On the Ark.

After regaining some strength, Lin Ye was able to stand up in the water with difficulty, and Skadi released him at the right time. Only then did Lin Ye have a chance to raise his head and look at Skadi.

Skadi stood before him, soaked to the bone as if she had been in the water for a long time, but her eyes remained as bright as he remembered. Lin Ye saw his own disheveled state reflected in her red eyes. He was about to say something when he suddenly realized something was amiss, so he looked behind Skadi and then his mouth dropped open slightly.

Behind Skadi floated a series of mangled corpses of the parasitic tumors, each one broken and mangled, as if destroyed by some powerful force. Further away, the "deep-sea entity" was also missing a third of its body, with four tentacles severed, before floating in the water.

Lin Ye's voice stammered, "Then, you did those?"

Skadi glanced back and nodded slightly: "There's no other way. If we don't do this, we won't be able to find you, because the sound has stopped."

Lin Ye immediately understood.

Although Skadi didn't explain clearly, he guessed it. Skadi had indeed found her way here by the sound of her phone ringing, but by the time she arrived, the phone was waterlogged and unusable. Lin Ye had also been dragged into the water by the parasitic tumors, so she couldn't find him immediately. Instead, she used her greatsword to clear a path, heading towards the area with the most tumors, and eventually found Lin Ye, who had nearly died.

At the same time... he also casually dealt a severe blow to the "deep-sea entity"?

Lin Ye was under hypnosis at the time and had no idea what had happened. But just as he was about to ask what had happened, he noticed that Skadi was also watching him.

“Don’t do that,” Skadi said.

"What?" Lin Ye was taken aback at first.

“I told you not to do this,” Skadi repeated. “Any later and I wouldn’t be able to save you.”

"But... I came to find you."

“I know,” Skadi said softly, “but I don’t want to see you die bleeding to death… Also, didn’t I warn you before to stay away from me? I’m not confident I can protect you.”

"Uh, I don't need that either..."

"Shut up."

Skadi suddenly reached out and pushed Lin Ye's head forward, bringing it together with hers. At that moment, Lin Ye only felt Skadi's wet hair fall onto his hand, and her beautiful eyes were only a few centimeters away from his own.

Skadi moved her lips slightly and said softly, "Don't interrupt me when I'm telling you something important. Let me finish. Especially at times like this, you'll bother me."

Lin Ye opened his mouth slightly, wanting to say something, but not knowing what to say.

“That’s more like it,” Skadi said softly. “Although it’s not very helpful, you’ve at least woken me from my nightmare. Lin Ye, I’ll treat you to a drink when I get back.”

After saying that, she took off her hat and put it on Lin Ye's head.

“Leave the rest to me.” Skadi slowly drew her greatsword from the wall, then tossed aside the pierced parasite. She turned to face the deep-sea creature that was trying to repair its body with the parasite. “Don’t you like it here? It’s okay, I’ll take you to a dry place soon.”

Although he knew his combat strength was no match for Skadi's, Lin Ye still felt incredibly ashamed to hide behind a woman, especially after being accused of being cuckolded. So he forced himself to stand up straight and gripped [Maple] tightly: "Let me help you. Even for you, dealing with this guy would be difficult, wouldn't it?"

"Struggling?" Skadi raised her sword. "Compared to the calamities I've faced, creatures of this level are far too weak. However..."

As she spoke, she turned her head and looked thoughtfully at the [Maple] in Lin Ye's hand.

"The power contained within that knife in your hand seems quite interesting. Looks like you've acquired a very powerful weapon. When I arrived here, this guy was already injured; did you do that?"

Lin Ye nodded.

“Is that so?” Skadi turned her head back. “It’s been a few months, and you seem to have gotten a bit stronger. But that’s not enough. You shouldn’t have gotten hurt if it was just an enemy of this level.”

Lin Ye's lips twitched slightly: "You make it sound so simple, how could I possibly..."

Before she could finish speaking, Skadi moved, charging towards the "deep-sea entity." Despite being in the water, her speed didn't decrease at all; in fact, it seemed even faster than on land. Seeing this, the deep-sea entity immediately swung all its tentacles, slapping them down at Skadi.

