After a short rest, Xiong and Zack recovered, and Ginny and the others went back to the cabin to change into dry clothes. Then the ship continued to move forward.
"Dad, look at these clouds. They are elastic, unlike the water-like clouds below."
"These are island clouds. Because of their different density, their properties are also different. Although they are just clouds, they can even be used to grow crops, just like soil."
The essence of island clouds and sea clouds is the combination of P particles and water molecules. On Sky Island, the people here have long mastered the method of creating artificial clouds in order to survive.
They can process island clouds and other clouds in a special way, making them into materials for building houses and bridges. This island cloud processing technology is also something that Orlan is quite interested in.
The island clouds and sea clouds seemed to form a maze with winding paths. When they walked out of it, a waterfall made of clouds appeared in front of them.
"HEAVEN'S GATE? Is there heaven behind this?"
There is a strange gate in front of the waterfall. Xiong himself is a religious believer, although he doesn't do it often, but he is also a part-time priest, so this word has a strange meaning to him.
"Don't get me wrong, the words here are just literal. There's nothing wrong with calling a country ten thousand meters above the ground Heaven. Is anyone here? We want to enter!"
Orlan shouted something inside, and soon a middle-aged woman came out.
"One hundred million iks per person entering the country."
"One hundred million??? Why don't you just go and rob it!"
Hearing this number, Ginny roared at her like she was furious. No matter how you look at it, an entry fee of 100 million is too exaggerated.
"This is Sky Island's currency. The exchange rate to Bailey is 10,000:1. We only need 40,000 Baileys in total. Don't get so excited."
Among the many things the World Government has done, unifying the currency is one of the few good things. At least Bailey is the universal currency in most countries, and it has circulation channels even in Sky Island.
Everyone can understand charging an entry fee. It's an unspoken rule on the sea, and Piltover does the same. Ginny just couldn't believe the astronomical figure at first.
After paying the entry fee, the four entered the country on the sky island with legal identities. Then, in front of Leliana, Oran demonstrated the nature of the transaction, which was also one of the purposes of this trip - teaching.
There was no monetary transaction, but the most traditional barter model was used. Oran used a bag of rubber bands bought for 100 berries to exchange for two sacks of various supplies on the Sky Island.
Various magical sky island shellfish, unique sky island fruits and sky fish, these things can be taken down there and sold for millions of berries easily, and the profit can be said to be more than ten thousand times.
"Is making money such an easy thing?"
"That's not the case. This is essentially taking advantage of information differences. There are no rubber bands on Sky Island, and people here have never seen such a thing.
But Sky Island Shells are everywhere here, and you can find plenty of them on the beach, so we can exchange them for so many things that are beneficial to us."
In addition, Olan also exchanged a piece of soil the size of a bottle cap from the people here for an empty map nearby.
Because of its geographical location, soil can be said to be a priceless treasure on Sky Island.
Although Arpaiado is covered with mud, ordinary Sky Islanders cannot set foot there.
Arpaiado is the Gaya Island that was washed up into the sky. Because of the Sky Island's desire for soil, it became a holy place in the eyes of the Sky Island people, and only the Sky Island's gods can live there.
"Bika. Found it. It's over here."
With a pack of rubber bands, Orlan has exchanged for most of the supplies he needs. The remaining targets are gold and devil fruits.
The location of the Thunder Fruit is not on this sky island, but on another sky island - Bika.
This is the hometown that Enel destroyed with his own hands in the original timeline.
Due to the closed nature of Sky Island, there is basically no communication between the outside world and here. If one can become a fruit ability user, there is a 99% chance that the fruit was born nearby.
Apart from the gold, the purpose of coming to the Sky Island was basically achieved. Afterwards, Orlan did not take Leliana and the others to Arpaiado, but went to the other side of the sea of clouds to look for the Shandian people who were washed up on the Sky Island together.
"Dad, the people on Angel Island say Arpaio is their sanctuary.
It should be the same as our royal city, where outsiders are not allowed to enter. What are we looking for here?"
Orlan is not a pirate who does whatever he wants. He has to follow principles when doing things, such as negotiating with the owner.
"Riley, this is different. The former royal family of Piltover abandoned this country. We drove out the pirates who invaded there, and the local indigenous people also supported us to become the new royal family.
But the sanctuary of Sky Island did not belong to them before."
Nearly four hundred years ago, when Gaya Island was still intact, Shandora had not yet come to Sky Island.
This is also the origin of the North Sea fairy tale, the great liar Rolando.
At that time, the North Sea navigator Wenbrand Rolando accidentally came to Gaya Island to avoid the rainstorm and saved the Sandia tribe who were attacked by "tree fever", making a great contribution to Gaya Island.
He also formed a deep friendship with the great warrior of the time, Kalgara.
The Shandia people were undoubtedly ignorant at the time. They did not know that the source of the plague was the sacred trees in their eyes.
The trees that are said to house the souls of their ancestors are actually constantly reaping their lives.
In order to save his friends and prevent them from harming other lives through sacrifice, Rolando cut down the trees and eradicated the disease.
By the time Calgara learned the news, Rolando had already sailed away, and the two friends said goodbye.
Calgara made a vow to ring the golden bell every day to use the sound of the bell to guide Rolando.
But shortly after that, the surging ocean current carried Shandora to the sky island.
In a sense, it was a blessing in disguise for the Shandia people.
Although after arriving at Sky Island, countless battles broke out between the Shandia people and the Sky Island people because of the Sky Island people's greed for land, all for the sake of protecting their land and fulfilling their original promise.
But if they had not come to Sky Island, with King Rolando's greed for gold, they would probably have caused greater damage to Shandora.
Rolando may not have thought so much, but such an explorer may not necessarily bring happiness to the locals, but may also bring destruction.
"One thing is certain, the gold of Shandora belongs to the Shandia people.
Violating the laws of Sky Island and entering the Sanctuary, stealing the gold that belongs to the Shandians, this kind of thing is untenable from any angle, and may even make us their common enemy. That is not what we should do.
Just like the previous rubber band deal, our goal is to exploit the intelligence gap and reach a win-win deal."
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