As the shadows of the Spirit Realm around the Holoss quickly receded, the previously pitch-black sea gradually returned to its normal azure. The sky light in the real world and the thin mist hovering around the ship enveloped the entire sea.
Nina ran from her room to the deck and soon noticed the strange large ship just ahead of the Holoss, wrapped in eerie green flas and almost shattered to pieces.
The ship, destroyed by a massive explosion and now solely propelled by Spectral Fla, was slowly decelerating but still moving forward. In the direction its bow pointed, lay the boundary that had appeared in textbooks but was only truly seen for the first ti today.
A magnificent wall of dense fog reached from the heavens to the depths of the sea, like a waterfall cascading down from the top of the wall, becoming a thin mist pervading the entire sea area. In front of it, everything seed minuscule—even though Nina had already experienced many incredible things alongside the Holoss, she still couldn’t help but widen her eyes, and then she exclaid long and loud, "Wow—"
At that mont, Sherry also ran out, clinging to the ship’s railing and gazing into the distance, exclaiming together with Nina, "Wow—"
Just as Sherry’s words fell, they heard Agou’s voice coming eerily from the shadows, "That’s why I tell you to read more often. If you had more vocabulary, you wouldn’t just say ’wow’ after seeing such a grand curtain of the boundary..."
Sherry imdiately glared and said, "Nina said ’wow’ too, why don’t you criticize her?"
Agou jumped out from the shadows, shaking his head and muttering, "Nina’s ’wow’ because she thinks the word fits here; your ’wow’ is because that’s the only word you know. You two are not the sa..."
Listening to Agou’s muttering, Sherry defiantly puffed up her cheeks, stating confidently, "I... I have a lot of vocabulary, it’s just that the captain and old Master Morris won’t let use it! If I were allowed to speak freely, I..."
But Agou no longer paid attention to her. The Abyssal Hound, with its fierce appearance, beca even more cautious after reaching the boundary. It looked around, seemingly sensing the aura from other dinsions; and after a mont, it muttered, "...The environnt here is quite different from the safe zone... Everywhere has unstable aura; it’s supposed to be in the real dinsion, but I can faintly sll the Spirit Realm..."
"This is the boundary, and it’s rely the most trivial part of the boundary’s countless strange and dangerous traits," accompanied by a swirl of colorful paper flakes, Lucricia’s voice arrived, "Here, the borders of ’reality’ beco blurry, and all those ’things’ that are suppressed in the safe zone... beco active. The probability of machines becoming evil is very high, books attract more and more dangerous Watchers, many things aboard the ship beco easily activated, and at certain tis, especially when the ship and so unseen ’fields’ inadvertently overlap, the danger increases manifold."
She walked to the deck’s edge, her gaze towards the distant wall of fog, and continued softly in a reflective tone—
"Thus, barely any sane explorers co here to ’try their luck’... There are no honors or riches here, only the chillingly strange environnt and a terrifying fate, and the very few daredevils who do step foot here have co up with so unique ’operational rules’ for the boundary, like not carrying any figures or paintings with human traits on the ship, not shouting loudly in the fog, not lingering long in front of mirrors, and so on and so forth...
"But these rules and taboos can only reduce the risk to a certain extent. Still, there is always a chance for seasoned explorers to disappear in the fog near the boundary; they might forget where they are during a foggy spell, open a door in the cabin that doesn’t exist, or even in a daze think they have completed a long and perilous exploration of the boundary and safely returned to the City-State where they had set off, relaxing their tense nerves as they stepped onto the solid ground of the dock—only to walk into the dense mist of the boundary, leaving behind only an empty Ghost Ship floating on the sea."
Listening to the "Sea Witch" describe these strange and terrifying matters, Sherry’s eyes grew wider and wider until she instinctively shuddered, "I... damn... that sounds a bit scary..."
"Yes, very scary, so under normal circumstances, people like you without any boundary exploration experience should not co close to this area—but you don’t have to worry because this is the Holoss, and you are a part of the Exiled Fleet."
Lucricia smiled faintly, gazing at the sea and speaking unhurriedly.
"Father and this ship... they’re no longer what I rember. If it’s now the Holoss, I believe even if ’sothing’ really snuck onto the ship and opened your room door, it would politely apologize and even close the door when it leaves..."
