So she gave an order, directing the sailors -
"Reef the sails! Turn! Signal with flags! Let's go pick up everyone on that boat!"
Following her order, the crew immediately got busy, each doing their own job and participating in the work of rescuing the people on the lifeboat.
Looking at the figures coming and going on the deck, Qi Ji gradually put away the smile on his lips.
The three members of Frion's team were just one of the reasons why she asked Mary to save that group of people.
Another reason was...she wanted to know how they had ended up like this?
Qi Ji remembered that three weeks ago, when he and his team members parted ways in the Lookout City of the Templar Empire, they wanted to take a boat to Jie Lian Island to attend a wizard gathering.
But now, they were struggling to survive in a dilapidated lifeboat.
What happened during those twenty days? Did something happen on Jielian Island?
Whatever the reason, she had to find out.
=====================
It's a new month again, please give me a monthly ticket! Please give me a reward!! Fresh monthly tickets!!!
Chapter 525: Changes on Jielian Island (Part )
"Little Sharon! We meet again!"
As soon as she stepped onto the light sailboat from the gangplank that led to the lifeboat, Lina couldn't wait to throw herself at Qi Ji with open arms:
"Wow, I miss you so much!!!"
The noise was so shocking that everyone else on the boat took a few steps back. Mary's nerves tensed up instantly, and a ball of inky black flame vaguely condensed on her shoulder.
If that brown-haired female wizard dared to show any disadvantage to Yao Lingwu, she would use "Annihilation" without hesitation to make her disappear from the world!
"Uh, it's okay, they're not hostile."
Qi Ji hurriedly waved and explained to Meili who was facing a great enemy, but he could not avoid Lina's bear hug. As soon as he finished speaking, he was held tightly in the other's arms.
“Well…alright, alright, I…wuwuwu…”
Feeling the soft touch enveloping him from all directions, Qi Ji gave up resistance with a look of despair, lowered his hands, and waited for Lina's hug to end.
"Ah...Lina, let go, you're too dirty..."
Fortunately, the captain swordsman Frion, who was standing a little further away, reacted in time and quickly called the mage Io to come forward together. The two of them held the shoulders of Lina, who was in a completely fanatical mood, on the left and right, and forcibly pulled her away with loving eyes.
"Um...you two look familiar to each other?"
Watching the interaction between Qi Ji and the three adventurers, Meili realized something and her expression became quite strange.
"Not bad... Let me introduce you, these three are Lina, Frion, and Io. About two months ago..."
Qi Ji struggled out of Lina's arms with a stern face, took a few steps back as if relieved, and gave Meili a brief introduction to the situation of the three members of the team and his own interactions with them.
"So that's how it is... Well, that's really quite a coincidence." After listening to Qi Ji's description, Meili also showed a very surprised expression.
Indeed, in such a vast ocean, it was really the work of the mysterious fate that two groups of acquaintances could meet each other so coincidentally.
"...Hey, wait a minute, the three of you, according to what 105 said, you were planning to take a boat to Jielian Island?"
After sighing, Meili suddenly realized the key point of the matter:
"Then how did you end up in this situation? Were you attacked by something on the way to Jielian Island? Or did something go wrong with Jielian Island itself?"
This is an extremely important issue for our group!
After all, if they want to reach their final destination, the "Giant Island" on the southern continent, they must first go to Jie Lian Island, which is located between the north and south continents, for replenishment. In other words, the end point of their current route is Jie Lian Island.
If Friong and his companions became refugees wandering on the sea because they encountered a sirens or an "underwater disaster", then they would be in big trouble.
This means that the waters around Jielian Island, or Jielian Island itself, are shrouded in danger to a very serious degree, and it is even possible that navigation is no longer possible!
In this way, for the safety of everyone, they had to change their course and go north to the ports of the Glorious Plantagenet Empire or the Templar State to stop and discuss the next strategy.
"One zero five...Oh, I see." The three were stunned at first, and then realized that this was another pseudonym of Qi Ji.
They also had some understanding of the character of the powerful black-haired girl. It was common for her to give herself all kinds of strange code names to cover up her true identity.
That "Sharon" is most likely a pseudonym, but it doesn't matter, as long as we know who she is.
As adventurers who roam in gray areas and dangerous places all year round, they do not mind others not communicating with them using their real names. On the contrary, they think it is a natural and cautious attitude.
