Morning sunlight danced across the eastern coastal harbor of the Central Continent. It reflected brightly off the ten-mile hull of the captured Sanctuary dreadnought.
Reforged by Kaelen’s twenty-one thousand six hundred and ten times alchemical fire, the vessel no longer wore the grim black-iron livery of the Star-Fall Sanctuary. Every plate of its ten-mile hull gleamed with an indestructible Tier 7 Cloud-Veined Star-Marrow Glaze. From the ramming prow to the lofty quarterdeck, the nine-ringed surface shone. It shifted between warm pearl-white and pale azure in the sea breeze.
Painted in clean gold script across the bow—in Old Barnaby’s neat household calligraphy—was the warship’s new name:
The Quiet Hammock.
On the stone pier beside the flagship’s gangplank stood the three newly installed Nascent Soul Peak governors of the Central Continent. They were Old Barnaby Holt, Linnea, and Deacon Vane. Behind them stood Patriarch Shen, Patriarch Mu, Vice-Commander Xiao, and Captain Morvath. Fifty thousand cheering Free Cauldron Alliance soldiers lined the harbor wall in shining formation.
Even old Sword-Preceptor Yan Beichen stood quietly near the harbor lighthouse. He held his freshly printed copy of the twelfth booklet of The Bandit King’s Secret Bride. From afar, he offered Elder Sterling a respectful bow.