Skadi concealed her sword beneath the water's surface as she charged, only drawing it when she reached the "Deep Sea Body." The sharp blade swept across the water, severing the "Deep Sea Body's" tentacles along with the remaining half of its body, much to Lin Ye's astonishment.

Lin Ye's eyes widened.

In his vision, the powerful "deep-sea body" was shattered by Skadi's single blow! After staggering a few times, it crashed to the ground, and the fleshy monsters on its body scattered into the water like birds and beasts, revealing a huge, rotting corpse.

The cave also began to collapse amidst the violent tremors, but it did not last long before it stabilized again.

Amid the tremors, a ray of sunlight shone through the gap in the collapse and fell upon Skadi.

Skadi sheathed her sword in the sunlight, then slowly turned around to look at Lin Ye.

Lin Ye was also looking at her.

Neither of them spoke until the voices of Blue Poison and the others could be heard outside the cave.

"Dr. Lin Ye, Dr. Lin Ye, are you there?"

"Dr. Lin, we're here to save you!"

At that moment, Lin Ye revealed a relieved smile, and then gently said to Skadi, "Welcome back, Skadi."

Chapter 347 Good

"What did you say?!" Chūmaru's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief. "The giant monster we saw that night was just a corpse. We've been dealing with those fleshy parasites all along? Really?"

“Although I know it’s hard to believe,” Youmeng coughed twice, “it’s true. Those tumorous parasites can control large, dead creatures in the deep sea. Even if it’s just a skeleton, these parasites can parasitize it and make the skeleton ‘stand up’ again. This is documented. I saw it in an ancient book when I was still in school. The author of the book even gave this creature a name, which, in our terms, would be something like ‘the puppeteer of the deep sea’.”

"'The Puppet Master of the Deep Sea'?" Magellan pondered for a moment, then said, "The name sounds rather artistic?"

“But their real appearance has absolutely nothing to do with art,” Swire said irritably. “Just thinking about what they look like, and how I almost got swallowed by one of these things, gives me goosebumps all over.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

By this time, a full day had passed since that night.

After Skadi dealt with the controlled monster, the group returned to Harlan town in a sorry state. Afterwards, aside from a few who contacted reinforcements and kept watch, most people went straight to sleep, including Lin Ye. The relief of surviving such a close call allowed him to sleep for nearly ten hours. When he awoke, he found that the area had been completely taken over by the Ursus military. He then found the tent where the Lungmen Guard was located, where Youmeng was explaining the deep-sea monster they had encountered that night to everyone.

Most people were listening attentively, but Skadi seemed detached from the center of attention, leaning against the window, half-closing her eyes as she basked in the sun, looking relaxed and carefree. She didn't comment on Youmeng's explanation, even though she was clearly the most qualified person present to speak on this matter.

It's still the same as before.

Thinking this, Lin Ye walked towards Skadi. Hearing his footsteps, Skadi looked up at him but didn't say anything. She simply moved aside slightly, making room for Lin Ye so they could both enjoy the direct sunlight. Standing next to Skadi, Lin Ye found it very comfortable; even though he had just woken up, the sunlight made him feel sleepy again.

"Didn't you rest?" Lin Ye asked Skadi.

"I took a nap."

"Oh? Where is it?"

"Beside you."

Lin Ye's lips twitched slightly: "When? How come I didn't know?"

“You’re sleeping too soundly,” Skadi said. “Of course you can’t hear me.”

Lin Ye was a little embarrassed: "I didn't snore, talk in my sleep, or drool, did I?"

“I didn’t notice,” Skadi shook her head. “But do you usually do things like this?”

"No, I was just saying it offhand."

“Then I’ll just take it with a grain of salt,” Skadi said casually.

The two chatted casually, while the discussion in the central area continued.

"You mean that guy called Deep Sea Pretender..."

"That's called 'Deep Sea Puppet Master'."

"Ah, it seems to be this one, but it doesn't matter, let's just call it the Tumor Monster," Chūmaru said. "Is this Tumor Monster's true form very weak?"

