The old-fashioned sailing ship began to rock on the sea.
The sailors fully unfurled the two massive sails.
With the help of the sea breeze, the hull slowly departed the mooring area of Hastings Port.
It gradually sailed into the depths of the thick fog.
At the same time, behind the defensive line of Hastings Port's docks, Xia'an hid alone in a carriage, locking the wooden door of the cabin.
Then, she pulled the thick, dark curtains shut tightly.
Dabu did not board the carriage; gripping his gun, he stood vigilantly outside to keep watch.
The carriage fell into absolute darkness.
Xia'an closed her eyes.
She forced herself to calm down and began to ponder the current situation.
After a long moment, she took a deep breath and made a decision.
Xia'an reached into the inner pocket of her trench coat.
She pulled out two warm-to-the-touch pieces of glow-amber.
Next, she grabbed a handful of dark red hematin powder.
She placed the two pieces of glow-amber at the top and bottom ends of the wooden table.
Then, she carefully sprinkled the hematin powder in a circle on the tabletop, forming a perfect closed loop that completely enclosed the two pieces of glow-amber.
After doing all this, Xia'an drew the dagger from her waist.
Without hesitation, she sliced the sharp blade across her index finger.
Crimson blood immediately welled up.
She precisely dripped her blood onto the circle of hematin powder.
The blood was instantly absorbed by the powder.
Finally, Xia'an took out a Dawn Holy Emblem and solemnly placed it in the very center of the ritual array.
The preparations were complete.
She began to channel her remaining spirituality, pouring it steadily into the array.
A bright white flame erupted on the tabletop.
The fire spread rapidly along the trail of the hematin powder.
Soon, the hematin powder burned away, turning to ash.
The two pieces of glow-amber serving as nodes could not withstand the influx of spirituality.
With a crisp crack, they shattered into several pieces.
But unlike a normal break, these shattered pieces of glow-amber did not lose their luster.
Their originally simple glow had now transformed into a rainbow-like iridescent aura.
Xia'an reached out.
She gathered the iridescent glowing shards once more, arranging them in a small circle around the holy emblem.
She initiated a second injection of spirituality.
This time, the space in the center of the array began to distort.
A spirit world rift was torn open.
Soon, a head poked out from the rift.
Unlike other spirit world creatures, this head was composed entirely of extremely pure white light.
It had no facial features, save for two extremely bright golden spots of light shimmering where its eyes should be.
“I have noticed,” a completely emotionless voice rang out directly in Xia'an's mind, “that the size of the array you constructed this time makes me feel rather cramped.”
“You have summoned Daycrow. What are your instructions?”
Xia'an ignored its complaints.
“Help me deliver a message,” Xia'an said, handing over a note she had just written blindly in the dark.
“Recipient's true name: Iris, Ivy Cecil.”
The spirit world messenger, formed of white light, extended a stream of light to take the note.
“Your letter will be delivered in a few minutes.”
“Is there any verbal message you wish to accompany it?”
“No.”
Xia'an refused decisively.
With those words, the spirit world creature known as Daycrow lingered no longer, shrinking downward and slipping back into the spirit world rift.
The ritual array on the table completely went out.
The carriage fell back into darkness.
Xia'an sat alone on the bumpy carriage seat, her brow furrowed tightly.
Choosing to report directly to Ms. Cecil just now was a decision she had been forced to make after weighing the options repeatedly.
There were three reasons for this.
First, she had no way of knowing which level of the high command had been infiltrated by Wayland Capital.
Second, as the Landon special envoy, Ivy Cecil was the only person Xia'an could fully trust right now.
It was also Cecil who had previously forced the critical information through to the branch.
Third, Mr. Rockland was Ms. Cecil's informant.
Since tonight's information was deduced and provided by Mr. Rockland, it was only logical to notify Ms. Cecil as soon as possible.
Considering all three points, Ms. Cecil was the only and best choice.
After Mr. Rockland left, Xia'an had hidden in the carriage and followed his line of reasoning for a long time.
She had to admit that the man possessed incredibly sharp insight; he had likely hit the nail on the head.
First of all, the geographical location of Hastings Port was far too unique.
It was the largest hub port in the western part of the Kingdom of Velen.
Once it was paralyzed or even fell due to the sea-folk invasion, grain transportation, coal supply, and the daily logistics of the royal military ports along the entire western defense line would all suffer a fatal disruption.
This was a price the kingdom's high command absolutely could not afford.
Secondly, as long as the casualty figures from tonight were continuously exaggerated and the port's losses were sufficiently tragic, the Council would naturally face immense public pressure.
Under this pressure, they would have no choice but to agree to the Wayland Chamber of Commerce's demands, directly granting firing clearance for that ironclad.
If it came to that, Wayland Capital would use the newspapers and media they secretly controlled to guide public opinion.
This was equivalent to weaponizing public sentiment to coerce the government, ultimately forcing the Council to capitulate completely to capital.
Thinking of this, Xia'an couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine.
If she thought even deeper, every single move in Wayland Capital's grand game had actually been planned long ago.
One step leading perfectly to the next.
Thomas Wayland, this deep-scheming financial tycoon, had first invited the heads of major media outlets to a tour during Prince Edric's banquet.
Then, he used these media channels to reverse their terrible public reputation in an incredibly short span of time.
During this process, even a reporter from the Landon Post had been dragged into the mix.
Even now, Xia'an couldn't figure out whether this female reporter actually existed, or if she did exist but had fallen into a trap meticulously laid by Wayland.
But regardless of the truth, the result was that public opinion regarding Wayland Capital had achieved a perfect reversal.
This was their first step.
Next came the second step: requisitioning ironclads from the military, and then naturally obtaining firing clearance for the main cannons.
With all public sentiment leaning in their direction, it would undoubtedly make the masses much easier to manipulate.
In the end, this outraged public opinion would be wielded by them to target the government directly.
The most troublesome part of the situation now was that Xia'an did not know if Ms. Cecil had highly trusted figures of authority in high places, let alone if she could influence the progress of the firing clearance approval.
If Wayland truly obtained firing clearance, they could practically do whatever they pleased!
They would absolutely aim that terrifyingly large-caliber main cannon at any place they wished to erase!
Under the guise of purging the sea-folk, they would carry out complete physical destruction, destroying all evidence that incriminated them.
The situation had now deteriorated to the absolute extreme.
Not to mention, Mr. Rockland had also brought up the matter of the West Coast Sanatorium in their communication earlier.
The waters there were likely even deeper.
What kind of filthy business was being conducted within was something she didn't even want to contemplate.
This, too, required someone to go to the scene and resolve it immediately.
However, the scale of tonight's sea-folk invasion was simply too massive.
From the East Bank to the West Coast, from the industrial zones to the commercial districts, every bit of manpower from the Seventh Agency branch was pinned down along the defensive lines.
They simply could not spare a single hand to deal with the sanatorium.
Damn it...
Right at that moment, inside the carriage, a spirit world rift opened.
The spirit world messenger Daycrow, which had departed earlier, poked its head out once more.
It extended its hand and handed back a sealed letter.
Xia'an immediately sat up straight.
She snatched the letter.
Tearing it open, the very first sentence she saw was:
“I am on my way to Hastings Port.”
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