"You're not wrong, this isn't a prank," Jiu Jia Yi said coldly. "It's a hunt. The Night Raven Society calls itself a secret cult devoted to the Deep-Sea Envoy, and every ten-year maritime gathering is accompanied by a sacrifice."
"Then what should we do now?" Lin Yun's voice carried fear.
"Follow me." He turned and walked deeper inside. "I'm going to find someone."
They traversed the dim corridors, avoided the surveillance cameras, and made their way all the way to the tenth-floor VIP deck rooms. The hallway was paved with deep red carpets, Baroque-style oil paintings hung on the walls, and the air was mixed with the scents of sandalwood and whiskey.
Jiu Jia Yi stopped in front of a door and raised his hand to knock lightly three times.
The door opened a crack, and a tall, thin man wearing sunglasses poked his head out. Seeing that it was Jiu Jia Yi, he immediately made way at the doorway. "Why are you here?"
"The Night Raven Society has made their move," Jiu Jia Yi walked straight inside. "They've already started the sacrifice."
"Damn it," the man muttered a low curse, turned around, and rummaged a silver briefcase out of his luggage. "I just decrypted their encoded communications. Tonight is the Blood Tide Night, and they're going to sink the entire ship into the ocean at three in the morning."
Lin Yun turned pale as a sheet hearing this. "They're crazy! There are hundreds of people on this ship!"
"To them, these people are merely cultivation vessels, food for the deep-sea deities." The tall, thin man was named He Zhong, a former military communications expert and a veteran invited by Jiu Jia Yi out of the retired black market.
"We don't have much time," Jiu Jia Yi said. "We need to find their priest."
"According to the encrypted contents, he's in the theater. When the Moon Veil falls, someone will play the Sea God Prelude. That's when the ritual begins."
"There's still an hour." Jiu Jia Yi produced a card. "I have a clearance pass, we can sneak into the backstage."
"I'll go contact the people in the engine room," He Zhong said while packing up his equipment. "As long as we control the main engines, we can stop them from initiating the ship-sinking sequence."
"Be careful." Jiu Jia Yi nodded, then grabbed Lin Yun's wrist. "Let's go, to the theater."
Lin Yun's hand trembled in his palm, but a trace of determination surfaced in her eyes. She knew that once she stepped into the theater, there would be no turning back.
Meanwhile, the fate of the Holy Shadow was quietly closing in on a deep-sea ritual of blood and fire...
Late at night, the cruise ship's lights cast dancing reflections upon the surface of the sea, resembling a golden snake slowly gliding above the deep ocean. Yet behind this dazzling light and shadow, a lurking darkness was quietly awakening.
Jiu Jia Yi brought Lin Yun across the lavishly decorated corridors of the tenth floor, bypassed the ballroom filled with champagne and jazz music, and arrived at the theater's side door. He produced the dark red, gold-rimmed access card and swiped it lightly; the electronic door opened with a click, revealing a dim and narrow backstage passage. The air inside was dry, yet it was permeated with a certain unsettling mixed scent of lumber and theatrical paint.
"This place is like a tomb," Lin Yun whispered, wrapping her arms tighter around herself.
"They intend to open the Blood Tide Night right here." Jiu Jia Yi's tone was cold and hard, his gaze as sharp as cold iron. "They believe the theater is a passage connecting reality and the Deep-Sea Beyond."
"How... do you know this so clearly?" Lin Yun suddenly looked up and asked.
Without breaking his stride, Jiu Jia Yi only spoke in a low voice: "Because ten years ago, I almost died in a similar sacrifice."
Lin Yun parted her lips slightly, seeming to want to ask more, but looking at his calm face, she ultimately swallowed her questions back down.
Before you continue