stonecrandall Chapter 558: The Ink Mark of the Sea of End
Chapter 558: The Ink Mark of the Sea of End
New World, Shuixianxing Island.
The sea breeze before dawn was bone-chillingly cold, carrying with it the salty and acrid air from the deep sea, like a layer of fine gauze, covering the entire sea surface.
Nami was lying in front of the oak table in the middle of the deck of the Dream, her orange hair flying wildly in the sea breeze.
The tip of her nose was almost touching the yellowed parchment, and her expression was so focused that it seemed as if the whole world was only this nautical chart in front of her.
She held a carved copper pen tightly in her right hand, the tip of the pen hovering above the last blank area of sea, trembling slightly.
She stretched out the five fingers of her left hand and pressed down hard on five stacked astronomical record sheets. These were the fruits of her and her partners' hard work in observing the rise and fall of tides, the displacement of star tracks, and the changes in magnetic fields for 78 consecutive hours while standing guard in strong winds and huge waves.
Every piece of data carries their desire to explore unknown waters and their persistent pursuit of the truth.
"15 degrees northeast of east, the intersection of undercurrents has been confirmed!" Ling Ji's voice was as clear as a silver bell, coming from the top of the towering mast.
Her whole body was suspended in mid-air, emitting a soft light all around her, and her slender fingers nimbly pulled twelve glowing silk threads, each of which was tied to a buoy for measuring ocean currents. The faint light flickered on the dark sea surface like stars in the night sky.
Hogg stepped firmly on the side of the ship with his bare feet, and his armed color domineering covered his fingertips like an invisible armor.
He lightly stroked the surface of the sea, and in an instant, a ripple spread out from his fingertips, like an invisible net, faithfully feeding back the shape of the waves three miles away into his mind.
"The wave height correction value is 0.7 knots, and the flow velocity error compensation coefficient is 1.03." His voice was steady and powerful, and it was clearly heard in the sea breeze.
Bai Xing curled up in the observation pool built specially for her. The huge fish tail slapped the sea water regularly, splashing layers of crystal water.
Whenever infrasound waves of a special frequency emanate from her shimmering scales, nearby whale groups will swim over from all directions and respond with melodious songs.
The song seemed like the heartbeat of the sea, a deep-sea topography map more accurate than any sonar, guiding them in the direction of progress.
"Click." Robin's pen suddenly stopped on the edge of the notebook, breaking the brief silence.
She slowly raised her head and looked towards the gradually whitening horizon in the southeast. The last trace of the morning star was reflected in her pupils. "The constellation offset of the third observation point has been verified. It is completely consistent with the record of the "North Sea Star Records" four hundred years ago."
Her voice was calm and firm, but it stirred up waves in everyone's hearts.
The deck suddenly fell into a strange silence. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and their eyes were focused on Nami's trembling pen tip like spotlights.
The sea breeze grew stronger, blowing up her orange hair and sweeping across the dense longitude and latitude grids on the parchment, as if urging this historic moment.
When the first ray of morning light pierced through the clouds like a sharp sword and sprinkled on the sea, the copper pen tip finally fell.
The ink glowed with indigo in the morning light, and the last stroke meandered like a wave, perfectly connecting the outline of Raftelu, the Island of the End, with the seven main routes.
In an instant, the parchment suddenly moved without wind. Some ancient and mysterious power flowed through the ink, and the ink that would have taken three days to dry solidified in an instant.
"It's done..." Nami's voice was as light as sea mist, with a hint of disbelief.
She slowly reached out her hand and stroked the paper, her fingertips lightly skimming over the folds of the New World, the jagged edges of the reefs, and the whirlpools of the warm currents. Over the past four hundred years, countless sailors had filled the gaps with their lives, and now they were all in her palm.
It is a tragic history, the dreams and sacrifices of countless brave people.
Ling Yan appeared behind her at some point, and gently wrapped her trembling shoulders with a cloak covered with salt.
He pointed to the blank space marked with gold powder on the edge of the chart and said in a deep and powerful voice: "The name of the discoverer should be written here."
Nami slowly grabbed the ink bottle and poured the entire bottle of dark blue ink onto the gold.
The ink spread across the parchment, forming a pattern of surging waves.
"The Grand Line doesn't belong to anyone." Her nails dug deep into the wood grain, her eyes gleaming with determination. "It's the masts of 7,320 sunken ships that hold up this map."
As if in response to her words, countless blue lights suddenly appeared on the sea surface, like dreamy fireflies, dancing on the sea.
Hogg lay on the side of the boat and couldn't help but exclaimed: "It's Noctiluca! The whole sea is glowing!"
Those spots of light flowed slowly with the ocean currents, weaving into a glowing channel, exactly the same as the ink marks on the parchment, as if it was a glorious road paved for them by the sea.
White Star's trident lightly touched the sea surface, and the light flowed up to the deck along the tip of the trident, outlining a three-dimensional star map projection under everyone's feet, which was like a dream.
Robin's archaeological notes turned automatically, and the signatures of many missing navigators over the past eight hundred years appeared on the yellowed pages, with the ink spreading like tear marks next to Nami's wave pattern.
Their names, their dreams, have never been forgotten.
"They are all watching." Kuina's demon sword suddenly came out of its sheath, and dense shadows appeared on the blade - an old navigator wearing a tricorn hat, a surveyor with a broken arm, a sleeping girl holding a sextant...
Their figures appear and disappear in the sea breeze, as if telling stories of the past, and as if cheering them on to move forward.
Ling Yan untied the wine bag, tilted his head back and drank it down, the amber wine flowed down his chin into his collar, bringing a bit of heroism and unrestrainedness.
He suddenly turned the wine bag upside down, and the clear wine poured onto the shining deck: "To all the cartographers who died at sea!"
In an instant, the light spots across the entire sea suddenly rose into the sky and turned into a drizzle like diamond dust in the morning light, falling down one after another.
As the light rain fell on the parchment chart, the skull marks marking the dangerous waters slowly turned into seagull totems, and the mark of the eye of the storm turned into a smiling whirlpool, as if the sea was also cheering for their victory.
"Weigh anchor!" Ling Yan's roar was as loud as a bell, startling a flock of albatrosses.
As the Dream cut through the stream of brilliant light and headed for Raftel, Nami pressed her cheek against the warm parchment.
The scent of ink mixed with the smell of sea salt penetrated her nostrils. She heard the whispers of seven hundred kinds of tides, the whale songs flowing between the longitude and latitude lines, and the last record of an old surveyor before the ship sank on a stormy night:
"...There is a magnetic storm singularity 137 nautical miles southeast. It is recommended that future generations use the stars instead of the compass to locate..."
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