Three days later.
The Tianyu Ancient Village fleet had reached the offshore waters and would return to Demon Port in just a few days. Meanwhile, Yang Ling's subordinates were methodically preparing everything related to setting out to sea.
The effects of the Painting Calamity still lingered.
People throughout Demon Port were discussing it, but very few could explain what had actually happened.
You guessed, I guessed, everyone guessed.
After a few years, it would probably become one of Demon Port's Unsolved Mysteries.
But it didn't matter.
Demon Port had plenty of Unsolved Mysteries anyway.
For example, aurora-like colors would occasionally appear above the pitch-black Nether Sea, dazzling and radiant. Yet no one had ever known what they were or where they came from.
And then there was another example.
The Nether Sea had mirages, too.
Sometimes they were endless, undulating palaces. Sometimes they were cities lit by thousands of households. Sometimes they were towering giants.
Likewise.
These scenes posed no danger and did not even contain Supernatural Fluctuations.
Yet no one could find their source.
Of course.
Aside from these visual Unsolved Mysteries, there were also things like certain periods every year when the sea contained absolutely nothing. No fish, no Evil Spirits, no sea monsters.
Every fishing vessel that went out to sea, whether on safe routes or in dangerous regions,
returned empty-handed.
In the early years.
Some Exploration Ships had tried to take advantage of that period to venture out, believing it would reduce the odds of encountering danger.
However.
Half of those ships never returned.
That rate of loss
was even higher than in normal years!
As for the fleets that did return... they claimed they had encountered nothing and that everything had gone smoothly. So there was no way to determine what had happened to the