One day later.Suna was at the helm, steering the ship.Yang Yi, on the other hand, had grabbed a fishing rod and was making his way to the mid-deck to try his luck.He'd already used today's ration of Pale Worm bait, which had landed him a single, perfectly intact Long-legged Sardine.From here on out, fishing was purely a game of skill and luck.Yang Yi had been keeping an eye on the chat channels, paying attention to the tips shared by the die-hard fishing bros. They were constantly testing different kinds of bait, trying to figure out what worked best for pulling fish from this white-fog-shrouded, Polar Winter Sea.The final verdict was unanimous—the Pale Worm.Using shredded bits of a Pale Worm's corpse as bait supposedly jacked up your catch rate in these waters immensely.Yang Yi was now in the process of seeing if they were full of shit.He’d been trying for days, after all, and hadn't gotten so much as a nibble.Today, he switched tactics. He’d gone to Suna and asked for a small, absolutely fresh segment of a juvenile Pale Worm's tentacle. The kind that was still wriggling.The little bastards were ridiculously resilient; their tentacles could regenerate infinitely and they weren't picky eaters. Suna was keeping one alive in the witch's lab as a living specimen.Three hours of fishing later, Yang Yi had caught exactly jack squat."Are these fishing bros fucking with me?" he started to wonder.Suddenly, the Nyxstar ground to a halt.Suna's voice echoed from the bow."Yang Yi, get over here and take a look at this!"Yang Yi’s focus sharpened. He dropped the rod and bolted over, his weapon already in his hand."What is…?"He stopped in his tracks, a look of surprise on his face.Stretching out before the ship was a vast sheet of ice. It was impossible to tell how large it was, shrouded as it was in the thick fog.This wasn't some thin layer of floating ice, either. This was a solid, thick glacier, blocking the Nyxstar's path."Which way do we go around?" Suna asked. She couldn't see through the whiteout and had no idea of the glacier's scale, so she wanted Yang Yi to use his third eye.Yang Yi got the message. He plucked the eyepatch from his left eye. Instantly, the fog vanished, his vision stretching out to the far horizon.And then he saw it. Two nautical miles away, a ship was frozen into the glacier.It was an ordinary sailboat, one he'd seen not long ago. It had been covered in bonfires, its hull scarred with scorch marks as if it had been through an inferno.But now, every flame on that ship was extinguished. Its hull was caked in a layer of white frost, as if it had been left overnight in an ultra-low-temperature freezer. The entire vessel was frozen solid.Just as Yang Yi was about to take a closer look, he was startled to see the fishing rod on the deck behind him twitching violently. Something was dragging it, pulling it right into the sea."Shit, of all the times to get a bite!"He swept his third eye across the whole glacier. Seeing no immediate danger, he didn't hesitate. He sprinted back, ripped off his boots and down jacket, and launched himself into the frigid sea.If he didn't move fast, he’d lose that rod for good.Thankfully, his prompt action and good swimming skills paid off. The moment he hit the water, he spotted the rod. He let the reel spin freely, clamped the rod between his teeth, and hauled himself back onto the deck."SUNA!" he yelled.She knew exactly what to do, running over to grab the fishing rod from him.With that, Yang Yi snatched his down jacket and fleece-lined boots from the deck and bolted for the captain's cabin. He changed into a spare set of wool pants and a sweater at the fastest speed of his life.Standing drenched in a thirty-below-zero environment was a death sentence. He had to change, and fast.His underwear, at least, was a simple garment made with the basic synthesis function, requiring only a small amount of cloth.Once changed, he pushed open the cabin door and stepped back out.Suna was still locked in a struggle with whatever was in the sea. By the looks of it, she'd hooked a big one.Yang Yi immediately took over, readying himself to draw his gun and fire at a moment's notice.As long as it wasn't a seal, he'd shoot without hesitation.After nearly half an hour of wrestling, Yang Yi finally managed to drag the "fish" to the surface.From its shadow, it looked like a three-meter-long, bizarre fish covered in what looked like black seaweed.He'd never seen anything like it. He shot it.BANG!A direct hit to the head. A spray of black, filthy blood bloomed on the water's surface.Then, a massive tangle of black, hair-like seaweed erupted from the ocean, snaking toward Yang Yi to ensnare him."The hell?"Yang Yi never imagined this fish could control seaweed, and with such terrifying speed.He hadn't even had time to put down the rod and draw the Serpent's Tooth before his hands and neck were tightly bound by the black tendrils.Luckily, his own strength was nothing to scoff at. Between that and being on guard, he wasn't dragged back into the water. With Suna joining the fight, the seaweed was quickly hacked to pieces, and Yang Yi broke free."Pah!"He spat out a mouthful of the salty, freezing seaweed that had been forced into his mouth. He took aim at the fish's shadow and fired again.BANG!This time, he targeted its body.The effect was spectacular.A bizarre, chirping shriek echoed from beneath the waves. The water churned violently, and then, the creature went completely still.Yang Yi lifted the rod, finally getting a clear look at his catch.It was a literal Skeleton Fish. It had no scales, its body pieced together from several hard, white plates of bone. It had no flesh, its eye sockets were empty holes, and its fins were skeletal frames. It looked like it had been dead for ages.But from its eye sockets and the gaps between its bone plates, countless long, thin, seaweed-like black threads emerged, resembling a woman's long black hair, only far tougher.His first shot had blown a hole in the fish's head but apparently missed anything vital.The second shot must have killed the unknown creature hiding inside the skeleton.Confirming it was dead, he heaved it onto the deck. Prying open the shield-like bone plates of the fish, Yang Yi finally saw the creature's true form, and his skin crawled.It was a ridiculously huge, fat caterpillar. The black threads were its hairs, just unbelievably long. It used these hairs to puppet the fish's skeleton, mimicking its movements—a resurrected Skeleton Fish.The first shot had gone clean through the fish's head without harming the caterpillar itself, though it had severed many of the black threads, which leaked a black fluid. The second shot, aimed at the body, had struck the caterpillar curled up inside the skeletal chest cavity, killing it instantly.[Name: Black-Thread Corpse-Worm][Description: A unique parasite from the Abyss, typically inhabiting marine creatures with hard carapaces. Upon reaching maturity, it kills the host, devours its flesh and blood, then uses the long black hairs on its body to control the host's remains, replicating its movements to prey on other fish.][The black hairs on its body are edible and rich in nutrients, considered a delicacy. Has a hair-growth effect. Innards are mildly toxic.]"A delicacy?"Yang Yi stared at the grotesque caterpillar, completely unable to connect it with the word 'delicacy'.He tossed the entire skeleton-and-worm contraption into the ship's hold to deal with later.There were more important things to handle right now.The glacier, and the ship on it.Yang Yi explained what he had seen to Suna."This glacier is massive, about four nautical miles in diameter," he explained. His third eye didn't perceive things through light, so a telescope was useless. Good thing he didn't need one; his visual range was ten nautical miles.And right in the center of that glacier sat a ship. A frozen ship."Something must've happened to that ship, and it got frozen out at sea.""And the owner…" Yang Yi confirmed with one last look, "…is already dead." he finished, slipping his eyepatch back on.

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