’It’s still chasing?’

The distance between the Dayun and the Rotting Whale was growing, and what’s more, they had almost crossed the Mediterranean Sea!

Shi Ming admired the Rotting Whale’s persistence, but he also understood. Perhaps the Formless Pure Ice was crucial to it—an irresistible temptation that stemmed from its very soul.

It was midnight.

"Eye of Intelligence, acquire information."

’Let’s see what information the Eye of Intelligence can provide.’

[BEEP~ BEEP~]

[Compiling information...]

[Searching. Confirming host’s detailed coordinates... Search successful. Summarizing information... Information generated: Dusk Whale.]

The Eye of Intelligence did not disappoint Shi Ming.

It had indeed given him the information he wanted.

’Let’s see what the hell this sea beast is.’

[Dusk Whale: an S-class sea beast that begins to rot from the moment of its birth.]

[The Dusk Whale has three states: Uncorrupted, Partially Corrupted, and Fully Corrupted. The Dusk Whale cannot change its state on its own. It can only inevitably and irreversibly enter the next state as time passes and its body decays.]

[Slaying it in different states and bathing in its blood can grant different skills.]

[Slaying it in its Uncorrupted state: Grants the skill "Pillar of Dawn."]

[Slaying it in its Partially Corrupted state: Grants the skill "Twilight of the Gods."]

[Slaying it in its Fully Corrupted state: Grants the skill "Lightless Heat Death."]

[...]

[Note 1: The Dusk Whale begins to decay from birth. The Uncorrupted state is fleeting, making the "Pillar of Dawn" skill extremely difficult to obtain.]

[Note 2: The Formless Pure Ice holds a fatal attraction for the Dusk Whale. Swallowing the Formless Pure Ice allows the Dusk Whale to suppress the destined power of decay within its body, preventing its life from ending. By completely digesting the Formless Pure Ice, the Dusk Whale can evolve into a completely new, unknown state.]

No wonder.

After reading the information, Shi Ming understood why this S-class sea beast had pursued him for thousands of miles.

To the Dusk Whale, he was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. The "Formless Pure Ice" had been buried in the polar ley lines for a thousand years without fully forming; the whale originally had no chance of obtaining it. Now, not only had Shi Ming brought it out, but he had also upgraded it into a perfect crystal. How could it possibly miss such a golden opportunity?

’Looking at this whale’s description... from dawn, to dusk, to a lightless heat death...’

’This whale symbolizes quite a few things.’

Lightless Heat Death must be the "Heat Death" ranked 34th on Lighthouse’s S-class skill leaderboard. At the time, Shi Ming had marveled at how such a universe-ending power could belong to a sea beast, wondering if the intelligence was a bit too outrageous.

Now, it seemed that, like Twilight of the Gods and Descent of the Titan, it was most likely just symbolic.

’There’s no way a single whale’s demise would drag the entire universe down with it, right!?’

But even if it was only symbolic, an S-class skill ranked 34th was definitely among the strongest of the strong!

However,

Shi Ming shook his head.

Half of the whale’s body was still intact. Who knew how many years it would take for it to completely decay and transform into its fully corrupted state.

The skill "Lightless Heat Death," much like "Pillar of Dawn," existed in the distant future, while the other existed in the unknown past. It was highly unlikely that any human would ever obtain them. In comparison, "Twilight of the Gods" was the skill it possessed at this point in time.

And according to Shi Ming’s guess, if he bathed in its blood, there was a chance his own body would end up half-corrupted and half-intact.

’Maybe I’d even inherit its fate and head toward a lightless heat death.’

...

「Forty nautical miles away.」

The Dusk Whale burst out from the deep sea, its heaven-and-earth-shattering cry tinging the star-draped ocean with the color of decay.

ROAR!

It was furious.

It had pursued its prey for thousands of nautical miles, from the frigid Ice Sea to this warm region. The temperature here was accelerating its decay, and its swimming speed was slowing down.

