1319: Tens of Millions

Tens of Millions

The ship took off, flying into the ocean at a reasonable pace. The speed could be comparable to what a peak Saint Foundation realm expert could fly in.0

While that was slow by Alex and most other stronger people's standard, it was still fast enough that no one had any problem with it.

Alex tried to look in the distance through the ocean but he couldn't see anything else in the far distance. Close by, there were quite a few small islands they were passing through, but the distant lands hid themselves in a haze that Alex couldn't see even with his Demon Eyes.

If he activated the eyes, it would make it harder to see as all he could see would be colors and nothing else.

He heard 'wow' and 'woah' coming from the alchemists and assistants that had clearly never been around the ocean, let alone fly on top of it. 

They were as close to the edge of the ship as they could be without disturbing the many soldiers that were standing around the deck of the ship on either side.

They were intimidating, and no one dared get too close to them. Fortunately, they were far apart enough that the people could see even past them.

"Your Majesty, did you decide to watch us take off too?" the commander asked as he walked up to Alex. He had finished giving his orders, so there wasn't much to do at the moment.

"Yes, I assumed it would be enjoyable," Alex said.

"If you haven't been on the ocean, I can guarantee it will be enjoyable," the commander said. "Please come to the front. You can watch more clearly from there."

The commander took Alex to the bow of the ship from where Alex could see everything far more clearly without any obstruction to his view. 

The scenery didn't move him as it did the others who had never been to the ocean. Still, he couldn't deny the majesty of seeing the world at such a height.

"I hope we are properly concealed," Alex asked.

"You do not have to worry, Your Majesty," the commander answered. "We have illusion, noise canceling, and concealment formations working all the time. Anything outside of this ship won't even notice we're there as long as we keep this speed."

"Keep this speed?" Alex asked with a slightly curious look.

The commander nodded. "We discovered a long time ago that there is a sweet spot at which the ship's speed, the amount of spirit stones necessary and the forces acting against the formations is just what we want," the captain said. "I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that this is the most efficient speed."

"Hmm," Alex thought for a moment. "So will we have to change the speed if some weather anomaly were to occur on the way?"

"We will, but that won't be due to the formations. Its just for the safety of the crew," the commander said. "The forces that act against the formations are pockets of Qi in the air that is something brought along by the air in the sea. It sometimes disrupts the formations, and can give us away."

"Which is why we have to slow down so that we can instead divert all the spirit stones into the formations to keep use hidden," the commander said.

"Ah, I see," Alex said, finally understanding a little. "And at this speed, how long do you think it will take us to reach the Eastern Continent?" 

"Approximately 2 weeks," the commander said.

"2 weeks?" Alex was a little taken back. He knew all continents were far apart and that the speed of the ship wasn't necessarily that fast, but the commander's words still came as a surprise.

The commander noticed Alex's surprise as well, but didn't say anything. "Most people spend their life in their own continents, never going out to the deep water, so they don't know just how large the ocean is."

"If I had to make an estimation based on the Southern Continent, you should be able to fit at least 5 of your continents in the ocean reaching to the Eastern Continents," the commander said.

"5 huh?" Alex finally got a mental picture of how large the oceans were and even then he wouldn't truly be able to tell unless he saw it all on his own.

There had only been one time when he had actually flew across at least half the continent and that had been back when he had run away from the Sunborn Sanctuary when he wasn't even a king. 

It was at that time that he had realized how wide the continent truly was. On a ship where the speed was far smaller than what he could output back then, he could understand whay it was going to take them so long.

The commander told Alex a few more small, but definitely not unimportant trivia that he had gathered throughout his time in the Scale Legion.

The shortest distance between any of the four continents was between the Ivory region of the Eastern Continent and the Shuang province of the Northern Continent. If the Central continent was to be counted, it would obviously be the Central Continent to the North of Wasteland.

There were tens of millions of islands on the ocean, which came as quite the surprise to Alex. He would've expected tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. But hearing that there were tens of millions of them was truly mind blowing.

The only reason no one knew about this was because none of these islands were inhabited. At least, not by humans. There were many islands that had monsters that occupied it as their own reason, which the humans obviously wouldn't know about. 

The commander promised that the would see a lot of islands even far from the continent, as islands didn't always cluster around the continents. 

There were even islands bigger than the Sunless lands, which always made it into the Southern Continent's maps. 

Another thing Alex learned was that the ocean had more Qi than any land. Alex was surprised about this fact too, but giving it some thought, it felt obvious to him now.

There was more ocean than land in this realm, and while Spirit veins had been sought and used up in most cases, the ones underwater had remained untouched for the most part.

The water also was capable of holding in Qi far more than the air, making the depths of the ocean far more infused with Qi than any other.

"You can enjoy your time here, your Majesty," the Commander said. "You won't have to worry about anything attacking us thanks to the concealment, but if something somehow manages to see us, I have the soldiers looking out for an attack at all times."

'Is that what they are doing?' Alex thought, looking around at the soldiers that were standing at the edge of the boat, looking down.

"You can go back to doing what you have to, commander Jianyu," Alex said. Once the commander left, Alex walked back to the center of the deck and sat next to Jai Heiyun and her female assistant.

"So, have you come up with any good plans yet, Sister Hao?" 

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