The "boat" Razor had mentioned never appeared on the sea.
Bai Zhu looked in the direction he was pointing, but saw only an empty stretch of ocean, without so much as a shadow.
A moment later, however, the beach beneath his feet began to tremble.
It wasn't an earthquake. It felt more like... something enormous was rising from the depths of the ocean.
Splash!
The calm sea suddenly split open, and a massive shape covered in dark green moss and barnacles broke through the surface. It wasn't a ship, but the back of a living giant turtle that looked like a small island.
The giant turtle was unimaginably huge. The exposed part of its shell alone was the size of a soccer field. Its limbs were like mountains, and every stroke sent towering waves surging through the sea.
"Hop on."
Razor leaped up first, easily landing on the turtle's back more than ten meters above them.
Bai Zhu jumped up after him, studying the giant turtle beneath his feet with fascination. He hadn't expected creatures this enormous to exist outside the Dark Continent.
The giant turtle turned and swam toward the open ocean at a speed completely at odds with its size.
"So this is Ging Freecss's 'boat'?" Bai Zhu couldn't help asking.
"No." Razor grinned. "This is just the bus to the dock."
The real "dock" was a flying island hidden in thick fog.
That was the sight that greeted Bai Zhu after he followed Razor through a thin Nen barrier. The island wasn't large. A makeshift camp stood at its center, where several people who looked like researchers were busy at work.
At the very center of the camp, a man crouched on the ground, rapidly scratching something onto a clay tablet with a twig.
He wore