Chapter 20: Mermaid
Chapter 20: Mermaid
Hai Linlin clutched the Radiant Angel in her palm. After glancing left and right to make sure no one was watching, her small figure darted swiftly into an alley, wound through a residential district and past a large warehouse, and ran along the rising tide's shoreline.
Before long, a steep ravine appeared ahead, split down the middle by a narrow crack.
But Hai Linlin's slight frame could just barely squeeze through. Running her hands along the Hardened stone walls on either side — rough and reeking of the sea — she pushed herself to move as fast as she could.
After a short while, the passage opened up into a wide cave path. The ground had once been crossed by a thin trickle of seawater, but tonight, because of the rising tide, the water level had crept up onto the bank and now lapped past her ankles.
Hai Linlin waded deeper into the cave.
Water droplets fell from the stone columns overhead, their sound echoing with a splash-splash through the hollow space.
Rounding a bend, Hai Linlin looked up and saw, on a rocky ledge jutting from the cave wall not far ahead, a woman lying on her side. The woman was beautiful — around twenty years old, with hair as dark and flowing as a waterfall, bright almond-shaped eyes, and lips and skin so rosy they put even the finest cherry-red embroidery thread to shame. Her delicate face carried a faint trace of youthfulness.
There was only one thing unusual about this beautiful woman: she had the body of a person and the tail of a fish.
She was a Mermaid. The scales on her tail were white, yet they shimmered with a rainbow radiance in the rippling light — though a large wound, deep enough to expose bone, was clearly visible on the tail.
The wound and prolonged malnourishment had left her looking somewhat gaunt, yet none of it could diminish her natural beauty.
The Mermaid heard the sound and quickly poked her head out to look.
"Sister."
Hai Linlin called out with delight and ran to Haixin's side. "I brought back the Radiant Angel! Your wound can be healed now!"
"A Radiant Angel!? How could you go off on your own like that? Didn't we agree that my wound was fine and you weren't allowed to go?"
Haixin cried out in alarm, her worry like that of a parent who had just heard their child nearly been struck by a carriage. "Are you hurt? Those Chosen Ones have no pity for a little girl — come here, let me look at you."
"The Chosen Ones…"
At those words, Hai Linlin found herself suddenly picturing the scene of Fishfolk Wavecrest sending several heads flying with a single thrust of his spear…
It seemed like every Chosen One who had come close had been cut down by Chen Sui.
"Good, you're all right."
Haixin examined her carefully before finally relaxing a little.
Noticing that Hai Linlin seemed lost in thought, she asked, "What's wrong? What are you thinking about?"
Hai Linlin shook her head.
"Nothing."
She still wasn't sure how to bring up the matter of Chen Sui with her sister.
Though several encounters with Chen Sui had gradually dissolved her wariness of him, her sister harbored a deep dislike of humans — especially Chosen Ones.
"Sister, let me treat you first."
Hai Linlin returned to the matter at hand.
She spread both hands open and released the Radiant Angel. The small, beautiful creature fluttered through the air as if swimming through the sea.
It flew to hover above the wound on Haixin's tail, then released a wave of warm white light from its body.
The light was like a gentle hand, softly caressing the long-set wound.
After a few breaths, the wound began to close, healing at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Hai Linlin's eyes lit up as she watched the wound on her sister's tail gradually knit itself shut. On a face that always carried a trace of sorrow, a glimmer of hard-won joy broke through.
At that moment, Hai Linlin suddenly felt a warmth settle over the top of her head. She looked up — Haixin was resting a hand on her hair, her expression grave:
"Someone helped you, didn't they?"
"No one did."
Hai Linlin's expression flickered with a brief flash of panic. Her heart began to pound, the flustered feeling of having her secret guessed washing over her — yet she kept her face carefully calm.
Haixin shook her head:
"Humans are a filthy and despicable species. We should avoid contact with them as much as possible."
"I know, Sister."
Hai Linlin's expression remained unchanged, but the hand gripping the stone bed tightened.
