Chapter 68 – In Silence

They had already flown very high, piercing through the gray rain clouds, reaching a place that mages could not attain on their own.

Sandra’s eyes uneasily watched the slowly rotating vortex. Aside from the land, sky, and ocean, any other unusually massive phenomenon would inevitably evoke fear in people.

“Do you think,” Lin Wei gazed downward, “has it always been here—or is it because of the Seasonal Tide?”

“An Elemental Storm is chaos; it wouldn’t produce such a phenomenon.”

“Right…”

The vortex rotated slowly and evenly, while the Elemental Storm that brought the Seasonal Tide was a clash and collision of different Magic Elements. It was chaotic and irregular, so the two should have no connection.

“Should we go take a look?” Lin Wei asked.

Duan Yu nodded.

Sandra was now flying at the edge of the vortex. Upon receiving Lin Wei’s command, she began to fly toward the center.

Most Magic Elements were extremely sparse at high altitudes, which was why mages could not ascend beyond a certain height. Only races like Sandra, with their powerful bodies and flying abilities, could attempt it. In contrast, Light Elements were denser at higher altitudes and sparser at lower ones, which was why Light Mages were so rare. The Floating Sky Capital hung at an extremely high altitude, symbolizing its proximity to the sun—there was no Elemental Valley for Light Elements on the continent, and mages believed the source of this element was the sun, which was why the Floating Sky Capital was the most beloved place of the Goddess of Light.

For a Giant Dragon, crossing the Siren Sea was an effortless task. Even so, approaching the center of the vortex was not a quick process, making Lin Wei suspect that the vortex might be large enough to cover the entire sea.

Its center was still, while the surrounding dense gray-white clouds surged endlessly, making the dragon’s figure appear pitifully small, as if it were in the maw of another monstrous beast, about to be devoured at any moment.

Lin Wei used his spiritual power to look—the Magic Elements were of various colors, their trajectories chaotic, and their numbers vast. The moment he saw them, it felt as if he had been plunged into a dazzling, kaleidoscopic world, giving him a faint sense of nausea.

He had only wanted to see more clearly, but it immediately drained the last remnants of his spiritual power.

In comparison, Duan Yu was much more at ease, as using spiritual power to observe was even more natural to him than using his eyes.

Lin Wei could do nothing at this moment but wait.

The vortex remained the same, with nothing particularly interesting to look at. The sky and clouds were all a dull gray, and the only thing worth looking at was the mage beside him, his eyes lightly closed.

Speaking of which, although the man’s eyes had recovered, he still used his spiritual power to observe things more often. This was likely due to the teachings of the Gray-Cloaked Old Man on the Floating Sky Capital—back when they had left the old man’s shop, Lin Wei had once asked Duan Yu what the old man had told him.

One of the things was to look, to use his spiritual power to observe as much as possible—even if one day he could see the world completely.

The old man’s exact words were, “This is not an obstacle fate has given you, but a great blessing!”

From the perspective of magical ability, the old man was right. In the daily practice of observing with spiritual power, not only did Duan Yu accumulate spiritual strength, but he also became extremely familiar with the trajectories and fluctuations of Magic Elements. All magical attacks were carried out through elements, and his deep understanding of their trajectories not only gave him terrifying control over his own magic but also allowed him to respond to others’ attacks with precision and efficiency.

After a while, Duan Yu finally opened his eyes.

“What did you see?” Lin Wei asked him.

Duan Yu did not answer directly but instead said, “Do you remember that metal-attributed mermaid?”

“I do—what about it?”

That little mermaid who had spat water at him but had been overly friendly toward Duan Yu—Lin Wei remembered it clearly!

“Mermaids are always water-attributed, so its birth must have had a special reason.”

“Is it related to this vortex?” Lin Wei thought for a moment and suddenly realized that their current location was the center of the Siren Sea, the territory of the mermaids, and the place where they had encountered them before.

“I can’t confirm it’s related to the vortex,” Duan Yu shook his head and continued, “but at that time, the Metal Elements here were denser than in other parts of the sea, and now it’s even more pronounced.”

“The flow of elements in the vortex seems to follow a very complex pattern. Downward is the chaotic flow of elements, and further down… in the sea, where Water Elements are extremely dense, there is a place where many Metal Elements are gathered.”

“So, if we go down from where we are now, or rather, the point on the sea surface corresponding to the center of the vortex, there’s something or some place that’s very special?” Lin Wei pondered.

Duan Yu nodded, “That’s right.”

Magic Elements gave rise to magical creatures of the corresponding attributes, which was why the sea beasts around Siren Island were all water-attributed, while the magical beasts on land had various attributes. The families guarding the Elemental Valleys all produced powerful mages of that element. So, for a Metal-attributed little creature to be born in a water-dominated sea, there must be a special reason—and considering what Duan Yu had just seen, it made sense.

“Then… us,” Lin Wei quickly calculated in his mind, “should we go down and take a look?”

After saying this, he turned to look at Duan Yu and immediately knew that the man was thinking the same thing.

“Do we have a way to enter the sea?” Duan Yu asked him.

“Daniel’s creations should be trustworthy,” Lin Wei took out a strangely shaped dark blue disk-like object from his Space Ring. It had several large and small grooves and was engraved with Magic Runes. “This is something he made using a Water-attributed Sunstone—it’s engraved with many Water Magic Arrays that can allow us to stay underwater for a considerable amount of time.”

