Sir Chen, your wife is missing!

The oil lamp in the cabin had gone out as it shook, and a few drops of spilled oil slid down the lampshade.

"it is finally over."

Ghost Shark wiped the oil stains off the lampshade, and Feng Qingyu took the initiative to use magic to help her light the wick. The warm flames jumped inside the lampshade again, bringing a hint of warmth.

The sky above the sea was as dark as six o'clock in the evening, and the sticky, heavy dark gray was like old stains adhering to the wall, which could not be washed off. The cabin could not be without lighting, and lighting the oil lamp could bring a sense of security.

Feng Qingyu was still terrified by the experience just now. She was afraid that the boat would capsize and be thrown into the deep sea by the power of nature. Fortunately, she was only panicked for a few minutes and nothing more serious happened.

"How long until we get to Iberia?"

"It's still a few hours. There's a time difference between Xiosta and Iberia, and we have to get some sleep on the ship before we get there."

Skadi opened the carton and found an unopened sleeping bag inside.

"Don't let your mind wander. Go get some sleep. If you have nothing to do, why not try mating in the cabin? The rocking feeling is pretty comfortable."

"I did enough last night. I want to give my waist a good rest. Sleeping... doesn't seem bad either. Good morning."

Sleeping is a good thing, especially when you have nothing to do.

There is a huge uninhabited area in the middle of the ocean. There is no signal, electronic equipment is a useless burden, mobile phones cannot connect to the Internet, and the stand-alone games in it can barely serve to relieve boredom.

I didn't want to open those single-player games again after I had completed them perfectly. Feng Qingyu thought of the "deep sea dream" he had before getting up. When he was on the sea, maybe he could continue that weird dream by lying down and taking a nap.

In addition to owning a mobile city, the ultimate life wish of the Terrans is to go deep into the Iberian Sea and explore unknown mysteries, such as taking a photo with someone on the streets of Agor and posting it on their social media platforms.

She crawled into her sleeping bag and slept like the mummy in Sargon's tomb.

Once you put on the eye mask, close your eyes and kick your feet, you will enter a light sleep state while still alive, followed by a deep sleep.

Listening to the sound of waves seemed to make it easier to fall asleep. Feng Qingyu felt very sleepy, and her pajamas surged up from all directions like surging sea water until they completely submerged her.

She once again stood in the middle of the lightless underwater trail, with the blue abyss leading the way for her.

4. Salt Wind City

The continuation of the dream was initially realized. Feng Qingyu's consciousness was very clear and he could freely control his body to move around in the surrounding environment.

All this should be related to the iron key around his neck. Before he came into contact with the key and the servant named Cyril, Feng Qingyu had never had any dream related to the Iberian Deep Sea.

The key is gently lifted up by the sea water and suspended in the air. The black cotton thread keeps it connected to the body so that it will not be lost while moving.

Walking alone in the deserted underwater city, Feng Qingyu thought of a chapter about the deep sea in "Cthulhu Mythos I" that he had read before.

Although the story has an open ending, it will eventually lead to the abyss at the bottom of the sea, and at the end of the abyss is despair and destruction.

It is unknown where this neatly paved brick and stone trail leads to. Perhaps it is the legendary Agor, or perhaps it is another lost ancient underwater kingdom - the legendary R'lyeh.

The Terrans knew very little about the seafloor, and Iberia's technology was only a fragment of Argol's technology. What the Deep Sea Hunters and other Argol people revealed was only the tip of the iceberg, and even the Argol people might not know the full picture of the ocean.

One day, Feng Qingyu also wants to dive into the deep sea without becoming Hai Si.

Just put a peach aside and eat it slowly, maybe that day will really come.

The glowing abyss was particularly cheerful, wriggling on the gray brick and stone ground, turning into the shape of a hand pointing to the deep alley in front. The shape of the unknown underwater city was like a huge concentric circle. Outside the concentric circle, the settlements outside were scattered and disorderly.

She walked in the narrow alley for a long time, but the monotonous road had no end in sight.

At this moment, Feng Qingyu's dream came to an abrupt end again.

"Here we are."

Ghost Shark shook her awake and pressed his mature womanhood against her face.

Before he was completely suffocated, Feng Qingyu escaped from the side. The sky was not only not better than a few hours ago, but it was getting darker and darker, without a single ray of sunlight. Walking out of the cabin and standing at the bow, right in front of him was the once prosperous and powerful golden country of Iberia.