Haixin looked at Hai Linlin and let out a long, deep sigh:
"Hai Linlin, you're young — you don't understand the dirty schemes humans harbor. Sometimes, for the sake of greater gain, they can put on a temporary disguise. Don't forget how we ended up in this situation."
"But Sister…"
Hai Linlin seemed to want to say something.
But when she met Haixin's eyes, burning with hatred, she stopped.
From within that hatred, scenes of past bloodshed and fire flickered through her own mind as well.
"What is it? You can say it."
Haixin pressed her.
Hai Linlin's face had gone a little pale:
"It's nothing, Sister. I just wanted to say… that person is actually quite kind."
"No matter how kind he seems, as long as he is human, he may one day become an obstacle to us."
Haixin gripped Hai Linlin by the shoulders, her eyes locking onto Hai Linlin's gaze like a pair of iron clamps:
"Those not of our kind will always have different hearts. They treat us as commodities to be traded. Only if you regard them with the same cold detachment can you protect yourself from being harmed."
"I…"
"Do you understand!"
Haixin's voice rang out like a clap of thunder, making Hai Linlin tremble from head to toe, her whole body going numb.
After a long silence, Hai Linlin lowered her head:
"Yes."
* * *
Whoosh~
The waters of the sea were glowing.
Chen Sui stared, unblinking, at the spot in his fish tank where he had placed the Celestial Rainbow Conch. The entire stretch of water nearby was suffused with a swirling, seven-colored mist.
The whole décor room seemed to have been touched by the same energy — the air was laced with a cool, refreshing haze.
Chen Sui wasn't particularly surprised. Over the past few days, the fish tank's small world had been undergoing some kind of change, and it was already beginning to affect the surrounding environment.
The decorative rocks and the tank's modern fixtures that had originally been used for the aquascape had all shrunk proportionally.
Vast stretches of open sea had appeared on all sides.
Of course, to be precise, it wasn't that the rocks and islands had shrunk — the entire small world had grown larger, making those original features appear small by comparison.
Chen Sui also noticed that the flow of time within the small world had accelerated.
It had increased from the original 20x to 30x — the passage of time inside was noticeably faster now.
But as the Lord of Creation, even with the accelerated time flow, he could still clearly perceive anything happening anywhere within it that he wished to know about.
"This time acceleration… I still don't know how it increases. Looking at it now, it still feels a bit slow."
Chen Sui shook his head.
But no one answered him. So far, there was no clear indicator that was obviously linked to the time flow rate.
Fortunately, Chen Sui was the kind of person who was good at letting things go.
Knowing that a faster time flow was a good thing was enough.
Afterward, Chen Sui went ahead and released the other miscellaneous sea beasts he had drawn earlier into the tank, hoping to make this stretch of water a little more lively — but viewed from the side, there was still no visible sign of any fish population to speak of.
The sea was simply too vast. Thousands upon thousands of fish dropped in barely made a ripple.
The open expanse of the fish tank's surface had already taken on the grandeur of a true ocean.
Chen Sui felt a deep sense of accomplishment.
"At this rate, could I actually end up with a complete world on par with Azure Star?"
He thought it was very possible.
When that day came, perhaps the sea beasts in his world could be brought out at any time.
He looked up at the countdown above — 354 Days remaining until the Azure world's connection.
"354 Days left. When the other world and this one collide, something is bound to happen. I really should prepare in advance."
"Well, I'll take it slowly. With all of this, there's no need to rush. But these Celestial Rainbow Conches… next time I'll save up a batch of eggs and crack them open here, see if they really do bring good luck."
Sea beasts hatched from eggs were born fully grown, immediately combat-ready — but these two Celestial Rainbow Conches, though still young, might or might not affect their function as lucky charms.
Chen Sui glanced outside. Today was overcast; there weren't many people on the street, and the air was damp enough to be uncomfortable.
"Time to get into the game."
"Ahh—"
Just as he was about to look away, a sharp scream suddenly rang out from downstairs.