Chapter 333 - 328: Crying Rock

Chapter 333: Chapter 328: Crying Rock

Leviathan Three rose through the darkness.

Inside the command chamber, the members of the piloting team kept their eyes shut, using the hive terminal to help the behemoth execute fine-tuned maneuvers. The contours of the seabed terrain appeared in their minds as a massive rock formation loomed closer.

"Five hundred meters to target," the deputy helmsman reported.

"Slow down. Prepare to ascend."

Moonlight filtered down through the surface, forming hazy columns of light in the dark water. The tentacles of Leviathan Three swayed gently as its massive body turned, churning the pillars of light into shifting patterns.

"Ascend to a depth of ten meters."

"Roger."

The great beast rose slowly, its eight tentacles unfurling in the water as if probing for something.

Within the hive terminal, the outline of the Crying Rock grew increasingly clear. It was a black reef that jutted up from the seabed, its surface covered in sharp edges and deep fissures.

"Cease ascent. Maintain depth."

The Leviathan came to a halt in the shadow of the reef, its eight tentacles resting gently on the seabed rocks like a gargantuan beast lying in wait.

Kael stood before the hatch, giving the gear on his belt a final check: shortsword, grappling hook, rope...

He instinctively tried to establish a mental link, but there was no signal. He subconsciously reached for the back of his neck, but his hand stopped halfway.

This shallow-water infiltration mission prevented them from bringing the cumbersome King Insect, which was needed to set up a local communication channel.

This meant that once they left Leviathan Three, the team of more than twenty would be completely cut off, forced to rely on primitive hand signals and unspoken understanding to coordinate.

He pushed the thoughts from his mind. "Prepare for landfall," he said in a low voice.

Xiaolan stood behind him, her hands gripping the shortsword at her waist.

Mia clutched her burlap sack, her purple eyes fixed on the hatch.

"I don’t want to go in the water. How about you stuff me in a bag and someone carries me out? I’m tiny!" Mia suggested, struck by what she considered a brilliant idea.

Kael ignored her.

The hatch opened, and seawater rushed in. The icy touch made Xiaolan shiver.

Kael was the first one in, slipping into the sea with barely a splash.

He surfaced and looked up at the Crying Rock.

Behind him, twenty team members slid into the water in silent succession, their movements synchronized, like a group of shadows melting into the night.

The black rock face glistened faintly in the moonlight. It was slick and covered in dark green seaweed.

The reef was extremely steep, and with its surface slick with seaweed, climbing it by hand would be incredibly dangerous.

After a moment’s thought, Kael drew the grappling hook from his belt and aimed for a crevice in the rock face. The hook swung through the air in an arc before catching firmly in the fissure.

He tugged the rope to ensure it was secure, then began to climb.

The slippery rock face might as well have been level ground for him. The other team members followed close behind, ascending the rope. They were all infiltration specialists, their movements almost as deft as Kael’s.

Xiaolan was in the middle of the group. She gripped the rope, her feet searching for purchase on the rock face. The seaweed was slippery; her foot slipped several times, and she nearly fell.

"Don’t look down," Kael’s voice came from above, concise and firm.

Xiaolan gritted her teeth, refocused, and continued to climb.

Mia was the slowest. As she climbed, she furtively hooked a small cord onto the team member ahead of her, letting him practically haul her up the reef.

She was, after all, a semi-instructor. When the team member in front of her noticed her little trick, he just shook his head with a resigned sigh and pulled a little harder.

Ten minutes later, the entire party was at the top of the rock face.

Kael retrieved the rope and scanned his surroundings.

They were on a narrow platform. His gaze swept toward the distant islands.

The Crying Rock was just one of the reefs on the periphery of the Southern Islands; the main island was still farther out.

In the moonlight, he could see a faint black silhouette on the sea in the distance.

After a short rest, the group of more than twenty moved along the edge of the rock.

Half an hour later, they finally set foot on the actual island.

