MASG chapter 85

 

The surface of the sea had transformed into something else entirely—a sight that struck fear into the hearts of those who beheld it.

107 tightly hugged Mi Dou. “This is bad. This is a hatching ground!”

“What hatching ground?” Silver Fang urgently activated the ship’s control system. This ship was no ordinary vessel—it had undergone three rounds of upgrades and modifications. But now, even the most precise equipment was unable to help the ship regain balance. In the face of true nature, all of humanity’s attempts seemed futile.

Mi Dou was already feeling seasick. As a bear-type modified hybrid, he was least suited to maintaining balance on the water’s surface or swimming. Xiang Xing extended more fungal filaments to secure Mi Dou and Silver Fang. The slender filaments gathered together to form living railings as thick as arms.

“Everyone, don’t be afraid! I can steady you!” Another filament extended from Xiang Xing’s back and fastened to the other end of the ship’s hull. White, sticky fluid seeped from the filaments’ surface, bonding everyone to the deck. After these actions, Mi Dou and Silver Fang were finally stabilized, but Xiang Xing was unable to stop the ship from moving toward the center of the vortex.

The terrifying ripples on the sea surface had already ceased. Now, a gigantic whirlpool appeared. Fortunately, the vortex was not moving too fast yet, and their ship still had a chance to escape.

“This is a mermaid egg hatching ground underneath, right on the shipping route into Yukun City.” 107 grabbed Mi Dou’s coat. Huge winds and waves rose on the sea surface, and a tear film formed over his bright eyes. Without realizing it, his skin took on a clearer, misty white color with a texture like plaster. As he transformed, he frowned slightly, and a deep indentation appeared between his brows.

“How could this be such a coincidence?” Silver Fang continued to operate the ship, switching from autopilot to manual control.

“Nuwa! It’s Nuwa’s scheme!” 107’s fingers grew longer unconsciously, and droplets of water began to secrete from his skin. “Nuwa can’t harm or kill Xia Yu directly, so she came up with this method. It can attack the hatching ground. If there are enough double-tailed mermaids in the hatching ground, it will become a brutal slaughter. If the double-tails suffer massive casualties, the terrifying ‘Dance of Death’ will be triggered, which is the anger of the double-tails. This is the double-tailed mermaids’ final song. Something major must have happened down there!”

“What? This whirlpool was made by the mermaids?” Silver Fang’s gaze locked onto the center of the vortex again.

The whirlpool was about 500 meters in diameter and still expanding. But that was not yet the most deadly part. Currently, the vertical drop of the vortex was only around three meters. However, as time went on, the vortex would definitely grow larger.

The ship was at the outer edge of the vortex, still with enough speed and energy to escape. If the vertical drop continued to increase, though, the ship would be dragged into the center of the vortex. The greater the drop, the harder it would be to escape. Once the drop exceeded ten meters, the vortex would become a storm eye, sucking the ship into the seabed and turning it into deep-sea wreckage.

107’s ears were slowly becoming smaller; the human contours were already unclear, as if melting away. “Yes, this is an extremely terrifying thing. Once it forms, it’s very hard to stop. What I’m worried about now is… Xi Ban won’t be able to come back either.”

“How is that possible?” Mi Dou shouted in panic. Xi Ban had only gone down to check the situation—how could he not come back? Besides, Mo An was there, too. His combat power was so high. He was a siren—the only male siren. He could handle ever-changing situations.

“Because Xi Ban is a double-tail! He can’t abandon the fish eggs! He will swear to protect the hatching ground to the death, even if he turns into scales and foam in the sea.” 107 put a life preserver on Mi Dou. When he turned back, Xia Yu, who had just been behind him, was already unconscious.

Xia Yu was briefly dazed for two or three seconds because he slipped. He didn’t feel pain; he just felt his head was heavy, and he saw golden stars. His reactions became very slow. He could hear everyone talking, but he couldn’t understand them at the moment. His limbs also felt heavy; he couldn’t even control his fingers. He could only rely on Xiang Xing’s protection as he floated aimlessly.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Silver Fang rushed over and held Xia Yu. “Xia Yu, wake up! Wake up!”