At present, Iberia is lifeless, cold and silent.

The great maritime nation that was ravaged by the Great Silence no longer has many tall lighthouses around the coast. There were once hundreds of them, but now only one survivor, known as the "Eye of Iberia", remains. The sea breeze brings an unprecedented strong fishy and salty smell, and even the mouth becomes salty when you breathe in such air.

Feng Qingyu had to light a cigarette to dilute the discomfort in his mouth.

The scene before her gave her a desolate shock, and the closer the boat got to the dock, the stronger the shock became.

The artifacts of the golden age have not yet disappeared, but have survived in a quasi-stasis: huge cargo and passenger terminals, deep-water harbors, wrecks of large ships floating on them, and only a rusted, empty giant frame remains.

Ominous crows took up residence on top of the wreckage, tormenting their ears with hoarse, mocking clatters of their hooves.

Some of the abandoned cargo containers were dumped on the shallows, becoming the nests of some creatures, while others were converted into houses by Iberians. The color of the containers is the only colorful part of those dark and dilapidated buildings.

The city and the streets, almost everything is grey, like a rough line drawing without any colour and not very skilled, with just a shell but no expression.

The atmosphere of decadence was overwhelming, and its state was not even as good as some of the small mobile cities that had just begun to develop in Yan Country. Although those cities were small in scale, they were full of vitality and hope. In Iberia, no one could see hope.

“This is Iberia.”

"Yes, this is Iberia, once the city of hope. Now... forget it."

The two deep-sea hunters looked at this lifeless country with calm eyes.

The pier is located in Saltwind City, an Iberian frontier town. The shadow of its prosperous period can be vaguely seen from the architectural style. The afterglow of the golden age is frozen in the gaps between the ruins. The sculptures are gorgeously carved but dilapidated, quietly telling the visitors about the past years.

The nearby square has not been maintained at all. The large stone sculptures in the center have been worn away by wind and sun to the point where only a vague outline remains. The faces of the figures have been almost smoothed out, and some sculpture parts are missing, giving it a kind of incomplete beauty like the armless Venus de Milo.

Skadi stopped the boat at the shore and dropped the anchor. She found that Feng Qingyu had already walked to the square of Yanfeng City and was taking pictures of the reliefs and broken statues with his mobile phone.

This was once a famous tourist attraction. The golden fleet returning triumphantly from the ocean would pass by here with a full load of treasures, creating a magnificent scene. Such sights attracted travelers from all over Terra to travel thousands or even tens of thousands of miles, braving the wind and waves, just to catch a glimpse of the golden fleet in the square.

Today, all that remains of the square are some broken sculptures and mottled stains left by years of erosion.

Ghost Shark brushed her fingers over a statue of a man riding a warhorse. The headless warhorse was left with only a trunk with three legs, and its tail was nowhere to be found, leaving behind a cross-section that had become smooth and rounded due to wind erosion. She didn't care at all that her white palms were stained with dust and spider webs.

“Do you like Iberian sculpture?”

"Sculpture is a reflection of a country's cultural features. I am just curious about the culture of this country. Agor's sculpture skills should be very strong, although I have never seen them."

Feng Qingyu finally took a panoramic photo, including the ghost shark.

The collision of life and death creates an extremely beautiful spark.

"Agor's stone sculptures are indeed beautiful things. However, some of the stone sculptures are made of flesh and blood... I... I can't quite remember why."

The ghost shark was thinking desperately, and its state began to become unstable again.

"I'm sorry. I'll try not to remind you of the past next time. Would you like some coffee? Black coffee can calm your mood."

The canned coffee in the backpack was a prop to remedy the small mistake, and Ghost Shark gladly accepted it, letting the bitter liquid take away the sadness in her heart and become as calm as the current sea. Although it was a temporary calm, she could at least walk, feel and think normally.

Last night's mating had been a welcome relief; it had been a delightful solution.

It was noon local time in Iberia. The three-person team crossed the square and officially entered the city closest to the coastline in Iberia. Saltwind City, as its name suggests, is easily associated with a lifeless salt marsh. Life around the salt marsh is withering, and only creatures that can adapt to the harsh environment can survive.

They had no intention of disturbing Iberia's morbid tranquility, so they walked lightly towards the empty and silent community ahead.

