Chapter 12: Fish Monster in Human Skin

Hu Bing shook his head after hearing this: "I only ate a few mouthfuls of rice. The fish had bones, and my brother couldn't swallow well, so he didn't eat it either."

Xie Liang nodded and said, "Uh, go to bed early."

The night had already fallen, the dark sea was surging, the strong wind blew wildly on the sails, and the whole ship was shaking constantly due to the waves.

It was already late at night, and Xie Liang tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Already, the two lower bunks were snoring. He looked out the window, where pale moonlight shone on the deck. As the ship swayed, the light and shadows outside also swayed.

In the dim light, Xie Liang suddenly saw someone walking across the deck.

He looked at the big clock hanging on the side of the boathouse in the moonlight coming in through the window. It was already 12 o'clock midnight - who was walking outside at this time?

He got out of bed quietly, opened the door and walked all the way to the deck, but didn't see anyone.

He looked towards the second-floor cabin, where a kerosene lamp was still on. In the dim yellow light, a figure combing his hair was reflected on the window.

Xie Liang's heart skipped a beat: combing hair in the middle of the night, what's wrong with that? It's scary.

He tiptoed up the stairs to the second floor and walked to the door of the boathouse where the oil lamp was lit.

There was a faint sound of conversation in the house, so he gently put his ear to the door to eavesdrop.

I couldn't quite make out the words, only a few words: "forced," "chosen," "can't escape," "die," etc. It sounded like a woman mumbling to herself.

Just when Xie Liang was about to give up eavesdropping and walk back, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a few people hanging clothes on the deck outside the second floor.

He was stunned: What was this person thinking about hanging clothes in the middle of the night?

Xie Liang gently touched the corner of the boathouse, looked up quietly, and instantly felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave - the person in front of him was not hanging clothes but was clearly peeling off the skin of a person.

They are not human! They are fish-shaped monsters!

Wow! Xie Liang almost vomited!

At this time, several people came up to the second-floor deck one after another—the sailors! Like the others just now, they helped each other tear off the human skin wrapped around each other and hung them on the iron railings on the side of the deck.

Xie Liang then realized that these eight sailors were not human. After shedding their human skin, they turned out to be fish-like monsters. The fish skin on their bodies was incomplete, revealing the bloody red flesh, which looked really scary.

Strips of human skin fluttered gently on the railings in the night wind, making Xie Liang's scalp tingle.

Just as Xie Liang was about to retreat to the first floor, he suddenly slipped. When he was about to fall, a hand suddenly grabbed him by the waist - it was Shi Xiaoyin!

After looking at each other, the two walked back cautiously and entered the ship hall on the first floor together.

"You are not a newcomer." Shi Xiaoyin looked at Xie Liang with wide eyes.

"Well, not really an old man." Xie Liang scratched his head awkwardly, "Didn't your partner come out with you to investigate?"

"What can he do? He only talks big. The mission assigned by the NPC is not complete, so I have to go out and explore on my own."

Shi Xiaoyin frowned, paused, and then continued, "The word 'sacrifice' generally means to offer sacrifices, but our identities this time are to escort the bride. Could it be that...?"

"Could it be that - we are the sacrifices?" Xie Liang took over and added.

"That's probably the case. By the way, how many times have you descended? You look so delicate, but I didn't expect you to be so brave."

"Uh, the second time. Not a big deal, but it scared me a lot. I was just like you, wanting to find out what the mission is so I can leave here as soon as possible."

As Xie Liang finished speaking, a sticky dragging sound came from the deck outside. Shi Xiaoyin quickly put her finger to her lips and made a "hush" gesture, signaling Xie Liang to be quiet.

Sticky and dragging sounds came from the deck one after another. The two looked out through the glass of the ship's hall. Those skinless fish monsters were lying on the deck together, as if enjoying a moonlight bath, and making gurgling sounds of satisfaction from their mouths.

Suddenly, as if sensing something unusual, they lifted their heads and sniffed each other. Then they all stood up and moved towards the ship's lobby as if following a scent.

After Xie Liang reacted, he immediately pulled Shi Xiaoyin into the cupboard nearby. The two of them didn't dare to breathe in the cupboard, praying that the monster outside would not come in.

However, contrary to expectations, they had already entered the ship's hall and were rummaging through the hall.

The greasy, dragging sound stopped in front of the cupboard door. Xie Liang wondered: What would happen if I were caught? Would I be eaten? Rather than surrender, I might as well give it a try!

He immediately grabbed the wrench from the cabinet, kicked the door open, and smashed the wrench hard on the head of the fish monster standing in front of the cabinet door.

"Let's go!" Xie Liang whispered.

Shi Xiaoyin quickly slipped out of the cupboard and pulled out a long whip from his waist. The other fish monsters heard the noise and quickly surrounded him.

Shi Xiaoyin: "Are they the sailors from the daytime?"

