There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

No, even if one were to merely prostrate oneself on the ground and humbly glance upwards, one would likely be like Qin Wuyang, who stormed into the Xianyang Palace, trembling before the violent, silent might of the empire, sweating profusely, and utterly abandoning the courage and strength that one was so proud of...

In the face of the vast unknown, the silent darkness is the last line of defense. Even more remarkably, even if it fails to protect, it can still conceal the desperate, agonizing cry of a tiny life that, upon glimpsing the truth, suffers a mental breakdown…

As the group passed through the gap between two massive conical pillars, Kay finally stopped them.

The path ahead is fraught with danger. If one is accidentally caught in an underwater vortex, one will undoubtedly fall into a bottomless abyss, from which even the planet's earth, water, fire, and wind could not help one climb out.

But crises always breed opportunities.

According to Kai's pre-planned strategy, there might be an underwater geyser in this area, which would periodically generate a small countercurrent that could propel small objects at extremely high speeds away from the area.

These items, accidentally pushed out of the mysterious eye of the storm, became crucial clues for the Navigators' Alliance in their arduous search to unravel the mysteries of this elusive realm.

Using a speedboat would have been a much safer and more reliable method, but swimming alone would have made it impossible to catch up with the fleeting abnormal ocean current. The only option was to risk getting close to the source of the underwater vortex and try to pinpoint the location of the reverse current!

In practice, I still find it hard to imagine what kind of reverse current could send a person out—if there really was that much kinetic energy, then that force would have already strung us all together like a special beam cannon.

At this point, oxygen consumption had exceeded 90%, and the smell inside the extreme diving suit was particularly pungent. If we continued any further, this diving suit could very well become our shroud.

Without a doubt, we must get through this road, even if it leads to a dead end!

In the absolute darkness, the giant tree's shapeless branches swayed, conjuring up various chilling shapes. Even without feeling the vortex's suction, the extreme blackness evoked a terrifying sense of being able to suck in one's very soul...

Suddenly, Kay raised his hand violently and shone his flashlight into the depths of the vortex!

Gray and I looked in that direction and sure enough, we saw a liquid that looked like white mist, defying the norm, surging out from the depths of the vortex and rushing towards a certain direction with lightning speed!

The sight of such an underwater spring erupting was extremely beautiful, but we had no time to admire it. Without hesitation, we pushed off the ground, swung our bodies vigorously, and quickly swam towards the spot where the white mist was about to pass, taking the gamble!

close!

Very close!

After we dodged a cone-shaped stone pillar, we were just one step away from escaping!

We seemed to be able to reach out and touch that white mist. When we were brushed by the light at close range, it reflected a beautiful light like ice crystals!

But at this critical moment, I, who was at the back of the group, suddenly saw a figure suddenly fall off Kai's back and dart out like a fish, and suddenly step on the cone-shaped stone pillar next to him!

The surrounding water flow was suddenly disturbed, but the white mist continued to approach as expected. The swaying, collapsing cone-shaped stone pillar struck the white mist first, then swung out in an arc, pushing us toward a black branch of a swirling giant tree!

A massive, whip-like vortex swept us in without a doubt...

…………

I don't know how much time passed before I slowly woke up. I felt like the bones in my body were about to be crushed, and my mind was a complete mess. I gagged for a while before I could stand up by holding onto the floor.

I shook Gray and Kai, who were also unconscious beside me, awake.

"Kay! Gray! Wake up!"

Gray, who had been sleeping, was instantly awakened and got up from the ground. But when Kai got up, he sensed that something was wrong.

"Where did Stuart go?!"

The young man with the purple headscarf wanted to check if the person he was carrying was alright, but he felt a lightness behind him and reached out to find a problem.

The person on his back... has disappeared!

With the ring's illumination, there's no need to turn on the searchlight anymore; we now have 360-degree, blind-spot-free lighting.

I stood up and said, “Stop looking. All you have on your back is a tattered rope with some blood on it... Oh, and a broken front tooth—unless you’re carrying someone that only smart people can see, he’s run away.”

Kay glared at him.

Upon hearing this, Gray hesitated for a moment, then quickly and discreetly checked the wounded man strapped to his back before we noticed. Because he was carrying someone, he was lying face down on the ground as a human cushion, effectively protecting Elliot.

