Pirate Kingship.

Chapter 591 Half of the home court, an unexpected surprise

The coverage area of ​​Byron's [Divine Vision] has already covered dozens of kilometers around, and any movement cannot be hidden from his senses.

But the girl in the red hooded shawl suddenly appeared there like a false phantom, just a second before his eyes moved to the edge of the forest.

If I didn't have the all-round divine vision, I would have thought she had been standing there the entire time.

However, the [Ship's Log] in Byron's right eye determined at a glance that the other person was a human, and a 100% pure human who had not practiced any [Bloodline Codex] or black magic.

Violet, who also noticed this, frowned and reminded softly:

“It seems like there is a secret realm here, or rather, this continent is full of world cracks, creating countless secret realms of all sizes.

Normal is unexpected, and unexpected is the norm."

Although there are many world cracks in the Dragon King's Court or the Beast Paradise, most places are relatively safe and there are no taboos to observe in daily life.

But the Corridor of Truth is different. It is low-lying and half of its body is submerged in the sea of ​​source. The entire continent has turned into a huge secret realm.

Hathaway just mentioned the rules that need to be followed.

Keeping secrets and observing precepts, the extraordinary people are isolated from ordinary people, and most ordinary people in the human kingdom don’t even know that this is an extraordinary world.

As long as you know nothing, you won’t encounter inexplicable dangerous things under the rule of “everything returns to one”, and you may live longer than many extraordinary people.

Some people have even given this cognitive boundary a name: "Fool's Limit"!
It means the cognitive defense line outside the dam of the human mind.

Therefore, no matter whether it is the indigenous Black Iron Tribe or the immigrants who came here over the past thousand years, as long as they are at the bottom of society, they are proud of being ignorant and ashamed of studying, and growing up happily is their highest pursuit.

The illiteracy rate ranks first among the three continents.

When outsiders set foot on this land, all they can do is suppress their curiosity, not despise any knowledge, and not mention the name of any superior being casually.

Otherwise, if you miss a step and fall into the "rabbit hole", you may fall into the secret realm; the cuckoo bird on the roadside that is too lazy to build a nest may swallow the passerby in one gulp to warm its stomach.
If Salant had not escaped from here with the help of the Whale Hunter, he would have been dead long ago after witnessing the true form of Echidna, the mother of monsters.

but
Byron withdrew his thoughts and smiled:
“This is the main reason why I waited until I was promoted to Level 5 before coming to the Eastern Continent.

I dare not say that there are no taboos now, but if you do not have the strength of a demigod, and you dare to respond to the call of your own name and come to me, who knows who will eat whom?

Once I'm settled, I can open the Styx, which can dissolve all divinity and help me promote the cohesion of the priesthood of [Change], and order some takeout.

I feel a little excited just thinking about those terrifying creatures that ordinary people are afraid of sliding into my river one after another.

It’s so nice to order takeout without paying. ”

Then, he turned to the officers on his left and right and said:

“It was the same when the Kingdom of Castile colonized the Bantaan Islands, when we colonized the Southern Continent, and when the Abaddon Cult wanted to colonize Hastings.

It is very necessary to build a suitable bridgehead at the starting and end points of each of the three circulation belts to establish lighthouses and colonies.

The whale oil steam warships of the future will require far more logistical supplies than sailing warships. Although they are powerful, their self-sustaining ability becomes a weakness.

The establishment of a series of logistics bases along the routes and on the east and west coasts must be put on the agenda.

Why not start here?

Huashan Paradise has enough materials, sufficient manpower, high tower sequence craftsmen, and wild hunt servants who were members of the Lighthouse Federation in their lifetime. It is enough to directly build a first-level lighthouse and let our [Golden Law] descend on this land.

Come closer and see what awaits us on this continent."

The [Golden Deer] continued to move forward, slowly approaching the girl wearing a small red hooded cape.

Although there is no port here, the place where she stopped is a gentle sandy beach. As long as she pays attention to the rise and fall of the tide to avoid the ship being stranded on the beach during low tide, she can temporarily dock there.

Shen Jian also discovered that not far from here, there was a deep-water bay that was not easy to accumulate silt, and a large deep-water port could be built for warships to dock.

Further south, there is a river that goes deep inland and can serve as a water transportation hub for transporting supplies.

Although it is still unclear what the mineral situation nearby is, these basic conditions alone are enough to establish a stable colony.

Just as the Golden Hind dropped anchor halfway, several small boats carrying Byron and a group of officers landed on the beach.

When everyone looked up, they found that the girl in the red hat seemed to have noticed something unusual in the forest behind her, and a trace of panic appeared on her face.

The little hands waved eagerly twice.

It also made everyone on the boat realize that she didn't seem to be waving inwards, asking them to come over, but waving outwards, asking them to get away from here quickly.

