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Saint Carmen frowned, actually very much wanting to participate in the operation to wipe out Hai Si's stronghold. But Mr. Zhong Li had already been very tactful, advising non-technical personnel not to go. This saved face for her in front of the many judges and their subordinates. Insisting on going now would seem very inconsiderate.

and……

Saint Carmen slightly raised her head, her gaze sweeping over Shi Lei's back. Apart from the luminous deer who seemed rather ordinary, the other women all appeared to be stronger than her.

If you insist on going, you'll only become a burden.

Hey.

Saint Carmen sighed and expressed her heartfelt gratitude to Shi Lei with the highest Iberian courtesy:

"Mr. Zhongli, I'm counting on you this time. Please bring this disaster to a satisfactory conclusion!"

Thiago stared longingly at the rock platform, looking eager to climb it. But she wasn't a technician, and Jodi spotted her just as she was about to ascend. Embarrassed, she returned to the crowd, stealing a glare at the one who had ruined her chance.

Kal'tsit watched the Doctor walk onto the rock platform, his open green overalls fluttering in the wind.

"Doctor, don't worry. We have the best operators who will keep Rhodes Island running."

Throughout these long years, I have tried countless times to solve the problems facing Agor. But Agor is far removed from the land, standing alone. I think we can no longer delay. The dangers posed by the formation of the ocean are now on par with Originium. If civilization is to continue, we must overcome this catastrophe…”

For some reason, Shi Lei really disliked Kal'tsit's way of speaking. Even though he could understand her now without Amiya's translation, he just didn't want to hear her speak.

"Can you get to the point?"

Kal'tsit's expression froze, and she fell silent for a few seconds. She condensed what she was about to say, further and further. If she hadn't seen Shi Lei frown, she could have said much more:

"Although the world is still full of conflict, and division and war have never ceased. Now that you know the source of the disaster, go there and seek the truth."

Seeing Ama-10 humiliated in front of Shi Lei, Anmatalu looked like it was suppressing a laugh. It didn't expose Kal'tsit's past civilization identity, but just watched silently.

After excluding unrelated individuals, the eleven set off again. With Extreme as their navigator, it took them more than six hours to reach their destination.

Looking down from the sky, a huge, dilapidated ship is adrift alone on the ocean.

Shi Lei didn't rush down, but instead used his mental energy to perform a full scan of the Fool.

Two minutes later, he announced the result directly:

"No need to go down, it's all sea snails."

Meanwhile, the sea creatures aboard the Fool seemed to have sensed something. Just like the sea creatures on the other side of the Eye of Iberia, they desperately abandoned ship and jumped into the sea to escape.

"Tsk."

Seeing Hai Si fleeing desperately, Shi Lei's eyes suddenly lit up as he thought of a way to track down the hideout.

He leaped from the rocky platform, landing freely towards the sea like someone jumping off a building.

At the same time, thumb-sized rock artifacts were implanted into every sea creature within sight.

Considering that too few samples would result in a highly dispersed sample, a sufficient sample size is necessary for accurate localization.

In less than ten minutes, all the Sea-Childs on the Fool jumped ship and escaped. Only a few humanoids, suspected to be Sea-Child Infected, remained in the cabins.

Shi Lei returned to the rock platform and began to sense the direction in which the sea creatures had fled. He discovered that they had regrouped after being scattered for a long time, and a satisfied smile immediately appeared on his face.

His perception range of rock-formed creatures far exceeded the influence range of the Jade Shield. If there were enough rock-formed creatures, large enough, he could even sense them from neighboring planets. At this moment, sensing the movements beneath the black ocean was a piece of cake.

After returning to the rocky platform, Shi Lei closed his eyes and sat cross-legged in meditation. Seeing this, the others dared not disturb him and remained on the platform, gazing at the dark sea in the distance.

Seeing that he hadn't made a move as night fell, Extreme Realm, gradually losing patience, cautiously asked in a soft voice:

"Mr. Zhongli, how long are we going to have to wait? The Fool's Ship is right down there, why don't we go down?"

"No rush, let the bullets fly a little longer."

"bullet?"

Shi Lei was referring to a movie reference, and since he couldn't explain what "Extreme Realm" meant, he simply didn't bother to explain it.

