About an hour later, the two ships finally stopped. The abandoned ships that had gathered together before were no longer seen in this place. The sea was calm, and there seemed to be a small island or an offshore platform vaguely in front.
Longdan pointed to the direction of a small island or platform not far away and said, "Why don't we stop over there?"
Ah Kai glanced at him and said, "I'll give you a piece of advice. Whether you are in the dark sea or anywhere else, when you are at sea, don't just stop at these places. Don't think that land is safe. Sometimes, land is more dangerous than sea."
Longdan shrugged his shoulders and smiled without responding.
Ah Kai picked up the communicator and contacted the ship on the other side: "You can stay here for two hours. After two hours, we have to return."
Tang Yu smiled bitterly and said, "Can't we stay a little longer? Two hours is a bit tight."
"If you fail to complete the research this time, you can try again next time. But if you lose your life here, you will have no chance." After saying that, A Kai put down the communicator.
After a moment, Tang Yu's helpless voice rang out from the communicator: "Okay, I'll listen to you."
After that, there was basically nothing for Tianyang and the other two to do.
They simply went up to the deck to get some fresh air. The place where Akai brought them was the edge of the dark sea. Here, as long as they didn't take the initiative to provoke those black people in the sea, they didn't have to worry about being attacked.
The ship of the 'Mercemen Association' opposite kept a safe distance, and their busy figures could be seen on the deck again. Tianyang sat on the side of the ship, curiously watching them fiddling with various instruments.
After a while, he saw A Kai smoking alone on the other side of the deck. Patting his butt, Tian Yang stood up and walked over.
"I don't think you took us out to sea just because of that box of gold bars."
Tianyang came to a place not far from him, leaned on the boat, and spoke in a relaxed tone.
Ah Kai glanced at him and continued smoking. After a moment, he said, "My wife is sick, and... very sick."
"When I married her, I was keen on exploration and adventure. Even though we had a daughter, my love for the unknown world of the opposite world remained unchanged. As a result, I often neglected her, and even when she was seriously ill, I was unable to take care of her."
"I owed her a lot, so when she asked to leave, I didn't try to keep her. I just sold all my valuables and bought her and her daughter a house in the North District for them to live in."
A Kai looked at the sea and said, "I haven't had any contact with her for several years. It's good this way. Maybe she can forget me and live a good life. But on the day you came to find me, my daughter also found me."
"She said her mother was sick, so we rushed to the hospital, and the doctor said it would cost a lot of money to cure her. So I found you, and asked the people from the 'Murloc Association'. They invited me to be a guide before, but I didn't agree."
Tianyang was a little surprised. He didn't realize that Akai, such a quiet man, cared so much about his wife. Even though they had separated, he immediately started raising money when he heard that she was in trouble.
"So, is there enough money?"
Ah Kai nodded and showed a rare smile: "That's enough."
"That's good. If it's not enough, tell me. I have some more." Tianyang smiled.
At this time, Longdan came over, holding a nautical chart and spread it out in front of Akai.
"Help me see, do you know how to get to this place?"
Longdan pointed to a corner of the nautical chart. Tianyang glanced at it and felt that the drawing of this nautical chart was... hard to describe in words.
Ah Kai glanced at the thing, then looked at Long Dan: "You call this a nautical chart?"
Long Dan said awkwardly: "Although the drawing is not detailed enough, I can still tell the direction."
Ah Kai sneered: "You also know that it's not precise enough, but do you know that sometimes just a tiny difference is enough to kill someone at sea?"
"If you want to take risks based on this sea chart, I advise you to give up. Or find a rope to hang yourself up and die quickly."
Long Dan pointed at him and said, "Why are you like this? This is too discouraging."
"I say, Akai, since you are going out to sea anyway, do you want to earn more?"
Long Dan blinked his eyes and said, "I have something here that records a certain place on the sea. How about you help me take a look and draw an accurate nautical chart for me? I won't treat you unfairly."
"If you are willing to send us there, I will give you some money, how about that?"
Ah Kai didn't say anything. He finished his cigarette and then said, "Go and have a look."
"Follow me." Longdan said excitedly, and took Akai back to the control room.
Tian Yang said in surprise: "He wouldn't have brought the 'key' with him, would he?"
Moonlight chuckled. "No way. He got the gem down. We tried it. As long as we inject energy into the gem, we can activate some images stored in it."