Back at the academy, Lin Wei had traded many magical items with Daniel, and this was one of them. At the time, he had only been curious, as he had no ability to cast magic himself, but now it had come in handy.

As for the dangers…

Sandra began to cast Dragon Language Magic, and a colorful, radiant five-colored Magic Barrier formed around her—the extraordinary talent of the Dragon Clan was not limited to their sturdy bodies but also included their unique all-elemental magical abilities.

To deal with the chaotic Elemental Storm beneath the rain clouds, this kind of barrier was undoubtedly the best choice. Since they didn’t have absolute confidence, Lin Wei’s instructions to Sandra were—dive at the fastest speed possible!

Sandra’s eyes shifted, and a snorting sound came from her nose, almost as if she were scoffing.

Then, she simply stopped flapping her wings and folded them in!

The black figure of the Giant Dragon flashed through the lightning-wreathed clouds, its heavy body plummeting directly toward the undulating waves of the sea.

Lin Wei: “…A clever dragon.”

The barrier collided violently with the storm, the intense fluctuations even tearing out small spatial rifts. The strength of the barrier was rapidly weakening, but fortunately, Sandra’s descent was incredibly fast, and she reached the sea surface before the barrier completely shattered.

At that moment, Lin Wei pressed a high-grade Water Elemental Crystal into a groove on the disk and activated the contract—a gray-black soul passageway appeared below, and Sandra’s figure instantly disappeared, returning to her original space. Meanwhile, he and Duan Yu continued to fall, swallowed by the gray-blue sea in the storm.

The activated Water Magic Arrays immediately established a connection with the seawater—the water was forcibly divided, creating a small space within it that enveloped the two, preventing them from drowning.

The two floated and drifted downward within a bubble-like enclosure. As they moved further away from the sea surface, the already dim surroundings gradually turned pitch black.

An empty, endless darkness and silence.

Lin Wei was briefly stunned in this environment where he had almost lost his vision and physical senses. His thoughts drifted, and the last thing he thought of was Duan Yu—during the years when he had not yet been able to see with his eyes, much of his time had been spent in such an environment.

Spiritual power could indeed replace part of one’s vision, but that world was rather dull. A mage couldn’t constantly release spiritual power over a large area, and besides, there were times when spiritual power had not yet formed, such as in childhood, or in places like the Death Swamp where there were no traces of Magic Elements.

How had he endured it?

Lin Wei tightened his grip on Duan Yu’s hand and asked, “Not being able to see anything here makes me feel very scared—did it bother you? Back when you couldn’t see.”

His voice echoed faintly within the “bubble,” wrapping around them softly.

The person beside him was silent for a while before answering, “It was fine.”

After a pause, he added, “You feel scared because you’ve always been able to see.”

Lin Wei strangely understood the meaning behind his words—because he had been in complete darkness from the beginning, it wasn’t something he found hard to accept.

“But it must have been very boring,” Lin Wei whispered. “I remember not long ago I asked about your father—he didn’t spend much time with you… It seems things only got better after we came to the academy. We have many friends, especially Haitie and Daniel.”

Even now, he couldn’t help but draw a circle with ulterior motives, casually and naturally saying “we.”

“Mm,” Duan Yu responded lightly, but then added, “You’re also good.”

Lin Wei was momentarily at a loss for how to respond to this.

He had lived two lifetimes and received plenty of evaluations—the Duke often referred to him as “that damn kid,” while Daniel’s go-to was “that cunning little noble.” Not to mention the unflattering discussions among the ministers and nobles in his previous life. No one had ever so plainly and unadornedly said, “You’re good.”

He felt he didn’t deserve such a “good” and found it absurd, but at the same time, he was genuinely happy—though he couldn’t quite explain why.

He naturally wanted to ask for more, so he suppressed the smile threatening to creep onto his face and coolly said, “Of course I’m good—who else treats you as well as I do, huh? This ‘good’ is really quite perfunctory—you should at least say in what way I’m good!”

After speaking, he secretly pricked up his ears, waiting for an answer—but to his surprise, the mage remained silent for a long time, only managing to say one thing.

“I don’t know how to say it.”

Lin Wei gritted his teeth, almost wanting to pounce on him and bite him fiercely.

But the next moment, Duan Yu continued, speaking in an extremely simple and brief sentence, “Maybe like this.”

“Like what—” Lin Wei immediately asked, but before he could finish, he noticed a light appearing beside him.

It was Duan Yu activating a Magic Crystal. A faint glow slowly rose in the pitch-black, empty depths of the sea, like the first star appearing in the dark night sky. Even though the night remained cold and deep, it was no longer lifeless. The seawater blocked the spread of the crystal’s light, but it was enough to illuminate the faces of the two in this small area.

Boundless darkness surrounded the entire world, the movement of the water as silent as the passage of time. They gazed at each other in this faint light, momentarily silent.

Lin Wei didn’t ask for further explanation. From the lighting of this small glow, he had received the answer he had vaguely hoped for, but he frustratingly found himself defeated once again. He felt his cheeks grow slightly warm and turned his head away, thinking of the Gray-Cloaked Old Man on the Floating Sky Capital for the second time that day.

When the old man had disparaged human language, he had said with a look of disdain, “Stupid and useless language! Is there really so much to say in this world?”

Perhaps there were times when words weren’t necessary—this old man and Duan Yu were truly a perfect match as teacher and student.