Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 204 - The Farmer’s abnormal movement

New Novel🪶

In the afternoon, Suna was at the helm.

Yang Yi took the chance to go fishing, planning to replenish their stock of Long-Legged Sardines.

Not only Yang Yi but Suna as well had been doing light daily training, which required the Life Fireplace.

This caused the consumption of Long-Legged Sardines to skyrocket; there were none left in the barrels, so Yang Yi had to fish to restock.

Beside him were two barrels: one filled with sea salt, the other with faintly foul-smelling seawater.

He hauled up another small flesh chunk and tossed it straight into the salt barrel. It quickly died, dehydrating into a dark lump of meat.

The other barrel, however, held only five fish.

Technically, flesh chunks could also be used for the Life Fireplace, but they couldn’t be stored in ordinary barrels; they would corrode the wood, and in greater numbers, they would even devour each other and merge.

So, Yang Yi had no intention of keeping them alive onboard. Whenever he caught one, he killed it on the spot.

Raising flesh chunks wasn’t really necessary anyway.

He had already got medium-sized ones three times and large ones twice. He would very likely encounter them again, so there was no need to raise his own.

Yang Yi kept fishing until dusk as the sky darkened.

He reeled in his line and checked his catch: twelve Long-Legged Sardines in total. If none died unexpectedly, they would last for two or three days.

A little white seawater could be added to boost their vitality.

He had also caught three meaty, Red-Lipped Eels and one Twin-Hammer Devil Shark, which Yang Yi had knocked out with a single slap after transforming into wolf form right as it surfaced. He plucked out its two scarlet, menacing eyeballs for collection.

The remaining parts he planned to salt and dry along with the eels into jerky.

Taste didn’t matter much because the market was in a food shortage. Nobody cared about flavour, and food prices were rising higher and higher.

Although it hadn’t yet reached the point where people had to live off “delicacies” for sustenance, if things continued like this, that day could eventually come.

Yang Yi himself wasn’t too worried. He had plenty of canned food and other means to obtain supplies.

He could even eat delicacies, just not too many at once.

After packing up and stowing the barrel of sardines in the captain’s cabin, he went to the bow, ready to relieve Suna at the helm.

…

That night.

Yang Yi suddenly received a private message from Geng Qiu, captain of the Farmer.

“Bad news, the Farmer suddenly changed course! It’s heading full speed to the left side of the sea chart, moving at about 40 knots. The coordinates are…”

Seeing the message, Yang Yi immediately checked against the great sea chart.

According to the original plan, he was supposed to rendezvous tomorrow with the New World Fleet’s supply ship carrying salt, and then the following day engage the Farmer.

But with the sudden course change, their plan was completely thrown off. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

If the Farmer kept moving left at that speed, it would delay contact with the Nightmare Star by a lot, making it possibly four more days before they could catch up.

“How could this happen?” Yang Yi muttered in surprise.

Until then, the Farmer had only been moving forwards at a speed of about 30 knots.

It couldn’t possibly have noticed the Nightmare Star approaching and suddenly altered its course, could it?

That seemed extremely unlikely. Still, something must have happened aboard the Farmer.

Yang Yi immediately pulled out the crystal ball and activated his Scrying skill.

At night, the crystal ball’s vision was even clearer.

The forest representing the Farmer was still moving, faster than before.

Yang Yi stared for over ten minutes but found nothing unusual. At least around the forest, there were no abnormal entities.

The flesh chunks drifting in simply got skewered by extending vines, drained, and digested.

“Any abnormalities on the ship interface?” Yang Yi messaged back to Geng Qiu.

“No.”

“Send me the interface to check.”

Soon, Yang Yi received the latest Farmer ship interface.

The contents were the same as before, except that the Corpse Whale had grown larger, its length surpassing one kilometre.

If it kept growing, it could evolve from a micro-class to a small-class creature, becoming far more troublesome, or even impossible to deal with.

“I’ve adjusted my course. If the Farmer makes any further moves, notify me at once.”

Yang Yi told Geng Qiu, instructing him to closely monitor the Farmer’s movements.

Meanwhile, Yang Yi kept his eyes fixed on the crystal ball while altering his course to pursue the ship.

…

The next day.

Suna, too, learned about the Farmer’s sudden course change.

“Either something is driving it away, or something else is drawing it in. Only with a very small probability would it change course for no reason at all,” Suna speculated from a biological standpoint.

Yang Yi had come to a similar conclusion.

Either way, the chase would take longer, so he needed to be even more prepared.

He spent Shell Coins to purchase 500 units of crystal, 200 units of limber, 200 litres of fresh water, and 100 units of steel, enough to complete the upgrade-to-level-four materials, with 200 extra units of crystal to spare.

Yang Yi planned to craft another two hundred sea-salt grenades, bringing the total to five hundred, aiming for maximum readiness. He also intended to raise both his base Perception and Agility attributes by one level each.

That afternoon.

A ship appeared on the crystal ball’s sea chart.

It was the vessel sent by the New World Fleet, carrying twenty tons of sea salt, arriving to rendezvous with Yang Yi.

It was no ordinary ship, rather a special vessel called the Ironhead.

First confirming the information and coordinates with Shen Guanquan, Yang Yi then used Scrying to inspect this so-called Ironhead.

The crystal ball displayed the image of a dark, ironclad ship, its deck covered with white sea salt.

Its bow was much broader than its stern, with a massive, sharp metal ram at the very front, coated with sea salt as well. Its sailing speed was about 50 knots.

Judging its class from the vision alone was difficult, but sturdiness was clearly its defining trait. If that sharp ram struck an ordinary wooden ship, it would likely snap the vessel in two.

Only one person was aboard: a man in his thirties, gripping the helm and steering towards the Nightmare Star.

At the bow, a metal shield plate protected the helmsman, leaving only a narrow viewing slit.

“No cannons, it seems…”

Yang Yi scanned the ship from bow to stern.

A private message popped up; it was from the Ironhead’s captain.

“Hello, One-Eye. I am Zhao Tie, vanguard captain of the New World Fleet. You may also call me Zhao Ironhead. My hold carries twenty tons of sea salt…”

Zhao Ironhead explained his purpose.

“I understand. Stop your ship three hundred metres ahead of the Nightmare Star. I’ll take a small raft over to collect the sea salt,” Yang Yi replied.

“You’re coming to take it? How exactly are you planning to carry it?”

Zhao Ironhead was stunned.

In fact, his plan had been to operate jointly with the Nightmare Star. After all, with an extra twenty tons of sea salt, Yang Yi’s hold could not have enough room.

“That’s not your concern. The rendezvous coordinates have already been sent. I’ll be waiting for you there,” Yang Yi messaged back.

After reading the reply, Zhao Ironhead’s face darkened with worry.

“Could One-Eye be planning to seize my ship…?”

Thank you for reading! We hope you’re enjoying the story at: i novel translation(dot)com :)

There’s now a Patreon, so feel free to check it out! You can read up to 12 chapters in advance!! :D

Please give the novel a rating and a review on novelbuddy (( novel updates(dot)com )). It will help the website and also help people find this novel!