"The things recorded on this stele are incredibly practical!"

"Methods for training sea beasts, a technique for Starlight Body Refining, energy countermeasures, beast advancement... If even one of these was made public, every power in the ocean would be drooling with envy. No wonder the Scorpion King was able to conquer everything with this stele thousands of years ago!"

"There seems to be another passage at the bottom of the stele."

As he was putting the stele away, he saw it clearly: a passage had been quietly inscribed at the very bottom.

Shi Ming adjusted the angle of the stele.

As he read,

he found himself completely stunned.

There were only a few dozen characters on the back, yet they recorded a world-shaking secret.

The information he deciphered left Shi Ming thunderstruck.

This was, without a doubt, the "great secret" the Eye of Intelligence had mentioned.

And this "great secret," it seemed, was related to him.

...

...

...

The being who created the Civilization Origin Stele Characters was known as a god-like entity.

But even gods can fall.

Upon its fall, the being left behind four remains.

The consciousness within the remains had long since dissipated, yet they still possessed powerful abilities. They could elevate whoever obtained them, and if their full power was unleashed, even someone with a mortal body could rival the might of a top-tier beast and display unimaginable strength.

These four remains, ranked by their powers, are:

The Eye of the Divine,

The Heart of Chaos,

The Primordial Flow Body,

And the Uncertain Shadow.

However, not long after the god-like being perished, all four remains vanished without a trace, one after another. Despite exhausting all possible means, they could not be found. It was as if they had been completely erased from the physical world or had hidden themselves within the very motes of primordial dust.

The river of time flowed on, and the truth was lost to history.

... 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The inscription on the stele wasn’t text in the conventional sense. Shi Ming deconstructed its meaning, and the gist of it was what he had just understood.

His mind was reeling.

’Four remains,

and one of them is called the "Eye of the Divine."’

Shi Ming thought of the pendant he was escorting in his past life. It was warm and smooth like jade. At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary antique, but it had exploded right before he died, killing his enemy as well as himself. Then, it had completely merged with his body, bringing him to what might be the future Endless Ocean World. It had slowly and imperceptibly replaced the original host’s body and even granted him three abilities.

’Could the Eye of the Divine Pendant be one of those remains?’

’It’s very likely!’

He covered his eyes and forehead with his red-patterned right hand.

’I’m screwed!’

’It seems I’m even more special now.’

’This goes completely against my principle of keeping a low profile!’

He was already a juicy prize in the eyes of the world’s untouchable major powers—a single man possessing three ranked wonders—the Map of the Endless Sea, the Calm Sea Pearl, and the Taunt Stone—and piloting a mysterious wandering ship that could break through trait suppression and ram a hole straight through a General-level wandering ship.

On top of that, he was a solo S-rank Awakened!

The Lighthouse must be absolutely drooling!

And there was no shortage of people in other factions just itching to make a move.

His trip to the Pyramid had taught him that powerful beings and civilizations existed beyond Earth. If they found out he possessed the "Eye of the Divine," he’d be the ultimate prize in their eyes—a succulent piece of meat ripe for the taking.

The treasure, not the man, is the crime.

He understood this principle all too well.

’Maybe the situation isn’t as bad as I think,’ he thought. ’Who knows how many years have passed. The ones who know these secrets today must be an incredibly small minority.’

’Even the woman who pulled me into the Mysterious Star Realm just thinks I have some special talents. She didn’t see that the Eye of the Divine had merged with me. Besides, on the surface, she didn’t seem to have any ill intent.’

’Maybe she doesn’t even know what the Eye of the Divine specifically does.’

’I should be safe for the time being.’

Still, he couldn’t afford to be careless.

Based on his deductions, even that mysterious woman needed the Star Lamp to pinpoint his location on Earth, and then that bronze mirror to pull him from the Endless Ocean World into that starry expanse.

’The Star Lamp?’

’After some careful thought, you’re staying in my system inventory from now on!’

’Benched!’

’Any treasure with even a hint of betrayal gets benched!’

...

The first rays of sunset appeared. Shi Ming came out onto the deck, ready to plan the *Da Yun*’s next course.

"Captain, where are we going next?"

"The Sea of Boiling."

"Huh?"

The Sea of Boiling? That was a human forbidden zone! Not even the experts under the command of the King-level Wandering Ship, the *Black Gold*, dared to venture there lightly. Any Awakened who dared to brave the Core Area would make front-page news worldwide—if such a thing even existed.

Yellow Cannon was very worried.

He wasn’t worried for himself. He just felt that the captain was in the eye of the storm right now. Shouldn’t he lie low and recuperate for a while?

After all, the captain had been making too many major headlines lately!

First, he’d killed several extraordinary-looking A-rank Awakened, offending both the Lighthouse and the Black Society. Then he’d sunk an entire Golden Ship, providing enough news to fill every paper in the European Sea Region. After that, he came to the Sea of Yellow Sand and caused a ship-ramming incident that shocked the entire Endless Ocean.

Of course, all of that was in self-defense. He didn’t see anything wrong with it; in fact, it only made him admire the captain more.

But now, he wanted to challenge the deadly forbidden zone, the Sea of Boiling?

It was obvious that an overwhelmingly powerful sea beast lived there. It was responsible for heating the entire Sea of Boiling to a terrifying several hundred degrees from surface to seabed. This in turn caused the high temperatures in the Sea of Silence and the Sea of Yellow Sand, transforming the entire former African Region into a paradise for sea beasts.

It was a good thing the world’s seawater was now infused with a large amount of Sea Crystal Stone energy, making it difficult to boil or freeze.

Otherwise, the entire ecosystem of the Endless Ocean would have been devastated.

"Don’t worry. We won’t be going deep."

"Besides, I have a way to deal with the heat."

Shi Ming took out a crystal. A perfect crystal.

Phaseless Pure Ice.

The temperature on the entire ship plummeted instantly. The crewmen, who had been working shirtless, shivered violently, their teeth chattering.

"Refreshing, isn’t it?"

The first property of Phaseless Pure Ice was its ability to maintain a constant temperature of negative forty-five degrees Celsius within a ten-meter radius of its wielder. Shi Ming had always been curious: if he were in the center of the Sea of Boiling, could the property of the Phaseless Pure Ice maintain that same temperature of negative forty-five degrees?

He was going to find out.

Now that they were so far away in Africa, he didn’t believe the Dusk Whale could still sense the Phaseless Pure Ice’s location and cross thousands of miles to hunt him down.

If it really did come after him, he could use the extreme heat here to find a way to kill it for good! That would save him the trouble of going back to Greenland to kill the whale later!

————