On the Ark.

Tianhuo nodded.

"Should we leave one person behind?" Magellan asked. "Just in case Ursus..."

Before Magellan could finish speaking, Lin Ye directly rejected her suggestion.

"No, absolutely not." Lin Ye said firmly, "We don't know what happened yet. Before we find out the truth, we absolutely cannot let anyone act alone again. Don't forget what we experienced that night."

Once that night was mentioned, Magellan stopped talking, and even Tamaru became slightly serious.

Tianhuo then looked at Lin Ye: "So what exactly happened to you that night? Even now, you still won't tell me?"

“I’ll let you know if necessary,” Lin Ye said. “However, I agree with Magellan’s suggestion. We should monitor every tent now, but not with people. Magellan, can you get your drone here? Can it receive a signal?”

Magellan thought for a moment and said, "No problem. My drone can receive my signal within three kilometers even in this kind of weather. That's more than enough for the town of Harlan."

“Then let’s do it this way.” Lin Ye nodded. “You leave one drone here, and then come with us to the tent in Lungmen. Let’s not delay, let’s get going now.”

Magellan immediately took out a drone from his backpack, activated it, and left it in the Ursus tent. Then, the group left the Ursus tent and, braving the torrential rain, arrived at the Lungmen Guard Bureau's tent about two hundred meters away. Just as Skyfire had said, there was no one in this tent; all ten-odd Lungmen Guard Bureau operators, including Swire, were not there.

"The situation is the same over there."

Chūmaru started rummaging through the tent. It's impolite to go through someone else's things without permission, but it didn't matter in this situation. Lin Ye actually hoped that the Lungmen Guard would jump out and reprimand them. However, there was no one else in the tent besides them. Chūmaru also found a radio communicator in several sleeping bags—equipment provided by the Lungmen Guard, which had been left in the sleeping bags during this strange, torrential rain.

“Something must have happened,” Lin Ye said. “The Sunset Chamber of Commerce is probably in the same situation.”

"But what exactly happened?" Chūmaru said. "These two tents are only a few hundred meters away from us. If something really happened, how could we not have sensed it?"

Before Lin Ye could speak, he saw Shuang Ye walk over with a cup of coffee.

"Wow, what time is it? You're still in the mood for coffee," Chūmaru said. "That's too much. Make me a cup."

Shuangye glanced at Chanwan, but ignored her and handed the coffee directly to Lin Ye.

"For me?" Lin Ye asked, somewhat surprised.

"This isn't for you to drink," Shuangye said calmly. "I just found it; feel it."

Want to touch it?

Lin Ye roughly understood what was going on and took the cup.

Sure enough, there was still some steam left on the cup.

“This cup of coffee hasn’t cooled down completely yet, which means it hasn’t been steeping for very long,” Shuangye said, unusually speaking at length. “Although there’s a lid to prevent heat loss, it won’t last long in this kind of weather. The owner of this cup probably brewed this coffee about twenty to thirty minutes ago.”

"Twenty or thirty minutes ago..." Lin Ye couldn't help but look at Tianhuo.

Skyfire understood something, and his expression turned strange: "I was here twenty or thirty minutes ago. You mean... the Lungmen Guard left when I came here?"

"Hmm." Shuangye nodded. "It's very likely that they just left and you came in right after."

“But how is that possible?” Tianhuo said in a panic. “I didn’t see them at all.”

“In this environment with such poor visibility, you’ll hardly see them unless they’re too close to you,” Shuangye said, looking at Lin Ye. “And in this environment, they can’t have gone very far in just twenty minutes. We can try to go out and look for them.”

Lin Ye immediately shook his head: "No, we don't even know which way they went, how could we possibly find them?"

Blue Poison looked at Magellan: "Would it be alright to use drones?"

Magellan said weakly, "My drone isn't waterproof..."

"Okay." Blue Poison didn't really know much about this aspect.

Lin Ye looked at the coffee in his cup and said softly, "You left without even taking a sip of the freshly brewed coffee. Did something urgent happen?"

“It must be an unexpected incident,” Shuangye said. “All the signs here indicate that the Lungmen Guard is planning to take a break. The owner of this cup even closed the lid after making the coffee, which means he wasn’t in a hurry to drink it.”

Lin Ye knew what Shuangye wanted to say and nodded: "In other words, at least at that time, this Guardian Bureau agent was unaware of what happened next when he was making coffee."

