It was a giant octopus, five to six meters in length and weighing over a hundred pounds. Visually, it was more than twice the size of the silver-tailed merman; its flailing tentacles looked as though they could easily strangle the silver-tail to death.
Yet, standing in the seawater, the silver merman showed no trace of fear. His cold, indifferent expression remained unchanged from beginning to end, his vertical pupils fixed intently on the mouthparts hidden behind the giant octopus’s tentacles.
Having lost his rationality, the silver merman relied purely on instinct. Countless methods of disembowelment flashed through his mind. His body subconsciously recalled the battlefields against the Zerg; the carapaces of those annoying insects were tougher than mecha plating, yet a merman’s sharp claws could slice through them like butter with a gentle swipe.
He remembered the sensation of carapaces being torn away, the Zerg flesh still clinging to the underside. A sickening, bloody stench would explode instantly, the smell of rotting insects and bursting ichor filling the air. The Zerg, with their extreme reproductive capabilities, were born violent and cruel; their very blood contained factors that could induce a mental breakdown (berserk state) in humans.
Stinking blood had once drenched his entire combat uniform.
Si Jisheng was currently covered in a metaphorical bloodlust; the side effects of his merman physiology were easily triggered in such a state. A merman who loses his mind on the battlefield is a terrifying thing. Usually, whenever Si Jisheng regained consciousness, he would find himself facing a field of Zerg corpses. Even he didn’t know which specific insects he had killed.
Even now, his biological systems were automatically simulating how those soft tentacles would be shredded by his fingertips. He imagined the giant octopus exploding into a dreamlike spray of blue blood, staining the entire sea. In the midst of that shattered flesh, he would find the treasure he had accidentally lost.
The motionless silver merman suddenly began to swim slowly. He was like a stalking predator, ready to strike at any moment.
Hiding behind the reef, the little mermaid sensitively detected the sudden explosion of danger in this area. Deng Xi’s heart constricted violently. A bone-deep sense of dread screamed at him to flee. His heartbeat staggered for a moment.
Summoning all his strength, Deng Xi let out a ragged breath in the gloom. Without a moment’s hesitation, he flicked his tail fin and swam out from behind the reef toward the gray sands.
His eyes frantically searched for the silver-tail. Upon spotting the familiar figure, Deng Xi’s eyes lit up, and he increased his speed. “Little Mute, leave this place quickly! I feel danger.”
His voice suddenly caught in his throat. Deng Xi froze.
The giant octopus that had appeared out of nowhere, the silver-tail standing still with his back turned… a mermaid’s sixth sense told Deng Xi that the source of all his terror was right there. He couldn’t tell if it was the giant octopus or the familiar back of his companion.
Just as the merman’s claws were about to touch the trembling octopus, the sound from behind made the silver-tail pause. He turned, his cold silver eyes slowly shifting toward the source.
In the center of the vast seabed stood a confused, golden-haired blue mermaid. He looked like an innocent little beast. His blue eyes still held traces of worry, but when they met those vertical silver pupils, his own pupils contracted uncontrollably.
The silver merman’s gaze locked onto him instantly.
Under that icy stare, Deng Xi was unable to move a muscle.
Si Jisheng stared at the blue-tailed mermaid for a long time with an unrecognizable gaze, as if trying to identify him. After determining that this creature posed a lower threat, he finally just frowned slightly, turned back with cold indifference, and decided to prioritize the prey in front of him.
The moment the silver-tail turned away, Deng Xi’s taut nerves snapped. He watched as the Little Mute swam toward the giant octopus—a creature several times his size. The silver-tail looked so small, as if he might be swallowed by the tentacles at any moment.
Deng Xi’s eyes widened. He desperately tried to convince himself that the danger came from the octopus.
He can’t go there. He must not go there!
Deng Xi swung his tail fin, swimming forward with reckless abandon. It was the first time his blue tail had moved so fast, so urgently. Just as the tentacles were about to touch the silver-tail, Deng Xi grabbed Si Jisheng’s arm.
The moment he touched him, the icy sensation made his gills shiver. Deng Xi was hit by a sudden, terrible premonition. When the silver-tail looked down at Deng Xi’s hand with a stranger’s eyes, that feeling reached its peak.
Deng Xi’s fingertips curled in panic. “Little Mute?”
“It’s dangerous there. Don’t go.”
Deng Xi tightened his grip. Even though he was so scared he wanted to curl his tail into a ball and hide in a dark corner, he stubbornly tilted his head up and looked fixedly at the silver-tail. He could sense that something was very wrong with the Little Mute, but he couldn’t stand by and watch him fall into danger.
The silver merman reached back, grabbing Deng Xi’s wrist and pulling him close. His gaze settled on the blue mermaid’s fragile throat.
Si Jisheng’s mind was filled with a cacophony of noise, screaming incessantly. His mental “berserk index” was climbing at a terrifying rate. If his “Light Brain” hadn’t been in stealth mode, the system monitoring his vitals would have been blaring deafening alarms, warning everyone to flee from his side immediately.
The bone-deep itch made the merman’s claws even sharper. He wanted to tear everything apart; he wanted to destroy everything.
The silver merman’s thumb pressed against the blue mermaid’s creamy skin. With just a bit of force, five bloody holes would appear in Deng Xi’s arm. Si Jisheng pressed his tongue against his aching fangs.
