Chapter 2005: Unsinkable Ship

"Miss Theresa, open your mouth."

Xia De guided the liquid to flow out from the bottle mouth, and the unconscious witch gradually woke up and subconsciously swallowed the liquid. For these high-level witches, as long as they wake up, there are many ways to make themselves no longer unconscious.

Her eyelids twitched, and her lips moved a few times, silently casting a few spells Xia De couldn't recognize to restore her body temperature to normal. Opening her eyes and seeing Xia De half-squatting in front of her looking at her with concern, for a moment, the twenty-six-year-old Schluch Lake Theresa thought she was just in a tent by the Lost Lake, having a long dream under her aunt's care.

"How do you feel? Can you hear me?"

Xia De asked with concern, and the appearance of the voice made the young golden-haired witch realize that this was not a dream.

Then some memories from before the coma flooded into her mind, and looking at the terrible environment around her, she fully remembered what the situation was now:

"Xia De? Is it you?"

"It seems you are awake. Yes, yes, long time no see. Is Miss Violet okay? Oh, don't talk first, sit up and warm yourself by the fire. This place is even stranger than the lake we met at last time."

He took the initiative to reach out his hand, and then Miss Theresa felt that she couldn't control herself and grabbed his wrist, so she fully confirmed that the Xia De in front of her was the person from before.

The Tenth-level purple-haired lady helped Miss Theresa sit up, but in fact, the latter's level was higher than the former's. And the Twelfth-level middle-aged witch, after waking up, went to check on the young ordinary girl's situation.

She didn't ask about Xia De's identity, but asked Xia De for some more holy water. After cooperating with the witch's secret technique of healing the spirit, she completely woke the girl up.

The swaying floating board was not suitable for standing, so even Xia De sat down. The five people surrounded the metal fire basin, trying to absorb the temperature. Although everyone's clothes had been steamed dry, the bone-chilling cold still couldn't be dispelled. The seawater was surging, and the sky, like an abyss mouth, made everyone subconsciously not look up.

Listening to the sound of water, the seventeen or eighteen-year-old ordinary girl's voice was a bit hoarse:

"Are we already dead? Is this the legendary world after death?"

Although Xia De was puzzled why their souls were normal but their bodies seemed fake, he still denied her idea:

"Definitely not."

"Why?"

The girl looked at him, but saw Xia De's expression was serious:

"I have seen the world after death, and it is not like this. It is very beautiful, very quiet, and there is a silver moon."

The shivering girl was stunned by this sentence, but at least the fact that she wasn't dead made her a little happy.

And because Xia De rescued the four people and even knew Miss Theresa, although the witches present were still puzzled about Xia De's gender, they didn't ask directly.

Three years had passed since the Lost Lake, and the original Thirteenth-level Witch Emperor, Miss Violet, had already touched the edge of a demigod. Therefore, as her apprentice and distant niece, Miss Theresa had a lot of face everywhere in this world.

Everyone introduced their own situation while resting. Xia De's guess was correct; they had indeed just encountered a shipwreck. After the four escaped to this floating board, they fell into a coma and were only awakened by Xia De, who arrived here just now.

"I am Sarah Evans, a geography professor at the Zalas Academy of Literature. This time I accepted the academy's project to go to the Outer Sea for investigation and data collection."

The Twelfth-level witch with some white hair introduced her identity first, and her identity was also confirmed by Miss Theresa. The two had met before.

Miss Theresa, wearing glasses, greeted Professor Evans, and then her body couldn't help but tremble, introducing Xia De's identity to the professor:

"This is my aunt's... friend, who helped us a lot before."

She wanted to avoid using any gender-distinguishing pronouns for Xia De, but found it difficult to do so:

"He is very capable, Professor. If you have doubts about him, my aunt will explain later."

The professor of Zalas Academy of Literature maintained great respect for the Witch Emperor, and wrapped in a blanket, she politely nodded slightly to Xia De, whose face was flickering in the firelight. Miss Theresa, wrapped in a cloak, continued to shiver, smiled at Xia De, and told him about her situation:

"I am on my graduation trip. I have successfully graduated."

The smile on her face could not be concealed, and Xia De also congratulated her softly:

"Congratulations on your successful graduation!"

At the time of the Lost Lake, Miss Theresa was still thinking about obtaining wisdom from the god to complete her graduation thesis. Of course, she didn't do that in the end. So it took another three years, but considering the power and rich knowledge of witches in this era, it is not an exaggeration to take three years to complete a graduation thesis.

Theresa shook her head embarrassedly:

"Just barely graduated. The teacher gave me a lot of help. Aunt said that a witch can only graduate from the academy once in her life. After that, I will learn by her side, and there will probably not be much time for vacation, so she sponsored this trip of mine."

She looked at the Tenth-level witch who had just helped her up:

"This is Miss Vane Maxim, the maid sent by my aunt to take care of me. Thanks to her along the way, I have always lived in the academy or by my aunt's side, and have little life experience."

