A few seconds later, a grayish-black creature that looked like an eel approached them.
From afar, it did look like an eel. It swam gracefully, but its body was a hundred times thicker. However, as the creature approached, everyone frowned.
It had the streamlined body of an eel, but there was a large, round mouth on its head that could not be closed. Inside the mouth were many tentacles and sharp teeth, and at the end of the mouth was a polyp that looked like a chrysanthemum.
This huge circular mouth would make even people who didn't have a phobia feel that their minds were being contaminated by something strange.
"Ugh, so ugly," Dankrose muttered softly to himself, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"There are many creatures uglier than this one in the sea," Ness answered casually. "This one doesn't look like it's fit for battle. I've taken a closer look and noticed that its skin around its mouth is slightly corroded. It looks like it's been poisoned by some kind of poison. It's very likely that it's a sea beast that fights with poison. "
"We should be able to deal with it soon if we take precautions. Shall we? "
Before Angor could say anything, Reynolds quickly added, "The sea monsters here are all the eyes released by the lab. What they see is also what the lab sees. If they're hurt, the people controlling the sea beasts in the laboratory will be able to detect it immediately.
Since the illusion could block the sea monster's vision, Reynolds believed that it was best not to touch the sea monsters to avoid alerting the lab.
"It doesn't matter. The lab won't be able to stop us even if we force our way in …" Ness grumbled. However, he was a pragmatist. Killing the sea monster was both risky and low-risk, so there was no need to do so. Therefore, he did not insist on killing the sea monster.
Angor did not want to fight a meaningless battle unless the sea monster noticed them.
However, just as Ness had said, the sea beast's ability was not high enough to detect the existence of the illusion. Even if it had the instinct of a wild beast and sensed something strange in this direction, it still did not find anything after wandering around for a long time.
A while later, the sea monster swayed its long body and disappeared from everyone's sight.
They waited until the sea monster was gone before they kept moving forward.
With the concealment of the illusion, as long as he didn't cause too much of a ruckus, there shouldn't be any problems.
As they went deeper, the surrounding seawater became more and more turbid, and the currents became more and more unstable. From time to time, dark whirlpools would appear. There weren't many sea beasts, but these whirlpools were the biggest source of danger.
Moreover, these vortexes often appeared out of thin air. It was basically impossible to avoid them in advance. He could only be on high alert and avoid the vortex as soon as he encountered it, or destroy the convergence of the vortex.
In just a few minutes, they destroyed more than a dozen vortexes of various sizes.
One of them was so powerful that it tore a hole in Angor's forcefield. Fortunately, Ness had used the Water Structure Method to destroy the essence of the vortex and stabilized the force field in time.
However, after Nessie destroyed the vortex, there were some side effects. Due to the internal instability of the vortex, energy began to converge. More than ten seconds later, an explosion occurred at the bottom of the sea.
The sound of the explosion wasn't loud, but according to Reynolds, what the sea beasts saw was what the laboratory saw. Once the sea beasts were attracted by the sound of the explosion, the laboratory would quickly discover the problem.
To avoid this, Angor planned to set up a natural illusion to confuse the sea beasts.
However, they waited for a long time without seeing any sea beasts.
It was as if the explosion didn't attract any sea beasts at all.
"This is strange. Last time we came here, we tried to avoid the sea beasts, but we did see a lot of them. Why are there so few sea beasts this time? " It was Nausica who spoke. She looked at Reynolds and asked for his opinion.
Reynolds's eyes were also filled with confusion, "Something is indeed wrong. The number of sea beasts seems to have decreased a lot. What's going on?"
"Maybe something happened to the lab," Ness said. "Let's go check it out."
Angor nodded. Since the explosion didn't attract any sea beasts, they shouldn't waste time and head to the lab.
As for the "accident" Ness mentioned, everyone had their own guesses. Maybe it was Filo's doing. Filo didn't know that the sea beasts were the eyes of the lab. Maybe he cooked all the sea beasts when he entered the lab.
They continued forward. Perhaps it was because Reynolds was in the group, but fortunately, they didn't encounter any more vortexes during the rest of the journey.
They arrived at the "Parting Wall".
According to Reynolds, the center of the "Parting Wall" was where the lab was located.
And the "Parting Wall" literally meant "parting the sea".
Angor looked calm on the surface, but his mind was in turmoil.
The lab was located at the bottom of the sea, but there was no water around it.
Just like "Moses Parting the Sea" in Jon's story, right in front of them, behind a wall of water that was rippling nonstop was an empty undersea plain. It was an empty land filled with vague mist without any water!
The "Parting Wall" kept pressing down, and the pressure of the sea was about to reach the bottom of the sea at any time. However, every time the "Parting Wall" reached a certain threshold, the "Parting Wall" would separate the nearby water to maintain the "Parting Wall".
And each time, the "Parting Wall" would be done at noon. This was also why the ocean current would fluctuate at noon. It was because … the separation of the ocean had begun.
"You're expanding the" Parting Wall "every once in a while? Why do you have to spend so much effort on it? " Ness looked at Reynolds in confusion. "With this amount of time and ability, it's more than enough to build an underwater laboratory."
An underwater lab … It sounded like a lot of pressure, but there were many ways to avoid the water pressure. Why else would there be a city of mermaids and an underwater city like Lloyds? Song of the Deep's HQ was also located at the bottom of the sea.