Only then did he say with relief, "My people are still here!"

I whispered, "But it's said that dogs can see things that humans can't..."

Gray glared at him.

The two men stared at me for a moment, then suddenly asked in a strange tone, "Marcus... what's that glowing thing of yours..."

In the pitch black, I discovered that my fingers, through the theoretically opaque wetsuit, were emitting an extremely dazzling light, as brilliant as the rising sun, about to illuminate the darkness hidden in this area.

Oh, it's just an ordinary, priceless ring.

I cautiously covered my fingers. "What do you want? This is my precious Gulu Gulu!"

Gray covered his face and said to me, "Boss, don't get me wrong... we're not talking about that glowing thing..."

Oh right, Gray has witnessed the power of the King Soul's First Flame Ring, so he can't possibly still act like he's never seen anything like it.

What were they talking about...?

I looked down and noticed that besides the glittering ring on my hand, there was another light source shining through my wetsuit from my crotch, and the source of the light was particularly irritating to my eyes...

With a blank expression, I pulled a shimmering, glowing sphere from my waterproof pocket. "Isn't this the Jade of Truth...? Now I declare Catch-22: no one is allowed to mention this again."

Twenty-two is truly an auspicious number. A certain Taiwanese man from Nanchang probably never imagined that he would have a coincidence with the ancients.

We inspected the damage for a while and found that apart from losing a paralyzed person, there were no other significant changes.

Gray, wearing a mask, said in a somber tone, "It seems we weren't unconscious for long; we didn't even run out of oxygen. Otherwise, we would have suffocated halfway through our sleep."

Kay smiled wryly and took off his mask, seemingly unconcerned about whether the air in this mysterious place was poisonous.

"Kay, be careful with your breathing!" Gray reminded him.

But when Kai turned around, he deliberately revealed a gash on his back.

"It's alright, my extreme diving suit was already slashed..."

I made a point of sensing it and, sure enough, I found that the air I breathed had less of a bitter, foul smell, but more of a salty, astringent sea flavor.

Upon further inspection, it was found that all four wetsuits had been torn open and were now connected from the inside out.

Now, there was no need for us to hold back any longer. We quickly removed our tightly sealed diving masks, finally able to take a deep breath of air, and then mustered our courage to face this place we had never set foot in before...

Chapter 612 The Strange Tales of Mineral Town Harbor (Part Fourteen)

Wherever the glowing ring and the Jade of Truth went, the darkness gradually receded, but after the intruder's brief passage, the curtain of darkness once again covered the crippled stage, allowing this land that had faded from history to remain in eternal rest.

We searched for a long time in the historically significant ruins, but all we found were some fragmented inscriptions and endless desolation and silence.

We gradually began to wonder if this abandoned city had no boundaries at all, and whether we were merely ants in a glass box, futilely searching for the essence of three-dimensional space with fragile two-dimensional souls…

Standing in the field and looking around, I finally found myself in the nightmare I had imagined not long ago.

Without a doubt, this was a place so vast it was indistinguishable from the real thing. The ground was a familiar, smooth surface, without a single crack in the bricks, as if it had been divinely cast. There were broken pillars, collapsed houses, ruined reliefs, and dried-up fountains everywhere, but it was empty, without a single corpse in sight.

The thick layer of dust on the ground showed the remoteness of the abandoned time, but looking up, there was only a deep sky, which ignored the definition of wind, rain, thunder and lightning, locking in a terrifying dark red scene - as if time had stopped at some moment.

I had long ago discovered that the floor beneath my feet, ignoring the wear and tear of time, was clearly made of countless ceramic steel, or rather, Orichalcum!

Hidden between the double beams and the rammed earth foundation are characters identical to those unearthed during the underwater walk. Here, characters with unique styles are carved using different brushstrokes, and even time cannot take away their sharpness.

But aside from archaeological discoveries, we found no trace of the "Stuart" along the way. It was as if we had a wild dream in the midst of a storm, and he never existed in our unfortunate experience.

As time passed, looking at the lifeless, dark red sky, as gloomy as congealed blood, Gray and I finally lost our patience and stopped Kai, who was tirelessly trying to decipher the inscriptions.

