1116 Tangling in the Dragonboat Part 2 (1/2)

The dragonboat moved forward a hundred miles and Sika turned around and asked Saleen, ”Do you feel it?”

”Feel what?” Saleen did not get what she meant.

”Up in the sky. There's someone watching us from above.”

Saleen stopped and spread his senses out after she said that, searching the sky discretely. It was like Sika said. A vague form of power was searching from high above.

Saleen's senses were very sharp within a mile, and was considerably reduced after that, requiring the use of his Elemental Eye for observation.

He lifted his head and his gaze looked past the mist and the Water Shield, searching the sky. A huge bird was flying very high above and moving along the river. It was faster than the dragonboat.

The bird was about 10 meters long, with a wingspan of 16 meters. Its feathers were devoid of impurities, every feather emitting powerful energy waves.

Saleen let Sika go and let her put on her armor. He put on her Starline Armament and put on his mask properly.

”They haven't found us yet, but there is no telling how long we have to hide.” The dragonboat rocked, the currents turning torrential all of a sudden.

The bottom of the river sank all of a sudden and making the depth drop to over 30 meters. The dragonboat remained moving forward and downward.

The bird above them accelerated and flew farther. Saleen knew that they were no longer in trouble for the moment.

That bird was a powerful magic beast of at least level nine. Saleen's Elemental Eye was unable to see past the bird's body, making it impossible for him to know if there was anyone riding it.

He and Sika had been enjoying themselves. The sudden interruption robbed both of them of their mood to continue.

”I think the Tribunal mobilized their forces to look for us, Sika. It was a mistake not killing the golden-armored knights.”

”Saleen, will they be able to find us.”

”If the river stays this deep, the Tribunal will have a hard time doing so, unless the head inquisitors are able to deduce where we're going and set up defenses on the shore.”

There was no way for any one of the head inquisitors to know where Saleen was heading. The bird accelerated and did not bother to turn around to look for Saleen. The dragonboat accelerated in the deep parts of the river and headed west at blazing speed.

”Everyone, look sharp. Anyone who spots any danger lurking is to inform me immediately!”

His voice was heard in every one of the holds, but only Nicholas replied, ”My liege, that was the third head inquisitor. He definitely summoned powerful flying creatures using the Wings of Heaven to look for us in the sky. If you hadn't thought of travelling in such a way, they would've found us a long time ago.”

There was no way for anyone on the ground to run when they were being searched from above, but they were traveling underwater.

Unless the Tribunal had some special skills that enabled them to penetrate the surface of the water and reach all the way down to the dragonboat, sight and sensory divine arts alone would make it very difficult to spot it.

Coincidentally, they came across an extremely deep part of the river, which concealed the dragonboat even further, preventing them from being detected by the creature summoned by the Wings of Heaven.

Saleen found himself very lucky. It was an effect of having his astrological arts reach level nine, and there were indeed mystical changes to his fate.

While Saleen made the dragonboat incapable of traveling very quickly, it had come to deeper waters when the bird was found in the air. There was no way for him to know what the terrain of that Red River tributary was like.

Despite all of that seeming to be a coincidence, Saleen calculated things for a bit with astrology and found that he would be able to evade the disaster one way or another.

The great head inquisitor would definitely hand his equipment and explain its features to the third head inquisitor. If the third head inquisitor was also level ten, it would make it difficult for Saleen to deal with him.

He was heading for the source of the Red River, which was like charging into a storm. It would be incredibly dangerous, regardless of the equipment one carried, if one was not aa sufficiently high level.

There were many mystical tricks available to the Holy See, such as the skill and equipment employed by the Heaven Knights and unavoidable curses like the dark prophecy spells.

His luck would stay with him for the time being, if he were to be incapable of taking his fate in his hands and make yet another mistake, his fate would take a turn for the worse. It seemed to follow a pattern.

The more Saleen came to learn of fate, the less inclined he became to let his guard down.

”Sika, when will you be able to advance?” Saleen asked, rather frustrated.

”Saleen, it's very difficult for nature priests to advance. I'd need a third magic beast soul. The higher the level the better,” Sika answered.

”How far would you be able to advance?” Saleen knew little about nature priests. Sika and Saleen did not get to meet often, which meant that they did not get to talk about the subject much.

”Level nine is only the beginning for a nature priest. We need three powerful magic beast souls to be able to even begin to advance to level ten. If we advance beyond level 12, we need six. But then again, that is my unique route of advancement. I advanced along the path of combat priest, which made it more difficult, but my power was over a hundred times that of common priests.”

”A hundred times?” Saleen was startled. He only knew that Sika was physically strong. Common Caucasian warriors possessed great strength, so it was only natural for priests to be stronger. But Sika is a hundred times stronger than common priest! Just what kind of concept is this?