After three days of safe sailing at sea, it was almost dusk on the afternoon of the third day, when a thin mist suddenly rose on the sea. This was a normal thing, and the people in the fleet did not panic in any way, but only waved flags to close the distance between the ships, and hung dead wind lamps at the ends of the masts to mark their respective positions.

However, this situation only lasted until midnight. As the night deepened, the fog on the sea began to thicken. Originally, you could still see the figures moving on the nearby ships, but now even the lights on the mast are only a faint shadow. And this situation is still getting worse, and when it comes to ugliness, even the people on their own ships can't be seen. The sailors walked from the exit of the cabin to the side of the ship, holding the torch in one hand and stretching out the other hand to carefully grope forward, and people like God bless them who did not belong to the ship did not even dare to go out of the cabin.

The captain, fearing that something would happen, ordered the mainsail to be retracted, leaving only the fore and rear sails to steer the direction, and called all the sailors up. The three rows of long oars are all deployed, not for paddling, but only to serve as an alarm for spotting approaching boats before the collision. Those who didn't have to roll their oars also went up to the deck, standing in a circle with torches on the side of the ship, trying to observe the gray fog around them to prevent collisions with nearby ships.

Tianyou is already meditating and practicing qi, how can you not know such a big movement outside?

got up and pushed the door and planned to go out to have a look, but as soon as the door opened, I saw Qi Xiaomei standing opposite, Hu Qingxuan and Hu Niu also poked their heads out of the cabin next door. Obviously, everyone didn't sleep to death, and the movement outside had already been noticed.

Tianyou thought about it, and simply took them out of the cabin together.

As the exclusive warship of the King of Yizhou, this ship actually functions as a passenger ship, so God bless their residences are above deck. Pulling open the door outside the hallway, the billowing mist immediately poured into the cabin. Tianyou was also startled by the fog, but he didn't find anything dangerous in his perception, but the sailors on the deck below held torches to illuminate the surrounding fog into an orange-red.

"When did it get such a big fog?" Hu Niu was also stunned for a moment, stretched out her hand and scratched in the fog, and immediately felt a little wetness on her palm. "It's so humid. ”

Tianyou didn't rush down, but looked up at the sky, and then his mind moved, and the fog above suddenly rolled and separated, and the mocking wind fell from the sky and landed lightly on the railing in front of him.

Tianyou stretched out a hand, mocking the wind lightly jumped, his body shrank rapidly in the air, and when he landed on Tianyou's wrist, it was already the size of an ordinary pigeon.

Climbing up his shoulders along Tianyou's arm, Mocking Wind turned his head and shouted to the side, and then continued to bark in the other direction. After coming back and forth once, Tianyou immediately frowned.

"Follow me. ”

Instead of looking for the stairs, one rolled over and jumped onto the lower deck, and Tianyou grabbed a passing sailor and asked, "What about the captain?"

The man was stunned for a moment, and when he saw that it was a guest, he hurriedly said, "I don't know! The fog is too big to see anything." However, in order to prevent everyone from finding him, the captain will usually stay by the steering wheel and direct the whole ship. ”

Let go of the sailor and let him go to work on his own, Tianyou immediately rushed to the steering wheel position at the top of the ship with Qi Xiaomei and them.

The fog above seemed to be heavier than below, and when you climbed up to the high platform where the steering wheel was, you could only hear the voice of the captain commanding and the running footsteps of the sailors who came and went, and occasionally the cries of pain from hitting something. Only when someone is within arm's length can they see the person coming, and there is almost no shadow visible from three steps away.

I followed the sound and found the captain soon. At this time, he was also very busy, but seeing that God blessed them, he still had to try to be as patient as possible to give them a salute and make amends first, for fear that these guests would punish them for disturbing their sleep. Although there is a reason for this, the nobles are not so reasonable, and it is useless to really start a rush to take advantage of them.

Of course, Tianyou is not here to find fault, and he is not a brain problem, helping at this time is the right thing to do, how can he make trouble for others.

Knowing that the time was urgent, Tianyou didn't talk nonsense, and pointed to the mocking wind squatting on his shoulder and said: "This is my demon pet mocking wind, he has a special ability to fly in complete darkness without using his vision to discern the obstacles around him." Now in this situation, I thought that his ability should be able to help somewhat, so I brought him over. ”

When the captain heard this, he immediately became happy, first, he understood that the person in front of him was reasonable, and second, the ability to mock the wind was indeed useful. He didn't understand ultrasound or anything, and Tianyou didn't say anything, anyway, he knew that this monster could "see" the obstacles behind the fog.

