Chapter 156: The Little Mermaid (26)

"Ah? Really? That's wonderful!" Yu Yun clapped her small hands together, her face brimming with joy.

Now she could rest easy. She could comfortably find a spot to sit down, nibble on some small snacks, and enjoy the scenery along the way.

The giant ship sailed across the sea for many days before finally reaching the shore.

This was a very ancient city.

To call it a city was a misnomer, for it had long since been weathered into mounds of rammed earth. Broken walls and ruined pillars stood amidst overgrown weeds, devoid of any trace of human habitation.

Yet, as they walked further, something felt off.

People suddenly began to appear out of nowhere.

The environment and the scene gradually regained vitality.

Time was rewinding at a dizzying speed.

"General Kantian. Must we truly go this far?" a man dressed as a deputy general asked, holding King Shate's letter with a look of trepidation. "We have all witnessed how you and Lady Sanglan journeyed here together. Once you do this, there will no longer be any possibility between you and Lady Sanglan."

"There is no possibility between us now, either," Kantian replied. "I cannot fulfill her request to follow her into the sea. On land, I have my family. My parents, my brothers and sisters, and their children are all in the king's hands. I cannot let them suffer implication because of myself alone."

"But—"

"And there are all of you," General Kantian patted the deputy's shoulder. "You, too, have parents, a wife, and children."

The deputy fell silent.

Yet a look of lingering reluctance remained on his face.

"Merfolk are inherently savage and cruel when facing danger. To capture merfolk alive, King Shate will certainly dispatch a massive army to encircle and suppress them. The moment Sanglan sees me, she will inevitably coordinate with the merfolk clan to meet me. But once she learns that I am leading an army not for the reconciliation of our two races, but for her extermination, she will understand."

Things unfolded precisely as Kantian had predicted.

General Kantian and the deputy loudly proclaimed within the Shate royal palace just how vicious and brutal the merfolk were. To secure these crates of pearls for King Shate, Kantian and his soldiers had paid an agonizingly heavy price.

Soldiers wounded, casualties incurred... and so on.

The witch doctor examined the wounds on General Kantian and his soldiers, confirming they had been inflicted by sharp claws, before nodding to King Shate.

Only then did King Shate believe General Kantian's deceitful words.

"I will provide twenty thousand soldiers to accompany you in suppressing the merfolk," King Shate declared. "My dearest little princess recently lacks a pretty dress to wear. She fancies blue; you shall strip a blue merfolk's scaled gauze dress to make a little skirt for her."

"Yes."

General Kantian glanced at the little princess, who was squatting by the flowers near King Shate, chasing butterflies—as innocent and carefree as his own Sanglan.

With that, the vision came to a halt.

The scene shifted.

Tang Mu and Yu Yun inexplicably found themselves back on the ship.

"Charge!"

The vessel was a sea of crushing dark heads. Clad in heavy armor, the crew engaged in a fiercely brutal battle with the savage merfolk.

There were no winners in this battle.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties.

General Kantian died as well.

Slain by Sanglan's own hands.

The entire ship was slick with blood. The ghastly scene was so horrific that it would rob anyone of their appetite to eat.

In truth, if one were being honest, this battle could have been avoided.

It was the irreconcilable differences between General Kantian and King Shate's military that had driven the crowd to fury.

One side accused the merfolk of cruelty and demanded their extermination.

The other side accused humanity of treachery and vowed to slaughter all humans.

And then, what followed next was clear to all.

The illusion vanished.

The giant ship returned to calm once more.

"Actually, the story isn't that complicated, is it?" Yu Yun could not help but raise her chin. "Yet why haven't we returned to the sea? By all logical reasoning, if the illusion we were experiencing has ended, we should open our eyes and see a giant giant clam shell, with the merfolk princess right before us. But now, we are still on the ship."

"Do you see that blue gauze ribbon?"

Tang Mu pointed to the leftover gauze ribbon from over thirty years ago resting on the deck. Despite weathering the elements for more than three decades, the ribbon remained as pristine as ever.

This blue gauze ribbon had appeared out of nowhere.

It would be difficult for anyone not to notice it.

"I see it."

"Let's go touch it. It might trigger the next plot point."

Though Yu Yun was not particularly fond of meddling with random objects, since Tang Mu had suggested it, Yu Yun would give it a try.

Yu Yun reached out and touched the ribbon. The moment her fingers brushed against the fabric, the two of them were once again dragged into a brand-new illusion.

This time, it was the ocean floor.

Although it was supposedly still the season of passing warm currents, the surrounding seawater inexplicably held a razor-sharp, biting chill.

Sanglan had severed her own beautiful fish tail. Holding the severed tail in both hands, she walked step by step across the sandy, rocky seabed using human legs. Strapped to her back was the corpse of General Kantian.

"You said that your reason for killing me was to take my fish tail to make a dress for King Shate's young daughter."

"Yet I have never truly understood the minds of you humans."

Clearly passionate within, her heart had been forcefully frozen into a sharp blade.

It gave the impression of a goddess deliberately covered in ice and snow, yet her inner spirit remained completely unshaken.

She was still sacred.

Only her exterior was covered in a layer of icy grey.

"Why are human desires and greed so profound?"

"Can the life of another beautiful creature be so easily snuffed out merely for the sake of a pretty gown?"

"If it were for food and warmth, the people in the Shate royal palace all wear magnificent garments and lack no provisions."

"If it were to show off—to display one's superiority to the common folk—your King Shate already possesses the vast majority of the wealth and status in this world."

...

"So, after pondering for so long, the conclusion I reached is this: you humans are born greedy, cruel, and desirous; devoid of empathy and incapable of feeling a shared resonance with all living things. Selfish, arrogant, habitually prone to contempt and condescension toward others. Given to rivalry, lust for power... and all such vices."

"Yet the heavens remain merciful."

"They have not driven you to total annihilation."

"And so, we merfolk shall do the same."

"I will not kill the little girl who eagerly awaits her new dress. I shall even transform my own fish tail into the most beautiful garment in this world and present it to her."

"However, the moment evil thoughts take root in her heart..."

"Then the entire royal city of Shate shall be reduced to a wisp of desert sand in the river of time, punished for her wickedness."

...

"So, Kantian, do you like this ending?"

"After all, I gave them a choice. Unlike you, who never once gave me a choice."

At this, Sanglan turned her head back, gently stroking Kantian's tightly closed brow. She gazed quietly at his face for a long time before finally turning her head away.

"Forgive me, I forgot that you can no longer answer me."