Gu Qingqiu forced herself to eat an extra meal of seaweed, and then awkwardly gestured to Troyes that she wanted to go for a walk around the neighborhood. However, due to the language barrier, Troyes clearly did not understand what she meant.

As night fell, Gu Qingqiu became the one who was lost and confused.

Troye clearly lacked such expressive body language; he uttered a cold, enigmatic phrase that sounded like a spell: "?????????????"

Gu Qingqiu:?

What is this thing again?

In fact, as a human with a certain learning ability and a strong desire to integrate into the life of the merfolk, Gu Qingqiu had already learned some common words in the past few days, such as the merfolk pronunciation of words like eating, sleeping, and playing games. However, she was certain that there wasn't a single familiar word in the passage she had just heard.

Troyes clearly noticed Gu Qingqiu's confusion, but he felt that it would be difficult for a human to understand so easily, so he mercifully repeated it three times.

Then Gu Qingqiu's expression changed from bewilderment to helplessness and then to indifference. Although she still didn't understand what was being said, she memorized the approximate pronunciation of the sentence. Perhaps if she heard the same sentence again in the future, she could understand it by combining the words with her understanding.

The language environment is indeed very important. Gu Qingqiu learned the meaning of many merfolk languages ​​by guessing and deciphering.

However, when Gu Qingqiu woke up the next day and found the stone house empty, she still felt an indescribable panic.

She had been spending the last few days with Troye, and in a way, he gave Gu Qingqiu a lot of security.

As a native human being, even if you were told that you could breathe freely in the deep sea in the future, perhaps no one would want to stay in the deep sea for a long time.

Gu Qingqiu doesn't have a particularly severe fear of the deep sea, but she tends to overthink things when she's alone in an unfamiliar environment, such as whether she might encounter dangerous marine life.

In fact, during this period, Gu Qingqiu did not see any marine life near the stone house. Based on the knowledge she had learned in the library, Gu Qingqiu believed that this was because the mermaid race had a dominant position in the ocean and a certain sense of territory, which restricted other marine life from approaching.

If Troyes were still here, this place would have a secluded, idyllic feel, but without him...

Gu Qingqiu felt an overwhelming sense of fear and tension welling up inside her. She tried calling out a few times, "Troy-ye ...

There was no response.

The unease in her heart grew stronger, and Gu Qingqiu changed the target she called out to: "System—"

System 057: [I'm here.]

Hearing the system's cold, mechanical voice devoid of any emotion, Gu Qingqiu felt a huge sense of relief, and her mind finally began to clear. "Do you know where Troyes went?"

System 057: [Today is the Mermaid Clan's routine meeting held every three months, and the male protagonist naturally attended as well.]

So that's what Troye wanted to tell her yesterday...

Meeting?

Gu Qingqiu hurriedly said, "Take me there quickly! Since it's a meeting, they must be discussing very important topics, especially given the current situation. They'll probably be talking about recent human activities! How long have they been meeting? Is it too late for me to go now? First, buy me some translation equipment! How do I get there? Will I be discovered if I just go directly? Is there any kind of item that can conceal my human presence?"

Because she was anxious, Gu Qingqiu's speech was even somewhat incoherent, and she paced around in circles.

System 057: [Don't rush.]

Gu Qingqiu paused in her anxious steps, and miraculously calmed down a bit.

System 057 was clearly much more composed and organized. It quickly bought the necessary items for Gu Qingqiu and guided her to the meeting place of the merfolk.

Gu Qingqiu arrived at just the right time, and happened to hear the key points she wanted to hear.

An elderly-looking mermaid shook his head with deep sorrow. "The prophecy stele started acting strangely a month ago. At that time, we retaliated against the despicable humans, but initially it showed auspicious signs, and this state was maintained for half a month. Until a week ago, the auspicious signs suddenly turned into ominous signs, and now it is even showing signs of great misfortune. You should know that the last time the prophecy stele showed such signs was more than a hundred years ago..."

The slender, red-haired mermaid beside him frowned. "Speaking of which, I think I overheard the fish talking about humans the other day. They said a human had fallen into the water and smelled strongly of blood. But a lot of humans have fallen into the water lately, so I didn't pay much attention. Until three days ago, I accidentally learned that the human who fell into the water was actually female. This is obviously illogical. How could a human dare to go out to sea during this time? And how long has it been since we've seen a female at sea!"

The merfolk reacted differently upon hearing this, and began whispering among themselves.

The merman sitting in the center had a white beard and bronze skin, and looked quite old, possibly a leader of the merman race. He cleared his throat and looked in a certain direction: "As far as I know, the area where that human fell into the water is your territory. Have you found anything unusual? Or have you seen that human's body?"

The two mermaids who were called out exchanged a glance; one was Troyes, and the other was a mermaid who looked older.

The older mermaid spoke first, taking the blame with a look of remorse: "Chief, this is indeed my responsibility. At that time, the human landed at the boundary between our two territories. I'm too old to get involved in things, so I asked Troye to take a look. It was indeed a human girl, with cuts on all four limbs from sharp weapons, and she carried the power of sacrifice."

"The power of sacrifice?" Upon hearing these words, the merfolk showed expressions of lingering fear.

The older mermaid shook her head: "I thought it was just ordinary sacrificial power. After all, humans have used such despicable methods before. As long as we don't kill them actively and let them fend for themselves, the sacrificial power will probably fade away after a while. So I had Troye treat her wounds a little and then sent her to the pile of human corpses."

Troye seemed to open his mouth as if to add something, but then, as if remembering something, he pursed his lips again.

The older mermaid then took out a twig and began to draw in front of all the other mermaids. “After I got back, the more I thought about it, the more something seemed off. This human girl’s face was somewhat familiar. This shouldn’t be the case. Humans have a very short lifespan, and I haven’t been in contact with any humans for thirty-four years. I shouldn’t have such feelings for a young girl.”

With the final stroke, a lifelike portrait of a girl appeared before the merfolk.