Chapter 360: Consensus and the Heart of Corruption

Looking at the solemnity on the face of Sinuoli's stone statue, Teclis suddenly felt his eyes grow a bit moist. Among the High Elf nobility, he had always been treated as an oddity; even his brother, Prince Tyrion, had asked him more than once, "Why do you care so much about the outside world?"

During his travels through the Old World, he had witnessed the ignorance and selfishness of Humans, the stubbornness and Grudges of Dwarfs, and the isolationism of the Wood Elves. Contrasted with these were the brutality of the Greenskins, the evil of the Undead, and the filth and cunning of the Skaven.

There were very few people on the side of Order who could foresee the crisis the world was about to face, and even fewer willing to strive to make a change! "If not for these people, to whom shall I return?" was perhaps a true reflection of Teclis's inner thoughts.

The Dwarf before him, who could turn into a stone statue, had both the ability and the vision, possessed a clear judgment of the situation, and could proactively take actions that seemed quite good; not to mention among the Dwarfs, one couldn't even find a second one in all of Ulthuan.

Sinuoli watched Teclis and pondered as well; his assessment of Teclis was the same as Teclis's assessment of him, except that as a transmigrator, he knew of Teclis's desperate and erratic maneuvers during the End Times.

"What to do? If I don't cooperate with him, who else can I go to? That Karl-Franz's father is still wearing split-crotch pants!"

From the day he transmigrated into a Dwarf, his bloodline and beard made him wary of the pointy-ears. When Teclis visited Gaoyuanbao, Sinuoli had once considered the idea of holding the front line himself while his master provided output from the back to finish him off.

But Sinuoli also knew that if he really slaughtered the High Archmage, not to mention whether the Lady could create another piece of such weight before the End Times, Ulthuan alone would not let the matter rest.

Teclis himself held a high position, had good relationships with the heroes of the High Elves, and had an older brother who was a War Lord of the Phoenix Court and the Yongheng-Nüwang-Shiqin-Yongshi; a second War of the Beard would be inevitable.

Once it reached that point, even if the Mountain Kingdom won again, the world would already be riddled with holes; if he wanted a relatively better outcome, he would probably only be able to go and compete with Archaon for the position of Everchosen.

"Let's do this, take this, let's keep in touch, and if there is any major action, remember to consult with me!"

Sinuoli sighed, took a Rune transmitter from his bosom, and pushed it toward Teclis. He couldn't kill him, so he could only find a way to lead him onto the right path; now, his own words carried much more weight than the last time they met.

"A Rune transmitter? Is it safe to communicate this way?" Teclis took it, looked at it for a moment, and understood the principle behind it. His worry was not unfounded; the content they were plotting was extremely secretive, and if discovered by others, it would likely be considered as having been corrupted by Chaos.

"That's easy to solve, you can surely get a corresponding codebook, right? We shift the corresponding sequence back by seven, and then map them one-to-one; this way, even if others see it, they can only decipher a set of garbled code."

Sinuoli smiled slightly and offered a solution; this was a common encryption method, but in this world, it was still a pioneering feat.

"Brilliant! Then let's stay in touch. By the way, before I set off, I heard some news that might affect your journey."

Teclis tucked the transmitter into his bosom and stood up, preparing to leave; with his status, disappearing for too long would always attract the attention of those with ulterior motives. However, he stopped in his tracks as he remembered something.

"Lokhir Fellheart, you might not have heard this name; he is a pirate captain from Karond Kar. He has led his ancestral, notorious Black Ark, the Tower of Blessed Dread, away from its station; he was last sighted heading west."

"The octopus-face? West of Naggaroth, that is... Zhendan?" Sinuoli recalled the nickname of that legendary Dark Elf pirate; he wore a family heirloom, the Kelakenjuyai helmet, which was inspired by a giant sea monster resembling an octopus.

"Do not underestimate him; this beast severely damaged the fleet commanded by the Sea Lord Aisilin a few years ago, and two Dragon ships, including the Mercy of Isha and the Kalandia, were sunk! Of the entire fleet, only Aisilin returned to Lothern under the protection of the Sea God Mathlann."

Seeing that Sinuoli spoke of Fellheart with a hint of contempt, Teclis couldn't help but try to persuade him again.

"Don't blame the road if you're not good enough, the waves are just big."

Sinuoli waved his hand; he knew that Sea Lord Aisilin. This guy had once cooperated with Haimenguan to deal with Greenskins, but it ended unhappily, and a note was even left in the Book of Grudges.

His appearance seemed to be there to set off the power of Lokhir Fellheart; during the End Times, they swapped sides, but even after being corrupted, Aisilin was still no match for Fellheart.

"In any case, thank you for the reminder. A few years ago, I sent Count Noctilus of the Dreadfleet to eternal rest; as long as Fellheart dares to come, I will let him take a look at the Graveyard of Sunken Ships."

Sinuoli stood up and walked out with Teclis; in his view, compared to other legendary Dark Elf lords, the octopus-face lacked too much in terms of prestige. The Witch King and the Witch Queen were both powerful beings who were literally immortal.

Although the Hag Queen Heli-ben did not possess the word 'immortal', she had lived from the arrival of Chaos to the present day thanks to the favor of the God of the Bloody Hand, and the Executioners of Har Ganeth all revered her as their leader.

As for Malusi-Heiren, the top general under the Witch King, his martial arts were superb, needless to say; the most crucial thing was that a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh named Zhakan was sealed within his body, which, when released, was enough to kill his way in and out of ten thousand armies.

Compared to these powerhouses, a Black Ark pirate captain seemed somewhat lacking. Thinking this, Sinuoli turned and walked out of the clubhouse door, returning the way he came to his ship to wait for departure.

A few days later, the merchants completed their trades and purchases, and fresh supplies were delivered to the fleet. Yin Yin issued the order, and the waves and strong winds pushed the ships toward the deep sea.

"If not for my treasure ship and your Ironclad, we could have taken the Great Canal through Weinan Province directly to Tian Lake, and then traveled east along the Jade River. However, these two ships are too large, and the canal cannot bear them."

After another few days, Sinuoli noticed that the fleet had begun to turn south, which contradicted what his clansmen who had traveled to Zhendan had said, so he went to the treasure ship to inquire.

Yin Yin spread out a map to point out the confusion for the Dwarfs; they needed to circle around the Kulishi kingdom to reach Fuzhou City, located in the Jade River delta.

Having figured this out, Sinuoli returned to his cabin to study the technology of the Rune Colossus, but after rounding the Kulishi cape and sailing for several more days, his peaceful life was broken.

"King Sinuoli, the Admiral invites you to the treasure ship for a meeting!"