Past noon, the Clown continued forward.
It was the middle of the Wither Tide season; shadows of fish were sparse along the way, and he encountered no more Fine-Grade resource fish.
An Youyu merely caught three edible miscellaneous fish along the route to supplement his rations for the trip.
He dived into the water a few more times during the afternoon.
...
The sun sank lower.
All around was nothing but rolling water, and the crests of the waves that had been clearly visible by day gradually dimmed.
An Youyu flipped back onto the boat, untied the rope bound to the tiller, and trimmed the sail slightly.
He would not enter the water at night.
After eating something, he gathered the harpoons and ropes by his feet, unfolded the old map once more, and double-checked his heading.
Riding this wind, he should arrive tomorrow.
...
Clown Float-Commune.
The Clown · Berth
The Clown's berth remained empty.
As another fishing boat entered the water gate, Luo Dadou caught the mooring rope for them and asked casually, "Did Youyu return with you?"
"Youyu?" The man on the boat blinked in surprise. "He went out to sea today as well?"
"He borrowed the Clown this morning, saying he was heading out to sea to practice," Luo Dadou said. "I thought you might have bumped into him at the fishing ground."
"Didn't see him," the man shook his head. "We only cast our nets along the outer edge today and didn't venture inside."
Luo Dadou waited a while longer before going to the commune hall to report the news.
Lu Guizhou originally assumed An Youyu had lost track of time while practicing and sent two boats to meet him, but it was not until nightfall that the reply came back: they had searched both inside and outside the fishing ground, and none of the boatmen who had cast nets there that day had seen the Clown.
As the news spread, whispers gradually stirred within the commune.
The medicine was nowhere to be found, and attempting to Seize the Mast with only One Hundred Pressure held far more peril than promise. Could An Youyu have grown afraid, using the excuse of practicing at sea to simply run off?
A few elders, however, refused to believe it.
An Youyu's Salamander Force had already surpassed Two Hundred Fifty Pressure, and before leaving, he had made plans to return and borrow the register.
However, since his true strength had to remain secret, they could not explain where he had actually gone.
Some recalled what had happened to A'Man in the past and feared even more that he had met with danger outside.
Lu Guizhou suppressed the gossip and instructed the search to continue, leaving a lantern lit by the water gate to await the Clown's return.
...
After daybreak, the Clown sailed into a wall of fog.
Dense fog pressed down on the distant sea, leaving nothing but a pale gray beyond tens of zhang.
Anyone who did not know how to read the currents venturing in here might wander for half a day without finding a way out.
An Youyu held the rudder, using his fish sense to distinguish the currents swirling beneath the hull while repeatedly checking his heading against the old map.
After sailing another ten nautical miles, the Clown finally approached the waters marked on the old map.
Ghost Hollow lay roughly three hundred meters below this patch of sea.
Several deep ocean currents converged there, creating a state of perpetual weightlessness inside the hollow where shipwrecks and sunken cargo dragged in by undercurrents suspended over time, forming this Wreck Hollow.
An Youyu pressed down on the corner of the map fluttering in the wind and looked toward the sea within the fog.
Had it been during the Harvest Tide, entering the hollow would actually be simple.
At that time, massive volumes of seawater poured into the hollow. One would only need to enter the water nearby and latch onto the downward-pulling current to be carried all the way inside.
Debris, shipwrecks, and even stray vessels that accidentally drifted nearby were mostly sucked into the hollow this way.
However, it was currently the middle of the Wither Tide.
With the main down-pulling current weakened, it could no longer suppress the chaotic crosscurrents at the convergence point. The waters clashed and swirled against each other, making the perimeter of the hollow's center far more treacherous than during the Harvest Tide.
Plunging straight down, a diver could easily be swept off course by the turbulent waters; even knowing it lay right beneath their feet, they could wander for half a day without touching the hollow's edge.
The Wreck Hollow was hardest to locate during the Wither Tide.
Yet no matter how chaotic the turbulent currents were, a few streams of water ultimately converged into the hollow.
As long as one found a position in the shallow layer that connected to this inward undercurrent, they could follow the aquatic path inside.
Such a place was called a 【Hollow-Current Entry】.
Before becoming an interrogator, An Youyu had served as a Patrol Scout; reading currents and finding entry points was his signature expertise.
He trimmed the sail slightly and searched ahead along the water's flow.
Before he had gone far, a dark shadow clinging to the water's surface emerged from the fog.
