"Theodore!"

  Hol quickly grabbed the fish that Theodore had dropped and chased after him to the side of the cave.

  "Ouch, ouch, ouch! Let go, let go, let go!"

  A scream, more unpleasant than a drake's cry, echoed from the cave. Before Hol could ask what happened, he saw Theodore darting out in terror.

  Behind him, a pair of bewitching eyes quickly sank back into a mass of writhing snake hair.

  Hol couldn't describe the feeling those eyes gave him. The silver irises surrounded pitch-bck pupils, so cold and devoid of humanity that even he, a lich, was frozen for a long moment.

  "Hol," Theodore spped his shoulder hard, "Run! Why are you standing there?"

  Hol snapped out of it, realizing he had just been bewitched by those eyes. His face turned grim.

  "Who was that, a Gorgon?"

  "Stop asking, just run!"

  Theodore dragged him to the surface, scrambling onto the beach with hands and feet. Only after seeing no one following did he gasp, "It was a Gorgon, from the Sea Serpent tribe."

  He raised his pitted right arm, "Look at what it did to me, holes everywhere! If I hadn't run fast, I'd have lost this arm."

  Octopus blood is blue, and droplets fell onto the sand, staining the golden canvas like blue ink.

  "No wonder the Western Continent hasn't seen traces of sea serpents for so many years; they've relocated here," Hol mused. "Do you think the missing sirens and merfolk might have moved here too?"

  "I don't know, but in all my years in the sea, I've only seen whirlpools and Leviathans," Theodore grimaced as he dipped his arm into the water, using seawater to clean his wounds.

  Luo Wei returned with an armful of dry branches, only to see this scene.

  "Theodore, are you fishing with your arm?" she asked, shocked.

  Theodore turned his head mechanically like a puppet, his eyes dull, "What a cold heart you have to say something so heartless."

  Luo Wei: …

  She looked at Hol, "What's wrong with Theodore?"

  Hol recounted their encounter in the sea to Luo Wei, emphasizing Theodore's panic and the sorry state after being bitten.

  Luo Wei felt both amused and sympathetic, asking Hol to take out the remaining purple grass to treat Theodore's wounds.

  "The Gorgon's snake hair isn't poisonous, right?"

  "Don't worry, it can't poison a giant monster."

  Hol skillfully squeezed the juice from the purple grass, collected it in a shell, and handed it to Theodore.

  After drinking, Theodore felt a bit better and had the energy to curse, "Damn it! The sea serpent with worms for brains dared to bite me, wait till I call my ancestor to chew them up!"

  Hol moved a bit away to avoid his saliva spray.

  "Is calling your ancestor useful? The first wife of the ancient giant monster was from the Sea Serpent tribe, right? Would he act against his wife's tribe?"

  Theodore said unhappily, "How much do you know? Our giant monster tribe has a feud with the sea serpents; they're nothing like a wife's tribe!"

  "I'll tell you..."

  It turns out that two thousand years ago, the War of Faith nearly drove the giant monster tribe to extinction. To ensure the continuation of the race, the ancient giant monster chose to marry a sea serpent enchantress.

  In monster tribes, the offspring inherit the talents of the parent with the stronger bloodline.

  No race in the sea has a stronger bloodline than the giant monsters. Although Jormungandr is formidable, there is only one sea serpent in this race, and a new one is born only when he dies.

  So the powerful ancient giant monster thought his sea serpent wife would give birth to many little giant monsters, but she only gave birth to little sea serpents.

  Later, he found out that his wife found him too ugly and had an affair with another sea serpent, and all the children were from her lover.

  Furious, the ancient giant monster hid in the deep sea and started reproducing on his own.

  Some creatures can reproduce parthenogenetically when on the verge of extinction, and the ancient giant monster developed this ability, ying eggs and hatching them himself, creating a thriving tribe alone.

  Since then, the ancient giant monster cimed to be a female monster to spite his wife, and the couple parted on bad terms.

  Later, when the sea serpent tribe was hunted by humans, the Gorgon chief sought help from the ancient giant monster, but he chose to watch coldly.

  Thus, the two tribes completely broke ties and haven't contacted each other for a thousand years.

  "In short, we don't get along with the sea serpents. Our ancestor will definitely help me get revenge!" Theodore emphasized.

  Luo Wei sighed, "You're on their territory now, and you dare to talk tough. I'm afraid we'll be dead before your ancestor arrives."

  "They wouldn't dare!"

  "Why wouldn't they? Out here, far from the emperor's reach, they could eat you without anyone knowing."

  Theodore gritted his teeth, "Eat me? Sea serpents are indeed no good, no wonder people from the Fog Empire don't live by the sea, they must be scared of them."

  "Luo Wei, when you become king, remember to drive them out. Don't let them cause trouble here!"

  "And the sirens and merfolk, if you see them, drive them all away. Listening to their singing will make you stupid!"

  Luo Wei gnced at him, thinking, are giant monsters any better?

  Living with sea beasts like whirlpools and Leviathan, how much better could they be?

  If the sea serpent and sea monster tribes really are here, that would be interesting.

  Jormungandr splits the ocean in two; on one side are the three most ferocious tribes in the sea, and on this side are the poor tribes with beautiful songs. Jormungandr knows how to divide them.

  The three chatted while starting a fire on the beach, roasting fish on sticks.

  For two days and nights, they finally had a hot meal, though without salt, it was a sad sight.

  After eating, they began discussing how to return to the Western Continent.

  "Miss Luo Wei, how did you get to the Western Continent in the first pce?" Hol asked.

  A giant sea serpent blocks the ocean, devouring magical elements and turning the area into a no-magic zone; at night, it releases a dense fog that confuses those who approach.

  Crossing the ocean under these conditions is extremely difficult.

  They were lucky to get through, but the goddess of fortune won't always be on their side; next time, they might not be so lucky.

  Hol was very curious about how Luo Wei and her guards managed to cross.

  "How did I get there?" Luo Wei pretended to recall, "I flew over, a divine bird took us."

  "A divine bird, like a griffin?"

  "No, this divine bird is called a bar-tailed godwit, capable of flying over ten thousand kilometers without stopping."

  "So strong!" Theodore admired, "Flying over ten thousand kilometers at once, faster than Jormungandr, who takes a thousand years to travel twenty thousand kilometers."

  Hol was more concerned, "Miss Luo Wei, can you ask this divine bird to take us again?"

  Luo Wei shook her head, "I met it by chance, sorry."

  The bar-tailed godwit is a bird from Earth, not Star of Gan, where would she find one?

  Seeing Theodore and Hol looking distressed, an idea popped into Luo Wei's head, "Why don't we ask the sea serpent tribe how they came to the Fog Empire?"