Chapter 236: Welcome to the World of Light, Promised by Your Excellency Shaya (5k)
Western Continent, Endless Sea.
A wooden sailboat cut through the wind and waves, sailing on the vast ocean.
“According to the intelligence transmitted from the Church of War…”
“During the Great Calamity, the Elf Royal Court that fell into the Endless Sea should be located in this vicinity.”
At the bow of the ship, the middle-aged captain held a compass in one hand and a pen pinched between his fingers in the other, comparing it with the sea chart in his hand.
This is the era of humans and adventurers.
Although compared to the ancient divine races, humans do not possess powerful physiques or sharp claws and fangs… the ambition in human hearts is no less than that of those ancient masters.
As the territories within the Western Continent were gradually divided, and scarce resources such as minerals, resources, and extraordinary materials were also carved up by various human factions, each struggle became incredibly fierce, even to the extent of provoking war.
Naturally, some turned their gaze beyond the Western Continent, to the boundless ocean.
The Great Calamity back then saw gods bleed, ancient creators collapse, and countless ownerless divine sparks and authority fragments scatter across the Prime Material Plane.
Now, the vast majority of the broken divine sparks scattered across the Western Continent have already been detected and devoured by the Mythical Creatures walking the world. Ownerless divine sparks still remaining on the land are already extremely scarce, and each emergence of divine spark triggers divine wars.
However, in contrast, many of the divine sparks and authorities scattered in the Endless Sea have not yet been discovered, and are quietly dormant somewhere, awaiting the opportunity to re-emerge.
Of course, even if they were to discover ownerless divine sparks scattered in the Endless Sea during the Great Calamity, these ocean adventurers would not dare to claim them for themselves.
These are treasures that only those at the pinnacle of Legend, striving to become demigods, are qualified to covet, and might even attract the covetous gaze of deities.
For an adventurer team on this ship, where there isn’t even a Legend, and the strongest is only Titled, attempting to covet divine sparks is no different from seeking death.
“However, if it is the ruins of the Elf Royal Court from that Glorious Era…”
“Even if we cannot covet those supreme divine sparks.”
“But, within the ruins of that royal court, there must surely be a large amount of extraordinary materials and traits remaining.”
The middle-aged captain licked his dry lips.
On his weathered face, tanned and aged by long exposure to the sun and sea, a hint of longing was revealed.
Those were the ruins of an Elf Royal Court from the divine era.
As powerful divine beings, the extraordinary power within the elves of that ancient epoch did not vanish with death, but transformed into extraordinary materials that remained for a long time.
And the Elf Royal Court, as one of the three supreme royal courts that once dominated the Glorious Era.
Apart from deities and angels, within the Elf Royal Court, there were undoubtedly many powerful high-ranking, even Legendary-tier elves.
“If, within that Elf Royal Court, I can find Legendary-tier extraordinary materials.”
“And then bring them back to the Western Continent to trade for strengthening materials that match the attributes of my main familiar.”
“Then, perhaps I too can attempt to break through the bottleneck of Legend?”
Such a thought flashed through the middle-aged captain’s mind and did not linger.
In this world, is there any Sixth Ring Beast Tamer who does not yearn to break through to Legend?
It is a pity that Legend is like a heavenly chasm, having cut off the advancement path of countless exceptionally talented individuals.
He withdrew his thoughts from the unrealistic reverie and carefully compared the sea chart in his hand.
The intelligence from the Church of War clearly indicated the coordinate of the Elf Royal Court ruins right here.
However, the sea surface before his eyes was still boundless. Not to mention the ancient island he expected, he hadn’t even spotted a single reef.
“Could the intelligence from the Church of War be inaccurate?”
The middle-aged captain frowned slightly.
As an extraordinary being with ambitions to reach Legend, he naturally would not be like the ignorant believers in the divine kingdoms, truly believing that the church of gods was supreme, holding devout faith and unrealistic expectations.
As for the reason the Church of War within the Western Continent had leaked information about the coordinate of the Elf Royal Court in the Endless Sea to the outside world, it was certainly not out of pure goodwill.
He was all too familiar with the conduct of those churches. They were the kind who wouldn’t act without seeing tangible benefits, and would never bestow a free lunch out of sheer benevolence.
Most likely, for some reason, the Church of War found it inconvenient to act directly.
Therefore, they wanted to use free adventurers like himself to go to the ruins of that Elf Royal Court in place of the Church of War to gather some intelligence and investigate certain matters.
And the reason why the Church of War found it inconvenient to act himself, he had already guessed some of it—
It must be related to the Tower of Absolute Darkness, which not long ago performed the miracle of building a magnificent city overnight, announcing its arrival to the world in an extremely high-profile manner.
However, the middle-aged captain himself did not care about these matters.
There must be some danger and taboos within the ruins of the Elf Royal Court that even the Church of War was unwilling to face.
