BXBX NOVEL Book 16 - The Starmist Sea - 4 – Out To Sea
“Splash....” The clear, slightly-violet tinged water of the seas were forming waves.
At the boundless Starmist Sea, even when there was no wind, there would still be meter-high waves.
“Swish!” A rhomboid-shaped metallic lifeform ‘boat’ was flying at high speed through the waves, making its way forward. This metallic lifeform, transformed into a rhomboid, was nearly fifty meters long and ten meters wide. It had no ceiling, while the metal on each side was transparent.
Linley, Delia, and the others were all admiring the scenery of the Starmist Sea. This was their first time entering the Starmist Sea.
“So beautiful!”
The bottomless, faintly violet sea water. The slender, thin clouds. The clear, cool mist coiling about. Seeing this, Linley couldn’t help but have a feeling of vastness in his heart.
“Boss, just now, when we headed out, there were almost no fog clouds above the sea. Now, there is fog everywhere. This is the same as the Amethyst Mountains. Only, it isn’t as thick as the fog in the Amethyst Mountains.” Bebe raised his head, staring up above. The metallic lifeform advanced upon the surface of the water.
Roughly ten meters or so above the metallic lifeform was the fog.
The fog above the Starmist Sea came in thin strands that posed very little restriction to visibility.
Linley raised his head to look at it. From nearby, a voice suddenly rang out. “Don’t underestimate the fog. The ‘fog’ of the Starmist Sea is extremely dangerous. Upon entering the fog region, you will suffer attack from lightning. The deeper into the fog you go, the more powerful the lightning! Even Highgods dare not fly too high!”
Linley turned to look. The speaker was another God-level Fiend. This God-level Fiend had short black hair which looked like steel needles, and a very thick beard. He was very casually leaning against a corner, holding a bottle of wine and drinking.
“My name is Linley.” Linley laughed while looking at him.
“You can address me as Bates [Bei’ci]!” The big bearded man said casually. “This is your first trip to the Starmist Sea, right? Everyone is like this on their first trip. However, in the future, you’ll feel bored. After all, there’s nothing here but seawater. Occasionally, there will be some irritating bandits. There really are bandits everywhere in the world. So damn annoying.”
Linley couldn’t help but laugh.
“Haha, there’s no need to worry about those bandits.” The employer, Aches, walked over, his face all smiles. “This time, our squad has two Highgods. Those small bandit groups...how would they dare offend two Highgod Fiends? As for the more powerful forces, they most likely won’t attack people like us.”
Olivier glanced at him sideways. “From what you are saying, we should be quite safe?”
“In the Starmist Sea, just based on the fact that we will constantly advance for decades, who knows what will happen?” In the main hall of the metallic lifeform, other Fiends spoke out disdainfully as well.
Linley chuckled.
Danger?
As long as they didn’t encounter any Seven Star Fiends or Asura-level combatants, staying alive shouldn’t be a problem.
Night. At the front of the boat-shaped lifeform, Linley appeared, having stepped out of his cabin. There were currently quite a few people at the front of the boat.
“Whooooosh.”
The metallic lifeform was moving at high speed. The sea wind was very strong, carrying a knife-like force. Ordinary people would have died from the sea wind alone. To Deities, however, this sea wind didn’t impact them much. Linley didn’t chat with these people. He came to a half-rest, leaning against the semi-translucent metallic planks, enjoying the night scenery of the Starmist Sea.
The water of the Starmist Sea at night seemed very dark and gloomy, as though an enormous beast was hiding within its depths.
“We’ve been in the sea for a full year. However, I don’t feel as though we’ve advanced very far.” Linley sighed in his heart. This ‘Bates’ had spoken the truth. After spending a long time in the Starmist Sea, one would feel bored. After all, they were always surrounded by boundless water.
Although the metallic lifeform flew very quickly, one couldn’t notice it.
“Linley.” A voice rang out from behind. Linley turned, and saw that it was Delia. Delia sat by Linley’s side as well. Half-reclining, she took Linley’s hand. For some reason, she began to laugh.
“Why are you laughing like a fool?” Linley laughed as well.
“I’m just thinking. Back when we met for the first time at the Ernst Institute, who would have imagined that there would come a day where the two of us would be adventuring in the Starmist Sea of the Infernal Realm? Fate really is a strange thing.” Delia sighed.
