novelODS Chapter 286 - 279: "The Greater the Storm, the Greater the Catch!
Chapter 286 - 279: "The Greater the Storm, the Greater the Catch!
The Nameless Cocoon’s Spiritual Power and sentience were both quite strong.
That feeling just now made it wonder if it had earned the hatred of a Holy Hall-level Sea Beast! The sheer, soaring enmity was so palpable it could be clearly sensed across countless miles of the Endless Ocean!
’How could this be?’
’I’ve been suppressed here ever since I awoke. When would I have had the chance to provoke one of those seven beings at the very top?’
’This must be a misunderstanding.’
HISS—
The Sealed Prison unleashed another wave of high-frequency suppression and restraint.
The black threads coiled around its cocoon body grew tighter and tighter.
Its larval wings trembled faintly, showing subtle signs of regressing. The amount of Spiritual Power it could command dwindled.
One setback led to another, a cascade of failures!
’Damn it!’
’That Shi Ming is useless! Has he never studied the art of war? After I asked for his help, he should have relieved the pressure on me by attacking his enemy’s weak point! He should have done something to improve my situation. Even if he didn’t dare to confront the King-level ship, he should have at least caused some trouble to distract them. But now, the Sealed Prison’s suppression is getting even stronger! If this continues, I’ll lose this tug-of-war with the seal in less than ten days. I’ll regress into a mindless cocoon...’
’When I wake up again, I’ll have lost my current consciousness!’
’No! I can’t let that happen!’
’I absolutely cannot just sit here and wait for death!’
It desperately broadcast a distress signal, hoping some other creature capable of perceiving its Spiritual Power would notice its plea. Alas, sometimes being on too high a level is a curse. It’s lonely at the top; no other creature could receive its call for help.
And even if one could, who would be willing to make an enemy of a King-level Wandering Ship?
...
...
...
The Da Yu drifted for over a day along the border between the Africa Sea Area and the European Sea Region, patrolling and probing the limits of the Abyss Lord’s patience and attack range.
There were no anomalies.
The Eye of the World offered no further warnings either.
This allowed Shi Ming to relax.
’Looks like it has finally "calmed down."’
This time, by severing a dozen of its tentacles, he had well and truly offended it. Shi Ming figured that from now on, if he ever showed his face in the Sea of Boiling or if the Abyss Lord sensed his presence, he would undoubtedly receive the most "grand" of receptions.
But so what? A brave warrior doesn’t stand beneath a crumbling wall, let alone a barren one.
The Sea of Boiling had very few sea beasts these days; only the Three-Eyed Golden Crow held any appeal. Until he had the power to slay the Abyss Lord, he had no reason to return to such a place.
The spoils from this battle, however, were quite good.
1. A massive amount of the Abyss Lord’s flesh and the purest Holy Hall-level blood, enough to make any King-level Wandering Ship swallow its pride to trade for it.
2. A fabricator robot from 001.
3. The strange item, the Twin Mirror.
Each one was worthy of study.
Each was a treasure capable of making monstrous waves across the Endless Ocean.
Especially the dozen or so tentacles from the Abyss Lord! They had stuffed the warehouse to the brim—a huge quantity, more than enough to go around. It was countless times more than the paltry bits of keratin and claw tips he had painstakingly scraped off the Great Black Heaven Dragon back on Fujing Mountain. If even a whisper of this got out to the Twelve Stars, Da Yu, or even the Lighthouse, they would all scramble to make a deal.
The value of Holy Hall-level Flesh and Blood was beyond words.
Just 1,000 grams of the stuff had earned Shi Ming the position of Honorary Knight.
And now, Shi Ming estimated he had several tons of it.
There was enough blood to bathe in, but these limbs were merely a thousandth of the Abyss Lord’s body. They couldn’t possibly contain the essence of the Extremely Evil Sanctuary.
Besides, the blood was suffused with the most extreme corruption.
Studying it and absorbing small amounts was fine.
But bathing in it?
That would be suicide.
...
As for the Celestial Net Guard, it had been damaged by Shi Ming in the battle, and he lacked the technical skills to repair it himself. If he wanted to use the Infinite Brain to upgrade and restore it, he would need an item called a Celestial Net Core.
Treasures related to the Celestial Net system all contained the two words "Celestial Net" in their names.
Shi Ming still had no idea what secrets lay behind the omnipresent Celestial Net. It seemed to be related to King-level Wandering Ship 001, and it also had close ties to the other six King-level Wandering Ships. What kind of person could use the Celestial Net to bind all the people and factions across the Endless Ocean so firmly together?
If one were to look at the rights and wrongs of the Celestial Net from an outsider’s perspective...
Rationally speaking, without the Celestial Net, order would have completely collapsed under the weight of social Darwinism in the early days of the Wandering Era, long before the sea beasts became a major threat. It acted like a Damocles’ Sword hanging over everyone’s heads, forcibly binding them all together and maintaining control through tyrannical means.
Like a tyrant.
No one liked it, everyone feared it, and everyone wanted to see it overthrown.
...
The final spoil was the 43rd-ranked strange item, the Twin Mirror. Its texture was peculiar, feeling like neither metal nor stone. After obtaining it, Shi Ming didn’t use it rashly. Instead, he waited for the Eye of the World’s information-gathering opportunity to refresh before obtaining a detailed report on it.
It was a twinned item.
It had a counterpart, a similar strange item called the "Cursed Doll."
Both could create a doppelgänger, but the Cursed Doll was primarily used to create doubles of other people for attacks and curses. Its function was similar to the concept of voodoo dolls from the movies and shows of Shi Ming’s past life, using the law of similarity to inflict curses by destroying a doll that symbolized an enemy.
The Twin Mirror, however, was its opposite.
The Twin Mirror could create a doppelgänger of its user. One could then swap states or positions with this mirror double to block calamities, clear negative status effects, or even teleport instantly. It gained one charge for creating a double every stellar year, accumulating up to a maximum of seven.
When Shi Ming obtained it, its charges were full—a total of seven!
With this strange item, not only could he potentially "glitch" the Nameless Cocoon out of the Sealed Prison, but Shi Ming himself now possessed a few more trump cards.
As a strange item that had already reached Level 10, the Twin Mirror could also be forcibly upgraded once using the Infinite Brain.
[Infinite Upgrade Requirements: Cursed Doll x1, Pure Dome Crystal x100]
’As expected. The higher the grade of an item, the harsher the requirements to break through its limits,’ he thought.
...
Now that he had the Twin Mirror and had drifted at sea for another two days, it was time to "negotiate" with Ah Jian...
’Any later, and it probably won’t be able to respond to me anymore.’
’I wonder how it’s been holding up these last few days under the suppression of the Sealed Prison operating at peak performance?’
Shi Ming gave an innocent-looking smile.
He recalled hearing about so-called top-tier "entrepreneurs" from his past life. They could use a single PowerPoint presentation to paint a beautiful picture of the future, securing round after round of funding—Angel, Series A, Series B, Series C. They would lure investors in step-by-step, who, trapped by the sunk cost fallacy, would be afraid to lose their initial investment and ultimately get taken for everything they had.
’Am I doing the same thing?’
Shi Ming felt a pang of guilt for a tenth of a second.
’No, that’s not right.’
’The other party is a sea beast. How can that be the same thing?’