Chapter 2163: Escape and the Witch Fleet

The glowing silver giant dragon didn't have time to explain so much, and the entire dragon flew toward the underside of the ship.

After a slight sway, the cruise ship, which had been falling, finally stopped its descent. The attacks from the black thunderbolts in the sky and the attacks from the evil entity gradually awakening from the seabed were partially blocked by Xia De. The witches, with their pressure shared, cooperated with Miss Elether, finally allowing the group to rise slowly once again.

Last week in the Moon Bay sea area, Xia De was able to defeat the deep-sea evil entity because it was a projection and he was in a state of "divinity overflow." At this moment, he was only in his ordinary transformation form, but he was facing the true body of the evil entity. Even using the "tail whip" movement to employ "Adele's Principle of Return" to deal with the attacks, he was severely injured by the tentacles and sonic attacks coming from the depths of the ocean in just a few dozen seconds.

On the ship's deck, Professor Evans, who was struggling to maintain the protective shield, had also begun to vomit blood. Miss Elether, whose face had turned pale due to the damage to the ship, was barely able to maintain the integrity of her manifested body.

Miss Theresa and Miss Maxim were still continuously attacking the tentacles that had climbed onto the deck, but compared to the increasing number of tentacles, what they were doing was merely a drop in the bucket.

Just at the most critical moment, the witches, Xia De, and Miss Elether all heard the last sentence the deity had gifted them—

"Children, you must believe in dreams!"

Sudden heavenly light pierced through the black sky amidst the rain, illuminating the cruise ship held fast by hundreds of tentacles reaching out from the sea. In that light, a deafening howl came from the seabed, and the pitch-black tentacles pulling the cruise ship quickly turned into seawater and vanished.

Everyone's injuries and consumed physical strength and spirit were rapidly recovering. Even Xia De, who had been most deeply affected by the evil entity's power, completely broke free from the influence of those evil melodies in that instant:

"Hurry, go!"

The dragon and the ship turned direction almost simultaneously, flying toward the source of the pure white heavenly light in the high sky. The silver giant dragon's body was larger than the *Glorious Messenger*—in his non-divine state, he couldn't turn into the mountain-sized dragon he had been last time. The faster-flying giant dragon even grabbed the ship's mast and chimney, forcibly dragging it and rushing toward the high sky at an even greater speed within that beam of heavenly light.

The dragon's figure cast a large shadow below, so the thousands of tentacles reaching out from the sea again followed the beam of heavenly light, chasing the people trying to escape upward. The violent ocean seemed to be rising at this moment, and in the deeper parts of the seawater, the massive shadow of the stone statue was already approaching the sea level amidst the music of countless corpses slapping the sea surface.

At this time, because the ship flying alongside the silver giant dragon was moving too fast, it was in a tilted position with its bow facing upward. Therefore, the three witches on the deck could use different strange arts to bombard the underside, which was originally in a blind spot, but this only slightly hindered the speed at which the tentacles were shooting upward.

The tentacles ultimately caught up with the dragon and the ship. At this critical moment, the silver giant dragon, which had been accumulating power, paused its flight and sprayed brilliant silver light downward. The thick pillar of moonlight pierced through the group of tentacles chasing beneath them and struck directly toward the sea surface. However, as the exhausted dragon continued to grab the *Glorious Messenger* and fly toward the source of the heavenly light again, more tentacles continued to reach out from the sea and chase upward.

Even the true body of the evil entity, the figure of the nameless stone statue that had been sleeping on the seabed for who knows how many years, had now appeared vaguely in the minds of the three witches and the silver giant dragon.

"It's coming out, hurry!"

The witches gritted their teeth as their attacks downward continued, and the Moonlight Dragon and Miss Elether were also striving to fly upward faster. Their counter-attacking power had been exhausted; at this moment, they could only gamble on whether they would leave this place first, or if the pursuit behind them would drag them back down to the sea surface first.

Suddenly, Professor Evans on the deck froze, quickly grabbing Miss Theresa and Miss Maxim, who were still casting spells:

"Close your eyes! It's out!"

Whether it was the dragon, the witches, or the ship, none of them dared to perceive the sea surface at this moment, but they all clearly felt that on the small patch of sea illuminated by the heavenly light, the very top of the rough gray stone statue had revealed a portion above the undulating black sea.

Not daring to think, let alone investigate, the dragon and the ship flew faster, and the beam of heavenly light became brighter as they drew closer to its source.

But their enemy was ultimately too powerful. Accompanied by the stone statue rising abnormally slowly from the seabed, a thick, black tentacle resembling a tail suddenly ejected toward the group in the high sky, almost turning into black light.

The deity, who was looking up at the departing dragon and ship from the sea surface, wanted to cast his fishing rod immediately, but suddenly withdrew his hand.