But as an adventurer who roamed the vast ocean, living with sea beasts and pirates day and night, he had already resigned himself to the risk of death.
The Church of War was using them, but was he not also using the intelligence from the Church of War to seize an opportunity for his own advancement to Legend?
Equal exchange of gains and losses was, after all, the basic law of adventurers.
However, at this very moment.
Having reached the target location, he found not the dangerous divine ruins he expected, but emptiness.
Even with the middle-aged captain’s knowledge, he felt a sense of bewilderment at this moment.
Behind the Church of War, that being who called himself the God of War.
Even among all deities, he was one of the most powerful, with the potential to contend for the Throne of Heaven in the new era.
It couldn’t be that he merely released false information to amuse himself, could it?
As soon as such a thought arose.
The next moment—
He heard the exclamations of the sailors from the deck of the ship behind him.
The captain followed the sailors’ gazes and looked out of the ship.
The previously calm, boundless, and even windless blue sea surface had suddenly turned dark gray, appearing eerily mysterious under the dimming sky.
A rumbling sound echoed between the sky and the sea, like ten thousand horses galloping.
“A maelstrom.”
The captain heard the solemn cry of the first mate, his voice almost drowned out by the resounding roar that filled the heavens and the earth. It was only with the hearing of a Sixth Ring extraordinary being that the captain could barely make it out.
Everyone on this ship were experienced seafarers, well aware of the various sea phenomena.
The gray sea surface and the rumbling sound before them were the signs of an impending maelstrom.
It was one of the most terrifying calamities at sea, comparable even to the divine punishment of the God of Storms… The water walls of a maelstrom could tilt at an angle exceeding forty-five degrees, swallowing everything within its reach.
It was said that when a ship was first caught by a maelstrom, its speed was not too fast, and it wouldn’t be as violent as facing a storm or colliding with reefs and icebergs. Instead, there would be forty minutes to an hour, during which you could watch your ship gradually accelerate towards the center of the maelstrom.
These processes were slow but unstoppable and irreversible. With the shipbuilding technology of human civilization, no ship’s self-propulsion could escape the pull of the maelstrom.
You could only watch helplessly as your ship spiraled and accelerated into the maelstrom, until it reached the bottom and was ground into dust.
Extraordinary beings with flight abilities might be able to abandon the ship and escape by flying, but in the boundless open sea, losing the ship as a foothold, the hope of survival would be extremely slim.
The middle-aged captain quickly stood up and issued a series of orders to his sailors.
He himself, with his extraordinary physique, quickly climbed to the crow’s nest on the mast, wanting to search the sea for the foam wave band, like a white line, to guide the ship to avoid it in time.
The maelstrom was lower than the sea surface. That wave band, as the boundary of the maelstrom, was also the line between life and death. Only by crossing it could the ship see the body of the maelstrom, but crossing it meant falling within the maelstrom’s capture range. Unless the ship had a Legendary-tier expert capable of resisting heavenly power with their individual strength, once that line of life and death was crossed, it was equivalent to a death sentence for the ship.
Below the crow’s nest, the crew members orderly followed the captain’s instructions.
They were indeed adventurers heading to the Elf Royal Court to seek treasure, their heads already figuratively on their belts. However, adventure was not equivalent to seeking death. In the face of the terrifying power of this maelstrom, individual strength was pitifully small. Even high-ranking extraordinary beings on land would not cause a single splash.
However, no matter how the captain peered from the crow’s nest, even summoning his pet that could assist in detection, exerting his observational abilities as a Sixth Ring Beast Tamer to the extreme—
The rumbling sound echoing between heaven and earth gradually grew louder, yet he still couldn’t see the boundary of the vortex, that snow-white foam wave band that should have been extremely conspicuous.
Suddenly, the experienced captain’s gaze paused.
His eyes were fixed on the distant horizon of the sea, on the white sea level where the sea and sky met.
He finally realized his mistake. The white line at the end of his line of sight was not the sea level he had previously thought, but the boundary of the actual maelstrom.
From the very beginning, his ship had been within the impending maelstrom.
Being inside it, how could he possibly avoid the boundary?
He suddenly stood up, intending to jump down the mast to inform the crew, but then he dejectedly stopped his actions.
Such a massive entity, which could not even be called a maelstrom but rather a mountain range, how could it be possible to escape before it fully formed?
This was completely different from the maelstrom he had previously understood. Even a Royal City would be swallowed by this giant maelstrom without exception.
All his and his crew’s efforts were mere futile struggles, unable to escape their ultimate fate.
Rumbling——
Rumbling——
The maelstrom formed, followed by the sensation of falling downwards.
Within the slanting water walls, the sea surface was completely obscured. Behind the ship was a ridge of seawater, with the slowly moving peaks of the mountains dimly visible.
