The cold seawater instantly engulfed Klein, soaking the golden-red dress he was wearing, making it as heavy as a stone, dragging his body down rapidly.
But at the same time, "Creeping Hunger" also devoured that pirate, reducing the weight by an entire person's weight.
Klein did not try to float, but continued to sink, faintly hearing several splashes coming from afar through the waves. It seemed pirates of the "Sailor" pathway were chasing relentlessly.
This was their home turf!
They could swim like fish here for a long time!
Klein was not panicked. As a "Magician" who does not perform without preparation, he had naturally considered a retreat plan in case of failure, because nothing succeeds one hundred percent.
Although for the sake of playing the role of Ileen perfectly and not being discovered by "Disease General" Trez, he had neither brought other magical items nor his wallet, and even left the newly made charms related to water and wind above the gray fog, this did not hinder his performance. The state of trinity of god, angel, and believer gave him many miraculous ways to handle such situations.
He quickly made "Creeping Hunger" become pale and stained with a dark green color, and the surrounding seawater froze, forming layers of white frost.
Before the frost fully crystallized into ice crystals, Klein moved the butterfly muscles on his back, suddenly spread his arms wide, and using the strength of a "living corpse", shattered the frost, sending it flying back into the seawater further away.
Thus, a narrow space devoid of seawater was temporarily created around him.
The water instantly surged back to fill the void, but Klein stretched out his left palm, releasing a terrible coldness again, spreading it to create walls of seawater ice.
For a brief moment, he seemed to be in an ice prison within the sea, able to stand and speak, but only within a very confined space.
Klein immediately took four steps counterclockwise, softly chanting the names of Fusheng Xuanhuang Tianzun etc., quickly sending his spiritual body into the gray fog.
His figure had just appeared on the high-backed chair of "The Fool" when he directly picked up the "Sea God's Scepter" that had been placed in front of him beforehand.
No need for identification. With a thought, Klein filtered out the light spot representing the new "Sea God" believer Gehrman Sparrow, and following the pre-established connection, he raised the milky-white staff, making the bluish-green "gems" emit a hazy glow.
He responded to the "believer", layering several spell-like effects on himself, including but not limited to underwater breathing, free action, and pressure resistance.
Finally, he used a Paper Angel to interfere with divination, and issued orders to underwater creatures in the surrounding area to help and cover Gehrman Sparrow's escape.
After doing all this, Klein did not delay, immediately returned to the real world and regained control of his body.
At this moment, the pressure of the seawater had already broken through the melting ice walls and swallowed the "independent" space again.
But Klein could now breathe smoothly and swim swiftly.
Through the rippling and clear water waves, he saw many sea fish swimming over, saw a shadow rising from the bottom, some kind of giant monster rapidly ascending.
It was a somewhat strange-looking reddish-brown octopus, huge enough to seemingly embrace and wrap around a whole ship with its tentacles.
It sprayed ink into the surrounding area, instantly blackening the nearby sea. The few "Sailor" pathway beyonders who were searching and chasing the attacker suddenly went blind in front, and their bodies became somewhat paralyzed.
Not understanding what had happened, they immediately surfaced to deal with the abnormalities on them.
When they dived again to look for the enemy, Klein's traces were completely gone.
At this time, Klein was swimming comfortably on the seabed, even having the leisure to distract himself and review the previous action, assessing the gains and losses:
"Playing Ileen had sufficient preparation, so that Trez, who had shared a bed with her for I don't know how many nights, couldn't see through it immediately, which promoted digestion of the potion.
"During the process, I also overcame psychological barriers and found a mental state that both integrated and detached; that greatly aided digestion of the potion.
"In battle, I basically did the best I could, it was a prepared performance, but I still underestimated the power of a Sequence 5 'Painful Witch', underestimated the experience of 'Disease General' who had advanced step by step to this rank. Even if she lost her magical item from the start, with my current strength and sealed items, it would be difficult to quickly kill her unless I used the 'Sea God's Scepter'... But this is in the Rorsted archipelago waters.
"Today's battle clearly shows that I still lack a powerful offensive magical item..."
Facing the fact of failure, Klein was undoubtedly a little disappointed, but he wasn't disheartened, because the matter wasn't over yet; he planned to write to Mr. Azik, asking if he was interested in ancient documents related to the Death God, and if he had time to come over.
Before leaving the captain's cabin, Klein snapped his fingers to ignite the men's clothes changed out in the coat room, as well as his own hair and dead skin. On the surface, it appeared to be leaving no traces, but actually it was a cover-up and deception.
He was concealing that he had, after entering the cabin, covertly thrown hair clippings and buttons into certain rooms where no one would notice.
When "Disease General" Trez, misled into thinking that the attacker feared exposure of identity and remote curses, and carefully erased all traces of himself, it would be very difficult for her to make the pirates seriously check whether similar items remained.
With those hair clippings and buttons, Klein could use divination to lock onto the position of the "Black Death" within a certain time. That way, if Mr. Azik expressed willingness, he could take him along and quickly find "Disease General" Trez.
"Alas, I originally thought I wouldn't need Mr. Azik's help, that I could succeed on my own... but it was still a little short..." Klein sighed, feeling his pride somewhat damaged.