The first assembled team had already sailed off the island.
Leading the way was Alka and his crew. They would guide the entire fleet, leading them to the Marsh Sea as quickly as possible.
Alka and his crew also had to hurry back to prevent any accidents from happening to the puppet girls left behind on the Marsh Sea.
An accident had occurred just as they were leaving the Marsh Sea; it was truly annoying.
Behind the Voice of Dawn.
There were seven ships in total: four golden vessels of the Holy Mother Church and three steel vessels of the Holy Machine Church.
The Holy Machine Church's ships were noticeably larger than those of the Holy Mother Church.
This seemed to be due to the larger cargo, not the capacity for more personnel.
As they began their journey, Alka sank into a dream.
As he entered his dream bubble, he saw Lily, who had been waiting for him for a long time.
"Dad!"
"What happened there?"
Lily nodded, jumped onto Alka's shoulders, and began to tell him what had happened on the Zehai Sea.
"Yesterday, the entire Zehai Sea was shaking. The monsters at the border of life and death began to attack frantically.
Many people went to resist, and the bad guys were still causing trouble. A black and red portal appeared on the edge of the island, and many monsters came out.
Most of these monsters were red, like crazy."
As he spoke, Lily stretched out his hands and gestured, showing horns on their heads and fangs.
Hearing this, Alka frowned, which showed that the Zehai Sea was in great chaos.
"Where's the Flower Fairy? Didn't the Flower Fairy take action?"
Lily shook his head: "I don't know. I didn't see it."
It seemed that the Flower Fairy had also encountered an accident.
After understanding the general situation, Alka looked at Lily and asked, "So, how are you doing now? Are you in any danger?"
Lily shook his head, "No, we're still safe."
"That's good. Stay hidden until we get here. We're already on our way."
After a few words, Alka returned to reality and immediately found Sofia and the others, telling them what he had just heard.
At this moment, a bird made of blue lines flew towards them.
The bird landed on Alka's shoulder and whispered something in his ear, which then faded away. The message followed the whisper into Alka's mind.
The bird was flying in the direction of the Holy Mother Church's ship behind them.
It must have some information for Alka.
After understanding the information, combined with the information Alka had just learned from Lily, Alka now had a new understanding of the overall situation in Zehai.
Looking at the crowd, Alka began, "Zehai's current situation is that the Flower Fairy is undergoing the final stages of her resuscitation.
She has fallen into a kind of immobile slumber. At a certain point, she will return as a god.
This final stage has alarmed the monsters at the border of life and death, and they have begun to gather. Many of them are attacking the Land of All Spirits.
Taking advantage of this chaotic situation, the soldiers within the Land of All Spirits have weakened their defenses.
The cultists have also become active, causing chaos and destruction everywhere. And who knows which fool has taken this opportunity to open a portal to the Abyss.
The demons have also begun to wreak havoc in the Land of All Spirits, transforming it into a complete battlefield."
After Alka's relatively simple explanation of the current situation in the Land of All Spirits, everyone's faces grew solemn. This was a serious situation; just hearing it made their brows twitch.
The all-out attack of the plant spirits, various cult images, wanted pirates, and the opened portal to Hell with the demons entering.
My goodness, so many troublesome entities gathered in this small land of spirits.
Nervi sat in a corner, listening to everyone's conversation, his whole body fading into a pale grey.
He felt he shouldn't have gone with them. Clearly, that place wasn't the right place for him.
Simon said, "Then why would the Holy Machine Church go with them? They shouldn't be allies of the Flower Fairies."
Alka shook his head. He didn't really know. Perhaps it was a deal between the gods, or something else they didn't know about.
But no matter what, more people would definitely be a good thing.
"Ah, why choose this time?" Jason said helplessly, leaning back in his chair.
He had clearly convinced Nervi to come along.
The Nafas family's treasure was practically within reach, yet such chaos had occurred in that place at this very moment.
Even if they ignored the situation now, finding the treasure would be far more difficult than before.
Not to mention that they would definitely have to provide some assistance.
"The portal to the Abyss...how could it be opened so easily, and even affect the entire Land of the Spirits?" Lucilia sat at the table, completely bewildered.
From books and her current knowledge, she knew that opening a portal to the Abyss had always been difficult.
It required extensive blood sacrifices and rituals, and a powerful host to open it, let alone affecting the entire Land of the Spirits.
Also, Alka had just been adding some details.
Including the possibility that the portals might appear in multiple locations, large and small.
