Seeing the team of over twenty people led by Beyond, Blue Shadow's face remained expressionless, but inwardly, waves were quietly stirring.
He recognized this human, and he felt the interval between these two batches of human visitors was simply too short.
This phenomenon inadvertently stirred memories from Blue Shadow's distant past.
He faintly remembered that period was called the Great Voyage Era by human visitors.
Back then, one batch after another of humans, fearless of the risks, embarked for the Dark Continent with rudimentary navigation equipment and conditions.
That group of humans, who called themselves explorers or pioneers, almost without exception died on the Dark Continent. Although a small fraction did return alive, compared to the overall numbers, they were truly in the minority.
The humans who arrived with full momentum had ignited the Great Voyage Era.
The humans who returned alive had quietly brought the Great Voyage Era to an end.
Starting from a certain period, the stream of seafaring arrivals had broken off, and no human visitors came for a long time.
Blue Shadow subtly observed Beyond's group, making a general assessment of their strength.
'Overall strength is very high, even stronger than the previous batch of visitors. Could it be that the human world in Lake Mobius has completely opened navigation permissions?'
Blue Shadow pondered silently. He saw Beyond, who had visited decades ago, but showed no signs of recognition, as if Beyond were a stranger he was seeing for the first time.
For his part, Beyond didn't mind Blue Shadow's reaction. He didn't try to leverage his previous visit for familiarity either. He simply bowed courteously and stated directly, "Forgive our rudeness in visiting like this. We ask for your guidance to illuminate our path of exploration."
He knew the Gatekeeper's style was always straightforward and that they disliked dilly-dallying.
"As you wish."
Blue Shadow responded coldly. Then, using the same method as last time, he straightforwardly summoned a demi-human Nen Beast. Aside from the necessary auxiliary engravings, its appearance was completely different from Netero's guide.
His duty was precisely to summon guides for human visitors. Before the polarized phenomenon within his clan was settled, any decision he made was permissible.
'That simple...'
Pariston and the others were somewhat surprised. They had thought some cost would be required, never expecting it to be so simple.
"Thank you for your assistance."
Beyond bowed to Blue Shadow once more.
But he didn't end the visit there. He pushed his luck and posed another question.
"Forgive my boldness, but have you recently received any other guests?"
"That is none of your concern."
Hearing this, Blue Shadow just gave Beyond a cold glance. After summoning the Guide, he promptly closed the door.
As the door shut firmly, Beyond scratched his head in front of it, a bit disappointed.
If possible, he would have liked to ask how many people had come here before them recently.
However, the Gatekeeper was clearly not accommodating on this point, so he could only let it go.
"All conditions are met. Let's depart!"
Beyond looked at his teammates, his face brimming with a sharp, dazzling edge.
Inside the Great Wall, at that large tree and treehouse.
Blue Shadow sat calmly at the edge of the wooden platform, gazing serenely at the distant black dot.
That was the human group that had just visited.
"My duty is... to maintain balance. That is all."
Blue Shadow raised a palm, holding it before his eyes, and murmured to himself.
"No matter what changes occur within the clan, they should have nothing to do with me."
"What I obey are the commands issued by this very door."
…
Time passed, another half a month went by.
In the dark sea, on a silent, tranquil seabed, a dazzling green light illuminated a vast area.
It was the light emitted by the turtle during hunting, but now it wasn't shining to attract prey.
Within the area covered by the green light, precisely on the seabed where the turtle rested, stood a ruin covered in marine sediment.
Not far away, a massive deep-sea creature with a body resembling that of a prehistoric shark lay slumped beside the ruins. Copious amounts of blood flowed from a huge, torn gash on its body, slowly drifting upwards.
The deep-sea creature's tail had smashed into the ruins, nearly crushing one-fifth of the area.
The turtle's rubber-like elongated snout pressed down on the creature's body, constantly tearing off large chunks of flesh.
Just ten minutes earlier, while leisurely moving through the ocean depths, the turtle had been suddenly ambushed by the prehistoric-shark-like creature from the side.
The turtle hadn't been in feeding mode yet. The sudden attack rammed it onto the seabed. It then lit up with green light, fought back fiercely, was forced to kill the creature that had delivered itself, and was then forced to start feeding.
After all, it was prey it had hunted, it might as well eat it.
So, it stayed on the seabed, tearing into the carcass.
Throughout the whole process, Law's group stayed safely inside the turtle's shell, witnessing the entire event from the ambush to the turtle's counter-kill.
In front of these two behemoths, their existence seemed extremely minuscule. The tremors from their collision alone had caused minor injuries to several team members.
At that moment, they couldn't help but think: if the turtle were killed, or if the part of the shell where they were located shattered, wouldn't they be utterly helpless, left waiting for death?
Just thinking about it made many, including Tonpa, shudder with fear.
Afterwards, Law and the others noticed the ruins built on the seabed. It was also because the creature's landing spot was quite coincidental… otherwise, in that situation, they would have had no chance to notice the ruins.
Beyond the fear was even more shock.
In a place like this, there could actually be ruins?
During this time, they had seen many terrifying behemoths from inside the turtle. They couldn't understand at all how ruins could exist on the seabed.
"The architectural outline of the ruins is very broken, and the sediment covering them is too thick. From here, we can't make anything out."
Ging looked down through the shell at the ruinous structures below. Seeing the large area of buildings crushed by the creature's tail, he couldn't help but feel a pang of pain as a Ruins Hunter.
Beyond that, it was regret and pity.
He really wanted to go into the ruins to look, but this was the deep sea, an environment where humans could barely move.
Hearing Ging's low sigh, Salin seemed infected and let out a soft sigh of her own.
Like Ging, she also wanted to go see the ruins.
"I'd really love to examine them up close," She lamented.
"It might not be impossible."
Law gazed at the ruins under the green light and suddenly spoke.
"Law, have you gone crazy?"
Tonpa, with swollen cheeks, immediately mumbled indistinctly.
The injuries on his face weren't from the recent collision… they were from being beaten up by Kuro.
The reason was that a few days after Law sent Hakuro away and, as promised, brought Kuro back, Tonpa had carelessly said, "Sigh, if only Hakuro were still here."
Kuro heard that and promptly gave Tonpa a good beating, then declared that no one on the team's medical staff was allowed to treat Tonpa's injuries.
Thus, even now, the swelling on Tonpa's face hadn't gone down.
Inside the shell room, quite a few people shared Tonpa's sentiment, including Salin, who really wanted to see the ruins.
Facing everyone's gaze, Law said calmly, "I'm not crazy."
As soon as he finished speaking, numerous huge shadows appeared at the edge of the green light.
The blood drifting up from the creature's body emitted a strong scent. The predators of the deep sea have always had sharp senses of smell, capable of detecting blood from far across the ocean.
While the turtle was feeding, these deep-sea creatures had been drawn here by the blood.
Law's group noticed these shadows and their expressions tensed slightly.
Given the current situation, even if Law had the ability to ignore the deep-sea environment to reach the ruins, he probably couldn't ignore these behemoths drawn by the scent of blood.