The Planar Scepter

A rare look of confusion appeared on Zijin's face. "Although I've had plenty of dealings with them, it shouldn't have taken such a massive show of force-" She suddenly thought of something and reached out to summon the Divine Favor Scepter she had used that night. "Could it be because of this?"

"The pope's scepter?"

"No," Zijin replied. "The Divine Favor Scepter represents the favor of a god's will. It has nothing to do with being pope," she explained. "Of course, the current pope is an exception. Augustus is the only person in history to hold the office of pope while also possessing the scepter."

"Let me get this straight. Being pope and possessing this Divine Favor Scepter aren't the same thing, right?" Su Ming asked.

"Right. Simply possessing the scepter only gets you an honorary religious title from the temple, something like a cardinal of divine favor."

"Then why did you steal it?" Su Ming was baffled. Wasn't she just asking for trouble? "Let's make a little boat and put the Divine Favor Scepter on it to send it back!"

Zijin took a moment to consider how to answer his string of questions. "First of all, I did try to steal the scepter, but I failed." She addressed the first question. "The Divine Favor Scepter isn't an ordinary object. It represents a god's recognition of a savior. The scepter only appears for someone He recognizes, and only that person can possess it. That's why I failed back then."

"Then how did it end up in your hands?" Su Ming was even more confused.

"It appeared on its own during the battle at sea a few days ago," Zijin replied. "I was wondering then why the Divine Favor Scepter had abandoned the current pope to come to me."

The scholar spread her hands. "Surely I couldn't have done something to save the world that earned a god's recognition and surpassed Augustus?"

No, you really did, Su Ming thought. He already knew the answer.

Zijin had isolated him, done everything she could to keep him away from crowds, and driven off every pursuer who tried to get close enough to become a close contact. She had single-handedly prevented a world-ending plague.

A world-saving feat, no question!

"So an undead like you got the Creator God's recognition?" Su Ming put a hand to his head. "Even on Earth, you'd be hunted to death for that! This is a crisis that could bring their doctrine crashing down. The Temple of Light would do anything to silence you!"

Zijin looked surprised. "I was still thinking I might be able to use this to reconcile with them. I was being shortsighted."

So besides spatial geometry, Zijin wasn't very politically astute either, Su Ming thought.

In any case, the situation was far more serious than it had been at Cui'an Sea Cliff. They could forget about returning the scepter to ease the hostility. How could they return something that didn't even have a physical form?

Their only way out was to focus on escaping!

On the sand table, Su Ming labeled the Jade Sea and Tang Valley and the two Songstress Class ships the "Aircraft Carrier Battle Group," the three main naval warships on the other side the "Three Squirrels Battle Group," and the three reconnaissance ships hiding on the left, near the mainland, the "popcorn-munching onlookers."

Zijin also marked the wind direction on the sand table. It was blowing from southeast to northwest.

"The Aircraft Carrier Battle Group has an excellent position upwind. If we go that way, we'll be very slow and continuously exposed to their ample firepower." She began analyzing the situation. "The Squirrel Battle Group is east by north. To go toward them, we'd be sailing sixty degrees into the wind, while they'd be sailing sixty degrees downwind. We'd still be at a disadvantage."

"To the west is the mainland, where we'd have even less room to maneuver.

"So our only option is to rig sails and use them together with the steam engine to propel the ship, heading north parallel to the coast."

Zijin finished her analysis and offered her tactical conclusion.

Su Ming shook his head and pointed to several ports a short distance away on the northern coast. "If we go that way, we'll be tied down by reinforcements coming from the north."

There might not be any forces lying in wait there now, but if the Zhiyuan went that way, there certainly would be.

"But in that situation, we'd have the wind at our backs and they'd be sailing against it. We'd have a chance to break through their defenses," Zijin explained.

Su Ming thought it over. He had to admit that if the Zhiyuan had enough fuel, it would be a reasonable option. But the Zhiyuan didn't have enough, and there was no telling what enemies might appear in the north. If the enemy destroyed their sails while they were trying to break through, and they ran out of steam fuel as well, they would be finished.

The fuel problem still had to be solved, and they had to take out the enemy's eyes. Otherwise, they would remain on the back foot and be wiped out sooner or later.

"How fast can they go sailing forty-five degrees into the wind?" Su Ming suddenly asked.

Zijin took a moment to answer. "About three to four knots."

Su Ming recalled the Pearl Duchy warships he had seen in the earlier naval battle. They were all three-masted ships with soft sails, which performed poorly against the wind.

Then there was hope!

Su Ming put down his pen and connected to Little Spiky Head.

He pulled Miao Xin's phone out of his chest cavity and dialed a number. "Hello, ship design studio? Are the plans I asked for ready?"

Ten hours earlier, at eight in the evening.

Little Spiky Head had been lying on top of the Shunfeng high-speed train, enjoying the wind, when Su Ming switched over, used Miao Xin's phone to log into an online shopping platform, and found a ship design studio.

"Hi there, a steam sailing ship?"

Su Ming had obtained the electronic design plans for the Zhiyuan earlier and stored them on his old phone. He exported them with a memory card and sent them to the studio.

"This is what the ship looks like now. It's powered by a steam engine, and I need to add sail power," Su Ming explained.

Even though the designer handling his request was a professional, it took quite a while for them to reply. "We could use the designs of historical sailing ships of the line as a reference. Do you have a preferred type of sail?"

"Use airfoil-shaped rigid sails. The layout and shape can be adjusted as needed."

"That would be best. How tall should the masts be?"

Su Ming asked Zijin how tall the masts could be, given the strength of the White Bone Fortress and without adding magical protection.

"Around 120 meters," he told the customer service representative.

"They don't need to be that tall. The ship would capsize," the other person said. "Do you want to add a plate keel on the bottom?"

"I do need a stabilizing fin. I have very high requirements for sailing against the wind."

"Oh? What's the wind speed range in those waters?" the other person asked.

Su Ming looked at Zijin, who once again gave a speechless response.

"Just use the standard figures," Su Ming said.

The other person thought for a moment. "Let's add a set of sideboards along the hull. Make them adjustable. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

After Su Ming paid the deposit, the other person said delivery would take two days.

Su Ming immediately brought out the three-piece combo: extra pay, a rush request, and no revisions.

"I want to see the plans within twelve hours!" he had declared domineeringly into the phone.

Su Ming got in touch with the studio and was told that there were a lot of calculations to do and it would take a little longer.

"So we're waiting?" The scholar was utterly baffled. "My spatial geometry is poor, but even I could manage to put up three masts and hang sails on them, let alone you."