"That guy Longdan carries the gemstone with him."
Tianyang was relieved.
At this time, he heard a slight sound coming from the side of the ship, as if something hit the hull. Tianyang stuck his head out to see, and it turned out to be a piece of ice.
A piece of black ice, floating on the sea, was brought here by the sea water and gently hit the hull.
"Strange, there is obviously volcanic activity under the sea outside. How come there is ice here?" Although Tianyang was curious, he did not find out. He just took a look at the black ice and sat down.
The 'Fishman Association' also soon discovered the black ice on the sea. They used instruments to scoop up a piece.
A researcher wearing protective clothing carefully picked up the black ice with a pair of tongs, placed it in a container, and then carried it into the cabin.
The ship of the 'Mercemen Association' has a small laboratory in the cabin that can perform some simple tests.
The researchers put the container of black ice into the holographic scanner, then took out an electronic board and started the scanner. The scanner emitted beams of light, sweeping up and down to obtain some basic data.
The data was displayed on the researcher's electronic board screen. At first, he did not feel anything unusual. But in the end, some information sent out by the scanner showed that there were some cell tissues in the ice layer.
“There are actually cellular tissues?”
The researcher put down the electronic board and turned on an instrument. He first took out the black ice from the container, then cut off a part and placed it on the observation instrument.
With the help of an electronic observer, the researchers found that there were indeed cell tissues in the black ice, but these tissues were changing. In just a few seconds, they lost their cellular characteristics.
Look, they actually transformed from cell tissue into ice!
"This is impossible."
The researchers were shocked. No matter how low the temperature was, even if the cell tissue was frozen, its properties would not change.
But now, a piece of cell tissue appeared before his eyes, as if it was affected by some force and assimilated with the ice layer.
They become part of the ice layer and become part of the construction of the ice layer.
If this is the case, then this piece of black ice might not have been ice at the beginning, but muscle tissue peeled off from some creature
This thought gave the researchers a chill. What kind of power could cause a living thing to change its nature and turn into black ice
The researchers did not realize that something was happening in the laboratory at this moment.
On a nearby table, tiny black crystals were forming in a cup of water that were difficult to see with the naked eye.
In a test tube next to it, black crystals quietly appeared at the bottom of the light yellow reagent.
Even on the researchers' biochemical suits, a few drops of water quietly turned into black frost and attached to the suits.
Before the researchers noticed these abnormalities, he heard a scream outside the cabin. He quickly put down what he was holding and walked out of the laboratory.
The edge of the black ice exposed to the air was gradually expanding. The air in the laboratory gradually became dry, and the moisture in the air mysteriously disappeared...
On the deck, Tianyang, who was in a daze, heard the screams from the opposite ship and turned his head to look over. He saw that they seemed to have salvaged something from under the ship and placed it on the deck.
Even their team leader Tang Yu was alarmed and ran over in a hurry. Although Tian Yang was curious, he did not lose his manners and did not jump over the boat to see what was going on.
I saw several researchers gathered in a circle over there, I didn't know what they were studying, and they all looked amazed.
Tianyang only heard words like "ice layer" and "corpse", as if they had salvaged a large piece of black ice from under the ship, and there was a corpse inside.
But even if a body is found in the ice, there is no need to be so surprised.
In the control room, Longdan and Akai came out. Longdan was all smiles and kept giving Akai a thumbs up. It seemed that Akai had already drawn the sea chart, otherwise, Longdan would not be so happy.
After the two men walked onto the deck, they also discovered something unusual on the opposite ship. Long Dan was not as reserved as Tian Yang. He walked to the side of the ship and shouted at the top of his lungs, "What did you find? Can you tell us so that we can also open our eyes?"
Tang Yu squeezed out of the crowd and walked to the side of the ship, looking confused, as if he had seen something incredible: "We salvaged a piece of ice that floated from a distance, and found the body of some creature inside."
Longdan grinned: "I thought it was something else. What's so strange about the corpses of living creatures frozen in the ice?"
Tang Yu frowned, as if looking for the right words to explain: "If it's just like this, it's certainly not surprising. What's strange is that the bodies in the ice are gradually disappearing..."
Hearing this, A Kai's face changed. He rushed to the side of the boat and looked down. With the help of the light, he could see that a lot of black ice had accumulated near the hull.
He gasped, turned around and shouted, "Throw that thing away right now, quick!"