As her voice fell, another voice suddenly ca from beside her, "Usually, they don’t have the opportunity to close the door or apologize."
Lucricia turned her head and saw Duncan, who had unexpectedly co up on deck.
"Just now, Fenna received a Psionic Communication; theDeep Sea Church’s ’Tide’ has already reached the nearby sea, and it will appear soon. Death Church’s two main battleships are also nearby; they are sending out small reconnaissance boats to first confirm the situation in the surrounding sea."
Lucricia nodded, "That’s good, we need to clear up the situation here—the churches’ fleets that patrol the boundary year-round are a bit more professional than we are."
Duncan just humd, then said no more, rely steering Holoss closer to the large ship leading the way. Adjacent to Holoss, Brilliant Starship had also erged from the Spirit Realm state and was leisurely accompanying it on its journey.
After about fifteen minutes, Holoss and Brilliant Starship reached the vicinity of the dilapidated large ship, maintaining a slow, steady cruise.
Perhaps because they were getting closer to the "curtain," the fog on the sea surface seed thicker than before, layer upon layer of fog drifting in all directions like flowing veils. Even the faint green flas emanating from around Holoss couldn’t completely disperse the fog.
Upon Duncan’s order, the three ships stopped before the fog thickened further.
"Let’s wait until the convergence before moving forward," Duncan said on Holoss’s bow deck, glancing at the foggy sea in the distance, "first, light up the lanterns."
While speaking, he raised his hand and pointed toward the large ship at the forefront, the "guide ship."
With a snap of his fingers, the faint green flas burning on that ship were suddenly intensified. The bursting Spiritual Fire expanded and rose instantly, releasing a brilliance capable of piercing through the mist!
A lighthouse made entirely out of Spiritual Fire thus rose in the fog-engulfed frontier seas, its intense light fiercely illuminating the whole sea area. Under that illumination, near the three ships, the fog finally showed signs of dispersing slightly, restoring so visibility.
Fenna and Morris also ca onto the deck, with the latter curiously observing the sea surface near the ship’s side. He noticed that the color of the sea seed denser than outside the fog, the dark blue water appearing quite calm, with only slight undulations stirred by the breeze—which looked strangely slow and viscous, as if... the entire sea was a layer of detail-lacking, viscous, and smooth grease.
Fenna frowned and stared intently at this disturbingly strange and suspicious sea surface. After hesitating for a mont, she took out a small wooden amulet from her person—it was a wave amulet carved from Sea Breath Wood—and tossed it into the sea.
The amulet, symbolizing the faith and protection power of the Storm Goddess, bounced once on that slow, viscous sea surface as if on solid ground, stirring no ripples nor sinking into the water.
It just remained calmly on that slow, thick "water surface," and after several seconds, it suddenly got dyed in an ink blue by the surrounding sea and silently "lted" into the water.
Fenna watched the scene, which defied her understanding, with so astonishnt.
Yet by her ears, the gentle sound of waves still erged as always.
Despite the eerie process, the power of Goddess Gomona still arrived as usual—in this abnormal sea area, the protection of the Storm Goddess still took effect.
Even... it seed to work a bit faster?
Just then, Fenna felt sothing abruptly and looked up towards the distant fog-enveloped sea.
Almost at the sa mont she looked up, a sonorous and resounding ships’ horn suddenly broke the tranquility of the frontier seas. Soon thereafter, a luminous but hazy light appeared deep within the fog—following the light, a huge silhouette of a ship gradually erged from the mist.
The gentle sound of the waves resounded, and through Psionic Communication, she confird the ssages coming from her brethren in the church, while at the sa ti, the huge silhouette in the distance began to slow down at a considerable distance, with several smaller escort ships gradually appearing around its outline.
Through the drifting fog, the ships coming to converge and those like Holoss and Brilliant Starship that had arrived earlier were confirming each other’s identities—in the frontier seas, this was an extrely crucial step.
And this sort of identity "confirmation" would also continue throughout the operation process, needing to be perford again every so often.
After all, in this border fog, you couldn’t always be sure that the figure by your side this second was still the person you knew from the previous second.
"It’s the ’Tide’ from the Deep Sea Church and its escort squadron," Fenna hurried to Duncan’s side, lowering her voice to report, "confird through Psionic Communication."
Duncan nodded, "Good, allow them to approach—let them enter into the area illuminated by the Spiritual Fire."
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