Suddenly, Shi Ming felt a familiar sensation wash over him.

Hazy water vapor spread through the air, seemingly forming a dreamlike Illusion Realm. The mist and the illusion were incredibly subtle, creeping in silently and imperceptibly. It looked like ordinary fog, but Shi Ming could not miss the danger lurking within.

An A-rank skill, Mirage Illusion Realm.

"Hm?"

’It can’t be this much of a coincidence!’

’Is it that guy, Atte? The one commissioned by the Lighthouse to hunt down ordinary Wandering Ships? The one I almost killed last time before he vanished into thin air?’

His eyes narrowed.

The illusory mist began to thicken, just like a natural sea fog, trying to seep into the Grand Fortune’s cabins bit by bit.

’Interesting.’

’There’s a path to heaven, yet you refuse to take it.’

’Hell has no gate, yet you come barging in.’

"Captain, that Wandering Ship is slowly approaching. It’s now within two nautical miles. We don’t know if they want to trade or have other intentions. Should we drive them off or initiate contact?"

Stone Pillar had been keeping a close eye on their movements.

"No need. It’s an old acquaintance, and he’s already started probing."

The A-rank skill, Mirage Illusion Realm, is extremely stealthy. It can even fool the senses of most A-rank Awakened.

"Captain, how about you let me handle it this time?"

"That won’t be necessary either."

Although Stone Pillar had bathed in the blood of the A-rank sea beast, the White Dragon Whale, and obtained the A-rank skill Whale Burst, Shi Ming knew that the "Prince" possessed an extremely high-ranking wondrous item called the Lamp of Wishes.

The Lamp of Wishes could grant three wishes.

When Shi Ming first arrived in the Sea of Yellow Sand, Prince Atte had used his skills to conjure a Mirage on the water as bait. He would lure Wandering Ships in, then try to hunt them down and destroy them to get their Sailing Crystal Stones. Shi Ming had seen through his trick, and just as he was about to kill Atte, the prince used the power of the Lamp of Wishes. He and his Golden Ship had vanished right before Shi Ming’s eyes.

’When dealing with someone who has an ace up their sleeve, you can’t give them any time to play it.’

’The blow has to be fatal.’

’If he escapes, that’s a minor issue. But if the treasure gets away, the loss would be far greater than any gain.’

He locked onto the approaching ship with his Spiritual Power.

Two nautical miles. One nautical mile. Half a nautical mile.

Closer.

Shi Ming’s brows shot up, and he leaped out of the cabin.

The She Ri under his feet let out an unrestrained, piercing whistle as he soared through the air. Shi Ming swiped his right hand across his left arm and, astonishingly, drew a long blade as bright as frost and snow from his own body. With a resounding WHOOSH, he slashed out at the enemy ship, which was now just a stone’s throw away.

Third Law: Great Cold!

CRACK!

The air seemed to freeze wherever the arc of his blade passed.

The bronze-grade Wandering Ship was frozen solid in the water before it split apart with a deafening ROAR. A-rank Awakened Prince Atte had just been plotting his plunder when he saw a brilliant blade, bright enough to freeze his very thoughts, appear before him. He knew things had gone terribly wrong. He pulled out the Lamp of Wishes, but he didn’t even have time to make a wish!

His vision and his mind were instantly filled with a blinding, ghastly white. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

An ultimate, ghastly white.

Atte’s body and mind froze as one, turning a single moment into an eternity.

With a CRACK, the Lamp of Wishes froze in his hand. Then, along with his body, it fell to the deck with a dull thud.

Great Cold, sheathed.

Prince Atte cracked and split apart.

As the saying goes, "walk by the river long enough, and your shoes are bound to get wet." The last time they fought, Atte escaped because of the Lamp of Wishes. This time, he didn’t even get the chance to use it.

Shi Ming retrieved the dilapidated "Lamp of Wishes"—which looked more like an old ashtray—from Atte’s hand.

[Contaminated Lamp of Wishes.]

