635 Misgivings

At the same time, on board the flagship of the Phantom Fleet, the commander exclaimed in amazement, "It's just like a miracle."

He turned back. "Lady Schubert, thank you for your work."

In a quiet corner of the bridge, the old nun kept her eyes low. She said nothing and simply recited the scriptures in a low voice. Beside her, the bishop named Raymond said a few modest words on her behalf. He looked at the fleet of Anglo on the frozen sea with satisfaction, and his expression turned more and more delighted.

"Need we not take them prisoners?" Such a situation alone did not satisfy the commander. "At the very least, we can board the ship first and control the bridge."

"No, that way, a war will be inevitable." Raymond shook his head. "Surely, your country also has no intentions to stir up more trouble at such a juncture when the Ultimate has appeared.

"There won't be a problem as long as we control the Royal Fleet. We have a saint here, nothing will go wrong."

He paused for a while and his gaze turned dark. "Next, we can sit back and wait for the Hand of God to show up at our doorstep for a chat."

"Although I have no intention of questioning the Church's credibility, I hope that the Church can keep its promise." The commander gave him a look.

"I give you my word, Lord Commander." Raymond gave a soft laugh. "After sending the Hand of God on his way home with the Royal Fleet, I will endorse your exploration mission of the Ultimate on behalf of the Church. Didn't Lady Schubert come along precisely for this purpose?"

The commander gazed at the Royal Fleet, which was close at hand, and suppressed the impulse in his heart to open fire and annihilate them all.

For some reason unknown, he felt no cheerfulness in his heart as he held the beard on his chin.

The kidnapping has been completed.

But will we actually receive the ransom?

He suddenly felt some uneasiness in his heart.

...

"The fleet has lost contact?" Upon hearing Egor's report, Ye Qingxuan frowned. "When?"

"Twelve minutes ago," Egor replied. "As per usual practice, we carry out routine communication at hourly intervals to correct the navigation path and determine our location, but twelve minutes ago, the signal we sent out received no response. At that time, the musician thought that it was because of the interference from the clutter in the Black Zone. However, after making the corrections accordingly, we discovered that we have completely lost the signal of the Sovereign."

"No news from the musicians on board either?" Ye Qingxuan asked.

"The communication channel via the realm of aether has also descended into silence, and we cannot locate the coordinates of the fleet," Egor replied. "Do we need to wait some more?"

Ye Qingxuan said nothing.

Had the fleet simply lost contact temporarily, it would be nothing to worry about. Signal obstructions in the form of Black Zones were present at sea, and no relay points of leylines were available to ensure that communication remained stable, so instances of ships being uncontactable were in fact commonplace.

However, given that communication via the realm of aether yielded no response as well, something must have gone wrong.

Moreover, the musicians of the Religious Court of Inquiry did not even manage to locate the coordinates projected by the fleet onto the sea of aether. Thus, something must have gone very wrong, and it would probably cause him a lot of trouble.

Only three outcomes were possible.

The first was that the Royal Fleet had been completely annihilated, and not a single tile had remained, let alone the coordinates projected by the aether engine onto the sea of aether.

The second was that someone had completely covered up the tracks of the Royal Fleet, erased them, and wiped away all traces. Just like a protective umbrella, the action would block others from snooping.

Therefore, no projection of the fleet onto the sea of aether was detected at all. The musicians of the school of revelation also couldn't trace the fleet's tracks through the sea of aether.

It wasn't considered very difficult. If Ye Qingxuan didn't mind the trouble, he could do it too. But why would the fleet do this? Plus, why was it done at this juncture, without even informing Ye Qingxuan?

Furthermore, a usual master, or even a scepter musician, who was highly proficient in the music theory of the school of revelation could at most conceal the tracks of a person or a group of people for them to carry out secret missions, and doing so would already be so strenuous that the musician might just vomit blood, not to mention covering up the tracks of such a large fleet.

If the fleet was within Anglo's borders, Ye Qingxuan could still accomplish such a feat with the strengthening of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, but the Royal Fleet had undoubtedly sailed beyond the borders.

As for the third one, it was fairly interesting...

Ye Qingxuan squinted his eyes and tapped the armrest of his seat. "Leave the matters here to Shi Dong. The Mountain of Nomadism is to set off first and investigate what has happened."

Hesitantly, Egor said, "Ahem, Your Royal Highness, have you forgotten? You have assigned Elder Shi Dong another task, and he is not currently on the fleet..."

"...Leave it to Watson then." The words left his mouth, and only then did Ye Qingxuan realize that he had also thrown Watson work. The latter had set off from the port the same time he had, and wasn't even in Avalon at the moment, let alone the fleet.

Ye Qingxuan was about to say Lola's name, only to recall that he left Lola behind in his office in Avalon to deal with official duties.

In other words, he didn't even have a reliable deputy by his side at the moment.

He had no one to shift the responsibilities to...

It was a problem that made Ye Qingxuan increasingly pissed.

In the end, he finally found a candidate to temporarily shift the responsibilities to, namely the new head of the Royal Musician Division —"Arhat" Mable, who rushed back from the Highlands upon receiving Maxwell's testament after the war against Leviathan.

She was the cream of the crop of the School of Royalty. After her teacher died of being walled in by his own futile efforts at breaking through and advancing to the Level of Scepter last year, Mable carried the School of Royalty on her shoulders and became the leader of all the Sons of Phoenix. Moreover, during the period of the war against Leviathan, she completed the highest-level proposition of the School of Royalty, Nirvana, using the transformation effect of the aura of the catastrophe to her advantage.

Although she looked like a girl who was only 12 or 13 years old, she was actually more than 90 years old already.

