Chapter 224: Justice Matins
Early morning.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was sailing across the ocean.
The ship’s bow cut through the waves and pure white sails swelled out.
In the distance, the boundless dark blue ocean surface and insipid blue sky reflected off each other, and under the caressing sea breeze, the sailors w ere carefree and relaxed.
The good weather brought more than a good mood.
To sailing on the sea, this signified that most important thing – a safe sail.
Two mercenaries stood at the side of a ship, one of them threw a plank.
The plank was fastened to a rope, and after it dropped into the sea, it was immediately swept towards the aft.
The rope was also tugged constantly by the plank.
This rope wasn’t ordinary, and there had been many knots tied into it at equidistant lengths of 23 feet and 7.5 inches from each other.
The other mercenary was holding an hourglass.
The hourglass would completely fill in 14 seconds.
14 seconds quickly passed, and the turned hourglass filled.
The mercenary counting the rope knots found that a bit over 11 knots had passed.
With this data, they immediately ran to the captain’s room and reported to the dragonman youngster, “Lord Commander, current speed is 11 knots.”
The dragonman youngster nodded, allowing them to retire.
He continued to immerse himself with his table.
The table had an ordinary ocean chart, compass, star chart, and a number of staff gauges and other maritime navigational equipment.
“A speed of 11 knots…” The dragonman youngster dipped a feather pen into some ink, then wrote a calculation on some parchment, until finally marking the fleet’s position on the ordinary ocean chart as well as its current course.
The dragonman youngster had been studying maritime navigation for some time already, now he could proficiently use all kinds of testing methods and tools, along with being able to do them faster and more accurately.
“Let’s check the correct answer.” The dragonman youngster took out another map.
It was a magic item – the moving ocean map
The dragonman youngster had purchased it from the Two Eyes Island Auction
The moving ocean map unfurled, and he saw where his fleet was, moving across the ocean at a snail’s pace.
The course, speed, and position were all a little bit off from his calculations.
“My maritime navigational skill should meet standards now?” The dragonman youngster faintly smiled.
With this moving map, the fleet’s position, course, and other crucial data was obvious at a glance, making things very convenient.
Cang Xu’s compass was also very reliable; it could instantaneously indicate every direction and orientation.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish was the most convenient, it came with its own preinstalled moving map that could correspond with its three detection methods, it was the strongest detection unit the survivors had at present.
Magic and alchemy were the world’s most sophisticated technologies.
But it didn’t mean the dragonman youngster’s study of basic maritime navigation was worthless.
Because magic prohibition and other special environments would cause these alchemy items to fail. Some enemy methods could also interfere and mislead, effortlessly leading a fleet into ambush.
The Sheng Ming Empire navy provided moving ocean maps as standard equipment, but every time they did calculations, they still used basic maritime navigational skills simultaneously.
The dragonman youngster put away the moving ocean map and began to eat breakfast.
Breakfast was very sumptuous.
Some bread, cow milk, green vegetables, and so on.
Because this was their second day since departing the island.
The ship still had very fresh food.
As time passed, this situation became very nasty.
Fesh vegetables were very hard to store.
Magic and alchemy offered many food storage methods, the most popular of which was the Fertile Land Church’s specialty – the Fertile Flower Pot.
This flower pot’s soil was very fertile and could meet the nutrition requirement of growing vegetables for a long time.
Therefore, due to the empire’s grand strategy of invading the Wilderness Continent and vast maritime navigation development, the Fertile Land Church expanded greatly.
The second most popular was making an ice-cold environment, to prolong a food’s shelf life. Some cold air formations, ice formations, and some alchemy refrigerators and freezers all belonged to this category.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps planned to go to Ice Sculpture Island, that island had alchemy products like refrigerators and freezers, things positively evaluated by the market and bestsellers, becoming one of the snow elves’ staple exports.
But these two methods still couldn’t benefit the vast majority of sailors.
The sole reason was cost.
Ordinary ships spent money on cultivator sailors, navigational equipment, ship maintenance, along with other things and enough food to eat.
In terms of invested costs, allocating fertile flower pots, refrigerators, and so on meant that profits would be reduced.
Captains or fleet leaders wouldn’t choose to do this.
For this reason, the great majority of sailors were confronted with strange smelling water filled with algae while sailing, dried peas that’d make you vomit, and moist bread that would become moldy and maggoty. Sometimes, rats caught in cabin floors would give the sailors a rare delicacy.
It was worth mentioning that the ships the survivors controlled both overtly and covertly didn’t have these preservation methods.
Ordinary ships didn’t have such installations.
The Iron Lump and the White Bandage were mercenary corps ships that moved in waters around Two Eyes Island, not in the open ocean.
Although the Deep Sea Monster Fis was a gold level ship, it didn’t have any either.
The reason was very simple.
War Merchant used this ship to sail distant seas, and he brought his own fresh ingredients. As a legend level magician, he could create water from nothing and hunting locally to acquire the freshest ingredients, thus he needed no such things.
The dragonman youngster finished eating breakfast and left the captain’s room, traveling downstairs and to the prayer room on the deck’s second level.
