Chapter 351 – Saltwater
Leyvi looked at her in silence. He couldn't even imagine what kind of chaos this squirrel would cause once Dastan brought her back home.
Another day passed peacefully.
Well, peacefully by their current standards, which still included the usual underwater carnage orchestrated by Tantan.
Stealth mode ensured that they weren't easily noticed. The arrays effectively neutralized the disturbances caused by the submarine's movement through the water. But it didn't make the vessel invisible. If demonic beasts happened to be nearby and spotted them directly, curiosity might get the better of some. A few brave or foolish ones even attempted to attack, only to give up after realizing they couldn't even scratch the massive metallic beast gliding through the depths.
Leyvi sent his spiritual sense out once again, sweeping across both underwater and the surface above as part of his routine route check.
"No deviation. Nice. Tantan is really great at this," he muttered to himself.
Tantan's ears twitched. She heard it and her chest puffed up with pride.
In the beginning, the Crown Abyss Diver had veered off course a few times without them realizing it. But that wasn't the case anymore. Tantan had clearly improved her grasp of navigation. They hadn't strayed from their course once since yesterday.
But then—something shifted.
Leyvi's eyes narrowed. At the edge of his spiritual sense, he felt a disturbance.
Something had changed.
Ahead, the water felt… different. Subtle, but unmistakable.
It wasn't like hitting a wall or a barrier, more like stepping into a patch of air thick with humidity. A slight shift in density. The resistance against his spiritual sense grew uneven, the change so delicate that most wouldn't notice. But Leyvi did.
Ever since his spiritual sense had reached the level where it could pass through solid, liquid, and gas, he had become attuned to the minute differences between mediums. Air, water, rock, each carried its own texture. Denser mediums slowed the spread of his sense, just like thicker fluids would drag against movement.
And now, even though they were already submerged in freshwater, something ahead was throwing it off.
A subtle delay.
That could only mean one thing: there was a different region of water up ahead.
His eyes narrowed. The shift might be slight, but it was enough to put him on alert.
"Stop the submarine," he instructed calmly.
Tantan obeyed, halting the Crown Abyss Diver smoothly before entering the region.
Leyvi extended his spiritual sense more cautiously this time, peeling apart the mystery layer by layer. Then he figured it out.
Saltwater.
There was an invisible vertical boundary separating the freshwater they were in from the saline water ahead. It stretched like a shimmering wall from the bottom of the lakebed almost to the surface. Near the top, it met a second boundary. A horizontal line where freshwater continued to flow above the saltwater, like two drinks in a layered glass.
Within that saline zone, he could even spot marine life, creatures that typically only thrived in the sea, not lakes.
What's going on here? Leyvi frowned. Why is there a saltwater zone here?
And that boundary, so sharply defined, so vertically straight. It didn't seem natural.
He knew that fluids with different densities could form layers. Tasya used to make those fancy multi-colored drinks at home. But that was horizontal separation, not vertical.
A vertical saline wall like this… Is that even normal?
Is this lake somehow connected to the sea? He immediately dismissed the idea.
He had already seen the world map. This vast inland lake was deep within the continent, completely landlocked, far from any sea. The idea that it was connected to the ocean was nearly impossible.
Then what caused this?
Leyvi investigated further, shifting his focus to the lakebed this time. Once his focal awareness reached the bottom, something immediately caught his attention. A massive bulge rising from the depths like an underwater mountain. It spanned nearly twenty kilometers across and rose five kilometers high, disrupting the otherwise flat lakebed around it.
His eyes narrowed in realization. That had to be the source.
He extended his spiritual sense deeper, piercing through the bulging formation.
Beneath layers of silt and compacted stone, the shape began to reveal itself. Broad and smooth, like a buried giant pressing up from beneath the earth. A salt dome. It pushed upward with immense, silent pressure, its rounded crest cracked in several places, where faint trails of saline water seeped through in a slow, quiet bleed.
I see... That explains the saline water zone.
A natural formation. Nothing mysterious. Nothing dangerous.
Whew… not some kind of dangerous zone or deadly anomaly. Just nature doing its thing. We can treat this area like the sea, I guess. Leyvi nodded to himself in relief.
"Guys, there's a rather large saline water region just ahead," he informed them. "Should we go through it or around?"
