Chapter 59: I don't know what to say, let's countdown... "Hill..."
“Sylph, look over there!” Baron pointed to the fleet not far away.
Sang Zhitao took the binoculars handed to her by the female guard and, upon closer inspection, realized it was the Goddess of Light.
"Let's go up there and ask Bill."
"Captain, the convoy behind us is closing in." There was a loud knocking in the captain's cabin on the Goddess of Light. When the captain opened the door, the first mate's urgent voice greeted him.
"What?" Bill frowned, took the binoculars, and quickly went around to the side to look.
His initial wary expression vanished immediately upon seeing the pattern on the sail of the opposite ship, replaced by a smile.
"Captain?" The first mate looked at him, puzzled.
"It's the Anling. Slow down and wait for them to come over," Bill said with a smile, offering no further explanation.
Upon hearing this, the first mate instantly realized that the opposing fleet was the one that had helped Bill find his wife's belongings. He quickly nodded in agreement and left.
Before long, the two main ships came together, and Sang Zhitao, accompanied by two female guards, quickly came to the opposite deck: "Captain Bill, it's been a long time."
"Long time no see, Captain Sylph." After exchanging brief greetings, Sang Zhitao and her group were invited by Bill to the captain's cabin.
Sang Zhitao looked around the magnificent captain's cabin and looked at Bill with surprise: "I didn't expect Captain Bill to like this style."
Bill was already used to everyone's reaction when they entered the captain's cabin, and couldn't help but laugh as he replied, "This is my wife's style."
He paused for a moment before continuing to explain, "My wife is a princess of the Principality of Locke. She came to the sea by accident and has always missed her homeland."
Sang Zhitao raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. The Principality of Locke was swallowed by the sea forty years ago, and she never expected that there would still be members of the royal family who survived.
"I'm sorry." Seeing the sorrow on Bill's face, Sang Zhitao quickly came to her senses and said apologetically.
Bill snapped out of his reverie: "It's alright, please have a seat."
"What brings Captain Sylph here to see me?"
"I wonder what Captain Bill thinks about the Dark Vortex reappearing?" Sang Zhitao didn't hesitate for long.
Bill tapped his fingertips on the table, pondered for a long time, and then looked up at Sang Zhitao: "Legend has it that when the unknown land appears, miracles will occur on the sea."
"I think this might be a sign that the unknown land is about to appear."
"Why have neither I nor my first mates ever heard of this legend?" Sang Zhitao frowned, unable to understand, since this so-called legend did not appear in the original book.
“Actually, I didn’t believe it at first either. Forty years ago, this legend suddenly appeared on the sea. I always thought it was just bait that someone deliberately released, until I met Duke Hope…” Bill looked into the void, as if he was reminiscing.
"The Duke of Hope?" Sang Zhitao hadn't expected that this matter would also involve this important figure from forty years ago.
“That’s right.” Bill came to his senses and continued, “Back then, I met Duke Hope, who told me that my wife’s belongings could be found in the Dark Vortex. In the past forty years, I have participated in the Dark Vortex opening event eleven times, and I found my wife’s belongings six times. So I think this legend is true.”
"Is it because this legend was released by the Duke of Hope?" Sang Zhitao suddenly asked.
"Why would you think that?" Bill was somewhat surprised. He rubbed his temples and sighed. "In fact, I don't think it was him who released it, because the Duke is also waiting for a miracle."
"Where is Duke Hope now?" Sang Zhitao continued to ask.
"Actually, I don't know either."
“But…” Sang Zhitao was somewhat puzzled.
Bill seemed to have guessed what Sang Zhitao was going to say, and quickly raised his hand to interrupt her, saying, "Four years ago, the Duke summoned the captains of all the major powers and told us that the person who opened the miracle of the unknown land had appeared and that we needed to search for her carefully. She would appear wherever the dark vortex appeared."
"It's me?" Sang Zhitao raised an eyebrow and pointed to herself without any surprise.
Bill nodded, and opened his mouth as if to say something more.
But before he could say anything, Sang Zhitao raised her hand to interrupt him: "Never mind, could you let me see Duke Hope?"
Bill hesitated for a moment, then shook his head regretfully: "I can't do it."
Sang Zhitao was immediately disappointed. She had thought that she could meet this person who shouldn't have been there because of Bill.
But Bill's next words rekindled her hope: "Bayer can help you."
"Bayer?" Sang Zhitao was somewhat surprised.
"Yes, Captain Bayer, he might have a way."
"Will he participate in this Dark Vortex?" Sang Zhitao continued to ask.
Bill nodded: "Don't worry, he will definitely go."
Sang Zhitao didn't press Bayer about why he was determined to participate in the Dark Vortex later on. She simply thanked Bill and then returned to her own ship.
Baron was fishing on the deck with Eureka when she returned. He quickly ordered the chords to be removed and then continued on his way.
Sang Zhitao watched as the sunlight on the sea was broken and shattered by the constant ripples, and sighed inwardly. She had been back for too short a time and hadn't had a chance to tell the people at the base about the plot's problems. She didn't know whether this Duke of Hope was good or bad.