It's not terrible to encounter fog at sea, it's just a detour to get lost. What is truly terrifying is the danger of collision caused by fog, especially in a fleet or with a nearby reef, and losing vision can be extremely dangerous for a ship under sail.

First, he thanked Tianyou for his help, and then the captain asked how to communicate with Mock Wind.

Tianyou explained that they should not be able to communicate, but he could act as an interpreter himself.

The captain was even more pleased when he heard this, except for some fear that he would snub the guest. However, after Tianyou said that it was nothing, he gladly accepted it.

There was no need for the sailors to run back and forth to report the situation, and the captain simply told everyone not to run around. Everyone held their posts, leaving only a few people standing at a few intermediate points on the ship, responsible for shouting and transmitting orders. As for the pathfinder work, it was all handed over to Mock Wind and Tianyou.

The sailors brought a chair for Tianyou to sit on, but Tianyou did not sit down, but let the mocking wind constantly probe the surroundings.

Under the sonar of the mocking wind, the shadows of the nearby ships were nowhere to be seen, and although the distant targets were still unobservable, at least the targets that might collide could be detected in advance.

"Quick, quicken, there's a ship coming in the direction behind us. Tianyou was reminded by the mocking wind and immediately relayed it to the captain.

After receiving the information, the captain ordered the ship to rudder to the left side, deviate slightly from the other side at an angle, and then accelerate away from the collision course.

The wooden sailboat was not too slow to turn when the speed was sufficient, but no one dared to drive too fast under the thick fog now, so although they found out in advance, they still narrowly avoided each other. Seeing the orange shadow of the ship behind the fog speeding past their stern, the captain and all the sailors were also shocked into a cold sweat, and then thanked God for his help. If they hadn't discovered each other in advance, even if they hadn't sunk the ship directly, the damage would definitely not be small.

Unfortunately, before he could thank him, Tianyou pointed in a direction and reminded: "Port side, there is a ship that is too close to us." ”

The captain also realized that this was not the time for nonsense, and quickly let the right side of the boat get away. Then, a few minutes later, everyone saw the huge shadow of the ship outside the port side, but because it was discovered early, this time it was not thrilling, only saw a distant light and shadow passing behind the fog, and then gradually moving away.

With the early warning of the mocking wind, the big ship they were on flashed past two merchant ships of the same team one after another, and then it seemed that they had left the center of the fleet, and they did not encounter any more dangerous situations.

However, the surrounding fog never dissipated, but the wind and waves gradually increased. The captain and the sailors were busy in high tension for most of the night, and by dawn they had basically lost their strength. However, the wind and waves at sea forced them to muster up their spirits to desperately control the hull of the ship, and always use the bow to meet every huge wave.

"Childe, something is wrong!"

In order to provide collision warning to the ship, Tianyou has been standing by the steering wheel and has never left. The captain suddenly asked such a question at this time, which made Tianyou a little puzzled.

The captain didn't wait for Tianyou to ask, and then he explained: "It is said that our fleet of so many ships must have many ships around. It's normal to have a situation like last night. In fact, however, since last night, we haven't seen a single ship in sight. This may well indicate that we have unwittingly detached ourselves from the direction of the fleet. ”

"You're saying we're off course?"

The captain said, "Maybe we deviated, maybe they went the wrong way, but it's more likely that we weren't on the right course." ”

"So what kind of method can be used to re-determine the course of the stargazing position?"

"There are solutions, but they all have to wait for the fog to clear. ”

"Then wait until the fog clears. After Tianyou finished speaking, he found that the captain seemed to be a little speechless, so he said: "You and I are now on the same boat, and if you have anything to say, you can just say it." ”

After a little hesitation, the captain finally said: "Now that the sea is full of fog, I can't distinguish between things and things, and I am like the blind man who is rampage in the middle of the city, which is really dangerous. If you continue to sail, you may get farther and farther, and you may even break out of this relatively safe sea and enter the outer realm. ”

The so-called outer region actually refers to the area outside the Shenzhou continent, and when used at sea, it refers to the deep sea area around the Shenzhou continent. Although the Kraken also knew that it was easier to catch prey near the land, the monks of the various sects also stayed on land, and it was relatively deep in the sea, so it was obvious that the closer they got to the land, the more dangerous it became. As a result, although maritime merchants can gather in groups to travel to and from the near sea, few dare to go deep into the depths of the ocean. After all, it's basically the Kraken's lair.

The captain did not dare to continue driving now because he could not figure out the direction and was afraid of running out of the offshore area. After all, the distance between Yizhou Island and the Shenzhou Continent is actually not too close, that is, there are monks near the waterway all the year round to clean up, so it is better, and once it deviates from the waterway, it is not easy to say.