“Yes.” Youmeng nodded. “‘Deep Sea Puppet Master’… well, I’ll call him Tumor Monster too. The true form of this Tumor Monster is extremely weak, as you should have seen. The fighting power of a Tumor Monster is not even comparable to that of an unarmed adult man.”

“But it’s a social creature,” Blue Poison said. “It doesn’t need to hunt on its own.”

"Yes, that's what makes them so terrifying. Their colonies are just too numerous, as you all probably witnessed that night. They're somewhat like ants on land, with a massive number and a clear division of labor. They're like ants in the deep sea, but of course, their actions are far more terrifying than those of ants."

Magellan then asked, "They also possess hypnotic abilities, don't they?"

“No, they don’t.” Youmeng shook her head. “I know what you’re trying to say, because we all suffered powerful mental attacks. But they themselves don’t know such methods, but the corpse they control does, so they can learn them.”

Standing to the side listening to Youmeng's explanation, Lin Ye couldn't help but show a surprised expression: "Being able to obtain the ability of corpses, that's a bit too exaggerated, isn't it? Is it even possible?"

Skadi said calmly, "That's true."

Lin Ye turned to look at Skadi: "Did you know all along?"

“Those creatures are not uncommon in the deep sea,” Skadi said. “It’s not the first time I’ve encountered them, but I didn’t expect there to be so many of them this time. We even obtained such a powerful corpse, and that powerful mental attack came from that corpse, not from those creatures.”

"...That's incredible."

"There's nothing incredible about it."

Lin Ye laughed and said, "But didn't you also fall for these guys' tricks? You were hypnotized too, weren't you? Where did you go after you went missing?"

This is also what Lin Ye has always wanted to ask.

Skadi glanced at Lin Ye, then said, "In the sea."

"In the sea?" Lin Ye was somewhat surprised.

“That island is mobile; those guys can control it,” Skadi said. “Its underground is interconnected, but it connects directly to the sea. I couldn’t withstand that level of mental attack, so I’ve been hiding at the bottom of the sea. My plan was to wait until those guys left the corpse and their mental control weakened before I came out to deal with them… That was my original plan.”

"Originally? And then what?"

“Then you came,” Skadi said slowly. “You disrupted my plans. Its control had already weakened considerably, and I was ready to deal with it. But it suddenly went berserk. Because of your intrusion, I had to come out of the sea. Fortunately, its attention was on you, which gave me the opportunity to finish it off.”

It turned out to be like this...

Now Lin Ye understood everything. Skadi wasn't fatally injured and out of contact as Lin Ye had imagined. Instead, she had hidden in the ocean to avoid a mental attack she couldn't handle for the time being. Those "Deep Sea Puppet Masters" who had caused the Allied Forces so much trouble and even cost them so much actually didn't pose much of a problem for Skadi. For her, it was just a normal "hunt." This was evident from how easily she dealt with the large corpse possessed by the "Deep Sea Puppet Masters." Skadi's strength far surpassed that of those tumorous parasites.

It was only during the "hunt" that she accidentally lost her communicator and cell phone, thus losing contact, which led Kal'tsit to send out their squad. Looking back now, it seems a bit presumptuous; even if they hadn't come, Skadi seemed capable of taking care of that big guy, it would just have taken a little longer.

This disappointed Lin Ye somewhat, but the thought that they hadn't lost any men in the incident, fulfilling his promise to Kal'tsit before they came, quickly dispelled his disappointment. In this world, nothing is better than being alive.

As Lin Ye was reminiscing, Skadi suddenly said, "Your Leaping Wave..."

"Well, what happened?"

"too weak."

Lin Ye: "..."

That's really ruthless.

“You probably haven’t had much time to practice either,” Skadi said. “You’re not very proficient yet.”

"There's nothing I can do," Lin Ye said helplessly. "No one can practice with me. Only you and I know this move; no one else has ever even heard of it."

Is that so?

"if not?"

Skadi nodded and remained silent. After a moment of silence, Skadi slowly spoke.

“I’m a little tired,” Skadi said. “I want to rest for a bit.”