With the order of the captain, the bottom of the iron ship was pressed into a standard one-foot square using a hydraulic machine and glued together with grease before being stacked neatly. The handyman used a special long knife to re-cut them and sent them into the steam turbine piece by piece to ignite them. In an instant, it gave off an extremely hot flame.
When the wood on the Hellfire Archipelago was burned, the heat released was far above the coke on Earth. The liquid in the turbine was not ordinary clean water but a special liquid that was blended with the underground river after distilling the beast's grease and blood plasma. The temperature needed to turn it into steam was about 1,000 degrees Celsius, and the kinetic energy produced by this steam was also much greater than that of pure water vapor.
Various unique conditions made the steamship built by the Wizard Li tribesmen slightly different from the Earthlings. The chimney that emitted steam was not erected on the deck but led underwater instead.
There were more than ten heavy iron covers that could only be opened outwards in the chimney. When the iron ship docked, these covers would automatically close to avoid the seawater from flowing in. When the ship set sail and the wheel needed to emit heat, the huge momentum of the special steam would naturally break open the heavy iron covers and spread into the ocean.
Such a special design made the Wizard Li steamship to emit very little sound when sailing on the sea, allowing them to quietly follow behind the wooden ship driven by the fugitives from afar by relying on binoculars.
The mainlanders, who did not know that they had been closely followed, sailed with the wind for a few hours in fear. When they saw that the sun had already risen above their heads and that there were no more pursuers behind the ship, their nerves finally relaxed.
"Hanoo, looks like we've escaped from the clutches of the Hellfire tribesmen. The only thing we need to do next is to return to Venis City." In the steering room, Anduki sat on the ground tiredly and wolfed down the seawater fish stew sent by the sailor. Looking at Hanoo, who was eating heartily beside him, he said in a low voice.
"Captain, other than returning to Venis City, the most important thing right now is for you to create enough clean water," Hanoo said without raising his head. "My throat is smoking now. I believe everyone is thirsty as well."
"I was so focused on driving the ship to escape that I actually forgot about this," Anduki was stunned. Only then did he realize that his mouth was dry as well. With a wry smile, he waved his hand at a short middle-aged man who temporarily replaced him at the helm. "Federico, look after the helm. I'll be back soon." Then, he stood up and walked out of the steering room with his body hunched.
The deck was sunny. Other than the sailors who were in charge of adjusting the sails sitting under the mast, not daring to go too far away, the others were digging the harvested catch, digging out the guts and drying them on the deck to dry.
"Everyone's working hard!" When Anduki saw that everyone was busy with their own work, he shouted in satisfaction, "Alright, let's collect the catch first. Use the wooden bucket to fetch some seawater up and I'll use the Water Purification Spell to purify it. After everyone has had their fill, scrub them and take a break."
Even though all the captains of the Kattaman City State had mastered the magical 'water purification spell' and could theoretically continuously create clean water when sailing in the sea, in reality, human energy was limited. It was still an extravagant hope for the sailors to freely bathe in water during the voyage. For this reason, when they heard the captain's words, everyone could not help but cheer.
After that, the excited sailors collected the half-dried fish and began to pull the wooden buckets with ropes to fetch the seawater. After being busy for a long time, the deck was already densely filled with all kinds of containers filled with bitter salty water.
"Great! So much seawater! Looks like all of you are planning to tire me to death in order to have a clean and good sleep!" By the time the sailors were done with their work, Anduki made a rare joke when he saw their longing gaze. Closing his eyes, he began to silently recite an incantation.
At the same time, he gently raised both of his hands and drew various mysterious patterns in front of his chest. Not long after, all ten of his fingers lit up with a faint milky white light.
After casting the spell, Anduki opened his eyes and flicked the white light on his fingertips into the containers filled with seawater one by one. The sailors by the side, on the other hand, lowered their heads in unison and prayed loudly with a simple prayer, "God, please bless me to be able to drink sweet clean water at sea! I thank the gods for their gift …"
Just like this, Anduki purified ten containers at once. Under the continuous prayers of the sailors, Anduki cast the spell for more than ten times in a row. In the end, his face turned pale and he finally managed to purify all of the seawater on the deck.
After letting out a long sigh of relief, he finally put on a satisfied smile and said loudly in exhaustion, "Alright! Everyone, drink to your heart's content! Under such a big sun, the water is even sweeter and more refreshing than the wine!"
The moment the captain's words left his mouth, a tall sailor who was limping suddenly shouted, "Wait!" Staggering, he used a broken wooden cup to scoop a cup of clean water from the bucket and staggered to Anduki. Staring at him, he said, "No matter if this is wine or water, I must give you this cup first, my dear captain.