Sailing closer, he saw that it was a vast expanse of dark brown floating algae.
Thick stems intertwined with one another to form a dense mat that rose and fell gently with the slow current.
A dark algae bed.
An Youyu recognized it immediately.
Such algae beds mostly grew in the backwater areas around the perimeter of the Wreck Hollow.
Trapped nearby by the current year after year, the dark algae grew thicker and denser until it bound together into a heavy mat like this.
Ordinarily, most of it remained submerged in the lower layers; only when a suitable tide arrived and the local water stabilized would the upwelling backwater carry the entire algae bed to the surface.
This happened only a few times a year, lasting merely two or three days each time.
Now that it had floated up, he could likely find a water path leading into the depths nearby.
"Good luck."
An Youyu drew close to the algae bed, dipped a hand into the water to gauge the current, and examined the thick leaves exposed above the surface.
The leaf edges were still moist and unfurled, not yet grayed or curled by the sea wind.
It had surfaced not long ago; he estimated it would remain stable for another two days.
He could moor the ship here.
He brought the Clown alongside the outer edge of the algae bed, securely tied the bow and stern ropes, and noted his position.
Then, securing the Mind-Guarding Ointment, short blade, short rope, and fish meat pouch to his waist, he held the Mirage-Suppressing Jade, channeled his Salamander Force, and flipped into the water.
Beneath the algae bed, all remained quiet.
Vast mats of thick stems hung down overhead, blocking out much of the sky's light.
An Youyu swam through the hanging stems, continuing his dive deeper down.
Before he had swum far, a few wisps of algae debris swept diagonally past him, and a downward drag tugged at his shoulders and back.
Here it came.
This was the current.
An Youyu angled his body, cutting into the Hollow-Current Entry along the pull.
The surrounding waters quickly tightened around him, dragging him straight toward the depths.
One hundred meters.
Two hundred meters.
Three hundred meters.
By this point, the water pressure wrapped tightly around his chest and abdomen.
Yet he had not reached the hollow.
An Youyu pushed his Three Hundred Pressure Salamander Force to its fullest extent to firmly hold back the water pressing in from all sides.
He tracked the floating debris ahead to keep reading the flow.
Several bits of wood were forced deeper by the swift current; reaching the lowest point, they were caught by another stream that lifted them diagonally forward and upward.
The exit was right behind that bend.
Four meters left.
Four meters was nothing on the surface, but at this depth, every bit lower meant the water pressure grew heavier.
Descending any further would exceed the Three Hundred Pressure he could currently bear safely.
There was rarely only one path into the hollow; some were longer, some shorter, some deeper, and some shallower.
Back in the Patrol Scouts of the Northern Jurisdiction, the standard response to an entry exceeding one's pressure limit was to retreat and find a shallower water path.
Yet retreating to locate another Hollow-Current Entry would take at least half a day, and the new route might not even be shallower than this one.
The exit was right in front of him.
He just had to charge.
His Fish Aspect was the Body-Abandoning Salamander!!
In the fish-transformation camp of the Northern Jurisdiction, Body-Abandoning Salamanders always rested when wounded, and sought out wounds when uninjured.
An Youyu tore open the fish meat pouch at his waist, grabbed several pieces of cooked meat, stuffed them into his mouth, chewed rapidly, and swallowed.
"Go!!"
He kicked hard with both legs.
He charged straight through along the downward pull of the water.
His depth increased rapidly.
Three hundred and one.
His chest and abdomen constricted suddenly.
Three hundred and two.
The seawater pressing down on him grew heavier and heavier.
Further down—
Crack!
A sharp snapping sound erupted from the side of his chest.
A rib snapped.
Two more cracks followed immediately after.
It didn't matter!!
His black and white Nirvana Breath had already shifted toward the injury; the Conjoining Membrane scattered in his flesh and blood quickly gathered, wrapping around the fractured ribs and drawing the misaligned edges back together.
At the same time, the faint warmth he had just swallowed into his stomach vanished rapidly.
Just as he expected.
The bones could be reconnected.
But the food he had eaten was depleted just as fast.
His stomach went completely empty in an instant.
He had to be fast.
Faster.
The water ahead suddenly opened up.
An upwelling stream immediately caught his body, carrying him upward at an angle.
The pressure crushing his chest and abdomen receded rapidly.
Three hundred and three.
Three hundred and two.
Returning back below Three Hundred Pressure.
Ghost Hollow.
He was finally inside.
...
Rate on N.U.
