Chapter 535

Chapter 397: Control

Conquer Sea, Shining White Pearl.

In the gloomy thick clouds of January and February, pressing against the sky above, the vast and desolate sea saw a massive cruise ship sailing forward. This cruise ship, carrying over two thousand seven hundred passengers, had deviated from its original course, heading towards a desolate sea area, and most of the passengers on board were completely unaware of this change.

In one of the cabins aboard the cruise ship, Dorothy, dressed in light clothing, sat by the window, gazing out at the turbulent sea outside, her expression serious.

At this moment, Dorothy had just eavesdropped on a conversation between Costa and Massimo at the stern of the ship through a small zombie puppet, learning about their next actions. She felt uneasy about their future plans.

“These guys… actually want to take the ship to a nearby Abyss Cult base to ask those people to help find me? The place they’re going is called White Tear Island, and the person they’re looking for seems to be Sword Scale… someone responsible for guarding the deity’s temple within the upper echelons of the Abyss Cult.

“From the way they addressed this Sword Scale, his status within the Abyss Cult is very high, so high that he can punish both Costa and Massimo, which means he is likely a Red Tier.”

“This is getting tricky. These two are steering the ship towards the direction where a Red Tier is located. If they really get there and the Red Tier personally comes to find me, things will get bad.”

Dorothy frowned, thinking deeply. She now understood that the leap from White Chalk to Red Tier on the path of extraordinary beings was immense, far greater than the leap from Black Earth to White Chalk. In the vast organization of extraordinary beings, White Chalk could be considered a senior official, while Red Tier was part of the leadership. Upon reaching Red Tier, the very form of an extraordinary being would change, granting them lifespans exceeding centuries. Compared to White Chalk, who still lived within the realm of ordinary humans, this was a significant difference.

Therefore, even though Dorothy had already ascended to White Chalk, she absolutely did not want to face a Red Tier head-on. Just dealing with a Red Tier derivative was already incredibly difficult for her.

“Now this Shining White Pearl is heading toward an island affiliated with the Abyss Cult, where a Red Tier is stationed at a temple. Besides the Red Tier called Sword Scale, there may be many other forces of the Abyss Cult present. Going there would be like entering a tiger’s den; whether or not I can hide, it’s extremely dangerous. Facing a Red Tier, I won’t be able to control the situation.”

“Therefore… no matter what, I cannot let these guys take the ship to White Tear Island. Once we arrive there, facing a Red Tier and a bunch of Abyss Cult members, any attempts to manipulate the situation would be futile.”

Dorothy thought, realizing that while planning and manipulation could somewhat narrow the power gap, facing an overwhelming disparity in strength made such efforts nearly useless. Therefore, she must find a way to stop them from reaching their destination.

“But… how can I stop them? According to my investigations, almost half of the crew are Abyss Cult members, and the entire bridge is under their control. Costa has been staying there for a long time. Directly confronting them would mean engaging in a direct battle.”

Rubbing her chin, Dorothy frowned. Frankly, she was extremely reluctant to engage in combat with two White Chalks on the open sea. On the water, Dorothy relied on the ship to survive, whereas water mages could simply choose to scuttle the ship, leaving her with no options.

The old problem persisted: the opponents had too many methods at sea, and their error tolerance was high. If Dorothy wanted to engage them directly, she needed to severely injure both White Chalks simultaneously at the beginning, but since they were both main “Cups,” achieving this was incredibly difficult.

“Sigh… this is tough… considering the current situation, besides directly confronting them and forcibly taking control of the ship, there seems to be no other way. But even if we win, if they become enraged and scuttle the ship, it would be disastrous. Unless I can defeat them quickly without giving them a chance to recover, but my current strength makes it extremely hard to instantly k*ll two White Chalk ‘Cups’…”

Dorothy anxiously grabbed her hair, thinking as she looked out the window at the cloudy sea, devoid of sunlight.

“A cloudy day… it’s relatively good weather for a Thunder Summoner, but not as good as a thunderstorm. If there were suddenly a thunderstorm, perhaps I could challenge them directly. However, based on the current situation, this cloudy weather seems to persist without turning into a thunderstorm… if the weather isn’t optimal and I have to confront them directly, should I use the stone sculpture to seek help from the old man?”

Dorothy pondered, looking out at the thick cloud layer. Due to seasonal reasons, the weather at sea had not been good lately. There was a brief period of clear skies a few days ago, but it turned overcast again yesterday afternoon. Although there was no rain, the cloudy weather showed no signs of ending.

Based on the books she read in Crown University Library about navigation, this season’s sea area was mostly cloudy, with clear skies lasting only a short while.

“It should be… a long-lasting cloudy day…”

Looking up at the clouds, Dorothy murmured. Then, a faint idea came to her mind, and her frown immediately relaxed. It seemed she had thought of something, and she straightened up, speaking softly.

“Yes, a prolonged rainy day might work…

“Tsk, but there’s a problem with that. According to what those guys said, if the ship travels at full speed, it would only take a day and a half to reach White Tear Island. If they don’t reach the destination within that time, they’ll start to suspect something. But the ship has already sailed south for about a day, far away from the coast, deep into Conquer Sea. Given the ship’s current position at sea, it would be difficult to reach the shore within a day and a half. If they start to suspect something, everything will return to square one.”

Not long after her brow unfurrowed, Dorothy frowned again, murmuring. Although she had thought of a method, it would only slightly delay their progress to White Tear Island. When they realized something was amiss, everything would revert to the current state.

“Even if the ship sails north toward the mainland at full speed, it wouldn’t reach the shore in a day. So this plan needs to be carefully refined to work.”

Crossing her arms, Dorothy continued to think seriously. After some time, she suddenly remembered something else.

“Oh right, Vania should be on her way to Iwig now. If I remember correctly, she traveled on a special ship provided by the Church under the pretense of pilgrimage to Iwig. When we communicated before, she mentioned that although she left Tivyán two days earlier than us, she waited for four days at Barse Port in Faraluo to join other pilgrims heading to Iwig, finally departing from Barse two days later than me and Neve…

“The best route from Barse to Iwig is a single path. So… Vania’s ship, which left a day later than ours, should now be continuing its normal eastward journey toward Iwig, while our ship deviated from the normal route a day ago, heading south, and then turned west not long ago. In summary, after deviating from the normal route, Shining White Pearl cannot maintain a relative distance with Vania’s ship unless it continues eastward…”