Chapter Thirty: Sinking into… the Deep Sea

That night, after finishing her meeting with the queen, Miss Vilyric brought Miss Le Qiao Qiao back to their temporary residence on Palut Island.

Having had a long and tiring day, the Priestess sent the two girls to rest early and returned to her room to prepare for the planned actions the next day.

Miss Vilyric’s main goal remained unchanged: to understand the general situation here, find a safe way for the ship to traverse the Ghost Sea, and leave the Emerald Sea Region to return to the continent.

As for the many problems currently facing the Merman Tribe and the suddenly missing Princess Nitira, she could lend a hand and investigate while on her way, but if the time and cost proved significantly greater than expected, she’d have to consider whether it was worth intervening.

After all, she and the Merman Tribe were just passing acquaintances. The cooperation that Queen Anies spoke of didn’t mean that Miss Vilyric would help solve current problems. If it turned out to be too troublesome, she would at most ensure Princess Nitira’s safety to repay her trust.

That princess was trapped in the Ghost Sea.

According to Queen Anies, the scene revealed during the sacrificial ceremony was one of the islands within the Ghost Sea.

However, the queen didn’t elaborate on how she could confirm this, how Princess Nitira ended up there, or why she could safely remain on the island. It seemed she was intentionally being vague about it.

The situation was urgent; tomorrow, the queen would lead the royal guard through a large deep-sea portal connecting two islands and head to a certain front near the Ghost Sea to attempt a rescue of Nitira.

Her original intention was for Miss Vilyric and the others to wait at East Sea Pearl, as venturing into the Ghost Sea sounded dangerous. But the Priestess wouldn’t let such a good opportunity slip away and immediately requested to accompany them.

Surprisingly, Queen Anies easily accepted this proposal.

However, due to the limited capacity of the portal and issues with water, only Le Qiao Qiao and Hong Yan were allowed to accompany her. Most of the merchant caravan members, including a few Lingyin Ethnics and the Noah’s Ark docked at Palut Island’s coast, had to remain at East Sea Pearl and wait for their return.

It seemed although Queen Anies ruled out Miss Vilyric and the others as suspects, she didn’t fully trust this batch of outsiders visiting during such troubled times. Leaving the caravan at the Merman’s base was quite obvious, almost an alternative form of honesty and mutual guarantee.

From the perspective of her own kind’s queen, that made sense; if Anies truly didn’t have any backup plans and showed an irrational level of trust, Miss Vilyric would genuinely find it strange.

The Priestess had a hunch that what they were about to do would likely involve many elements more critical than they appeared. Although Queen Anies seemed quite anxious, Miss Vilyric sensed a hint of composure in her that suggested she was still in control of the situation.

Perhaps Nitira’s disappearance was something she anticipated; the purpose of today’s sacrificial ceremony clearly wasn’t as simple as it appeared.

She needed to be prepared on her side as well.

Just then.

“Doo doo doo~”

A light knocking sound suddenly came from outside the room. Instinctively, Miss Vilyric spread her perception slightly outward and quickly identified the visitor.

“Hong Yan? What brings you here so late?”

After a brief silence, the voice responded softly.

“Miss Vilyric, there are some circumstances… I feel I must tell you. May I come in?”

Noticing the almost imperceptible tremor in her voice, the black-haired girl raised an eyebrow, sat up from the edge of her bed, adjusted her slightly disheveled white nightgown and long hair, and lifted her hand to remove the defensive barriers and probing shields covering the room.

“The door isn’t locked.”

“…Excuse me.”

With that, the Swordsman entered.

She was wearing a loose nightgown in the style of the Ancient Spirit Realm, clutching the sword that never left her side, her eyes somewhat scattered, and her complexion shockingly pale as if she had just endured severe fright and hadn’t yet recovered.

Seeing Hong Yan’s strange appearance, Miss Vilyric realized she might have encountered some unmanageable problem. She remained silent, only waiting for Hong Yan to shut the door before discreetly reestablishing the barrier and motioning to the side of her bed.