After hearing Meili's pertinent question, the three people's expressions, which had originally been relaxed upon seeing Qi Ji, suddenly became serious.
"Ms. Captain, please allow me to call you this for now."
Captain Friant took a few steps forward, passed the other two, and walked in front of Mary. His face looked a little heavy and he said:
"Just as Miss Xue...105 said, three weeks ago we set sail on a ship from the Lookout City of the Holy Church, and our destination was Jie Lian Island.
"However, we did not encounter any danger along the way and arrived at the destination quite smoothly. We also participated in the Mage Gathering as scheduled."
"So, something went wrong with Jielian Island itself?" Meili frowned and made a reasonable guess.
"Yes, on the second day after the Mage Gathering, which was also the fourth day after we set foot on the land of Jielian Island, that night... a terrible disaster occurred."
As Friang spoke, fear was evident on his face. His face, which had been sallow from thirst and hunger, turned even paler. This was the first time that Qi Ji saw this calm and composed man display such intense emotions.
The speech also paused uncontrollably.
Lina and Aio seemed to be infected by his emotions as well. They shrank their necks and their shoulders trembled slightly, as if just the ambiguous description made them recall some horrible and unacceptable past.
Meili did not interrupt again, but stared at Friang, who seemed a little timid, with a thoughtful look, letting him digest the fear that inexplicably surged into his heart.
About half a minute later, Friant finally came out of his semi-dazed state, and his lips trembled palely as he spoke, his voice much quieter:
"That night... the three of us rested in a hotel on the island. The sky was clear and we could clearly see the bright stars when we looked up. We could also see the road conditions clearly even without lights when we walked on the street.
"Since we had just attended a wizard gathering, we were all very excited and did not fall asleep until midnight."
...How come it's like telling a ghost story? The description of the environment is used to set off the emotions.
For some reason, Qi Ji had the urge to complain at a very inappropriate time.
"Then... I don't remember the exact time, but when the moon was very high, we heard... some kind of terrible, disgusting sound coming from the direction of the wizard's gathering place."
Friant swallowed and lowered his voice, as if he was afraid that his next words would be heard by some unknown existence:
"I don't know how to describe that sound in words... It was so blasphemous that it couldn't even be called a sound. It sounded like the entrails of a rotting corpse, like the vomit of a sea urchin, as if it contained all the filth, sin, filth, and uncleanness in this world..."
During the pause in Friant's narration, Lina folded her hands over her chest, stared at the deck and said, it was noon in summer, the sun was blazing, but she kept shivering and looked extremely scared:
"At that time, I just heard that sound, and I felt like my brain was melting, as if a long tongue had forced its way into my skull from my ear, licking and stirring inside..."
“We almost fainted after hearing that sound.
"But perhaps it's because we are extraordinary beings in the second realm, and our spirituality and spirit are far more refined and tenacious than ordinary people. Or perhaps it's because the hotel we stayed in was on the edge of the city of Jie Lian Island, far away from the center of the mutation, so we were less affected...
"Anyway, we managed to hold on and didn't lose consciousness on the spot."
Friant interrupted her overly artistic description and continued:
“After we barely recovered, the first thing we thought of was… to escape!
"At that time, a thought raced wildly through our minds, warning us for no apparent reason that we must move away immediately... away from the direction where the sound had come from, at all costs and by any means necessary!
"So we ran desperately towards the sea. When we left the hotel, there was complete chaos outside, with fire, screams, and cries...
"The closer we get to the gathering place of the mages, the louder the noises become, and mixed with some...
"Some sounds that absolutely cannot be made by humans. They are the roars of evil spirits... the mumbling of demons in their dreams... the murmur of darkness... evil... whispers... disaster..."
...Why did you start writing novels?
Qi Ji expended a considerable amount of energy to resist the urge to say this out loud.
Perhaps realizing that he was in an abnormal state, Friant shook his head vigorously, recovering his scattered mind that had fallen into an unknown state, and calming down a little:
"We fled to the edge of the island with a few other people, found a small boat there, and rowed away as fast as we could...
“Until the very end, we didn’t look back to see what was happening behind us, because the thought in our minds at the time told us that we must not look!
"The appearance of that 'thing' that has descended is definitely not something that the fragile minds of mortal beings can bear. If we look back, even if we only catch a glimpse of it, we will die... No, death is the most merciful outcome..."
