164: Chapter 164 A Twist of Fate Leads to a Detour

The fleet departed the Pier early the next morning.

A thin mist had risen over the Pier—not the thick fog that pressed in from the Dragon Burial Trench, but the morning mist rolling from the fortress's inner sea toward the dock's boardwalks.

The mist layer was thin; the small blue-bottomed, gold-edged flags atop the masts could be seen clearly swaying in the mist.

Commander Cai stood at the bow of the lead ship—he clutched a new nautical chart with a revised route in his hand.

He had rubbed a bit of ink off the three characters for Broken Star Reef on the chart with his thumb—the rubbed-away portion revealed the original color of the old beast hide beneath.

He slapped the nautical chart onto the helm console—then turned and roared the departure chant to the fleet.

The chant was torn apart by the sea breeze—but the horns on every ship sounded.

Seven horn blasts with three-breath intervals—the fleet sailed out from the Pier, and after traveling about three miles, the bows collectively veered twenty degrees to the west.

In the direction of Broken Star Reef.

The fleet sailed on the sea for nearly an entire day.

The sea breeze blew from the north to the south—a crosswind.

A crosswind is difficult to navigate—the sails had to be hung at an angle, and when hung at an angle, the sail surfaces were filled by the wind and bulged to one side, causing the gunwales to tilt nearly three degrees toward the windward side.

People on the deck walked on the tilted surface—they had to lean their bodies half an inch to the left to walk straight.

Someone walked along the deck from the bow toward the stern—keeping their hand on the gunwale the entire time.

At dusk—the setting sun spread from the direction of the stern, coating the sea surface and dyeing the seawater a layer of dark bronze.

There were far fewer broken planks and floating corpses on the sea surface than last time—the fish Yao Beasts subservient to the Haiyuan Clan had retreated to the Deep Water Zone after their Yao Beast leader was killed; near the Storm Gorge, there were a few planks that had been floating for less than half a day, with the tooth marks on their edges still fresh.

After veering twenty degrees to the west—hardly any wreckage could be seen on the sea surface.

The waterway in the direction of Broken Star Reef currently only saw transport ships and the occasional patrolling spirit boat—this waterway was not the main shipping lane, so the Haiyuan Clan had not deployed any subordinates on this secondary route.

Commander Cai stood at the bow—he held his pipe in his mouth without lighting it.

He watched the sea surface—the wave patterns on the sea were lower than those on the main shipping lane, and when the bow cut through the water, the spray shattered and clung to the planks of the gunwales; the seawater was clearer than in the direction of the Storm Gorge—and clearer seawater meant there were no lurking dorsal fins underwater.

He pursed his lips on the mouthpiece of the pipe—then took the pipe out of his mouth and tucked it back into his belt.

After tucking it away, he turned to look at the fleet—the sails of the seven ships were arranged in an oblique formation in the setting sun, with each sail surface coated in a layer of dark bronze light.

He turned back—his hand rested on the helm console, and his knuckles tapped lightly on the edge of the console twice.

At the same moment—Storm Gorge.

The stone walls on both sides of the gorge entrance pinched out an extremely narrow waterway in the mist—the width of the waterway was only enough for one and a half ships to pass side by side.

The sea caves on the gorge walls were stacked layer by layer from the water surface upward—the stone edges of the cave openings had been repeatedly eroded by seawater into sharp, thin sheets, and the edges of these sheets felt like knife blades in the damp mist.

The water at the gorge entrance was dark green—the bottom could not be seen, and one could only see that less than a zhang below the water surface, crushed stones from broken reefs piled up into a slope, slanting from the base of the gorge walls toward the center of the waterway.

Underwater—dark green dorsal fins were arranged in two rows on the outside of the reef slope.

There were about ten small fish Yao Beasts in each row—they pressed their bodies against the slope, their dorsal fins less than half a foot directly below the water surface.

The gill covers of the small fish Yao Beasts were opening and closing slowly—the opening and closing motion was extremely restrained, with nearly ten breaths between each movement, reducing the speed of water intake and expulsion to the minimum.