107’s body elongated as he pushed Mi Dou toward Xiang Xing. “Sit tight. I’m going down!”

As soon as he finished speaking, 107 leaped into the sea. Under the ship’s lights, a terrifyingly white, fragile-looking fishtail appeared on the black sea surface, thin to the bone. The fishtail quickly disappeared, but the ship stopped rocking violently at that moment, as if something beneath the ship were supporting it, pushing it away from the realm of death.

In the deep sea, Mo An and Xi Ban were still one step too late.

Even before they reached the hatching ground, they could smell blood. Unlike the blood of other fish, the pale blue blood threads had not yet dispersed completely. Every drop came from the bodies of mermaids. They continued rushing forward. To avoid slowing down, Xi Ban did not transform into a fishtail, and Mo An had already expended all his energy.

The deeper they swam, the darker it became. Just as they were about to reach the seabed, however, Mo An saw a clear light again. It was as if the seabed contained precious opals that reflected a gentle light in that bottomless place. The smell of blood grew stronger. All the schools of fish had fled. As they continued swimming, Mo An and Xi Ban saw whales fleeing in panic.

A blue whale swimming past them ignored everything and collided directly with Mo An.

“What on earth happened that even whales can’t bother to dodge me?” Mo An’s heart pounded wildly. Since hatching, he had never felt so unsettled. Deep-sea mermaids were emotionally connected. Even before he reached the hatching ground, overwhelming despair threatened to shatter him.

“Let’s get there first!” Xi Ban steadied him instead. “Go!”

With the order given, Mo An charged toward the deep sea again. Suddenly, it was as if he had crashed into something—he was moving so fast that he didn’t have time to see it.

When he could finally see clearly, it felt as if his heart had stopped beating.

It was the remains of a mermaid’s tail.

Its size and double-layered pearl-white color were proof of a double-tail’s heroic sacrifice. It was as if Mo An had suddenly been struck by a wave. The blood stench filling his nasal cavity reminded him of his childhood. Had the him who slept inside the fish egg experienced such a massacre? How many double-tails had been blown to pieces by machines in order to protect him?

The tail fragments flashed by and turned into transparent foam seconds later. Only a few incomplete scales remained, their pearly white color announcing to the earth and the deep sea that a double-tailed creature had been there.

After that, Mo An saw a head.

It was the head of an older female double-tail. Her long hair wrapped around her beautiful face for the last time. Pale blue blood flowed from her broken neck and red blood flowed from her gills. The blood drifted in front of Mo An and Xi Ban and was instinctively drawn into their gills. Her life passed through the gill slits of her kin and became an eternal part of the ocean.

She too became eternal foam.

“No! No!” Mo An shook his head and reached out to grab her, but caught nothing. At that moment, Xi Ban released his hands and reverted to his original form in the opal-like light. His heavy yet soft, double-layered tail fins looked enormous; however, in the face of truly brutal force, they offered no defense. The vortex was intensifying further, and Xi Ban saw his own kin “dancing.”

The hatching ground could no longer be saved. There was only one path left.

In an instant, the seabed blazed with light. Countless lights illuminated the 3,000-meter-deep sea as if it were daytime. Mo An felt the glare first. This was not a light that should exist on the seabed! He raised his hand to shield his eyes. After two or three seconds, he saw something that should have been impossible to see there:

Underwater thrusters.

Tens of thousands of underwater thrusters!

These thrusters could not previously reach such depths, but rapid updates and iterations had brought them to the seabed under Nuwa’s control. Their round shapes looked harmless, but the red laser dots they projected were demons of the natural world.

Wherever the laser dots landed, countless bullets followed.

Bullets with explosive functions were the grim reapers of the seabed, swiftly sentencing this entire expanse of fish eggs to death. Mo An hovered directly above the hatching ground. The densely packed eggs made his throat tighten and his body tremble—he had once been one of them. The little fish inside the eggs had not yet broken their shells, but some could already hear sounds from outside. Sensing that something was wrong, they thrashed about inside the eggs but were unable to break the protective membranes.