The ground here was covered with a type of glowing fungus.

The fungi were only about the size of a fist, their surfaces covered in fine patterns, and they emitted a pale blue phosphorescence. The light danced in the darkness like countless fireflies.

They passed through the area of glowing fungi and entered a section of denser vegetation. The plants here were completely different from those on the mainland. The tree trunks were thick and covered in a heavy layer of moss. The leaves were broad with serrated edges.

A new smell began to permeate the air, replacing the brine of the sea—the scent of rotting vegetation.

Kael, walking at the very front, suddenly raised a hand. The entire team stopped and dropped into a crouch.

He knelt, his fingers brushing lightly over the ground. There was a shallow wheel track in the dirt, its edges blurred by rain. A Scout came over and added in a low voice, "It’s recent. No more than three days old."

"Someone’s been here," Kael concluded.

Xiaolan looked at the tracks on the ground and asked nervously, "Pirates?"

Kael didn’t answer. He stood up, made a hand signal, and the team moved on, but everyone’s movements were now much more cautious.

After walking a bit further, they came to a clearing.

It was a fishing village. Or rather, what was once a fishing village.

Now, only ruined walls remained. The houses had half-collapsed, their thatched roofs burned away to leave only charred skeletons. Broken pottery and wooden barrels littered the ground.

There was blood-red graffiti on the walls, scrawled crookedly as if painted with a finger dipped in blood.

The content was simple: a skull, with a few twisted letters below it.

Kael led the team to spread out and they entered the village silently, each member surveying their assigned area like a panther.

Xiaolan followed behind Kael, her pace slowing, her breathing growing ragged. The scene stirred up many bad memories.

She stopped in front of a collapsed house. On the ground was a shoe.

It was a child’s shoe, sewn from coarse cloth, with several patches on the upper and dried blood caked on the sole.

Xiaolan stared at the shoe, her body beginning to tremble.

Her mind flashed with images of her younger brother and sister, their voices crying out.

"Xiaolan." Kael’s voice pulled her back to reality.

She looked up to see Kael staring at her. "Don’t fall behind."

Xiaolan nodded, took a deep breath, and rejoined the team.

Kael made a circuit of the village, then knelt to examine the ground carefully.

The ground was covered in footprints, a chaotic mess of large and small, deep and shallow tracks. But among them, several were especially deep, as if left by someone wearing heavy boots.

"Two days ago," Kael said to the regrouped team members, "the pirates conducted a massive purge."

Mia walked to a wall and touched the bloodstains. They were completely dry, feeling like a thin scab under her fingers. "Did they take everyone?"

"Or killed them," Kael said, standing up. "Let’s keep moving."

The squad left the village and followed a small path. The road was full of potholes and flanked by overgrown weeds.

After about an hour of walking, a light appeared ahead.

Kael immediately raised his hand to halt their advance, and the entire squad melted silently into the bushes.

Ahead was a camp. It wasn’t large, just a dozen or so tents, but it was brightly lit. A bonfire burned in the center, its flames illuminating the surroundings.

Coarse singing and loud laughter drifted from the camp, along with faint screams.

Mia stared at the camp. "I’ll lure the sentries away."

Kael nodded.

Mia closed her eyes and muttered a short incantation. A moment later, she opened them and pointed toward the camp’s perimeter.

A small animal appeared there.

It was a glowing rabbit, radiating a soft white light, hopping along the ground and heading toward the camp’s perimeter.

First-circle Magic: Bright Illusion.

A sentry on the camp’s perimeter saw the rabbit. He was holding a bottle of liquor and staggered over. "Hey, what’s that?"

Another sentry followed out of curiosity. The two of them chased the rabbit, moving farther and farther away.

Kael seized the opportunity, leading the squad like Ghosts through the gap in their defenses and silently approaching the camp.

They hid behind a wooden crate at the edge of the camp, peering through a gap toward the center.

There was a pit there.

A circle of pirates was gathered around the edge of the pit.