Seeing that he was still resting with his eyes closed, Jijing had no choice but to suppress his agitation and continue lying on the rock platform.

However, there's really no reason to see the Black Sea, and I wonder how those sailors survived it.

He waited for over six hours, until 2 a.m. the next day. Shi Lei finally confirmed the location of Hai Si's hideout and abruptly opened his eyes:

"found it!"

Texas and the others didn't look at the sea; instead, they sat down and pretended to sleep, just like him. Upon hearing this, they all opened their eyes.

The three women were not surprised at all, because generally there was nothing their lovers couldn't do.

"The location is a bit deep, on the seabed. Extreme, you stay here and don't wander around. There are non-human creatures on that ship, so there's no need to jump down to check. It would be a loss if you got infected by the germs on Hai Si."

After making the arrangements, Shi Lei used the Jade Shield Wall to create a huge protective membrane. It contained enough oxygen for the others to breathe.

If the extreme conditions are needed later, Shi Lei will quickly return to sea level to call him and replenish his oxygen supply.

Once everything was arranged, he led everyone away from the rocky platform and plummeted downwards. From above, the dark sea looked like a terrifying gaping maw of abyss. However, this had no effect on the group, who were used to seeing big scenes.

"Pfft."

After the protective membrane entered the water, it began to descend rapidly.

To avoid being discovered by Haisi, Anmataru extinguished the light source on his body, plunging the surroundings into darkness.

Xi seemed to suffer from claustrophobia, gripping Shi Lei's hand tightly. Only by his side could she find a truly fulfilling sense of security. Texas and Mudrock, though unafraid of the dark, also clung closely to their lovers.

Alty and the others were giants of the sea, able to see even without light, and they cautiously looked around.

Only the doctor, being alone and too embarrassed to approach Shi Lei, could only close his eyes and rest. By not looking at the scene in the deep sea, he wouldn't feel uncomfortable.

After descending more than 13,000 meters, the protective membrane finally slowed its descent.

In this unexplored and mysterious realm, there lies an underwater city resembling Atlantis. Its overall area is even larger than that of Lungmen.

Seeing this, Aya's expression tightened, and she said in a low voice:

“Mr. Zhongli, it seems that Hai Si has not moved his base. The Sea God Temple is deep inside here. It has been a thousand years since we left last time. To be honest, we don’t know the specific situation inside.”

Shi Lei nodded and made a shushing gesture.

He immediately began a mental scan, thoroughly checking the area within a six-kilometer radius.

Those sea creatures containing rock-like structures were resting on the exposed seabed, completely unaware that they themselves had led everyone here.

Shi Lei's mental energy swept across the streets, which had been corroded beyond recognition, like waves.

Soon, two kilometers away in the southwest corner, a place that looked like a high-tech building was discovered.

After confirming there was no danger, Shi Lei led everyone here. The pale blue fluorescent tubes were one of the few sources of light in the vicinity. Facing the fingerprint recognition lock that had been submerged for tens of thousands of years, he gestured for the doctor to come and try it. But the doctor tried for quite a while before realizing that the lock wasn't powered on.

Shi Lei was not annoyed by this and gestured for everyone to remain quiet. He then summoned his rock creation and slowly pried open the door, bit by bit.

Seeing the seawater starting to pour in, Shi Lei realized there was no seawater inside. He immediately used the Jade Shield to seal the gate, allowing only his own people to pass through.

The group was able to enter and glimpse the interior. Anmatar looked around, then leaned closer and whispered:

"This is the laboratory."

Shi Lei nodded and gestured to explore inside. They searched each room one by one, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Unfortunately, most of the instruments here were damaged, and no useful data was found. Only a terminal at the end of the corridor, flashing a faint blue light, caught Shi Lei's attention.

Just as he approached as the vanguard, he suddenly heard a synthetic mechanical prompt.

【warn! 】

【warn! 】

[Unknown access user approaching!]

Please cooperate to verify your identity!

Upon hearing this, Anmatalu rammed the bewildered doctor with his horn. The latter approached the terminal, hesitated for a moment, and then removed his hood. For the first time in front of outsiders, he revealed a human face devoid of any animalistic features.