After listening to the captain's words, Tianyou also understood his concern. In fact, the captain's words were only half said. If they are just worried about running out of the channel, they can use the anchor to slow down and stop the ship temporarily, but on the other hand, they don't know the situation of the other ships. If everyone stops, it won't be a big deal, and when the storm has passed and the fog has dissipated, the team can naturally set off again. But what if someone else hadn't stopped the boat? If they had gone half of the way and left half of it, it would have been fine, but what if they were the only ones who had stopped?

Although the ship that Tianyou was on was a warship of the Yizhou Palace, it was extremely huge in itself, but no matter how big it was, it couldn't be as big as the Kraken. It's not a good idea to think about this single ship to and from Yizhou Island.

In normal times, the captain will naturally make his own decisions. But this time is different. Tianyou, a noble man of unknown origin, is on the boat, although he doesn't know his specific identity, but looking at the previous treatment, this is obviously a noble man who can almost sit on an equal footing with the king of Yizhou. With such a big man present, the captain and Ben didn't dare to make their own decisions, otherwise if they annoyed the nobleman, even if he made the right choice, his own life might not be saved.

Understanding the captain's concern, Tianyou immediately gave the captain a reassurance.

"Of course, professional things are left to professional people. You're the captain, and no one here knows the ship and the surrounding sea better than you. So, just judge from your experience, and I'll support you. ”

When the captain heard this, he was half relieved, as for whether Tianyou would turn his face and deny people because of danger in the end, it was not up to him to control.

The captain, who had psychological comfort, immediately ordered, "Collect the main sail, open the front and rear sails with full sails, and go to anchor." ”

A sea anchor is not an iron anchor that needs to be thrown to the bottom of the sea to hook the seabed, but a relatively large parachute-like thing. It's just that this thing is not used in the air, but thrown directly into the water.

When the ship is moved by the wind, the anchor will open due to its own structure, and the parachute-like structure will prevent the ship from moving. Although it is not like an iron anchor, which can be fixed at a fixed point 100%, it can play a strong limiting role. It can be quite good in situations where precise positioning is not required.

As the two anchors were thrown into the water, the cables straightened instantly, and the hull of the ship slammed with it, no longer chopping the waves as before. However, although the anchor dragged the hull, because the front and rear sails were open, the boat's steering ability was still very good, and it could always face the waves and cross the top of the waves with a relatively strong bow.

In fact, there is another advantage of anchoring, that is, it can quickly get out of the wind and wave area.

Storms at sea are fast, but once a ship is coerced, it will run with the wind and waves, so it is difficult to get out again if you go in. This is especially true for sail-powered boats.

But once at anchor, the ship can remain stationary while the storm still moves. In this way, the ship can quickly get out of the storm.

The ship slowed down and then rocked the sea for most of the day, until it was late in the afternoon, when the wind and waves began to lighten. It didn't stop until after dusk. But the crowd was still not happy. The storm has passed, but the fog has not lifted. The ship was on the sea, and there was nothing but fog around it. Standing on the deck, they couldn't even see the sea, and it seemed that the fog was a little heavier than last night.

Captain "Childe ......" is obviously starting to get anxious. A momentary storm can be countered, but this constant fog can easily drive people crazy. Most of the sailors are ordinary people, and they can hold on for a short time, but now everyone has been fighting all day and night, even if the body can still support it, the spirit can no longer hold it.

Tianyou knew what the captain was going to say, raised his hand to stop him from continuing, and asked him instead, "How did you all determine the course before?"

"Generally, stargazing is the mainstay, supplemented by range and wind direction, and the mileage is calculated against the chart, so that we can know the approximate location of our current location. Wait until you can see Yizhou Island, then adjust the course according to the shore landmarks to find the port. ”

As soon as he heard this, Tianyou's heart was half cold. Although he had known that the technology of the Shenzhou Continent was backward, he had always thought that the navigation technology here was not bad. After all, the tonnage of the warships under his feet is not small from the seagoing ships he sees on weekdays. With such a high level of shipbuilding, it is said that navigation technology should not be bad.

It's a pity that Tianyou was just misled by the big ship he saw on weekdays.

The Shenzhou Continent is different from the earth, there are monsters rampant here, and the monsters in this sea are even bigger than one by one, if this ship is not big enough and not strong enough, it will not dare to go to sea. Therefore, there is such a large warship at the foot of Tianyou, and there will be a large merchant ship weighing thousands of tons. And this nautical technology ...... If we don't dare to go to the open sea at all, what kind of navigation technology do we need for inland shipping? Relying on this shipping business between Yizhou Island and the main body of the Shenzhou continent, we don't know how powerful navigation technology can be developed, and we don't know that it will be the year of the monkey!

"How did you solve this situation in the past?"

The captain hesitated and said, "I can only wait until the sun comes out, watch the direction of the sun to determine the southeast, northwest, and then return to the direction of the mainland." As long as the direction is good, there will always be land. Then you can look for a port. ”

The Shenzhou continent is vast, and if the ships traveling to and from Yizhou Island lose their way, as long as they turn around and keep heading west, they will always see land. As for the course after that, it's simple. But if you go in the direction of Yizhou Island in the opposite direction, if you deviate too much and miss Yizhou Island, you may drive all the way into the ocean. At that point, there will really be no return.

Therefore, in the event of such a lost voyage, the ships of the Chu State will give priority to turning around and heading west, returning to the mainland first. But the problem now is that Tianyou is on the ship, and he is an important guest of King Yizhou. The ship of the king of Yizhou went to Yizhou Island, but the captain sent his guests back. In this case, no matter how much you think about the captain, it will not lead to any good results, which is why he is so entangled.

Tianyou understood the captain's worries, but he was not familiar with the situation at sea, especially with the navigation level of the Shenzhou Continent, he was even more unable to intervene. So even if Tianyou wants to help the captain take responsibility, it is not good for him to make decisions at will at this time.

I was struggling with the difficulty of making a decision in my heart, and suddenly there was a reminder from Moon Shadow in my heart. Tianyou communicated with Moon Shadow for a moment, and then turned to the captain, "Do you have a chart?"

"Yes. The captain was first overjoyed, and then frowned: "I can't determine the position of the ship, even if I have a chart in hand, it's not very useful!"

"If you take it, I have my own way. ”

Tianyou's identity determines that even if he doesn't understand anything, as long as he says it, the captain will not dare to disobey. This is not the earth where everyone has been equal for many years, this is the Shenzhou continent where human life is like a mustard, and powerful people can determine life and death in one word.

In fact, Tianyou didn't have a good way, his method was what Moon Shadow had just told her.

Tianyou can make magnetic needles, and he also carries them on his body, but he has already suffered losses on this, and he knows that the compass is not easy to use in the Shenzhou Continent. It's not that it can't be used, the key is to test it first.

In the past, he followed Xiyan and almost ran all over the ten countries of Shenzhou. Tianyou had already suffered a loss at that time, and knew that there were several magnetic poles in this Divine Continent. In other words, the pointing characteristics of the magnetic needle are different in different areas. For those places he had visited, the compass could still be used to discern the direction because he had known the direction of the surrounding magnetic poles in advance. But he had never been to the sea, so he didn't know what was going on with the magnetic poles here, and it was better not to use the compass indiscriminately.

In fact, the method that Moon Shadow came up with is also very simple, the basic principle is similar to the compass, the difference is that this time it does not rely on a magnetic field but a spiritual net.

The spiritual power of the Divine Continent is relatively evenly distributed, and in general, it is centered on the core area of the neutral zone and shows a decreasing trend towards the surrounding areas. There are types of magic circles that Moon Shadow can use to gather spiritual power and react differently according to the strength of spiritual power, and after a little fusion, they can be combined into a magic circle that detects the direction of the source of spiritual power. With this magic circle as the core, detect the highest point of spiritual power in the Shenzhou Continent, and then you can draw the radiation line to the center of spiritual power against the chart. Although it is not possible to locate the position of the ship itself, it is possible to determine a certain straight line in which the ship is located. According to the changes in the detection results during the movement of the ship, it is possible to approximate the location of the ship. What's more, this method can determine the direction in which Yizhou Island is located. And as long as they know the direction, they have actually solved their biggest problem.

Setting up a circle is a lot of work, especially if it's a temporary design. Because the structure of the circle itself was improvized, many of it was not very perfect. In order to reduce the difficulty of crafting and reduce the mutual interference between spiritual powers, the easiest way is to enlarge the circle.

For a matrix, the larger the structure, the sparser the pattern in between, and the lower the requirements for accuracy and materials. Therefore, before breaking through a certain critical point, the greater the formation diagram, the lower the difficulty. However, the formation map requires a lot of materials, and this is on the ship, so Tianyou doesn't have so many things available, so he can only find a balance as much as possible.

In the end, the formation diagram was arranged on a relatively open foredeck, and the sailors did not know anything about such a profound formation diagram, and they could not help Ben, so they could only watch Tianyou take a few girls to work before and after.