Linley couldn’t help but laugh as well.
“Linley, look. There’s thunder in the distance.” Delia pointed to the distance as she spoke.
Linley turned to look as well...
Indeed, in the distance, the thin fogs in the sky had a large amount of lightning snaking down from within.
“The scene is quite beautiful. We’ve been in the Starmist Sea for so long, but we’ve never seen a sight so interesting.” Linley laughed, then sighed.
“Lightning!” Several people nearby began to cry out in alarm.
Not wasting words at all, almost all of them scurried back into the cabin like startled rabbits.
Linley and Delia turned to look, puzzled, only to see their employer, that Aches, stare at them while sending a mental message, “Hurry up and come in. The Starmist Sea is about to storm. Quick!”
“Storm?”
Although Linley and Delia were both puzzled ,they still flew back into the metallic lifeform. Upon returning to the metallic lifeform, Linley and Delia immediately stared through the translucent metal towards the lightning. Everyone else was doing the same.
“Crackle...” From within the mist, countless electric snakes were shooting out, with the storm area growing greater and greater.
Moments later, lightning bolts began to rain down from the skies above this metallic lifeform. Linley was greatly shocked. “In the blink of an eye, it expanded over a thousand kilometers.” Deities had a very long field of vision. For the lightning storm to expand so quickly truly caused Linley’s group to be astonished.
““Swoosh!” The metallic lifeform Linley’s group was riding immediately completely sealed itself while turning around at high speed, fleeing backwards.
“Crackle...”
In the air above Linley’s group, as well as in the air above the nearby areas, countless lightning serpents were crackling about. The area of lightning bolts was rapidly expanding, and the speed of the expansion was far faster than the metallic lifeform’s flying speed.
“I hope we can escape this storm region.” Aches said softly.
Linley and the other Fiends all looked upwards through the translucent metal. At present, the lightning bolts had already spread across an extremely large area, and the entire world seemed to be covered by them. The originally sparse, dark clouds, under the illumination of the lightning serpents, seemed so gaudily visible.
“Rumble...” A low sound rang out.
Countless lightning bolts struck out, and even the fog began to swirl. In mid-air, countless lightning bolts and clouds began to revolve around each other, as a vortex that was over ten thousand kilometers in size began to form. This enormous lightning vortex was so dazzling to behold, and the light from it even made the faces of Linley and the others bright.
“Rumble...”
The enormous ten thousand kilometer vortex actually caused the sea water below them to suddenly also form into a ten thousand kilometer whirlpool. The power of this vortex was simply astonishing. One could imagine how much force this vortex had to contain, for it to be able to cause the water within ten thousand kilometers to form into a whirlpool.
For ten thousand kilometers, sea water swirled, with the waves of the ocean rising to dozens of meters, actually touching the fog above.
“Swish!” The metallic lifeform Linley was aboard frantically tried to pass through this region, seizing every moment to escape the center of the vortex.
“The power of this vortex really is something. Even the metallic lifeform is trembling.” The big-bearded Bates sighed. Linley could also clearly sense the tremors from throughout the metallic lifeform.
“Why don’t we fly up higher?” Bebe said with a frown. “Although we’ll be hit by lightning in the fog, if we don’t go too deep in, the power of the lightning shouldn’t be too great. The power of this vortex is simply too enormous.”
The entire metallic lifeform was being shaken so powerfully by the vortex that it was almost turning backwards.
“Motherf*cker, we actually encountered a Fogsea Storm. Our luck is terrible.” Aches cursed softly, while at the same time working hard to direct the metallic lifeform to advance.
“Enter the fog above us right now?” The other Fiends in the metallic lifeform laughed. “When there is a Fogsea Storm going on, countless bolts of lightning will gather together and charge into the fog. The power of these lightning bolts is tremendous. Not even Highgods can take on those bolts of electricity. If you want to die, that’s fine, but don’t doom the rest of us as well.”
In the entire metallic lifeform, aside from Delia, there was one other Highgod. The bald youth laughed calmly. “We noticed it early, and the eye of the vortex is fairly far from us. We aren’t in the central region of the vortex, so for now it won’t be too dangerous. However, the final wave of attacks in a Fogsea Storm is truly frightening.”