[Level 9]

[A Wishing Star that fell from the heavens transformed into a wondrous power and merged with an oil lamp, creating the Lamp of Wishes, ranked 41st on the List of Wondrous Items. It can grant its holder three wishes. Unfortunately, in less than a century, the worldly desires of mortals have utterly contaminated the pure Wish Power. It now grants wishes in a twisted manner and demands payment in the name of equivalent exchange.]

[Upgrade requires: Purifying Marrow x300g.]

’I won’t use items that have side effects.’

’Not unless it’s a last resort.’

’Looking at the contrast between his arrogance last time and his pathetic state now, I bet the "help" of this Lamp of Wishes had a lot to do with it.’

Although the Wandering Ship was broken in two, it didn’t sink. It was held fast by a river of ice formed from the sword’s slash, firmly embedded in the sea’s surface. The crew of the Grand Fortune had already boarded and begun searching for spoils. This prince had acted as an enforcer for the Lighthouse, setting various traps over the years to hunt and destroy dozens of low-level Wandering Ships. ’I wonder if he ever imagined he’d end up like this.’

The fake map to the Scorpion King’s Pyramid was just one of his traps.

But Shi Ming, with his Brain of Creation, had spotted the errors and completed the true map.

"Captain, we found it."

Lin Hai came onto the half-capsized deck, which was tilted at a 25-degree angle, carrying a chest.

He opened the chest.

Inside were about thirty light-blue and aqua-colored Crystal Stones. Later, in the prince’s luxurious room, they found a treasured, azure "Sailing Heart"! It was an Energy Core that only Golden Wandering Ships possessed and one of the crucial materials for upgrading to a General-grade Wandering Ship.

’Just what I needed.’

...

...

...

「The Captain’s Quarters」

Shi Ming stared at the Lamp of Wishes on his desk.

"Eye of the World, acquire information."

’The upgrade info was pretty brief. Maybe the information I get directly from the Eye of the World will be more detailed and help me understand how to use this lamp.’

[BEEP... BEEP...]

[Organizing information...]

[Searching... Confirming detailed coordinates... Search successful. Summarizing information... Information generated.]

[Lamp of Wishes.]

[A Wishing Star, roaming the cosmos, merged with an ordinary oil lamp. Originally, it could use its wondrous Star Spirit Power to help humans realize their wishes. But over the centuries, human wishes proved to be monotonously similar, and the starlight was inevitably stained with the colors of desire, greed, slaughter, morbid curiosity, and hatred.]

[Ability: Make a Wish]

[Light the lamp, rub its body, and say, "O pure Star Spirit from the depths of the cosmos, my wish is: ..." to make your wish.]

[Note 1: Making a wish to the Lamp of Wishes in its contaminated state will, with 100% certainty, lead to a twisted result, for which you must pay a price of "equivalent exchange."]

[Note 2: Even after purification, if the wish made is exceedingly absurd, the result may still be twisted.]

[Note 3: The Star Spirit was once a living creature; it is now merely a component of this wondrous item.]

[Note 4: In the keyword data of past wishes, "wealth," "women/men," "power," "eternal life," "more wishes," and "enlargement" appear with extremely high frequency. Most of these wishes were granted in highly twisted ways. It is strongly advised that you do not attempt wishes for "more wishes," "enlargement," or "eternal life."]

[Note 5: The Lamp of Wishes is not omnipotent. Among the 1,886 wishes on record, there is 1 instance of a wish that it was unable to grant, no matter how it tried to twist it.]

...

’That’s a lot of notes. Only one wish it couldn’t grant?’

’A 99.95% success rate is still incredibly high.’

’I should start thinking about what wish to make. Once I get my hands on some Purifying Marrow, I can purify and upgrade this Lamp of Wishes. Then I’ll be able to make wishes without any side effects. No, wait... the Eye of the World’s notes said that even after purification, I can’t make any wishes that are too outrageous or absurd.’

’I’ll have to figure out where that line is for myself.’

’After all, it’s only ranked 41st among wondrous items, not number 1.’