Even though he had never tried free diving and his swimming skills weren't very good, Xia De felt quite comfortable swimming because of the protection of Underwater Breathing.
The passage continued straight ahead without widening or branching, giving Xia De no opportunity to swim around freely underwater.
The silver moonlight grew dim in the water, and the murky underwater visibility barely allowed him to distinguish what was ahead.
The passage narrowed increasingly, eventually becoming an underwater crevice just wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
Just as Xia De was starting to worry that the crevice would get narrower and he would have to do demolition work, a light appeared not far ahead.
He swam forward quickly, a little excited, and the light was the exit of the crevice.
After swimming out of the crevice, faint sunlight filtered through the water from above.
He swam upwards with all his might, and in less than ten seconds, his head emerged from the water.
Canceling the Miracle, he took a deep breath and felt raindrops hitting his face.
The rumbling sound of ocean waves crashing vibrated his eardrums, and rain and wind swept across his face.
He gasped for breath, looking left and right.
Behind him stood a towering cliff, and the damp, cold passage was clearly submerged at the bottom of the cliff.
Not far in front of him, there was a black reef exposed above the sea.
"I can't rock climb."
So, instead of climbing the nearby mountain, he untied the rope from his waist and swam through the rain towards the black rock.
Soon, he was out of the seawater and standing in the rain.
Because he possessed the Miracle Time Perception, Xia De knew that it had taken about 15 minutes from leaving the hidden wall until now.
This was also because it was his first time taking this "path"; not only was it unfamiliar, but he also had to pay attention to his surroundings.
Once he became proficient, compressing the time to within 10 minutes would likely not be a problem.
"But where exactly is this place? It can't be an isolated island in the ocean, can it?"
Overhead, the sky was overcast, raindrops struck his cheeks, and strong winds tousled his hair.
The cliff behind him, with its steep rock face plummeting downwards, was almost indistinguishable in the rain.
The briny smell rushed into his nostrils.
Squinting, he looked up at the sky; a lonely seagull circled above his head in the rain, then flew off to a more distant place.
Further out lay the deep and terrifying ocean; apart from a few nearby reefs, the turbulent sea surface in the distance almost swallowed everything.
At the edge of his vision, dark clouds connected with the ocean, and the twisted and strange shapes of the dark clouds on the ocean surface instinctively made Xia De feel a sense of dread.
"Why is it raining in Tobesk, and still raining here?"
Soaked to the bone, Xia De endured the sticky feeling and continued to look around.
Apart from the large black reef under his feet, a series of rocks emerging from the water were scattered beneath the cliff, seeming to have broken off from the cliff face at some point in the past.
Waves rolled at his feet, churning up a series of nauseating white foam, as if striking the rocks below for thousands of years without change.
The sound of the water was deafening, and the surroundings were desolate; apart from the vast sea and rocks, no trees were visible, much less beaches or islands.
But with just a slight movement, his gaze could pass through one side of the towering cliff, revealing the scenery hidden by it.
Xia De's eyes widened, and he instantly held his breath—
He saw a port City nestled in the rain, a City standing by the sea, and even further in the distance, faintly visible, were towering factory chimneys.
The flames of civilization illuminated the coast, and the scent of steam was carried by the wind out to sea.
"This is a port City on the West Coast of the Old Continent."
Only then did he extinguish the silver light at his fingertips, looking at the giant steam cargo ships docked in the harbor, at the warships flying the flag of the Delarion Kingdom's navy, and at the vast urban complex spreading across the coastal plain.
"I am still in Delarion; the New World shouldn't have such large cities, so this is a port City on the West Coast of the Old Continent."
Feeling fortunate about his luck, he opened the canvas-wrapped briefcase in the rain and took out the bag of frog legs.
After chanting the difficult incantation, he threw the ground frog legs into the sea.
Then, he jumped in the rain, from the slippery black reef to an adjacent rock.
The view here was even wider, and Xia De now fully confirmed that the towering cliff beside him was located on one side of that port City.
From his current position, entering the nearby port City no longer required entering the water.
By continuously moving along the reefs at the base of these cliffs, he could land on the shallow beach after rounding the side of the cliff.
Walking along the beach, an estimated twenty-minute walk would bring him to the dock where large warships were moored.
In other words, Xia De had emerged from the water right at the edge of the City.
Once this route became familiar, it would likely take less than half an hour to go from leaving the hidden wall to entering the City.
