"The fjord has countless islands, and no one has ever reached the borders of these islands," said a tall, rugged man. "The further east you go, the more unpredictable the climate becomes, and so do the islands. I really don't know how strange they can eventually become."

"Even you haven't reached them?" Tilly asked curiously. "They say you are the most outstanding explorer in the fjord, and hardly anyone dares to cross Blazing Fire Island and continue east except for you."

"Hahaha," he laughed heartily, "These are just exaggerated praises. In fact, every year brave fjord people explore eastward, but it's hard to find anything new. Violent hurricanes and sudden mists make it difficult for ships to move even an inch."

He is Thunder, Ash thought, the first explorer to discover the Shadow Islands. However, since he went missing in a shipwreck two years ago, many people thought he had unfortunately died. She didn't expect him to appear on Sleeping Island and reach an agreement with the Fifth Princess to have him develop new sea routes, draw charts, and find more new ruins for Sleeping Island. Tilly would send witches to assist him in his exploration. As for the two years he was missing, she didn't hear him mention it, and Tilly kept silent. But she always felt that Her Highness knew the inside story, otherwise the two would not have such a tacit understanding. This made Ash feel a little uncomfortable.

"Like the hurricane yesterday?"

"That's right, it came in the blink of an eye and disappeared in an instant," Thunder shook his pipe, scattering the ashes into the sea, refilled it with some grass and lit it. "If it wasn't for that amazing witch..."

"Her name is Moriel," Ash reminded stiffly.

"Ah, that's right, look at my memory," Thunder didn't take it seriously, scratching the back of his head and laughing. "If it weren't for Moriel, the ship would have been turned upside down. Her ability is simply amazing. I often think that perhaps witches are the most suitable explorers."

"We already have one, don't we," Tilly smiled slightly, "...a witch who inherits the title of the most outstanding explorer."

"Hmm..." Thunder took a deep puff of his pipe, exhaling a long stream of smoke. "I hope so."

Here it comes again, Ash frowned, she couldn't understand what the two were saying at all. She simply left the bow of the ship and went to the stern to calm down. The Fifth Princess seemed very eager to explore the ruins. After clearing the fjord church, she immediately began preparing for the voyage. And to her surprise, Her Highness insisted on going in person, and she couldn't dissuade her no matter how hard she tried.

Moriel was sitting at the stern, controlling her magic servant to hold the fishing rod and learn how to fish from the sailors. Although the sailors were a little resistant to the witch when they boarded the ship, after yesterday's hurricane, everyone's attitude changed dramatically. Moriel made the summoned magic servant expand rapidly, wrapping the middle part of the sailboat into its body, so that neither the strong wind nor the heavy rain could penetrate it. Although the ship rose and fell in wave after wave, the hull remained stable. Now, every sailor regards the witch as a god of luck, and even says that they dare not go to sea without a witch in the future.

"Sister Ash, look at the big fish I caught!" Moriel pointed to the bucket behind her, which contained a scaleless sea fish with a sharp beak, which was very different from the river fish seen in Graycastle.

"What is this?"

"Swordfish, likes to follow ships, sometimes its beak will break the bottom of the ship," the sailor replied, "But it tastes very delicious, especially the meat on the abdomen, it's like melting ice in your mouth," he smacked his lips, "Everyone will be able to enjoy the fresh boiled swordfish tonight."

"I think I have another fish on the hook!" Moriel said in surprise.

A dark shadow appeared in the green water, and as the magic servant pulled the rod, it became larger and larger, and was about to surface soon.

"This...this is," the sailor was stunned, "No, drop the fishing rod!"

Before he finished speaking, a strangely shaped creature had jumped out of the water, opening its mouth to bite Moriel directly.

Seeing that it was about to swallow the target whole, Ash was faster than it. She picked up the little girl with her left hand and swung the giant sword in her right hand, directly hitting the head of the attacker.

The monster let out a painful hiss and was smashed down from the air. Its six feet pawed quickly, trying to escape back into the water, but Ash didn't give it a chance. She put down Moriel, held the sword with both hands and slammed it down, nailing the monster directly to the deck.

It twitched for a moment, spitting out a string of white bubbles from its mouth, and soon stopped moving.

"What is this?" Now Ash had a chance to take a closer look at the monster in front of her. It was a bit like a fish, but it had short crab-like feet. Its mouth was round when it opened, almost as big as its body, and it was full of dense teeth. The most disgusting thing was that it had a pair of hairy arms on both sides of its mouth, and the ends were divided into five fingers, looking like human hands.

"A mutated sea ghoul!" The sailor patted his chest in shock. "They often disguise themselves as fish, biting fishermen and dragging them into the water. And I heard that only sea ghouls who have eaten people will grow hands!"

"The latter sentence is just a rumor," someone said behind her. Ash turned around and found that Thunder and Tilly had come over.

"Captain!" The sailor stuck out his tongue and immediately made way.

"The more sensational the rumor, the more inaccurate it is," Thunder stepped forward and kicked the monster on the ground. "In fact, it has a name that you may be more familiar with."

"What?" Ash asked.

"Fiend." He said word by word.

"Lord Thunder, fog!" The lookout suddenly shouted.

"Everyone cheer up!" Thunder ordered loudly. "Lower the sails, we are entering the Shadow Sea!"

Ash noticed that the sky, which had been clear, suddenly darkened, and the green sea turned dark green, as if a mass of ink was spreading underwater. Soon, the ship was surrounded by a thick fog, and she couldn't even see the people at the bow of the ship from the stern.

"What's going on?" Tilly couldn't help but grab Ash's arm.

"It proves that we are not going in the wrong direction," Thunder smiled. "When the Shadow Islands emerge from the sea, this sea area will rise with thick fog. Of course, the correct statement should be that the sea water is receding, with a range of about ten zhang. The huge drop will produce a large amount of water vapor, plus the reefs are everywhere, so a little carelessness will cause a shipwreck. I need your witch to help the ship avoid being wrecked."

The group came to the bow of the ship, and as they had done against the storm, Moriel had the magic servant wrap the bow of the ship, expanding her body as much as possible, with part of her body sinking into the water, so that even if there were hidden reefs, the servant would sense them first.

"What would you do without a witch?" Ash asked.

"Then we can only rely on patience and luck," Thunder sighed. "The fleet will send out small boats to explore the way ahead, and the large ships will follow after confirming that it is clear. But this area of the sea is not calm, like the fiends you saw before, the closer you get to the Shadow Islands, the more there will be. Fog, reefs, monsters... This is why many explorers go to this place, but few can find the entrance to the ruins."

After sailing for about another hour, the fog gradually dissipated, and Ash saw more and more islands around, but there were few plants on them, mostly green moss or algae, and many crustaceans were climbing on them. "Are these islands all submerged in the water?"

"That's right, like Sleeping Island, but the interval between high tide and low tide here is much faster, about once every half a month." Thunder replied, "And the speed of rising and falling is extremely fast, it's like there is a huge hole in the ground, frantically devouring the surrounding sea water. I even guess that the sea level changes in the entire fjord are related to this. If we are lucky, we can still see the main island leaping out of the seabed."