Pillar of Yita

”Hello, hello, is anyone there, please respond! Tianlan, Captain, is anyone there?”

Luo Hao sighed, still the same as before, no response to his calls.

He put down the Communication Crystal and looked up at the distant horizon where the sea meets the sky—a landscape of floating clouds, white Cloud Islands suspended in the azure sky, the yellow brought by dust storms has completely faded and disappeared. At this moment, the Sky Sea wears a mesmerizing blue, boundless in its expanse.

Yet, the boundlessness only conjured a sense of solitude and restlessness within, as if this was an entirely unfamiliar ocean. North, south, east, and west, the Vision revealed no land in sight. The Dawood hung alone atop a colossal mirror; the clouds were mere wisps of cotton on its surface.

”Where have we ended up...”

On the deck, a few members of the Shield of Lufu were shoveling sand off the ship. ZXC and Wu Xiaopang appeared a bit bewildered, not knowing how long they’d remain here. Perhaps communications would soon be restored, or they might starve on the ship when food and water ran out.

Xiangzi sat alone at the bow, hands on knees, gazing into the distance, lost in thought.

Luo Hao opened the cabin door, stepping into the lower deck.

In the control room, on a temporary table cluttered with maps, random marks were scrawled over them. Without a professional navigator, no one could make anything out of it. Based on the wind direction, they might be in the Sky Sea southwest of Istania, but no one could determine the exact position.

In any case, it’s certain they are west of Bain because only the west of Istania would have the Sky Sea.

Luo Yu was checking the operational status of the Magic Guided Engine.

Luo Hao asked him, and the situation wasn’t good.

”Too much sand in the pipes, cleaning it is difficult unless we find a place to dock,” Luo Yu narrated flatly. ”Moreover, even if the Magic Guided Engine is working properly, we can’t move this large ship entirely; it can function at about one-sixth power.”

”So, in short, it’s not feasible?”

Luo Yu nodded.

”Any solutions?”

This time Luo Yu thought for a moment before saying, ”If we disregard everything, the ship can still move, but what happens afterward is unclear.”

Luo Hao pondered briefly, decisively stating, ”Then let’s get it moving, heading northeast should not be wrong. We can’t pinpoint coordinates, but we can determine the direction.”

”If it moves, we can determine coordinates,” Luo Yu replied. ”Lower the Magic Buoy, measure it again after a day, and we’ll have an approximate reading.”

”If we manage to hold out for a day.”

Luo Hao sighed.

Originally, there was a Wind Elemental Generator on board, and if it hadn’t been broken by those malicious Arcanists, they could easily deduce the Wind Ether coordinates. The ’coordinate system’ of Eteliria was determined based on the distribution pattern of Ether, and this was the only method in this world to determine one’s location.

However, without the Wind Elemental Generator, manual measurement is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

In the past, Elves could establish coordinates using Spells, but since the rise of Magic-guided Civilization, most of these Spells have been abandoned.

Luo Hao criticized the convenience of measuring latitude and longitude on Earth inwardly, as well as the complexity and redundancy of Eteliria’s Wind Element coordinate system, suddenly remembering something and asked, ”Have those Explosive Crystals been cleared up?”

Luo Yu, who had turned back to check the operational status of the Magic Guided Engine, answered without turning his head upon hearing the query: ”This matter is Gita and Miss Affia’s responsibility; you can ask them.”

Next to the table filled with maps, there was a chair, on which Miss Natural Historian was squatting, hugging her knees and furrowing her brows at the maps. But her geographical knowledge didn’t come in handy here; understanding the marks on these maps required specialized cartography. In the Seven Seas Travel Group, only Parker and Hilveld had knowledge of this, the latter being proficient.

However, even if they were present, lacking reference points made it difficult to directly draw useful conclusions. Here, on the boundless Sky Sea, not even a trace of a small island could be found; where could the reference come from?

Seeing Luo Hao’s gaze drift over, Gita gently exhaled, raised her little head, and softly replied, ”We’ve dealt with those Explosive Crystals.”

Luo Hao was taken aback, ”You threw them away?”

Gita lightly shook her head, ”Just removed the fuses.”

Seemingly worried the other party might not understand, she further explained, ”After drawing out the Magic Power, the Explosive Crystals can be safely stored. They require Fire Elemental Ether to explode. The crystals in a dry state are merely prone to damage, but won’t explode unexpectedly. I’m concerned they might still come in handy later, so I’ve kept the Explosive Crystals after extracting their Magic Power.”

”You did well, Gita,” Luo Hao praised.

He looked around, ”Where’s Miss Affia?”

”She’s tending to those Crystals,” replied Gita.

Luo Hao nodded, having endured hardships with Miss Affia; she could be trusted.

That’s when Luo Yu turned back, suddenly saying, ”Luo Hao.”

”What is it?” the latter slightly stunned.