The Old Demon squatted on the largest reef at the bottom of the water—his webbed feet were wedged into the cracks of the reef, fixing his body to the slope.

His nictitating membranes began to turn white from being soaked in the freshwater mist—the capillaries on the edges of the nictitating membranes had expanded by nearly double in the low-salinity environment, and the capillary walls seeped fluid outward, pushing a layer of extremely thin water bubbles onto the surface of the nictitating membranes.

In a crevice on the gorge wall—the Death Squad Leader squatted in the concave hole he had chiseled out five days ago.

He wore a black cloth covering from the bridge of his nose downward—the black cloth had shrunk after being soaked by five consecutive days of mist, and now it clung tightly to his chin and the bridge of his nose, with the contours of his facial bone structure protruding from beneath the black cloth.

His eyes looked out from above the cloth covering—he was not looking at the water surface, but in the due north direction.

That was the angle from which the transport fleet would sail into the gorge entrance from the direction of the fortress.

He was counting the time.

The fleet should have entered the gorge entrance at the hour of Chen.

The left-wing transport order stated that it would arrive within three days—the trip through Storm Gorge took two days in total, entering at the hour of Chen.

Before this, all transport battalions traveling from the fortress to the left wing had taken Storm Gorge—when the Death Squad Leader checked the records at the Pier dispatch office five days ago, the recorded route still stated Storm Gorge.

The hour of Chen had passed.

About half an incense stick of time had passed since the hour of Chen—the sensing Formation Plate embedded in the stone wall deep in the crevice behind him suddenly lit up.

The dark red Array Pattern on the Formation Plate lit up circle by circle from the center outward—when it lit up to the third circle, the broken Spirit Stone fragments at the corners of the Array Pattern began to heat up.

The Death Squad Leader moved his hand away from his knee—his knuckles touched the wrapping cord of the sword hilt.

Then the light on the Formation Plate went out.

It was not a power attenuation—it was a sudden total extinguishing.

The Array Pattern that had lit up to the fourth circle extinguished circle by circle from the outer ring toward the center—the speed of extinguishing was nearly three times faster than when it lit up.

It was not the fleet—the spiritual power fluctuations of the fleet were continuous, large-scale, and progressive from weak to strong.

A passing sea beast—of Foundation Establishment level, its spiritual power fluctuation was enough to trigger the Formation Plate but not enough to maintain the continuous resonance of the sensing line.

The sea beast swam past the outside of the gorge entrance—the direction was from south to north, and it stayed at the gorge entrance for less than five breaths before continuing to swim north.

The Death Squad Leader moved his hand away from the sword hilt—then gripped it tightly again.

The wrapping cord of the sword hilt was darkened by a shade due to the moisture seeping from his palm.

He continued to wait in the crevice.

The hour of Si—no ship.

The hour of Wu—no ship.

At dusk—the sea mist poured into the gorge entrance, and the mist that poured in was pinched by the gorge walls on both sides into a spiral shape, surging toward the middle of the gorge passage.

The spiral mist accelerated in the narrow passage between the gorge walls—the mist wall slapped against the reefs, emitting an extremely low-pitched whistling sound of wind.

The Death Squad Leader's eyes did not leave the due north direction.

He did not blink.

Night fell.

Moonlight sifted down from the top of the mist layer—after passing through the mist layer, only a very thin gray film of light remained, spreading over the water surface.

No ship.

The sensing Formation Plate never lit up again.

In the second half of the night—a younger Death Squad member behind the Death Squad Leader moved his foot half an inch in the crevice.

The movement of his foot was very small—but his knees, having been squatted for five days and five nights, emitted an extremely faint, dull sound of joints dislocating as he moved.

The Death Squad Leader did not turn back.

"The ship will not come."

The young Death Squad member's voice squeezed out from behind his mask—every word squeezed out carried the unique hoarseness in the throat of someone who had squatted for five nights in a damp crevice against a cold stone wall.

The Death Squad Leader did not answer.

His eyes were still looking in the due north direction.