After combining bestiality with the music theory of the school of choir, she achieved Nirvana, a feat that had only been accomplished by the first Son of Phoenix in the past few centuries. Embracing the philosophy of being-towards-death, she completely integrated her self-consciousness and bestiality at the verge of dying, and as a result nurtured and produced 'Bestiality·Phoenix'.

What made Ye Qingxuan even more envious was that the foundation of the School of Royalty itself had originated from the Chapter of the Golden Victory — From the very beginning, the royals had viewed the school as one of their own and cultivated the members specially — The direct consequence of having carried the music theory on was that her Symphony of Predestination matched the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth perfectly matched.

In the course of time, she need not rely on making use of the elements of the Sacred City, and could directly attain the Level of Scepter through the projection of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Such was the benefit of being in a small circle.

Although she must be bound to Anglo for the latter half of her life and share the risks together, she would also get to share the benefits in a similar fashion. As long as the king had meat on the table, the royal family would never deny her a spoonful of broth at the very least.

Round table knights and royal musicians, they were the hands of the royal family — With her around, Ye Qingxuan need not worry about things going wrong.

After receiving Ye Qingxuan's command, Master Mabel said nothing, and simply snapped her fingers. In the low melody, the magnificently beautiful reflection of the bird of flames emerged on the sea, as if it was soaring between the sea and the sky while carrying hundreds of warships on its back.

After Ye Qingxuan withdrew the protection he cast, the fleet did not slow down, but sped up instead.

Through alchemy arrays and the resonance between the warships, the bestiality of the phoenix coursed through the entire fleet. As if the machinery had also been bestowed with a soul and had turned into a living thing, the fleet exuded an astounding power.

Looking at the scenario, Ye Qingxuan finally felt at ease, and after he bid Mabel farewell, the dark Mountain of Nomadism rumbled.

Numerous engineers rushed here and there, and the giant heart in the core pool of aether started beating wildly.

The first drive, the second drive, the third drive... In a flash, it had ascended to the sixth drive...

Thunderous bangs burst forth from the hull. A hurricane swept through between the sea and the sky, and black clouds gathered in the sky above them, like iron curtains pressing down, flanking the dark warship.

In the wild melody that sounded like a gigantic dragon hissing, lightning burst forth, and roaring waves swept.

The huge Mountain of Nomadism shook. Bringing the vast black clouds with it, it left the surface of the sea, rose rapidly in altitude, and soared in the sky.

On the hull, the arrays set up using the music theory of the school of modifications exuded a horrifyingly high amount of heat. They formed an almost tangible magnetic field, which mutually excited the magnetic fields in the black clouds. Scorching lightning burst forth, leaving a dazzling trail where the ship passed, like tracks of light.

After going through the second manufacturing process and having the core of a legendary warship of the past integrated into it, the Mountain of Nomadism became increasingly powerful in strength, and the power consumed in flight was greatly reduced. When the arrays that had originally been made in a rush were replaced completely, the speed actually increased by 60 percent.

Its remaining potential was thoroughly developed.

At the moment, the Mountain of Nomadism had become an absolute monster of steel. As long as they could source a large amount of bestiality as food to cultivate it, over time, it could probably transform into a monster no inferior to that resulting from any bestiality.

In the sky above, the Mountain of Nomadism was still accelerating and had yet to reach its limit.

Even when it rushed into the fog on the sea, entered the Red Zone, and moved in a straight line towards the Black Zone, no soft noise resulting from deceleration was produced. Everywhere it passed, all noise and clutter were silenced by the Staff of Fate.

Even in the most chaotic Black Zone, the environment surrounding the hull was stable.

The Staff of Fate completely suppressed all disturbances, and the resulting recoil couldn't even be considered afterwinds for it.

Traveling at full speed, in the short span of just one hour, the Mountain of Nomadism that had achieved its speed limit had already broken through the clouds and torn the fog apart, arriving at the sea region where the Royal Fleet had disappeared.

Looking downwards from the sky, one could see that the entire surface of the sea was covered by a strange mist, making it totally impossible for one to see what was going on. One could only detect chaos of nothingness even through aether sensing.

It was precisely the mist that had obscured the signal of the Royal Fleet, hiding the ships within.

But it was not as sinister and mysterious as Ye Qingxuan had imagined. On the contrary, the music theory in the mist was grand and glorious, like the scorching sun. Even though it was hiding in the mist, it still possessed a dignified majesty.

Ye Qingxuan had sensed similar auras for dozens of times, and couldn't have known it any better.

Music theory that can make me feel difficult to handle, or even feel slightly suppressed... It was not common even among the scepter musicians. So the most obvious answer, I am afraid, would be existences above them.

— Saint!

The only thing I don't know is which is the one here...

At the moment, the three kings all have their own places to be at. The King of Blue is patrolling the border of the human world, the King of Red is guarding the Sacred City located in the central area, and the King of Yellow king has taken his leave, leaving his crown behind. It is impossible for any of them to appear in the sea area.

As for the remaining seven legacies of saints which are currently being passed down among musicians, Wagner has followed the footsteps of the King of Blue and left for the dark world; Hendel was stabbed in the back by Wolf Flute and died, with no one to inherit his legacy, and the position is unoccupied as of now; Haydn's legacy is in the hands of Anglo...

Then, only four are left.

Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin... I wonder which one of them is here?

Ye Qingxuan did not launch an attack immediately, instead he maintained respect for the saint.

Sitting on the command post in the bridge, his fingers tapping the Staff of Fate, he examined the music theory below, contemplating the origins and intention of the saint below.

It was a pity that his silence was regarded as cowardice.