Outside, sea creature carcasses lay sprawled across the seabed.
Blood dispersed, carried by the currents in the same direction.
Even though Law had cut away thousands of pounds of meat, compared to all the carcasses, it was still a drop in the bucket.
Presumably, even the turtle's appetite couldn't finish off this group of carcasses.
In other words, as long as the carcasses remained, they would always be bait attracting other creatures.
Under these circumstances, exploring the ruins carried considerable risk.
However, Ging and the others didn't know how much Nen Law needed to expend to kill a sea creature, nor that Law currently only had about one-fifth of his Nen left.
What they saw was Law effortlessly killing the creatures.
Therefore, they believed the ruins could be explored. The most crucial issue, instead, was... whether Law could take them along.
"Can you take someone with you?" Ging asked.
Law thought for a moment and said, "Yes, but only one person."
"Just one..." Ging stroked his chin. He was probably the one who most wanted to see the ruins up close, but he was also the one who shouldn't go.
Because he needed to stay in the room to support Law outside.
"Anyway, I'm not going," Shiro said.
With the limited spot, those who originally wanted to go gave up the idea.
Nique, who least wanted to go, said nothing. After the danger passed, he quietly sat in a corner pondering life, trying to minimize his presence.
"Then I'll go."
Salin glanced around at everyone present and said seriously, "Maybe we can find ancient script inside the ruins."
No one objected to this.
Law's original plan was also to take Salin. With the limited number of people, her expertise in ancient scripts might aid the exploration.
"You can revert to your original form now," Law patted the bodysuit he was wearing.
Upon hearing this, Kuro immediately left Law's body and returned to his original form.
With Salin added, there was no need for him to use the oxygen and light algae.
Since there were still many creature carcasses outside, exploring the ruins required racing against time.
After brief preparations, Law and Salin left the shell room and entered the deep sea.
Kuro was responsible for propulsion, pushing Law's emitted Domain to achieve movement.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Kuro pushed the Domain as if it were a ball, heading toward the ruins on the seabed.
The ruins were dilapidated, with hardly any complete architectural outlines visible. There were mostly tilted and standing stone pillars, covered in a thick layer of marine sediment.
Pushed by Kuro, Law and Salin slowly landed beside the ruins.
Unexpectedly, the sand on the seabed was quite deep.
Law's Domain sank into the sand, revealing a depth of about one meter.
Afterwards, the two waded through the sand to the location where Law had seen the glass fragment earlier.
Law used his En to clear the sand surrounding the glass fragment, exposing its full form.
It was an upright glass fragment, about 5 meters tall. As Law had initially seen, the thickness of the fragment was astonishing… over 2 meters.
What does that mean?
Normal window glass is about 5mm thick. This fragment was over 2 meters thick.
Law manipulated his Domain to slowly incorporate the glass fragment into the Aura Field, then reached out and placed a hand on it.
The White Smoke Font immediately provided brief information.
[Sea Mirror, extremely sturdy.]
'Sea Mirror?'
Law subconsciously muttered the words.
"What Sea Mirror?"
Salin, who was also touching the fragment, looked at Law in confusion upon hearing this.
"Uh, I said this fragment looks a lot like a mirror," Law explained vaguely.
Salin didn't doubt him, nodded and said, "No patterns or writing found. Not sure what this thing was for. It's already unbelievable that ruins exist here. Could it have been for isolating seawater?"
"Maybe it really was for isolating seawater," Law said.
Salin glanced at him. Honestly, she felt that possibility was too unrealistic.
The two moved along the edge of the ruins, finding several more glass fragments. Other than that, there were no other discoveries.
So, they turned their gaze towards the ruins themselves.
First, Law had Kuro move several [Sea Mirrors] into his space. Then, he and Salin entered the ruins.
Inside the ruins were all architectural debris, scattered chaotically everywhere, either collapsed or leaning.
Law used his Nen to sweep away the sediment covering the debris, revealing stone pillars severely eroded by seawater. Although there were no parasites like barnacles, the surfaces of the pillars were pitted and pockmarked, a sorry sight.
In this condition, even if the pillars had engravings or writing, they were likely completely eroded.
"Seems like it's been here for a long time."
Salin said thoughtfully.
"Hmm."
Law agreed and advanced along the debris.
Apart from the areas destroyed by the sea creatures, they examined most of the architectural debris but found no clues whatsoever, not even any everyday utensils.
If not for the many glass fragments at the edge of the ruins, they might have started doubting whether this was a ruin at all, wondering if the numerous stone pillars on the seabed had coincidentally formed many architectural outlines.
"If this were human ruins, there should be something left behind," Salin said, puzzled.
"But this isn't land… it's the seabed."
Law brushed away thick sediment from a piece of debris. It was still pitted and eroded, revealing nothing.
The White Smoke Font didn't identify any information, so based on touch and sight alone, Law couldn't determine the specific age of the construction materials.
Although they hadn't found any possibly surviving information, Law still selected two stone pillars and put them into Kuro's space.
Finally, only an area about the size of two football fields remained unexplored.
The two continued their search, scanning piece after piece of debris, hoping to find something… even a damaged pattern or writing.
With no human artifacts found, their only hope rested on the architectural debris itself.
"Law, look!"
Suddenly, Salin pointed at a half-wall where sand had just been swept away.
Although also eroded by seawater, the wall clearly bore a somewhat damaged pattern.
Law saw it too and quickly brought Salin closer to examine the pattern.
The pattern on the wall wasn't complete… its edges and even parts of the center were damaged. One could faintly make out a large bird with wings spread, soaring. What was peculiar was that this bird had six heads.
The two leaned in to observe the pattern on the wall. Meanwhile, Kuro, bored, yawned.
"A six-headed bird?" Salin's eyes shone, unable to hide her excitement.
"No, it should be a nine-headed bird."
Looking at the pattern on the wall, Law was inwardly astonished. He reached out and traced several of the damaged sections.
The bird in the pattern only had six heads, but the surrounding pattern had damaged areas. At the ends of some details, traces of neck patterns could still be seen. From this, it could be seen that this strange bird had a total of nine heads.
Moreover, Law recognized the origin of this bird.