Lung didn’t ask where or how Cillin had gotten his fragment. It was a taboo to ask such questions because—barring a few exceptions—most Aurelio star map fragment owners would rather keep their secrets hidden and maintain their anonymity. Unless Cillin disclosed the story behind the fragment himself, he wouldn’t be so uncouth as to ask him about it. He was content with just getting the item.
Lung’s eyes shone as he slowly fit the two fragments together. His hands were literally shaking in excitement.
A hologram appeared after the two fragments were joined. God’s Tear’s star map wasn’t as complicated as Shortcut’s, and the dot that marked its location was pretty clear as well. Both Cillin and Lung knew which planet it was without needing to check a star map.
“Sea Paradise! It really is Sea Paradise!”
There was a key icon above the star map that functioned similarly to a compass, but instead of the north it always pointed toward God’s Tear’s location. This meant that Lung could skip right past the exploration phase and into the actual search phase.
“Hahaha!!” Lung was so excited that he clapped his chair’s armrest again and again. “Originally, we reckoned that it would’ve taken a hundred days or so just to confirm that God’s Tear is really in Sea Paradise. But now? We may find the legendary treasure in just a couple of days if we’re lucky! Hahaha, there’s no way that old man could’ve predicted that the complete star map would fall into my hands!”
Lung changed targets and started clapping Cillin’s shoulder instead. “I knew asking you to join me would bring me good fortune! I truly am a genius!! Hahaha, a genius!!”
Cillin: “…”
Cillin didn’t understand how a lucky coincidence had anything to do with Lung being a genius, but whatever.
Lung was so happy that he practically skipped his way out of the room. He didn’t get angry or even care when he returned to the living room and saw that his subordinates had returned from their “training”, and they all looked down and defeated.
At first glance, it almost looked like nothing had never happened. Wheeze was eating its fish biscuits, Czedow was still reading his newspaper, the gamers were playing games, and the newcomers were seated quietly in their seats. Even Big Rock had returned to his briefcase to shine his guns once more.
There were some minor differences, however. Two of Lung’s subordinates were rubbing their backs, and Pascado’s face was twitching a little when he was walking. He seemed to be holding in some sort of pain.
“Alright, let’s pack the stuff and depart right now, everyone!” Lung declared.
His subordinates looked at their young master’s uncontrollable grin and squirmed even more. He wasn’t enjoying his suffering, was he? Probably not.
One man asked, “I thought we were going to standby for another two days and wait for the weather to get better, young master?”
Lung waved his arm. “Not anymore! We’re departing now! The sooner we depart, the sooner we can go home, am I right!?”
Lung didn’t tell them about the star map fragments or make a report to his grandfather, Fergus because he didn’t want to chance a leak. It was one thing to leak that he was currently holding the Andrea Family’s star map fragment, and another to leak the fact that the second one was now in his possession as well.
God’s Tear might be far less attractive than the other Aurelios to the average person, but they were in Sector H right now. In the end, Lung decided to play it safe and make his decision after the deed was done.
“Alright, I’ll tell with Big Sail that we’re departing now,” someone answered.
Big Sail was one of the ten men Lung was bringing him on this journey. Big Sail was his codename, but most people in the Andrea Family had forgotten about his real name, so they simply addressed him as “Big Sail”. The reason Big Sail and a couple more men weren’t in the room was because they were guarding the spaceplane.
Cillin shot the departing man a glance. Judging from the way he was shaking his arm, he was almost certain that he was one of the men who sparred with Czedow and proved wanting. That didn’t mean that he was weak by any means, however. The moment they entered the sea, their offensive power would grow multifold.
Moreover, most of these people were trainers. An excellent trainer could singlehandedly command thousands of common sea creatures or several extremely powerful sea creatures to their will. Maybe he was overestimating their abilities a little, but even then they couldn’t be too far behind.
Cillin looked forward to witnessing the trainers who supposedly received the blessing of the sea gods in action. Who would come out on top, the trainers or true kings of the sea?