Compared to his own hidden wall, this location was clearly much safer, even excessively safe:
"Why couldn't the exit be in some basement or sewer in the City?"
This was Xia De's complaint as he hopped around on the reefs in the rain.
His boots stepped into the shallow seawater on the beach, leaving footprints in the sand while also pressing small seashells into the sand.
But as his boots lifted, the incoming seawater would smooth the sand surface again, leaving no trace of human passage.
Xia De quietly landed on the shallow beach, then furtively walked hunched over towards the shore.
Fortunately, in such rainy weather, no one would come to the beach, so his caution went unnoticed.
This was a beach near the Wharf Area, and the wind and tide had left some garbage on the soft sand.
As Xia De walked through the rain, he noticed a wet newspaper lying not far away.
He quickly approached, picked up the newspaper, and examined it.
Most of the newspaper's content was smudged.
The only things visible were the newspaper's name, date, and part of the content on the left page.
The date was yesterday, and the content read: "Princess Leia concludes her visit to Carson Rick and returns to the country, resting for a week in Coldwater Port City" (Note).
The newspaper's title was "Coldwater Port Evening News."
"The most important port City on the West Coast of the Delarion Kingdom, the main trade hub with the New World, Coldwater Port City?"
He looked up at the urban complex under the dark clouds not far away, but still couldn't figure out why he had come here.
"Princess Leia?"
He looked back at the abnormally large warship on the sea.
This was a steam-powered ship; apart from supernatural powers, a warship of this size could almost be considered the most powerful weapon mortals could possess in this era.
Coldwater Port City indeed had Royal Army and Royal Navy stationed there, but warships should not be at civilian docks, so this ship must be for transporting important figures.
"Is the Princess on the ship or in the residence arranged in Coldwater Port City? Also, what's the use of me looking for Princess Leia? She doesn't know me, and I don't want to involve her in the matters of the whispering chapters."
Xia De hesitated for a moment in the rain, deciding to first explore this port City.
Since he had managed to come all this way, an Outsider naturally wanted to experience the customs and traditions of a different City.
Because of the heavy rain outside, when a soaking wet Xia De burst into the Golden Rose Hotel on "Hogglentz Avenue" in the Coldwater Port City Wharf Area, no one suspected that the young man had emerged from the sea.
Hotels in the Wharf Area constantly received guests who arrived in the City by ship from all over the world, so Xia De was relatively not a strange fellow.
He registered under the alias "John Watson" and paid 3 shillings (including lunch and dinner) to rent the cheapest room in the hotel.
After showering and changing into clean, dry clothes, he didn't rush to leave the hotel.
Instead, he returned to the counter, borrowed some newspapers from the past few days from the plump woman who was knitting, and then went back to his room.
In the damp and slightly musty small room, after lighting the gas lamp that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in decades, the first thing he did was check the Princess Leia's whereabouts.
The good news was that Louisa's Princess friend was not living on an inaccessible warship.
The bad news was that the Princess Mansion, where she was temporarily residing, was also not a place ordinary people could approach freely.
That was a large mansion in the most prosperous South District of Coldwater Port City, part of the royal family's vast property; most royal family members visiting Coldwater Port would choose to stay there.
The Coldwater Port Evening News extensively described the excellent efforts made by the local police and City Hall to protect the Princess's safety.
In other words, Xia De had no chance of meeting Princess Leticia Cavendish.
He then flipped through other parts of the newspaper, checking if any suspicious incidents had occurred locally.
But just like the newspapers in Tobesk City, various pieces of information, big and small, real and fake, were displayed in different categories of the newspaper: fishermen bringing back strangely shaped stone statues when fishing, men and women meeting secretly on the beach at night seeing a ghost ship appear on the sea, a golden island with treasures everywhere appearing in the outer sea, and so on and so forth.
Every City had different urban legends; in Tobesk, most were related to the nightlife of a large City, while in Coldwater Port City, most were related to the ocean.
Trying to find valuable clues from this information, Xia De might as well hope that the Silver-Eyed One would die from a fall while going out to buy groceries.
"However, someone of the Silver-Eyed One's status probably wouldn't go out to buy groceries themselves."
He thought to himself, spending the remaining hour of the morning reading newspapers.
He had lunch at the hotel, and even specifically took out the 【pirate's blood money】, but there was no reaction.
So, in the afternoon, he borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and went out.
Since there was nothing to do for the time being, he decided to deal with Mrs. Lemeier's request; Mr. Lemeier's friend who kept his will was in this place.