There should have been hundreds of double-tails guarding this place. Now, only dozens remained. They swung their miraculous ocean tails, swimming clockwise directly above the hatching ground. They used their massive tails to change the direction of the seawater and create the final layer of a fortress.

The ocean currents became the fortress. Rare undercurrents and surges appeared on the seabed. When the thrusters approached, the powerful currents swept them away easily, smashing them to pieces. However, as the currents grew faster and the vortex grew stronger, the double tails within it could no longer stop. They could only continue on, burning through their last bit of strength, waiting for the next wave of their kin to arrive.

“Protect Xia Yu, Mo An.” Xi Ban swam around Mo An two final times and reluctantly said, “You have one hour left before you fully mature. My mission is complete.”

“What are you doing? What are you doing?” Mo An tried to grab him.

But Xi Ban flicked his tail, pushing Mo An in the opposite direction twice.

“Protect yourself well, NiXiDa.” Xi Ban smiled and waved. He said goodbye to Mo An and charged toward the death vortex with utter resolve. His intact tail became a force of the seabed, softly chanting as he swam toward the vortex’s deepest part.

“Xi Ban! Xi Ban! ” Mo An tried to rush after him, but the barrier wouldn’t let him pass. The vortex had already formed into an indestructible, transparent wall. Tens of thousands of red laser dots landed on the wall. The thrusters fired simultaneously, but the bullets were powerless and unable to break through. Ultimately, their trajectories were altered by the sheer force, drifting off toward unknown places.

“Get out…” Mo An stopped at the outermost edge of the air wall. He could no longer see Xi Ban. He turned back alone to face tens of thousands of laser dots, a single red tear falling. “Get out. Go back to your land.”

The black fishtail became a reaping blade from the seabed. No thruster could successfully track the siren’s movements. One by one, the thrusters were torn apart. There were simply too many of them, and Mo An began to feel overwhelmed. Just as he had torn apart an unknown number of them, he heard a familiar sound.

The sound of fish tails beating the water!

Outside the ring of light, Meng Qingqing appeared like a ghost, accompanied by countless others. Black fish tails darted rapidly through the seabed like meteors beneath the sea.

The vortex on the surface had already become a terrifying suction mouth. Silver Fang’s ship had overturned. Everyone fell into the seawater. As Xia Yu fell into the sea, he saw 107.

His thin body could no longer support the metal hull. The ship smashed him into the sea and dragged him along with it into the vortex’s interior. As far as he could see, the mist-white tail was gone. His other hand gripped Mi Dou tightly. Fortunately, Mi Dou was wearing a life preserver and was barely managing to stay afloat.

Xiang Xing lifted Silver Fang up. The four of them struggled in the seawater.

But after struggling twice, Xia Yu knew it was useless. They could not escape the vortex’s pull. His only option now was to actively communicate with Nuwa. He raised his wrist, intending to instruct Jingwei to find Nuwa and inform her that he agreed to her conditions or offer himself in exchange for his companions’ survival.

However, in this environment, he couldn’t even lift his arm. The moment he opened his mouth, seawater poured in, choking him so badly that he couldn’t speak.

No, he had to think of another way. They couldn’t all die here… Xia Yu tightened his grip on Mi Dou and attached him to Xiang Xing’s fungal filaments. Mi Dou’s body sank downward, and Xia Yu had to use tremendous effort to pull him back up. Xiang Xing was also close to his limit. Silver Fang was not a normal human body; it had too much metal in it and was especially heavy.

“Hold on tight!”

At the moment when everyone had fallen into despair, a loud shout tore through the dark clouds like light piercing them. Xia Yu used all his strength to lift his head. Talos’s massive ship was parked steadily on the outer edge of the vortex, unmoving under any force.

Talos stood at the bow of the ship, still holding his old pipe in his mouth.

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