Chapter 148: The Little Mermaid (18)

For some reason, however, when Sang Wu heard Tang Mu and Xi Hongwei discussing strategies to break the deadlock at length, his expression was not actually pleasant.

His face darkened, casting a gloomy shadow in the dim light, yet no one noticed the strange look upon his face.

After a moment, Sang Wu cautiously began, "In our mermaid territory, there was once a mermaid princess who had basked in the attention and adoration of the entire clan since birth. Because she possessed the greatest power among all our people, she only needed to stand there to commune with the heavens and the earth, summoning the most violent storms and overturning the largest giant ships."

"However, ever since that day she went ashore and returned, she changed completely. She no longer laughed, nor did she speak, and she locked herself away in the Sea of Grass."

"In the Sea of Grass, seaweeds over a dozen meters long sway with the currents. If one is not careful inside, they will be entangled by the grass. It is the place we use to punish fallen merfolk."

"She has bound herself in that self-imposed imprisonment for more than thirty years."

"Perhaps the boss you speak of is her?"

Powerful abilities...
And reclusive...
Shutting herself away in the Sea of Grass for over thirty years. It was quite obvious she had developed severe psychological problems.

Ah, it seemed there was a very high probability that this instance's boss was her.

"Can you take us to this place?" Tang Mu asked in detail.

Sang Wu's eyes flickered for a moment. He nodded and replied, "Of course."

"But that place is extremely dangerous. Unless there are special circumstances, the mermaid clan does not advise half-merfolk to go there."

"It's fine," Tang Mu said. "If anything goes wrong, it will have nothing to do with you. I alone will bear the responsibility."

Even if something went wrong, it would have nothing to do with him?

Sang Wu grew even more displeased. Although he was still young among the merfolk, compared to humans, he could be considered middle-aged. The things he had seen and the people he had met were probably more numerous than the meals Tang Mu had eaten.

Tang Mu's current state was not at all that of someone falling madly in love, utterly unable to extricate herself.

She was rational.
So rational that she was devoid of all sentiment.

A girl who was so rational in matters of emotion—did she still harbor any love for this male?

Perhaps she did.
Compared to what she intended to accomplish, however, it was likely no more than the glow of a firefly next to the bright moon.

"Then, once we catch the iron-skin mermaid, I will take you there." Sang Wu blinked his eyes, wearing an innocent expression.

"Alright."

Since Sang Wu was willing to take her there, Tang Mu had nothing more to say.

She turned her attention back to the combat unfolding on the battlefield.

Compared to ordinary skeleton humans, the iron-skin skeleton merfolk were still relatively easy to deal with.

The skeleton humans transformed into iron-skin skeleton merfolk were gradually losing their teleportation abilities. They had to rely entirely on their own physical strength to fight against the merfolk, rather than depending on speed to secure victory.

Yet human life often proves that advantages can turn into shortcomings.

Deprived of their speed advantage, the iron-skin skeletons were quickly bound by heavy iron chains.

"You guys kept saying these water ghosts were hard to deal with. They don't look all that difficult to handle after all."

Weren't they subdued just like that?

"For us, they're alright."

As for the half-merfolk, however...
More than half had suffered casualties.

"It is getting late. We must return to the mermaid territory before this ocean current ends, otherwise, our stamina will be consumed exponentially."

As for those half-merfolk who had already perished...
They also had to be brought back to the mermaid territory to be properly buried.

Tang Mu silently counted the players present on the scene.
Splendid, yet another batch of people had died without a sound.

It took them more than half a month just to travel from the sinking site of the ghost ship back to the mermaid territory.

The ocean current this time was a warm one.
Not only did it provide favorable propulsion for their swim, but brushing against their bodies, it also felt pleasantly warm.

Upon returning to the mermaid territory, the place where the merfolk lived was somewhat different from what Tang Mu had imagined.

In Tang Mu's imagination, no matter how human-like merfolk were, they should still belong to a realm of fantasy imbued with a trace of ancient mystique. This tribal land would surely be tied to something primitive—
For instance, if merfolk slept, would they just casually find a patch of sand to lie on, cover themselves with some sea greens, and doze off?

Only after entering the tribal grounds did Tang Mu realize just how adept the merfolk race was at living a dreamy lifestyle.

It was not in the deep sea area, yet it was sufficiently far from the shore.

Within a depression of the seabed, rooms constructed entirely of coral stones were erected. Each stone house left only a narrow gap for the merfolk to enter and exit.

Viewed from a distance, the stone houses were indistinguishable from coral-encrusted hills.

Yet if one drew closer, they would discover that every stone house stood separate from the others, and each was equipped with its own doors and windows.

At the window positions, even wind chimes—the kind only humans liked to play with—were hung.

The wind chimes were made of brightly colored shells of various hues.
Unlike human wind chimes, however, which rang at the breath of the wind, the wind chimes beneath the sea moved along with the flowing currents. Occasionally, if a brightly colored tropical fish swam past the coral hill stones in search of food and accidentally bumped into a wind chime, it would produce a crisp and pleasant "tinkling" sound.

The sound was exceptionally clear and enchanting.

Aside from wind chimes, the merfolk also scoured the seabed for those large, smooth, and rounded marine pearls, predominantly large and white ones.

If they encountered a golden-crow-colored pearl, they would treat it as an ultimate treasure, transporting both the pearl and its oyster back together. Every day, they would wait for the oyster to gape open and inspect the growth of the pearl inside. If the oyster unfortunately died during the cultivation process, the merfolk would show no mercy in raising a sickle to harvest the pearl from within, storing it carefully inside their homes.

Discard the absurd notion that mermaid tears could turn into pearls.
The merfolk in this world shed tears that simply did not transform into pearls.
Even if they could become pearls, they would never cry lightly.

Inside the houses, there were also small human toys scavenged from various places, such as compasses, tiny ship sails, and small dolls. Generally speaking, these trinkets could not last long and would rot away in seawater, so they would go ashore to collect new gadgets at regular intervals.

However, they were forbidden from bringing back heavy metals.
Heavy metals would pollute the water source.

After all, the coral growing on their stone houses also required daily maintenance by the merfolk.

The focus was on vibrant colors and a wide variety of species.
This helped attract countless small and large fish that came to inhabit the coral zone.

The pretty, brightly colored small fish were kept for amusement.
The large fish served as food, whether fried or steamed—provided one was willing to endure some fatigue, travel hundreds of miles to an island or shore to make a fire, catch a fish after eating, and then swim hundreds of miles back... As long as one was willing, none of this was a problem.

"Tang Mu, the stone house for the two of us is right here."

Speaking of the stone house, Sang Wu suddenly became exceedingly proud and full of himself.

Sang Wu held a special status within the mermaid clan.
Consequently, his stone house enjoyed the best feng shui among the merfolk community: it had the most active seawater currents, the largest space, the prettiest coral, the most pearls, and the greatest number of novel little trinkets.