Cave Refuge

However, when ascending from the Underwater City, Dong Tianyu had carefully observed that the center of the Great Whirlpool on the surface of the water was indeed directly above the merfolk city below.

According to common sense, the Merfolk's Underwater City was built here either because of this natural wonder or after its construction, this man-made spectacle appeared.

If it were the former, it wouldn't be too concerning, but if it were the latter, it would suggest that within the Underwater City, there were still treasures that Dong Tianyu had not found.

At that time underwater, Dong Tianyu had already scanned back and forth with his Divine Sense multiple times, confirming that he had not found anything valuable or of a remarkably peculiar appearance. Moreover, the entire Underwater City had been destroyed by the White Bone Puppet, making the search for an unknown item whose existence was uncertain all the more difficult.

Therefore, faced with this situation, Dong Tianyu decided not to linger here any longer. After all, sometimes giving up is also the best choice.

As the Wave Rider continued to drift away, Dong Tianyu seemed to have forgotten something.

Those crew members, who had just escaped from the underwater cages and surfaced, stared dumbfounded as the Wave Rider moved further and further away. Then, they started to shout loudly in an attempt to have the Watcher on the Wave Rider notice them, these castaways without a ship.

What they did not know was that not only was there no professional Watcher on the Wave Rider, but there weren't any other crew members aboard either.

So, as the crew watched the Wave Rider continue its departure, expressions of despair gradually appeared on their faces. Indeed, they knew that, left alone in the vast sea without food or drinkable water, and with their strength depleting, death was their only remaining outcome.

Just then, suddenly one of the crew members who was running out of strength and realized he hadn't the energy to continue swimming, remembered something and instantly summoned his Companion Spiritual Treasure from his Sea of Consciousness.

The Companion Spiritual Treasure he summoned was merely a Raft in its initial state, but even this small raft provided him a temporary resting place on the water's surface.

However, the initial state of the Raft Form Companion Spiritual Treasure wasn't sufficient to counteract the suction of the underwater current caused by the Great Whirlpool, so although the crew member tried to steer the raft away from the Great Whirlpool, it continued to slowly drift toward the center.

With the reminder from this crew member, the others quickly summoned their own Companion Spiritual Treasures. They had just surfaced from the depths, and although ascending allowed them to conserve some energy through buoyancy, the resulting muscle fatigue from holding their breath for such a long time could not be immediately alleviated.

Following the prompting of that crew member, everyone summoned their Companion Spiritual Treasures, providing temporary rest stops for themselves.

After all the crew members had climbed onto their Companion Spiritual Treasures, those who possessed Companion Spiritual Treasures in the initial Raft Form did not need to be told what to do next; just like the first crew member, they immediately began to recuperate their strength.

Once their strength was somewhat restored, they would have to get back into the water and swim out of the area of the Great Whirlpool on their own. As long as they could leave this area, they could use their Companion Spiritual Treasures to escape from there.

But in addition to those whose Companion Spiritual Treasures were still in the form of mere rafts, there were a few crew members whose Companion Spiritual Treasures had undergone an upgrade, evolving into the Raft Form.

Those with the Raft Form Companion Spiritual Treasures, although still unable to sail in the opposite direction to escape the pull of the Great Whirlpool, could now manage to maintain their position without drifting closer, appearing as if they were motionless in place.

And those few with small wooden boats unexpectedly discovered oars on the side of their boat's cabin; although when on the main vessel, they rarely had to use oars.

The shipping company had provided them with training before the disaster struck, including how to use kayaks, so even though they might not have been very adept with the oars, each person knew how to use them and would not make novice mistakes like paddling in place and causing the boat to just spin around.

Upon seeing the oars on the cabin, the sailors didn't bother to recover their strength any longer; they secured the oars and immediately began to row with all their might.

As the oars continuously broke the water's surface, the small wooden boats began to slowly move away from the Great Whirlpool's pull, inching outward.

And although they appeared to move very slowly, the wooden boats were indeed edging away from the Great Whirlpool.

Witnessing this scene, the sailors aboard the boats rowed even harder, their movement becoming more vigorous.

After all, compared to their continuously draining strength, what they wished for most at this moment was to be able to break away from danger once and for all.

At this time, those sailors who remained on their rafts to recover their strength watched their companions gradually escaping peril, their faces alternating between expressions of regret and envy.

After all, even though they had become Martial Artists, they still had the same emotions and desires as ordinary people; just like most people, they feared their friends suffering yet also feared their friends surpassing them.

Seeing their colleagues gradually escape the attraction of the Great Whirlpool stirred envy and regret within them for not having spent a large number of Black Devil Cores to nourish their own Companion Spiritual Treasure with their friends earlier.

While they enjoyed the envious glances from those sailors when they went out and flaunted, they never imagined that the metaphorical boomerang would come back so fiercely now, posing a potential threat to their lives.

However, at this moment, they weren't overly regretful, as their experience with the underwater currents during their earlier ascent confirmed that they could rely on their own abilities to escape its control, so they weren't worried about failing to flee.

They simply watched with envy as the small boats, getting farther and farther from the center of the Great Whirlpool, no longer needed the help of the crew's oars. They could escape the pull of the whirlpool using their own momentum.

Zachary, now far from the Great Whirlpool, finally threw the object he had snatched from the Merfolk into the Cave.

Though the object possessed an ability similar to strong control and could be incredibly effective in a crisis, for Zachary, the Cave was his true reliance. Anything that could advance the Cave's upgrading process, unless absolutely necessary, would be sent into the Cave to become experience for its upgrade.

No sooner had the object been placed into the Cave by Zachary than it immediately began to emit a dazzling light without even waiting for Zachary to utilize the disintegration function of the Cave.

As the brightness of the light increased, the object, which had resembled a stone sculpture, unexpectedly transformed into particles of light, scattering within the Cave.

If the previous effect of the object was anything to go by, then the Cave should have gained the ability to freeze time after absorbing it.

Although the Storage Space within the Cave already possessed the ability to freeze time, it was only effective on inanimate objects and not on living beings.

But after the Cave absorbed the object, an additional space of about one hundred cubic meters appeared within the Storage Space—this new space could accommodate living beings.

That meant life forms placed in this space would be out of the flow of time, just like the non-living items stored in the Storage Space.

No matter how long they remained in that space, when they came out, it would only seem like a second had passed for them, whether in terms of lifespan or other aspects.

If they stayed in that space indefinitely, it could be considered a form of achieving eternal life.