"Many ruins float here, and there are all sorts of mutated monsters, even including quite a few out-of-control demigods and Ancient Bane creatures."
Cattleya had approached at some point. She gazed out the window with a solemn look, her tone filled with emotion.
Klein also approached after hearing Cattleya's sigh of emotion. He pondered for a moment with a slightly grave expression before speaking:
"This shouldn't be the most dangerous part, right? Otherwise, this place would just become a treasure trove for the Seven Churches to acquire High-Sequence characteristics and materials."
Cattleya nodded, her voice somewhat ethereal as she continued:
"That's right. For Beyonders of our level, the real danger here is that you can never guess what you'll encounter the next second. Perhaps just by approaching a certain ruin, your body might suddenly melt, like a lit candle, or you might suddenly turn to stone, or be scattered by a fierce wind…"
Klein tilted his head slightly, acutely pressing a question:
"What about Beyonders above our level?"
Cattleya's gaze turned to Leyton, observing him. Seeing no abnormal reaction from him, she continued:
"This sea area is filled with sounds that shouldn't be heard. The higher the Sequence, the stronger the spirituality, the easier it is to hear them. This is also why those demigods who dared to explore here encountered problems; they either went mad or lost control, becoming forever lost here."
Hearing Cattleya's description, Klein looked at Leyton with some concern.
Leyton leaned back in the wooden chair by the dining table, curling his lips as he said:
"It's basically like someone is constantly rapping in my ear. To be honest, he doesn't rap very well. Of course, occasionally he'll be lucid and say a word or two to me, but I don't understand him."
Klein's mouth twitched slightly. He wasn't sure if this was a belittle to rap or a belittle to the sounds filling this sea area.
"Rap?" Cattleya said, her accent a little tongue-tied, her tone full of curiosity.
She didn't wait for Leyton to clarify, continuing:
"Do you mean the language itself, or that you can't comprehend the meaning conveyed by those sounds?"
"You'd best block out these sounds. Listening to them for a long time, even if you are a demigod, will inevitably lead to madness. There are already many mad and out-of-control demigods here."
Leyton nodded with a serious expression, indicating that he already knew.
"The sounds here won't have much effect on me, they're just unpleasant."
As he spoke, his gaze lingered for a moment on Heath, who had just emerged from the shadows, and he saw the cold, indifferent eye behind him, which seemed to be condensed from starlight.
This eye shimmered with pure radiance, separating him from the omnipresent curtain of shadows around him, preventing him from passively hearing the True Creator's voice that filled this sea area.
Hoo! Hoo!
Hoarse and clear panting echoed in the ears of all the crew members of the Future, like the sound of a huge airflow entering and exiting a throat, slow and rhythmic, carrying a strange and indescribable feeling that agitated the nerves of everyone around.
Heath, as a Rose Bishop, suddenly covered his head with both hands, letting out a painful groan:
"There's a corpse…"
As he spoke, Leyton had already looked over and saw a colossal figure constantly pacing within the nearby dilapidated ruins.
It was nearly ten meters tall, its skin festering and oozing pus, with some fragmented fuzz mixed in the pale yellow pus. Only a small portion of its grey-blue skin remained intact.
It had no head on its neck, yet one could clearly see its windpipe expanding and contracting there, as if it were breathing heavily. The huge and clear panting sound around it was emitted in this manner.
The midday sun around it turned dim yellow, slowly converging as if substantial, like a 'Dusk Storm' poised to erupt. Anything touched by that dim light would decay, rot, wither, and even die.
A giant that had devoured a Phoenix characteristic? Even after losing its characteristic, it could still maintain strength close to Sequence 3, although it largely relied on the unique properties of these Sea of Ruins.
As thoughts flickered, he heard Cattleya's calm and clear voice:
"Speed up and go around there! Don't get close!"
The Sailors on the ship finally came to their senses, quickly rushing from the restaurant to their respective posts. Under the command of Navigator Ottolov and Boatswain Nina, they swiftly adjusted the sails and changed their course.
It wasn't until the ruins, piled with stones and pillars, disappeared below the horizon that Heath, who had been clutching his head, finally recovered.
"What kind of corpse was that just now? Just the corpse's panting could cause such a big reaction?"
Klein looked at Leyton with some curiosity. He had noticed that the other party had looked in the direction of the sound for a while, and a Mystery Pryer's gaze would surely discover something.
Leyton looked down at the cold food on his plate, having lost the desire to continue eating. He picked up the glass of wine next to him, took a sip of the red wine, and then said in a calm voice:
"A giant that had accommodated the 'Death' Pathway characteristic. He might have been an angel in life. Even though he is now dead and has lost his original characteristic, he can still exhibit Sequence 3 level power by leveraging the unique properties of this place."
"Lost his original characteristic?"
Klein looked at Leyton with a strange expression, as if saying… No wonder you didn't have any extra reaction, it turns out that corpse can no longer drop equipment.
He then shifted his gaze to Heath, who was sitting in the backlight and still looked visibly unwell.
