Chapter 194????

  What? That made no sense!

  I mentally checked the System map to confirm that we were on the flight path I had chosen and that we hadn’t suddenly jumped forward on it. Then I looked around to check everybody’s expressions. The kids looked bored, the staff were bustling about doing their work without even gncing at us, and the cn members had intrigued or armed expressions.

  “Lady Violet?” Schor Wu gave me a concerned look.

  I shrugged. “Everything seems fine on my end.”

  To aly her concerns at least a little, I fiddled with some dials on the dummy control panel and pointed to the map dispy that showed our location.

  In the middle of our conversation, Schor Wu’s eyes widened. “We just did it again! We teleported!”

  Tapping the screen, I said, “Look at the map, the ship’s icon didn’t jump forward. Also, I didn’t feel anything.”

  Schor Wu simply shook her head and excused herself. When she rejoined the others at the gss wall, she pointed to my control panel, and a few of them walked over to silently stand behind me while the rest continued to look out at the blue sky and wispy white clouds.

  A few days ago, I added a few external magical cameras from the Cash Shop. I had overlooked this item the st time I used the [Sorium] because there was no need for it in Adventure Incarnate since the game showed the ship flying on the map screen without really showing the actual journey. I suppose it would’ve been annoying to have a cutscene every time the pyer traveled.

  I used the lowest ship camera to look at the scene below us and noticed that we were flying over uninhabited nd, which was no surprise. The North was vast, easily twice the size of the Westernds, but the nd was sparsely inhabited, except the southern part of the continent which had warmer weather.

  “We’re halfway there,” I announced over the ship’s speakers. “Please finish what you’re doing and head over to the viewing area.”

  I didn’t want the others to miss their first sight of the mystical nd that was our destination.

  Prince Baiyu extricated himself from the other cn members and went to stand beside me. “The first teleport sent us to an unknown pce. Now we keep teleporting over long distances.”

  He seemed unconcerned, but that was his normal expression when other people were around. As a member of the ruling family, he was always taught to keep his emotions under control, in public at least.

  However, I could tell he was slightly worried.

  “I didn’t even feel a thing. Anyway, since the pce we’re going to isn’t on any of the Bck Tortoise cn’s maps, obviously it will be unknown territory!” I chuckled a little. “That’s why they gave me permission to search for it.”

  Prince Baiyu's forehead creased a little in a small frown. “I came to tell you that the zidan here feels… strange.”

  Uh-oh. That sounded ominous.

  I put a hand on my chest and gave him an inquiring look.

  “No, it’s not bad,” he hastened to say. “It feels…”

  He paused as he searched for the words to expin it to me. Zidan was always difficult to understand since it was a sixth sense that only cn members had. Humans had no frame of reference for it.

  Prince Baiyu said, “You know, when I’m in the Westernds, zidan is welcoming. I feel like I’m home where I belong. When I’m in the North, it’s like being away from home. I know humans feel homesickness, right?”

  He waited for me to nod before continuing his expnation.

  “It’s probably a simir feeling. It grows stronger the longer and farther away I am from my home territory,” he said. “Right now, I should be feeling that, but I don’t.”

  I was, as usual, confused by his expnation of zidan. “You don’t? Isn’t that a good thing?”

  “This is the North. I should be feeling like I’m very far from home. Instead, I feel… like I’m at sea, far away from home but traveling towards it.”

  Interesting.

  We sat in silence while we both mulled over the implications of that until the map showed that we were very near our destination. The ship icon was less than an inch from the X on the map.

  “Hold that thought, we’re almost there!” I turned on the speakers and announced, “Look to the north, the isnd should be coming into view.”

  Sure enough, less than a minute ter, there were excmations of surprise from the cn members. They could see farther than a human could, so they caught sight of it first. I poked Prince Baiyu’s side with a finger. “Go, go! Check it out.”

  “I’ll be right back.” He kissed me on the cheek and left to join the others.

  I stayed at the control panel since I could see the view from the cameras, and we were too far for me to see any details even using the zoom function since we were flying as high as airpnes did on Earth. The chatter from the cn members rose and I was able to make out a few words like “isnd,” “Bck Tortoise,” “apotheosis,” “legend,” etc.

  Suddenly, the oldest of the cn members fell to his knees and started sobbing. That triggered something and a few of the Bck Tortoise and White Tiger cn members also got down on their knees, all of them either crying or praying.

  Kharli rose from her chair and made her way to me. She didn’t look worried at all. In fact, the sides of her mouth kept twitching as though she was trying to stop herself from smiling. “Teacher, what happened?”

  I gestured at the cn members. “We’ve arrived at the mythical isle; clearly they like it.”

  The ship arrived at the destination, and I mentally sent the [Sorium] to drift further north to the other side of the isnd.

  Time for a break! I wanted to see the nd with my own eyes instead of through the camera, so my apprentices and I joined the others at the gss wall. Looking down, I could see a ndmass that, according to the System, was probably the size of Britain back on Earth.

  I stood beside Prince Baiyu and we held hands as I peered at the ndscape below us. “Wow, it’s lovely.”

  The isnd unfurled like a living tapestry of beaches, forests, kes, and rivers. Unlike a natural isnd that had an irregur coastline, this one was in the precise shape of a turtle outlined in bck sand beaches with a snake, whose body was a long, winding river, coiled on its back. I could only see the whole of it with the camera, but I could make out the partial outline of the turtle’s lower half from where I stood.

  Prince Muyang, who had been silently staring at the scenery below, abruptly turned to me and bowed deeply from the waist, his hand cupped in front of him. “Lady Violet, thank you for leading us to the Blessed Isles.”

  I bowed back. “You’re very welcome!”

  He said nothing more and turned back to the view. The cn members who were crying and praying gradually quieted. I noticed that Prince Baiyu’s parents were also holding hands while watching the scenery whiz by at high speed.

  From this high up, I could see that the southern part was dominated by green forests and golden fields with rivers, like veins of silver, running throughout the nd. As we moved north, I saw the middle and upper part of the isnd which made up the Bck Tortoise’s “shell” was dominated by a rugged mountain range whose snow-capped peaks no doubt held many secret caves and tunnels. That was where I could train a bit of mining. On the northwest part were two rge innd kes that were the “eyes,” which should be a great pce for fishing.

  Our nding area, however, was on the rgest of the three northern isnds.

  [Tranquil Tide Treasure Isles:

  These three tiny isnds are lush paradises, brimming with vibrant vegetation and pristine beaches.

  One-time limited event: Pyers may create a small farm for one season with permission from the Bck Tortoise cn.]

  LinMeili