Seeing Kede's weird look, Charles was too lazy to pay attention to him. He turned around and walked towards the people who were standing there like wooden stakes.
He first snatched the telescope from the second mate and knocked it on his head. "You are really amazing. You are the first person in the world to use a telescope to look at the sun."
"Captain, what...what is that thing?" Krona asked, stuttering and pointing at the thing in the sky.
"The sun, what else could it be?"
Charles stuffed the telescope into his arms, half squatted down, grabbed the motionless white mouse on the ground, and kept kneading it. "Don't look at it, you will become a blind mouse if you look at it again."
"Mr. Charles, is that your home upstairs? Is that where the TV or computer is?" Lily asked with her furry head excitedly poking out from between her fingers.
Charles, smiling, threw it into the air, and caught her with both hands as she screamed, "Little Lily, you are right, that is my home."
Charles, who was in a very good mood, had just finished speaking when he heard the sound of a heavy object hitting the sand behind him.
"Huh?" He turned his head and looked behind him, and found that Ke De, who was slumped on the ground, was crawling on the sand.
Charles sensed something was wrong, grabbed the mouse and rushed to him, helping him up. "Hey, what's wrong? What happened?"
In response to Charles' question, Ke De seemed not to hear it, and remained motionless with a peaceful smile on his face.
Charles' heart skipped a beat. He put his finger to Kede's nose and found that there was no breath at all.
"puff"
"puff"
"puff"
The sound of heavy objects hitting the sand continued to sound behind him. Even though he was shrouded in warm sunshine, Charles felt cold all over at this moment.
He turned around quickly and found that people in the crowd kept falling on the sand, completely unable to move.
The joy in his heart disappeared without a trace in an instant. Charles opened his trembling lips and shouted madly: "Everyone go back to the boat! Everyone go back to the boat! This sun is killing people!!"
After hearing Charles's shout, all the crew members noticed that something was wrong with their companions. The expressions on everyone's faces changed from ecstasy to hesitation and then to fear.
The crowd began to move. They ran towards the boat even faster than when they came here. Some of them fell down as they ran, and once they fell to the ground, they could never get up again.
The agile Dipper was the first to return to the deck of the Narwhal. He stood on the edge of the ship and pulled his companions with all his strength. After counting the number of people one by one, he found that something was missing.
The boy looked up at the beach and saw his captain standing at the border of light and darkness, half of his body illuminated by the sun and half of his body sunk into the darkness of the sea.
"Captain!! Come quickly!! It's dangerous there!" Dipper shouted anxiously.
Looking at the crew members on the boat who were shouting anxiously, Charles waved a flag to them to wait, raised his left leg and moved backwards.
His clothes were taken off one by one, and Charles's scarred body was completely exposed under the scorching sun.
Charles opened his hands and stood motionless under everyone's gaze, his eyes full of determination.
If the sunlight on the surface could really kill him, he would rather die under the sunlight now.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes passed, and Charles didn't feel anything unusual except that his body felt a little hot.
Looking at the light in the dome, the corners of Charles' mouth rose slightly. He guessed right. He had been basking in the sun so many times on the surface of the earth. He didn't believe that after not seeing him for nine years, the sun would not recognize him.
Charles put his hands down and looked at the ships and the pairs of eyes on the dark sea in the distance, feeling filled with emotion.
Kede's previous words rang in his ears. The Land of Light is the kingdom of the God of Light, which rejects all filth and darkness.
He didn't know who made up this statement, but judging from the current situation, not only vampires, but also humans in Earthsea are also part of those who are repelled by sunlight.
"Maybe the humans of Earthsea have stayed in the darkness for too long, and something has been integrated into their bodies." Charles muttered to himself as he stood there.
After standing in the sun for a while, Charles gathered the bodies on the ground together and quickly counted them. He found that there were seventy-nine people dead on the beach. In addition, one of the leaders, Kede, was also dead. The loss was not small.
Before, Charles was still wondering why the king of Sodom didn't let the pirates occupy this paradise if he knew about this place. Now he finally knew the reason.
Charles closed Kede's eyes with dilated pupils with regret, looked up at the dazzling light again, turned around and swam towards the Narwhal.
As soon as Charles went on deck, he saw that the captains and other crew members of the remaining twelve exploration ships were already waiting for him.
Everyone was silent, and their eyes, filled with various emotions, were directed at Charles' face.
Isn't this a place of light? Why did so many people die suddenly? Why was Charles okay? What was their mission this time? Too many questions popped up in their minds.
Charles took Dipper's towel and wiped himself with it, then said to them directly: "I won't say anything else. You all have seen the specific situation. De did not lie to you before. We came here to find the land of light. In fact, this island is not the land of light. The crack in the sky is the land of light."
The buzz of discussion among the crowd didn't last long before it was interrupted by Charles's speech again.
"And that's where I came from. The fact that the sunlight didn't kill me before is proof of that."
Charles had said these words countless times before in Earthsea, but this was the only time that no one who listened to him laughed.
“Our next goal is to figure out how to go up from there.”
"But the divine light of the God of Light will kill us, why should we go up there? The legends of the Church of Light are all lies! There is murderous light all up there, and that place is totally uninhabitable!" Someone objected.
"No, no, no, you still don't understand. Sunlight can kill you. This is indeed a problem, but there is always a way to solve this problem. If you can't find a solution below, there are many smart people above. There is always a way, even if you have to wear protective clothing all day long, or you can only go out at night. But even so, it is still ten, a hundred, a thousand times better than this damn place!"
"I believe everyone knows about the sinking of Yingdao Island. Do you intend to live in fear that the island may sink at any time? Let me tell you, it's right above," Charles pointed his hand at the light in the sky.
"In that legendary land of light, there is a continent that is larger than the entire Earth Sea. The ground there is not only extremely rich and fertile, but it will never sink!"
(End of this chapter)