Chapter 324: Dark Sea Area

In that terrifying darkness, the blurred Xia De vaguely heard singing accompanied by the sound of waves.

And when he woke up again, everything around him seemed to be swaying. The raindrops falling from the sky hit his back, and the biting wind made him shiver uncontrollably.

"Oh~"

The feeling of a headache hadn't dissipated yet, and the simple action of opening his eyes made him feel his temples jumping with pain.

He rolled over and sat up, took off his mask, and breathed in big mouthfuls. Looking around, he was currently on the dirty deck of an old ship, and everything around him was dilapidated.

Looking up, the terrifying, soul-stirring black vortex was actually hanging upside down in the high sky overhead. That moment of primitive fear almost made Xia De scream.

Looking around, this was undoubtedly still the ocean. The ship was floating on the surging sea surface, surrounded by the ocean in the thunderstorm in all directions. The deep darkness seemed to be swallowing from afar, and the sound of huge waves made his heart tremble uncontrollably. Because there was no light, the sea surface presented a thick black color, and under this black sea surface, it seemed that there were even larger and pitch-black terrifying things swimming. Xia De only took one look and immediately withdrew his gaze.

If it were a more timid person, they would probably have been scared into a faint the moment they saw this scene around them. And even though the outsider had seen many things in this world, he still couldn't completely control his panic at this moment. This was the most primitive fear of humans for the deep sea and darkness, not to mention that the Whispers element in the space was trying to erode his soul at all times.

"Are you still there?"

【I am always with you.】

The familiar voice sounded, and Xia De felt relieved. It was just that Miss Princess couldn't be seen on the dim, dilapidated deck, nor could anyone else.

"But how come I encountered this kind of thing just after going out?"

【Simply put, the power on this ship is very similar to the curse on that girl who was clearly red-haired but dyed her hair blonde.】

"Was this ship attracted by the 【Mermaid's Song】 curse on Miss Princess?"

Thinking of this, Xia De frowned in the rain. Looking around, the swaying dilapidated ship seemed to be lost in the dark and terrifying sea area, and there was only one living person on the ship, Xia De.

【No, she's not that important. The curse was just resonating with the pirate ship of the same origin, which made her feel it.】

"So, the mermaid statue and this pirate ship are really different steps of the same ritual, and we happened to run into this ship... How could there be such a coincidence..."

Xia De maintained his balance with difficulty, recalling Miss Princess's last sentence. Crossing the rain curtain, his eyes looked at the entrance of the ship's cabin.

He reached out to check the things he carried with him, confirmed that his things weren't lost, and then because of the violent shaking of the deck, he stumbled and almost fell again.

"Speaking of which, since there is no light source around, how can I see the deck clearly?"

Thinking of this, he looked down at his hands, which were wrinkled from being soaked in water. Just like when 【Darkness Box】 went out of control, it was Xia De himself who was glowing. The radiance of the silver moon radiated from the surface of his body, not bright, but at least it kept him from being completely swallowed by the darkness.

He wiped the rainwater off his face, not daring to observe the terrifying sea area overhead or around the ship again:

"Besides the Whispers element, are there any other abnormal things nearby?"

【Not for the time being, but this ship is trying to assimilate you, to keep you here forever.】

"I don't feel it."

Dense raindrops hit his skin, and he couldn't stay in the rain for too long.

【Trying to assimilate any creature with divinity is the stupidest behavior. You can't feel it because it has no effect.】

"Understood."

He clenched his fists. Because of the loss of body heat, his state wasn't very good. Miss Princess said not to leave this ship, and Xia De didn't have the guts to jump into the sea in this kind of eerie sea area, so he should find a place to shelter from the rain first.

The swaying ship made a creaking sound, as if it would fall apart at any moment. Sniffing the smell of the ocean, Xia De stumbled toward the entrance of the ship's cabin on the deck. He didn't intend to create too much light in this eerie environment, so he only used the slight light from his fingertips to illuminate the surroundings.

The dilapidated deck was being hit by dense raindrops, and wooden boxes and some cargo were piled up in the corner. Occasionally, one could see black stains that even rainwater couldn't wash away. 【Blood Echo】 told Xia De that most of them were bloodstains.

There were no living people on the ship, but there were quite a few corpses. Those corpses had long turned into white bones, sliding on the deck because of the ship's tilt. Xia De was very worried that the skeletons among them would suddenly get up, but until he touched the rusted iron door leading to the ship's cabin, he was still the only one active on the ship.

The iron door seemed to have been hit hard from the inside in the distant past. The deformed door was stuck in the door frame, and it couldn't be pushed open no matter how hard he tried. Xia De could only summon that silver greatsword, slashed a few times fiercely, and broke the iron door.

