Chapter 798
Chapter 798
Shen Lang did some calculations in his head.
‘Is this sea region within the scope of Qiu Yao'er's overseas empire? But what's the name of her empire?’
According to the information Yun Mengze had given him, Qiu Yao'er had established a nation overseas, but everyone had a different story about its name. In any case, Shen Lang drifted on the waves in his basket. He had no oar to row with, and even if he did, he wouldn't know which direction to go, so he had no choice but to drift.
Shen Lang drifted like this for quite a while, but he didn't know for how long. Soon, he became thirsty and extremely hungry. But with nothing but the seemingly endless, vast ocean stretching out before him, there was nothing he could do about his hunger. If he continued without food, he would starve to death. Should he jump into the sea and try to catch a fish? Wasn't that overestimating Master Shen Lang's abilities? From childhood to adulthood, Shen Lang had never done a single bit of rough work. He had never trimmed his own nails, never bathed himself, and wouldn't even let someone trim his nails unless she was a beauty one might find once in a thousand years.
"Hah!"
Shen Lang sighed.
‘Is there any need for that?’
He took off his backpack and pulled out a test tube. Inside was a green liquid—or more precisely, the corpses of ancient insects that carried a neurotoxin. He carefully poured a third of the contents into the sea, and a moment later, a school of dead fish floated to the surface, numbering over a thousand. Shen Lang scooped up a dozen of them, dismantled a part of the basket's rattan vines, and started a fire to grill the fish. Why not eat them raw? Shen Lang was extremely particular about his food. Grilling fish in these poor conditions was already agonizing enough; would he really eat something raw? That was impossible.
After eating his fill, Shen Lang lazily lay down in the basket and dozed off. There was no need to exert himself. At a time like this, stamina was precious, so it was fine to just let himself drift. Statistically, there should be quite a few islands in the sea, so an island would likely appear after drifting for about a thousand li. What about drinking water? That was entirely up to the heavens. Besides, the weather at sea was unpredictable, and the probability of rain was very high. With the weather this hot, water vapor would continuously gather in the air, and it would rain as soon as it met some cool air. There was no need to be impatient.
As expected, it started to rain an hour later. Shen Lang took the opportunity to bathe and brush his teeth. Then he once again lay lazily in the basket, letting it drift. He just prayed that no major storms would arise. Otherwise, this basket would easily break, and a delicate person like Lang'er would break even more easily.
After that, Shen Lang drifted for three full days and nights. To avoid getting sunburned, he cut the fabric from the hot air balloon and made something like a parasol. Not only that, he fashioned the balloon fabric into a pot to store fresh water, which he boiled before drinking. He also got tired of eating grilled fish every day, so he was able to make fish soup. Furthermore, he could make sea salt with it. He didn't just stop at making sea salt; he refined it into table salt, which was not only delicious but could also be used to brush his teeth. Shen Lang even used the mirror-like sea to trim his hair and beard. It was a shame he didn't have a face mask. Otherwise, he could have put one on.
Shen Lang, are you here to take refuge or to enjoy a summer vacation?
***
Finally, it was the fifth day of drifting at sea. Shen Lang had watched *Game of Thrones* on his computer several times. When watching the passionate scenes, he couldn't help but get a little worked up a few times.
‘Daenerys is a bit short! The Red Woman is still the prettiest and has the best figure. In terms of figure, those two girls from Dorne are also top-notch. It's a shame they had so few episodes.’
Suddenly, Shen Lang looked up and saw an island. In that moment, he was so overcome with joy that tears welled up in his eyes. To think he'd finally see an island. If he hadn't seen an island soon, he would have torn this basket apart and burned it all. After all, who told him to squander his assets—the rattan of the basket—by cooking food and boiling water? It was a good thing the weather was hot; otherwise, Shen Lang might have even tried to boil water for a hot bath.
Shen Lang raised a makeshift sail made from the hot air balloon fabric to adjust his direction, and in an instant, the basket drifted toward the island.
***
Two hours later, Shen Lang landed on the island, and no words could describe the immense joy he felt. But at the same time, no words could describe the damn feeling he had either.
‘I'm going to make a fortune. A huge fortune. When I was desperately searching, I couldn't find it anywhere, but now that I wasn't thinking about it, I've found it. Why didn't I just crush the enemy in one fell swoop during my battles in the State of Yue? Why did I have to struggle to create an avalanche and wait for a tsunami? It was for one single reason: there were no saltpeter deposits.’
All the saltpeter he had used was scraped from latrines, but how much could you really get that way? Every time Shen Lang made gunpowder, he would desperately work for half a year only to use it all up in one go. But the amount of gunpowder was never large, making it very difficult to wage war with it. The cause of all this was the lack of saltpeter. Without large saltpeter deposits, he couldn't produce more powerful explosives like TNT or nitroglycerin on a large scale. Back then, Shen Lang had searched tens of thousands of li of sea and land through the Skyscraper Society. He had records of large saltpeter deposits existing on Earth, but unfortunately, this was not Earth. He had searched for years without finding a single saltpeter deposit. But now, wasn't there an incomparably huge saltpeter island right before his eyes?
In Shen Lang's eyes, the incomparably precious saltpeter was spread everywhere, in countless quantities. Not only that, the quality of the saltpeter here was so good it brought tears of joy to his eyes. Wasn't it truly strange? In fact, it wasn't strange at all for phosphate ore to appear on an island like this. After countless bird droppings accumulate over tens of millions of years, they turn into phosphate ore. But on Earth, large saltpeter deposits generally appeared on land and were most commonly found in desolate deserts, for example, in the Atacama Desert region of Chile or the Turpan region of China. Compared to Earth's case, it was extremely strange for a large saltpeter deposit to appear on an island like this. But who had time to question it? Shen Lang squatted down, picked up a piece of high-quality saltpeter, and felt it would be a pity not to kiss it passionately several times.