Back to the present, Pascado and the others quickly finished their preparations after being urged repeatedly by Lung. The Andrea Family was a rich family. Although they had chosen a spaceplane with a bland exterior to maintain secrecy, the interior was a completely different story. Moreover, the large spaceplane possessed many special equipment because their destination was Sea Paradise.
Wheeze finally stopped eating after it entered the spaceplane. It found a comfortable spot, curled up into a ball and began dozing. Everyone thought that it was a cat’s natural reaction after eating a full meal, but only Cillin knew that it hadn’t eaten its fill at all. It was just conserving its energy so it could really fill its stomach at Sea Paradise later.
In the case of Sea Paradise, the GAL Research Institute scholars Mo Heng had introduced to Cillin might not necessarily know more than the people of Sector H. This was especially true in the case of the Andrea Family. The information Lung had shown Cillin alone told him that the Andrea Family’s understanding of Sea paradise far exceeded the scholars’.
Right now, Cillin was reading up on some of the biological species of Sea Paradise. The screen was showing a kind of fish that was commonly seen on the epipelagic zone.
In Cillin’s opinion, the “fish” was a bit too different from your average fish to fall under the same category. The fish wasn’t particularly big in size. Even the largest adult wasn’t over a meter long. However, its mouth was full of sharp teeth, and its pectoral fin and pelvic fin were covered in small thorns. They also looked like a crawling beast when they raised their dorsal fin and puffed up pectoral fin and pelvic fins.
This fish normally traveled in schools, and each school numbered among thousands to tens of thousands. The reason they traveled in schools wasn’t to protect themselves, but to hunt down their prey with overwhelming numbers. Moreover, the way they moved was incredibly organized because they were led by a leader. If their leader perished for one reason or another, they would quickly appoint a new leader and continue the hunt.
Their viciousness extended toward their own kind as well. They were extremely territorial, and they wouldn’t hesitate to tear another school of fishes who swam even an inch too close to their territory into pieces.
The fishes also had a peculiar habit when they went out on a hunt: the first bite must bleed no matter what. To give an example, it was like setting a good precedent. The blood would raise the entire school’s morale and drive to pursue their prey until the hunt was over. The opposite was equally true. If the first strike failed to bleed their prey, then the entire school’s morale would plummet.
This was why the fish responsible for the “first blood” was usually the leader or potential leader candidates. Long story short, they were the strongest fishes of their school.
Generally speaking, if defeating or escaping the fishes proved to be impossible, then the person must avoid the “first blood” attack at the very least. If the fishes couldn’t score the first blood, then it would become slightly easier to shake them off. The fishes would also give up on their own eventually.
It wasn’t the only fish in Sea Paradise to display this type of behavior. In fact, it was among the weaker sea creatures in Sea Paradise. After all, they were just common fishes that lived in the epipelagic zone. To put it simply, the deeper the depth, the more numerous and dangerous the sea creatures became.
Cillin didn’t know if they would encounter a sea beast that was similar to Blueskin, but it certainly looked like the deep sea monsters of Sea Paradise were just as great, if not greater.
Sea Paradise was a paradise to sea creatures, but an absolute nightmare to humans. The gaseous elements of the atmosphere alone weren’t something a normal human could endure, not to mention that its weather was hardly peaceful. Its unusual magnetic field and hostile environment had kept countless would-be adventurers at bay, and still did until this day.
It was precisely they understood how dangerous Sea Paradise’ environment was that the Andrea Family had developed many tools and equipment that weren’t sold to the public. It allowed them to enter the planet despite its unusual magnetic field.
Some time later, they were close to their destination.
“We’re just five minutes away from Sea Paradise. Prepare for landing,” Lung said.
The napping gray cat immediately raised its ears, opened its eyes and wiped its face with its paws.Then, it rubbed itself against the floor, stretched its back and shook some loose fur from its body. Time to go hunting!