In the gaps between the scales on the Moonlight Dragon's head, as a ray of golden light flashed, Little Mia, who had once again unauthorizedly changed back from a toy into a cat, appeared triumphantly on top of Xia De's head and looked around.

This cat had never been afraid of heights; her claws gripped the scales on the dragon's head firmly to prevent herself from falling. The cat was happy that no matter how large Xia De became, she could always stand on his head. She then looked down and noticed the ugly fellow in the sea:

"Meow-woo~"

The orange-white cat, instantly bristling with fur, even had her tail raised and burning with small flames. While emitting a "threatening" meow, she used one of the only two supernatural abilities she could currently use, which was to spray a small flame she often sprayed when playing with Xia De.

That small flame spiraled and brushed past the silver giant dragon's body, falling downward, and met the tentacle of the evil entity's true body reaching toward the high sky head-on, and then—

*Boom! *

The witches on the ship, the flying Xia De, and Miss Elether only felt as if the light of the sun had lit up on the sea beneath them. But they had no chance to look back, because the explosion that ignited with seemingly infinite light and infinite heat hindered the evil entity for a few short seconds, and they finally arrived at the source of the heavenly light:

"The deity really wouldn't watch us be left here! Praise you! Praise the 【Giver of Dreams】!"

They melted into the source of the heavenly light and completely vanished into the black sky.

Spring, 5180, Fifth Era, Outer Sea, the sea area where the *Glorious Messenger* sank.

The sun was shining, and the wind and waves on the sea were not very large. A total of thirteen giant cruise ships, far larger than the *Glorious Messenger*, gathered and anchored on the sea. Unicorns carried dozens of witches to set up large-scale reconnaissance rituals in the high sky, and hundreds of mermaids traveled back and forth between the deep sea and the sea surface, notifying the people on the sea of the progress of the search for the seabed.

And further away, with these thirteen ships as the center, a massive witch fleet was conducting a thorough search of the entire sea area. On the decks of those giant cruise ships, which were large enough to hold horse races, a portal would open every once in a while, transmitting the latest news from the witch teams searching in more distant areas.

The witches specifically responsible for receiving and summarizing information ran back and forth on the deck with new news. The ritual arrays flickering with various spiritual lights, maintained by the witches walking back and forth, were not only the defensive ritual arrays for these ships, which were more valuable than their weight in gold, but also ritual arrays for "dispelling clouds and rain," "praying for good luck," and "ocean's bounty."

The search and rescue team, composed of the "Witton Kingdom" ruled by Witch Empress Violet, the Duchy of Tifansi to which the *Glorious Messenger* belonged, and the Zalas Academy of Literature, had been searching this sea area for a day and a night, but so far had not received any good news. The fleet composed of thirteen alchemy warships for war was only the hub of the search and rescue team, but in reality, because the specific location of the ship encountering the storm was unclear, the total number of ships in the search and rescue team reached 158.

The tallest of the thirteen giant ships, and the one with the most magnificent figurehead and mast decorations, the *Witton Kingdom*, was the flagship of Witch Empress Violet.

Wearing a purple robe, with wavy long hair hanging down to her waist, the thirteenth-tier witch was standing on the deck listening to her maid-in-chief with brown long hair telling her the information coming from all sides, while beside her were other maids from the Royal Maid Corps who hadn't been dispatched. Xia De would have recognized this maid if he were here; she had also accompanied her master to the Lost Lake in the Broken Islands to explore the secret of "Eternal Beauty."

"So, really nothing can be found?"

The voice of Miss Violet, who was getting closer and closer to the realm of a demigod, was now so cold that almost no tone could be heard. The brown-haired maid with her head lowered knew this was a sign that her master was angry:

"Yes, the salvage team has currently only found some wooden boards; no main body of the ship or any corpses have been found."

"Professor, how is your interrogation of that group of lunatics from the 【Dragon Feast Sect】 going?"

The Witch Empress, wearing a tall pointed hat, asked the silver-haired old woman who had walked over with the maid-in-chief. The old professor from Zalas Academy of Literature also said with difficulty:

"Sorry, Your Majesty, the souls of those lunatics have all vanished. We are trying to cultivate souls for the bodies again, and then let the souls extract memories from the brain, but this takes time."

Miss Violet's eyes looked at her. Her golden-brown eyes were not gorgeous; on the contrary, they were exceptionally gentle because of the little fragments of light within them. But the pressure generated by her gaze made almost everyone in front of her have to bow slightly. Everyone familiar with this lady knew that Her Majesty the Empress was quite dissatisfied with the current results and progress.

But before she could issue new orders, all the witches above high-tier or with spatial talents in the nearby sea area looked up at the azure sky.

Thanks to the rituals set up on the ships, the weather at this time was so good that there were almost no clouds. And as the "crack" sound, similar to glass shattering, gradually became clear, under the gaze of thousands of witches, a series of clear, spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the sky. ===== CHAPTER 2164 =====