"Uh... let me confirm once again, sir. You mean to say, even though you have awakened noble abilities, as a noble Ability User... you still choose to keep the result of this draw and choose to go ashore on the island?"
The captain of the guards was obviously very shocked.
Wen Xishu, although he possessed the power of the three phases, he could forcibly stay on the Ark and let others go to their deaths...
But he had to assume that there was no way to break the situation with the power of the three phases; he had to assume that the Evil Land shards—the various islands—might hold some secrets.
So he decided to go ashore.
But the interesting thing was that the solidification of class made the people here seem to think that Wen Xishu was an anomaly.
Even the other seven cannon fodder thought—how could there be such a person?
Although there were many people who returned safely from the island, they all lost some concepts in their minds.
It was said that those who lost the concept of water in their lives could never understand water; when they saw sea water, they only felt it was some kind of gigantic... living thing.
Because the Ark sailed at sea, it made life very difficult for these people, living in fear every day.
And those who lost the concept of children in their lives, some of them couldn't even recognize their own children.
Of course, many people were forever left on the island.
No one was willing to go... the Ark wasn't short of population. After achieving perpetual ecological circulation, there were periodically new births, and even now, there was a population overload.
So why would Ability Users take such a risk?
Wen Xishu certainly wouldn't explain to them what easy things were, what the right things were.
He just nodded:
"I'm sure. But before that, can I see the captain?"
The captain of the guards shook his head:
"Sorry... the captain refuses all visits."
Wen Xishu frowned, the captain of the guards seemed quite resolute. This time, Wen Xishu had shown his power and directly became a superior person on the Ark.
Others could die, but he was exempt from death.
Yet even as a superior person on the Ark, he didn't have the qualification to meet the captain.
Wen Xishu said:
"What if I insist on meeting?"
The captain of the guards remained resolute:
"Although you have awakened your abilities, there are quite a few experts around the captain. Frankly, some of them can even suppress Sea Beasts..."
"Though only for a while, such power is akin to a god descending to the world."
"We are happy for you for awakening your abilities, but we are very sorry; the captain is our only True God."
Wen Xishu could tell that this Ark captain was quite a formidable being. The power distribution on the Ark might be more complex than he had imagined.
Wen Xishu asked:
"Is there no way to meet the captain?"
Someone capable of steering the Ark, Wen Xishu had already thought, wouldn't be an ordinary person.
Since on the Ark, those with abilities had become the privileged class, the captain of the Ark must be an exceptionally powerful existence.
Wen Xishu even thought of... a few particular individuals.
Beneath the twelve supreme beings, there were fugitives like Ding Dong.
Though they couldn't match the twelve, they also possessed power that regular ability users couldn't possibly contend with.
And now, two such people had already appeared.
One appeared in the Priest's memory, and another one showed up in the Spirit Museum Wen Xishu had visited before.
Wen Xishu was very curious if there would be yet another one this time.
The reason he instinctively identified those "Demigods" was because the Ark fit Wen Xishu's stereotype of them too well.
Ding Dong was kind-hearted, bestowed with virtues by Professor Jin, so Ding Dong's method was to die once and be reborn before withdrawing from the battlefield, thereby avoiding those terrifying constellations.
What about the others?
The other four, presumably, must have hidden themselves.
But could ordinary hiding really evade the search of the twelve constellations?
The Evil Land, another world, the Tea-Selling Elder's dominion...
Wen Xishu had always thought there existed another faction, hiding in the crevices between the Bunker and the Three Towers. If those Demigods wanted to escape, they might choose the Evil Land.
Facing Wen Xishu's question, the captain of the guards answered:
"Naturally, unless someone knows a way to avoid the sea's curse, the sea's pursuit of living beings is like a curse. If someone can free us from the curse, I think he would become the hero of the entire Ark! A legend!"
Wen Xishu was pretty good at being a hero and a legend lately. This sounded like a scaled-down version of the Bunker and tower climbing.
But the issue was, he felt something was off. He felt the Ark shouldn't have such a "mechanism."
In fact, the Ark plan itself inexplicably gave Wen Xishu a sense of conspiracy.
Based on everyone's description, the Ark suddenly and inexplicably entered the cursed sea.
And then the cursed sea, Evil Land shards, where did these names come from? Who named them first?
However, for now, these questions couldn't be answered.
He had seven days. With the power of the three phases, Wen Xishu had some confidence to unravel the mystery of the Evil Land shards.
"Okay, let's find another opportunity next time. Is it about time? After everyone's eaten and drunk enough, you can arrange for us to go ashore."
...
...
The islands in the cursed sea were random.
The people on the Ark had already been sailing in the cursed sea for some time, ultimately concluding that the cursed sea had no end; the end of the cursed sea might be hidden within the islands.
If one wanted to anchor a ship in this sea area, it was certainly possible to find an anchoring point.