"This is why I brought the Fishmen to the island."

Bai Zhou sat on the long table in the lecture hall, speaking slowly.

He was talking to Mo Ling, but his eyes were unfocused, as if he were staring at the Shadow under the desk.

"Later, I left the Chali Race and set out to find the Fishman Race, until they captured me and threw me in prison."

"When they first saw me, they couldn’t even tell what race I was..."

Mo Ling watched the dazed Bai Zhou, his heart filled with worry.

As Bai Zhou recounted his experiences, his words were a jumbled mess. He was erratic, sometimes shouting unexpectedly, other times muttering unintelligibly to himself.

His expression was constantly shifting, as if the scenes were replaying right before his eyes.

Bai Zhou’s body was still trembling slightly. Clearly, he hadn’t yet emerged from his memories.

What’s more, Mo Ling found he couldn’t distinguish truth from fiction in Bai Zhou’s story. The experiences he described were like haphazardly assembled fragments, completely unsubstantiated.

A prime example was the little girl who kept appearing.

Thinking of this, Mo Ling could no longer suppress his curiosity.

After confirming that Bai Zhou seemed a bit more stable, he cautiously asked, "That little girl... is she an illusion created by a relic?"

"Of course," Bai Zhou replied calmly. "My obsession was too strong, so the relic followed my thoughts and conjured those phantoms. I know all of this."

"Those thoughts were all mine. There is no little girl."

Bai Zhou seemed to understand perfectly that they were all illusions; his logic was impeccable.

However, Mo Ling’s attention wasn’t on Bai Zhou’s words, but on his strange movements.

While speaking, Bai Zhou kept glancing to his side, as if someone small were sitting there.

When he moved, he also seemed to be deliberately avoiding that spot.

And even though the temperature was low, Bai Zhou would still wipe the sweat from his forehead from time to time.

Gazing at the empty space beside Bai Zhou, Mo Ling asked again, more seriously this time, "Are you really sure there’s no little girl?"

Hearing Mo Ling’s question, Bai Zhou was taken aback for a moment, then smiled. "Of course not."

While answering, he turned his head slightly to look at the space beside him, then shifted a little further away.

"Alright."

’Now it’s even harder to tell what’s real.’

Mo Ling had thought he could learn from Bai Zhou what had really happened on this island.

But instead of answers, he found that solving one mystery only gave rise to another.

The only person who could give him answers didn’t seem entirely sane.

Seeing Bai Zhou’s disoriented state, Mo Ling decided not to press him any further.

Just as Mo Ling was wondering what to do next, Bai Zhou suddenly broke the silence. "Does it seem a little brighter to you?"

’Brighter?’

Mo Ling quickly looked around and realized that, just as Bai Zhou had said, the wooden cabin had become much brighter. The fog was too thick to tell where the light was coming from, though.

"Let’s go check outside."

The two exchanged a look and hurried out of the house.

The moment he stepped outside, Mo Ling was startled by the sight before him.

In the distance, a faintly glowing, circular light source was hanging in the sky.

The light was an eerie white. Even piercing through the thick fog, it stood out, like a hazy eye staring down at the entire island.

What’s more, the light source seemed to be spinning rapidly. After just a moment, it seemed even brighter.

"What is that thing?" Mo Ling asked in shock.

He looked at Bai Zhou and saw that, to his surprise, Bai Zhou looked just as shocked.

’Doesn’t Bai Zhou know what it is either?’

Fortunately, Bai Zhou quickly provided an answer.

"It’s the moon." Bai Zhou stared blankly at the light source. "It’s the Fishmen’s moon! What are they doing?"

’The moon?’

Mo Ling looked at the gradually brightening light and was suddenly reminded of something familiar—the Moon Altar.

Previously, Mo Ling had only ever seen the Moon Altar on Li Luo’s digital screen. That view had been processed and magnified, making it vastly different from seeing it now with his own eyes.

After a moment of recollection, Mo Ling finally confirmed that the object in the sky was, in fact, the Moon Altar.

’Could this be the Moon Altar from twenty-two hundred years ago?’

’How did it appear in an instant?’

Mo Ling couldn’t understand it. The Fishmen had only just arrived on the island. How could they have built the first Moon Altar so quickly? How did they manage it, with the fog suppressing all technology?

At this moment, Bai Zhou was even more frantic than Mo Ling. Watching the moon that continued to brighten, he could no longer restrain himself.

"I’m going to see what’s going on. You leave the island. The fog on this island has no effect on you, and this armor will protect you," Bai Zhou instructed him solemnly.

He patted Mo Ling’s shoulder. "Thank you."

"Wait!" Mo Ling called out as Bai Zhou was about to leave. "I’ll go with you. We can watch each other’s backs."

Hearing this, Bai Zhou shook his head and, glancing beside him, said, "I already have company. Don’t worry."

He stood there for a moment, then, as if suddenly remembering something, began to rummage through his pack. A moment later, he pulled out a piece of tree bark and slapped it into Mo Ling’s hand.

Then he said to Mo Ling gravely, "If you want to help me, there’s something more important you can do. Take this and wait for me off-island. Remember to be careful. When I’m done, you can give it back to me."

With that, Bai Zhou plunged into the fog without a backward glance.

Mo Ling was left holding the tree bark. Before he even had a chance to ask what it was, Bai Zhou had vanished.

The light from the Moon Altar grew increasingly blinding, flashing suddenly from time to time. Mo Ling wanted to chase after Bai Zhou, but after the moonlight dazzled him a few times, he completely lost track of where Bai Zhou had gone.

"Where’d he go? So fast."

Holding the bark, Mo Ling stood frozen in place.

Realizing Bai Zhou was truly gone, Mo Ling brought the bark closer and examined it carefully.

But the bark seemed completely ordinary, with nothing strange about it at all, like a piece of trash he could have picked up from the roadside.

’He didn’t just trick me, did he?’

Belatedly, Mo Ling realized he’d been had.

There was no "more important task." Bai Zhou just didn’t want Mo Ling to follow him, so he’d made up an excuse to distract him.

After figuring it out, Mo Ling felt a flash of disappointment, but he quickly pulled himself together.

’Why don’t I just go to the Moon Altar and see for myself?’

’The "moon" is right there in the sky, after all. How could I get lost?’

With that thought, Mo Ling started walking toward the Moon Altar...

But as he walked on, when he looked up again, he found the Moon Altar had vanished.

He looked back and, for some reason, the Moon Altar was now in the sky behind him.

"Huh?"