My senses were on high alert, leaving no room for any anomalies around me.
Damn it, if that phantom entity suddenly appeared, I'd have no choice but to kick the people from those two companies overboard to buy myself some time.
Soon, I saw a massive black shadow emerge from the water beneath our boat.
Visibility was already less than ten meters in the fog, and standing on the boat, I couldn't see the edge of this shadow no matter how far I looked.
This monster was even larger than the woman had described!
At this moment, the water around our small boat began to churn violently. The main event was about to happen!
I had no time to think. I told Qi Qiaoqiao to row quickly and decisively threw the man who had collapsed onto the deck into the water.
Our small boat slowly moved forward, and I stared intently at the man I had tossed into the sea.
The icy seawater instantly jolted the unconscious man awake. He struggled in the water, letting out meaningless roars.
He desperately tried to swim towards me, but already severely injured, he had no strength left.
The ineffable, dark monster beneath the water seemed attracted by the man's struggles. I saw a colossal mouth suddenly emerge on the surface of the water, opening and closing to swallow the man whole.
The sea surface immediately became calm, as if nothing had happened.
My expression grew somber. I could easily imagine that if this monster's target had been us, our fate would have been no better than that man's.
I had fallen into complete despair, but suddenly, I felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with what had just appeared.
Racking my brain, I finally remembered. The colossal mouth that had appeared was not a single entity but was formed by countless insects.
And these were the very same flying insects I had seen in the underground palace!
This realization shocked me. I had only encountered these insects in the underground palace before. Could it be that there was another node at the bottom of this deep sea!
Professor Gu Gef had once explained to me that these insects were the guardians of the underground palace.
Individually, they were not powerful; one could crush them with ease. However, when hundreds or thousands gathered, they would become an invincible monster!
Although I now understood the origin of this phantom entity, under the current circumstances, we had no other means of dealing with it.
I stopped dwelling on it. While the insects hadn't attacked us yet, the only solution was to distance ourselves from it as quickly as possible.
With this thought, I immediately took an oar from Qi Qiaoqiao's hand, and the two of us paddled forward with all our might.
I exerted every ounce of strength, so our rowing speed was naturally much faster than before.
The swarm of insects below us was not as fast as we were, but its sheer size meant we couldn't escape its encompassing range anytime soon.
This was a race against death, and if we lost, we would be utterly submerged beneath these vast waves.
Gradually, the sea began to churn with waves, and the salty water was continuously swept into our boat by the surges, drenching our clothes in no time.
Moreover, the movement of the insect swarm beneath us became increasingly evident, as if it would erupt from the water at any moment and capsize our small boat.
Finally, after another cresting wave, our small boat could no longer withstand the strain and split in two. We all fell into the sea.
Strangely, at this moment, time seemed to pass incredibly slowly for me.
I even had the time to wonder who would die first.
That woman from the company was surely not going to survive. She had been scared unconscious, and her physical condition had been so poor.
Indeed, as I had predicted, the woman woke up the moment she hit the water. But what followed was countless insects spreading over her. Despair flashed in her eyes, and she tried to cry out for help, but no sound came out.
I watched the scene calmly. Even if this woman survived, she was destined to be our enemy. It was better for her to die in this sea.
Furthermore, it seemed the woman's struggles had alerted the insects. Although we had all fallen into the sea, there were no insects in our vicinity.
This reignited a flicker of hope in my heart. I quickly grabbed Qi Xinxin, who was flailing in the water, and then looked back at Qi Qiaoqiao, who was floating on the surface, signaling her to follow.
Perhaps our luck had finally turned. With the help of the water's momentum, we were actually moving faster than we had been on the boat.
After a few more waves propelled us forward, I looked up and realized the terrifying shadow was no longer beneath us!
Though we had lost all our supplies, we had escaped from the brink of death!
However, this was only the beginning...