Shrouded Seascape

Under the watchful gazes of Sparkle and Charles, the middle-aged man before them cracked open from the top, and bright red blood burst out of the cracked skull along with brain matter.

The middle-aged man's blood vessels disintegrated. A few seconds later, all that remained before them was a writhing clump of flesh and blood.

Charles raised his right hand, and tentacles burst out of the wall, piercing the flesh. Soon, the clump of flesh rapidly reformed into the same middle-aged man.

It didn't disintegrate as soon as it started walking, but its eyes resembled a dead fish's.

"Simple appearances or basic reactions are relatively easy; they're like computer programs.

"But if you want him to possess his own soul, his own self-awareness and thoughts, that is an extremely complex matter."

"So it's impossible?" Sparkle asked, looking at the man with some regret.

"It's possible," Charles said, shaking his head. "I need approximately fifty-one hours absorbing nothing but information in that field. Once I'm done, it shouldn't be an issue.

"However, the creation of living beings is a taboo knowledge that is very intricate and deep. My current mental ability cannot handle the task.

"To proceed, I'd have to release my limiter and raise my mental ability to the same level as higher-dimensional entities," Charles said in a light, airy voice.

Sparkle instantly understood what her father was trying to say.

Charles was already struggling to discard the knowledge that had been coming to him naturally to erode his humanity, so how could he take the initiative to accept such knowledge?

Accepting more knowledge meant cutting down his remaining time as a human being.

"Sparkle, actually, if you want to find a father for Nene, then there's no need for us to go through so much trouble. It doesn't seem like her father is dead. We just need to find him and bring him back."

Sparkle's eyes widened, and she looked at her father in surprise.

She hadn't told him anything about her visit to Nene, so how did he know about it?

"Of course, I know. The afterimages next to you are telling me where you went," Charles said. He raised his hand, tracing something in the air next to Sparkle. I can see faint threads connected to Nene. Those threads, although faint, are intact."

Sparkle's delicate brows furrowed slightly. She grabbed Charles' hands and gave them a light squeeze. "What are you talking about, Daddy?"

She could not comprehend Charles' words.

"It's fine even if you don't understand. Just know that your friend's father isn't dead. We only need to find him and bring him back," Charles said, smiling stiffly at his daughter.

"Really? Where is he? Let's go find him!" Sparkle exclaimed. She was unusually concerned when it came to her one and only good friend.

A white light engulfed the living room. When the white light vanished, the two could no longer be seen.

When they stopped moving, they found themselves above an island in the Eastern Seas. It was a square-shaped island, unlike other flat islands. There was basically no flat ground on the island, as it was covered in mountains.

It was like an entire mountain range had been crammed into one single island.

"Nene's father is here?" Sparkle asked curiously.

Charles didn't reply and simply descended with Sparkle.

The islanders of this island mostly lived in the valleys of the island, while the wealthy islanders had their houses built on the summits and slopes. The vastly different living environment of the islanders gave rise to the island's unique cultural landscape.

The enormous wind turbines between the mountains provided clean energy for those living up above.

The wealthy had access to brightly lit cable cars that led directly to the docks, allowing them to enjoy the great scenery of the island without ever stepping foot on the filthy land down below.

Perhaps due to the ample shade provided by the towering mountains, the island had many people. It seemed that not many of them had perished from the death light.

Unfortunately, there were many people and little space, so life wasn't exactly comfortable for the islanders living in the valleys between the mountains compared to those living up above.

The valleys were narrow, so they were particularly crowded. To make matters worse, the islanders up above would throw their filth and garbage into the valleys down below, further worsening egregiously unsanitary conditions and the thick, foul miasma.

Even more tragic was that many were forced to make a living in the filth. As soon as Sparkle touched the ground, she looked up and saw quite a few people bending over the dirty, fly-infested garbage.

They were clad in torn clothes and were rummaging through the garbage for something. Charles' boots had just touched the ground when he immediately walked eastward on the narrow streets.

"He's this way. The threads are getting thicker."

Sparkle's outstanding appearance instantly attracted everyone's attention, but whether out of inferiority or for some other reason, no one dared to speak to her.

They only dared to steal glances at her.

"What are they looking for in the garbage? Is Nene's father one of them?" Sparkle asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"They're looking for anything useful, like food and feces," Charles replied as his steps came to a halt before a narrow doorway.

A house built on the foot of a mountain was standing before them. It was a tiny house—it was so tiny that it seemed like it could only accommodate a few people, and they'd have to lie down, to boot.

The dirty roof and walls proved that the house had been standing here for a long time, and there was a crooked sign hanging above the narrow doorway that said, "Helmsman Canned Meat Company."

Just as Charles was about to lift the door curtain and walk into the house, two burly men with tattoos on their necks and shoulders appeared from out of nowhere.

"You got a death wish or something? Don't you know whose turf this is?"

Once they saw Sparkle's impeccable appearance, a malicious smile suffused their lips. They reached for the oily tools hanging at their waists, but their attitudes abruptly changed. They bowed and pulled open the greasy door curtain.

"Please come in! The ground is slippery, so be careful."

The sight left the distant onlookers stunned. They couldn't have imagined such an outcome, even in their wildest dreams. Could the man and that woman be the children of Boss Quark?

Charles wasn't the least bit surprised by Sparkle's decision to instantly alter the thoughts of the two men, and he strode in without any hesitation.

The interior was not as small as it appeared from the outside. It was a spacious tunnel that led deep into the mountain. Upon reaching the end of the tunnel, a vast expanse appeared before their eyes.

There were several caverns in the vast expanse, and each cavern was the size of a football field. The caverns were divided into smaller sections by fences, and the fences contained bloated pigs.

There was no mistaking it; they had stumbled upon a massive pig farm.

However, the workers here looked a bit different from ordinary people. Their movements were slow, and their heads the size of a basketball barely had any hair.

The workers were pushing carts containing barrels of an unknown substance that smelled particularly foul upon mixing with the smell of pig manure in the air.

The contents of the barrels were soon revealed—human feces, fish entrails discarded at the docks, and just about anything edible in the garbage were within the barrels.

The workers used iron ladles to scoop them all up before dumping them into the pig troughs.

"Feeding pigs with human feces, and then making people eat those pigs. The people on this island sure are eco-friendly, all right," Charles remarked sarcastically before approaching a man pushing a cart in the distance.