The surveillance camera in the corner emitted a blinding red light. It quickly scanned the doctor's face, and after a few seconds, responded promptly.

[Verification successful!]

[You have the highest level of privileges. Do you want to launch the terminal device? Access the stored top-secret files?]

The doctor turned to Shi Lei with a questioning look, and seeing that he remained unmoved, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and answer:

"Yes."

After running for two minutes, a drawer popped out of the terminal. The doctor went to examine it and took out four documents. Each document had a title: Reproduction, Migration, Survival, and Growth.

Shi Lei tentatively stepped forward and found that the mechanical prompts did not sound. He picked up a document titled "Growth" and examined its contents.

[Project: Growth]

[Objective: To provide nutrients and produce resources]

[Model access has been granted.]

Tucked inside the documents was a sketchbook filled with hand-drawn illustrations of dozens of marine plants and animals that Shi Lei recognized. The other three documents also contained no valuable information.

He turned to look at Anmatar, wanting to ask it what this meant. The latter, seeing this, came over and read through all four documents, then said somewhat awkwardly:

"This must be a picture book left by the Creator, but it has no value to us now. The most urgent task is to enter the Temple of the Sea God and eliminate the Sea God's offspring."

Shi Lei was speechless, but too lazy to argue any further.

Anmatalu is right; the most important thing now is to resolve the crisis that Haisi has brought to this land.

After leaving the former civilization laboratory, the group continued deeper into the underwater city. To Shi Lei's surprise, there wasn't a single sea creature in this underwater city.

They were like a strict hierarchy of servants, all living on the seabed outside the city.

Alty and his companions, possessing both sight and navigation abilities, led the group stealthily towards the Temple of Poseidon. For some reason, Shi Lei felt a strange, inexplicable unease.

I feel like everything is going too smoothly.

Sigh, I hope I'm just overthinking it.

Twenty minutes later, Alty stopped. Without her pointing out the direction, Shi Lei knew that the brightly lit palace ahead was the Sea God Temple, Hai Si's lair.

He launched a mental scan, only to find a single humanoid creature inside, which made him frown slightly.

Ok?

Logically, there should be many sea gods here, so why is there only one?

Something's not right, something's very wrong.

Shi Lei was extremely cautious, extending his mental energy to a radius of six kilometers. Strangely, there were no ambushes.

Moreover, the humanoids in the Temple of Poseidon are indistinguishable from normal people in terms of their outlines. What is going on?

"You all stay here, I'll go in and take a look."

This place is tens of thousands of meters above sea level; if ambushed, escape would be impossible. If such a thing were to happen, Shi Lei would not hesitate to ascend to immortality in the sea. He would never allow his beloved to suffer even the slightest injury here.

Texas knew what was important and what the Temple of Poseidon was. She didn't insist on following, but instead gave a thumbs-up to the darkness.

Without saying a word, Shi Lei walked straight inside.

That feeling of extraordinary success showed no signs of abating; on the contrary, it intensified.

The doors of the Temple of Poseidon were wide open, revealing its bright interior. It seemed to know someone was coming, giving Shi Lei a sense of wanting to welcome them but also wanting to refuse.

Before entering, Shi Lei had already noticed the unusual appearance of the sea god inside through scanning. Filled with intense curiosity, he stepped into the palace's circular hall.

The sea god sitting here is none other than Skadi, the missing Rhodes Island operator!

Compared to her red outfit when we first met, she is now wearing a flowing, ethereal gauze dress.

"You've finally arrived."

Shi Lei detected no ambushes within six kilometers and warily watched Skadi. Her appearance at the Poseidon Temple, tens of thousands of meters underwater, was itself unusual.

"Were you waiting for me?"

“Yes, ever since you appeared above the Fool, I had Hai Si lead the way here. Since we have no power to resist you, we might as well face it squarely.”

"us?"

Shi Lei keenly noticed the difference in the way the characters were addressed and frowned slightly.

"So you're Hai Si's sea god?"

Skadi looked up at her, her red pupils shining and captivating like rubies.

"You could say yes, or you could say no. If you're not in a hurry, please let me explain."

Shi Lei did not respond, choosing silence as his answer.