5. The cage of the trapped beast

The three strangers who came from beyond the ocean stood out in this lifeless city, where life had not been completely extinguished. There were still some citizens living in Saltwind City, most of them were ragged, thin, with numb and empty eyes, like a walking corpse whose soul had been separated from its body.

There is no light in these people's eyes, no desire, and no expectation for everything. They complement this lifeless seaside city perfectly.

The citizens looked at these "bright and beautiful" outsiders with a little curiosity and extreme alienation, and then walked away without saying a word. Although they were wearing ordinary clothes, they were not eye-catching at all in the modern city, but they were quite new in the dilapidated environment.

There are still many citizens who are as numb as zombies. They live in cold and plain buildings with gray and white as the main colors. The predecessor of this building was a mobile city built in the prosperous era of Iberia. After the Great Silence, the mobile city became a ruin. The residents in the coastal areas had nowhere to go, so they built a new city on the ruins, which is now Saltwind City.

The shape of the Saltwind City is like a ship without a hull, which is particularly spectacular when viewed from a distance. The houses are like metal containers randomly piled on the deck, and everything is in chaos and disorder.

After walking around the entrance of Saltwind City, I couldn't find any decent restaurants nearby. The places with restaurant signs were long abandoned, with the doors closed and heavy iron locks and chains wrapped around the door handles, separating the inside and outside worlds, or the doors open, with no one inside, only some broken tables, chairs and kitchen utensils left, retaining the appearance of being abandoned many years ago.

"It's too hard to find a restaurant... Will we have to rely on compressed biscuits to fill our stomachs today?"

"Possibly. I also brought instant cup noodles. The brand recommended by the doctor tastes good, especially the Tom Yum Goong flavor."

Skadi slapped her bulging backpack, and the hollow instant noodle box made a not-so-pleasant sound. She could even hear some broken noodles colliding with the box, making a sound like the friction between plastic and plastic.

Before going out to sea, Skadi had already given her a shot of precaution. Since she had chosen Iberia, she had to be prepared to deal with all kinds of difficult problems. The current harshness of Iberia was not as severe as the Sargon Desert. Some places were even more difficult to conquer than the desert. She had to be mentally prepared to not have ready-made food and could only rely on the dry food in her backpack to fill her stomach.

Instant noodles and compressed biscuits are delicacies here. Once you feel the atmosphere here, you will no longer think that they are not good food.

"I'll leave the Tom Yum Goong to you guys. I like more normal flavors."

Feng Qingyu accepted the tragic fact that he couldn't find a restaurant, opened a pack of compressed biscuits for one person, and ate it together with the dried meat in the Rhodes Island portable resource bag.

An alternative combination of meat and vegetables, a little more delicious than eating compressed biscuits raw.

The three of them walked through the narrow alleys of Saltwind City, looking for a place to stay between the dilapidated houses. Skadi and Ghost Shark had other purposes for this trip, and Feng Qingyu just came along and did not need to participate in the Deep Sea Hunter's operation.

Feng Qingyu didn't dare to run around before finding a place to stay. She didn't have a map of Yanfeng City. This place was full of suspicious people and things, and acting alone was often the beginning of a horror movie.

In Columbia's classic horror films, the protagonist always likes to die. If he doesn't die, the filming will not continue, so the protagonist must do everything he can to do things that normal people would not do - go on adventures in the suburbs with his companions, go on adventures in haunted houses alone, etc.

Even a small group could be easily wiped out, let alone a single person. She was not stupid enough to act alone in an unfamiliar place, so she should at least bring a deep-sea hunter with her.

Skadi found an uninhabited single-family house in the gray-white building, which had been vacant for a long time. It was impossible for an inhabited house to accumulate so much dust. She gently wiped the door handle, and the white paper surface suddenly turned gray.

The house is far away from the buildings in front, independent of a high ground in Saltwind City. Standing at the door, you can overlook the entire beach in front and the low-lying houses, and get a better view than other places.

"This is it."

The others had no objection, as there was no place more suitable nearby, either they were low and narrow or too close to the Iberians who looked like zombies.

Just imagine, in the middle of the night, a few haggard, pale-faced strangers suddenly stood by the window, staring at the house with bloodshot eyes. How could you sleep at night? Feng Qingyu didn't like being stared at while sleeping. Seeing that there were curtains on the second floor, his worries were immediately reduced.

