Nox Pass,

The final boundary for anyone below the Immortal Realm.

Every practitioner knew the rule:

If you are not at least a Loose Immortal—or protected by one—you do not step past this line.

Beyond Nox Pass, Prana and Aura thinned into near nothingness. What remained was only Immortal Qi, heavy and overwhelming. Even Immortal practitioners had to constantly release their own Immortal Qi just to stabilize themselves and keep their bodies from collapsing under the pressure.

This was not a place for the living.

It was a land of silence, void turbulence, and ancient beasts drifting like corpses on still water.

---

ONE MONTH AFTER THE RED DRAGON BOAT’S DESTRUCTION

The White Pearl slowly approached the glowing haze of Nox Pass. The sky had lost all familiar celestial markers—no sun, no stars, not even the three moons. And yet, the ocean below wasn’t dark. Instead, it shimmered in a strange purple glow, reflecting the Immortal Qi that saturated the atmosphere.

Giant Titan creatures floated across the waters, motionless and ancient, their massive bodies like forgotten mountains half-submerged.

Inside the White Pearl...

---

"No, you can’t!" Myrtle shouted, grabbing Su Fei by the wrist.

"Let go, you damn tortoise!" Su Fei snapped, trying to yank her fishing rod away.

"I am a turtle, not a tortoise!" Myrtle barked. "And stop fishing! You could accidentally hook an Immortal-level creature! You sneaky fox—dressed like a hare—"

"That’s rabbit, you idiot!" Su Fei screamed as the two collapsed into another wrestling match on the deck.

Several crew members casually walked around them. This wasn’t the first time these two caused deck-level chaos.

---

INSIDE THE POCKET DIMENSION — MATHILDA’S LAB

The atmosphere shifted drastically inside the ship’s pocket-dimension laboratory.

Skulls—hundreds of them—lay scattered across the floor. Strange liquids bubbled in cauldrons. Mathilda looked exhausted, dark bags under her eyes as she continued examining the Orc blood samples under magnified arrays.

"Serena..." Mathilda muttered without looking up, "ask Tyler or Mana for more copies of the Orc blood."

A soft mechanical echo responded immediately.

"Yes," Serena’s voice resonated through the lab. "Also... we have arrived at Nox Pass."

Mathilda barely reacted.

"Oh great... tell Tyler I’m almost finished with the experiments."

Serena wisely decided Tyler did not need to hear that.

Mathilda leaned closer to the skull in front of her, eyes narrowing. She muttered to herself, "Just a bit more... If I can stabilize this reaction, it might actually work..."

A flask exploded behind her.

Mathilda didn’t flinch.

---

Soon after, green-haired Serena appeared before Mana in a flicker of light.

"Mathilda is requesting more Orc blood," Serena reported.

Mana nodded calmly. "Alright. Mana will deliver it. Tyler already made several copies."

With that, Serena vanished again, reappearing in another of the ship’s pocket-dimension basements—a vast chamber reinforced with runic walls. A massive white dragon lay chained at the center, scales shimmering faintly as it struggled against its bindings.

Serena didn’t spare the dragon a glance. Instead, her attention landed on the girl crouched beside it, drawing blood through a crystalline tube.

"What are you doing?" Serena asked.

Lanny looked up, cheerful as always. "Sister Veronica asked me for some dragon blood."

Serena blinked. "Where is she?"

Lanny paused, tapping her chin in thought. "Umm... being trampled."

"...Huh?" Serena stared.

Lanny pointed toward the training wing. "Over there."

Serena stood still for a moment, processing that information, then silently turned and walked toward the training grounds.

---

TRAINING GROUND

BOOM!

Veronica crashed into the ground, kicking up dust as she rolled across the arena floor. Zuzia stepped forward with a big, obnoxiously smug grin.

"Weak," Zuzia declared. "Too weak. You’re nowhere near strong enough to be a mate for Tyler."

A vein bulged on Veronica’s forehead. She slowly pushed herself up, trembling with pure anger.

A ripple of water surged around her body.

Moeko emerged from her back, morphing into a perfect copy of Veronica—same height, same expression, same burning fury.

The two Veronicas cracked their whips simultaneously.

Twin water serpents lashed out, striking toward Zuzia from both sides.

Zuzia only smiled wider. "Better. But still weak."

Serena watched the exchange for several seconds, her expression unreadable. Water whips snapped, Zuzia’s aura flared, and the arena shook under their clash.

But Serena had seen enough chaos for the moment.

Without a word, she turned away and headed toward the Restricted Chambers—areas so exclusive only a handful of people were allowed inside. Serena phased through the door, her form shimmering faintly as the heavy seals recognized her authority.

Inside there, Serena’s real body floated peacefully in a liquid-filled capsule, eyes closed, expression serene. But her consciousness— projected as a hologram —was very much awake, and right now she was staring at two figures doing something... questionable.

