The Penitent’s Armour arrived at the base of the mast and attempted to clear the surrounding salt using the Ironbreaker (Imitation). Before long, the sail buried under the salt revealed itself. But perhaps it had been buried for too long.

The sail was as fragile as brittle paper, pressing lightly could poke a hole through it with ease. The paint on the surface of the mast had also peeled away, exposing the white, cracked wood beneath.

“This mast is at least over ten metres tall. Digging the whole thing out isn’t very realistic,” Yang Yi assessed.

He manipulated the armor to grab a handful of sea salt. The texture was coarse, like slightly oversized grains of sand. So, the main excavation would still have to rely on the airflow inside the decaying whale’s body.

Yang Yi crouched down in the armour, bracing for the next blast of wind to avoid being blown away. Roughly every thirty seconds to a minute, a powerful gust of wind would blow from the front, sweeping away large amounts of sea salt, and along with it, the crystallised salt figures on the surface.

Strictly speaking, the wind inside the whale was more akin to a saltstorm than a sandstorm, just with salt grains replacing sand.

"Each gust removes about 30 centimetres of salt. Even if this mast is thirty meters high, that means only a hundred gusts are needed. It shouldn't take more than two hours!" Suna observed after watching a few bursts.

Yang Yi looked ahead.

Limited by the armour’s field of vision, it was hard for him to determine what lay in front. The inside of the decaying whale was dim; the light filtering down from the opening was scarce, and the armour’s night vision couldn’t compare to that of the Third Eye.

Not to mention, the large number of active salt figures obstructed vision, along with the periodic saltstorms. He hesitated for a few minutes, then decided to stay and unearth the ship before thinking about further exploration. After all, the armour’s operating range was limited. Losing connection at a distance would be a huge problem, he could even be blown away, lost for good.

With that decision made, the Penitent’s Armour no longer advanced. Instead, it turned to the wall of the cavity and struck the bright red flesh with its sword. A large amount of white fluid sprayed out of the wound, instantly attracting nearby salt figures, which were then swiftly drained dry.

"The flesh's strength is no different from pork. No bones either. It’s just massive in volume and very tenacious in vitality," Suna remarked, seemingly recording the characteristics of this organism.

"This must be the super-aggregated form of those delicious meat chunks. Once we find the core, we’ll see what sets it apart..."

…

Half an hour passed.

The airflow inside the decaying whale had grown stronger, and its rhythm had stabilised to a burst every minute.

Standing aboard the Nightmare Star, Suna could already see the slowly swelling hemispherical shadow under the sea. It did so slowly, then suddenly contracted, forcing air out of its body while ejecting large quantities of sea salt, then slowly inhaling fresh air again. It was somewhat like the beating of a heart.

“The decaying whale is slowly recovering!” 

She snapped a photo of the sea and sent it to Yang Yi.

Once the white seawater arrived, the whale could revive in an instant, at which point, the salt figures would be powerless to restrain it.

Inside the decaying whale.

Yang Yi had just scattered a salt figure, then poured over 100 litres of water on it before it finally lost its aggression. When exposed to excessive freshwater, salt figures dissolved and no longer formed humanoid shapes.

With the winds growing stronger, the area he was in was becoming increasingly dangerous.

It was the third salt figure he had dealt with. They couldn’t be killed, only subdued, then discarded. As a result, Yang Yi was left with less than 500 litres of freshwater in his ring, and he needed that to drink as well, especially since he was injured.

The localised dehydration of his left arm had caused it to shrivel, but it was slowly recovering after he drank a sufficient amount of freshwater.

At the bottom of the cavern.

The Penitent’s Armour crouched on the ground, continuously fending off the onslaught of the saltstorm. With the increasing wind force, preventing himself from being blown away by the gusts had become the top priority. As large amounts of sea salt were swept away, the ship buried beneath gradually came into view.

It turned out to be a three-masted sailing ship, with the central mast being the tallest, thus the first to be revealed. It was even longer than anticipated. Thirty metres of it had already emerged, and yet there was still no sign of the base.

From time to time, the armour would jab the Ironbreaker (Imitation) into the salt layers to probe how much salt remained.

After another quarter hour… the rooms on the ship’s deck finally surfaced. At the same time, the armour’s downward thrust with the Ironbreaker (Imitation) struck something different, like the deck.

“Go check the rooms,” Suna urged.

Even without her prompting, Yang Yi was already preparing to go.

After moving forward a dozen metres or so, the Penitent’s Armour stood atop the roof of one of the rooms. Instead of digging through the salt to find the door, Yang Yi opted to break a hole straight through the ceiling. But even a forceful strike failed to split it open, only leaving a deep gash on the surface.

It was surprising that the ship’s wooden structure remained so sturdy after being buried in sea salt for who knows how long. No wonder the towering mast hadn’t snapped after being battered by wind for so long. If it weren’t for the cracks in the wood, it would have been even stronger.

Realising that breaking through the roof would be difficult, Yang Yi switched to looking for the door. After another blast of wind, nearly half a metre of salt was cleared away, revealing the doorway, which hadn’t been closed.

Yang Yi directed the Penitent’s Armour to dash over. As expected, the room was also filled with salt.

He began excavating the salt inside, careful not to damage any potential contents. If there were books or documents inside, and they were accidentally tossed out and swept away by the wind, it would all be for nothing.

Since the wind couldn’t reach inside the room, the salt could only be manually dug out by Yang Yi, making him resemble an archaeologist digging through earth, though not nearly as delicate… after all, he was using a greatsword to dig salt.

Soon, he struck something solid. After clearing away the surrounding salt, a table emerged. It was fixed in place, made of the same sturdy material as the rest of the ship. There was nothing atop the table, making it unclear whether anything had been swept away during excavation.

Yang Yi checked further and, within a mound of salt beneath the table, found a toppled bookshelf, along with a few books and letters. The covers were faded, and the ink had blurred, but the titles were still barely readable:

Yang Yi shook the sea salt off the books and tried to open the one that interested him most, the World Nautical Chart. But it was difficult to open, as the pages were stuck tightly together.

When he applied more force, the entire book tore apart. The pages inside seemed to have fused together and become brittle, collapsing into fragments.

“This book must’ve been soaked,” Suna said with a sigh.

Yang Yi checked the other books and letters — they were all in the same condition, completely unreadable.

After the ship was flooded, the books hadn’t been properly preserved. The moisture had never fully dried out, rendering the contents nearly unsalvageable. Rather than force open the rest, Yang Yi set them aside, perhaps they could still be deciphered back on the Nightmare Star.

Then, his attention turned to a cabinet on the table. A finely crafted metal lock hung from it, and remarkably, it had not rusted.

Thank you for reading! We hope you’re enjoying the story at: i novel translation(dot)com :)

There’s now a Patreon, so feel free to check it out! You can read up to 12 chapters in advance!! :D

Please give the novel a rating and a review on NovelBin (( novel updates(dot)com )). It will help the website and also help people find this novel!