But the moment he met those blue eyes clear as the ocean, he felt a flash of dizziness.
The mermaid language pierced through the chaotic noise, striking his soul. It was Deng Xi’s urgent calls: “Little Mute? What’s wrong with you? Let’s leave here first, okay? While it hasn’t attacked us yet.”
His breathing grew ragged; his grip tightened subconsciously.
“It hurts.”
Deng Xi’s tears were forced out almost instantly by the pain. The silver-tail’s strength was too great; even though he avoided the claws, he left dark purple finger marks on the mermaid’s arm.
His eyes, already red from crying earlier, became even redder. The pink flush at the corners of his eyes made his blue eyes, washed by invisible tears, look even more translucent.
The silver merman instinctively reached out, his fingertips stopping at Deng Xi’s eyelid. Deng Xi narrowly avoided the touch.
Unable to touch the beautiful blue eyes, the silver merman’s hand hovered awkwardly in place. He tilted his head in confusion, then reached out again to try and touch him.
Deng Xi turned his head away and pushed the silver merman’s hand back, wishing he could get as far away from those claws as possible. In the soft language of merfolk, he whispered a tearful accusation, “Don’t touch me.”
It really hurt too much.
The blue mermaid’s rejection caused Si Jisheng to narrow his silver eyes dangerously, but the “prey” he had taken an interest in suddenly took his hand. The dangerous atmosphere dissipated silently.
Deng Xi pulled at Si Jisheng’s hand, trying to swim away, but no matter how he moved his tail fin, he couldn’t budge him. His small face turned red from the effort. “Let’s go, let’s just go. We won’t look for the conch anymore.”
Si Jisheng watched the blue mermaid struggle to drag him along. Hearing the familiar word seemed to spark something. He lowered his eyelids; though he was a powerful merman, a hint of grievance could be seen in his cold expression. The sound he made was strange and blurry, broken as he spoke: “It… was… eaten.”
The word “conch” was like a switch for the silver merman. As if possessed, Si Jisheng repeated the words over and over: “Eaten. Eaten. The conch… was… eaten.”
The Little Mute’s state was truly terrifying. Deng Xi was so scared he became incoherent, trying to soothe him in a panic. “We don’t want it anymore. I—I’ll find a new one.”
Si Jisheng continued to repeat those words, his beastly eyes locking onto the giant octopus once more.
Tear it apart.
The giant octopus, startled, spread its tentacles wide. It seemed to finally realize that the thing it had swallowed wasn’t food. The meat inside the conch had long since decayed, leaving only an empty, non-nutritious shell. Its beak-like jaws spat out a blue-green object. Under the influence of its fright, its serrated tongue flexed, and the tiny conch held in its mouth was completely crushed.
The shell cracked.
To anyone else, the cracks would be invisible. But with a merman’s perfect vision, Si Jisheng could see the tiny, insignificant fractures through the long distance of seawater.
The hand Deng Xi was holding suddenly went slack. In a daze, he saw the silver-tail shoot forward like an arrow from a bow, charging straight for the giant octopus.
“Little Mute!”
Deng Xi snapped out of it and swam after him as fast as his tail would take him.
The silver-tail’s swimming speed was faster than a great white shark. He reached the octopus almost instantly. The terrifying pressure he brought caused the giant octopus to spray a cloud of thick ink. Its soft beak tightened instinctively, and with a flex of its tongue, the small conch held in its mouth was ground to powder.
The ink billowed through the water. The silver merman, unable to see the path ahead, slowed down, allowing Deng Xi to catch up.
Passing through the ink-stained water, the silver merman saw the threatened octopus waving its tentacles. It had abandoned all hope of camouflage and was fleeing rapidly.
On the gray sand where the octopus had been resting, several blue-green fragments swirled slowly in the water, drifting before finally settling quietly on the seabed.
Deng Xi’s eyes widened. It was broken.
The conch he had given to the Little Mute—after being thrown away by its owner—had been miserably destroyed. It was completely shattered.
Deng Xi was stunned for a moment, then looked nervously at the silver-tail.
After a moment of stillness, an even more terrifying aura exploded from Si Jisheng. The sliver of sanity that the mermaid language had managed to call back was completely obliterated.
Just as the silver tail fin was about to swing, someone hugged him tightly from behind. Deng Xi’s blue tail wrapped firmly around Si Jisheng’s silver one, pinning him in place.
Bare skin pressed tightly together.
Deng Xi himself was terrified to death. He buried his head in the silver-tail’s back, his voice trembling. “Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. Little Mute, don’t be angry.”
No matter how slow he was, he finally realized that the danger wasn’t the giant octopus—it was the silver-tail he was hugging. The Little Mute had lost his mind and didn’t seem to recognize who he was.
“It’s okay, it’s fine. Don’t be like this. I don’t want this.”
Warm tears overflowed from his blue eyes. Because their skin was touching, the change in water temperature allowed the silver merman to clearly perceive the burning heat against his back. The claws he had instinctively raised to strike behind him froze.
“I am scared.”
Deng Xi wasn’t scared of the Little Mute; he was scared because he realized the Little Mute was sick very, very sick.
The little mermaid used his soft, sobbing voice to clumsily comfort him. “Shall I sing a song for the Little Mute?”
After the song, he will surely get better.