Frosty Leaf nodded.

At this moment, Chūmaru spoke up again: "However, no matter what kind of emergency it is, it's impossible for it to happen so suddenly that people don't even have time to bring their communicators, right? Look over there, there are some guys who didn't even bring their weapons or put their clothes on properly. This is unbelievable. It's not like it's an earthquake or a tsunami or anything."

“That’s the strange thing.” Lin Ye sighed, then tried to find Swire’s sleeping bag, hoping to get some clues from the senior superintendent.

At that moment, he caught a glimpse of Tianhuo out of the corner of his eye. Tianhuo was hugging his shoulders, his body trembling slightly, and his face was full of fear.

Lin Ye frowned.

Why would she be so afraid? It doesn't make sense.

Although what happened tonight was indeed strange, Tianhuo shouldn't be the kind of person who is timid. His reaction was too intense, wasn't it?

Could it be...?

Lin Ye seemed to realize something, and then walked straight toward the Heavenly Fire.

Tianhuo raised his head, looked at Lin Ye, and asked in a trembling voice, "What?"

Lin Ye didn't speak, but slowly raised his hand, and then, taking Tian Huo by surprise, suddenly grabbed her hand.

"You..." Tianhuo was shocked and was about to explode when he felt a warm sensation coming from Lin Ye's palm, and he was stunned.

Lin Ye also noticed that the fear in Tianhuo's eyes was gradually disappearing.

Chapter 332 Eyes (3K)

Lin Ye suddenly grabbed Tianhuo's hand, causing everyone to pause for a moment, wondering what Lin Ye was planning to do at this time. But they quickly found out the answer. Tianhuo's panicked expression gradually disappeared after Lin Ye held his hand, slowly calming down, but soon turning into surprise, only this surprise was completely different from the one before.

Seeing this, Lin Ye finally let go of her hand.

Tianhuo looked at Lin Ye, then looked down at his own hands, and asked in a slightly surprised tone, "What did you do? Why do I feel... weird?"

Everyone present noticed the change in the heavenly fire.

Lin Ye said, "You shouldn't think you're weird now, you should think you were weird just now."

Chūmaru looked at Lin Ye with some confusion: "What do you mean?"

Lin Ye did not answer Chan Wan, but only looked at Tian Huo.

Tianhuo lowered his head, pondered for a while, and then said softly, "Yes, I was a little off just now. I couldn't calm down at all. I felt like I was afraid of something, but I didn't know what I was afraid of. I was sweating profusely."

Magellan's mouth dropped open slightly: "Isn't this just like Dr. Lin Ye's performance that night?"

Skyfire looked up at Magellan, somewhat puzzled: "What do you mean?"

"Uh," Magellan hesitated, unsure whether he should say it.

Lin Ye sighed, "There's no point in hiding anything now. Tianhuo's performance just now has already shown us a lot. We shouldn't be clinging to any more illusions. What happened to us that night has probably come back to haunt us."

Although Tianhuo didn't know what Lin Ye meant by "something," he vaguely sensed that it was no ordinary thing. With Lin Ye's permission, Magellan briefly recounted the events of that night to Tianhuo, omitting Skadi's involvement. Fortunately, Tianhuo didn't seem to care. However, when he learned that Lin Ye had nearly lost his mind due to fear in front of the underground river, Tianhuo's eyelids twitched involuntarily.

"You mean..." Tianhuo looked at Lin Ye, "that I just experienced the same thing as you? But I don't think I encountered anything strange."

"That's just your opinion," Shuangye said calmly. "Doctor Lin Ye thought the same thing that night, but if Chanwan hadn't stopped him, he would have jumped into the underground river to keep company with the corpses."

Lin Ye: "..."

Even though I know Shuangye is right, why does it sound so jarring?

"This is too bizarre." Tianhuo said softly, then stared at Lin Ye again, "So what did you do to me just now? What made me recover so quickly?"

"Well..."

“This isn’t the first time. I wanted to ask you this a week ago.” Tianhuo looked down at Lin Ye’s hands. “I always feel like your hands have a special power. Can you tell me what it is?”

Lin Ye really didn't know how to explain it to Tian Huo, so he could only vaguely summarize it as having a talent in this area. But Tian Huo was obviously not satisfied with this answer, but she couldn't force Lin Ye, so she had to give up for the time being.