Although he had surpassed the "Listener" stage, he still possessed the "Listener" characteristic. Even without actively using that ability, in similar situations just now, he would be more sensitive than ordinary Beyonders. If one day he was in too good or too bad a state, he might directly hear the ravings that filled this sea area.
Leyton tilted his head and glanced at Klein, seemingly understanding the thoughts beneath his calm expression, and chuckled:
"Don't worry, although the mystical item he carries cannot truly block the sounds filling this sea area, as long as he doesn't leave the Future, he'll be fine."
"As long as he doesn't leave the Future, he'll be fine? Are there corresponding arrangements on this ship? Yes, as the Admiral of Stars, Cattleya couldn't possibly not have thought of these issues." Klein mused to himself for a moment, then stopped thinking about the problem and focused on eating the food in front of him.
Leyton, who no longer intended to continue his lunch, rose from his seat and walked out of the restaurant onto the deck, gazing at the sea surface, which was tinged with a layer of gold under the midday sun.
After strolling on the deck for a while, his spirituality suddenly felt a tremor. In front of the sea where the Future was sailing, a huge light spot, radiating a dazzling, dreamlike brilliance due to the refraction of sunlight, appeared.
Leyton tilted his head curiously to look over, his gaze penetrating the dazzling outer brilliance, and he saw four enormous stone pillars carved from diamonds within. A sizable island was also floating atop the diamond pillars.
Leyton's gaze continued deeper into the island, passing over the scorched, hot earth, and he saw two magnificent horses seemingly crafted from gold. Behind them, they pulled a luxurious Chariot also made of gold. They exuded a light as dazzling as the sun, and golden flames occasionally erupted into the surrounding air.
Seemingly startled by Leyton's gaze, the two golden horses let out a long whinny, then galloped away with a clatter.
The air beneath their hooves was like solid ground. The golden Chariot swiftly ascended into the sky, galloping across the heavens, rapidly approaching the Future, like a rising sun.
The moment the golden Chariot rose like the sun, a thought abruptly surfaced in Leyton's mind: "Sun Chaser!"
Sequence 2 of the "Sun" Pathway, the ancient "Sun Chaser," now the "Lightseeker."
Just then, Cattleya's voice, magnified by magic, echoed urgently and clearly in everyone's minds:
"Look down!"
"Don't look!"
Leyton's figure also became transparent at this moment, the brilliant starlight appearing somewhat dim under the blazing sunlight.
As that sun grew closer and closer to the Future, the midday sun was suddenly covered by brilliant starlight. Stars flickered with clear radiance in the sky, continuously twisting and contracting, taking the sun formed by the golden Chariot into the World of Paintings before it could rush out of this area.
The intensely bright sky suddenly lost its sense of space, its colors becoming rich and distorted, like an abstract oil painting. The oil painting had the cosmos as its main theme, but the very center was a sun spewing out specks of golden light.
A misty glow, formed by complex knowledge, suddenly surged from the Future and rushed into the giant oil painting in the sky.
The cosmos in the oil painting suddenly brightened considerably, engaging in a tug-of-war with the scattered golden specks from the sun.
Within the World of Paintings, Bernadette's figure reassembled amidst the complex knowledge. She still wore her pirate captain's attire, holding a pale mask shimmering with metallic luster.
That mask only had empty eye sockets; the rest of it had no seams whatsoever, exuding a deathly stillness from within.
She looked at Leyton, who held a brilliant, transparent crystal ball, his eyes flowing with pure light, and calmly remarked:
"You are very bold. Even I never thought of taking this 'Lightseeker' characteristic."
"This is one of my purposes for coming to these Sea of Ruins. High-Sequence characteristics of the 'Sun' Pathway are the best energy source."
Leyton, with eyes of deep blue verging on purple, gave off an exceptionally sacred and wise impression, yet also seemed quite cold and devoid of warmth.
Behind him, amidst the flowing, wave-like pale blue light, a somewhat incomplete ring, composed of gears and chains, swiftly appeared.
In the center of the incomplete ring, a book outlined with lines continuously flipped, and a pair of cold, indifferent, eyelash-less eyes, containing countless brilliant stars, emerged from between the pages.
The authority and power of a "Sage" erupted from Leyton.
He gently threw the transparent crystal ball in his right hand forward. It slowly rotated, gaining speed, and the surrounding gravity and electromagnetism also began to distort.
The brilliant, transparent crystal ball turned dark, like a "black hole" that could swallow even light. Everything in the World of Paintings began to distort, gradually being drawn into the "black hole."
Bernadette deeply looked at the "black hole" that was briefly stalemating with that "sun." She inexplicably felt that it was a celestial body that truly existed in the universe.
Quickly collecting her thoughts, she slowly pressed the pale mask, shimmering with metallic luster, forward, towards the direction of that blazing white "sun."
The mask, shimmering with metallic luster, rapidly materialized into an extremely complex and mysterious three-dimensional symbol, pressing down towards that blazing white, scorching "sun."
Noticing this, Leyton somewhat laboriously manipulated the "black hole," pushing it below that blazing white "sun."