A considerable number of guests went into the water; two-thirds of those who came chose to come down.

There were also many people gathered in the shallow water area, including Qiao Yingying, who was the birthday girl.

With a clear goal in mind, while Ao Cang was collecting glowing star stones with Li Chonghua, she swam up behind Qiao Mei and greeted her.

The lights on the platform were on, so the surrounding area wasn't too dark, but not much light could be seen on the bottom of the water, which remained completely dark.

This made it easier for some things to come out and quietly approach Qiao Mei.

As soon as Qiao Mei saw Qiao Yingying, she felt an unusual ripple in the water on Qiao Yingying's side. Then, a cold, sticky, and soft touch touched her calf, instantly giving her goosebumps.

She still carried the Reverse Scale that Ao Cang had given her, and didn't notice that when the dark purple tentacles underwater were about to release their slime on her, a pale golden light emanated from the Reverse Scale, entered the water, and struck the tentacles directly.

The moment it was hit, the tentacle turned charred black, and Qiao Yingying's face suddenly turned pale, as if she had suffered a serious injury.

Qiao Mei's attention was focused on Qiao Yingying's calves, so she didn't notice Qiao Yingying's situation. She reached out to touch her calves again and didn't feel anything behind them, so she breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she might be imagining things.

"If you came here just to tell me this, then you can leave. Don't disturb my conversation with my mother. We have nothing to talk to you about."

Qiao Yingying hadn't come here specifically to chat with Qiao Mei. She discovered that she hadn't been able to plant what she wanted for Qiao Mei, and that Qiao Mei had also suffered a serious injury. So she had to leave and think about what to do next.

Without planting this seed, it would be very difficult for her to bring Qiao Mei to the deep sea area.

Just as she was thinking this, she caught a glimpse of Xu Hui out of the corner of her eye before turning to leave, and an idea instantly formed in her mind.

Although Ao Cang had already given the reverse scale to Qiao Mei, he could still sense any unusual activity immediately.

So the moment he noticed something was wrong, he hurriedly shoved the small star stone he had picked up into Li Chonghua's hands and rushed toward where Qiao Mei was.

But by the time he arrived, Qiao Yingying had already left with a smile on her face.

A hint of darkness quietly appeared in Xu Hui's crimson eyes.

He was only concerned about Qiao Mei and did not notice that something was wrong with Xu Hui. After putting his arm around her waist, he hurriedly checked her up and down.

Qiao Mei was a little confused. After Ao Cang calmed down, she frowned and asked him what he was doing just now.

"I'm fine, why are you so worried?"

There were many people around, so Ao Cang couldn't explain things to her in too much detail. After Li Chonghua caught up and saw Xu Hui, he took Qiao Mei to a less crowded place and told her about what he had just discovered about the unusual movement of the Reverse Scale.

"Isn't my Achilles' heel still with you? It can protect you from three attacks in total. It already blocked one for you just now, and I noticed it."

Qiao Mei was stunned. She remembered the strange sticky feeling that came from Qiao Yingying's calves after Qiao Yingying came over, and the way Qiao Yingying frowned before leaving, but then smiled. Her heart skipped a beat. Without having time to explain to Ao Cang, she led him back.

Sure enough, when they arrived at the destination, Li Chonghua and Xu Hui had already disappeared.

She immediately made a phone call to Xu Hui via personal terminal, extremely anxious.

When they realized she wasn't answering, they called Li Chonghua instead.

Li Chonghua answered the call quickly and asked Qiao Mei what was wrong.

"Uncle Li, where is my mother? Where did you go?"

"We came here to collect small star stones. Xiaohui wanted to go deeper into the area to collect them. I wanted to go with her, but she wouldn't let me, saying she wanted to collect them by herself and give me a surprise, so I..."

Hearing this, Qiao Mei became even more anxious. After interrupting him, she walked towards a deeper part of the water while asking Li Chonghua which direction they were in.

Li Chonghua was puzzled: "It's to the southwest. You should be able to see it if you walk a little further. But you sound so anxious, Uncle. Is something important?"

Qiao Mei didn't have time to explain to Li Chonghua. As she sped up her journey towards the southwest waters, she clearly felt that the waves had grown considerably larger.

Basically, every few steps, a small wave would come crashing in.

When she arrived at the destination, her hair was mostly wet.

"Uncle Li, are you sure my mother went into the depths of the Emerald Sea?"

Li Chonghua nodded: "Yes, did something happen to Xiaohui? But there are still quite a few people over there, it shouldn't be like this."

As he was speaking, he tried to call Xu Hui via his personal terminal, but found that no one answered.

Qiao Mei contacted Xu Wenfeng immediately, sent him her location, and asked him to come as soon as possible.

Then he went to find Xu Hui.

Qiao Yingying stood on the high platform, watching as Qiao Mei had gone to that sea area as she had predicted. She narrowed her gray eyes, turned around, and entered the water from another direction.

Beneath the surface, several tentacles slid down from her body and then, like dogs that have smelled bones, swam straight toward where Qiao Mei was.

Once she was sure the tentacles had left, Qiao Yingying went back ashore and headed towards a place where there were more people and everyone could see her.

........

"Splash..."

Waves of almost continuous giant waves repeatedly blocked Qiao Mei's path, making her extremely anxious.

Seeing this, Ao Cang took advantage of the fact that there weren't many people in this deep water area and quietly used his water-type familiar's superpowers to eliminate the giant waves.

Only then did Qiao Mei's progress proceed smoothly. She turned on the lighting function of her computer bracelet to go find Xu Hui.

Fortunately, after swimming forward for about ten minutes, she finally saw Xu Hui's shadow.

She looked a little bewildered, as if she didn't know why she was there.

Aocang was formed by seawater, so it knows the seawater situation very well.

He sensed that behind Xu Hui was a fault-lined waterway at least five thousand meters deep, and immediately released his water-type familiar's superpower to protect her.

But then, an unexpected wave crashed against Xu Hui, knocking her down into the fault line and causing her to disappear completely from sight.

"Mother!!"

Qiao Mei's heart was in her throat as she quickly swam in the direction where Xu Hui had disappeared.

Ao Cang pulled her back: "An'an, don't go over there. That's a fault line, at least five thousand meters deep! I'm not familiar with this area, you..."

"So what! Am I supposed to just ignore her?!" Qiao Mei rarely lost her temper like this with Ao Cang.

After being stunned by her yelling for a while, he told Qiao Mei to stay where she was and he would go down to help her look for it.

"I am a dragon, and the sea is like land to me. I will help you find your aunt, so don't worry too much and trust me!"

After Qiao Mei finished yelling, she realized what she had actually done.

Feeling guilty, she looked at him with worried red eyes: "Then you must be very careful. If there are any problems, be sure to contact me immediately using your smartwatch!"