635 Misgivings (1/2)
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.