Chapter 275 - Giant Ship
Chapter 275: Giant Ship
The fierce waves crashed towards the shore even though the caravan had moved 500 meters to the right. Wave after wave, the relentless assault from the sea flushed the water towards the caravan, and fortunately, it stopped at the merchants’ feet.
The overwhelming hunt ended. Those who never seen such a grand scene would never expect that humans would be the ultimate hunter and the sea would be their vast hunting ground.
The vessels of various sizes had left, and every single one of them had a huge trawling net behind them with all the majestic and mighty sea titans inside. Even that gigantic Requiem Whale was cut into eight pieces before being loaded into the net. The hunt had lasted for less than half an hour, and the madmen of Darkness Port provided a valuable lesson to Tang Ling.
Several children of the caravan were playing with the seawater at their feet, and their giggles sounded happy. Since they were the children of a traveling caravan, despite their age, they had seen quite a lot compared to others and the overwhelming scene at the sea did not shock them at all.
One of the children, who was jumping in the puddles of seawater, hopped over to the elder driving the ox cart and asked naively, “Grandpa, Grandpa! Those men caught a lot of fish! Will they catch all the fish in the sea?”
“In this era, they aren’t capable of catching all the fish in the sea, not even the fish offshore! There are many scary fishes in the sea. Compared to those, the fishermen were nothing.” The elder stroked the child’s hair and tried to tell him something a youngling might not understand.
While standing in the shallow seawater, Tang Ling unconsciously turned around and asked, “Fishermen?”
When the children were stepping on the shallow seawater, his urge to join them mounted and when he heard the term ‘fishermen’, he could not hold his curiosity back anymore.
“Yes, fishermen. Most of the people in Darkness Port call themselves fishermen. They live by the sea, so it’s only natural for them to make a living by the sea as well. The saying is passed down through ancient times,” the elder said with a chuckle. He took a deep puff from his smoking pipe and spat out a thick cloud of smoke. He then shouted at the front of the caravan, “Let’s go! We can enter the city in less than an hour!”
Tang Ling jumped back onto the ox cart.
“Why didn’t I play with the water just now?”
Ro Xin rolled her eyes at her brother after he asked a stupid question the moment he regained his senses from the remarkable hunt. “Don’t worry. You’ll have the chance. Didn’t you hear what Granddad said? You’re going to become a fisherman in Darkness Port.”
“No way. The fish are huge here! I’m not even that strong enough to catch them!” Ro Li wrung his hands violently and Tang Ling laughed out loud.
Maybe because they were close to Darkness Port, their mood was lifted slightly. In addition to that, because of that hunt at sea, Tang Ling’s anticipation of Darkness Port intensified.
…
Along the journey to Darkness Port, Tang Ling imagined what the port city would look like countless times. He had heard many things about the city and they all sounded similar, many of which described the place as a chaotic, lawless free land. It was home to many criminals, and at the same time, many extraordinary people and powerhouses.
Therefore, in Tang Ling’s imagination, Darkness Port should be a city in black. It would probably not have any obvious city planning and should share similarities to the slums of Safety Sector No. 17. Messy buildings would have mushroomed everywhere amidst dark alleys with filthy corners while the houses would be built on a cascading terrain.
As the caravan made one last turn over the ledge beside the sea, the folks at the front happily announced their arrival, “We’ve arrived at Darkness Port!”
With the murmurs of the waves echoing in his ears, Tang Ling finally saw Darkness Port with his own eyes.
Before Tang Ling could say anything, Ro Li beat him to it by asking in surprise, “T-this is Darkness Port?” Even Ro Xin could not control her awe.
Tang Ling looked up and first saw the vast blue sea. On one side was a large mountain ledge with a flat land on top, the mountain ledge was a thousand meters tall.
On top of the ledge was a towering wooden ship that seemed very vibrant. Under the morning sun, even the wooden texture on the planks seemed so tangible.
Was it really a ship though?
It was by no means a real ship. At least, that was what Tang Ling thought. It was too huge to be considered a ship! Its size was out of this world! Even the aircraft carrier from the old civilization would seem like a tadpole beside a whale when compared to this craft. The comparison might sound exaggerated but was accurate. It measured at least 50 km long and 20 km wide.
The height of the ship was a little shy from 500 meters and on the deck was a concentrated cluster of buildings. In the center of the building cluster was a strikingly tall castle which was at least ten times bigger than a castle on land.
At the top of the castle was an enormous black flag waving in the wind. The flag had the traditional icon of a pirate skull on it, but the only difference was the long sword that pierced through the skull from its chin. The tip of the sword was apparent at the top of the crown. The wildness of the fluttering flag and the threatening design felt like it could annihilate everything.
