Cave Refuge

Zachary never expected that even though he had been extremely cautious, he ultimately got tricked by the illusions near the Great Whirlpool.

If he had already been fooled by the illusions earlier, then was everything he had just seen on the tablet also an illusion?

Zachary casually picked up the tablet on the table, turned it on, and saw that there was no so-called national interface showing; it seemed that he had been caught in the illusions for quite some time.

Although his Divine Sense was deceived once by the illusions around the Great Whirlpool, Zachary still found it more convenient to observe with his Divine Sense rather than his eyes.

He expanded his Divine Sense to its maximum range and unexpectedly found that the Great Whirlpool didn't directly draw nearby ships into its center.

Instead, it caused the attracted ships to rotate according to the Whirlpool's direction, spiraling continuously before finally being sucked into its center.

Moreover, Zachary noticed with his Divine Sense that besides the Wave Rider, there were five other ships here in the Great Whirlpool.

From the position of those five ships, it seemed they had entered the Great Whirlpool earlier than the Wave Rider.

The ship closest to the center of the Whirlpool was now very near to falling into its deep pit.

Just as Zachary was about to use his Divine Sense to inspect the crew inside the ship closest to the center, he suddenly noticed that crew members from the previous ships had all come out of their cabins. They climbed onto the deck and then directly leaped over the railings, one after another jumping into the water.

As those people mysteriously began diving into the water, Zachary immediately used his Divine Sense to observe their condition.

When Zachary saw that those people looked dazed, not like normal people at all, he immediately guessed that they were still under the spell of the illusions, and their diving behavior was likely caused by their confusion.

As Zachary was considering whether to go and save them, those dazed people who jumped into the water perhaps choked on water in their respiratory tracts, a potentially fatal situation, miraculously snapped out of their illusions.

If it were under normal circumstances, even though they were now in the water, climbing back to the deck would not pose a great challenge for most of them.

So although those people were suddenly panicked when they first broke free from the illusions, it didn't take long for them to calm down, preparing to leave the water and return to the deck after regaining their composure.

If this kind of overboard incident had occurred before the disaster without anyone's help, climbing back to the deck from beneath the ship would have been immensely challenging.

But now that all the crew had begun their cultivation as Martial Artists, even if one fell overboard without anyone's help, climbing back onto the deck from the water was not particularly difficult.

However, those who were anxious to return to the deck hadn't yet realized why they, who had been fine on the ship before, suddenly ended up in the water. (After breaking free from the illusions, they retained no memories from within the illusions.)

Just as those overboard were starting their self-rescue and preparing to return to the deck, several long whips made entirely of water suddenly appeared in the water, quickly wrapping around the bodies of those who had fallen overboard.

There's no need to mention those already in the water; several individuals had already used a rope tied to the deck at the other end to climb out of the water, but they too got ensnared by the water whips, forcefully dragged back into the water.

Seeing this, Zachary immediately used his Divine Sense to inspect the situation beneath the water, and as he had guessed, there was indeed something below. To his surprise, the creature appearing underwater was exactly like the one described in the illusions: a merfolk.

Given the prior illusions and the Water System Magic that the merfolk had just used, Zachary could not ascertain if the description in the illusions was true or false.

At that moment, those controlled by the water whips were directly pulled down to the bottom. Although Martial Artists could hold their breath underwater for long durations as their Martial Cultivation improved.

However, it was unknown where the Merfolk had gotten their experience from, as they dragged the Martial Artists into the water and immediately employed various Water System Magic to attack those who couldn't dodge due to being controlled by the Water Whip.

If it were merely holding their breath, most Martial Artists could maintain it for a long time underwater; however, they simply couldn't maintain their composure to hold their breath while under attack.

A slight distraction caused the air originally held in their mouths to disperse instantly, and the surrounding water would naturally rush into their mouth and nose, putting them in a state of drowning.

Thus, regardless of how strong the sailors' Martial Cultivation levels were, under the water, they were easily subdued by the Merfolk.

Looking at these Merfolk, who possessed the upper bodies of handsome men and beautiful women, one would never have guessed they would be so decisive and ruthless toward the sailors.

Indeed, the old proverb was proven right: "Those not of our kind, must have a different heart."

While Dong Tianyu had not yet decided whether to intervene, the Merfolk had already eliminated all the sailors who had fallen into the water.

When all the sailors were in a drowning state, instead of killing them outright, the Merfolk began to dive deeper into the ocean with the captured sailors.

At the same time, Dong Tianyu's Divine Sense also followed the Merfolk as they dived deep, and just as they were about to exit the reach of Dong Tianyu's Divine Sense, they approached their destination- an Underwater City.

Unlike the Underwater City in movies or cartoons covered by an inverted-bowl-like protective shield with no water inside, all the buildings in this city were submerged in water.

As the Merfolk entered the city, they had also reached the furthest extent of Dong Tianyu's Divine Sense, leaving him unaware of what would happen next to the sailors inside the Underwater City.

Confirming his Divine Sense could not extend further, Dong Tianyu immediately retracted his Divine Sense and looked back at the ship where the captured sailors had been.

At that moment, the ship, which had been very close to the center of the whirlpool, had now been sucked into the center and vanished.

Based on the distance from the whirlpool's center, Wave Rider was farthest away, rightfully ranking it last.

Initially including Wave Rider, there were six ships in total. One had been sucked into the center of the whirlpool, leaving only five ships now. The ship whose sailors had jumped into the water, lured by the illusion, was previously ranked third.

To verify his theory, Dong Tianyu immediately used his Divine Sense to observe the second-ranked and fourth-ranked ships.

Just as Dong Tianyu had suspected, the second-ranked ship was now completely empty, while the crew on the fourth-ranked ship were all present and were fervently discussing something.

Dong Tianyu carefully observed and discovered that the people inside were actually discussing a plan to capture Merfolk.

Just as Dong Tianyu thought that these people might not have been deceived by the illusion, he suddenly remembered that he had also encountered a situation in the illusion where he apparently wanted to capture Merfolk.

The plan back then was to wait until the Great Whirlpool stopped spinning, after which capturing Merfolk would be easy; the challenge was preventing others from seizing his spoils.

Recalling this, Dong Tianyu suddenly realized that the illusion hadn't made many changes to him.

It had only tricked his vision to some extent and reinforced the idea that he could only act once the Great Whirlpool had disappeared.

Since it hadn't impacted him much, Dong Tianyu's sixth sense did not detect danger; if not for his cautious habit of observing his surroundings with Divine Sense, he might only have sensed the danger when he was about to be sucked into the center of the whirlpool.