"You... killed him...?"

The guide swallowed nervously after hearing Supreme Ruler Dena’s claim.

Even though he was right beside her, Supreme Ruler Grant didn’t dare to correct her, mostly because it’d harm his reputation more if he revealed that he was actually alive and was being dragged around like some kind of slave.

"Are you going to call me a liar next?" Supreme Ruler Dena narrowed her gaze at him.

"N-No..." The guide hastily shook his head before continuing, "Let’s talk about your destination. The Weeping Ossuary, correct? It’s a little far from here, but that’s not the issue. The currents have been rough and nearly unpredictable for several thousand years now, so only an experienced guide would be able to take you there safely. Fortunately for you, I am an experienced guide."

"As for your rates... Since you’re the Supreme Ruler, I’ll give you a discount. How does thirty thousand Grand Bone Calx sound? Or three Supreme Bone Calx?"

"..." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Supreme Ruler Dena fell silent.

"Is that too expensive? Normally, I would charge a hundred thousand Grand Calx or ten Supreme Bone Calx..."

Lev then spoke, "Uh... we don’t have such currency in the Crimson Continent."

"..."

It was the guide’s turn to fall silent.

"Don’t tell me... you want me to guide you for free?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"..."

Yuan then spoke, "How about this? Rather than an upfront payment, we’ll pay you upon arrival at our destination, and we’ll even pay you your original—no, double your normal rates."

"Even if we get there, how do you intend to pay when you don’t have any money?" The guide inquired with a puzzled face.

"Although we don’t have any money, we won’t be the ones paying you. Supreme Ruler Exosso will be footing the bill, after all," Yuan elaborated with a nonchalant face.

"Uhh... do they know that they’ll be paying me, or are you just..." the guide’s confused face turned into a doubtful one.

"Trust me, they’ll definitely pay you. The Supreme Ruler here will make sure of that." Yuan said while pointing at Supreme Ruler Dena.

"Alright! I will trust you!"

Despite his enthusiasm, the guide was lying about trusting them.

However, there was really nothing he could do but accept his fate and guide them to their destination even if they couldn’t pay him.

After all, if he refused and offended them, death would be the least of his worries.

"When would you like to go?" The guide then asked.

"Can we depart immediately?"

"Not immediately since I will need some time to study the currents."

"How much time do you need?"

"A few days should be enough."

"Then we will leave once you’re ready."

Some time later, the guide left the island to study the current while the demon who led them there returned to his own island.

"What if he just leaves us here?" Lev asked as they watched the guide disappear.

"Then we will sink this place," Supreme Ruler Dena calmly said.

Three days later, the guide returned and said, "Alright, we can start traveling."

Yuan nodded, and they started following him into the water.

"By the way, my name is Gutou."

"We can use Void Manipulation, you know?" Lev remarked shortly after their journey began.

"So can I, but if I want accurate reading, I must constantly study the currents. Normally, it doesn’t require this much effort, but like I said earlier, the currents have been chaotic and unpredictable recently."

Lev then asked, "If the currents are unpredictable, how can you accurately pinpoint our destination? By the time we arrive, it will likely have drifted somewhere else entirely."

"Although the atolls move with the currents, those currents aren’t entirely random," Gutou explained. "They all circulate within the same region, so the atolls never stray beyond a fixed area."

He continued, "I’m not reading the currents to pinpoint the Weeping Ossuary itself, but to chart a path toward its area. Without doing so, we’d easily lose our way."

"Can’t we just head in one direction? Even without reading the currents, we should eventually reach that area."

Gutou shook his head. "It’s not that simple. While the atolls themselves don’t leave their region, the regions shift—so what is east now could become west later."

"Wouldn’t it be impossible to even begin if you’re not constantly reading the currents? If you ignore them for too long, you wouldn’t even know where to start," Lev said, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Gutou replied. "We can roughly determine our location—and what surrounds us—by the scent of the water. Each region has a slightly different smell. That’s why I said only an experienced guide can navigate these waters."

"Oh, and each region also has its own unique landmarks," he added. "We use those as reference points as well."

"What a pain in the ass... no wonder the people here prefer to stay on their own island and rarely venture out." Supreme Ruler Dena sighed out loud.

"How long do you think it’ll take us to reach our destination?" Yuan finally asked.

"Hard to say, but a few thousand years if we’re lucky."

Yuan sighed, "I knew it was something ridiculous, so I was afraid to even ask..."

"Wait a second..."

Yuan suddenly stopped moving and remained still with a pondering look on his face.

"What’s wrong?" Supreme Ruler Dena asked him.

Yuan glanced at the crimson sea below and muttered, "Let me try something."

He descended onto the surface and pressed his palm against the water.

In the next instant, the raging sea fell into complete stillness—its currents silenced, as though the ocean itself had been subdued.

"T-The Bloody Expanse became still?!" Gutou exclaimed in shock and bewilderment. "What in Demon God’s name did you do?!"

"I commanded it to stop moving, that’s all," Yuan calmly said.

"That’s all?! THAT’S ALL?!?!" Gutou shouted hysterically, his voice cracking as if on the verge of madness. "Who the hell are you?! The king of the seas?!"

"No, I’m Yuan," he replied, looking as nonchalant as possible.