Chapter 215: Destination – Ice Sculpture Island

With profound regret, Hun Tong clandestinely left the port.

He wanted to convince Zong Ge but wasn’t able to.

Zong Ge didn’t think Two Eyes Island had a good future and listed three problems.

Hun Tong felt that his answers were watertight and could be rated as perfect.

But Zong Ge still turned him down.

“A pity, truly a pity!” Hun Tong sighed incessantly.

He also knew that poaching was risky, and would likely offend the arms merchant behind the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.

But Hun Tong really did lack capable people.

Especially after the battle concluded, the feudal lord suffered disastrous losses to his power.

Crucially, Zong Ge’s display of talent and abilities really made people drool.

Hun Tong’s main recruitment target tonight was always Zong Ge, the dragonman youngster was secondary.

To Hun Tong, it seemed that Shi Qi was more outstanding than Long Fu.

First, Shi Qi was a human, Long Fu was a dragonman. Different races had natural barriers, and recruiting a human elite would more consolidate the stability of Two Eyes Island.

Second, Shi Qi had a more guaranteed future than Long Fu. Shi Qi’s battle q I already had a gold luster, and given enough time, he was sure to become a gold level.

Third, the risks of offending an arms merchant could be mitigated. Two Eyes Island could become an arms provider location, and with a beneficial alliance, Shi Qi could be gotten and perhaps could be the connecting bridge between both sides.

Fourth, Long Fu was already the commander of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, from this position, one knew that he had a higher status in the arms merchant’s heart. Of course, it was far harder for Hun Tong to poach the big boss than the second in command. The price would also be greater.

“A pity he didn’t accept.”

“I shouldn’t give up on this.”

“Like Long Fu, Shi Qi is a silver level rarely seen.”

“I have to win him over with all I got.”

“As long as they haven’t left Two Eyes Island, I still have a chance.”

“Wait until tomorrow, when I receive the plundered seafloor treasure. I will come and negotiate again, even if I have to double the price, recruiting Shi Qi will be to my advantage!”

Hun Tong secretly resolved himself.

This battle had made him fed up with his incompetent subordinates.

Zong Ge returned to the captain’s room, and after inspecting the area around him, activated a communication device.

“Hun Tong just came by. He wants to recruit our corps and really wants to hire me at a high price.” From him, I learned about the Devil Gold Coins. It was those that caused your temporary betrayal!” 

Hun Tong deciding to drop by had given them important information. 

Zi Di and Cang Xu learned of this crucial factor.

Zi Di and the dragonman youngster were in the Deep Sea Monster Fish, while Cang Xu was alone in the captain’s room of the Iron Lump.

Through three alchemy communication devices, and through their discussion, learned of the causes and effects of the Devil Gold Coins.

“It’s no wonder the fishmen were so magnanimous and took out 50,000 gold coins.”

“The Sincerity God…their sacred tools are indeed impossible to block.”

“No.” The dragonman youngster shook his head, his heart deeply worried and sick, “We must meet our failings head on. Against these types of skills, we have no defensive measures.”

“Cang Xu immediately approved, “This is indeed a large weakness of ours. In fact, the top brass of powers large and small have such preventative measures.”

“Hun Tong had a massive amount of Devil Gold Coins, but he able to swiftly recover in that crucial moment, that was the efficacy of his defensive measure.”

Zi Di spoke, “We indeed need to cover for this weakness; however, it is very difficult.”

“Generally speaking, preventative measures are all constant divine spells on the body.”

“In our current situation, going to any temple, church, or other religious institution is fairly risky.”

The gods were aloof and remote.

As long as one built a temple or a church, they would have a likeness of them, have abundant divine power, and have the god’s eyes and ears there.

The survivors entering these places was them placing themselves rich in front of the gods’ eyes.

Despite having the Deceptive Disguise and Anti-investigation and Prophecy spells, it was still rather risky.

Basically, before they redeemed themselves and washed themselves clean, these churches and temples were dangerous places for the survivors. Avoided if possible.

Cang Xu voiced, “It is not just divine spells that can protect us, there are other ways.”

“In fact, I don’t believe that is the most concerning problem.”

“Don’t forget that our primary goal was the pass on a message to leverage the Bai Zhen Clan’s connections with imperial higherups.”

“Therefore, we came to Two Eyes Island.”

“But now, we haven’t received a response yet.”

“After so many days, this is not normal. What actually happened? Did the Bai Zhen Clan receive the message, did they reply back? Did anyone discover and obstruct the letter?”

Cang Xu’s words immediately got the others’ approval.

Zong Ge said, “Currently, the Wisteria Store on the new island is closed.”

“Cang Xu has been exposed as a necromancer, and this entails that the Wisteria Merchant Alliance channel has also suffered a calamity.”

Zi Di added, “To be honest, losing one store isn’t that big of a deal. What’s key is that the Sheng Ming Empire will likely carry out a follow up investigation. If this trail is investigated deeply enough, will it implicate us?”

