It was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.

...

"benefactor!"

After leading them back to the command ship, the middle-aged man at the head could no longer contain himself and was about to kneel down before Xu Shi, saying, "Thank you for saving our lives!"

"Don't kneel, don't kneel. This isn't customary during holidays or festivals."

Xu Shi smiled gently and helped him up, saying, "It's good that you're alright."

Even better, language communication is not a problem. Although the accent sounds a bit strange, there is no difficulty in communicating.

Hearing this, Shen Qin rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you have this thought when you told me to kneel before you? Your hypocrisy is disgusting..."

"If I really have to say something, I should apologize to you. I'm so sorry for accidentally destroying your ship."

Xu Shi, however, was unaware of this and sighed helplessly.

I never imagined that in the end, it wasn't the giant shark that caused all of this, but myself... I really didn't think that way, believe me!

I have a feeling my buddy will never be able to shake off the villain label...

How could you say that?

The middle-aged man quickly shook his head, "We are already very lucky to have survived, and we owe it all to you."

"I'm glad you're all alright."

Xu Shi smiled and said, "The casualties weren't too serious, were they?"

"During the fight against the fish tide, several brothers didn't survive..."

The middle-aged man looked bitter. "To be honest, before you guys showed up, I had even thought of my last words..."

However, he suddenly realized something, "Your attire is a bit strange... You're not from the Hualan Empire, are you?"

"The Hualan Empire?"

Xu Shi blinked. What was the name of the new experimental field?

It's understandable that the other person said their attire was strange; after all, from his perspective, their clothing was quite unique—rough linen clothes and unexplained auspicious ornaments, increasingly reminiscent of the Middle Ages…

"No, we come from another place, some distance from here."

He didn't dwell too much on his attire and explained hastily, "I was leading a group out to sea to explore when I encountered you by chance... Before this, I had no idea that there were other people living outside our city-state."

"Me too, so I was a little scared before... Anyway, there's not much to say, thank you so much."

The middle-aged man nodded; it was clear that encountering humans from outside his usual habitat had greatly shocked him.

As he recounted his story, Xu Shi gradually learned more about their situation.

According to the middle-aged man, the place they lived in was called the Hualan Empire, and they came from Silver Pine Island, an affiliated island of this empire.

This is not hard for everyone to understand; it's similar to the relationship between the City of Nights of Sin and the "Forsaken."

As for the structure of the Hualan Empire, Xu Shi roughly understood it—an empire where monarchical and divine power coexisted, with the Papacy, knights, and an empress…

Good heavens, this is totally medieval now... But he wasn't particularly surprised, because according to He Yuxia, the experimental fields established by "Tianli" are scattered all over the world, and are naturally full of diversity.

A technologically advanced world like the City of Night Sin must also exist, so too must the Hualan Empire.

"Is this place far from your Silverpine Island? We've been adrift for quite a while, and we need to find a place to resupply."

Having gathered some basic information about them, Xu Shi took the initiative to ask a question.

"no problem!"

The middle-aged man readily agreed; they were the ones who had saved the people, so this request was naturally no problem for him.

Of course, the fear in his eyes didn't escape Xu Shi's notice—it was clear that the strength they had displayed while fighting the fish had already intimidated them...

Oh, this.

Xu Shi secretly rolled his eyes. It was a good thing they didn't actually send a large army to "communicate" with them, otherwise who knows what would have happened.

"I have a question for you. What is your purpose in going to sea?"

Xie Qingyan suddenly interjected, expressing her greater curiosity about the matter.

Because she simply couldn't understand the purpose of these people going to sea. You mean they were looking for new continents like them? Obviously not, their resources weren't enough to support such a big undertaking.

Going out to sea to fish is even more impossible now. Good heavens, can all this seafood be eaten? Just looking at her makes me physically uncomfortable... These people don't seem to have any more noses or eyes than them, they don't seem like the type who have to eat mutated seafood and then have genetic mutations.

"Well... it's because the Vatican issued a notice saying they were gathering people to fight the Sea God."

The middle-aged man thought for a moment and then told her, "We people on Silver Pine Island have shipbuilding skills, so we thought we'd give it a try... Actually, this was just an exercise, but we were unlucky enough to encounter a fish swarm."

"I wonder if this is a punishment sent down by the Sea God..."

"Poseidon?"

Xia Wuyou tilted her head. There was no such faith in the City of Night Sin. In "God's Descent," those were just hobbies of a niche group of players. She found it novel to hear such a term.

"Ah, this must be a legend from our Hualan Empire?"

The middle-aged man explained, "It means..."

"So what materials did you use? You were able to build a ship capable of sailing using only wood?"

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by another curious child, Jiang Chengcheng, who asked, "How did you do that?"

This was her old profession, and upon hearing this, she could no longer remain calm. You have no idea how much hair this girl has lost while researching shipbuilding materials... Unfortunately, all the ships from earlier have been reduced to fragments, and not even a single sample can be retrieved. It's been incredibly agonizing.

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