It's you who made us not give up hope even when we were in a hopeless situation and finally escaped from that hell-like island. It's also you who gave us hope to go home alive now … "
"It's not that I'm the one who made everyone keep their hope, but it's us who made each other not give up hope …" Anduki was silent for a while before taking the broken wooden cup and raising it up high. He said loudly, "Let us give this first cup to ourselves and all our companions around us! Cheers!" Then, he drank the full cup of water in one gulp.
"Let us give this to ourselves and all our companions around us!" At once, the sailors cheered in unison and began to drink the sweet water.
After drinking their fill, they began to soak their hair and beards with water before smearing the fish oil on them. After that, they took turns to shave their hair off with a few black iron knives that they found. After that, they took off their clothes and smeared the fish oil on the wooden blocks before dipping it in the water to scrape off the dirt on their bodies. Finally, they used the fish oil to scrub their clothes clean.
Not far away, Zhang Lisheng, who was standing at the stern and leaning against the side of the ship, looked down at the dirty water and wet hair and beards on the deck before raising his head to look at the bald sailors who were laughing excitedly. At once, he could not help but mutter, "It's quite creative to be able to use fish oil as shaving water, shower gel, and detergent.
Speaking of which, the nerves of these mainlanders are really tough. They've just escaped for less than a day, but it's as though they've forgotten the tragic scene of their companions being eaten. To think that they can actually miraculously wash their bodies clean with just a little bit of water … "
"Mr. Lisheng, there's water now. Don't you want to wash up?" When the young man was feeling surprised, he suddenly saw a teenager wearing a silver shirt that had just been wrung dry walking towards him.
He asked loudly, "No, I'm not living in the stone prison these days. I'm still clean. Besides, as a monk, I don't care whether my appearance is clean or not, but whether my heart is pure or not." When Zhang Lisheng saw that the person who came was the Young Master of the Bailile Trading Company, Annete, who had an extremely high status among the fugitives, he smiled and pretended to be profound.
"Mr. Lisheng, the power called 'Qi' that you emit is really magical. I believe that your occupation, the monk, is also a very powerful spellcaster occupation in the foreign mainland, right?
Can you tell me what is the 'purity of the heart'? Is it to be kind and trustworthy and do more good deeds? " Annete asked in a probing tone that a teenager his age would inevitably use when he heard strange talk about the spellcaster occupation.
"Not exactly. The 'purity of the heart' is relative and it's different for everyone.
Well, to put it in the simplest way, if you're a kind person, then your purity of the heart is to do more good deeds and help others.
If you're a person who likes to do whatever you want, then your purity of the heart is to do what you want to do, no matter how strange that thing is.
If you're an evil person, then your purity of the heart is to do all kinds of evil deeds and harm people everywhere … "
"Are you saying that the monk is an evil spellcaster occupation?" Annete exclaimed.
"Young Master Annete, your words can be described as taking things out of context in our country." Zhang Lisheng curled his lips and said mysteriously, "I've already said that the purity of the heart of a kind person is to do more good deeds and help others. Didn't you hear me?
Monk is a profession that can dig out the true self in the depths of a human's soul. It's a religion that worships oneself. It's a cultivation and philosophy … Ah, forget it.
You're still too young to understand these things. When you're as knowledgeable as your teacher, Mr. Hanino, you'll naturally be able to understand my words. "
"Do I have to wait until I'm as old as teacher to understand your words? But you don't look much older than me."
"But I'm a monk and you're not!" Zhang Lisheng put his palms together and pretended to be mysterious before casually asking, "That's right, where's your teacher, Young Master Annete? Why isn't he by your side?"
"Teacher has gone to rest. He's been tossing and turning for the whole night yesterday, so he's really exhausted," Annete replied. "Speaking of last night, I haven't thanked you for saving our lives yet, Mr. Lisheng.
Thank you so much! I'll definitely ask my father to thank you properly when we return to Venis City. "
"There's no need to thank me. If you really want to thank me, just help me buy a merchant ship. I'm a person who does whatever I want, and now that I've suddenly fallen in love with this kind of life of drifting on the sea, it'll be the best if I can make a living from this," Zhang Lisheng said according to one of the plans that he had long thought of.
The instant the young man's words left his mouth, a clear female voice resonated in the distance, "The smallest merchant ship also costs 3,000 gold coins. Adding the start-up capital of the first business and the cost of hiring sailors, it'll be 3,500 gold coins. Is this what you call 'there's no need to thank me'?"
Annete looked towards the direction of the voice and saw his twin sister walking towards him while dripping wet. At once, he could not help but exclaim, "Helena, if it wasn't for Mr. Lisheng, we might have been eaten by the Hellfire tribesmen today. Don't tell me that the more than 100 lives on the ship are not worth 3,500 gold coins?
Besides, Mr. Lisheng is also a spellcaster. Even if we hire him to risk his life to save us, it'll still cost at least hundreds or thousands of gold coins, right? "
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