“Now that you’ve recovered, we can have a proper discussion,” Lin Ye said. “Many signs indicate that the sudden disappearance of Ursus, Lungmen, and the Sunset Merchant Guild was not a normal event. They may have encountered the same ordeal that the residents of Harlan Town experienced that night.”

"Right under our noses?"

“Yes.” Lin Ye took a deep breath. “Right under our noses, and there’s a good chance you’ll just miss Tianhuo.”

This time, Tianhuo's expression didn't change much, and she didn't show the obvious fear she had before. This confirmed Lin Ye's guess about her personality; she was indeed a calm and collected person, and she had only been affected by some mysterious force earlier.

"Was it captured?" Chūmaru asked. "Didn't you just guess that the island was actually a large creature? Could it be that it has returned?"

"You think that island is a large creature?" Tianhuo was slightly surprised. "That's quite a bold guess. However, although I've never seen that island, if it really came back, or even came ashore and took everyone away, we couldn't possibly not notice, could we?"

“Indeed.” Lin Ye nodded. “The tents in Ursus and Lungmen aren’t far from us. If something really happened, we couldn’t possibly not have noticed, unless… they left on their own.”

Once Tianhuo regained his senses, his mind became exceptionally clear: "You mean, they were hypnotized just like I was?"

“Most likely, if they left under hypnosis, we wouldn’t be able to detect it in this environment,” Lin Ye said softly. “That would also explain how the residents of Harlan Town disappeared. If it was a large-scale hypnosis, there really wouldn’t be any survivors.”

"But if it's a large-scale hypnosis, why didn't you fall for it?" Tianhuo stared at Lin Ye. "You were the only ones who didn't fall for it."

Lin Ye was silent for a moment, then took off the [Maple] from behind him: "This is probably it."

Before setting off, Kal'tsit reminded Lin Ye that it was best not to let outsiders know the origin of [Maple]. Because in a sense, the value of [Maple] was even greater than that of so-called deep-sea treasures.

However, Lin Ye and his group are currently facing an enemy even stronger than Biskadi, and without going all out, they'd be doomed. Therefore, if Lin Ye wants to bring Tianhuo to the same side, it's essential to show some sincerity.

To be honest, Lin Ye wasn't scared of what happened tonight; in fact, he was quite happy.

Because if that island returns, there will still be hope of finding Skadi, but if that island never reappears, then he may never find Skadi again. Therefore, Lin Ye must seize tonight's opportunity; he vaguely senses that this is his last chance.

Lin Ye took a deep breath and told everyone present the whole story of [Maple].

He could have revealed only a few details, concealing the most crucial information, but he believed that to confront such a powerful enemy as the Deep Sea, the first thing needed was confidence, or rather, a strong sense of purpose. As a divine artifact, and as the power that enabled the Messiah to become a god, Lin Ye felt that it could provide those present with sufficient confidence to assist him in fighting the Deep Sea and searching for Skadi.

Sure enough, after learning about [Maple's] origins, everyone's expression changed significantly, with surprise written all over their faces.

"The Blade of God?" Magellan, a believer in science, was clearly the most astonished. "Does God really exist?"

Chōmaru stared intently at [Maple]: "Can I touch the sword forged by the gods? Ah, you seemed to have refused before. No problem, then let's try it out with my sword."

Tianhuo said softly, "I've long heard of the existence of a true god in Kalan, but I never imagined it was true."

Lin Ye coughed twice: "Let's put that topic aside for later. Right now, we should be thinking about how to find those missing people."

Whether Ursus and the Sunset Merchant Guild are missing or not is irrelevant to Lin Ye, but Lungmen is a different story, especially since Swire has also been dragged into it. Skadi hasn't even been found yet, and now Swire is involved. However, in Lin Ye's view, finding Swire means finding Skadi won't be far off.

“If that island really comes back…then the hypnotized person should actively go to find that island, right?” Blue Poison spoke first. “In that case, we can go to the coast and take a look.”

"Do you think a hypnotized person would row a boat to find that island?"

“It’s not impossible,” Blue Poison said. “If the number of ships decreases, it will further prove this point.”

Magellan hesitated: "But if that's really the case, what should we do? Going off the island in this weather seems far too dangerous."

Everyone fell silent, for Magellan had hit the nail on the head. If that island really did return, what could they do in this situation?

"Don't worry." Tianhuo spoke up, her voice full of confidence. "If that island really is alive, then I'll deal with it."