The atmosphere inside the carriage was exceptionally heavy.
"It wasn't an evacuation," Leng Ningxue said, her voice cold as her fingertips tapped lightly on the table. "It was a retreat. Organized, warned in advance, and executed with precision."
Yu Nian scratched her hair irritably. "They must have a way to contact each other! As soon as word of what happened on Chao Yin Island reached them, they ran faster than rabbits!"
Standing by the window, Bai Cheng gazed out at the quiet yet treacherous Erald Sea and said slowly:
"It seems they've noticed us too."
"More than just noticed," she turned around, her eyes sharp as blades. "The Chao Yin Island incident has likely been marked and transmitted through this invasion network—which uses constellations as code nas—as a 'variable' or a 'threat signal.'"
They abandoned their outer outposts and pulled back their forces. Either they're preparing for our further actions, or... they're concentrating resources to protect sothing more important."
She recalled Elder Moto's words—'They might each be responsible for an area.'
Now that one of the nails in this area had been pulled out, the other 'nails' were quickly retracting.
"So what do we do?" Zi Yuan asked. "Continue the pursuit? They retreated very cleanly; their tracks at sea are hard to find."
Bai Cheng pondered for a mont. "Let's halt the large-scale search for now. The enemy is on guard; blindly expanding our search range would make it easy to fall into an ambush and waste ti. Let's consolidate our current intelligence first."
Her gaze swept over the sea chart spread across the table, which they had drawn while searching the surrounding areas over the past few days.
Chao Yin Island, Lan Yi Island, Panshi Island... the invaded islands ford a faint arc.
"The distribution of these islands might not be random. They might surround a center, or guard a certain resource line or shipping lane."
Pisces occupied Chao Yin Island because they valued the fishing grounds there and the sea areas that might contain special resources..."
Her fingertip landed on a vaguely marked archipelago on the sea chart.
"Next, we change our strategy. The train will continue to cruise the Erald Sea, but the route will be adjusted to slowly approach this area where the islands are denser and the terrain more complex."
At the sa ti, the elent power vehicles will no longer disperse for exploration. Instead, they will perform short-to-dium-range reconnaissance in shifts, focusing on abnormal energy fluctuations, unfamiliar fleet tracks, and... any symbols or information related to 'constellation' characteristics."
"Since they are an organization," Bai Cheng's voice was calm and cold,
"they won't disappear completely. A proactive retraction often ans the next action will be more hidden, or more violent. What we need to do is wait for them to reveal a flaw themselves."
Yu Nian clenched her fist. "Good! This is the perfect ti to digest the harvest from the Star-Patterned Sea Bream and increase our strength. Next ti we run into them, we'll wipe out their nest directly!"
Leng Ningxue nodded slightly, a cold light flickering in her eyes.
The Erald Sea remained vast and calm, but beneath the surface, the roles of hunter and prey had silently and subtly shifted.
Since they found nothing in the vicinity, Bai Cheng and the others decided to continue deeper.
Their current understanding of the Infinite Realm was ultimately too superficial; they could only make further decisions after obtaining more information.
Soon, everyone set off again.
The train followed the newly planned route, slowly sailing toward the dense island area.
During several consecutive days of reconnaissance, Bai Cheng and the others gradually noticed sothing unusual. The boundaries of the Erald Sea were far more blurred than recorded on the sea charts. The deeper they went, the more the sea surface was shrouded in a thin, ethereal mist, and even the sound of the waves seed to be swallowed by so force.
"The elents here have beco unstable again," Leng Ningxue said, her brow furrowing slightly. "The further southeast we go, the more chaotic the environntal elents beco."
Yu Nian jumped down from the roof of the vehicle, clutching a dark purple vine with serrated leaves in her hand:
"This is the seventh island, and still no one. There are only these things—they're corrosive and almost chewed through my bracers."
Bai Cheng took the vine, her fingertips glowing faintly as she sensed the residual energy traces within it.
"These aren't naturally grown plants," she looked up at the island silhouettes looming in the mist. "They seem to have been catalyzed by so external force and are aggressive... as if they are guarding this sea area."
As the train went deeper, the originally blurred archipelago area on the sea chart was gradually detailed.
Bai Cheng spent every day drawing at her desk. The °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° islands under her pen were scattered like stars, but most were labeled with 'no signs of life' or 'covered in dangerous vegetation.'
Only a few islands bore traces of once being occupied by the Pisces forces: simple camps, stone tablets engraved with constellation symbols, but all had been abandoned.
"It seems Chao Yin Island was just the tip of the iceberg," Bai Cheng spread out the newly drawn regional map, her finger tracing those silent islands. "These uninhabited islands are like a barrier; the true depths lie behind them."
They didn't abandon the periter to retreat; they retreated to defend a more core area."
Zi Yuan leaned against the window, looking into the depths of the mist. "If we go further, will the train be exposed?"
"Exposure is only a matter of ti," Bai Cheng put away the map, her eyes determined. "But if we stop here, it will only give them more ti to assemble. Since they want to hide, we'll force them to move."
She walked to the train's control console and slowly increased the output power of the elent core. "Change course to east-southeast, toward the area where the mist is thickest. From today on, we will no longer search islands; we will track the energy flow trajectories in the environnt."
Yu Nian grinned. "We should have done this long ago! Maybe those weird plants are the signposts they left behind?"
The cold light reflected on Leng Ningxue's cool face. "Perhaps these plants are ant to drive away or warn intruders. But if we aren't even afraid of the warning... the hunter and the prey should switch places."
The train roared, cutting through the mist and sailing toward the unknown depths of the Erald Sea.
Beneath the surface, the undercurrents quietly shifted, as if countless eyes were opening in the darkness.
The train, like a silent tal beast, slowly entered the heart of the thick fog.
Outside the window was no longer the clear, shimring light common to the Erald Sea, but a world swallowed by gray mist, where even the sound of the waves beca muffled.
The elents beca increasingly chaotic, at tis becoming even thinner than in the Outer Realm.
Leng Ningxue stood before the control console, a wisp of frost condensing on her fingertip as she lightly touched the surface of the detector.
Ice crystals spread rapidly, outlining invisible trajectories of energy flow. She had already marked every point where the elents were sparse or dense.
As they passed through more regions, these points and lines connected, gradually outlining a path leading to an unknown area.
"I think we've probably found the route."
Bai Cheng looked over, understanding instantly.
"For now, we can only follow this route and see where it goes."
Yu Nian also sat at the top of the stairs and nodded. "In that case, let's do it!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers