The innkeeper was strangely touched by Wilbur''s earnestness, and the two of them struck up a deal. The innkeeper would buy all of the seafood Wilbur acquired that day, and if he managed to keep it up, the innkeeper would continue buying all of his catches, albeit at a slightly lower price than the market rate.


    Wilbur bought himself a bucket to carry the seafood in and headed to the beach to start catching seafood. He got there pretty early, but it was stilltepared to the more experienced fishermen.


    There were many others fishing on the ind as well, but there was fairly littlepetition as the waters were open and everyone just stuck to their own spot.


    Wilbur appreciated how free the space was and got to work. He collected some ms and urchins, looking up at the sky every now and then. There were people that would mention the Wendis mirage asionally.


    Mirages did not have to appear in the searing hot afternoon. Some mirages showed up right after dawn, but they were usually only spotted by the early fishermen.


    Some people said that they had seen things that were out of this world in those mirages before, like a town that looked exactly like Wendis or a human-octopus hybrid of a monster with eight tentacles.


    Thus, some suspected that those mirages might not be the natural refraction of sun rays. Some parts of the mirages might even be of a special scene from a different dimension.


    The people fishing was allmon folk without much knowledge, thus they only guessed that what the mirage showed was a different world. They did not know the truth of the situation, and their curiosity stopped at guessing about the unknown.


    Wilbur, on the other hand, was a cultivator. He knew that there were three kinds of mirages: one caused by the sun''s refractions, one showing a different dimension, and the one Judith''s grandmother mentioned that was a whole dimension in itself. Many of the fishing folk said that they ran into mirages in the morning pretty often and that those were the most beautiful, but few had the luxury to take their time to enjoy such a sight.


    Wilbur was nothing but excited for the mirage to show up. After all, the Dark Messenger was hunting him down, and a nasty battle was bound to break out if he was found out. Despite the fact that Wilbur had beaten him thest time, this new clone of the Dark Lord seemed to be pretty much wless.


    If another battle was to break out, Wilbur had little confidence that he would win. The Dark Lord now knew more about his powers and abilities and was bound to make this new clone far more powerful than thest one.


    If that were to happen, Wilbur would not even get the opportunity to fight back before meeting his demise. Wilbur was not trying to lose his life out here! Besides, even if he did manage to win a second time, the Dark Lord would only send an even more powerful Dark Messenger after him. How was he going to take that on?


    Given the circumstances, Wilbur decided that he would only battle the Dark Messenger if he had no other options. He wanted nothing more than for the mirage to show up so he could enter it and get a round of cultivation done, thene back out for a battle against the Dark Messenger.


    However, luck did not seem to be on Wilbur''s side as he was unable to find the mirage despite looking all morning. After selling off his catch to the innkeeper, Wilbur wandered back to the beach like everyone else to enjoy the view as he waited for the mirage to show up.


    While no one was looking, Wilbur snuck away to dock fifty-two. It was very quiet there, and Wilbur sat down cross-legged as he waited for the mirage to appear.


    Just then, however, a familiar voice came from behind him. "You''re finally here, Wilbur Penn!"