Having said this, Friant shut up, looked pale and lowered his eyes, and the other two team members also stopped talking.
The scene fell into an extremely solemn silence.
"...Just now, you said, 'arrival'?" Finally, Qi Ji broke the frozen air:
“Why do you use that word?”
She crossed her arms over her chest, raised her chin slightly, and looked at the three people with eyes as if she was thinking.
Although she looks like a delicate little girl, she gives people a very reliable feeling, which makes the three people who are deeply frightened feel at ease.
"I'm not sure either..." Friang scratched the back of his head awkwardly and explained hesitantly:
"My mind was so confused at that time that I couldn't think of anything except running away and being scared... I just instinctively felt that something... had 'fallen' from somewhere behind me.
"That strange and terrifying sound was the footsteps of that thing descending on the earth... Well, this is a bit too mysterious. Anyway, it was just an intuition, an inexplicable intuition without any reason."
"I understand."
Qi Ji did not blame him for his vague description, but nodded with some realization, a gleam of light flashing in his dark brown eyes.
"One hundred and five, do you know something?" Meili keenly caught this glimmer of inspiration and asked hurriedly.
"Well... I can't call it 'knowing', it's just a guess."
Qi Ji laughed and told the story in a storytelling tone:
"I originally thought that Jie Lian Island was attacked by an 'underwater disaster', but now it seems that various clues seem to point to another possibility: the 'underwater disaster' did not attack Jie Lian Island, but..."
"And what?!" All four of them rushed over and surrounded her.
Qi Ji paused as if to suspense, and looked around, sweeping across the familiar faces around him that were full of expectation, curiosity, and anxiety, and said word by word:
"Instead, at the wizard gathering on Jielian Island, someone 'summoned' the 'natural disaster'."
Chapter 526: Natural Disaster Summoning
I went to donate blood, but the first time I donated blood, I drew more than 400cc, without any warning. I felt dizzy the whole day... The blood collection stations nowadays, wow...
====================
As Qi Ji finished his words, the front deck where five people were standing suddenly fell into deathly silence.
Meili and the other members of Frion's team stared at her face with a slight smile in their eyes, their expressions showing more confusion than shock.
Obviously, their mindsets did not change, and they were unable to comprehend the meaning of Qi Ji's words, let alone read the extremely heavy weight in these words with a light tone.
The strange and absolute silence lasted for at least a minute, during which no one spoke.
The only sound in the air was the crash of waves hitting the hull, which rose and fell in a regular pattern with the sound of the sea breeze sweeping across the deck, which only served to highlight the strange silence among the crowd.
"Pfft!"
It was not until the last refugee on the lifeboat boarded the light sailboat through the gangplank and the sailors began to carry the unconscious wounded and sick to an open area that Lina opened her mouth blankly and murmured as if in a dream:
"The underwater disaster...was it summoned by someone?!"
She herself didn't notice that the tone of the second half of the sentence was exaggeratedly raised, which sounded funny.
But it was obvious that no one present cared about her embarrassment. Meili was the second to react, and asked in disbelief from another angle:
"Wait, 105, you just said that the underwater disaster was... summoned by a wizard's gathering?! Although I have never been to that gathering, I have often heard of it. It is an academic exchange conference for most of the famous wizards in the human world!
"How could someone summon something like that in this situation?! Besides...besides, can an underwater disaster...be 'summoned'?! Who can do such a thing!?"
Although Mary's realm has reached that of a true mage, making her an upper-class figure among civilian extraordinary people, she is not a professionally trained person like Lina and Aio, and she has no mentor or master to teach her magic.
Most of the spiritual knowledge she acquired was gained through her own hard work and practice at the grassroots level, and her identity as a navigator meant that she was constantly on the move and had no time to attend any mage gatherings.
But such a large-scale activity is naturally well-known in the circle of extraordinary people. Her strength has reached that of a "quasi-strong person" of the second realm, so she must have heard some basic related information.
Therefore, she was also very clear about the importance of that gathering in the human world, and describing it as a "gathering of heroes" was a bit of an understatement.
For such a serious, solemn and grand event, how could anyone summon a "natural disaster", an extremely evil and terrifying existence?
Even if she didn't understand the art of summoning, she knew that summoning a being of this level was not something that ordinary wizards could do.
It would definitely require several third-level magicians to provide support, and perhaps even fourth-level legendary warriors would be needed.