Unbeknownst to her, the people at the base discovered a major change in the plot after she went to the pirate world.
“According to Tao Tao, a ship called Hope appeared in that world. It established the rules of the Dark Vortex, which have continued to this day. Moreover, the attention that many captains of powerful forces have paid to her is extraordinary. We suspect that the timeline has been changed.” At the meeting that day, the original book research team put forward their hypothesis.
"Didn't things change before? The Elf World and the Machine World both changed, didn't they?" Li Mingguo frowned.
"No, those changes were Tao Tao's own doing. This change actually comes from forty years ago in the story, and that's the problem," the research team continued.
"You mean there's another force that changed the plot?" Li Mingguo looked at him incredulously, then shook his head repeatedly. "How is that possible?"
“Nothing is impossible,” Professor Qian Fang sighed. “We have already been able to access another dimension, which means that nothing is impossible.”
Li Mingguo looked at the other person with a heavy expression, and after a long silence, he suppressed his dry throat and said angrily, "Do you expect me to believe that besides Tao Tao who traveled to that world, there is another person who may have traveled there and whose identity is unknown, friend or foe? Or that this person may even be a reincarnated person?!"
Professor Qian Fang pursed her lips, feeling guilty. They had indeed been inconsiderate, only thinking that since the book was written by Sang Zhitao herself, even if the plot changed drastically, it wouldn't affect this person who could be called the "creator".
They never expected that an accident would actually happen.
"Do you know what this could mean?! It means that Tao Tao is very likely to face an all-knowing and powerful enemy!" Li Mingguo clutched his chest repeatedly as he thought about the schemes that Sang Zhi Tao might encounter.
“I think the situation might not be so bad.” Sheng An, the head of the original book research team, interrupted the two of them after glancing back and forth between them.
"How so?" Li Mingguo quickly straightened up, his eyes unexpectedly filled with a yearning he himself didn't realize.
Sheng An flipped through the documents in his hand, and only after Li Mingguo urged him repeatedly did he say, "According to what Tao Tao said after she arrived, we feel that the other party has no malicious intent."
"Just this?" Li Mingguo's face showed disappointment.
Sheng An shook her head, her cool voice filling the quiet conference room: "The prophecy book in the Elf World, the old woman from the Machine Star, they are all accidents that did not appear in the original book."
“That’s true…” Li Mingguo’s expression softened, and he gestured to Sheng An to continue.
Sheng An nodded and continued, "They just didn't choose to intervene and change the plot. They chose to wait for Tao Tao to appear. The captain of the Hope chose to change things. Perhaps it was because he appeared at the wrong time, or perhaps he was no longer willing to wait."
"..." Li Mingguo took a deep breath and remained silent for a long time before speaking, "Don't let go of the possibility that the other party has malicious intent. You should study it as soon as possible and try to determine the pattern before the next world arrives, so that Tao Tao doesn't have to face the unknown again."
"Yes." Sheng An nodded.
Li Mingguo rubbed his temples and waved for everyone to leave.
This meeting was originally initiated by Sheng An, but he didn't expect the other party to deliver such a bombshell.
"I wonder how Tao Tao is doing now..." Li Mingguo's deep sigh echoed in the empty conference room.
Sang Zhitao fared better than Li Mingguo had feared; she was not targeted by the Duke of Hope, but she was still tricked and slashed.
Fortunately, she was too lazy to move and stayed in her original room instead of the captain's cabin, thus escaping the assassination attempt.
"Ouch!" At this moment, she was in so much pain that beads of sweat kept rolling down her forehead, and her injured arm was held in the arms of Anna, one of the female guards.
"Your Highness, please bear with it." Another female guard, Susie, glanced at her, took a deep breath, and suddenly poured strong liquor onto the wound.
"Ouch! Ouch!" Sang Zhitao was in so much pain she almost jumped up, but Anna and Susie held her down.
After a while, the excruciating pain subsided, leaving only a dull ache, and she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where is he now?" Sang Zhitao finally thought of the assassin.
“It’s still in the lower cabin,” Anna replied.
"Then bring it up now."
Not long after, the assassin was brought up.
Looking at the unfamiliar face, Sang Zhitao was somewhat surprised: "Why did you come to kill me?"
The assassin kept his lips tightly shut, refusing to speak.
Barron's eyes darkened, and he stepped forward, stomping on the back of the other person's hand.
It was at this moment that Sang Zhitao noticed that the other person's fingers were twisted beyond recognition.
The assassin's face turned deathly pale with pain, and the veins on his forehead bulged. It wasn't until Baron exerted his strength once more that the assassin finally cried out in pain.
Meanwhile, Sang Zhitao stood to the side eating the fruit Anna handed her, completely oblivious to the misery of the person in front of her.
Seeing Baron brandishing a sharp blade at him, the assassin could no longer hold back and hurriedly lowered his head, begging for mercy: "I'll talk, I'll talk!"
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