Ophelia froze in place.
Her eyes widened, and her mind went blank for a long while.
Ten years?
She suddenly rolled over and scrambled up, looking around the room in a panic.
The furnishings in the room hadn't changed at all.
“Girl, you’re awake?”
The parrot spoke.
“How much for last night?”
Again?
Only then did Ophelia realize she had been played.
She gave Elias a massive eye-roll.
“Mr. Wayne, that joke wasn’t funny at all.”
She massaged her aching neck and slowly stood up, trying to reclaim her dignity as a journalist.
However, before she could even look away from Elias, her peripheral vision caught sight of Bloodsong nearby.
Ophelia’s face instantly drained of all color.
Swoosh.
Driven by pure instinct, she darted behind Elias, using him as a human shield to separate herself from Bloodsong.
Bloodsong stood where he was, his pale face written with wordless exasperation.
“Mr... Mr. Wayne...”
Ophelia’s voice trembled.
“He, he, he... he’s a demon!”
“He has horns on his head! I saw them!”
“We have to leave! This ship is completely abnormal!”
“Leave?”
Elias raised an eyebrow and turned back to look at her leisurely.
“Where to?”
“We’re in the middle of the ocean. Are you asking me to take you for a swim?”
Ophelia was instantly stumped.
Elias continued his verbal assault, his tone full of perfunctoriness and mockery.
“Besides, Miss Moore, didn’t I hear that back at the tavern, you were the one shouting that you absolutely had to come?”
Ophelia bit her lower lip, her face pale, unable to say a word.
Elias felt he hadn’t teased her enough, and the corners of his mouth curled into a slightly wicked arc.
He leaned in closer, deliberately lowering his voice and flashing a textbook villainous grin.
“Furthermore, you think he’s a demon...”
“How do you know that I’m not one too?”
That sinister tone, combined with the dim gaslight in the room, produced a spectacular effect.
Ophelia was stunned, standing there completely dumbfounded.
“You really are quite wicked.”
Old Ed’s voice suddenly rang in his mind, filled with deep disdain.
“I learned from the best,” Elias replied in his mind without any burden of conscience.
Earlier in the captain’s cabin, that talkative parrot had been far too noisy, its mouth full of vulgar jokes about “twelve gold crowns.”
Elias couldn't stand listening to it, so he had started a discussion with Old Ed in his mind.
The core of the discussion was about the anchor containment object that old Crowley carried.
Such bizarre products, born from the fusion of steam and mysticism, usually came with a heavy price.
After some analysis, both of them reached a conclusion.
The side effects of that containment object were definitely not as simple as they appeared on the surface.
But at this moment, Old Ed was clearly expressing strong condemnation of Elias’s malicious behavior of terrorizing the reporter.
“Don’t go throwing all your dirty laundry on me,” Old Ed snorted.
Elias didn't have time to bicker with him right now.
The panic he had expected didn't appear on Ophelia’s face.
The fear on the girl’s face lasted for a few seconds before suddenly transforming into a kind of dead silence.
A numbness that came from having seen through the vanity of the mortal world.
As if resigning herself to fate, she sat down on a chair near the captain.
She wore an expression that said, “Kill me or eat me, do as you please.”
“Fine, stop acting.”
Ophelia looked at Elias expressionlessly.
“If you’re going to eat me, do it quickly. Don’t waste time.”
Elias almost broke character.
This was much harder to keep a straight face for than he had imagined.
Just then, the door to the captain’s cabin opened.
It was old Crowley who walked in.
“Is the girl awake yet...”
The words caught in Crowley’s throat as soon as he asked.
Because as soon as he looked up, he saw Ophelia sitting on the chair, radiating an aura of “having lost all hope.”
“Oh! Miss Moore, you’re awake?”
Crowley hid his pipe behind his back, his tone as gentle as a grandfatherly neighbor.
“I am truly sorry. I offer my most sincere apologies for my subordinate’s boorishness and rudeness.”
“Those crude sailors don’t know how to treat an elegant lady. I’ll be sure to dock their pay severely later.”
Ophelia didn't speak, using silence to express her protest.
Crowley didn't feel awkward either. He cleared his throat and quickly got to the point.
“However, we are about to reach our destination.”
“I need you both to go to the deck. You’ll be able to disembark very soon.”
Hearing this, Elias’s eyelids twitched.
He instinctively felt that Crowley becoming so serious all of a sudden definitely meant there was a catch.
Excessive politeness usually preceded a hidden motive.
Moreover, since the beginning, he hadn't been able to figure out what this old sea dog was plotting.