This was a power far beyond human comprehension, beyond even that of demigods, an irresistible heavenly might.
From below came the prayers of the crew. Many of them were believers of the Church of Storms. They had come here, perhaps for reasons similar to the Church of War’s intelligence gathering, and now these followers of the God of Storms were filled with fear, believing this giant maelstrom, capable of swallowing an entire nation, was divine punishment from the God of Storms.
The captain did not pray. He had no faith, and extraordinary beings aspiring to Legend could not have faith… He simply leaned silently against the railing of the crow’s nest, lit his pipe, and recalled his life.
The maelstrom spun faster. At this moment, the sun emerged from a gap in the clouds in the gloomy sky, casting a beam of golden light into the great maelstrom, but only illuminating a very small part of it.
A large amount of water mist jetted out from the bottom of the vortex, refracting into a rainbow in the sunlight, like a rainbow bridge connecting the abyss and the heavens.
The captain did nothing more. He simply held his pipe in silence, waiting for the immense heavenly might to bury everything.
With his strength as a Sixth Ring Beast Tamer, he might have tried to escape using hovering skills, and then lived alone on the vast ocean with sea beasts, hoping the currents would carry him to some shallow waters near land. However, the captain ultimately abandoned this idea.
To perish with his ship might also be considered a unique romance for this navigator who had dedicated his life to the sea.
Just then, the prayers from below the ship abruptly stopped.
After a moment of silence, they let out exclamations far more astonishing than before.
The middle-aged captain did not look at his subordinates, because at this moment, he himself was looking at the scene before him and murmured,
“My God…”
He did not believe in gods, but the scene before him could only be described as a miracle, making him have to believe that perhaps there truly were gods in this world.
Not the Mythical Creatures who shamelessly seize divine sparks for contention.
But truly supreme beings, looking down upon the mortal world.
The ship arrived at the bottom of the maelstrom.
As the vessel of a Sixth Ring Beast Tamer, this ship was considered large even within the Church of Storms. But now, within the magnificent and immense vortex funnel, it was as tiny as a child’s toy.
However, at the bottom of the vortex, they did not see, as the captain had expected, a black hole that devoured everything, including light.
Instead, it was—
A city, breaking through the sea surface, slowly rising.
Silver-blue points of light surged out of the surface with the pitch-black currents, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, brilliant points of light scattering in the dim sky, as beautiful as stars.
And within that silver-blue curtain of light, the ancient city rising from the seabed, slowly revealed its majestic and grand form.
Ancient and weathered.
The traces of time’s passage were something that no human capital city on the Western Continent today could possess.
“Elf Royal Court—”
Since he had set sail to find the ruins of the Elf Royal Court, the captain had naturally conducted background research on the Elf Royal Court before departing.
Although due to the extreme antiquity of the era, the ancient Elvish language had long been lost.
But looking at the ancient runes carved on the bronze city walls, the experienced captain still recognized the origin of the city before him.
And—
This was not, as he had expected, a ruined royal court buried by time.
But, a living city.
Much like—
In ancient legends, the ancient city of Atlantis, returning from the depths of the ocean, from the end of time.
A miracle of the divine era, reappearing here.
…
Snow City.
Or rather, the former Lost Island, the Elf Royal Court.
On the city walls.
The mountain range formed by seawater was now easily broken through.
Tens of millions of tons of seawater roared and fell towards the Royal Court.
But then, just as the seawater was about to crash against the city walls, it was stopped by a faint light.
That light was faint, yet it seemed to possess an indescribable power.
It isolated the overwhelming heavenly might beyond the light.
The seawater was parted, and the maelstrom dissipated.
What replaced it was the blue and clear sky.
Liliana sat on the bronze city walls of the Royal Court, silently watching everything before her.
She couldn’t help but recall more than five hundred years ago, when she was not yet a Legendary Elder of the Gray Elf Race, but merely a child, and the memory had already become somewhat blurred.
On that day, when the Lost Island broke through the eternal night and fell into the abyss.
She had also briefly glimpsed the daylight of this real world.
However, that was only a brief and fleeting light.
But at this moment, what entered Liliana’s eyes was the long-lasting and sustainable, eternally existing sunlight.
No longer needing to imagine the appearance of sunlight through books, what met her gaze was a tangible reality.
Liliana could not help but stand up.
Then, she turned to the countless elves of the Royal Court behind her, who were stunned into silence, witnessing everything before them, and declared solemnly:
“Back then—”
“When I became an Elder of the Gray Elf Race, the promise I made to you.”
“It seems it is finally to be fulfilled.”
She suppressed the tremor in her throat and spoke in the calmest tone possible.
“Welcome to—”
“The World of Light, promised by Your Excellency Shaya—”
“The World of Light.”
…
Today, two chapters of ten thousand words each have been released. There will be one more chapter later.
