The sailors on the ship were stunned to see the aftermath of the test on the Death Sea. They even felt that it was surreal. Many of them had witnessed battles on sea, some of which were between armed merchant ships and pirates, while some were between just pirates. Those battles gave them bragging rights in the tavern. However, they now realized that the things that they had been bragging about were just like child’s play.
Staring at the calm sea, Julio, who had regained his Legendary-level strength, couldn’t help but feel emotional. Unlike other sailors, he had personally experienced the terrifying power of those alchemical ships of the Gilded Kingdom. His fleet of ships that had been running through the sea for many years could not hold a candle to the Gilded Kingdom’s. In fact, that battle on sea had left a deep impression on him, making him find his adversaries invincible.
However, after seeing the powerful firearms of The Star, the invincible image of the Gilded Kingdom’s fleet in his mind was instantly destroyed. He couldn’t help but imagine how terribly the fleet of the Gilded Kingdom would be crushed by a ship like The Star.
In the pilothouse of The Star, Lin Li wasn’t calm, either. After all, this battleship truly belonged to him. Even though it had its flaws, and was inferior compared to the original The Star, he was certain that this battleship was one of the best in Anril today.
After some tests, The Star ended its first trial, and was sailed back to Ortland Port for arrangements to be made to fix some details in the shipyard. About three or four days after the first trial, all the forces of the Breezy Plains sent messengers to congratulate the Tower of Dusk.
While congratulating the Tower of Dusk, they also expressed their intention to follow The Star out to sea to attend the Gilded Kingdom’s founding celebration. After all, the Endless Ocean was never a safe place. The Gilded Kingdom had a powerful fleet that could travel freely to and from the Breezy Plains, but the forces of the Breezy Plains were not protected by a fleet like the Gilded Kingdom’s. Although they had one or two armed merchant ships that could be sailed to the neighboring sea areas, it would be difficult for them to reach the Gilded Kingdom.
Initially, the forces were still feeling frustrated about securing their transportation to the Gilded Kingdom after receiving the invitation. However, now that they had seen the powerful battleship built by the Tower of Dusk, they naturally immediately thought of hitching a ride to the Gilded Kingdom.
Lin Li agreed readily to the request of those forces. After all, the Tower of Dusk was no longer what it used to be. It had now become the recognized leader of many forces in the Breezy Plains. Hence, it was normal that they would want to follow the Tower of Dusk to the Gilded Kingdom.
The invitation to the Gilded Kingdom’s founding celebration was very important to all the forces of the Breezy Plains. After all, no one really wanted to wage a war in the Breezy Plains, as that would not be beneficial for anyone. Although the Gilded Kingdom’s entry to the Breezy Plains made the various forces of the Breezy Plains feel threatened, the current situation showed that the Gilded Kingdom had brought them considerable benefits.
For example, a lot of forces in the Breezy Plains had already reached a bottleneck in their development, but they suddenly had a huge patron because they had the resources needed by the Gilded Kingdom. There were also major forces such as the Mithril Alliance, which were in cooperation with the Gilded Kingdom in the field of alchemy and other areas, and had gotten a lot of benefits. Now, it should be considered a honeymoon period for them.
Hence, for the time being, none of the forces of the Breezy Plains wanted to fall out with the Gilded Kingdom, despite knowing that the Gilded Kingdom would have a conflict of interests with them sooner or later if they wanted to develop in the Breezy Plains. At the very least, they wanted to maintain the current peace.
In particular, the Mithril Alliance and several other top forces cooperated with the Gilded Kingdom in even more areas. Their businesses were larger in scale too. Hence, they sent some important figures to the Gilded Kingdom’s founding celebration. Of course, the ceremony was secondary, and the most important thing was to express their intention to maintain peace. At the same time, they also hoped to make a further step in the progress of their business and cooperation.
The representative of the Mithril Alliance was an old acquaintance of Lin Li’s, Joseph, who once served as the helmsman of the Mithril Alliance. Although Joseph was stripped of his position after exploring Prince Brahere’s mausoleum because he failed to handle the relationship with the Tower of Dusk well and caused the Mithril Alliance to suffer a considerable loss during that exploration, he still had a high status in the Mithril Alliance. After all, he also represented the Taylor Family, which was more powerful than the others in the Mithril Alliance.
Although he had lost his position as the helmsman because of Lin Li, he didn’t show any displeasure or hostility after meeting the latter. When congratulating Lin Li for the successful testing of The Star, Joseph was all smiles, and even personally gave Lin Li a congratulatory gift.
On the other hand, the Caesar Family was led personally by Claus. Although he was the patriarch thereof, and it was a little dangerous for him to go all the way to the Gilded Kingdom to attend the celebration, it also showed how much they valued the event. However, after meeting Lin Li, Claus privately told Lin Li that no matter what happened in the Gilded Kingdom, he would definitely regard the Tower of Dusk as their leader.
Of course, Lin Li didn’t take Claus’s words seriously, because he knew very well that profit was the most important thing for them. Claus’s words were more of an insurance for himself rather than an expression of his loyalty to Lin Li. If the Tower of Dusk was at a losing end, it would be unreliable to depend on the other forces to overcome the ordeal.
Although the Blood Moon Clan had always kept a low profile in the Breezy Plains, and could even be considered mysterious, they were clearly not willing to miss the invitation of the Gilded Kingdom this time. The one who came forward was Mogadi, the current president of the Blood Moon Clan. Besides, legend had it that the people of the Blood Moon Clan had been hiding on the Endless Ocean for quite a long time in order to avoid the purge of the allied forces of the various races at the end of the Dark Age. Hence, Mogadi hit off rather well with Lin Li when they talked about sailing. That made the people from other forces quite envious.
