giant dragon has long passed; those who can still be alive now are surely old-timers, and finding that giant dragon won't be too easy.

I knew it; the voice in my mind belonging to Klein pondered for a moment, and immediately the "spiritual communication" severed its connection, and the thick gray mist before my eyes quickly dissipated.

Rekton, who was lying on the bed with his eyes closed resting, suddenly opened his eyes. Using the crimson moonlight streaming in from outside the window, he glanced around the room and muttered somewhat speechlessly:

"Really, just use it and throw it away."

Above the gray mist, Klein sat in the high-backed chair belonging to the Fool, and began to investigate the past of that notebook through dream divination.

In the dream, he saw a village with customs of giant dragon worship, and saw a cemetery located behind the Black Night Church.

The dream's image finally froze on a tombstone in a corner; the words originally carved there have long become blurred.

"Is the final tombstone in that village with giant dragon worship customs the burial place of the notebook's owner?"

"During the twenty-year war, that soldier, for some reason, encountered a spirit dragon, and that spirit dragon hid deep within his mind; as he came to Loen, to his homeland, under the influence of that spirit dragon, this place gradually developed customs of giant dragon worship."

Klein pondered, organizing the story's context, and quickly guessed their purpose in letting Miss Justice obtain this notebook: the Psychic Alchemy Society wanted to use this notebook to find the place with giant dragon worship customs.

The image Klein obtained through dream divination, following the ritual of Miss Justice Audrey's mirror divination, appeared in the mirror before Audrey.

After viewing the revelation given by Mr. Fool, Audrey suppressed her excitement, politely greeted the Fool, and ended the ritual.

Looking at the mirror that had returned to normal, Audrey couldn't help but let her thoughts drift.

The image that appeared just now in the mirror divination is exactly that place with giant dragon worship customs; there indeed is a spirit dragon there, but it was already found first by Mr. White Tower, who seems to have also left that place, and after the Psychic Alchemy Society's people went there, they could only conclude that a giant dragon had once lived there.

However, my task is already completed; as long as I hand over this notebook to the Psychic Alchemy Society, I will not miss any of my due reward.

Audrey, in a pretty good mood, curled the corner of her mouth and began to clean up the ritual's remnants.

Above the sea layered with dark clouds, bolts of silver-white lightning kept striking, fine rainstorm swaying in the wind with the gale, heavy and oppressive, like in an apocalyptic atmosphere, a dark, massive looming figure appeared and disappeared intermittently in the silver-white electric light amidst the storm.

As the lightning from the sky grew denser, in the silver-white electric light, that dark, massive looming figure gradually revealed its form: it was a huge ship, its bow and stern high and raised, resembling a crescent moon.

The surface of this huge sailing ship is coated in deep black paint; its sides have three rows of orderly cannons, and on this enormous ship there is only one sail bearing a black tombstone; raising this sail seems not for sailing but to proclaim its identity.

Deathknell

(End of chapter)