Other than that, at the bow of the giant ship was a long bridge. Upon a closer look, it was not a traditional bridge but a makeshift one that consisted of three robust iron chains tangled together.
The iron chain bridge extended from the ship and was connected to an island in the middle of the sea. The island was an irregular oval that spanned 30 km in diameter and was located a little further away from the thousand-meter ledge.
After seeing the majestic city for his own eyes, Tang Ling muttered to Ro Li, “Y-yes, that humongous ship is Darkness Port!”
The actual Darkness Port was entirely different from Tang Ling’s imagination. No matter how rich his imagination was, he never would have thought that Darkness Port would be a city in the shape of a ship.
When he saw the iron chain bridge at the fore connected to the island, he understood that the giant ship was Darkness Port because he had seen the map of Darkness Port before. The port city was located on a crescent-shaped shore and a long bridge linking the shore to an island in the sea. The crescent shore together with the island in the middle of the sea were all known as Darkness Port.
The moment he spotted the iron chain bridge and the island, he took a better look and saw that the towering mountain ledge with the giant port city on top was shaped exactly like a crescent moon!
So, this is the real Darkness Port!
For some people in the caravan, it was not their first visit to Darkness Port, so they were not as overwhelmed as Tang Ling, Ro Xin, and Ro Li. Instead, they discussed what to eat or drink when they entered the city.
When the destination was within sight, the caravan moved a lot faster. It crossed the bumpy seaside mountain path and reached the bottom of the tall mountain ledge.
At the bottom of the mountain ledge was a wide gentle slope that was connected to the flat-topped mountain. On the peak of the mountain, other than the giant port city, there was nothing else except a large area of neatly piled up black bricks, forming a huge open-air space.
From there, they were able to see the stern of that giant ship where there were three flights of stairs of various widths attached to the deck.
The flight of stairs in the center was made for humans, and it was the narrowest.
The stairs, or rather a slope, on the left was wider, so it should be the path for cargo.
The one on the right was actually a giant pillar, but nobody knew what it was used for because there was no one walking on it.
Right now, the left slope and the center stairs were blanketed with people and cargo carts.
At the bottom of the stairs was a very long line of people waiting to get into the city. It was noisy and merry.
When the caravan was traveling up the gentle slope, Tang Ling already realized that there was a large number of people crowding around the entrance. He turned around midway and noticed many paths that were connected to the peak of the crescent-shaped mountain ledge. It reminded him of a saying in the old civilization: ‘all roads lead to Rome’.
In this era, Darkness Port was the only city with the richest marine products in the world. Even the notoriety of the city did not stop it from prospering in trade. Furthermore, one could enjoy freedom in the city without pressure from major factions, so many people fled to Darkness Port every day.
Tang Ling jumped down from the ox cart. He brought the siblings along to thank everyone in the caravan before parting ways with them.
“Caravans mostly travel through the slope on the left. You guys should move through the stairs in the center. You’ll need one Black Wind coin to enter the city and remember to spare five Black Wind coins to buy that Darkness Guidebook. You won’t regret it.” The leader of the caravan was a fat man with a pleasant attitude. Even though he took quite a hefty fee from Tang Ling to let them tag along, he did his job well after being paid.
“Black Wind coins? We don’t have any. Can we trade for it?” Tang Ling asked. He felt perturbed. Was the Black Sea coin not the common currency in Darkness Port? Since when did it become the Black Wind coin?
The fat man tossed Tang Ling a little bag and said, “Give me one Black Sea Coin.”
Along the way, Tang Ling traded five Black Sea coins with the fat man in exchange for a lot of materials. This only reinforced his opinion of the fat man as a greedy guy.
“One Black Sea coin is equivalent to 500 Black Wind coins. In Darkness Port, normal people never use Black Sea coins as they only deal with Black Wind coins. Remember to store your Black Sea coins well, especially since there’s no law in Darkness Port. The size of your fist decides who’s boss. Got it?” the fat man voiced his reminder before he waved and led his caravan up the slope on the left.
Tang Ling opened the little bag and realized that it actually held black pearls instead of the traditional coin. The pearls had a special icon carved onto them. With some special method printing method, the icon had three different colors on it.
Luxurious much? Using pearls as a currency?
With that in mind, Tang Ling fished out the prestigious Black Sea coin to study. He then realized that the Black Sea coin was actually made from a big pearl and had the same special icon but was in five different colors instead.
“What are you doing? Let’s go.” Ro Li was excited the moment he saw the uniquely built Darkness Port, so he rushed Tang Ling and brought him back to his senses.
Tang Ling nodded and the three of them headed to the center path. He was just as eager to get in and have a look at the unique city for himself.