On the Ark.

But as Lin Ye had expected, there was nothing beneath the sea; the island had not been submerged and had indeed "disappeared into thin air."

Confirming this made Lin Ye feel even worse, because that island was practically the only clue to finding Skadi. But that only clue had been severed, and he didn't know how to find Skadi anymore. At that moment, he couldn't help but wonder, if they had persisted a little longer last night, would they have been able to reach the truth?

However, this thought only lingered in his mind for a short time before being dismissed.

Because he knew that in times like these, he absolutely couldn't doubt himself. His decision last night was undoubtedly correct, and there was absolutely no reason to doubt it.

Lin Ye took a deep breath.

He knew all the reasons, but he still couldn't help thinking in this direction. Perhaps, as Youmeng said, the sea wasn't their home turf. Standing on the boundless ocean, he felt terrifyingly small, as if a single wave could swallow him whole.

“If you’ve confirmed that the island really exists…” Swire looked at Lin Ye and said, “I think we should report it to Silver Sword and the others now, and ask them to come and take a look too?”

Lin Ye rejected Swire's suggestion without even thinking.

“Not yet,” he said. “It’s not time for that yet.”

"Huh? What do you mean by 'not yet at that time'? When is 'that time'? Such a large island has disappeared; it's clearly not a simple matter. Are you still going to keep this from Silver Sword?"

Lin Ye knew that telling Silver Sword about this would garner more help, since the Ursus military wasn't to be trifled with. However, the problem was that Swire didn't know Lin Ye hadn't left the island during the day, while Silver Sword did. If Silver Sword realized this and pressed for answers, explaining things would be a very troublesome matter.

They haven't found Skadi yet, and they absolutely cannot let this troublesome matter hold them back.

Therefore, in response to Swire's questioning, he could only remain silent for a while before saying, "It's not the right time yet."

Swire frowned at Lin Ye, wanting to ask something, but in the end she didn't, only shaking her head: "Whatever, you loser. I don't think you're the kind of person who wants to hoard the deep-sea treasure for yourself, so I'll keep it from you for a few days. But you have to tell me the reason later."

Lin Ye gave Swire a grateful look, then asked with some confusion, "You keep talking about deep-sea treasures, deep-sea treasures. What exactly are they?"

"Huh? You still don't know what deep-sea treasure is?" Swire looked at Lin Ye with a strange expression. "Then what are you doing here?"

"This..." Lin Ye didn't know what to say.

“Forget it, you’re always full of secrets.” Swire shook her head. “Deep-sea treasure, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Those large creatures from the deep sea often have valuable things on them. For example, twenty years ago, a giant creature attacked a village on the coast of Ursus and slaughtered all the villagers.”

"and then?"

"The Ursus military also paid a considerable price before successfully hunting down that large creature, and then cut open its body. Guess what they found inside?"

"It can't be money, can it?"

"More or less," Swire said calmly. "We found several tons of pure Originium. It was genuine pure Originium, and its purity was much higher than that on the shore."

Lin Ye's mouth opened slightly wider.

"Although we don't know where that large creature got so many pure source stones, that amount of source stones made Ursus quite wealthy," Swire said. "So since then, Ursus has paid much more attention to the deep sea. Even though this incident didn't happen within Ursus's territory, they still sent so many people. By the way, the Ursus general who organized this operation was the squad leader who participated in the hunt for the large deep-sea creature twenty years ago."

Lin Ye was speechless, only feeling astonishment.

"I didn't expect you to not even know this. I really don't know what you're doing here." Swire shook her head helplessly. "Do you think there's something more important here than the 'deep-sea treasure'?"

Lin Ye thought for a moment, then answered softly, "Yes, that's certainly true for me."

"Tsk, I really don't understand you, but that expression of yours is quite irritating." Swire shook her head. "Alright, it's not good to just drift at sea all the time. Let's anchor on a nearby island for now. My men and I will go scout ahead, while you continue your research on that lost island. I can lend you Youmeng."

"Thank you," Lin Ye said sincerely. "Consider this something I owe you."

“Heh,” Swire said with a touch of pride, “I have a lot of people who owe me.”

Lin Ye: "..."

The ship docked at the nearest island. Swire let the Guardian agents from the other ship go ashore, and then they went to explore the island together. The Rhodes Island personnel and Lungmen's Dream stayed behind to continue their research and discussion of the vanished island. However, Lin Ye had overlooked one person.

