However, there was a language barrier between Dangross and Toby, and Dangross couldn’t understand anything Toby was saying.
Angel could only help Toby translate: "It’s greeting you warmly, what were you stalling about earlier?"
Of course, Toby’s version of "warmly" was Angel’s politeness added during translation.
Dangross hesitated for a moment, then spoke: "I, I was..."
Before the stammering Dangross could finish, a buzzing sound suddenly came from afar. Angel immediately gestured to Dangross to keep quiet, and listened intently.
The buzzing wasn’t coming from sea beasts but from the ocean itself, the humming of the sea.
"It’s coming! It’s coming!" Reynaud floated up at this time, exclaiming excitedly in the direction of the humming.
As his words fell, a huge shadow suddenly appeared in the distance, rapidly approaching their location.
At first, Angel thought it was the purple giant beast returning with the humming, but upon closer inspection, he realized those shadows were not creatures. Rather, they were not entirely sea creatures but a special phenomenon of flying sand and debris stirred up by the rolling ocean currents.
With the approaching shadow, those flying sands accompanied by tiny Mayfly creatures swept towards them.
"So this is the ocean current," Angel thought to himself. No wonder Reynaud mentioned that the direction of the laboratory could be judged by the ocean current—it was simply too conspicuous.
"Let’s go." Angel maintained the force field, moving against the crazed tide.
The ocean current rampaged across the seabed, leaving behind dust wherever it passed, with corals shattered, resembling the aftermath of a hurricane.
Above the sea, it also formed wave after wave of enormous splashes.
It looked incredibly wild and dangerous.
Yet, for Angel and the others, such a scene was not much of a threat, not even as dangerous as the tidal wall Angel encountered before.
They swiftly moved in the direction where the ocean current came.
In between, they inevitably encountered some sea beasts driven by the current, but these beasts couldn’t withstand the current, let alone pose a threat to Angel and the others.
The ferocious ocean current lasted for more than ten minutes before starting to calm down.
However, even though the surface of the sea was relatively calm, the currents beneath remained strong, clearly pointing the way for them.
After about half an hour of struggle, they arrived at a chaotic reef area filled with dust.
"I seem to remember the terrain here; we shouldn’t be far from the laboratory," Nausicaa spoke, perceiving the general environment through the faint light of the force field, making a judgment.
After Nausicaa spoke, she looked toward Reynaud, seeking his confirmation. However, Reynaud appeared slightly dazed.
"Reynaud, what’s wrong?" Nausicaa asked.
It took Reynaud a while to come to: "Nothing, I... I’m just thinking, we are so close to the laboratory now, but I still don’t sense anything."
Reynaud looked off into the distance, seeming to see through the murky waters to the steel-and-mechanism-filled underwater laboratory: "I’m beginning to doubt whether my body is actually in the laboratory."
Reynaud’s doubts reminded everyone of the two prophetic hints given by the witch Maya in the Wilderness of Dreams.
"Your flesh is in a cold environment; it might even be frozen. This freezing is harmless and beneficial to your body."
"Around your flesh, I hear human whispers."
Based on their assumptions from the two prophetic hints, Reynaud’s flesh was likely saved by someone, and very possibly in a scenario similar to the ’Healing Ice Coffin’.
Because of such conjecture—and the fact that there was no human habitation nearby—they all consistently believed that Reynaud’s body must have been picked up by the laboratory people. After all, perfectly fulfilling the prophetic conditions, in the known mist belt environment, only the laboratory could achieve it.
But now, being so close to the laboratory, according to the natural attraction between body and soul, Reynaud should have had vague sensations. Yet, in reality, Reynaud still had no perception, which was a bit strange.
"...Maybe there are Magic Patterns in the laboratory that interfere with perception," Nausicaa said.
Reynaud: "If that’s the case, then it’s okay."
The fear was that they actually guessed wrong, and Reynaud’s body wasn’t in the laboratory.
Reynaud shook his head, temporarily putting aside his concerns. Regardless of whether his body was in the laboratory, he must go there to remove the mark on his soul.
All situations can wait until he reaches the laboratory.
Reynaud perked up again, looked around, and said to everyone: "We’re about to enter the area patrolled by guards, so we must be careful."
"Although there are no guards nearby, there are some herded sea beasts patrolling. These sea beasts are not to be underestimated in strength."
At this point, Reynaud sighed lightly: "If only the magical creature left by number 17 hadn’t found us then, we could’ve followed the usual herding routines of the sea beasts and stealthily avoided their paths into the laboratory."
"Now, with their vigilance, they will surely change the sea beasts’ paths. It won’t be so easy to sneak in unnoticed."
As Reynaud finished expressing his sentiment, a cold snort sounded: "Who said it’s difficult?"
The speaker was Nis, who glanced at Reynaud and said: "That’s because your strength is lacking; there are many ways to hide from the sea beasts."
With that, Nis was ready to demonstrate a soul sect concealment ability, but before he could act, a circle of air ripples appeared around them. Soon, their forms, scents, all remaining pheromones disappeared.
Even the faint light of the force field was hidden.
"This is... illusion technique."
The one who released it was undoubtedly Angel.
Nis originally wanted to complain a few words, but seeing Angel didn’t respond, instead, his gaze fixed directly in the distance.
Nis hesitated for a moment, following Angel’s gaze.
With the naked eye, there was still nothing visible except for pitchblackness and pervasive dust.
However, through water flow fluctuations, Nis clearly sensed a creature of considerable size swimming toward their direction...