Besides, the Glittergold Trade Union also sent a representative. After all, the Glittergold Trade Union also had quite a lot of business over in the Gilded Kingdom. Moreover, with the entry of the Gilded Kingdom into the Breezy Plains, the business of the Glittergold Trade Union had also expanded gradually. However, Hoffman and Thomas were not the representatives this time. Instead, it was Master of Inscription Elvan, who was also a shareholder.
It was not that Hoffman and Thomas were putting on airs or disregarding the interaction with the Gilded Kingdom this time. It was mainly because the Glittergold Trade Union was unlike the other forces, and had businesses almost everywhere in Anril. Even the smaller shareholders were extremely busy, let alone the major shareholders Hoffman and Thomas.
The reason that they had sent Elvan to be the representative was mainly because he was the only one in the trade union who was in charge of inscription instead of business. At the same time, with his identity as one of the four main shareholders, he also had enough authority and prestige to represent the Glittergold Trade Union. Hence, the Gilded Kingdom wouldn’t feel like they had been taken lightly.
The pseudo-Sanctuary powerhouses like Elvis and the others who participated in the battle on Cage Island did not show up for the celebration this time. They had a relatively extraordinary status in their respective forces, and generally did not care about factional affairs. However, there was a pseudo-Sanctuary powerhouse who arrived uninvited. It was Cardson who was known as the greatest gourmet of the Breezy Plains.
Cardson was not included in the invitation list of the Gilded Kingdom, and the ones who were invited were mainly the various forces of the Breezy Plains. Although Cardson was rather competent, he did not belong to any force in the Breezy Plains, and all he had was a small restaurant.
The reason Cardson came uninvited was entirely due to his hobby and penchant for food. He claimed to have tasted every single edible item on the mainland of Anril, and thus wanted to go to the Gilded Kingdom to try the plethora of exotic food they had to offer. In addition to eating, he also liked cooking. In the eyes of others, the Gilded Kingdom was just a dangerous place that was infested with various marine magical beasts, but to him, it was a treasure vault of food ingredients.
Hence, as soon as Cardson saw Lin Li’s face, he immediately offered to be the chef on The Star, not standing on ceremony with him at all.
The fact that a pseudo-Sanctuary powerhouse wanted to be the chef on the battleship might sound incredible to others. After all, a pseudo-Sanctuary powerhouse was also a powerhouse and a god-like existence in the eyes of ordinary people.
However, Lin Li could understand Cardson’s feelings. In fact, Cardson’s pursuit of food was akin to his own or others’ pursuit of power. Moreover, although Lin Li did not share his pursuit of food in the least, there was no harm in being able to enjoy delicious food during the voyage. Hence, he readily agreed to Cardson’s request.
After successfully becoming the chef on The Star, Cardson did not take himself as an outsider as he immediately began to set up his own kitchen on the vessel. Although there was already a kitchen on The Star since there were many other sailors on board who had to eat too, that kitchen was far below Cardson’s standards.
Lin Li did not interfere with Cardson. He simply instructed his subordinates who were in charge to comply with the former. Anyway, no matter how he changed the kitchen, it wouldn’t affect the safety of The Star, so he let Cardson do what he wanted.
In addition to the representatives of the Mithril Alliance and other top forces, some other large and medium-sized forces also sent representatives to Ortland Port in hopes of following The Star to the Gilded Kingdom. After all, the Endless Ocean was very dangerous for the vast majority of people, and it was obviously much safer to follow a high-level Sanctuary powerhouse.
Lin Li welcomed them on board too. Anyway, there was enough space on The Star which could fit thousands of people. The Gilded Kingdom was not inviting any Tom, Dick, and Harry. Hence, even if all the people invited were on board The Star, there would only be 200-300 people in total.
A few days later, The Star was ready to set sail. Lin Li brought the representatives of various forces onto the deck of the vessel. With a long roar, the huge The Star slowly sailed out of Ortland Port, and headed for the Gilded Kingdom, which was located deep in the Endless Ocean, following the route that was mapped out.
The way to reach the Gilded Kingdom’s capital was not a problem for Lin Li, as he still had the navigational information he’d extorted from the Gilded Kingdom. Although the information had hidden the military forces deployed by the Gilded Kingdom at sea and some information involving the secrets of the kingdom, he could still use it to map out a route to the capital of the Gilded Kingdom.
The territory of the Gilded Kingdom was so large that if the islands at the borders of the kingdom were connected on the map, the area covered would probably be about half of the mainland of Anril. However, almost 80% of the area there was the vast ocean, and the numerous islands were their real territory.
The so-called Nation of the Thousand Islands was not an exaggerated term at all, as the Gilded Kingdom really had annotated nearly 1,000 islands on the map. However, there were many more islands that could not be marked, and some might only be enough to house less than 100 households. Even the people of the Gilded Kingdom might not be able to count how many islands there were in its territory.
Hence, the Gilded Kingdom did not seem to be very far from the Breezy Plains based on the boundaries, but that was just the distance between the island that was at the boundary and the Breezy Plains. Even with the fast speed of The Star, it would take about a month to reach the capital of the Gilded Kingdom where the celebration was held.
One of the many excuses that the Gilded Kingdom gave to Lin Li for delaying the delivery of the Magical Crystal Cannons was the great transportation distance, which was the reason that they only provided two Magical Crystal Cannons to the Tower of Dusk each month. They were self-aware enough to feel bad for that. Otherwise, if the Magical Crystal Cannons were to be shipped to the southernmost island of the Gilded Kingdom, the delivery time would probably be once every six months.