"Hey, I'm talking to you." Tianhuo appeared beside him at some point. Because she hadn't spoken at all on the ship, Lin Ye had almost forgotten she existed. "That vanished island you mentioned, is that the place you went to last night?"

Lin Ye turned to look at Tianhuo, and said with slight wariness, "What do you want?"

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Skyfire said irritably. “I just want to say that this is incredible, and please let me join.”

"...You want to join?"

"Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten on your ship."

"...You're not going to cause us any trouble anymore?"

“I never intended to cause you any trouble,” Skyfire said. “I’m the only one from the Originium Arts Research Association. If I don’t come up with a solution, I won’t be able to get any information or data.”

"So that's how it is."

Tianhuo raised an eyebrow: "Now you believe me?"

Lin Ye smiled. Judging from the fact that Tian Huo hadn't told Yin Jian before, Lin Ye didn't think she was a bad person.

“Of course, if you had said we would study this together earlier, none of this would have happened.” Lin Ye took a small bottle out of his pocket. “Now that the misunderstanding is cleared up, here, have a little gift for you.”

"What is this?" Tianhuo looked at the "little gift" in Lin Ye's hand with suspicion.

“A specialty from my hometown,” Lin Ye said without changing his expression, “Peppermint flower tea.”

Chapter 329 Only You in This World Know That She Is a Gentle Person (3K)

"Peppermint flower tea?" Tianhuo took the small bottle, then opened it and smelled it.

Seeing this, Lin Ye couldn't help but smile.

Bringing some catnip with me before leaving was definitely the right decision, because there are just too many Felins in the Terra world. This kind of thing that can easily please Felins is incredibly useful, and it's cheap too. Lin Ye plans to find some more to keep on hand after he finds Skadi and returns to Rhodes Island.

However, Lin Ye did not expect that catnip, which had been invincible in his hands, would fail for the first time.

After sniffing it, Tianhuo frowned slightly: "Isn't this just catnip? It's not some kind of mint tea."

Lin Ye's smile gradually faded: "You, you know about this?"

"Of course, every pet store sells them. Why would you say it's a specialty from your hometown?" Tianhuo looked at Lin Ye with suspicion. "Besides, it's for cats. Why would you give it to me... Wait, do you know I've owned cats?"

Lin Ye, who was initially at a loss for how to end the conversation, heard the second half of Tianhuo's sentence and, as if finding a way out, said, "Yes, yes, it's for your cat. Ah, when I saw you, I immediately assumed you kept cats at home. To be honest, I used to be a veterinarian, so I'm quite sensitive to this kind of thing, and catnip... it's not entirely wrong to say it's a specialty of veterinarians, is it?"

Lin Ye forced himself to come up with an explanation that sounded utterly absurd.

But what he didn't expect was that after he said those words, Tianhuo's slightly wary gaze softened little by little.

"Really? So you're a veterinarian." Skyfire's tone also lowered considerably, as if there was some disappointment in it. "You're right, I did own a cat, but it's gone to heaven now... I'll accept this gift on its behalf. As a return gift, I won't tell those soldiers in Ursus about your voyage last night."

Although the process was somewhat different from what he had imagined, the result was good, which made Lin Ye breathe a sigh of relief: "Thank you."

“I also thank you for the gift on behalf of ‘Phil’.” Skyfire waved the catnip in his hand. “It really liked this before it went to heaven.”

"Phil" is probably the name of the pet cat that Tianhuo owns. When Lin Ye learned that Tianhuo was also a cat owner, his liking for her increased even more. After all, he was the master of seven cats in his previous life, and in this life he had been a veterinarian for two years, so he had a certain affinity for cat owners like Tianhuo that others did not have.

He then introduced Skyfire to Magellan, Blue Poison, and others.

When everyone realized that Lin Ye's attitude towards Tianhuo had completely changed compared to an hour ago, they were quite surprised. They thought to themselves that Dr. Lin Ye was truly amazing; in such a short time, he had managed to bring someone who had previously been so antagonistic towards them to their side. Although they couldn't quite call them allies yet, as long as Tianhuo wouldn't tell the Ursus military about what happened last night, that was enough. Moreover, Tianhuo was a top student, making him a perfect fit for their discussion.

However, Lin Ye, being an outsider, found it difficult to join their discussion. He tried listening for a while but found he couldn't understand a word.

The main participants in the discussion were Magellan, Blue Poison, Skyfire, and Youmeng, a marine researcher from the Lungmen Guard Bureau. Lin Ye, Shuangye, and Chanmaru were just listening in. At first, the professionals would help the non-professionals, and what they said was barely understandable. However, as the discussion deepened, various technical terms popped up, and the speaking speed increased, the non-professionals couldn't keep up.

