Chapter 135: The Little Mermaid (5)

As it turned out, Tang Mu had been overthinking.

That was simply the sound of waves crashing against the reefs, not some bizarre creature at all.

The good news, however, was that a few hundred meters away from Tang Mu, there appeared to be an island. From Tang Mu's perspective, the island was pitch black, a mass of absolute darkness. It was completely impossible to discern any specific details about the island.

What also struck Tang Mu as wrong was that this instance had absolutely no task prompts.

They had crossed the map straight into a giant ship, and right after the ship came the merfolk. As soon as the merfolk arrived, they began a massive slaughter. Throughout the entire process, no NPC explained the main objective of the instance. In other words, up until now, this instance had not officially begun.

Could the clues be on the island?

After thinking it over, Tang Mu decided to swim toward that unfamiliar island.

It took her a long time of swimming before she finally made it across. The reefs surrounding the island were troublesome, and Tang Mu had to navigate around them. But it was only when she swam closer that she realized Zi Yushu had been waiting for her on the shore all along.

Almost the very instant she saw Zi Yushu, Tang Mu prepared to turn around and head back.

Yet who would have thought that Zi Yushu would deliberately say, "Are you turning around because you're afraid of me?"

Tang Mu, "..." Afraid? What a joke. She wasn't afraid at all.

Tang Mu ignored Zi Yushu, but she didn't choose to turn back either. Instead, she chose to pull herself ashore nearby.

When she climbed onto the land, she didn't glance at Zi Yushu even once the entire time. On the contrary, Zi Yushu kept chattering endlessly in her ear. "It seems your choice and mine are the same—we both felt the clues were on this island. But if you hadn't chosen to protect the merfolk back on the ship, and had instead sided with the sailors, then right now we'd probably still be sitting comfortably in the cabin, enjoying fine food, admiring the scenery, and commanding the entire ship's crew, making them work themselves to the bone to send us safely back to shore."

"Instead of ending up like this, painstakingly swimming and climbing onto an island where there isn't even a drop of water to drink or a morsel of food to eat."

...

Tang Mu felt that Zi Yushu was just as hypocritical as ever.

"...If I remember correctly, just a few hours ago, you pushed me right in front of the merfolk yourself, intending to use my life to buy yourself some time to escape."

How long ago was that?

And yet Zi Yushu could still maintain a smile and make small talk with her here as if nothing were wrong. As though he had never done anything to betray Tang Mu.

Yet both of them despised nothing more than being betrayed by others.

"But didn't you manage to escape successfully after all?" If Zi Yushu still had any redeeming qualities, it was that he was extremely honest. He always plotted against you openly, never scheming behind your back and keeping it a secret from you. "Old classmate, we haven't seen each other in all these years; of course I had to test whether you had the capability to be my companion. After all, it's not like gods haven't been dragged down by useless teammates."

...

Tang Mu didn't want to engage with this despicable man.

He even compared himself to a god.

Of course, someone who could manipulate the desires of others with a mere word would naturally be arrogant enough to call himself a god.

"If you're trying to get any clues or benefits from me, I advise you not to waste your time. Whatever is in each other's minds, we can see right through. So what's the point of acting like this now?"

True to form, once Tang Mu said this, Zi Yushu stopped beating around the bush.

"That merfolk likes you," Zi Yushu stated directly.

"But he wants to kill me."

"If you can help me this time, how about we wipe the slate clean regarding our past grievances?"

Huh?

Did Tang Mu hear that correctly?

How did he even have the nerve to suggest wiping the slate clean?

The darkest moments of her past were entirely thanks to Zi Yushu. The fact that she hadn't killed Zi Yushu the second he appeared was already an act of supreme grace on her part. How could he possibly have the gall to talk about forgiving Tang Mu?

Indeed, in the minds of selfish people, the one who is always in the wrong is someone else, never themselves.

"I won't help you. You don't need to waste your time on me." Tang Mu was starting to feel annoyed now. She had already made up her mind; if Zi Yushu said one more damn thing detrimental to Yan Xingwen, she would just kill Zi Yushu right here. Anyway, Zi Yushu probably harbored murderous intentions toward her as well, so he most likely wasn't brewing anything good.

The most probable scenario was that he was currently plotting how to maximize her utility and then kick her aside the moment she was no longer useful.

Since they both saw through each other completely, why bother putting on a hypocritical act here?

"Fine," Zi Yushu nodded. "A minute ago, I was still thinking that if I could use you to make the merfolk soften his heart and let me go, I would be very grateful to you. But I didn't expect that your feelings for that merfolk are actually real."

Tang Mu had always known that Zi Yushu was exceptionally skilled at probing human hearts.

However, if Zi Yushu used this ability on Tang Mu, it would infuriate her to no end.

The red thread in Tang Mu's hand surged in the dark.

Yet a shimmering yellow protective barrier materialized around Zi Yushu, blocking Tang Mu's red thread completely outside of it.

Even under attack, Zi Yushu remained smiling. "I know you have a habit of killing people casually. So how could I possibly not be on guard against you?"

The red thread unexpectedly failed to pierce through the eerie, bright yellow barrier on Zi Yushu.

It was impossible to tell what grade of prop this was.

However, since it could block Tang Mu's A+ grade red thread bell, the level of this barrier had to be higher than A+.

...

Tang Mu suppressed the sour resentment in her heart and stopped paying attention to Zi Yushu.

Since she couldn't kill Zi Yushu for the moment, she would temporarily leave him alone—after all, she would always find an opportunity to kill him eventually.

Moving from the edge of the island toward its center.

The island was not large.

There were plenty of woods.

Coconut palms and palm trees were everywhere. Walking through the forest made it far too easy to be scratched by the branches on both sides of the path.

Yet within the jungle, aside from Tang Mu and Zi Yushu, there seemed to be other creatures darting rapidly back and forth among the trees. The speed was so bizarrely fast that it forced Tang Mu and Zi Yushu to stop every few steps to check just what kind of slippery creatures were darting through the jungle.

"Shall we make a bet?" Zi Yushu suddenly said beside Tang Mu. "I bet there's an 80% chance it's the merfolk coming to hunt us down. If it's not, I'll give you 100,000 points."

Just as Tang Mu was about to say, "Are you out of your mind?", Zi Yushu suddenly grabbed a dagger and locked Tang Mu within the crook of his arm.

"Come out. I know you're hiding here. But the person you want is in my hands." Zi Yushu pressed the dagger close to the skin of Tang Mu's neck, and sweet, sticky blood instantly welled up from the wound.