“Your face doesn’t look good; come, sit down and take your time.”

“Um…”

Finally seeing Miss Vilyric seemed to calm the Swordsman down a bit, but she still didn’t loosen her grip on the weapon. After sitting down in a fluster, she fell silent for a long while, as if unsure how to start.

The Priestess didn’t rush her; she quietly waited for Hong Yan to collect herself.

In her faceted vision, Miss Vilyric could vaguely see a faint, obscure aura entwined around the surface of the girl’s soul, which hadn’t been present before they parted earlier today.

Clearly, Hong Yan’s abnormal behavior was related to this. Perhaps she had done something “out of line” while alone.

After a long moment, the gray-haired girl finally managed to suppress her anxiety and hesitantly spoke.

“Miss Vilyric, I just saw something… something… No, it’s too absurd, simply unbelievable! This world we are in, everything we see, hear, and experience… is it real?!”

“Real…?”

Watching her, Miss Vilyric frowned slightly.

Not only because of Hong Yan’s earlier rambling, but as she felt her mental agitation, the dark aura clinging to her soul seemed to gradually spread deeper, as if it were trying to erode her.

Is this… pollution? The kind of spiritual pollution I saw during the day?

How could it appear on Hong Yan? She didn’t seem to be affected then; otherwise, Miss Vilyric would have definitely noticed.

Not rushing to point this out, the Priestess simply continued the conversation.

“So, what did you see? Be specific.”

Struggling to swallow, Hong Yan nodded.

“Miss Vilyric should know that for sword cultivators, honing the spirit and sword heart is of utmost importance. I meditate instead of sleeping, entering a state that’s neither sleep nor wakefulness to refine my spirit and perceive the way of heaven and earth.”

“When my master taught me this meditative method, he told me it’s a state that resembles sleep without being sleep. Though the mind is resting, spiritual awareness can sharply extend, allowing me to wake up at any moment in emergencies, and more easily blend into the surrounding environment, seeing things that… ordinarily go unseen by the human eye.”

“The flow of energy, the pulse of spiritual power, and even my own body’s internal condition—this meditative approach is the foundation of all my training.”

At this point, the Swordsman paused, her tone suddenly laced with confusion and strangeness.

“But… ever since crossing to the underwater realm and coming to this world, I’ve found that I couldn’t see anything during my nightly meditations. The originally pure spiritual environment should have countless light spots swirling in the air; the better the environment, the denser and purer the light.”

“However, here, there is not a glimmer of brightness. Apart from my own body, it feels like being submerged in an entirely pitch-black deep sea, even… even bringing about a sense of terror akin to drowning, and if I concentrate, I can faintly hear some elusive whispers…”

“I thought this was because the environments of the two worlds are different, my body hasn’t adapted to this energy system and laws here, completely isolated from the outside. After all, this world doesn’t seem to possess spiritual energy, but rather some complex mixed elements.”

“For the past few days, I’ve been striving to extend my perception during meditation, listening for those strange sounds, hoping to adapt to this environment quickly, until tonight… I finally, finally could clearly hear that sound, and suddenly, the surrounding darkness dissipated, allowing me to see… see…”

The dark aura entwined at the edge of the girl’s soul suddenly intensified, even causing Hong Yan’s originally bright and calm eyes to take on a layer of ominous shadow, appearing eerie and foreboding.

Frowning, Miss Vilyric pinched a silver bell hidden behind her back, but remained nonchalant as she continued to ask.

“What did you see?”

As if triggered by this question, the girl suddenly clasped her head, trembling urgently as if unable to breathe, her forehead even swelling with strange blue veins!

“We… we are at the bottom of the sea! Everyone is sinking into the submerged islands, everything is an illusion! That darkness is the color of the deep sea; there are no living people, no living people! Only countless… ghosts!”

   

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