The shadow following Annan seemed harmless, like a Tree Sprite circling him in the forest.
The Burnt Girl and the shadow clearly weren't going to answer Annan's questions, so he had no choice but to keep looking for the Ship in a Bottle... The Skeleton King and the others were watching from shore. If trouble came, the Skeleton King would step in.
Annan let go of the ship's rail and swam back toward the wreck with the two shadows.
The Ship in a Bottle wasn't in the Captain's Quarters, so Annan had to search the whole ship. No one knew where its contents had been washed when the Sphinx sank. Besides, in the rush to escape, the wealthy might have crowded into the Third-Class Cabin too.
He started with the first-class cabins.
Annan carried drifting debris from the lakebed into a suite. A clouded, peeling Oil Painting and a shattered sofa made it look as though the room had been forgotten for years.
If Annan's remake of "The Mage Tower's Fall" kept the shipwreck setting, this place might have struck a chord with him.
Come to think of it, the Sphinx had belonged to the Sphinx Family—the same family that had stolen Old Fei's Jade Essence.
The Skeleton King had already sent Old Fei back to the Grand Cemetery. Annan wondered whether Old Fei had seen his Old Ancestor.
After a quick sweep of the first suite, Annan swam into the second as the water grew murky. He picked up speed in the third, then surfaced for air after leaving the fourth.
Splash—
Annan broke the surface and clung to the side of the Small Boat, catching his breath.
He found himself envying Warriors again... An Elite Warrior wouldn't just be tireless; he could tear the whole ship apart without