Even as an hologram existence, Serena still possessed emotions. And in this moment, she radiated a quiet, terrifying disapproval.

"What," she asked slowly, "are you two doing?"

GG, the little goblin girl, froze. The long Little Tyler Thing she had been sucking slipped too far, making her cough as she tried to pull it back. Tyler, standing before her to keep her steady, held her head so she wouldn’t let it slip out.

"We’re just hanging out," Tyler said casually, as though nothing strange was happening. He patted GG’s head to help her breathe. "Actually, I came here to tell GG something important."

Serena’s expression didn’t change, but the pressure in the room seemed to drop several degrees.

Tyler continued. "The Orion Cube... it might be able to cure her."

GG blinked, nodding; she already knew.

But Serena froze. This was her first time hearing it.

Tyler gently took out the thing out her mouth as she swallowed it. "So when I told her, she got excited and started celebrating. Things got a little... chaotic. She decided to treat me..."

GG stomped her foot, she muffled, "You are the one who suddenly shoved—"

She choked again as Tyler shoved the thing back again.

"Slow down," he said, guiding her head back to the treat.

Serena sighed—a soft, synthesized exhale.

"Both of you," she said, "this is a restricted chamber. Please behave."

GG nodded rapidly. Tyler nodded too, though far less convincingly.

Serena closed her eyes briefly.

Of all places on the ship... why here?

┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉

The ocean at Nox Pass was unnervingly silent.

Lightning forked across the sky, but no thunder followed. Trembling waves rolled across the violet sea, yet no sound accompanied their rise or fall. Even the breeze had no temperature—no warmth, no chill. Just a hollow, empty whisper.

The White Pearl drifted forward at a cautious crawl, as though afraid to disturb a sleeping giant.

Inside the captain’s room, Darla examined the high-tech cube in her hands—the Orion Cube fragment. Its surface shimmered like starmetal, the inner grids rearranging themselves as if solving some cosmic puzzle.

The cube hummed sharply.

Then it clicked open.

Small mechanical squares inside shifted and reformed, glowing with symbols none of them had ever seen.

Serena appeared beside Darla in a pillar of light.

"It is a code," Serena reported. "An ancient Immortal language. The fragment is reacting to other Orion Cubes in the vicinity."

Darla stiffened. "There are others... near here?"

Serena nodded.

Darla exhaled sharply. "Alright. We’re going Phantom Pirates mode again. Alert everyone."

Within minutes, the White Pearl sank into its own shadow like a whale diving into the abyss.

Moments later, it rose again—reborn as the Shadow Pearl, coated in shifting darkness.

The entire crew transformed into their Phantom Pirate forms—shadowy silhouettes with glowing eyes and Phantom Masks.

Myrtle emerged from the mist in her tanned beast form. Instead of wearing the full mask like everyone else, she wore only a skull-shaped breastplate mask... and a bikini that barely counted as clothing.

Lady Reaper stared at her in disbelief. "Do you just enjoy showing your body?"

Myrtle snapped back, "Oh shut up, you look like a hooker from an underground bar in that bunny outfit!"

Lady Reaper puffed her cheeks. "It’s a uniform."

"It’s fanservice!"

Their bickering stopped instantly as the air distorted.

A massive, broken warship—half shattered, half intact—came hurtling straight toward the Shadow Pearl. Its hull crackled with disordered spatial energy.

Then—

It froze.

Suspended mid-air as though time itself had been halted.

Myrtle’s eyes sharpened. With a single spinning kick wrapped in a spiraling coil of water, she unleashed a shockwave.

The entire incoming ship shattered into dust.

From its remains stepped a lone man, his presence sharp as a blade.

Lady Reaper’s expression tightened. "Loose Immortal..."

The man held up a cube identical to Darla’s, its runes blazing with power.

"As expected..." he said, grinning. "More and more Orion Cube holders are gathering."

He lifted his gaze toward the Shadow Pearl—its dark hull, its eerie aura, its seductive yet undeniably dangerous crew.

He blinked.

"...Wait. Are you Phantom Pirates?"

The girls nodded proudly.

The Loose Immortal froze.

"Oh. Sorry for the disturbance." He bowed politely. "Have a great day."

And vanished at full speed.

Lady Reaper and Myrtle stared in stunned silence.

"...Did he just RUN?" Myrtle whispered.

Serena’s voice echoed throughout the ship.

"We have hidden our Orion Cube fragment inside the pocket dimension. We are retreating."

The Shadow Pearl sank into the shadows again, slipping between layers of reality.

"Hey—wait!" Myrtle shouted. "Did you see that?! Even Loose Immortals are scared of us now!"

But the ship did not re-emerge.

Because as soon as they sank into shadow...

Five powerful silhouettes appeared above the sea.

Five Loose Immortals.

Hovering silently.

Waiting.

Waiting for the Shadow Pearl to ascend again.

The stakes had just escalated beyond anything the Phantom Pirates had imagined.