The sound of metal hitting the ground was covered by the violent rain and thunder, as if the black entrance that could suck souls had been opened, and a violent foul smell surged from inside the ship's cabin.

But at least this ship wasn't leaking, and the interior of the ship's cabin was still relatively dry. The ship probably belonged to the Fifth Era and didn't have a steam power system, so it couldn't rely on the pipes on the walls to find those important rooms.

Stepping on the creaking floor and entering the ship's cabin, Xia De let the sword in his hand disappear temporarily, bent down, and used his fingers to illuminate the sunken door panel that had fallen on the moldy ground. On the side of the door panel that was originally facing inward, there were not only traces of being hit by huge force but also dozens of sharp claw marks. The observation of 【Blood Echo】 showed that there were traces of blood in the claw marks, indicating that these were most likely marks made by hard scratching with hands.

"What exactly happened here..."

His heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly looked up at the front. The silver radiance illuminated the floor in front of him. On the dilapidated floor covered with disgusting moss and dust, ashes rose up fiercely, and then a rotten humanoid figure made of ashes rushed over directly.

"Not an illusion, is this a ghost?"

The moonlight slashed forward. After slashing the ghost made of ashes, it flew along the ship's cabin to a place further away. It was also with the help of this light that Xia De saw that except for the area near the exit, the entire corridor of the ship's cabin seemed to be covered with dark black blood.

Human bones and remains were scattered everywhere, and the doors leading to the rooms around the ship's cabin were blocked by dilapidated and damaged furniture and bones. The scene before him seemed to indicate that a shocking massacre had occurred inside the ship's cabin in the distant past.

The feeling of a headache became more and more intense. The ship itself was affecting the spirit of the intruder, which was also one of the characteristics of high-danger-level relics.

Xia De wanted to continue walking forward to search for more clues inside the ship. But at this moment, a slight sound came from his side, so he immediately looked to the left. With the slight light of his fingers, behind the thick wall fungus blanket, one could vaguely see a photo frame, and the sound came from the photo frame.

He frowned, used the pen he carried with him to carefully peel off the disgusting fungus blanket on the outer layer, revealing the photo frame body that sealed dozens of black-and-white photos of different sizes.

"So the Fifth Era also had photography technology..."

Most of the photos in the photo frame had faded severely, and only the life scenes on the ship could be vaguely identified. But only that single portrait in the center seemed not to have been eroded by time. The man with an eyepatch, short hair, and a high nose looked at Xia De from the photo.

The calm expression frozen in the years slowly changed with Xia De's observation. The face that had faded a little bit curled up at the corners of the mouth bit by bit, until it split into an angle that a normal person absolutely couldn't achieve. The originally motionless eyeballs also suddenly turned at this moment, and the look of wisdom in the dull eyes was recovering. That pair of eyes truly looked at Xia De:

"Intruder!"

In the creepy roar, that face rolled up with heavy black mist and turned into a creepy skeleton, rushing out of the photo.

"Silver Moon."

Extreme light erupted from his fingertips for a moment. The bright light even made the ship itself shake. When the light extinguished in the next second, Xia De's fist shattered the glass of the photo frame, ignoring his palm being pierced, and grabbed that haunted old photo.

When he withdrew his hand, the old photo actually flew out of his hand. It slid upward along the yellow-green mold on the wall, as if trying to find the seams of the wall to leave. But when the photo flew to the height of Xia De's chest, the glowing holy silver sword tip pierced over, pierced through the fragile photo, and directly nailed the photo to the wall.

The moonlight greatsword illuminated the wall. The green fungus blanket retreated like a living thing out of the range illuminated by the sword, and the position where the sword blade contacted the photo kept emitting thick black smoke as if it were on fire. Sharp screams came from the photo. The twisted and deformed sound made Xia De, who already had a headache, even more annoyed, but he ignored it.

"I surrender!"

A voice finally came from inside the photo. Like the "Intruder" just now, it actually used the contemporary language.

Xia De waited for a few seconds before using his left hand to grab the photo, and his right hand pulled out the greatsword. At this time, a black hole that looked like it had been burned had appeared in the center of the photo, and the man with an eyepatch in the photo squeezed to one side of the photo, allowing himself to appear completely on the photo. He raised his hands high in the photo.

"If you dare to run, there won't be a chance next time."

Xia De said, and his left hand holding the photo exerted force. He was originally worried that the other party wouldn't understand what he said, but fortunately, the person in the photo understood:

"How is that possible? How could you still maintain a clear consciousness here?"

The voice was hoarse and strange, and at the same time, the image in the photo was constantly flickering. Most of the time it was the man's image, but in a few moments, it was clearly a monster with a mixture of fish face and human face features in the photo. ===== CHAPTER 325 =====