Therefore, there were actually quite a lot of ways to build a pure underwater laboratory. Even if they used the most expensive method to build it, it would definitely cost less than this method of extracting water from the sea every once in a while.
Reynolds shook his head. "I don't know what the higher-ups are thinking. Parting the" Parting Wall "is a common practice here."
In the beginning, Reynolds might have been puzzled by this, but after seeing Parting Sea often, even the most uncanny craftsmanship would become common, and his desire to get to the bottom of the matter had also faded.
Ness shook his head and muttered, "There's no need to separate the" Parting Wall "method. There must be a reason behind it."
Angor agreed. However, they had not even seen the front of the lab yet, so there was no way they could figure out what was going on.
Instead of worrying about such details, it was better to go to the lab first and figure out the answer later.
"Will anyone notice us going through the" Parting Wall "?"
"No." Reynolds hesitated for a moment before adding, "I don't think so."
"Don't think so? Don't you have an accurate answer? Do you know or not? "
Reynolds remained silent for a moment. "I didn't think so. Last time, Nausica and I went to the lab, we were discovered by Number 17's backup plan. I thought it was just an accident. But after thinking about it, I made a lot of preparations before returning to the lab. I only entered the lab when most of the staff left and the guards were handing over their duties. But we were still discovered. Now that I think about it, something is wrong. "
"Perhaps, we were already discovered before we entered the laboratory. But I don't know what went wrong. "
Reynolds didn't have any conclusive evidence. It was only a guess.
However, if one thought about it carefully, Reynolds' guess was not without reason.
Such a secret organization — let's call it "organization" for now — didn't exist in the southern wizarding region at all. Even after using all kinds of resources to search for them, they only found a small clue: two apprentices who witnessed an insignificant chase.
If the strength of this organization was weak, then so be it. After all, no one paid attention to it, so it didn't matter if it was hidden or not. But from what they knew, they weren't weak at all. Their high-level combatants were stronger than most wizard clans. Even their apprentices were as strong as supernovas.
Such an organization was unknown in the southern wizarding region. It must be because they chose to stay hidden.
Since they chose to stay hidden, the lab itself would be kept highly confidential to prevent its existence from being exposed. Under such circumstances, there must be some kind of security mechanism in place.
Including stepping through the "Parting Wall" method.
"What should we do if we go through the" Parting Wall "method?" Nausica asked.
"It doesn't matter if the" Parting Wall "will expose us. We'll be discovered anyway, so we don't need to worry about the "Parting Wall" method, "Ness said.
Although that was the case, they were about to face an unknown opponent. In an unknown battle, whoever revealed the least trump cards would have a greater chance of victory. Besides, the lab could easily detect their presence. Both Angor and Ness were famous in the southern wizarding region. They would be at a great disadvantage if a fight broke out.
"Then let's not go through the" Parting Wall "method. We'll go through the" Parting Wall "method from above.
Ness' suggestion was also a good one. However, if the lab was determined to take precautions, there should be some kind of security mechanism in place.
Still, they had to go to the other side of the "Parting Wall" method. Since they could be monitored either way, they might as well choose the less likely option.
In the end, Angor decided to go through the "Parting Wall" method. When the time came, he would change the illusion to nightmare to reduce his presence and blur and distort the perception of the outside world.
This way, they could avoid being discovered as much as possible.
However, when they were about to leave the water, they sensed a chaotic energy coming from behind the "Parting Wall".
The energy was not coming for them. Something happened behind the "Parting Wall" and caused the energy to leak out.
Everyone stopped moving.
Ness sensed the energy coming through the "Parting Wall". "It's primal mana. I can feel the rhythm of water. And —"
Dankros interrupted, "I can feel the power of fire. Such strong control. The fire is getting smaller and smaller, and it's going to explode at any time. But it's being restrained by some kind of law. Even the" Parting Aura "is not completely out of control."
Dankros' words were complicated, but they only meant one thing: there must be a fire wizard inside.
Dankros was a fire creature. Their fire attacks were all indiscriminate. They would not hurt themselves anyway, so they did not know how to restrain themselves.
Only fire wizards or fire creatures who had been trained would learn how to restrain themselves to avoid harming themselves as well as their enemies.
As for fire wizards … Angor and Ness looked at each other and thought of a name.
Could it be that "Fire Walker" Filo was the one causing all this commotion?
Could it be that a battle had taken place inside to cause such an energy leak?
If there was a battle, then Filo was on one side, while someone who could control water elements was on the other side.
"What should we do now?" Ness looked at Angor. It was only a guess, but it was highly likely that it was Filo.
"Wait a little longer," Angor said in a small voice.
Ness frowned. He thought Angor was hesitating and wanted to make sure it was Filo. But if Filo was really inside and something happened to him while they were waiting, it would not be good.
Before Ness could say anything, Angor cut him off. "Alright, let's go inside."
"… Huh?"
Didn't he say they were going to wait? Why did it take less than two seconds?
Angor did not explain. Instead, he reached out a hand and gathered a mysterious energy in his palm.
With a flicker of light, an ancient-looking door appeared in front of them.
"I've restrained the leaking energy as much as possible. Let's go inside while the energy inside is still chaotic," Angor said.
He wasn't waiting to see if Filo was inside. Instead, he was waiting for the chaotic energy inside to leak out.
Only when the chaotic energy was present could the Gate of Illusion's energy not be noticed by the people inside.
This way, they could hide as much as possible.
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