Within a few seconds, a gray-black, eel-like creature swam near them.
From a distance, it really had the flavor of an eel, moving with elegance and grace, only magnified a hundred times larger; but as it approached, the crowd’s brows slightly furrowed.
Its body had the elegant streamlined shape of an eel, but its head featured an enormous, almost unclosable round mouth, surrounded by numerous tentacles and sharp teeth, with a polyp at the end resembling a chrysanthemum’s closure.
This giant round mouth could evoke a sense of eerie psychological pollution, even in those without a tendency for trypophobia.
"Ugh, so ugly," Dangross muttered under his breath, voicing the thoughts of the crowd.
"There are plenty of creatures uglier than it in the ocean depths," Nis casually remarked, then turned to Angel, "The form of this sea beast isn’t very suitable for combat. From my careful observation just now, there are slight signs of darkened corrosion near its round mouth as if eroded by toxins. It’s likely a sea beast that uses poison in combat."
Nis: "Prepare in advance, and we should be able to deal with it quickly. Shall we go in?"
Before Angel could respond, Reynaud quickly interjected, "The sea beasts pastured here were all released by the laboratory as eyes. What they see is what the laboratory sees. If they get hurt, the person controlling the sea beasts in the lab will realize immediately."
Therefore, in Reynaud’s view, since illusion techniques could obscure the sea creatures’ vision, it was best not to disturb these sea beasts to avoid alarming the laboratory.
"What difference does it make? Even if we break in, the lab can’t stop us..." Although Nis mumbled this, his approach was practical—handling this sea beast had low returns and high risks, so there was indeed no need. Thus, he didn’t insist on dealing with the sea beast.
Angel had no intention of engaging in meaningless battles unless the sea beast discovered them.
However, as Nis mentioned, this sea beast’s level of ability wasn’t high enough to be aware of the illusion technique’s presence. Even if it had the instincts of a beast sensing something amiss in this direction, it roamed nearby for a long time without any discoveries.
Shortly after, it swayed its long body and disappeared from sight.
After it left, they continued forward.
With the concealment of the illusion technique, as long as they didn’t make major disturbances, there wouldn’t be any problems.
As they ventured deeper, the surrounding seawater noticeably turned murkier, and the water currents became increasingly unstable; hidden whirlpools appeared occasionally, and sea creatures were scarce, making these whirlpools the greatest source of danger.
Moreover, these whirlpools often appeared out of nowhere, making it almost impossible to avoid them in advance. They had to stay alert and evade them quickly or disrupt the whirlpools’ formation.
In just a few minutes of travel, they disrupted more than a dozen whirlpools of varying sizes.
One of the whirlpools was so powerful that it tore a hole in Angel’s force field. Fortunately, Nis immediately used the water structure method to disrupt the essence of the whirlpool and stabilize the force field in time.
However, after Nis disrupted the whirlpool, some consequences arose. The whirlpool’s instability led to internal energy accumulation, which resulted in an explosion on the seabed ten seconds later.
The water explosion wasn’t loud, but according to Reynaud, the lab would quickly notice issues if sea creatures were attracted by the sound.
To prevent this situation, Angel intended to create a relatively natural illusionary realm nearby to confuse the sea creatures.
However, they waited for a long time without any sea creatures approaching.
It seemed the explosion sound failed to attract the sea creatures’ attention.
"This is strange. Last time we came, although we deliberately avoided the sea creatures’ routes, we indeed saw many traces of them along the way. But this time, why are the sea creatures so sparse?" It was Nausicaa who spoke, then looked at Reynaud to seek his opinion.
Reynaud also showed confusion and doubt in his eyes, "Something seems off; the number of sea creatures has seemingly decreased a lot. What’s going on?"
"Perhaps something changed on the laboratory’s side," Nis suggested, "We’ll find out if we take a look."
Angel nodded in agreement since the water explosion hadn’t drawn any sea creatures; they decided not to waste time and head straight to the lab.
As for the disturbances Nis mentioned, all of them had suspicions that perhaps it was the doing of Ferro. Unaware that sea creatures were the lab’s eyes, it’s possible Ferro roasted them with fire when he barged in.
They continued forward, and perhaps thanks to Reynaud in their group, they didn’t encounter any more whirlpools on their lucky journey.
They arrived smoothly at the: Division of the Sea Wall.
According to Reynaud, the center of the Division of the Sea Wall was where the laboratory was located.
The Division of the Sea Wall refers literally to the division of the sea...
Seeing the scene before them, Angel’s exterior remained calm, but his heart was in turmoil.
For although the laboratory’s location was said to be underwater, there was no water around it!
Just like the mythical story Jon had told of "Moses parting the sea," in front of them, beyond a constantly shifting water wall, lay an empty seabed plain with no water, only a faint mist in the open space!
Despite the water wall’s constant pressure, the ocean pressure threatened to invade this temporarily created seabed void at any moment. Yet, whenever it reached a critical point, the laboratory would isolate and remove the surrounding water currents to maintain this extensive division of the sea.
And each time they isolated the water wall, it occurred at noon. This was why the ocean currents fluctuated at noon, because... the division of the sea began.
"Every now and then the sea is divided? Why is your lab expending so much effort?" Nis looked at Reynaud puzzled, "With this time and ability, creating an entirely underwater lab would be enough."
An underwater laboratory sounds daunting due to the pressure, but there are numerous methods to avoid it. Otherwise, why do mermaid cities exist, why is there a place like Roydes’ underwater city? Moreover, the headquarters of Song of the Deep Sea is also under the sea.
Thus, constructing a purely underwater lab is quite feasible, even if constructed using the most costly method. For sure, it’d be less expensive than periodically drawing water to part the sea.
Reynaud shook his head, "I don’t know what the lab executives are thinking either. Ever since I came to the lab, dividing the sea has been a norm."
At first, Reynaud might have been puzzled, but after seeing it often, even the most incredible crafts become commonplace, and the urge to investigate fades.
Nis shrugged, mumbling, "No reason to part the sea unless there’s an internal reason."
Angel also agreed with Nis’s thought. However, since they hadn’t even seen the lab’s entrance yet, speculating wouldn’t yield much.
Instead of focusing on these details now, let’s go to the laboratory and slowly find the solution to the problem.
"Will we be discovered by the people in the laboratory when we pass through the water wall?" Angel looked at Reynaud.
"No." Reynaud hesitated after speaking and added, "Shouldn’t be."
Nis: "Shouldn’t be? Do you have an accurate answer, will we be or not?"
Reynaud was silent for a moment, then said, "Before, I always thought we wouldn’t, but the last time Nausicaa and I went to the laboratory, we were discovered by the backhand left by number 17. At the time, I thought it was an accident, but thinking about it later, before returning to the laboratory, I made a lot of preparations in advance. I entered the laboratory only during the guard shift after most people had left. But even so, we were discovered. Now thinking about it, it seems somewhat intriguing."