Pillar of Yita

The Wind Detector kept emitting a constant humming sound as Gita wrapped herself in a blanket, staring fixedly at the direction where the crystals lit up in the dim environment. The dial of this rudimentary detector was composed of eight crystals, and she watched the one in the north, which hadn’t lit up for a long time, not even a trace of background noise.

A voice from Fang Hong sounded in the Sound Transmission Tube: ”Gita, have we shaken them off?”

”Seems like we have,” Gita gave the crystal another glance, ”Brother Ade, there hasn’t been any movement from the north.”

A sigh of relief came from Fang Hong’s side of the Sound Transmission Tube. Those Colin People had chased them for two days and nights, making him almost believe the other side had gone mad, and every time he mentioned it to Miss Hilveld, she would laugh and say it was probably because the Prime Minister valued her father too much.

But privately, he also thought a secret leading to the Third World might indeed be worth such attention.

Outside, Luo Hao heard the conversation and lifted a curtain to walk in, interjecting: ”Captain, if we’ve lost the Colin People, I suggest we stop to check. The pressure in that problematic pipeline we examined earlier is increasing; I’m worried it might cause trouble.”

”Sure,” Fang Hong replied. In fact, even without maintenance, Seven Seas Traveler needed to find a place to rest. They hurried when leaving Tansnier, and the upper deck was not completely built yet; usually, it was fine, but a severe weather would pose significant issues.

Fortunately, materials like prepared wood are ready on the ship, the deck repair won’t take long.

Another urgent matter is finding supplies. The food on board could last another week, but they were truly out of water. They urgently needed a place to dock and find drinkable, clean water.

”Let’s wait for another hour,” Fang Hong glanced at the clouds outside, ”if there’s still no movement from the north afterward, we’ll descend below the cloud layer.”

”No problem.” Luo Hao responded from the other side.

An hour passed, and everything remained peaceful.

Xiangzi and Luo Yu got up and replaced Luo Hao and Gita, who had been on duty for twelve hours. For the past forty-eight hours, they maintained the operation of the Magic Guided Pod by rotating these shifts.

Over at the sail operation, Bakins and Parker also took over the shift from the Big Catfolk and Pasha. In reality, two-person teams were far from sufficient to operate the eleven square sails on Seven Seas Traveler (including side wing sails), two longitudinal sails, and six triangle sails, but it was a necessary choice due to the lack of manpower.

Fortunately, with minimal changes in wind direction, it was just barely manageable—

Seven Seas Traveler then began to slowly lower its altitude, emerging from the cloud layer.

Fang Hong rubbed his brow; he hadn’t slept for nearly twenty-four hours. Others could rotate shifts, but he could not, being the one giving orders. Miss Hilveld and Bakins could temporarily replace him, but they also had their own duties.

After the airship emerged from the clouds, the pressing matter was to determine their location. In theory, after sailing south for two days and nights without deviation, they should have already entered the range of Mist Fjord.

The area where they originally planned as a shipbuilding site—

As the airship broke out of the cloud layer, Fang Hong realized his premonition was not significantly off.

Beneath the clouds was thick mist, like smoke and threads. Only faint outlines of cliffs were visible from afar, the towering Rock Mountain was slowly gliding beneath Seven Seas Traveler.

The landform below was typical of Void Canyon. ”Hilveld,” Fang Hong spoke, ”Could you help us confirm our coordinates?”

Miss Ship’s Officer was standing in front of a standing cabinet; after hearing him, she nodded slightly, placed a rolled map inside, closed the glass cabinet, and walked to the Astrolabe.

She observed the scale on the vertical track, then adjusted the horizontal with her hand, picking up an instrument to take measurements.

Then came Tianlan’s voice from the Sound Transmission Tube: ”Do you think we might be lucky enough to arrive at the place Miss Hilveld mentioned before?”

However, Fang Hong didn’t expect their luck to be that good; after all, the fjord mentioned by Miss Hilveld could be an excellent site for a shipyard, making it a perfect place to rest.

Yet Mist Fjord stretched from Durin in the east to Nogness in the south, covering an area near one-third of Istania. To happen upon a correct fjord within this vast region was truly difficult.

And reality dashed their hopes.

Hilveld straightened up from the Astrolabe. ”We’re near D2340781, D2350780, which should be right in the center of Mist Fjord,” she smiled, ”pretty far from the location I mentioned.”

Sound Transmission Tube emitted a disappointed ’oh’ from Tianlan.

But Fang Hong was not disappointed; this was expected, and he hadn’t held much hope.

”Ade, this place is far off the normal course,” Hilveld glanced at the Astrolabe, suddenly spoke, ”In general, no ships usually come here; we seem to have deviated severely.”

”Is there any danger here?” Fang Hong asked.

Hilveld shook her head, ”I’m not very familiar with this place either.”

She softly added: ”There are generally two routes passing Mist Fjord, one east and one west. The east route heads north along Mist Fjord, entering south Colin after passing the southern foot of the Crimson Mountain Range. The west route directly goes to the overseas region of Hanruina, straight to Nogness.”