<h4>Chapter 263: The Age of Navigation</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio


    Lu Zhiyu stood in his huge study, facing two rows of bookshelves. The sunlight was streaming in from the outside, falling on a long table that was scattered with drawings. A sphinx beast was resting by the door.


    At present, Lu Zhiyu’s eyes were fixed on the wall. There were many items on the wall, the most prominent of which was a mural. It looked simr to a Cab tree, but Lu Zhiyu preferred to call it the model of the world tree.


    This model of the world tree presented the rules of the gods in Maria’s World. Upon the model of the world tree, 17 round wheels symbolized different rules and powers of the 17 gods.


    Every wheel had a groove. Four of the grooves were empty, and the other thirteen grooves were iid with divine personalities, indicating that there were 13 gods that were still waiting to ascend their thrones.


    Lu Zhiyu stood under the huge mural and looked up at the model of the world tree. He had a feeling that once the 13 gods were selected, all of Maria’s World would be under the full control of these gods.


    As all of these gods’ powers came from Lu Zhiyu’s Divine Kingdom of Gaia, when that time came, the power of the Divine Kingdom of Gaia would, in essence, control all aspects of the world! Then, as the gods continued to learn the rules, Lu Zhiyu would gradually be stronger until he was finally able to turn Maria’s World into a divine world entirely!


    Lu Zhiyu thought that, at that time, he would reach level nine. Then, he would not need the power of the scroll to create things any longer. Instead, he would be able to change materials’ forms and shapes!


    As he thought about these things, Lu Zhiyu felt excited. From the very beginning, he wanted to shake off his dependence upon the scroll. At present, it seemed that Lu Zhiyu would very likely achieve this goal!


    “But... It’s not easy to gather 17 gods!” Lu Zhiyu sighed.


    It was not a simple task at all, as all of the 17 gods must meet his standards. If an unqualified existence was chosen to be a god, it could prove disastrous!


    Lu Zhiyu kept rubbing his chin, wondering where he should go next to find a suitable candidate. While he was thinking, he sometimes frowned and sometimes smiled.


    At this time, Delmedi, who was standing at the door, was holding some bread that Eva had just made for her. As she licked the butter on the bread, she stared at the changing expressions on Lu Zhiyu’s face in amazement.


    She then yelled, “Eva! Dad’s gone crazy!”


    Lu Zhiyu picked up the screaming Delmedi, who still looked like a child, causing her to giggle and scream out of both surprise and happiness. Lu Zhiyu hugged her and spun her around in circles as her giggles rang out through the study.


    “Why don’t you ever seem to grow? Your sister has been an adult for so long!” Lu Zhiyu said.


    “That’s because I’m still young!” Delmedi said, looking both innocent and quite dissatisfied with this question.


    Lu Zhiyu pinched her cheeks and thought for a while before he shook his head and said, “No... I think it’s because you are silly!”


    Delmedi immediately red at Lu Zhiyu and made threatening gestures towards him to show her anger. Eva, who had juste in with her te, totally ignored the fighting between the father and daughter.


    —-


    Out at sea, on a huge wooden ship with visible wheels, a huge chimney emitted a thick cloud of smoke, while the continuous rotation of the wheels pushed the huge ship forward. The ship also had sails, and several identical boats, as well as normal sailboats, followed the ship on the sea.


    It was a huge fleet that had the mark of the Sean City-State Alliance upon it. It was actually a miracle to see human beings’ ships and boats in the deep sea area.


    For hundreds of years, human beings had only been able to trade and sail in the coastal waters. As such, this kind of adventure into the depths of the sea was rare. In fact, it had even been considered suicide before!


    However, during the recent decades in the Sean City-State Alliance, many adventurers had led their fleets into the sea. However, most of them had died, having been devoured and sucked into the bellies of the Children of the Sea, or they had been lost at sea and never returned.


    Since the invention of the steam engine wheel ship, people who had explored the whole n Continent area were no longer satisfied with their past achievements. They didn’t want to be confined to the maind, and they yearned for the open sea, hoping to find a new route that would open the door to another continent.


    Marina Bossay’s adventure opened their eyes to the fact that, at the other end of the ocean, there was a whole different world, where magnificent mermaids and beautiful fairy-like elves lived! Thus, countless people attempted to follow in the footsteps of Marina Bossay by recreating her journey, but until now, no one had seeded.


    This fleet had been sailing on the sea for an entire year. Along the way, it had encountered all kinds of terrible monsters and dangers. If it had not been for the alchemists on board, it would have been destroyed in the sea.


    However, they were still much luckier than Marina Bossay, as they had been gifted a precise map by Marina Bossay herself, which allowed them to travel directly from the Sean City-State Alliance to Y.


    “What’s wrong? ording to the map, we should have arrived in Y ten days ago!” The captain looked at the map and frowned. This was not the first time that he had been troubled, feeling that something was amiss with this journey.


    “Could it be that we have gotten lost?” a sailor asked from behind him.


    “Maybe the so-called elf kingdom is just a lie!” another sailor said.


    “No! The great Miss Marina said it was true, and she certainly wouldn’t deceive us. So, it must be real!” Another sailor adamantly supported Miss Marina’s words.


    At this moment, the sailor standing near the mast suddenly cried out, “Captain Brown! Look ahead! It’s a continent!”


    The sailor’s cry immediately shocked all of the people on board. The people who had just been quarreling immediately scrambled over to the ship’s side, while looking at the distant hazy shadow, which was indeed a huge continent!


    Captain Brown shouted out in delight, “We found it! The Elf Continent... Y!”