“The final wave?” Bebe looked at him, puzzled. Linley, Delia, and Olivier weren’t too sure either.
The bald youth said, “The Fogsea Storm first forms into a vortex, and then will drag everything in towards it. At most, it will put us in a sorry state; it won’t actually kill us. However, at the final stages of a Fogsea Storm, countless lightning bolts will swirl about in the sky, and then wildly stab down below! If you are struck...” The bald man chuckled.
“Even I, if struck, would die.” The bald youth said.
Linley was secretly shocked. Raising his head, he looked at the vortex formed from countless lightning bolts. “The power of these lightning bolts truly is great. That bald youth is a Highgod, but not even he can take a hit from them. Now, Linley understood why the metallic lifeform was fleeing.”
It was because the closer one was to the center of the vortex, the denser the attacking lightning bolts and the higher the chance one would be struck.
Actually, this Fogsea Storm was a natural phenomenon of the Starmist Sea, because the fog of the Starmist Sea was very unique. It would naturally absorb the electric power of the world, and so anyone who entered the fog would have the fog release lightning bolts upon them.
But, since they knew this, nobody would be so stupid as to enter it and be struck.
With no one entering the fog, the amount of lightning accumulating in the fog would naturally increase, until at a certain point, it would have to release it.
That was what a Fogsea Storm was.
The process of a large amount of electricity being released!
“No time. We won’t be able to escape the perimeter of the Fogsea Storm.” Aches sighed, then turned to glance at everyone. “Everyone, be careful. Don’t get hit. Remember, when the lightning bolts come down, no matter what, don’t go into the water.”
Linley and the others understood that water conducted electricity.
In an area of ten thousand kilometers, when countless lightning bolts capable of killing a Highgod rained down, they would probably strike down all the way into the depths of the sea! Entering the sea thus meant death.
“I wish everyone good luck!” The bald youth said.
“Good luck!” Others called out as well.
“Good luck!”
Everyone’s face was solemn. In the Infernal Realm, people often teetered between the brink of life and death. Only, each time, nobody dared to be complacent! This time, however, it was completely a matter of luck. The lightning bolts were just less than a hundred meters above them. When they struck down, there was no time to dodge at all.
“Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!”
Linley raised his head to look...
Instantly, within ten thousand kilometers, countless lightning bolts suddenly came smashing down like the rain in a dense cluster. In this instant, the entire world became eye-piercingly bright!
They struck the sea in the blink of an eye, and within ten thousand kilometers, more than a large half of the numerous metallic lifeforms were struck.
Linley’s group was lucky. The closest lightning bolt actually struck the surface of the sea. Every single lightning bolt carried an astonishing amount of power, striking down into the depths of the sea like a sharp arrow. Every single lightning bolt only had a small amount of electricity dissipate and spread across the surface of the sea.
The vast majority of the energy was so condensed that it plunged straight through into the depths of the sea.
“Crackle...”
However, even the remnants of electrical power that were on the surface of the waters caused Linley’s metallic lifeform to violently shutter.
“BANG!” The metallic lifeform exploded.
Linley’s group just hovered above the water. Only now did they let out sighs of relief. On the surface of the water beneath them, there was still a electricity circulating, only, everyone knew that this wasn’t much of a threat to them.
“We’re safe.” The employer, Aches, cracked a smile.
The Fiends all let out sighs of relief. They laughed.
“Haha. Safe!”
“Motherf*cker, I got my life back!” After having dodged this trial, they all began to grow relaxed.
But Linley only stared into the distance. Just now, when those countless bolts of lightning had struck down, there had been another metallic lifeform not too far from Linley’s group’s, but that one had been unlucky. It had been struck and immediately exploded apart. Quite a few people died on the spot, while the rest had fled for their lives.
Linley had no idea how many people had died within this region of ten thousand kilometers.
“I seem to have saw someone flying in the sky just now, ignoring those striking lightning bolts.” A puzzled voice rang out.
Just now, when lightning bolts had rained down like the apocalypse, someone had dared fly in the skies?
All the Fiends nearby, Linley included, turned to look. The speaker was the big-bearded man, Bates. Frowning, he said, “I shouldn’t have seen wrongly. It was a person, and he seemed to be carrying a weapon. I don’t know if it was a sword or a saber.”