The Cursed Ship

Chapter 33: How to Join the Arcane Coven

Zheng Yang asked Entes for a deposit of 200 thousand pounds.

After ending the call, he told Eva, “Did you hear that? 700 thousand pounds! Eva, you’re gonna be rich! Well, how about you become my sugar mommy, eh?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“The hell?

“Are you serious?” he thought.

Zheng Yang awkwardly glanced at Emily, but she merely grinned while making lunch and changed the subject. “You still have to rent a freezer and hire a professional to drain the fish’s blood, you know.”

He made a call to Henry right after that.

He wasn’t concerned about any of the extra expenses, given that Entes would probably cover Henry’s commission.

When Henry heard that Zheng Yang had caught yet another massive tuna and what’s more, a bluefin, which was the most expensive kind of tuna there was, he showered the young man with compliments.

After Zheng Yang told Henry what he needed and agreed to pay a commission of 1000 pounds, Henry settled all the arrangements in just half an hour and waited for Zheng Yang and the fish to return to port.

The winds grew stronger and reached about a force of four on the Beaufort Scale, while the waves reached over a meter in height.

The sailboat rocked back and forth due to the intensity of the waves, which made Eva feel rather nauseous. Her face had turned pale, and she looked like she was about to throw up. Emily handed her a pill and told her to gulp it down. In less than two minutes, the girl was back to normal, and she shouted excitedly as the sailboat went up and down with the waves.

“Your mystic meds sure are something,” Zheng Yang thought.

His sailboat reached the maximum speed of 14 knots, which allowed them to return to port in less than an hour.

A mid-size fishing boat that was docked at the seafood docks and wasn’t going out to sea at the moment took the job of draining the tuna’s blood and flash-freezing it. They tied up the tail of the tuna and hoisted it onto their boat with a crane. Not caring that the fish was still conscious, if only barely, they whacked the fish hard in the head before cutting its tail, opening up its chest, chopping off the head and the arteries, and finally, slitting its gills and flushing them with a hose, so as to speed up the blood-letting process.

When the fluids gushing out of the tail end were clear of blood, the professionals proceeded to remove the fish’s internal organs and then put the fish in the freezer.

Entes would arrive at the English Harbor about 10 hours later. The cold storage and blood-letting service cost 20000 pounds.

Henry acted as a representative of the club and bore witness to the transaction between both parties.

Emily and Eva went home as soon as the sailboat had docked, leaving the rest to Zheng Yang, trusting him completely. Zheng Yang felt that both of them would have agreed even if he had asked for 30 percent of the profit, but he wasn’t about to do that.

They left their fishing gear on his boat instead of taking it back with them, deciding to come onto the boat again when they had the time.

“The boat is still too small, and there’s still a lot to be done,” he thought. “Looks like I’ll need to really make friends with Rovni and her people. The conditions for evolving the boat into a level-two vessel won’t just show up at my door, so I’ll need to look for clues on my own. Joining hands with Rovni and gaining access to official resources would be better than me trying to get lucky on my own, after all.

“And then, there’s the Arcane Coven. What do I need to do to get access to that secret page and read what’s in there? Could I get secret level access just by joining the Arcane Coven? Emily said that it was a loose civilian organization, so that means I can join.”

He hadn’t been able to find a chance to talk to Emily in private. All the questions he’d planned to ask her about how to join the Arcan Coven remained unasked. So, he figured he’d simply ask her over the phone instead.

“Satellite phones aren’t bugged, right?” he thought. “Whatever, it’s not like I need to join today anyway. Better to ask her at the clinic tomorrow.”

He docked his sailboat near the fishing boat and kept watch. It wasn’t until an hour and a half past midnight that Entes arrived at the harbor with a rented cold truck.

Right when he saw Zheng Yang, he said, “It’s been a while, Zheng Yang. Have you decided to attend my grandfather’s birthday party?”

“I’m sorry, I probably won’t be going after all.”

“Ah, what a pity. And wow, I see that you’ve renovated your boat. Can I take a look inside after we get that bluefin settled?”

“Be my guest.”

After inspecting the tuna, Entes had his people move the fish back to the truck. Then, he wired Zheng Yang the money on the spot before boarding the sailboat with him.

“You’re kidding me! No satellite tv and stereo speakers, and not even a fridge? This is ridiculous! And the sofa and chairs! My god, you’re wasting this beautiful boat of yours. Zheng, you’d be better off selling me the boat instead.”

“Heh, don’t even think about it.”

“Well, have you talked to the master craftsmen about making me a boat like this one? Are they willing to take up my offer?”

Zheng Yang stayed mum for a bit before saying, “Sorry, probably can’t be done for the time being.”

The dejected look on Entes’ face was unmistakable.

…

Entes took the bluefin tuna away that very night, and Zheng Yang wired the money to Eva’s bank account the next morning. After deducting the total amount of tax, which was about 10 percent of his earnings, his bank account balance had increased to 63000 pounds.

“Now it’s time to spend money again,” he thought to himself. “Otherwise, what’s the point in earning it, right?

The first thing he bought was the six old tires from Henry, which cost him tens of pounds. Using the boat’s self-installation abilities, he tied the tires at both sides of the boat with steel wires. Then, he spent 40000 pounds on a handmade longsword with intricate Damascus steel patterns on it, and a powerful harpoon. Totaled together, these purchases drained half his bank account.

After this was done, he put the flatfish that Emily had caught the day before into a netting bag and took it with him to the clinic. The fish weighed over 20 kilograms. Most people would have been exhausted carrying something that heavy for 15 minutes, but not Zheng Yang. Because he was now twice as strong as an ordinary person, the journey wasn’t all that difficult.

Coincidentally, when he got to the clinic, Emily was about to make lunch, so he stayed behind.

Given that Eva wasn’t home yet and Viya was still at the reception desk on the first floor, he followed Emily all the way into the kitchen and asked what he had been intending to ask.

“You wanna join the Arcane Coven?” Emily asked as she grilled the fish.

“Shouldn’t I be joining them?” Zheng Yang asked in return.

Emily shot him a pointed look and said calmly, “You could join them, but what are you after? Do you wanna get in touch with other people from the occult, or do you wanna trade? Or perhaps you wanna explore some mystical, eerie place?”

“Depends. But what I wanna do now is learn more about the occult.”

“It’s actually easy to join the coven. You only need a veteran member to vouch for you in order to become an associate member, and you’ll become a full-fledged member after a year. Or, you could get approval from the coven’s management and become a full member right from the start.”

Zheng Yang nodded. He speculated that Emily was a full member of the Arcane Coven herself, and he thought that he might be able to get her to vouch for him.

“There’s an Arcane Coven forum on the internet. I suppose the two are one and the same?” Zheng Yang knew the answer already, but he asked anyway in order to get to the next part of his question—how to get secret level access to the forum.

Emily spoke frankly, not hiding anything. “They are one and the same, and most people in the occult circle know that. You’ll gain secret level access after you become a full member and register with them with your real personal details, and you’ll be given access to the encrypted channel, which is loaded with information about the occult. But, due to the loose management of the coven, members come in all varieties, and you’d best be careful when dealing with them.”