“That High-tier Legendary Mage held an incredibly esteemed status in the City of a Thousand Towers,” Freya's voice echoed across the gloomy seabed.
“His disappearance caused a massive uproar.”
“The City of a Thousand Towers was furious, and the City-State Alliance Council paid close attention to the matter.”
“Various factions sent out waves of search parties, hoping to find him in this dark sea.”
“There was no shortage of powerful figures among those who followed.”
“There were Legendary Mages who excelled in water magic.”
“There were also scouts with extraordinary sensory abilities.”
“They even brought a Divine Artifact to aid in their search.”
Theia couldn't help but gasp, “Another Divine Artifact?!”
She was so shocked because Divine Artifacts on the Akara Continent were incredibly rare.
As far as she knew, there were fewer than ten officially recognized Divine Artifacts in existence.
Freya looked at her with a hint of surprise.
“You've seen a Divine Artifact before?”
Lin Gui immediately interjected:
“It was the Divine Artifact used by the Holy Saintess of the Holy Church of Light when she cast her Prophecy spell.”
He didn't want to bring up Caleb and the weapon that wasn't counted among the ten great Divine Artifacts.
That would only invite unnecessary trouble.
“Which Divine Artifact did they bring?” Lin Gui asked, smoothly changing the subject.
“The Omniscient Astrolabe,” Freya replied.
“A Divine Artifact capable of detecting the energy fluctuations of all living beings within a ten-kilometer radius.”
“With it, the City-State Alliance Council can predict the movements of the Dark Tide a month in advance.”
“To find that mage, the Tower Master of the City of a Thousand Towers personally traveled to Dawn City.”
“He begged the Council to lend them the Divine Artifact.”
“Hoping to locate where the mage had sunk...”
“With the Omniscient Astrolabe, covering this sea area should have been effortless.”
“Sensing the trace of a Legendary Mage on the outskirts should have been child's play.”
Theia listened, completely absorbed, and pressed further:
“So, did they find him in the end?”
Freya paused for a moment.
The silence of the ocean floor seemed to grow even heavier.
“No, they didn't.”
“The people who came searching with the Omniscient Astrolabe...”
“They stayed in this sea area for a long time, but ultimately returned empty-handed.”
“It's said that they looked absolutely terrified when they left.”
“As if, through the Omniscient Astrolabe, in this forbidden sea...”
“They had sensed some kind of terrifying... existence.”
Freya's tone was deliberately low and eerie.
This coupled with the oppressive darkness surrounding them.
Theia shrank back in fear, nervously scanning her surroundings.
It felt as if something truly was peering out from the depths of that darkness.
Until Freya couldn't help but burst into a soft laugh.
Only then did Theia realize she had been teased.
“Captain Freya!” she huffed, stamping her foot.
Her cheeks flushed slightly with embarrassment.
“Making a joke like that in a place like this is just too much!”
Seeing Theia show such a rare, girlish side,
even Lin Gui, whose face had been tense the entire time,
felt the corners of his mouth twitch upward in a barely perceptible smile.
This brief moment of levity slightly dispelled the oppressive atmosphere of the seabed.
Freya offered a gentle smile.
She had indeed wanted to use this method to slightly ease the suffocating pressure of the deep sea.
Thousands of meters beneath the ocean, surrounded by eternal darkness,
even with companions by one's side, one's mind would inevitably grow highly tense,
and could even break.
After all, this underwater journey was still going to last for quite a while.
She began to recount amusing anecdotes from past transport missions,
thrilling adventures, and things she had witnessed as a Legendary expert.
The others tacitly joined in, sharing their own experiences as well.
Scholar Eli pushed up his glasses and spoke of legends regarding an ancient sea kingdom he had discovered in old texts.
Deputy Captain Aubrey recalled his youth, sharing his experiences fighting fierce battles against the demon legion on the border as a shield warrior.
Betty blushed and quietly grumbled about the embarrassing blunders she made while learning magic.
The scout Alvin, assassin Dulu, and Ranger Laisa up ahead did not join in.
They had to remain completely focused.
Under the rule of absolute sinking, deadly dangers lurked everywhere on the ocean floor.
Beneath the seemingly flat silt, bottomless sinkholes could be hidden.
Once anyone took a wrong step, they would be dragged into the abyss by an invisible force, with no hope of survival.
They carefully tapped every inch of the ground ahead with their weapons.
They cautiously guided the team around those life-devouring traps.
Amidst the chatting and laughing, the team crossed rugged underwater mountain ranges,
traversed valleys filled with eerie, pale coral,
and even came across an ancient shipwreck half-buried in the sand and silt.
Theia's sharp eyes pierced the darkness, spotting a wooden chest among the ship's wreckage.
Upon opening it, she found it was actually filled with jewelry and gold coins.
Theia's entire elven being lit up with excitement, her eyes sparkling.
Freya generously declared that it all belonged to her.
“Though it's called treasure, its actual value is probably less than ten thousand gold coins.”
She could tell at a glance that it was a shipwreck from the Golden Age.
“Gold coins from the Golden Age have severely depreciated in the City-State Era.”
“A few hundred or thousand gold coins was a fortune back then, but now...”
She didn't finish her sentence, but everyone understood.
Nowadays, even buying a piece of pork outside cost several hundred gold coins.
Theia's money-loving display brought smiles to the members of the North Wind caravan.
Only the Forest Elf Laisa up ahead frowned.
The word 'greedy' really didn't align with an elf who supposedly revered nature and art.
The suspicion in her heart deepened by a few more degrees.
Chatting and laughing, the team continued to advance toward the central region of the Silent Sea.
Before they knew it, some time had passed.
The goblin chief, Stonefang, who was leading the way up ahead, suddenly raised his hand to signal the team to stop.
He gathered everyone together, his expression more solemn than ever before.
“Ahead of us is the Silent Abyss.”
His voice was low and serious.
“Everyone must follow my footsteps closely.”
“Absolutely do not take even a single step outside.”
Goblin Chief Stonefang's unusually solemn expression put Lin Gui and the others, who were crossing for the first time, on high alert.
They soon understood why this experienced leader was so tense.
The dangers of the so-called Silent Abyss far exceeded their imagination.
They seabed beneath their feet suddenly narrowed.
Shrinking from the relatively wide ocean floor plain into an extremely narrow, steep rocky ridge.
It was only wide enough for three or four people to walk abreast.
On both sides of the rocky ridge lay bottomless, colossal chasms.
It was a pure, all-consuming darkness.
The beams from their magic lamps plunged into it, seemingly absorbed instantly, failing to illuminate even a single contour.
There was only a heart-stopping void.
At this moment, they were like travelers walking along the spine of an incredibly treacherous mountain peak.
And on both sides of this mountain were bottomless abysses.
Even more unsettling was the downward suction.
In other parts of the Silent Sea, they only felt a heaviness in their bodies.
But here, it felt as though invisible hands were reaching out from the abyss,
trying to drag them down into that eternal darkness.
Every step had to be planted with absolute firmness.
Their minds had to be highly focused, without the slightest distraction.
Goblin Chief Stonefang walked at the very front.
His crimson eyes stared intently at the narrow path beneath his feet.
Each step he took was exceptionally cautious.
Behind him, the warriors pushing the train were drenched in sweat.
Their feet sank deep into the sediment on the surface of the rocky ridge.
They struggled to maintain their balance, preventing the heavy train from tilting or sliding even slightly.
The entire team was dead silent.
Only their heavy breathing and heartbeats remained.
They echoed above the deathly quiet abyss.
Rate on N.U.