Originally, if Moon Shadow joined, it could greatly improve efficiency, but there were many people here, and Tianyou still didn't want people to know his hole cards, so he could only work with a few half-understood helpers from Qi Xiaomei. Fortunately, Hu Qingxuan is also half an expert, but he has helped a lot.

The four of them worked together for more than half an hour, and finally completed this formation diagram that had been magnified several times. Although the formation diagram is slightly rough due to the limitations of materials and personnel, the difficulty of production is reduced after the overall enlargement, and the basic functions are barely guaranteed.

"This is the spirit array that Childe said?" Looking at the magic circle arranged by Tianyou, the captain was obviously a little nervous. Whether his life can be saved depends on whether this magic circle of Tianyou can show them a way out.

Tianyou also knew that the captain must be very worried now, but he didn't have time to calm the captain's feelings. After a simple response, he commanded the tiger girl to help activate the magic circle. Hu Qingxuan has the best grasp of the magic circle, but the level of demon power is not as good as that of the tiger girl, and the structure of this formation is simple, and the requirements for mana strength are higher than the control skills, so it is most suitable for the tiger girl to master it.

As the tiger girl attracted her own demonic power to pour into the spirit array under her feet, the spirit array that was originally only drawn with special pigments and a bunch of spirit stones immediately lit up with a layer of silver light, and it could be vaguely seen that there were a small number of golden light particles mixed in it.

As the array lit up, the thirty-six spirit stones placed around the array were also lit up at the same time, but after all of them were lit up, these spirit stones were extinguished one after another, except for one that emitted a more dazzling light than before.

"Quick. Tianyou beckoned, and Qi Xiaomei and Hu Qingxuan next to him were already holding the chart left and right in front of him.

Tianyou checked the sea chart, looked at the formation map on the ground again, and then pushed Qi Xiaomei and Hu Qingxuan to follow him and rotate at a certain angle before stopping.

Looking at the chart again, and comparing the array on the deck again, Tianyou immediately called the captain to show him with his finger on the chart.

"Look, this direction of the formation diagram has the highest concentration of spiritual energy, indicating that there must be a huge spiritual energy source on the extension line from the core of the array diagram to this spirit stone. The largest source of spiritual energy in my Divine Continent is the area in the center of the neutral zone, so that direction is the core of the neutral zone. ”

The captain looked at the chart, then looked at the direction pointed by Tianyou and frowned: "According to the chart, we are going to Yizhou Island, and the neutral zone should be behind us on the left." But the direction shown in this array is to the left of the bow, doesn't that mean we are sailing north?"

Tianyou nodded. "It seems that the previous wind and fog have caused us to turn our course unconsciously. No wonder they get separated from other ships. Now don't worry about anything, adjust the direction, and let's move towards Yizhou Island. ”

"Yes, I'm going to give the order to turn around. ”

Yizhou Island is a very large island, even if the direction of Tianyou's formation map is not very accurate, as long as it can point out the general direction, it will never miss the target.

With the guidance of the formation diagram, everyone is no longer confused, and even the exhausted sailors suddenly seem to have strength.

However, although the course was found, the surrounding fog never dispersed, but tended to get thicker and thicker.

Hu Niu stood in the center of the formation to control the operation of the formation, and Tianyou couldn't see Hu Niu's figure when she stood outside the formation, and she could only judge her position by her voice, and it was not too much to say that she couldn't see her five fingers.

With such a thick fog, even if there was a general direction, even if everyone was in a hurry, the captain didn't dare to let go of the ship's speed and rush forward. Yizhou Island can't run, but the road is not smooth. Now in this situation, I'm not afraid of encountering monsters or anything.,In case you hit the reef, it's really fatal.。 Moreover, there is not really an ocean between Yizhou Island and the mainland of Shenzhou, and there are several small islands among them. Although the area is too small to live in, it is not a joke to bump into such weather.

In this way, God blessed their ships to maintain their course at an unhurried pace, and continued to sail until midnight, and the fog around them was noticeably lighter. I still couldn't see anything in the distance, but at least I could see the entire deck from the central building. Of course, people still can't see clearly, and the sailors at the bow and stern of the ship are only a vague black shadow of a human figure in Tianyou's eyes, but this is also much better than the state of reaching out before.

In the second half of the night, the fog was noticeably lighter. The people on the boat could already see very clearly, and the surrounding sea conditions could barely make out some of it, but the visibility was still not high, and only a gray patch was left a hundred meters away.

The captain fought for a day and a night with high mental tension, and this would be completely unbearable. After realizing that the sea conditions were improving, he went down to rest for a while. However, he never expected that he would survive the wind and waves, but when he was about to survive, something happened.