186: Mysterious sea charts and coordinates of the Ruins of Return, a nighttime exploration of the Devil's Triangle

The sea breeze rattled the wooden windows of Dinghai Hall with a loud clatter.

Lin Yuan walked back to the lounge with his hands in his pockets, swaggering all the way.

As soon as the door opened, a scent of disinfectant and high-end perfume wafted out.

Zhao Ya was sitting on the sofa, holding an ice pack to her forehead with one hand, while the other hand flipped through the battle damage report on her terminal.

Su Wanqing stood before the holographic projection map, her fingers swiping through the Void Realm as she replanned the shipping routes around Nine Ring Island.

Hearing the commotion, both women stopped what they were doing.

"Are you done talking?"

Zhao Ya put down the ice pack, revealing a slightly pale face.

"Done."

Lin Yuan plopped down onto the single sofa next to Zhao Ya, propping his legs up on the coffee table.

"That old man is too stingy."

He grabbed an apple from the table, rubbed it against his clothes, and took a crunchy bite.

"He wants to make me sell my soul for a few worthless verbal promises."

Su Wanqing turned around, arms crossed, with an expression that suggested she had expected this all along.

"Director Zhang just cherishes talent. The resource vault of the Penglai Branch Bureau is the top-tier one in all of China; countless people would break down the door just to get in."

"That just means they're stupid."

Lin Yuan retorted, chewing the apple, his words garbled.

"No matter how good the things in the resource vault are, they belong to the public. You have to write an eight-thousand-word application report just to use one."

"Nothing is as practical as getting cash directly."

Mentioning cash, Lin Yuan suddenly sat up straight, his eyes gleaming.

"By the way, what about that chest of gold coins and Spirit Stones? Has it been processed? When can I get paid?"

Zhao Ya felt her temples start to throb again.

"It's already being processed."

Su Wanqing pulled up a list and pushed it to the projection screen in front of Lin Yuan.

"After deducting taxes, service fees, and the compensation for the 'collateral damage' you caused, it's expected to arrive within three working days."

Lin Yuan stared at the number, his brows knitting together into a knot.

"Why is it so much less?"

He pointed to one of the deductions.

"'Mental pollution cleanup fee'? I have to pay for this too?"

"That's because your spear strike scared those Sea God Cult captives into madness; the follow-up treatment requires funds."

Su Wanqing explained expressionlessly.

"Fine, fine, fine. You're the officials, you're always right."

Lin Yuan flicked the apple core into a trash can three meters away.

"Since the money hasn't arrived yet, can you at least arrange a place for me to stay?"

He stood up and brushed the fruit crumbs off his hands.

"I've been so exhausted these past few days that my back aches. I need to find a five-star bed to get some proper sleep."

Zhao Ya pulled a magnetic card from under the coffee table and tossed it over.

"It's already been prepared."

"Penglai Pavilion, Heaven Character No. 3 Room."

"For the next twenty days, you can stay there until the Thunder Sea Mystic Realm opens."

Lin Yuan caught the magnetic card and spun it on his fingertip.

"Thanks."

He turned to leave, but stopped at the door.

"Oh, right."

Lin Yuan didn't turn back, just waved his hand at them with his back turned.

"I heard some 'Seed' contestants have arrived. Don't let them bother me."

"I have a terrible temper when I wake up. If I break them, I'll have to pay their medical bills. It's not worth it."

Zhao Ya watched the dashing figure leave, opened her mouth, but it finally turned into a bitter smile.

"This guy..."

"Arrogant."

Su Wanqing turned off the projection, her evaluation concise.

"But he has the capital to be arrogant."

Zhao Ya picked up the ice pack again and leaned back on the sofa.

"I hope those proud Geniuses don't actually go and provoke this guy."

...

Penglai Pavilion, Heaven Character No. 3 Room.

This was indeed a good place.

A detached villa on the edge of a cliff; opening the window revealed a sea of clouds, and looking down, one could see crashing waves.

More importantly, the concentration of Spiritual Qi here was three times higher than the outside world.

Lin Yuan locked the doors and windows and drew the curtains.

He checked the room one more time for any surveillance equipment.

After confirming it was safe, he plopped down onto the three-meter-wide bed.

Clatter.

He dumped everything from his pockets onto the bed.

The crimson crystal dug out from the Three-headed Serpent's belly caused the room temperature to rise by several degrees as soon as it appeared.

And that tattered sheepskin map.

"I'm rich, I'm rich."

Lin Yuan rubbed his hands, joy appearing on his face.

He first picked up the crimson crystal.

It was a bit hot to the touch.

【High-purity fire element crystal detected.】

【Although it is not lightning attribute, the massive energy contained within can be used as fuel and forcibly converted into backup electrical energy.】

【Conversion rate: 30%.】

The System prompt sounded in his mind.

"Only 30%?"

Lin Yuan curled his lip in disdain.

"Whatever, I'll keep it for now."

"In case I meet some fire-attribute sucker in the future, I can sell it for a high price."

He stuffed the crystal back into his storage space and picked up the sheepskin map.

