Almost everyone found Jiang Fan's sudden disappearance incredibly hard to believe. In their memories, Jiang Fan was an invincible existence.
No matter how great the difficulty, he could easily resolve it. While it was true that sometimes opponents were too powerful and he struggled to manage them, he never got injured.
Even during their last encounter in the pyramid desert, Jiang Fan had easily dealt with numerous monsters before ascending the rope bridge.
Now, he had vanished without a word, leaving everyone bewildered and unable to accept it.
At the same time, Yao slowly arrived at an unfamiliar place.
"What's going on? These reefs weren't arranged like this earlier, and their positions have shifted. Is there some strange mechanism in these reefs?"
After experiencing so much, Yao's guard was exceptionally high. He immediately noticed something peculiar about the reefs.
"No more thinking about it, I need to get ashore and see what happened."
As this particular reef was enormous, Yao could easily leap from his boat onto it, then tie up the small boat to a suitable rock nearby.
Looking at the surrounding reefs and the remnants of Jiang Fan's clothes, Yao fell into deep thought.
"Whatever could make Jiang Fan fight so desperately must be no ordinary creature, or it must be a colossal one."
"But Jiang Fan wouldn't have fought his way all the way from Golden Coast to Shadow Island, would he? What kind of enemy could force him to flee this far?"
As for why he would come here, Yao could understand. Perhaps Jiang Fan didn't want to implicate his companions and wanted to lure the enemy away to deal with them.
However, this was clearly an unrealistic scenario. For Jiang Fan to swim all the way from Golden Coast to here on his own would be as difficult as surviving winter.
A normal person simply could not achieve this. Even a professionally trained diver would need specialized protective gear to make such a journey.
Otherwise, the icy seawater at night would freeze Jiang Fan's entire body, causing his organs to shut down. How could he possibly reach such a distant shore?
Yao crouched down, rubbed some bloodstains from Jiang Fan's clothes, and then sniffed them.
Yao was very experienced in deducing such things. Confirming that it was indeed Jiang Fan's blood, not long shed, he could largely conclude that Jiang Fan was likely in the vicinity.
"No matter what, I'll go down and see if Jiang Fan is here."
This was a very real possibility. If Jiang Fan had truly died, he would most likely be at the bottom of the sea.
Yao placed his gear on the reef and, without hesitation, leaped into the water, heading towards the seabed.
As they were near the reefs, it wasn't particularly difficult to dive to the seabed, as the depth here was only a few meters.
Although the pressure would be immense, enough to overwhelm an ordinary person, for Yao, it was still manageable. His powerful physique could easily withstand such pressure.
Upon glancing around, Yao's eyes widened in disbelief. Everything he saw below was astounding.
It was evident that a fierce battle had taken place here, otherwise, these rocks wouldn't be shattered to this extent. While there were remnants of Jiang Fan's clothes, the seabed held even more obvious clues.
The reefs here were all pockmarked and dented, as if a colossal force had gouged out a huge hole, akin to Gonggong crashing into Mount Buzhou.
Moreover, the size of this hole was almost identical to Jiang Fan's build, making it highly probable that Jiang Fan had been knocked into it during a fight with another creature.
However, after observing his surroundings, Yao found nothing else. He could only stare at the large hole, finding it utterly perplexing.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible. Jiang Fan wouldn't die so easily. And even if he encountered a formidable opponent, with his skill wielding the fire axe, he should have been able to hold his own against any monster."
After all, Jiang Fan had faced a powerful flying dragon in the cave, a creature far more formidable than the dragons in the desert. Yet, Jiang Fan, with his agile movements and light footwork, combined with his fire axe, had managed to fight effectively.
Yao could not bring himself to believe that Jiang Fan would be so easily annihilated in the seabed.
"Damn it, I can't find any clues. I can only search the surrounding area, but there's no leads. What should I do now?"
Yao's expression turned grim. His hair was completely soaked, and he had fastened his common weapon to himself.
"No matter, I'll wait here for now. Perhaps Jiang Fan will appear on the surface of the sea any moment and meet up with me."
Frankly, Yao had no other options. He had searched everywhere he could. Continuing to search now would be like a headless fly, darting about aimlessly.
It was better to wait here for Jiang Fan.
At that moment, Yao suddenly heard an unusual sound nearby. He quickly turned his head, thinking it was Jiang Fan approaching, only to see a marine creature with a shark's fin swimming relentlessly.
However, Yao was certain that this was no ordinary shark but a different kind of creature.
It had a slender body and moved with incredible speed, far swifter than a shark.
Although it hadn't rammed the reef and caused Yao to fall, its posture indicated it had no intention of letting Yao leave.
"Could it be that Jiang Fan encountered this thing? It's unlikely. Given its physique, Jiang Fan should be able to defeat it easily."
To test his theory, Yao unhesitatingly drew his dual blades and plunged into the sea.
The moment he entered the water, he felt a sense of disbelief. What appeared before him was not a simple marine creature but a marine being with a human face.
"How is this possible? Could such a thing truly exist in the world? Isn't this a legendary mermaid? Although this is a male, if males exist, then females must also exist."