I quickly made three limestone stools for everyone to sit on, and in the blink of an eye, I set up a stone bed to place the unconscious Elliott.

"Hey! Marcus, how did you do that! These stones weren't originally this color, were they?!" Kai exclaimed in surprise.

I waved my hand dismissively and said, "If you give me a box of Boruto, I can achieve absolute zero."

Sitting on the stool, Grellio asked, somewhat discouraged but still unwilling to give up, "I still can't figure it out, where did 'Stuart' go... And why did he only tear our clothes and not kill us? Did he still retain a conscious mind and couldn't bear to hurt us?"

...With just that one "human snake," do you really expect him to use the Shadow Snake Hand?

Although I don't know how much time has passed, I've undergone ample training and am particularly adept at this kind of inexplicable unconsciousness and pain. Therefore, even if "Stuart" wakes up earlier, it's not certain that he'll wake up much earlier than me.

The time left for him was just enough to bite through our wetsuits. If he made any bigger movements and woke up even one person, it would be something this "human snake" couldn't handle—this open space offered him nowhere to roam.

I spoke up and asked, "Kay, although I don't know why you were willing to bring a time bomb in, 'Stuart' obstructing us by biting through his diving suit shows that he has no self-awareness. And Kay, you... you should have guessed his identity and intentions, right?"

We tried to find out more along the way, but Kay’s attitude always became ambiguous whenever the topic came up.

This time, however, Kai didn't mince words. He was so engrossed in admiring the characters left behind that it was as if he had unearthed a priceless treasure, his very soul seemingly robbed of its luster.

"Do you know..."

Kay gently stroked the broken walls and ruins, his voice filled with barely suppressed elation, "This place is very likely... a sacred place that countless brothers have dreamed of searching for! Its area far exceeds the ruins discovered before... and its concealment is far superior! I have reason to believe..."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "No, I am very certain... this is the holy city that vanished in the disaster..."

Compared to the incredibly sturdy terracotta floor, the collapsed limestone temple where we were temporarily sheltering seemed rather shabby. It seems the builders didn't care about permanence, but only wanted to express their momentary emotions, raising the statues high as much as they could to let their faith burn brightly.

The collapsed building was also somewhat chaotic, with repeated triple halls and T-shaped hall structures, which were connected by extended vertical partitions to form an interdependent architectural complex, until it was rediscovered at this moment.

"You've been looking for this place?"

I was reminded of similar legends told by different people, all pointing to the fact that the navigators' alliance's voyages across history were to search for some secrets hidden deep in the sea.

Is this the place they're looking for?

Could this be the legendary mysterious empire that disappeared into the depths of the sea?

Why does Kai insist on this route for no apparent reason, all in order to find this hidden, lost city?

It seemed that in the eyes of the persistent sailor before him, this ruined world concealed the purest gold mine, mocking those who were blind to its value.

"Let me ask you a question: what's the point of you finding this place?"

To Kay, this statement seemed to have become an unbearable challenge.

He retorted firmly, "You don't understand the significance of this place! You simply don't understand! The Navigators' Alliance has been searching and exploring for centuries to find the way home!"

With that, he pointed to the abandoned buildings and said, trembling, "These places... may be the last places where my ancestors from countless generations ago lived before they set sail!"

But Gray and I remained very calm and even somewhat indifferent to Kai's excitement.

So what if it's a deep-sea ruin? So what if it's a prehistoric civilization? We've even established influence on other planets and traveled through space in spaceships. Are we proud of all that we've done?

I interrupted Kai's reverie and asked, "If we don't get out of here in the end, even if you find this place, it's just like finding yourself a better burial ground. Tell me first, how can we get out of here?"

The young man with the purple headscarf paused for a moment, then instinctively said, "I...I don't know either..."

...Praise the sun, dare you say it again? Ordinary people will be immediately warned with a blazing fire, you know that?!

Gray couldn't stand it any longer and quickly pulled his friend aside to change the subject, saying, "The situation here is unclear, let's continue searching the surroundings! Even if we can't find the way, let's find the hiding 'Stuart' first! I'm worried about his presence!"

Kay thought for a moment, then confirmed the idea. He then made a groundbreaking suggestion: "We were only able to search one path, which was too inefficient. To improve efficiency, shouldn't we search separately?"