The map was yellowed, the edges scorched, and it emitted a fishy sea smell.

Lin Yuan turned on his phone's flashlight and leaned in to examine it closely.

The map depicted complex ocean current directions, and many landmarks did not match the current sea charts.

But in the center of the map, the red skull mark was particularly striking.

【Guixu Entrance · Suspected】

Next to it was a line of tiny annotations, written in some kind of ancient script.

Lin Yuan couldn't read it.

But he understood the coordinates.

He took out his phone, opened the satellite map, and entered the coordinates for comparison.

"Hmm?"

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow.

This location was not in the international waters.

It was in a restricted area less than three hundred nautical miles from Penglai Island.

That was the famous "Devil's Triangle," where the magnetic field was chaotic year-round, and planes and ships lost contact upon entering.

"Chaotic magnetic field..."

Lin Yuan rubbed his chin; for ordinary people, that was Hell.

But for him, a lightning ability user, it meant there were intense electromagnetic storms there.

"Twenty days..."

He threw the map onto the bed.

"Let me sit here for twenty days, waiting for those brats to play house?"

"That would bore me to death."

He stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside, the night was deep, and the waves were crashing against the reefs.

"Since I'm already here, how could I justify the airfare if I don't check in at this famous tourist spot?"

Lin Yuan made up his mind.

But his identity was too sensitive right now.

Although he hadn't officially joined Penglai, he was, after all, a "Hero of Salvation." If he went to the restricted area with great fanfare, he would definitely be stopped by those old fossils.

"I need to change my disguise."

Lin Yuan flipped his wrist.

A silver-white mask appeared in his hand.

【abyssal mithril mask】

"Click."

He snapped the mask onto his face.

His stature began to grow taller, and his previously well-proportioned muscles became more knotted and thick.

His skin turned dark and rough, and a scar appeared across the bridge of his nose.

That iconic messy hair also turned into a buzz cut.

Even his aura changed from sharp and exposed to cold and eerie.

Lin Yuan walked to the mirror and looked at the middle-aged tough guy with a face full of flesh who clearly didn't look like a good person.

"Tsk."

He touched the scar on his face and nodded with satisfaction.

"This look, it just screams 'don't mess with me'."

"From now on, please call me, Bounty Hunter — Scarface Qiang."

Lin Yuan casually tore off the bedsheet, wrapped it around himself as a cape, and pulled a captured alloy combat knife from his storage space to carry on his back.

He pushed open the window.

The night wind rushed in.

Lin Yuan glanced at the cliff below.

Without any hesitation.

He leaped down.

Whoosh!

He did not unfold his lightning wings in the air; that would make too much noise.

Instead, like a stone, he plummeted straight into the sea.

Splash.

The splash was small.

A few seconds later.

A dark shadow darted underwater, speeding toward that unknown Devil's sea area.

...

Three hundred nautical miles.

For ordinary ships, it was a full night's journey.

But for Lin Yuan, swimming at full speed, it was just a few hours of warm-up exercise.

The closer he got to the coordinate point, the colder the seawater became.

The surrounding fish had long since disappeared, and even the seaweed had turned white.

"Now that's more like it."

Lin Yuan surfaced and stepped onto a piece of floating ice.

The sight before him made even him, a person who had seen the world, whistle.

There was no sea ahead.

Only fog.

Thick, impenetrable black fog stretched from the sky to the earth, blocking the sea surface.

And within that black fog, countless bolts of lightning turned into wild Dragons, rolling and biting.

"This is the place a man should be."

Lin Yuan inhaled the air filled with static electricity.

He was just about to step into that thunderstorm zone.

Suddenly.

Behind a rock to his front left, a faint sound of metal clashing came.

"Who?!"

Lin Yuan drew the combat knife from his back, his aura becoming icy cold.

"Get out here!"

It was quiet behind the rock for a few seconds.

Immediately after.

A tattered little boat slowly rowed out.

On the boat sat an old man wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat.

The old man held a bamboo pole in his hand, shakily propelling the boat.

Seeing Lin Yuan's fierce appearance, the old man's hand shook in fear, and the bamboo pole nearly fell into the sea.

"He... Hero, spare me..."

"I'm just a fisherman; I got lost and drifted here..."

Lin Yuan stared at the old man.

A fisherman?

Fishing in a place like this?

And this old man had no Spiritual Qi fluctuations at all; he looked like an ordinary person.

But Lin Yuan's intuition told him something was wrong.

"Fishing?"

Lin Yuan carried his knife on his shoulder and stepped across the water, approaching the small boat step by step.

"Then tell me, there isn't even a shrimp for a hundred miles around; what kind of fish are you catching?"

He walked to the side of the boat and looked down at the old man cowering under the bamboo hat.

"Or is it..."

The tip of the knife in Lin Yuan's hand gently lifted the old man's bamboo hat.

"Are you fishing for people here?"

The bamboo hat was lifted.

What was revealed was not a weathered old face.

But a pale, faceless skin.

"Hehe..."

On that faceless skin without a mouth, a slit suddenly cracked open.

"Guest, since you are here, why not cross the sea?"