Insisting on bringing this defenseless ordinary female reporter onto the ship...
That definitely wasn't something that could be explained by nonsense like “doing it for Ryan’s sake.”
What goal did this old sea dog have for bringing Ophelia on board?
However.
He would find out very soon.
The moment the group stepped out of the captain’s cabin door.
The sea breeze, mixed with icy mist, hit them in the face.
Ophelia, walking in the middle, suddenly seemed to sense something terrifying.
Her body jerked violently without warning.
Her originally steady pace instantly became chaotic.
Within half a second, her face turned as ghastly as white wax.
She didn't even have time to steady herself before she reached out and death-gripped the wooden doorframe beside her.
“Mr. Wayn—”
Before she could finish calling out “Mr. Wayne,” her body suddenly arched forward.
“Blargh!”
A violent dry heave directly interrupted her words.
She was like a landlubber with severe seasickness, beginning to vomit uncontrollably.
“Are you seasick?”
Elias turned his head and asked casually.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, he felt something was wrong.
This schooner supply ship was currently sailing exceptionally smoothly; there weren't even any large waves on the sea surface.
Even with seasickness, how could it suddenly become this severe?
With a thought, Elias’s spirituality flowed rapidly around his eyes.
【Moonlight Vision】.
In his field of vision, a bizarre scene immediately presented itself.
At this moment, dense gray currents were focused on Ophelia’s head, shoulders, and limbs.
They were many gray, viscous flows of negative spirituality.
But strangely, looking at the results, this negative spirituality hadn't polluted Ophelia’s spirituality.
It had merely caused some interference with it.
Elias immediately turned to look at the others.
Bloodsong only had the ominous, mixed spirituality belonging to the Inferno.
Old Crowley had spirituality belonging to the ocean and thunder.
As for the transcendent crew members standing on the deck pulling the ropes, there was nothing unusual about them either.
On the entire ship, including Elias himself, not a single person was being eroded by this gray spirituality.
Only Ophelia was attracting all the gray negative spirituality in the vicinity to herself.
A flash of insight struck Elias’s mind, and he suddenly understood something.
His gaze projected onto Crowley, full of mockery.
Of course, he said this through the mental channel.
This time, it wasn't blocked by the old man’s soul barrier.
“So this is what you meant by her being of great use?”
“Using an ordinary person as a pollution detector. Old sea dog, you really are far-sighted.”
Crowley’s figure, walking ahead, paused slightly.
His voice soon returned through the mental channel, carrying a weathered slickness and indifference.
“Kid, you’re still too young.”
“Making a living on the sea, if you don’t find some shortcuts, your bones would have become fish food long ago.”
Crowley bit his pipe and explained through his thoughts.
“This kind of negative spirituality only appears in one situation across the entire Moon Bay sea region.”
“That is when those lunatics from the Mist Veil Society have already moved to extinguish the original tower lamp.”
“And have converted the lighthouse into a temporary resonance tower.”
Resonance tower.
Hearing this term, Elias’s heart sank.
Crowley continued.
“Once a resonance tower is activated, it ensures that the power of that Divine Scion in the deep sea can be projected over a wide area.”
“Those monsters and variants that have already converted to the Mist Veil Society will receive a Divine Favor in a short period of time.”
“They will be strengthened over a vast range.”
Listening to Crowley’s words, Elias instinctively raised his head, looking past the thick fog toward the distant horizon.
Only then did he notice.
Under the moonlight.
Braving the mist, a towering shadow of a tower was slowly approaching.
“Unfortunately, this kind of negative spirituality projected for the purpose of amplifying the Divine Scion’s favor can only be sensed by ordinary people.”
“For transcendents, this kind of pollution that can’t even affect an ordinary person simply cannot get close to us.”
“But the appearance of a lighthouse converted into a temporary resonance tower usually signifies the presence of stronger Mist Veil Society members.”
“This is quite important for us, as we’ll need to fight.”
Crowley took his pipe out of his mouth and consoled him through the mental channel.
“But don’t worry. Although she’s vomiting quite hard, it won’t be life-threatening.”
“It’s just like how a dog can hear the sound of a Galton whistle.”
Hearing this explanation, the corner of Elias’s mouth couldn't help but twitch.
He looked at Ophelia, who was holding onto the doorframe and vomiting so hard she was nearly bringing up bile.
“That analogy of yours...”
Crowley turned his head, sounding somewhat proud.
“It’s very apt, isn’t it?”
Elias nodded.
“Apt.”
“But abrupt.”
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