Above the Gray Fog, Klein reached out from the pile of junk and summoned the Sea God’s Scepter, scanning the countless glowing specks swirling around this sealed artefact.
Each of these specks corresponded to a believer’s prayer, radiant and sacred, ethereal!
Soon, Klein made a preliminary selection with his mind, focusing on those that originated from the sea rather than the islands — after sealing the Sea God’s Scepter above the Gray Fog, he could no longer directly use this ‘artifact’ to sense the surrounding ocean and operate effectively. He had to rely on the prayer images of his believers, using them as a base to extend 5 nautical miles outward and influence the corresponding sea creatures.
Klein extended his spirituality, touched one of the specks, and saw the evening scene: before a fishing boat returned to port, the natives on board were offering their daily prayer.
As Klein’s thoughts shifted, the perspective of this image rapidly rose, and more and more of the dim scene with layered clouds and undulating waves came into view.
“Had there been signs of an impending storm hours ago? That makes sense—when I went out earlier, the atmosphere felt quite oppressive… That’s why Airlan said the Mad Captain Connors’ ship should be anchored in the shadow of some nearby island, hiding from the storm…” Klein murmured to himself, tapping the edge of the mottled long table.
With this inference, his following ‘search’ work would be much easier, because he didn’t need to search the vast, boundless ocean; he only had to pay attention to the areas around the different islands in this sea region.
With a thought, a bluish-green gem at the top of the Sea God’s Scepter in Klein’s hand suddenly lit up.
On the sea where the fishing boat had already left, the deep blue, almost black waves under the crimson moonlight were heaving considerably, when suddenly the water silently rose, and faintly on the surface appeared a pair of exaggerated eyes gazing at the sky, with a huge shadowy outline beneath the eyes.
At the same time, various schools of fish surfaced near the water.
They received the misty light that scattered from nowhere, made a circle, and then sank again, heading off in different directions.
After a dozen seconds, the waters within a 5-nautical-mile radius returned to their previous state, the deep blue, almost black waves rising higher and higher, awaiting the final eruption.
Phew… this is quite costly… Klein raised his left hand and rubbed his temple.
He hadn’t simply driven the sea creatures; he had endowed them with a certain Beyonder spirituality, so that after they discovered ships anchored near islands, they could transmit the images they saw back in the form of prayers.
This was not too difficult or complicated for the Sea God’s Scepter, but for the operator, Klein, it was a great burden and quite costly.
Then, Klein selected the believers around different islands of the archipelago and issued ‘commands’ to the sea creatures in the corresponding areas in the same way.
After doing all this, he didn’t bother tossing the Sea God’s Scepter back into the pile of junk, directly returned to the real world, took off his coat, and collapsed onto the bed.
Having exhausted his spirituality to the extreme, he thought he would fall unconscious, but instead his head felt hollow and ached, making it impossible to open his eyes or enter a dream.
Klein could clearly feel that his skin had broken out in bumps, like an allergic reaction, and beneath them were countless hidden sprouts of flesh.
Indeed, as Mr. Hanged Man said, if one lets one’s spirituality remain dried up for two consecutive days, auditory hallucinations and signs of losing control will definitely occur. I only pushed it to the limit once, and not for long, and my body is already showing anomalies. Of course, it’s also because I recently advanced and haven’t fully digested it yet, and I’ve consumed excess potions from the previous Sequences… Klein gradually collected his thoughts, trying to meditate on layered spheres of light to calm the fatigue of body and spirit.
After his condition slightly improved, he finally fell into a deep sleep and slept until midnight.
At this time, the wind was howling outside, the rain was pouring, and the long-gestating storm finally arrived.
This wasn’t too uncommon in Beyam; other than that, the night was quite peaceful.
Klein went to the washroom to relieve himself, washed his hands, took four steps backward, and entered Above the Gray Fog again.
He picked up the Sea God’s Scepter that was lying at the head of the bronze long table and began to browse the ‘images’ transmitted back by the sea creatures.
In these scenes, there were ships, each at different ports, different docks, and in the shadows of different islands.
Although Klein had never seen the ‘Mad Captain’ Connors Victor, he had previously learned about his characteristics and the various emblems of his pirate crew, so he had no fear of being unable to distinguish them.