This room hadn’t originally been for prayer, but since the dragonman youngster and Chi Lai were both Justice believers, they converted it to do so in the interim.
This was a blatant privilege.
They were the only two Justice God disciples.
Most sailors believed in an Ocean God, the Luck Goddess, the Wealth Goddess, and so on.
Because the Sheng Ming Empire lacked a traditional ocean god, many human sailors believed in the ocean gods of foreign races.
In this extraordinary world, choosing the correct god to worship was an important act that could increase the odds of survival, and shouldn’t be easily ignored.
Besides this prayer room, the fleet had no others.
If the sailors wanted to pray, they had no choice but to do it where they stood.
The sole prayer room was for the dragonman youngster’s and Chi Lai’s usage.
But no one grumbled against or opposed this situation.
This was the world of the strong.
The strong had privilege and was expected as a matter of course.
“Commander.” At the prayer room’s doorway stood Chi Lai; he had been waiting for some time.
The dragonman youngster smiled at him, “Sorry, measuring and calculating our course and position took a bit of time.”
Chi Lai stood perfectly straight and permeated with a soldier’s graceful bearing, “It is the duty of a subordinate to wait for their superior.”
The two pushed open the door and entered the prayer room.
Set up in the middle of the prayer room was a likeness of the Justice God.
The likeness was half as tall as a person and hung in a large niche in the wall.
The likeness portrayed the Justice God’s image, he was a square faced middle aged man, with tightly closed lips, stalwart features, and looked ahead.
He wore armor, held a sword in one hand, and a shield in the other.
They were the Armor of Justice, the Justice Square Shield, and the Justice Longsword, all divine artifacts of the Justice God.
In front of the wall niche was an offering table with candlesticks set up on it.
On the wall, the Justice Church’s sacred emblem was depicted.
Sunlight radiated through a porthole, illuminating the Justice God’s likeness, causing it to express a thread of formidable aura.
Regardless of whether it was the likeness or the sacred emblem, both were ordinary goods and unblessed, they had been made in haste.
“The circumstances were limiting; everything has to be simple.” The dragonman youngster sighed to Chi Lai, “We lack an outstanding alchemist.”
“We cannot truly convert a cabin on the magic ship into a prayer room and the gold cannon is damaged beyond repair.”
But Chi Lai was very satisfied, “Lord Commander, to have a place like this to come pray in is already a rare treatment in all my years. I am perfectly content already!”
“Let us carry out our matins together.”
The dragonman youngster and Chi Lai slowly kneeled, both knees tapping onto the cold hard planks.
If this was the Wealth Church, believers would be kneeling on soft cushions, but the Justice Church advocated for a more arduous ambience.
The dragonman youngster hung his head and closed his eyes, mouthing in his thoughts, “Justice God, my God, you are a grand God, a God worthy of praise.”
“You uphold justice, do not submit to force, and are the one to right wrongs.”
“This lowly believer prays to you to make things clear, to ask for your direction, please tell me how the path of righteousness should be walked…”
The two both prayed silently.
When Chi Lai finished his own matins, he noticed that the dragonman youngster was still praying.
From his point of view, he could see the side of the dragonman youngster’s face, viewing his tightly locked brows and pious silently mouthing lips faintly opening and closing.
At this moment, Chi Lai’s heart welled with good feelings for the dragonman youngster.
Holding the same convictions caused Chi Lai to feel more intimate with the dragonman youngster.
Although he had joined the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps as a slave, his own heart treated the dragonman youngster as the closest one to him.
He didn’t suspect the dragonman youngster was fraudulently pretending to gain his loyalty.
Because that was unnecessary.
In this world of widespread beliefs, believing in other gods for this purpose was very taboo.
The price was too high, unworthy of the act.
The dragonman youngster’s actions during the battle for Two Eyes Island was also witnessed by Chi Lai. He saw the dragonman youngster fight with his all against Er Gua Zi, stunning Chi Lai and causing him to concede from the bottom of his heart that the dragonman youngster was formidable.
Although Zong Ge’s battle qi had a gold luster, and was considered a quai-gold level, in Chi Lais’ eyes, his battle strength couldn’t compare to the dragonman youngster’s.
The only thing that diminished the young man was that he was a dragonman.
The Sheng Ming Empire was the world’s greatest power, and the strongest, causing the glorious humans to universally look down on the other races.
Therefore, Hun Tong and Tan Qiu were more inclined to recruit the human Shi Qi and not Long Fu.
However, Chi Lai was born from the lowest rungs of society and had been framed by imperial bigwigs. His many torments had broken many of his obstinate prejudices.
This fact didn’t affect Chi Lai that much.
The dragonman youngster’s prayer finally finished.
The two slowly got up.
Chi Lai decided to ask, “Lord Commander, it seems your heart is at a loss. As a fellow believer, I want to give you some help, even if it won’t solve your problem or is insignificant.”
Chi Lai helping another at his own accord was very rare.
He had been sold into slavery and changed hands many times.
Although his time with the dragonman youngster was brief, Chi Lai had a sense of belonging and really wanted to help this youngster.