This would make it even more difficult, and the damage and impact on the entire Land of the Spirits would be even greater.
They frowned and then shook their heads. No one could answer the question.
It was indeed strange; that was the domain of a god.
They had seen the Flower Fairy a while ago, and she was in much better condition. She shouldn't have missed the problem.
Opening the portal to the Abyss wasn't so simple; there had to be some conspiracy behind it.
Listening to the conversation, Narvi, sitting in the corner, looked puzzled.
"Opening the portal to the Abyss isn't difficult."
At his words, everyone turned their attention.
"On ordinary drifting islands, opening the portal to the Abyss is easy enough with enough offerings and a ritual array.
However, it's very difficult to open on or around Signpost Island, especially if there are churches in the surrounding areas or islands. It's even more difficult."
Hearing this explanation, Alka nodded in understanding.
Thinking about it this way, it certainly made sense. After all, this was already a broken world, its rules already chaotic.
Naturally, a portal to the Abyss wouldn't be that difficult, since the world's barrier had already been shattered. Even those from other worlds within the Astral Plane could easily reach here if they had the means.
It's just a demonic portal, so what's the problem?
After discussing the general situation, everyone was left with no other options. They could only expedite their journey to the Marsh Sea to proceed. Otherwise, even if they were desperate, they would just have to wait.
...
A curtain of stars covered the sky.
Alka sat in the observation room, meditating rapidly.
It had to be said that with the acquisition of a [Scepter]-level artifact, his basic cultivation speed had increased even further.
His basic meditation speed had increased by approximately 3.2 times, though this was only achievable within the environment of the Demon Gathering Stone.
And it was additional, not cumulative with any other boosts besides the Magic Gathering Stone and its associated effects.
But regardless, at least the 3.2-fold increase in base speed boosted his meditation speed by another level.
It seemed that reaching the fifth stage wouldn't take as long as he'd imagined.
At the current rate, it might be achieved in less than five years.
Alka was optimistic.
Sweating all over, Alka finished his meditation and walked out of the observation room. He sat directly on the roof.
He stared up at the starry night sky.
Starlight shone on him.
Feeling his current state.
Even when he was doing nothing, Alka could feel his strength was much greater than it was during the day.
Arriving on the deck, everyone was already asleep.
Standing the training dummy upright, Alka began to test his strength. He had spent his days on the ship like this, rapidly mastering the [Scepter] artifact, which wasn't quite suited to him.
But even though it wasn't suitable, it was still fine to use for the time being.
After all, this was a Scepter-level artifact that others would beg for.
Not to mention, there were two orange artifacts waiting for him to obtain.
Even if Vastva's artifact wasn't suitable for him, at least the one from the clearing trial was.
It was suitable for him.
The instructor who trained him had promised him so, and Alka chose to believe it for the time being.
Besides improving his meditation speed,
This period of training had also allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of his artifact, allowing him to at least properly utilize most of its abilities and effects.
At night, his overall health would be blessed by the galaxy. It will probably provide an additional 30% boost. If there are enough stars, this boost could reach 80%.
Of course, this depends on how many stars there are in the sky.
For example, today's stars are normal, so the boost is around 50%.
Although the boost fluctuates wildly, as long as it's at night, it will at least be a steady increase.
This is just the passive effect of this treasure.
As for the powerful active effects, Alka found them quite potent.
After practicing a few times, Alka returned to the observation room, where Pororo quickly took his place.
Returning to his room, Alka sank directly into a dream, then quickly arrived at the shared dream bubble.
In the central training ground, Sofia, with a punch, sent Simon's simulated mechanical construct flying.
Seeing Alka enter, Simon quickly gave up his seat. He was badly beaten tonight.
To be honest, Simon's methods were completely outmatched by Sofia. Since the shared dream, he hadn't won a single battle.
This was primarily due to Sofia's immense speed, which, to a certain extent, destroyed Simon's constructs before he could even react. She was even able to bypass them and attack Simon directly.
Although Simon's own strength was not bad, it depended on who he was pitted against.
Against someone like Sofia, who was a complete master of melee combat, he was inevitably going to be beaten.
The only person in the team who could match Sofia's melee skills was Pororo.
Alka could manage to suppress her with her own strength, but once they were at the same level, it wasn't going to work out.
Alka looked at the ring on his hand, which was emitting starlight.
"Are you planning to try out your new treasure today?"
Because if he didn't, Alka wouldn't have revealed him in his dream.
