Chapter 1 Anomaly

The water bubble slowly rose to the surface, and as the surrounding seawater receded, Hao Ren found himself in an unusually calm body of water. He looked around and saw a dark, turtle-backed islet not far to the left. The islet was bare and devoid of anything, while the surroundings were clear and the air was excellent. He did not see the expected thick fog.

"You say this place is called Mist Island?" Lily looked in surprise at the black island that was slowly approaching. "It doesn't look like there's any fog at all."

"Look around," said Shaquira, pointing her tail tip at the surrounding sea. "Can you see any reference points? Not even a single wave."

Vivian widened her eyes. "Nothing... This water is unbelievably still, not even a ripple?!"

The entire sea within sight was almost eerily calm. Even with the farthest gaze, there were no reference points on the horizon. The sea was as smooth as a perfectly polished artificial mirror, without even the slightest ripple. The light from the sky was uniform in every direction, and the sun hung in the exact center of the sky as if it had been precisely calibrated, casting an even light. This sunlight added to the eeriness of the water.

The black island in the distance was the only unusual color between the sea and the sky. Apart from that, the whole world seemed to have turned into a monotonous blue and white, clearly divided into two parts, top and bottom. There was no doubt that this was not a natural phenomenon.

"Are we still on Earth?" Hao Ren patted his pocket and muttered almost to himself. The data terminal's voice then rang in his mind: "Coordinate comparison... The current location is still Earth, but there is a barrier-like thing around it, changing the natural landscape within the area. It has obvious artificial encryption marks, but we have been here once, and next time this unit is confident in cracking the entry rules of this place."

"This is Mist Island. The mist is not on the island, but in the entire space," Soma swam around the group, introducing the only entrance to the Siren world. "Only by passing through a few correct nodes in succession can you see Mist Island in front of you. Any other route will encounter an eternal and unyielding fog once it approaches this water. Even the most advanced human ships will go back the way they came after circling around a few times. Many navigators who are not easily fooled have recorded the fog in this place, so we have to change the entry and exit rules and guidance positions of the fog every so often. Those explorers are really troublesome; I don't know why they are so interested in knocking on our door."

"Only by diving from one side of the coast of Mist Island can you enter Nasaton. The water around this island is the most critical 'node' leading to Nasaton," Shaquira swam over and took Nangong Wuyue's hand. "Little sister, did you remember the water flow information you just passed through?"

As a siren, Nangong Wuyue could sense the "route" just now. She nodded, her face full of surprise. "I didn't expect the old nest to be hidden like this... It's much more powerful than I thought. No wonder I tried several times before and couldn't find the Siren City."

"Your mother asked you to stay away from Nasaton perhaps to protect you, but it is always a pity not to be able to return to your homeland," Soma swam over as well. "In the future, you can freely enter and exit this place, and you can also bring these friends who are here today – but you cannot bring anyone else. Finally, although Nasaton seems to have encountered some trouble, you are still welcome home, young sister."

The three sirens turned and plunged into the water, their scales reflecting golden light in the sunlight. Doudou was poking her head out of Hao Ren's collar to observe the outside world. Seeing this, she cheered and jumped down with a splash, wagging her tail vigorously to catch up with the three "sisters." Along the way, the little one jumped excitedly out of the water from time to time, turning somersaults in the air like a dolphin and greeting everyone: "Water! So much water! I like this place!"

The vast sea seemed to evoke a sense of familiarity with her home world, and she had been unusually excited since just now.

Hao Ren and the others stepped on the foam and water beneath their feet, gradually approaching the black island behind the three sirens. Nangong Sanba looked at the scene on the island and seemed to suddenly see something that caught his attention. He raised his hand and shouted loudly to the sirens in the distance: "Can we go to the island and take a look?"

"No problem," Shaquira's voice came from the front, "but don't stay too long!"

The group stepped onto this black, turtle-backed island that had never been recorded on any nautical chart. Its regular shape did not look like a natural creation at all. The entire island was like a whole metal device, seamless and natural. Its surface was covered with huge but shallow grooves. Lily bent down and touched the black, cold "ground," exclaiming in surprise: "It's warm?!"

"There is an energy reaction deep in this island," the data terminal's voice rang in the minds of Hao Ren and the others. "It is the part of a huge spherical device that is exposed above the water. This sphere floats in the water, and this unit has scanned that there are one hundred and thirty-five pipes connected to the seabed at its bottom. That may be a system that interacts with seabed thermal energy. And this device itself is the source of the mist barrier."

On the black island, you could see some sparsely distributed man-made things. They were shaped like coral, protruding from the ground in clumps, but their surfaces floated with a faint fluorescence. Elizabeth curiously poked one of the "corals," and the latter immediately emitted a melodious wind chime sound.

Then the little girl was electrocuted with a face full of black ash.

Elizabeth was still happy: "It's so exciting!"

"I thought sirens only knew magic..." Hao Ren looked at all this in surprise. "I didn't expect them to build this kind of thing."

"Can't magic be used to build automatic facilities?" Vivian asked in reply. "Moreover, a race that is not disturbed by the outside world has been developing in the deep sea for ten thousand years. How could they not build something powerful to guard their home? After all, in a sense, they are the earliest civilization on this planet."

At this moment, a sound of water came from behind everyone, and Shaquira climbed ashore and called everyone over: "Are you ready to dive?"

The group rode the water bubble into the deep sea. During the descent, Hao Ren and the others had been carefully observing the direction of Mist Island. They indeed saw the true appearance of this "island" underwater, as described by the data terminal. It was an enormous sphere, and the part under the water was even more complex. Below the midline of the sphere, you could see many shimmering protrusions, which flickered with a certain rhythm, seeming to react to the water flow around the sea. At the bottom of this giant sphere were a large number of black cables like deep-sea cables, which hung down and disappeared into an endless darkness, not knowing where they extended.

This was not a technological creation, but a huge magical device – but to Earth's civilization, it was no different from advanced alien science.

After the water bubble dived to a certain depth, it changed course and began to move away from Mist Island. Hao Ren noticed that there were bright clusters of light flashing outside from time to time, which might be luminous animals in the deep sea, or some kind of "road sign" set up by the sirens. Doudou wandered around outside and became interested. Now she was swimming around near the outer wall of the water bubble, jumping in and out of the bubbles that opened on the water wall from time to time. "Roll" was lying next to the hole where Doudou entered and exited, carefully guarding it. She was responsible for preventing Doudou from falling – this cat knew that if she didn't take good care of the fish, not only would she be beaten by the fish, but she probably wouldn't be able to eat dried small fish for the rest of her life...

"We should be crossing a space stratum," Izhaks suddenly sensed something. He looked up at the dark water wall above. "I feel like something has changed... The sirens' magic is very clever. The space stratum they create is so smooth that it is almost imperceptible."

"So people who accidentally stray into it have almost no way to get out alive on their own. Before you realize it, you have entered an endless water world," Shaquira said from the side. "Although we live in our own little kingdom without provoking anyone, there are still many reckless adventurers who break in every year. They will 100% get lost in this layered and invisible deep-sea maze. We have sent many sirens to patrol outside, and we will try our best to rescue those in distress, but inevitably some unlucky ones will miss the rescue. But I have been away from here for a hundred years, and I don't know if any humans have broken into here recently."

At this moment, a glimmer of light appeared at the front of the water bubble, and Soma's voice came from the front: "We can see the Great Protective Wall of Nasaton."