The twisted shadows and its over sixty followers would be the crew for this voyage.

The Evil God and its followers are stronger than many surface-dwelling bizarre races, which means they have the ability to protect themselves, but still require caution.

Creatures that favor the taste of the Alien God roam everywhere.

After a dozen days, boarding the Andrea again, the ship's hull and deck visibly more dilapidated and decayed, with even calf-deep water accumulating in the bottom boiler room.

Stopping in front of the strange boiler room with its doors tightly shut, Lu Li raised the oil lamp. The feeble light enveloped the surroundings, penetrating the rust-soaked dampness seeping into the walls, reflecting dim, cold light, as if one could feel the frigid deep sea surging at the other end by touch.

"We haven't been alone like this for a long time..."

As if the wind rendered the flames' roar into a hoarse sound behind him, Lu Li withdrew his gaze, falling upon Ophelia, dressed in a male black tuxedo, almost blending with the darkness.

The Andrea urgently needed a repair.

Lu Li left the oppressive, deathly silent lower deck, returning above.

The Andrea had not yet sailed out of the Land of Light, walking along the sun-dried deck to the Captain's Cabin where there was nothing but a dry surface.

Months of rushing on the sea had already destroyed everything inside the Captain's Cabin.

Gazing from the bay towards Old Belfast. The most conspicuous was not the silent Belfast, nor the glittering Agate Lake, but the giant vortex occupying the southwest, a brief gaze seemingly enough to pull one into it.

As the Andrea sailed away from the Land of Light, the omnipresent black, chilly gloom crept up.

Lu Li and Ophelia, along with the twisted shadows retreated into the cabin, adding a new stop to Andrea's route from the Land of Light directly to Vena Ice-Free Port: the Shadow Swamp.

"Why not install them when we return..."

The twisted shadow inquired, the weight would slow Andrea's speed, and with Him and His followers, there was no need for the Banyan Tree Guardians to safeguard the large ship.

"Andrea needs repairs, we will stay at Vena Ice-Free Port for a few days."

Rodest Port doesn't have the conditions to do this, nor does the camp have workers who can do repairs. And the Banyan Tree Guardians restrain the corporeal, toxin-type bizarre entities.

Besides, they can serve as vessels for the Mother of the Marsh to descend upon.

Sailing takes time, even the Shadow Swamp on the Ailen Peninsula takes nearly a day's jolting. Fortunately, this route has been tested multiple times and is safe enough.

On the second day of sailing, with an hour before dawn, Andrea reached the Shadow Swamp.

Because the Mother of the Marsh received information from the followers, allowing two Banyan Tree Guardians to board the ship, this was the best load for Andrea without much speed delay.

Seven or eight-meter-tall Banyan Tree Guardians stood on the deck, their dangling roots fluttering like sea anemones, silently sailing with the ghostly Andrea towards the Main Affinity Continent.

...

"How many days until they arrive?"

A few days later, Matthias, upon learning that Lu Li was also on board, paced anxiously around the office.

The fireplace dispelled the cold, and heavy curtains blocked the windows, everything mimicking the mayor's office from the Vena Ice-Free Port period. But if the curtains were pulled open, only a cold rocky wall would appear behind the window.

"A few more days,"

said his friend and advisor Mickson, leaning on the sofa.

"He's too reckless..." Matthias muttered to himself.

"In the past, Exorcists also ran around, and when he just emerged from underground, he ran from the Barren Lands to the Main Affinity Continent, from the Main Affinity Continent to the Ailen Peninsula, and from the Ailen Peninsula to the Lennon Islands, as if the bizarre entities couldn't see him."

"This time is different, Mickson, this time is different. Some things must be done by the Exorcist because no one else can, but this time it's just repairing the ship, just looking for other warships, those bizarre friends of the Exorcist can do it."

"Didn't the Exorcist already say that regarding hope, we already have a substitute."

"Hope is not the only attribute," Matthias retorted his friend's statement, or perhaps retorted against Lu Li's actions in the background: "The Land of Light and Lu Li each occupy 50% hope, if Lu Li sinks in the deep sea, the Land of Light's 50% hope does not become 100%."

The focus of Mickson was not here: "I remember the sailors have a custom, never to say words like 'sink' or 'crash.'"

"...Please leave my office."

"Okay..." Mickson shrugged, getting up from the sofa, but before leaving he reminded his old friend: "That's why we are not as good as the Exorcist. We all wish Lu Li would just stay there, unmoving, to satisfy our empty and desperate hearts. But he keeps doing what an Exorcist should do..."

"What an Exorcist should do..."

Matthias repeated in a low voice, as Merchant Anthony arrived with Lu Li's position.

"The Andrea will reach Vena Ice-Free Port within a day, the Exorcist asks if you are ready with the repair masters."

"Tell Mr. Luli, Vena Ice-Free Port is already prepared."

...

"So why do you insist on coming to Vena Ice-Free Port?"

"Don't mimic the Mother of the Marsh."

Lu Li's dark eyes examined the map of the Vena Ice-Free Port harbor, not lifting his head he said: "My curse, it doesn't let me linger in one place for too long."

"Has it appeared?"

Ophelia looked around, but could only see the empty dining room resonating with the ship's creaking sound.

"No, but I don't know when it will appear."

Lu Li had been back at the Land of Light for nearly a month, and the disappearing "door" was like a Damocles... sword hanging overhead.

On the surface, that "door" moves no faster than a normal walking pace. If it had followed Lu Li's consciousness to the Giant Tree Academy, it would be at least another two months from reaching him in the Ailen Peninsula — but could the "door" that even the Ancients could not fathom really afford Lu Li ample time?

The equally poor situation is the limited visible range.

Even during the day on Sugard Mountain, standing at a high point of Agate Lake, the silhouettes that Lu Li can discern would not exceed 8 li away.

This is a distance the "door" could cover with just an hour's walk.

Unless Lu Li only rests during the day and wakes every hour.

Thus the sense of crisis grows day by day, the sole place in the world where light still falls, the Land of Light, is no longer safe.

Perhaps hastily leaving Agate Lake Camp is a bad idea, but staying indefinitely is certainly not a good one.

This trip to Vena Ice-Free Port would allow the looming sense of crisis to stretch again to over a week.

In the morning, indistinguishable from midnight, the twisted shadows knocked on Lu Li's resting cabin, informing him that Vena Ice-Free Port had been reached.

...

March is nearing an end, yet the temperature at Vena Ice-Free Port remains only single digits. However, the ice-bound coast of the Ice-Free Port began thawing gradually a dozen days ago. By now, no longer are the winter ice caps and floes visible, only the icy seawater barely a few degrees above freezing continuously lashes against the shore day and night.

Breath exhaled beat against the cold helmet, escaping along the seams.

Occasionally coughing Knights quietly stood in line at the Ice-Free Port.

Matthias, draped in an overcoat, gazed into the murky depths of the sea as a silhouette slowly approached.

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