Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship

Just like the miraculous magic tricks he had once seen on a screen, the prototype beam hand cannon remained suspended in midair even after it left its wielder's hand.

But this was no magic trick. And Suna had never learned stage magic. What she knew was true magic.

"Levitation magic?" Yang Yi asked curiously.

"No. It's much more impressive than that!" Suna replied proudly.

Heavy dark circles hung beneath her eyes, making it obvious that she had spent many sleepless nights researching this spell.

"I tried analyzing the Penitent's Armor to figure out how it could move on its own. Then I discovered similar magic arrays inside its gauntlets, boots, breastplate, and helmet. This is what I found."

Suna took out several sheets of paper. Drawn across them was an intricate and profound magic array. There were six pages in total, each covered with countless orderly geometric patterns.

At the center of those patterns were symbols representing the five senses—eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and a hand symbolizing touch, along with a brain that unified them all.

"I think this entire set of magic arrays is what gives the Penitent's Armor its autonomous movement. What's more, the array can repair itself. As long as the 'brain' array inside the helmet isn't destroyed, the rest can eventually recover."

As she explained, Suna had Yang Yi inspect the interior of the Penitent's Armor.

Sure enough, faint magic arrays were engraved throughout the inside.

They were incredibly well concealed, nearly identical in color to the armor itself. Unless light shone directly on them, they were almost impossible to notice.

Moreover, the engraved lines were crooked and uneven, as though they had been drawn by a trembling hand. Compared to the elegant diagrams Suna had recreated, the originals looked crude and inferior.

Suna even began trying to teach Yang Yi how to decipher the entire set of magic arrays.

"Stop!"

Yang Yi hurriedly cut her off. He had absolutely no desire to start learning magical theory from the ground up.

"Just tell me the results directly. If you keep explaining, my head's going to explode."

"Oh..."

Suna pouted slightly, clearly dissatisfied with his dismissive attitude. Instead of continuing her lecture, she simply sent him the spell's system information.

"I redrew the magic array exactly as I understood it. My version was much cleaner than the original, but it didn't work at all.

"Then I tried using the magic ink you brought back, but it still failed.

"It wasn't until I used the liquid extracted from the Abyss Soul Stone and modified parts of the magic array that the system finally notified me I'd successfully created this spell."

【 Animated Armament】

The more complex and larger the target object is, the greater the consumption of Magic Power and Liquid Soul, with a higher chance of failure.

Casting this spell requires Liquid Soul extracted from an Abyss Soul Stone and cannot be used on relics.

"This Liquid Soul evaporates very quickly, so I wasted quite a lot of it during my experiments.

"But later, I'll make a proper container from the shell of an Abyss Soul Stone and improve the magic array. Maybe I can extend the duration, or even make it permanent like the Penitent's Armor."

Suna continued explaining.

Meanwhile, Yang Yi's imagination was already running wild.

If this spell could last indefinitely... wouldn't we be able to create a whole set of floating cannons?

"That's incredible!"

His eyes immediately lit up as he connected the spell to a certain futuristic weapon from science fiction.

"Can you make it fire on its own?" Yang Yi asked.

"It can," Suna replied. "But I'm not directly controlling it; I'm issuing commands. There's a slight delay."

As she spoke, she looked toward the prototype beam hand cannon.

The hand cannon slowly floated over to the window under her command before aiming outside and firing a shot.

"If there's a hostile target, I can also order it to keep attacking. However, its accuracy is only average. I'll need to refine the magic array to improve its aim."

Yang Yi nodded thoughtfully.

The potential of this spell was enormous.

Just imagine it, if he entered battle surrounded by a dozen animated weapons, it would be almost like having dozens of extra arms and legs fighting alongside him. His combat strength would increase dramatically.

The only drawback was its cost.

Every casting consumed an Abyss Soul Stone.

Fortunately, Yang Yi wasn't lacking in funds anymore. He had already planned to purchase more low-grade Abyss Soul Stones and Craftsman Engraving Stones to upgrade his other equipment.

Now, he might as well buy everything in one trip.

To celebrate Suna's latest breakthrough, the two of them prepared a lavish fish feast that evening, cooking the Whip-Tailed Smoke Pipefish they had caught earlier that day.

Little Ji was the one who cooked the meal, equipped as it was with an internal culinary encyclopedia.

Even so, the finished Whip-Tailed Smoke Pipefish could hardly be called delicious.

The fish soup had a distinctly sour flavor, and after tasting it, Suna simply gave it an "average" rating.

…

Six more days passed.

Yang Yi had already arrived at the location marked on the hand-drawn sea chart as the Golden Chamber of Commerce's rendezvous point.

But there was nothing there.

Not a single ship.

Even the crystal ball's sea map showed no trace of any vessels.

"Did I get the direction wrong? Or did the merchant association move somewhere else?" Yang Yi muttered.

For the first time in a while, he found himself completely at a loss, unsure where he should sail next.

He activated the lookout tower's detection skill, but all it produced was a blank sheet of paper.

Apparently, there were no nearby islands or exceptionally large ships within its detection range.

"Old Captain, where do you think we should head?" he asked.

The Old Captain, however, was as motionless as a corpse.

It offered no response whatsoever. Only the pale soul flames within its empty eye sockets flickered silently.

"Captain Yang Yi, why not consult the great Head Chef Little Ji?"

Little Ji's mechanical voice came from behind him.

Rolling forward on its wheels, it dragged a rope with one robotic arm. At the other end bounced the lively Sardine Tree, which seemed perfectly content being towed around.

"...Fine. Then let me ask you," Yang Yi said. "Which direction should we sail to find the Golden Chamber of Commerce?"

Little Ji came to a stop.

A familiar electromagnetic radar dish extended from the top of its head. It rotated several times before slowly retracting.

"Report, Captain Yang Yi. No signs of ship activity have been detected within a fifty-nautical-mile radius."

"You don't say!"

Yang Yi rolled his eyes.

"If there were any ships nearby, they'd already be showing up on the crystal ball's sea map!"

He couldn't help feeling annoyed.

Little Ji had clearly come over just to join the conversation. It wasn't actually any help at all.

In the end, he'd have to figure things out himself.

After a moment's thought, Yang Yi decided to change his destination and sail toward Cook Island instead.

The journey would normally take around twenty days.

With the Nightmare Star's current speed, however, it should only take about ten.

"We've still got one and a half Light Containers left. Ten days should be more than enough..."

Yang Yi muttered to himself.

Just as he was about to change course, he opened the system interface to check the time and today's activity log.

It was almost 23:00.

The enhancement stones he had purchased not long ago should also be arriving soon.

"Wait..."

Yang Yi suddenly froze.

At some point, the player count displayed in the regional chat channel had quietly changed.

It had gone from 2 players......to 3.

That meant there was now a third player somewhere within a radius of ten thousand nautical miles.

Judging by normal sailing speed, that person was approximately ten days away.

"Suna, hurry and check the regional chat! There's a third player nearby!"

Yang Yi immediately called out.

Suna quickly opened the regional channel as well.

Unfortunately, she had no idea when the player count had changed either.

Neither of them had been monitoring the chat window continuously.

The only thing they could confirm was that, at midnight the previous night, the regional channel had still displayed only 2 players.

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