The purple-haired lady respectfully said to Xia De:

"Hello, Mr. Hamilton. Miss did not let me follow on that lake adventure, but I heard Miss mention you later. You are indeed... as handsome as Miss said."

Miss Maxim reached out from the blanket and shook hands with Xia De in a hurry. Xia De felt that she was still confirming his identity.

Miss Theresa and the maid Miss Maxim were traveling companions, and Professor Sarah Evans was traveling alone. Therefore, none of them knew the ordinary girl.

However, the sunken "Radiant Messenger" cruise ship was very large, and there were many tourists. Plus, the witches all lived in first-class cabins, so it was normal not to know the ordinary girl.

She finally introduced herself, biting her lip and looking at the fire in front of her, shivering while her eyes were red from trying to hold back tears:

"I am Maggie Malone. I... went on a trip with my sister. We originally wanted to go to Silver Beach Island for a vacation."

According to their description, the "Radiant Messenger" cruise ship departed from a port in the West Continent, carrying 2,224 passengers and 892 crew members, heading to the famous tourist island "Silver Beach Island" in the sea area known as the "Outer Sea" on the west side of the West Continent, and would bring them back to the West Continent after the passengers had a two-week vacation.

The "Radiant Messenger" cruise ship was the largest and most luxuriously equipped non-alchemical cruise ship of this era, and this trip was the maiden voyage of this giant ship. It had the most perfect steam power system, the best crew, and the most experienced captain and first mate. When it was built, the ship was crowned with the reputation of "unsinkable." But three days after the ship sailed from the port, the only living people left on the ship were probably the four shivering in front of Xia De.

So Xia De asked the most critical question:

"But how did this ship become like this? Did you encounter a storm, or hit an iceberg? Did the witches on the ship do nothing?"

Miss Theresa knew that Xia De was not familiar with the affairs of this era, and explained to him with a trembling voice:

"This is just a cruise ship built by ordinary people. There are not many witches on the ship."

In the Fifth Era, although ordinary people could know and come into contact with mysticism, in reality, the number of witches was not very large relative to the total population. Moreover, witches generally did not rely on ordinary people's ships when going to sea. Even if they didn't have their own magical animal mounts, they all had different secret techniques and alchemical ships or flying carpets.

"The accident happened at night. When I felt the ship vibrate, the surroundings had already become like this. In less than five minutes, this sea area of no light swallowed the ship and most of the people. I don't really know what happened."

She pursed her lips, still a little afraid of the situation at that time:

"It was like the whole world was spinning. Miss Maxim and I fell into the water together, and we swam with all our might. Everything around us was sinking rapidly. I even felt that there was some behemoth on the seabed looking at me."

The purple-haired Miss Maxim also nodded with a pale face:

"All powers of Water Walking could not be used. Although underwater breathing could be used, the body being soaked in the water would produce a strange sense of heaviness and panic. Fortunately, we saw the firelight here and climbed up together, and then we all fell into a coma. This water will quickly absorb physical strength and spirit, and one cannot stay in the water for a long time."

While speaking, the ladies all looked at the bonfire in front of them, not daring to look at the surging sea surface of no light. That was indeed too terrible. Darkness is something humans have feared since birth, and in this strange sea area, darkness represents more danger.

Miss Maxim and Miss Theresa lived together, so they acted together. Miss Malone's story was similar to theirs, but she was luckier:

"I realized the ship was sinking. The door of the room was blocked by debris from the outside, so I could only jump into the sea from the window. I am quite good at swimming. The light here was very close to me. I tried my best to grab other things, but everything was sinking. I could only struggle in the waves. Fortunately, the waves slapped me here. When I came here, the two witch ladies were already there, so I also fell into a coma by the fire."

She shivered more violently than the witches. It was indeed difficult for a seventeen or eighteen-year-old ordinary person to face the situation here.

Miss Theresa and the other three didn't have much memory of the process of the ship capsizing. Fortunately, Professor Sarah Evans could provide some clues. This middle-aged witch recalled what happened before she fell into a coma, and her face was also pale:

"This ship probably encountered an unstable spatial storm. Before the incident, I felt an abnormal vibration of spatial power. This is definitely not a normal sea area. I am very sure that there is no such strange area within two days' sailing from the coast of the West Continent. We should have encountered a low-probability event. However, such a thing as a ship disappearing should be discovered soon, and Miss Theresa's aunt will also come to look for her."

She said this mainly to comfort the ordinary girl. Miss Malone nodded, looking at the bonfire in front of her with low spirits, her mood still low.

"Miss Maxim is right, Water Walking is prohibited here. I could only swim here by looking at the firelight. At that time, these three girls had already arrived. I tried to check on them, but soon fell into a coma."

In short, entering this strange sea area was not the ladies' own will. Similarly, their understanding of this place was no more than Xia De, who had just arrived.

From their descriptions, Xia De found something extremely strange:

"Wait a minute, Professor, you mean you were the last to arrive? The fire in front of us wasn't ignited by you?" ===== CHAPTER 2006 =====