Yet its prey was getting farther and farther away.

In a helpless rage, amidst the furious waves, it unleashed its most powerful skill!

Twilight of the Gods!

In an instant, the moon was stained a graveyard yellow. The ghastly moonlight was like the thick, yellow ichor from a bursting corpse, oozing heavily down from the sky.

Half of the Dusk Whale’s body, like a whale explosion, gushed with an impossibly vast amount of yellow fluid. The overwhelming stench of decay filled this stretch of the sea, and all living creatures that came into contact with this powerful aura were inevitably set on a path to corruption.

Sea fish turned to bone and crumbled into fine powder in a short time. D-class and even C-class sea beasts lurking in the deep inexplicably grew old and withered, decaying into nothingness.

Their bones sank into the mud on the seabed,

nurturing new life.

This patch of sea had become a crucible of flesh and blood.

Shi Ming and the Dayun were too far away to experience the skill directly, but in that silent, waveless moment, a series of illusions seemed to flash through Shi Ming’s mind.

The corpses of countless creatures and the wreckage of ships piled up, sticking together in their decay to form a continent of bodies. Stars fell from the sky as the viscous continent swayed and sank beneath the turbulent waves, leaving only a dead silence and eternal darkness in the world.

’An illusion?’

’What the hell?’

He shook his head, driving the images away.

He looked at the distant sea through his telescope.

After its impotent rage and venting its anger, the Dusk Whale dove back into the deep sea, heading back the way it came.

It had given up.

But Shi Ming didn’t relax. The Dayun continued to sail south until he confirmed on the Map of the Endless Sea that the corrupted beast had truly given up for good.

Shi Ming breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked at the map.

The Dayun had already crossed the Mediterranean Sea but had not yet reached the Northern Tropic Line. The sea region he was in now was, before the apocalypse, the world’s largest desert. It stretched from the Great Western Sea Region in the west, eastward through the Land of the Pharaohs, all the way to the shores of the Red Sea.

The Sahara.

Now, it was called the Sea of Yellow Sand.

Further south was the famous Hot Sea. The King-level Wandering Ship "Black Gold" was stationed in the location of Sudan, ruling as the king of this sea region.

Even further south, near the Equator, was a death zone: the Boiling Sea.

The water temperature in the Boiling Sea was abnormally high, reportedly reaching up to 350 degrees. No ship or person could navigate it without protection. Even S-class Awakened needed extensive, foolproof preparations to explore it, and they would struggle to last for more than a day.

’Is the temperature of the Boiling Sea really that high?’

’Speaking of which,’

’could the Formless Pure Ice’s special trait, the Eternal Ice Domain, even freeze the Boiling Sea?’

Shi Ming smiled. He was very curious.

...

...

...

Shi Ming had temporarily distanced himself from the Twelve Stars while being pursued by the Dusk Whale, but within the Twelve Stars, a tempestuous storm was brewing today.

"What? Reinhardt is dead?"

The editor-in-chief of the Twelve Stars newspaper sat in his office, listening to his subordinate’s report.

In the Wandering Era, newspapers were very popular among the populace inside the King-level Wandering Ships, which were comparable to small cities.

"Dead is dead. Hmm... If there’s no other big news, he could probably make the front page."

"Heh, that guy was always trying to get on the front page. Now he’s finally got his chance. The girls in the cafes and bars are probably going to be heartbroken for a long time. Plus, the Cuiyan was a good ship. I wonder which faction will get their hands on it. If we dig into that, it could be another big story!"

"What? The Cuiyan sank?"

"More than one ship sank? Which other one?"

"The Jinshan envoy ship, the Thunder God, sank too?"

"What about the three envoys?"

"The three envoys are dead too?!"

...

’Well then,’

’the newspaper has enough material for a week.’

For the foreseeable future, the editor-in-chief of the Twelve Stars newspaper would no longer have to worry about story ideas.