"It doesn't matter. It's still water. This prince's Crown Abyss Diver could even go through a sea of lava if needed, and you're here scared about some salt water?" Dastan scoffed. "Leyvi, you've become a coward. Right, Tantan?"
Tantan nodded seriously from the pilot's seat, her tiny face showing exaggerated disappointment. Where is your adventure spirit?
Leyvi's mouth twitched. I ask for their opinion to be safe, and they gang up on me instead? Just you guys wait. Once I reunite with my panda wife, you won't have the upper hand anymore.
"Alright, let's move then," Leyvi replied.
Tantan immediately resumed control of the vessel, her paws dancing across the glowing panels with growing confidence.
Meanwhile, Victor kept his eyes on Leyvi, narrowing them slightly. He had suspected it before, but now it was confirmed—Leyvi's spiritual sense really could pass through obstructions.
What a convenient ability. If I had that, finding hidden alchemy ingredients would be so much easier. Tch. Why do tall guys get all the good things? He grumbled inwardly, his list of unfair comparisons growing yet again. Just wait. I'm going to be tall no matter what.
As the submarine moved through the invisible boundary between fresh and salt water, it rose slightly, buoyed up by the denser saline beneath. The pressure reading ticked higher, and through the viewing screens, they noticed a subtle shift in the water's color—slightly murkier, with a faint greenish hue.
The Crown Abyss Diver adjusted seamlessly and continued forward in stealth mode. For the passengers, it was barely noticeable. Just a gentle shift beneath their feet, as if crossing an invisible line.
Some kilometers later, without warning, the submarine jolted and came to a sudden halt.
Leyvi and the others stumbled as the vessel pitched forward slightly.
"What the…? What's going on? Did we hit something, Tantan?" Dastan asked, catching his balance.
Tantan shook her head firmly, puffing her cheeks. As if she would make such a rookie mistake.
Leyvi frowned and immediately spread his spiritual sense outward. "No… we didn't hit anything. But something definitely stopped the Crown Abyss Diver."
He scanned the surroundings, his brows furrowing deeper. "Weird. I don't see anything around us at all." The submarine just floats there alone.
The others turned their eyes to the viewing screens to confirm Leyvi's claim. The Crown Abyss Diver pulsed brighter, casting more spiritual light into the surrounding waters. Yet, even with the added illumination, nothing unusual came into view.
Only long, wavering marine plants, like seaweed, floated nearby, swaying gently with the current. These weren't ordinary seaweeds either. In places rich with spiritual energy, even underwater flora that normally needed sunlight could thrive, replacing their energy source with the ambient spiritual force instead.
Still, the seaweeds were well beyond reach. Even if they had made contact, there was no way they'd be strong enough to hold back something as massive and powerful as the Crown Abyss Diver.
"Tantan, try going at full speed," Dastan suggested, his eyes flicking toward the fluctuating pressure readings.
Tantan nodded with a grin and powered up the array engine. The vessel lurched forward slightly, indicating it wasn't lodged against a solid obstruction. But just as it gained some distance, everyone inside felt a sudden resistance—something was pulling them back. Not stuck… but restrained. Like a fish on a line.
"Hmmm…" Dastan narrowed his eyes. "This prince suspects we've been caught by a demonic beast. Probably a commander-level or higher… one with the ability to turn invisible. This prince has heard of similar incidents happening to our royal navy."
"An invisible demonic beast captured us?" Leyvi frowned. "Even if it's invisible, how come my spiritual sense didn't detect anything at all?" He was puzzled. If his spiritual sense had been sweeping a broad area, it might have made sense. But right now, it was focused, close-range; there was no way he could've missed something so close, even if it was invisible.
"That's not unusual," Dastan replied calmly. "Remember what this prince told you before—awakened aquatic demonic beasts are far more dangerous in the water. This is their world. The ones with invisibility can even avoid being detected by the spiritual sense. If not for this Crown Abyss Diver, we'd already be dead."
Despite the eerie situation, Dastan remained unshaken, his tone steady with confidence. After all, he trusted his vessel's defenses completely.
"Is that so?" Leyvi nodded. Seeing the crown prince so calm, Leyvi became calmer as well. If even the clown prince didn't panic, why should he?