‘I've finally found you. How much is stored here? Only the gods would know, but it must be an astronomical amount.’
Shen Lang was truly more excited than if he had discovered a gold mine. With a large saltpeter deposit, creating firearms in the future was no longer a dream.
‘I've hit the jackpot. A huge jackpot. It seems almost no one has ever landed on this island, so this belongs to me, Shen Lang. From today on, this island's name is Mulan Island. Because it's as fiery as my beloved Mulan.’
However, after the frantic joy and excitement passed, Shen Lang was a bit dumbfounded. Because this island was extremely desolate, with no signs of life whatsoever. Not only were there no animals, but there wasn't a single plant. This, in turn, was the perfect environment for a saltpeter deposit, because it was like a desolate desert. Shen Lang considered measuring how large the island was, but he quickly gave up on the idea. Because you could die walking around in a desolate desert. In any case, the island was massive. Shen Lang couldn't see the end of the island at a glance. What should he do now? This island had no fresh water or any life, so it wasn't suitable for survival in the first place.
‘This is really killing me. There isn't even any wood on this island, so this basket won't last long as fuel.’
Next, Shen Lang built a small house by stacking stones. Inside, he laid down the fabric from the hot air balloon. Sleeping directly on the ground was impossible. It was too dirty. He then dug a hole in the ground and lined it with the oiled cloth from the hot air balloon. This way, he could collect water when it rained. He had to keep making salt and eat a variety of foods. He couldn't just eat fish; he had to eat sea urchins and sea cucumbers too. After a long search, he finally found laver and seaweed, so now he had vitamins and even face masks. Does everyone know about seaweed masks? They're great to use! Moreover, if he dried large quantities of laver and seaweed, he could burn them for fire.
***
Time flew by. More than twenty days had passed since Shen Lang had drifted to this desolate island. This was a desolate island with no trace of human presence or any sign of life. Because of this, Shen Lang gained weight, his skin became fairer, and he even grew a bit more robust. Was he living miserably on this island? No! Every meal was nutritious, consisting of two side dishes and a soup.
He even had chilled fish aspic. With saltpeter deposits, he could make ice, but unfortunately, he couldn't make ice cream because he had no sugar. The fish aspic was quite delicious. Sometimes he would make sea cucumber sashimi or salmon sashimi while thinking up new dishes.
However, Shen Lang would soon no longer be able to eat so lavishly. All his food had been caught using the neurotoxin from the ancient insects of Mount Fudao. By dropping a little neurotoxin into the sea, many fish would turn belly-up and float to the surface, making it easy to get them. But this neurotoxin was about to run out. So, Shen Lang quickly started drying fish. Otherwise, he would have to endure the miserable life of eating only seaweed every day. In any case, Shen Lang currently had no worries about food or clothing, so wasn't he living days like a god?
Moreover, he didn't miss out on entertainment. His computer contained several hundred movies, including hundreds of high-definition action films. It also contained numerous books, allowing him to lead an emotionally rich life. Of course, Shen Lang didn't waste his time just watching movies for entertainment; every day, he studied the ancient texts stored on his computer. This was probably the most leisurely time of his life, so he couldn't waste it carelessly. He had to use this opportunity to read, understand, and master the ancient texts.
Was Shen Lang happy living this godly, leisurely life? No. He was burning with anxiety. Every day, he waited for a ship to appear on the sea. Being alone on this island, even with countless saltpeter deposits, was useless. He needed people and a base of operations; he needed castles, a nation, an army, and development. Only then could he invade the Great Yan Empire in the shortest possible time. He had to reclaim Raging Tide City and the State of Yue, destroy the new Kingdom of Qian, eliminate the two traitors Ning Guang and Ning Wuming, eliminate Ning Han and Princess Xishan, eliminate the transcendent powers like the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion, Mount Fudao, and the Sky-Sealing Pavilion, and even destroy the Great Yan Empire.
‘My, Shen Lang's, goal is still to live in a world without enemies.’
However, his 'living in a world without enemies' had entered a completely new stage. Shen Lang had killed almost all of his own enemies, but he had yet to touch a single one of the enemies he had as Jiang Lang, the son of Jiang Li. They were still alive and well, standing at the pinnacle of their lives, wielding immense power in the world, enough to summon storms. On the contrary, Shen Lang had been forced to flee overseas by their pressure, and Mulan had taken their little treasures into the perilous Devil's Triangle.
Furthermore, because of Shen Lang, his father-in-law Jin Zhuo and mother-in-law Lady Su had lost their centuries-old family legacy, losing the Marquis of Xuanwu's Estate and Raging Tide City, and had fled thousands of li away into the Devil's Triangle. Moreover, because of Shen Lang, Ning Yuanxian and Ning Zheng had lost their thrones and the lands of the State of Yue. All of this was because of the Great Yan Empire and the transcendent powers, so he couldn't help but feel a bone-deep resentment; they were the enemies of his nation and his family. If Shen Lang didn't kill his enemies, flay their skin, and shatter their bones, how could he face his loved ones?
‘Master of the world? Emperor of the Great Qian Empire? I never cared about such things in the first place. My only goal is still to have no enemies in the world. Never forget the original intention. If I, Shen Lang, don't kill every last one of those enemies, what right do I have to live in this world?’