The house was very empty, with almost no items left. There were no signs of fighting around, and the owner did not leave because he was physically injured. The wooden floor, which had not yet decayed, had traces of large furniture being dragged on the surface, which looked more like the result of moving.

In a seaside city without hope, even if you watch the sunrise and sunset on the shore, you will not expect anything better to happen the next day.

Operators from Iberia are also pessimistic about the country's future. Since the Great Silence, it has never recovered. Even though some Iberians are working hard to make it better, those efforts are like pebbles thrown into the sea, not making any splashes.

The owner of the house probably went to find a more promising place to live, and he cleaned the house very well before leaving. Except for the dust, the rest of the place is relatively clean. Compared with those real ruins, it is more suitable for living.

"Do you need to clean up?"

Feng Qingyu found some cleaning tools that were barely usable in the utility room.

"We have a little helper."

Skadi pulled out a bunch of instant noodles from her bulging backpack, and at the bottom was the little helper housekeeping tool. It was essentially an Agor's sweeping and mopping machine, and the original inventor was a lazy person who hated cleaning the room.

Cleaning the room would undoubtedly consume unnecessary energy. Feng Qingyu quickly threw down the cleaning tools, turned on the automatic cleaning mode of the little helper, and first cleared out chairs for three people to sit down and rest.

It was a not-so-pleasant lunch time. The three of them were in the dusty living room, listening to the mechanical sounds of the little helper cleaning the room and the sound of waves hitting the shore, while each of them "enjoyed" a compressed biscuit with a strange taste.

They didn't have a clean kettle yet, so they couldn't eat the delicious steaming hot instant noodles.

After filling his stomach, Feng Qingyu decided to wander around Yanfeng City before dark to inquire about the news of the large underground mausoleum. The old servant Cyril did not describe it clearly before rushing to the deep sea. He only said that it was the best location in the whole of Iberia, a location where you can see the sea.

There are so many positions like this that it’s hard to know where to start.

6. The Third Deep Sea Hunter

"I'm going to walk around the neighborhood, do you want to come with me?"

Feng Qingyu didn't want to stay here and eat dust. She would have plenty of time to stay in the room until the sun went down. Fortunately, Iberia could still receive network signals. Although there was no complete intercity network line, as long as she turned on the mobile network, she would still be closely connected to the world.

There was only one thing left to do, which was to quickly find the underground tomb where the black sword was and leave Iberia with it.

Skadi paced back and forth in front of the door, her eyes always fixed on the end of the road.

She was waiting for someone, an acquaintance and comrade-in-arms from Agor. They came here for the same purpose.

Find the deep-sea bishops in this area and find out the whereabouts of the missing deep-sea hunters. Only a few of the former deep-sea hunters are left, and the rest have either gone crazy, died in battles with their own kind, or disappeared, with their lives or deaths unknown.

The last time they appeared was on the beach of Iberia, covered in blood and on the verge of mental collapse. After that, no one knew the whereabouts of these deep-sea hunters.

Missing is almost the same as death. With their mental state and injuries, there is basically no chance of them surviving.

In addition to investigating this matter, there is also everything that happened to the ghost shark. Why did she change from a mentally normal Agor to a battle maniac with a trance and fragmented memories? She can only find the answer at the seaside.

"I can go with you. I won't be able to leave until the other person arrives and lets her stay with Laurentina. Wait a little longer, she should be here soon."

Having said that, Skadi's steps gradually became impatient, from the rhythmic pacing at the beginning to faster and faster, and then she walked around in circles with disorderly steps.

There was no sunlight in Iberia today, and the sky darkened quickly. It was already difficult to see outside at six o'clock.

The oil lamp brought down from the ship just came in handy. Feng Qingyu lit the wick with fire as usual, filling the dim living room with the light of the oil lamp. Sporadic fires were burning in the buildings in the distance, but there was no brilliant light. Only these weak points of light that seemed to be extinguished at any time were trying to fight against the dead silence and darkness of this country.

Steady footsteps were heard in the distance, and soon a tall woman appeared at the door. She had a very slender figure and a male's height, definitely over 180cm.

Like other deep-sea hunters, she has a pair of blood-red pupils, pointed ears, and soft white long hair hanging lazily. Her skin is almost pale without a trace of blood, presenting a sickly visual effect.

Is she a vampire?