Su Huilan walked over against the sea breeze and smiled at Qingmu, "You know quite a few beautiful women!"
Qingmu laughed and said, "Are you talking about yourself?"
Su Huilan chuckled, "You seem like a block of wood, but some people are still waiting for you to blossom, little did they know that you're already full of flowers inside and out."
Qingmu said, "Are you still talking about yourself?"
"Smooth talker! And _book_" Su Huilan laughed even harder. After a while, she stopped laughing and said seriously, "You gave her the chip?"
Qingmu nodded and said, "Yes, she's going back to Wuzhong soon, so you can take her to Professor Mei."
Su Huilan knew that since Qingmu had done this, he was trustworthy, so she didn't ask any more questions.
Petru looked at the warships in the distance and said, "I think we'd better hurry up and leave."
He didn't want to follow the warship out to sea, as that would mean a long stretch of the voyage would be within the warship's sight. When they came out earlier, the United States captain had given him a couple of extra glances, which made him feel uneasy.
As the saying goes, a small boat is easy to turn around. Compared to warships, fishing boats can leave port very quickly. They soon sailed out of Ahurei Bay and, according to the location marked on the nautical chart, headed towards a mysterious Ghost Island in the vast ocean.
Petru estimated that the voyage would take four to five days. Although the ship had enough fuel to sail normally for half a month, he still hoisted the sails just to be on the safe side.
Petru skillfully operates both the engine and the sail simultaneously, using the combined power of the wind and the propeller to propel the boat forward. He says this not only saves fuel but also increases speed, allowing him to reach his destination at least a day earlier.
Su Huilan tested the stone with a radiation meter, but the instrument showed no reaction, indicating that either the stone was originally fine, or the radioactive elements had decayed completely many years ago.
They spent the next few days on the ship, watching the Sun rise over the eastern horizon in the morning and set spectacularly in the west in the evening. On the vast, boundless sea, there was nothing they could do but wait.
Petru's ship had plenty of weapons, which he would show off to Qingmu and Su Huilan when he was bored.
When Qingmu was in Southern Yunnan, he used guns with Shi Dazhuang and even fought against the quasi-military forces in Masuba, witnessing the power of various firearms. At that time, he had a strange feeling that he was not only born to speak many languages, but also born to use firearms, as if he had participated in wars in his previous life, and these memories were stored in some hidden corner of his brain.
Petru's arsenal was formidable, containing not only conventional firearms but also mortars and torpedoes. Qingmu had never heard of a fishing boat carrying torpedoes before, and wondered if Petru had modified it by adding torpedo launchers. No wonder he was reluctant to approach warships; if the navy discovered this, they would definitely treat you as a military intruder. This also shows that the Redbeard Pirates' fearsome reputation was indeed well-deserved.
Qingmu was proficient with most pistols, AKs, grenades, and even RPGs, but he wasn't familiar with some newer weapons, such as anti-materiel sniper rifles and graphene bombs. Su Huilan's familiarity with weapons surprised him greatly. If it were just a general understanding, he wouldn't find it strange, after all, she was a professor, and her knowledge base was many times greater than his. But the key point was that Su Huilan's marksmanship was also very accurate, yet her hands and figure didn't look like someone who had ever fired a gun.
Over the past few days, they have also studied the nautical chart. Looking at the distribution of the islands marked with the Tapu symbol and the *Tu*shu Islets on the chart, they made various guesses, such as what kind of formation they formed, or whether they corresponded to constellations in the sky, etc., but none of these explanations were perfect.
What exactly is the purpose of the Tapu?
Both Qingmu and Su Huilan stubbornly believed that the Tapu must be connected to the underwater pyramids, and that to unlock the secrets of the underwater pyramids, the secrets of these Tapu must first be unlocked. Petru, however, expressed doubt, saying:
"What idiot would search for so many small islands in a sea area of one million square kilometers? The United States Pacific Ocean Fleet's naval charts don't even mark all of these islands. According to your logic, even if people four thousand years ago had the ability to sail from the Mediterranean Sea to Polynesia, how many ships would they have had to send to find all these islands? One hundred thousand?"
"If these Tapu harbor some kind of hidden mechanism, it wouldn't be safe to place them on these small islands. You know, many of these islands were formed by underwater volcanoes; they might still be here today, but they could disappear tomorrow, and a new one might appear two hundred miles away in a few days. If someone could undertake such a magnificent project in the Pacific Ocean, surely they wouldn't be unaware of volcanic activity?"
"I think it's very likely a coincidence. People back then discovered these strange stones on some islands that could influence people's spirits, so they regarded them as miracles. Later, some people comprehended the true meaning of the spirit from them and became awakened wizards. You are the descendants of wizards. Your ancestors formed an Alliance that claimed to maintain world peace, and this may be the origin of Mental Power."
Qingmu and Su Huilan remained silent, lost in thought. Regardless of Petru's outrageous claims, he was right about one thing: whatever the purpose of building these things, choosing islands that could disappear at any moment was unwise.
After three days of sailing, they reached the designated area, but just as Petru had feared, the island they had envisioned did not appear in sight.
"Yes, it was right here last time," Petru said.
" Guagua, there's the sea all around here, how do you know if you've come to the wrong place?" the restless Crow cawed.
"Ask your fellow seagulls," Petru said, not mentioning that his ship had a GPS system, but pointing to a flock of seagulls that had been flying alongside the ship for quite some distance. "How do they know their way home?"
The Crow scoffed, "That's because they fly high; of course, they can see far."
It jumped onto the windowsill of the cockpit, then flapped its wings and flew towards the sea, circling a few times before soaring high into the sky.
Qingmu knew that Boss Coal were better fliers than ordinary Crow, probably because Boss Coal belonged to the highland raven species.
The Crow quickly overtook the soaring seagulls, flying like an eagle, becoming a tiny black dot in people's sight. After a while, the dot slowly grew larger, and then the Boss Coal's figure was seen spreading his wings, circling once, and finally landing on the mast in the middle of the ship.
Its head tilted back and forth, as if it were thinking about something, then it shot into the sky again, becoming a small black dot.
After going back and forth like this several times, it finally returned to the cabin.
"So, how's it going? Can you see far from where you're flying high?" Petru asked.
"Um... I think I just saw an island." The Boss Coal would rather die than admit that he saw nothing in the sky except the sea and the horizon.
"Where is the island?" Petru quickly picked up his binoculars and looked around.
The Crow said, "I just turned around, and it disappeared."
Petru, enraged, bristled his Redbeard and glared at him, saying, "You lying bird!"
"No, I'm not lying," the Crow insisted.
Petru put down his binoculars and ignored it.
Qingmu said, "I think I also sensed a fluctuation of spiritual energy ahead, but it disappeared in an instant."