“Will the blackmail letter be investigated?”

“Although the letter’s content is blackmail in name, it doesn’t indicate who we are, but it is still an important clue.”

“If nothing else, using these clues to divine us will deplete much of our power. After all, every time the Anti-investigation and Prophecy formation is activated, it comes at a steep price.”

In the spell of silence, everyone’s thoughts were springing with urgency.

Their main purpose in coming to Two Eyes Island was to send that message.

But it failed.

Not only did they not receive a reply, but it also involved more problems.

The dragonman youngster then said, “We have to hurry up and send a second message, we will find the issue.”

Cang Xu replied, “It won’t be easy to find. In fact, the message might have been misplaced. These alchemy devices are not 100% reliable. Therefore, important information is sent in at least three different ways and transmitted repeatedly.”

“We might have made a mistake with the encryption, and the receiving alchemy device got nothing but gibberish.”

“We are very far from the Sheng Ming Continent and need many communication devices to relay the transmission. There could be a problem at any point, we would be hard pressed to find where the issue is.”

Zi Di added on, “Regardless of what it is, I believe that we can still try the Wisteria Merchant Alliance channels again.”

“Of course, it will be impossible to use the Two Eye Island’s communication device again.”

“The next closest is located at Ice Sculpture Island.”

“We can go there.”

“Ice Sculpture Island? I know of it.” Even Zong Ge, one unfamiliar with the seas, knew of Ice Sculpture Island’s reputation.

Ice Sculpture Island was an ultra-large island, its development far surpassed Two Eyes Island!

Even before the battle, Two Eyes Island couldn’t compare to Ice Sculpture Island.

After all, Two Eyes Island was a coral ball cage tree, it was constantly moving, which hindered much of its development.

Because the coral ball cage tree itself was growing, and no matter how good the infrastructure, it would collapse after a time.

Ice Sculpture Island was a normal island and had a vast population, given enough reproduction and business, it had surpassed Two Eyes Island by many times. 

Two Eyes Island had only been under Hun Tong’s control for ten years.

Ice Sculpture Island had been settled for over a thousand years.

In the beginning, the settling races were divided by categories and races mixed together. Ice Sculpture Island had abundant resources and was treasured greatly in the boundless ocean.

In the following decades, snow elf communities continued to migrate there.

At the time, the barbarian clan started a war on the Ice Continent. The snow elf clan was no match for this army, and one after the other, they were routed and dispersed, those that could flee chose to settle on Ice Sculpture Island.

After a few centuries, a snow elf nation had been established on Ice Sculpture Island

In the beginning, the snow elf nation only held a small part of the island.

In current times, the entirety of Ice Sculpture Island belonged to the snow elf nation, they had become quite the powerful maritime kingdom!

Zi Di knew the dragonman youngster had lost his memory and decided to give him an introduction, “Snow elves are a type of elf, they are most suited to an environment of ice and snow.”

“Elves are different from us humans, they have a long life span, and are experts at magic, music, and more.”

“Ice Sculpture Island has snow elves that are good at magic, and even better at alchemy.”

“The alchemy puppets they make employe ice sculpture technology, cheap and satisfactory, a famous specialty.”

“Not just alchemy puppets, they also make ice breakers, cold ice forts, and more, they are especially suitable for fighting in frigid environments.”

The dragonman youngster’s eyes shined, “Perhaps we can purchase some magic ships there.”

“We lack magic ships we can overtly use.”

“If we have a silver level magic ship, we can safeguard the gold cannon and supply it sufficiently for it to display its true firepower.”

“Unlike the last two times, the enemy destroyed it after its first shot.”

Zi Di nodded, “We are very wealthy now!”

“Buying some magic ships is completely feasible.”

“In fact, we really need a true alchemist!”

When Zi Di said this, the dragonman youngster blinked.

Zong Ge didn’t know about the Bloodcore and their plans; he was completely in the dark and felt somewhat baffled.

Cang Xu said, “That’s right.”

“Although we have basic maintenance puppets, they can only maintain ordinary ships.”

“It is difficult to maintain alchemy formations with just alchemy puppets.”

“The Deep Sea Monster Fish was hit by the main light cannon, and needs to be repaired, and after going through the battle, the Iron Lump needs to be repaired too.”

“We have lost many alchemy puppets already.”

“The scouting puppets are not a problem and aren’t worth maintaining. But the deep sea salvagers, the swordsmen guard puppets, and the broken yellow crab alchemy puppet all need to be repaired by an alchemy master.”

“Some important alchemy formations need to be constructed by an alchemy master.”

This sentence contained the main point.

Cang Xu and Zi Di would struggle to construct the Bloodline Purification formation.

Zi Di and Cang Xu weren’t gifted in this aspect.

Zi Di was good at medicine and Cang Xu was an experienced administrator from his many years as a noble steward.

If one wanted to cultivate an alchemy master, it would be very costly.

In Crown City’s alchemy college, one needed to read at least a hundred introductory alchemy books to have an inkling of an alchemy foundation.