The Decision

He walked up to Lu Yuan and said word for word:

"First, you must take holy water every day to stabilize your Sanity."

"Second, stay as far away as possible from anything related to the Strange Dreams, though you won't be able to come into contact with them for the time being."

"Lastly, have Ink monitor your Sanity every night before you go to sleep; if something happens, it can at least pull you out in time."

Ink nodded upon hearing this. "I can do that."

Old Morgan continued, "Finally, I will find a way to contact a Dreamweaver from the Empire."

"But whether I can actually invite one here, I am not sure."

Lu Yuan took a deep breath and nodded solemnly.

"I understand, thank you, Old Morgan."

Old Morgan snorted, his expression remaining serious.

"Don't be so quick to thank me, there's one more thing."

His gaze was fixed intently on Lu Yuan.

"What did you see when you were having those Strange Dreams?"

Lu Yuan was silent for a moment as he organized his thoughts before beginning to describe it.

The Iron Whale stranded on the seashore.

The ruins covered in sacrificial runes.

And those people wearing grey cloaks, chanting eerie prayers before an altar.

As well as... that indescribable, colossal shadow rising from the deep sea.

As Old Morgan listened, his brow furrowed deeper and his expression grew more solemn.

When Lu Yuan finished speaking, silence fell over the room once again.

Old Morgan stood in place without saying a word.

After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice raspy:

"Follow me."

He turned and walked toward the door.

"We are going to the archives."

"I have already checked the archives," Lu Yuan said, following behind him.

"The files you could see were numbered files; those things have to be reported to the headquarters, but we have more detailed ones here."

Old Morgan brought Lu Yuan to the archives.

Instead of heading toward the shelves sorted by number, he went to a cabinet piled with files; after rummaging through it, Old Morgan pulled a thick file folder from the depths of the shelf.

The words "Iron Whale" were written in black ink on the folder.

Old Morgan spread the file open on the desk, its contents much more detailed than what Lu Yuan had seen before.

"The Iron Whale was the largest ocean-going ship in Gelimu Port." Old Morgan flipped to the first page. "The hull was engraved with triple-layer protection inscriptions and equipped with custom holy light gear, allowing it to sail in the deep sea for over thirty days."

"There are no more than five ships in the entire port with that kind of capability."

His finger traced a voyage record.

"On October 17th, the Iron Whale set sail as planned, heading for the Whale-fall Sea in the north to harvest deep sea fish oil; this was a routine operation that happened two or three times a year."

"On November 12th, while on their return journey, their trawl nets hauled up a batch of ore."

Old Morgan pulled out a yellowed hand-drawn diagram showing a sharp, Deep Blue crystal.

"Captain Gregory recorded in the navigation log—"

He read out the text written there: "'The ore is a deep blue color, cold to the touch, and contains extremely powerful energy fluctuations. Preliminary testing shows its energy density is more than three times that of ordinary transcendent materials.'"

"'This is an unexpected fortune. The crew is very excited; I have marked the approximate coordinates of the harvest area to be reported after returning to port.'"

Old Morgan paused. "The harvest location was over four hundred nautical miles from Gelimu Port, already near the edge of the nautical charts. There are almost no records of that maritime region; it is completely unknown waters."

Lu Yuan frowned upon seeing this. "They just brought the ore back like that?"

"At the time, no one thought there was a problem." Old Morgan snorted coldly. "After all, that thing looked priceless."

He flipped to the next page, his tone becoming heavy.

"On November 15th, the Iron Whale returned to port, and five days later, the crew began to show symptoms."

Tucked inside the file was a stack of medical records and research reports.

Old Morgan did not read them out one by one, only summarizing briefly: "Insomnia, nightmares, auditory hallucinations... At first, everyone thought it was just common post-voyage fatigue, but the symptoms grew increasingly severe."

"We intervened afterward and conducted a detailed test on the ore."

He pulled out a report stamped with a red seal.

"The conclusion was: the ore indeed contains extremely powerful energy, but it also carries a high concentration of mental pollution."

"These two characteristics exist simultaneously, and the pollution is continuously released."

Old Morgan closed the report. "We sealed the ore and quarantined the crew members who had come into contact with it for purification treatment."

"But one problem was never resolved."

"The source of the ore," Lu Yuan understood what Old Morgan meant at this moment.

"Correct." Old Morgan nodded. "What exactly is in that maritime region? Why would such a thing appear there? More importantly—if that power could be utilized, its value would be immeasurable."

He flipped to the final part of the file; the paper was clearly newer.

"On November 20th, the Iron Whale set sail again."

"The objective was to find the source of the ore based on the coordinates, assess its mining value, and investigate the root cause of the pollution."

"This time, they didn't just take Gaowen and his team, but also two priests from the church and three alchemists from the Ascension Society."

Old Morgan's voice lowered. "Before departure, the captain sent back one last report through a transcendent beacon: 'Already departed port, heading southeast, expected to arrive at the target sea area in seven days.'"

"And then?"

"And then there was no more 'and then'."

Old Morgan closed the file.

"Communication at sea is difficult to begin with; storms, mist, and the night can all interfere with the beacon, not to mention the harassment of various eerie things and deep sea creatures. We waited for ten days and heard nothing."

"Was a ship sent to look for them?"

"Yes." Old Morgan sneered. "The small boat sent out encountered mist on the third day and nearly suffered a total loss, barely managing to turn back. Afterward, two more search efforts were organized, but nothing was found."

"Thirty-eight lives just vanished into the sea."

Silence spread through the archives.

Old Morgan's gaze fell on the nautical chart marked with the harvest coordinates, his finger slowly tracing that blank, unknown sea area.

"You said just now that in your Strange Dreams, you saw the Iron Whale stranded beside an island."

Lu Yuan nodded and spoke:

"The hull was dilapidated, looking like it had been stranded for a long time, and a group of people in grey cloaks were moving around in front of an altar."

Old Morgan fell silent for a moment after hearing this, then spoke with a hint of solemnity:

"Grey cloaks... there is a high probability it is the Deep Sea Church."

He pondered for a moment, a sharp light flashing in his cloudy eyes.

"That makes sense."

"The ore was very likely a trap."

"The Deep Sea Church intentionally let the Iron Whale haul up the ore in that sea area, using it to contaminate the crew, and then used those people to bring the pollution back to Gelimu Port."

Lu Yuan added, "And I saw them preparing some kind of ceremony in the dream."

"What they were chanting was 'offer up this city'..."