Then, without waiting for everyone to shout or ask, he picked up a basket, turned around and ran into the tall and dense woods.

Maybe because I was running too fast, a boot that didn't fit me well was accidentally left there.

The white sole of the foot left a small footprint on the thick, emerald green carpet-like moss. The red skirt rose and fell, and quickly disappeared.

Then there was a rustling sound coming from the dark forest, as if something was moving at high speed, following the other party and suddenly going away.

"What's happening here?"

As Byron touched upon the layers of secret realms on the continent, his [Divine Vision] was blocked by the outer realms of the secret realms, and its effect was greatly reduced, and he soon lost sight of the other party.

The girl in the red hood disappeared just as suddenly as she had appeared at the beginning.

Even Xifeng, who had gone ashore to scout ahead of time, was blocked by a primeval forest that looked like a green ocean, and could not see where she went.

"Come on, let's follow and take a look."

Byron had taken a fancy to this place, so he would naturally not back down because of a little abnormality. Moreover, it was only natural for him to make contact with the local human forces through the girl.

He stepped onto the beach with Violet, Hathaway and the others. The Styx under their feet rolled up and down, and swept the Golden Deer behind them into it, slowly sailing into the port in the Flower Mountain Kingdom that had been built in advance by the Wild Hunt servants.

With a kingdom of God on board, I don't have to worry about what others have to deal with after dividing their forces and finding it difficult to take care of everything.

The enemy had no idea how many ships and divisions were hidden on Saint Byron. Combined with the nesting dolls of the Golden Deer, no one except the two queens could guess his strengths and weaknesses.

If you want to fight him, you have to think twice.

It was at the moment when the group completely set foot on the mysterious land of the Corridor of Truth.

call--!
A spiritual wind suddenly blew.

However, it was the [Navigator] Delia who followed behind Byron, who finally became the only navigator to complete the voyage of the "Second Gyre" alive and completed her fourth-level promotion ceremony.

A spiritual chain deep in the soul hooked onto the fourth layer of the Silver Law, and spiritual light descended along with a series of extraordinary abilities.

Delia was finally promoted to a fourth-level heroic navigator after falling behind other officers for two months.

The blue light from the whale oil lantern in his hand shone brightly, projecting light projections of ships, whales, jellyfish, compasses, etc., which were so real that they were hard to mistake for real things.

Together they formed a bright river of brilliant blue light surrounding Delia.

This means that she has acquired the core ability of the fourth-level navigator [Mind Mapping].

By lighting the whale oil lantern in your hand, you can rely on your own spirituality and imagination to distort the light into what you want, and even imitate the corresponding abilities.

Swords, guns, machines, animals, and warriors can all be projected from the depths of the soul through imagination.

He can also summon hundreds of spiritual lighthouse sentinels to fill the bodies of light soldiers and act as heroic guards to protect himself.

Soon, the beautiful girl with platinum-blonde hair opened her eyes again, raised the lantern in her hand and cheered towards Byron:
"Captain, I was successfully promoted."

The girl sincerely felt that following Vice President Byron was the best decision she had ever made in her life.

In just one year, the gains were far greater than expected. He had just successfully broken the Lighthouse Federation's record for promotion to the youngest fourth-level navigator.

If he can pass through the Eastern Continent and successfully return along the "Third Gyre" to draw a nautical chart, he will become the first navigator to personally complete the Echidna Triangle.

As long as other people can successfully embark on a new route again with the help of the nautical chart of their pioneering group, she won't have to worry about the ceremony of her promotion to legend.

Obviously, Hathaway, the Little Mermaid, is not the only one who wins by relying on the motto “Boss, please guide me, I’m easy to guide”.
In troubled times, there are many talented people who are not recognized for their talents, but few people can discover and utilize them.

The core team of the founding monarchs were mostly from the countryside, and the talents needed to rule a country could be gathered in almost a small county town.

The key is that the lord they follow can give these teams social practice opportunities far beyond those of others. As long as they gain more experience, even ordinary people's qualifications may be able to crush those who have no practical experience.

Byron smiled and nodded at her:
"Ms. Delia, congratulations! Can you show it to everyone?"

"As ordered!"

The girl stood at attention and saluted, raising the lantern in her hand, from which a blue compass of light was projected. The compass needle spun rapidly and pointed in a direction.

Every profession has its own specialties, and no one knows how to give directions and find people better than a navigator.

Just as the lights came on and everyone was about to step into the woods, the sun in the twilight sky set below the sea level in a very short time.

Instead, there was a blood-red crescent moon.

"hiss--!"

But this is the most common alternation of day and night in the old continent, but it makes the group gasp. It happened to be the beginning of July 1473 when they entered the coastal waters of the Eastern Continent. The moon was not very bright, only a thin crescent moon quietly climbed up the treetops.