Alka nodded. "I'm pretty familiar with it now. It's time to put it to use in battle and see how it works."
"Okay, I'll dodge the defense first and let you get used to it."
Alka nodded.
A bell rang softly in the arena.
With a flash of starlight, Alka vanished from the spot, like a meteor streaking through the night sky, crashing heavily onto Sofia's location.
However, this time, he wasn't flying through the sky; he was running across the land.
A huge circular crater appeared where he had been, just like a falling star.
At this moment, Sofia had transformed into a stream of light and appeared in the distance.
She stared at the scene with a hint of surprise. "Such destructive power?"
Aside from being slightly slower, its power was far greater than hers.
The problem was that its speed was only slightly slower, far faster than Polo Rogerson and the others.
"This is a [Scepter]. If it weren't powerful, wouldn't it be a disgrace to my reputation?"
Hearing Alka's words, the halo on Sofia's forehead fully revealed, and he looked at Alka with a serious expression.
She had to use all her strength, even if it was just to dodge.
With a light wave of Alka's hand, countless meteor showers appeared out of thin air, rapidly smashing down. Each of these stars was roughly half the size of a palm. But their speed, sheer number, and intense attack were unstoppable.
In an instant, the area where Sofia was standing was completely engulfed.
After a brief flash, Sofia, finding himself completely unavoidable, gathered the light curtain to form a barrier.
A crackling sound rang out.
The star actually smashed the light curtain to pieces.
It pierced Sofia directly, but fortunately, the arena had a certain degree of invincibility.
So Sofia didn't take any damage.
If this had happened outside, this level alone would have been enough to leave her wounded.
"Awesome!"
"Of course, this cost me one-fifth of my magic power."
Feeling the cost of this move, Alka's expression was bitter. It was too much.
If such an attack didn't bring an advantage in battle, it would be a waste.
After all, it was an area-of-effect attack, and its range could expand as the magic power consumed increased.
If it weren't for restricting Sofia's movements, such a huge expenditure wouldn't have been necessary.
"I'm going to fight back!"
With that, Sofia vanished from the spot. With a flash of light, his straight, white calf landed a powerful kick on Alka's side.
This swift strike was parried by Alka.
A translucent shield of starlight appeared on his right hand, blocking the powerful kick.
"I'm now at the fourth stage. Don't underestimate the suppressive power of a stage higher."
The two instantly engaged in a clash. Although Alka only used his galaxy power, and wasn't very proficient at it, it was clear to the onlookers that Alka had essentially won the battle.
Sofia was outmatched in almost every way. While Alka had a slight advantage in speed, he was completely dominated in every other area.
Alka summoned a large area of stars to block Sofia's path, confining him to a single area and strangling him.
Looking at how many people died in the training ground,
Arka waved back at Sofia.
"You know, based on my current understanding, the Galaxy might be more of a status-boosting and supportive item."
"Huh?"
Sofia, sitting on the ground, was puzzled upon hearing this.
This is still a support-oriented item?
Arka smiled and nodded, then waved in Sofia's direction.
Starlight shimmered and gathered around Sofia, as if her entire being was radiating a sparkling effect.
It was like a transparent gauze woven from the starry sky, draped over her.
Feeling the gathering starlight, Sofia waved her fist.
Suddenly, her entire body transformed into a stream of light, vanishing from the spot.
However, this time, her fist slammed heavily into the nearby protective shield and bounced back.
"Too fast! I can't handle it."
The sudden surge of speed left Sofia completely unable to control her movements.
One could imagine how powerful the amplification brought by the starlight was for the physical body.
At this moment, Sofia began to accelerate frantically across the arena, like a streaking meteor.
She seemed to have truly become a beam of light.
But now, instead of the beam of light she had previously been, she had become a yellow flash trailing a blue trail.
…
After approximately 30 days and nights of sailing, Alka and the others finally spotted the vast expanse of green land in the distance from the surface of the sea.
They were almost there.
Due to the drifting of the Zehai, this return trip would take longer than their previous departure.
And even from afar, they could already tell something was amiss with the Zehai.
It was vastly different from what they had seen the first time, and from what they had seen the first time.
Even from this distance, they could already smell a sweet, cloying scent lingering in the air, tinged with a sulfurous odor.
They had smelled that sweet, cloying scent in some plant spirits before.
Large, dark clouds appeared in the sky above the island, something they had never seen in their long time on the island.
As they drew closer, even the waters surrounding the marshland grew darker.
They could even see bits of human remains floating in the air.