The Prince Seeking the Divine Boat

High on a hill, Weishi Hosen stood among his followers and gazed into the distance.

The great road forked below them, one branch leading to Sun City in the Star Luo Kingdom, the other descending toward the sea.

Laden with weapons and war hammers, the army formed a long column and marched into the distance. Dust billowed beneath their feet until it swallowed the soldiers' shadows, while the setting sun burned blood-red on the horizon.

"We fight for the king!"

"For the glory of the Hosen family!"

"..."

Saint Tito's Final Chapter had driven all Yinsai into a frenzy. Each of the four Royal Bloodline families coveted the power bestowed by the divine, a dreamlike force said to grant any wish.

The Star Luo Kingdom sought an alliance with the Sele Kingdom, promising it a share of God's power and the glory of entering the domain of the divine.

Meanwhile, the Volcano and Samo Kingdoms had joined forces. They massed troops along the Star Luo Kingdom's border, tightening the pressure, and had even deployed a mythical power, a Ruhe Beast.

Both sides wanted the portion of the Final Chapter the other held.

Perhaps not even Saint Tito had foreseen what would follow. The final story he set down was neither epic nor myth, yet it exerted a greater spell than his Yinsai Epic or his Hymn of the King of Wisdom. For its sake, countless people rushed forward in wave after wave to their deaths.

Pride and conceit had vanished from Weishi Hosen's face, leaving only worry behind.

His flair for grand gestures and stirring speeches had indeed hauled him back from the brink.

A second failure, however, would leave him facing a wretched end.

Struggles between royal houses were crueler and more savage than ordinary people could imagine. The victor claimed everything. The defeated lost everything, even their lives.

No one paid more dearly than a prince like him, once first in the line of succession. The kingdom's histories recorded the bitter fate of such men, generation after generation.

No road remained behind him. He had to find the Divine Boat.

"It is time we set out, Your Highness," a follower at his side reminded him.

The Burrowing Demon Worm writhed across the desolate land like a snake, bound for the sea.

Bony ridges crowned the Burrowing Demon Worm's head, forming a ring within which Weishi Hosen and his followers rode.

As they departed, Weishi Hosen murmured to himself.

"I shall find the Divine Boat."

"I shall... become king."

Henir looked at Prince Weishi, his voice filled with certainty.

"Have no fear, Your Highness. You will, without fail."

Though Weishi Hosen distrusted his own brothers, he placed deep trust in Henir and even called him brother.

Henir was indeed a son of the king of the Volcano Kingdom, but he was not a son the queen had borne.

He was only a bastard son.

Yet Henir was no ordinary bastard. He possessed the royal authority of wisdom, and when he came seeking a patron, Weishi Hosen took him in.

Powerful and noble-blooded, yet incapable of threatening his position, Henir made Weishi Hosen feel secure.

Prince Weishi clapped Henir on the shoulder. "You may rest easy."

"Once I am king, I shall make you my Prime Minister. I shall place you above ten thousand men, second only to me."

"Naturally."

"But first, you must prove yourself the best, the blade that cuts a path for me through every thorn."

Henir smiled. "You know I care nothing for such things."

"I simply believe that once you are king, you will surely accomplish something great."

Rather than please Weishi Hosen, the answer brought displeasure to his face.

"You know how I loathe being refused."

"Whatever I give you, you need only say yes."

"I want you as my Prime Minister. Therefore, my Prime Minister is what you shall be."

Henir did not argue. He merely answered.

"Your Highness, your will is the road I follow."

"I am only the blade and sword you wield. Wherever you point, there I shall go."

Weishi Hosen nodded, satisfied.

The company pressed on toward the sea. Before setting out, he had already laid out his plan.

The Divine Boat had been swept from the caverns beneath Tito Town into the sea. It should have sunk somewhere off the coast of the God-Descended City.

He had already sent men to bribe a God-Descended City noble whose family had raised Ancestral Fish for generations. For nearly a month, the noble's fisherman slaves had scoured the coastal waters for the Divine Boat on his behalf.

They had found no trace of it. Their only lead was a report of silver light drifting into the distance one night, shining like starlight beneath the moon.

Most likely, the Divine Boat had left the place where Saint Tito's bones lay buried and drifted into the deep sea.

Those waters belonged to the People of the Abyss.

Weishi Hosen pondered the report. "Divine Boat, are you retracing Saint Tito's great voyage of old?"

Sunlight pierced the sea's surface from far above and fell upon a city on the seabed.

A terrifying black shadow descended through the water, shattering the undersea city's quiet.

Swarms of dark figures rose from the seabed and stared upward in alarm.

Above them loomed the Volcano Kingdom's great beast, the mythical life known as the Burrowing Demon Worm.

Swoosh!

Swish! Swish!

Those sounds came from the People of the Abyss lashing their tails and driving the water before them.

A terrifying presence bore down from above. Panic seized the People of the Abyss, sending them darting about like headless flies.

These waters lay within the Sal Domain of the Demon Abyss Kingdom, and the settlement was one of its border cities.

The city on the seabed had once been a town of the Yinsai Kingdom.

Long ago, the great poet Tito had stayed there. That episode of his life appeared in the very Final Chapter Weishi Hosen now carried.

Now it had been remade in the strange undersea style of another people, leaving not a trace of Yinsai architecture behind.

Mounted on a bizarre shrimp, a knight of the Demon Abyss Kingdom led her soldiers charging from the city. This woman of the People of the Abyss was lord of the Sal Domain.

With her powerful frame, thick arms, and sharply pointed lance, she looked more fearsome than any man among the People of the Abyss.

She looked up at the Ruhe Beast and fixed her gaze on the crown of its head.

Though she had never seen a great beast herself, she had heard of them.

"A great beast!"

"People of Yinsai, these waters are not yours. Leave at once!"

As the prince knew, the People of the Abyss could not speak aloud. The woman before him, however, plainly possessed wisdom ability.

The prince used his own wisdom ability to speak with her in the same manner.

He held the People of the Abyss in utter contempt, addressing them with an air and tone of lofty superiority.

"Kneel and surrender!"

"Do so, you ugly, pitiful monsters, and I shall spare you."

"I shall permit you to become my slaves. For sinful people such as you, there can be no greater honor than what the Hosen family grants you."

Weishi Hosen had planned everything. He meant to use the People of the Abyss to search for the Divine Boat.

To him, they were merely a pack of monsters. Allowing them to live was mercy enough.

The woman of the Sal family plainly had no intention of accepting his "pity" or "mercy". Nor did she understand anything of the Hosen family's honor.

The Demon Abyss knight flew into a rage. "Weak, contemptible Yinsai man, you shall pay for your arrogance!"

Weishi Hosen laughed. "Pay for it? To the likes of you?"

"It appears you worms have long forgotten the power of a great beast."

"Have you forgotten how your kind were driven back into the Demon Abyss in those days?"

The prince extended a hand toward the city on the seabed. "Burrowing Demon Worm, devour them."

The Demon Abyss knight led her soldiers to meet the attack. Even before a Ruhe Beast, they summoned the courage, ferocity, and blood-valor passed down through the bloodline of the People of the Abyss.

"Do not be afraid! A great beast has no wisdom of its own."

"Kill the man, and the monster will lose control!"

The trilobite men had been absent from the deep sea for so long that they seemed to have forgotten the People of the Abyss even existed.

The People of the Abyss, in turn, had gone too long without warring against Yinsai. They had long since forgotten the terror of a Ruhe Beast.