After listening for a while, Chōmaru almost fell asleep.

After listening for a while, Shuangye quietly turned up the volume on her headphones.

Lin Ye listened for a while… He genuinely wanted to continue listening because he desperately wanted to find Skadi. However, he also realized this was no longer his area of ​​expertise; the specialized knowledge and experience in combating the deep sea couldn't be grasped simply by trying. He also didn't want others to explain things too clearly, as that would only waste time. So, after listening for about ten minutes, he quietly withdrew from the group, deciding not to disturb them any longer.

Lin Ye walked to a spot about twenty meters away from the others and sat down cross-legged facing the ocean.

With Maple on his lap, Lin Ye faced the sea breeze and suddenly felt a little lonely.

Skadi...where are you?

"This isn't a good place, is it?" Chōmaru's voice rang out behind Lin Ye. Before he could turn around, Chōmaru casually sat down next to him. "Although my country is also surrounded by the sea, I don't really like the sea."

"...Why are you here?"

"Because I can't understand it," Chūmaru said matter-of-factly, then turned to look at Lin Ye, "Then why did you come here?"

Lin Ye's lips twitched slightly: "Because I can't understand it either."

"Haha." Chūmaru laughed loudly, then shrugged. "So that's what I'm saying."

Lin Ye wanted to respond to Chan Wan with a smile, but he couldn't manage it. He tried to force a smile, but failed, so he gave up.

After a moment of silence, Chūmaru asked, "What kind of person is Skadi?"

"Hmm? Why are you suddenly asking about this?"

“I’m quite curious,” Chūmaru said. “I can tell that you’re probably the one who most wants to save Skadi.”

"Of course, she is my colleague."

"This isn't just about being colleagues, is it?" Chūmaru said with a smile. "That's too perfunctory."

"...What are you trying to say?"

"I already said, I was just a little curious. Dr. Lin Ye, I heard you've been with Rhodes Island for less than a year?"

Lin Ye nodded: "Yes, only half a year."

"Only six months? You got to know Skadi in just six months?"

Is there a problem?

“No problem. Although I haven’t met Skadi many times, I’ve heard rumors about her a long time ago.” Chūmaru turned to look at Lin Ye. “And they’re not good rumors, you should know some of them, right?”

"...Those rumors are all false."

"How do you know it's fake?" Chūmaru said. "Those rumors have been circulating on Rhodes Island for much longer than you, Dr. Lin Ye, have been on Rhodes Island. So many people on Rhodes Island have seen Skadi, so many people have had contact with Skadi. If it were really fake, it should have been debunked long ago."

Hearing Chūmaru recount the rumors about Skadi, Lin Ye felt somewhat annoyed. Normally, he could have easily explained to Chūmaru that Skadi wasn't like that. He believed that given enough time, the people of Rhodes Island would eventually find out what Skadi truly was.

But now he doesn't know if that day will ever come. There's still no news of Skadi, and the only lead has been lost. Even though Lin Ye keeps telling himself to stay calm, it's not something that's easy to calm down. And then Chūmaru's words make Lin Ye realize that most of Rhodes Island's operators still have the impression of Skadi based on those rumors.

If Skadi really does die and can't go back, then other people's impression of her will never change.

Although Lin Ye didn't know why he cared so much about Skadi's image in other people's eyes, even though Skadi herself didn't seem to care, he was eager to do something about it, much like a eunuch who was more anxious than the emperor.

“Actually, I don’t really believe those rumors either.” Just as Lin Ye was struggling with his thoughts, Chanmaru’s slow words interrupted his chaotic thoughts. “Although I’ve only met her once, I don’t think she’s the kind of person the rumors say she is.”

Lin Ye looked at her with some surprise: "You've met Skadi? Didn't you say you hadn't?"

"Well, it's true that I've seen her, and it's also true that I haven't, because I don't know if it counts as seeing her or not," Chūmaru said with a smile. "Because she was a bit far from me, and her back was to me, so I didn't see her face, and naturally she didn't see me either. Of course, it's possible that she saw me, but just didn't say hello."

When did this happen?

“It was probably a year ago, anyway you definitely weren’t there then.” Chūmaru tilted his head. “But the time isn’t important. What I want to say is that when I saw her, she was sitting alone on the edge of the deck, humming a song softly. If the person next to me hadn’t reminded me that it was Skadi, I would never have believed that she was the legendary Deepsea Hunter.”

"...humming a song?"