But it is different from the normal moon in the Old Continent, and also different from the blood moon in the Southern Continent that is affected by the Sea of ​​​​Source and the Old Gods.

It actually showed a human face wearing a ball mask. It could be seen that it was a very beautiful woman. In her half-open, half-closed, half-asleep and half-awake eyes, there seemed to be eyeballs rolling slightly.

It seemed like he would wake up at any moment, and something bad would definitely happen.

As a crescent moon climbed up to the treetops, billions of blood-red lights spread across the entire Corridor of Truth, dyeing every blade of grass and tree on the continent with a layer of blood.

Occasionally, you can see olive-sized spots of light hanging at the end of the endless blood threads. Once they come into contact with animals, plants, or even stones and water flows, they will be endowed with intense activity.

Although it was already night and everything should have been quiet, the forest was filled with restless vitality.

The level of chaos is far worse than that of the southern continent.

“Don’t look directly at the moon. It’s not just a moon, but a projection of a powerful old god.

At the beginning or end of the month, the impact is not that great, as you can only see a side profile. If any mortal dares to look at the moon during a full moon and see His face clearly, he will definitely become a madman. "

Even though she had mentioned the precautions many times in advance, Hathaway couldn't help but remind others to be careful again.

Byron almost came into contact with the incarnation of the naked [Mother of Monsters] at a close distance, but he was not afraid of the profile of a mere old god in the sky.

I just inexplicably felt that this seemingly abstract yet still stunningly beautiful female face was very familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere.

He is not the kind of playboy who would say to a beautiful girl, "I seem to have seen this girl somewhere before," when he sees her. As long as he feels that the girl looks familiar, he must have seen her before.

After thinking for a moment, my eyes suddenly lit up and I exclaimed in my heart:
"I remember now, that is the ancestor of the Night Demon [Mother of Creation] Lilith!"

His heart moved, and the figure of the goddess he saw when he entered the Bloodthirsty Cult's Blood Source Secret Realm immediately emerged in his mind.

Overall, it looks like a somewhat disproportionate and deformed queen ant.

The lower body is a white, fat, translucent belly, and the upper body is a pair of blood-red bat wings folded together, covering the naked female body, and a human face that can be described as "extremely beautiful".

After the divinity of those old gods was eaten by the Creator, the remaining corpses were mostly half-human and half-beast, and they handed the rudder to the deep sea. The underlying tone was chaos, and there was no longer self and humanity.

That’s why the painting styles are surprisingly consistent.

At the beginning, Byron had already drawn the conclusion from the "master's wife" [Zhi Shen] who had regained her sanity:
“When the old gods regained their human heads and animal bodies, it meant that they had initially achieved a balance between divinity and animality.

You will gradually regain your sanity, regain your consciousness, and achieve the miracle of resurrection from the dead."

Lilith, the Mother of Creation, has restored her perfect human upper body, with only her left eye and left forehead still covered with a layer of insect shell like a bee.

Byron judged that based on the number, quality and frequency of people He would eat in the future, as well as the intensity of the source tides, it might only take a dozen years or even a few years for the world to fully recover its sanity like the Mother of Monsters, the Thousand-Faced Serpent, and the Jackal God.

By then, it is easy to imagine what attitude the "knowledge thieves" will have towards Byron and the Bloodthirsty Cult, who have retained their humanity and have not converted.

In the past, Byron constantly strengthened his anchor, desperately climbed up, and used Faust's "Contract between God and Man" to sell his soul to three parties: the Mother of Creation, the Worm of Greed, and the Sleeping God.
He also supported Ms. Leech and Doctor Murder to establish their own schools, in large part because of the desire to deal with this terrifying existence.

“Although Lilith was born later than the Mother of Monsters, she is the collection of all the feminine forces in the world. The purpose of the Immortal Ladder is higher than that of the Mother of Monsters.

The symbol is the moon, which is opposite to the sun. And as the ancestor of the Night Demon,

Byron raised his hand and waved it gently, and a large piece of blood-red moonlight above his head seemed to be impatient to flow into his palm and condensed into a sparkling dewdrop.

A faint sweet fragrance filled the air, causing a group of [Midnight Demons] in the team to twitch their noses involuntarily, and they almost had an attack of "blood thirst" on the spot.

After the blood-red moonlight above their heads condensed, it clearly had an extraordinary attraction to them.

"Gudong, Captain, what is this?"

Bruch, Eight Fingers and others were among the first group of crew members to receive Byron's First Embrace, and their feelings were particularly strong.

Although it is far inferior to Byron's own [Panacea], it has a similar taste, and I can't help but swallow my saliva.

Byron did not explain in detail to them, but just smiled and said:

"It's a good thing. Although our Night Demon and Half Night Demon are outsiders, they can enjoy half the home advantage.

