The sea churned with rolling waves, a monstrous sea serpent arching its grotesque form to block the bow of our ship. As we were about to disregard it, we saw it abruptly turn tail and flee, its posture suggesting it was desperately racing against time to vanish back into the ocean depths. A chill went down my spine; I knew something was terribly wrong. The sea cave had fully materialized, and before we realized it, both the Trident and the great serpent were being sucked in. The sea snake, apparently aware of the deadly peril at the cave's core, abandoned the pursuit of our vessel and made a frantic dash for escape.

My ears were filled with a high-pitched ringing, drowning out all other sound, but thankfully, my eyes still functioned. The moment I noticed the serpent's erratic movement, I realized the hull had ceased to follow the rotation of the vortex. The water inside the sea cave seemed utterly devoid of buoyancy; even though the currents swirled and churned, the ship was fixed in place, beginning a slow descent. The propellers behind us spun uselessly in the air, and all around was nothing but inky black water. Disaster loomed large, causing even irley Yang’s usually composed face to pale with alarm.

But we, a crew of tomb raiders long accustomed to perilous situations, knew that often the only sliver of hope appears at the most dangerous final moment. When danger is immediate, one must never abandon the will to survive; only by remaining calm can one find a chance to escape alive. Irley Yang seemed to realize the helm was now useless. She let go and rushed out of the cabin, making a gesture for me to follow, and sprinted straight for the bow.

I watched as the ship’s hull was slowly pulled into the sea cave, its sheer sides meeting a curtain of water, the space outside filled with chilling winds and black water—a feeling akin to facing an abyss miles deep. I had no idea what she intended to do by risking herself at the bow, but I knew she hadn't panicked and planned to commit suicide by jumping overboard. Even if the deck were a field of swords and fire, I had no choice but to follow her. Stepping out of the cabin, I felt an invisible force field in the air and water pressing down, making it hard to breathe. The ship wasn't motionless; rather, it was being dragged by the black surge that was gradually losing its buoyancy, rotating slowly. Under the influence of this mysterious force field, it felt as if even the seawater had solidified in the void of darkness.

I held my breath, gripping a mooring rope, and trailed irley Yang. A faint white shape materialized near the bow—the great sea snake was struggling desperately, trying to swim out of the sea cave. It turned out irley Yang intended a do-or-die gambit. The ship had lost all power. The Trident was equipped with a harpoon gun for whale hunting at the bow; though we weren't hunting whales, the British had installed such a weapon for emergencies, and now it proved fortuitous. Irley Yang loaded a barbed whaling harpoon into the gun and fired it into the serpent’s body. A thick line, capable of penetrating even a whale, trailed behind the barb. If we could just hook the serpent, we could use its monstrous strength to drag the Hai Liu ship out of the cave.

The ship’s rate of descent was accelerating. Trapped within the sea cave’s force field, none of us could speak. Irley Yang pointed toward the sea serpent not far ahead. This might be our only chance for a desperate gamble. I hesitated no longer and fired the harpoon gun from the bow. The projectile, trailing the thick rope, plunged violently into the serpent’s back. A spray of blood erupted from the serpent’s body covered in dense white scales, and the heavy rope connected to the harpoon instantly snapped taut.

The ship’s descent was quickening. Within the force field of the sea cave, no one could open their mouths to speak. Irley Yang pointed toward the nearby sea serpent. This might be our only all-or-nothing chance. I didn't delay, firing the harpoon from the bow. The head, trailing the thick rope, slammed into the serpent's spine, bringing up a plume of blood from its body thick with white scales. The cable attached to the harpoon immediately stretched rigid.

The sea serpent, unlike the ship relying on propellers, possessed the brute strength of an ocean behemoth. Stung by the impact on its back, it lunged forward suddenly, dragging the Trident, which was firmly held by the sea cave’s suction, a section length out of the black water. Every fiber in the rope connecting to the bow was pulled to its absolute limit. Though reinforced with tow and human hair, making it the toughest whaling cord, it still seemed fragile against the pulling forces of the sea cave’s abyss and the colossal beast, threatening to snap at any second.

The sea serpent itself was held by the cave, relying entirely on its mastery of the water and its immense strength to avoid being instantly swallowed. However, even a creature of its size was still flesh and blood; its power had a limit. After swimming a few frantic circles in the vortex while dragging the Hai Liu ship, it was utterly exhausted. But being drawn into the abyss meant certain death. Driven by an overwhelming will to survive, it mustered every remaining ounce of its strength, twisting its body violently like a dragon shaking off armor, arching its back towards the moon. The serpent’s momentum, as it slashed through the waves, was like a sudden cosmic leap, actually breaking free of the eye of the sea's suction! In an instant, it transcended the boundary between survival and destruction, bursting through the layers of water curtain and turbulence on the surface to leap into the air, carrying the Trident up more than ten meters, soaring aloft.

Under the bright reflection of the full moon, the tens-of-meters-long sea serpent resembled a dragon soaring through the heavens. Irley Yang and I clung tightly to the thickest mooring rope at the bow, daring not to move. Suddenly, we felt wind whipping past our faces, the sight before us flickering between light and dark, as if we were riding an airship towards the distant, cold Palace of the Moon. In a daze, I saw the bright moon overhead, feeling as though the Jade Rabbit in the Moon Palace was almost within reach. I thought this must be a hallucination before death, when suddenly the world spun violently. How had we shot up into the sky? For a moment, I didn't know where my body or spirit had been transported. Before we could process what had happened, the serpent’s sudden burst of cosmic energy was spent, and it plummeted heavily from mid-air, falling into the abyss below the sea cave along with the Trident.

The dark turbulence within the sea cave was slowly fading. Perhaps if we had held on for half a minute longer, the Trident could have escaped the ocean's maw. At that moment, the serpent dragging the ship leaped to the surface, but it was, after all, flesh and blood. Under such immense force, its entire frame must have been shattering bone by bone as it fell from the sky like a white silk ribbon in a storm.

The whaling rope connecting the Hai Liu ship Trident to the serpent’s back, though sturdy, had reached its limit and snapped. Irley Yang and I, clinging to the ship’s secured ropes, had just glimpsed the shining reflection of the bright moon, our bodies seemingly soaring through clouds and mist. But abruptly, the ship plummeted, its hull nearly vertical. We were instantly flung clear of the vessel, plunging into the bottomless abyss as darkness overwhelmed our vision.

The turbulence generated by the sea cave was nearing its end, but its residual power was still terrifying. I felt as if my body had been dropped into the eye of a water spout; the wind pressure generated by the currents was nearly tearing my body to shreds. Fortunately, in the panic, irley Yang and I were still holding onto each other; the combined weight of us two was enough to prevent being swept away by the vortex in the cave. By then, my mind was utterly numb; my ears were filled with the roar of rushing wind, my internal organs felt like they were tumbling, and I had no idea where we were.