Everyone should strictly abide by the precepts, and even if you hear nonsense, just pretend you didn't hear it, and do what you should do."

When facing the blood moon in the southern continent, the feeling is not very obvious.

But when he got here, Byron, bathed in the bloody moonlight, could clearly feel the obvious bonus to his abilities.

Taboos under the Blood Moon:
"On nights ruled by the blood moon, Lilith's Night Demons, Beastmen and other followers will receive the blood moon's blessing, and their strength, speed and recovery abilities will be collectively increased by 5%.

It instantly gave them the home advantage.

Once you let go of your body and mind, and actively allow the divine aura mixed in the blood-colored moonlight to infect your own spirituality and degenerate into the animal side, you can permanently improve your own strength by 20 to 30 percent.

Although it is not as exaggerated as being ten times stronger when it turns black, but when it comes to Byron, the Night Devil King, it can at least increase the power of an ordinary fifth-order legendary level, which is already exaggerated enough. "

The human title system comes from the Night Demon, and "the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal" is one of the core rules.

Byron doesn't have to worry that the awakened Lilith will bypass him and influence the Midnight Demon that he first embraced, but if he knows too much and actively invites the arrival of Lilith's will, no one can save him.

Just keep the benefits first.

Those who knew the survival rules of the Corridor of Truth did not ask any more questions. They followed Byron into the forest under the night and came to the place where the girl had just stood.

Prepare to follow the traces left by the other party.

"What a strong smell of blood."

But they had only gone a hundred meters into the forest of towering trees when they were attracted by a strong smell of blood.

After walking around a giant dandelion that was taller than two people, they saw a figure, completely black and blending into the night, lying on the ground with blood all over the ground.

"Huh? It's from the Black Iron Clan."

He had a very strong physique like a chimpanzee, with iron shackles on his hands and neck, and looked like a runaway slave who had escaped from nowhere.

If the smell of blood hadn't been so strong, even with Byron's powerful perception of [Divine Vision], he would have almost missed him.

In this continent with extremely strong intellectual activity, Byron was finally able to confirm through the [Ship Log] that the Black Iron Tribe did have a racial characteristic: Night Combat Vanguard.

At night, as long as you don’t smile, you can passively blend into the night, with a built-in invisibility function with extremely high priority!
With this talent, slaves who escape at night are indeed difficult to capture.

“That’s right, this is the southern part of the Corridor of Truth, and two-thirds of the population are from the Black Iron Tribe.

Other races are minorities.

It is quite normal to encounter a Dark Iron slave."

According to the information provided by Hathaway and Salant, this continent not only has the Skeleton Coast, but also the Pepper Coast, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, and Slave Coast. The resources are extremely rich.

The north and south are separated by the world's largest desert.

Because it is too close to the "World Snake - Celestial Circulation Belt", the southern part of the continent has no spring, summer, autumn or winter, but only dry season and rainy season. When the rainy season comes, everything wakes up; when the dry season comes, the grass and trees wither.

Outsiders often have a misunderstanding that the natives are all Black Iron people, so it is very hot here.

事实上热带雨林全年平均气温为25～28℃，通常不会超过34℃；热带草原气候雨季的平均气温为20～30℃，旱季的平均气温为20～25℃。

Because the entire southern region south of the great desert is a plateau.

Most places are between 500 and 1000 meters above sea level. The temperature drops by 100°C for every 0.6-meter increase in altitude, so the weather here is not too hot.

On the contrary, due to the abundant sunlight and rich resources, the Black Iron Tribe living here can eat their fill simply by relying on gathering.

It can be said to be a perfect heavenly place!
But the disadvantages are also great. In such a magical land where people have no worries about food and clothing and do not have to worry about extreme cold or heat, how can humans have the motivation to evolve?
Just like the concept of "resource curse" proposed by Byron when he was investigating the three countries in the Eternal Night Peninsula.

The natural conditions in some places are too good, and as a result, they only produce a group of people who are lazy and only want to get by.

This kind of place is suitable as a source of raw materials and a dumping ground for goods, but it is not suitable as a production base. They are not destined for that.

In Byron's words:
"You are different from others. Don't waste your energy on studying or activities that require your brain. Exercise well and improve your immunity. That's the right way to go."

While his mind was racing, Bruch also checked the bodies of the escaped slaves.

"Captain, it seems that it was a wolf that bit him to death!"

The voice just fell.

"what--!"

A girl's scream suddenly came from the depths of the woods.

Guts, the [Phantom Blade] who served as scouts, and Bruch, the [Iron Wall], were instantly transformed into a swarm of black bats that covered the sky and the sun, and used the bat transformation technique "Flutter" to pounce into the depths of the forest.

(End of this chapter)