"It should be. Judging from the human skin they peeled off, there's no doubt about it! This is too weird!"

The fish monsters before them had limbs that resembled human hands and feet, their webbed feet evolving into five fingers, held together only by a thin layer of transparent skin. They grabbed a nearby table and chair and swung them at the two of them.

"Quick, go back to your room through the back corridor and lock the door!"

After Shi Xiaoyin finished speaking, he whipped up a table beside him and smashed it at the monster. The two of them ran towards the corridor at the back.

Xie Liang was entangled by one of the fish monsters. Seeing that the others were about to surround him, he glanced at the fish tank in the hall, picked up a wrench and smashed it - water splashed all over the floor.

Most of these fish monsters had no skin, and their limbs kept sliding on the boat after touching the water. Xie Liang took the opportunity to break out of their encirclement and ran back to their respective boat rooms with Shi Xiaoyin.

Not long after Xie Liang returned to his room and lay down, a sticky slapping sound was heard at the door, waking up the two brothers Hu Bing.

"Brother...brother, who...is...knocking on the door?" Carrot asked while rubbing his eyes.

"Don't open the door. Just pretend you didn't hear anything and go back to sleep." Xie Liang said as he calmly locked the window. "Go back to sleep."

"Yes, just pretend you can't hear it. Lie down and take a rest." Hu Bing said and lay down and covered his head with the quilt.

The banging outside the door continued, each sound getting louder and louder.

Xie Liang knew that no one in the room could sleep with such noise. The small window on the door reflected a vague shadow in the dim light - it was those fish monsters in human skin, observing them through the iron bars of the door and window.

The thing outside the door was still banging on it relentlessly. Xie Liang was lying on the bed, feeling extremely nervous and sweating.

As the sky began to brighten, the slapping sounds finally stopped. He dozed off for a short while before being awakened by several screams.

Xie Liang quickly got up and walked towards the source of the scream. The door of a room in the corridor was crowded with people. Lu Baixing and Shi Xiaoyin were hurriedly walking from the other end of the corridor.

The eyes of the onlookers were filled with fear. When they saw Lu Baixing coming, they regarded him as the backbone and made some space for the two of them to enter.

Xie Liang followed behind and squeezed in - a strong smell of blood filled the small space.

There were four women living in this room, three of them died. The surviving woman fell to the ground, staring at the bloody ground with empty eyes, and her whole body was trembling.

The three dead women had their eyes wide open, their pupils dilated and black, with the whites of their eyes almost invisible. Their clothes and skin had been stripped off, like ripped-open dumplings.

Bloody bodies lay clinging to their beds, as if they hadn't moved an inch from birth to death. Their thick, viscous blood covered the entire floor, its thick plasma already solidified. The ground was covered with the panicked marks left by the surviving women who had fallen to the ground in shock.

"It was like being skinned alive and died in pain. You were in the same room with them, didn't you hear any noise last night?" Shi Xiaoyin squatted down and supported the fat woman who was slumped on the ground and asked.

The fat woman stared at Shi Xiaoyin in shock, as if she had lost her voice. In desperation, Shi Xiaoyin had to help her out of the bloodstained room.

The tables and chairs in the ship's hall that were in a mess last night have been restored to their original state and cleaned up - probably by the sailors.

Crowds of people gathered in the hall, some were shouting, some were breaking down, some were shouting to go home, some were crying, and the noises were all in chaos.

"What are you doing? You're so annoying! I'm crying all the time!" Lu Baixing clearly had no patience left and yelled at the crowd, "If you don't want to die, then be obedient. Either find a seat and wait for lunch, or go back to your room!"

Following Lu Baixing's roar, the ship's hall instantly became much quieter.

Shi Xiaoyin was still asking the surviving fat woman in a gentle voice. She supported the fat woman against her chest and patted her back gently. The woman's emotions gradually stabilized and she stopped sobbing.

"Did you hear or see anything last night?" Shi Xiaoyin asked softly.

"I…I just heard the sound of scratching on the bed."

"Besides scratching the bed, anything else?"

"I seemed to hear some tearing sounds from cloth." The fat woman said as she trembled with fear.

"Besides the ripping sound, is there anything else?"

"There seems to be the sound of dripping water."

"Besides the ticking sound, is there anything else?"

"It's gone..." The fat woman trembled even more violently after she said that. She must have thought of the source of the dripping water sound.

Shi Xiaoyin patted her back gently and then asked, "Were they still okay before you went to bed last night?"

"Yes, I am fine."

"Did you see anything after you went to bed?"

"No, I only heard those rustling sounds I just mentioned. I was so sleepy that I didn't open my eyes... and just went back to sleep."

The fat woman frowned as if she suddenly remembered something and said, "When I was half asleep, I seemed to hear someone say, 'Did you see me?'"

Beads of sweat covered her forehead. "I thought I was dreaming. I still don't know if I heard it in a dream."

"Then how did you answer?" Shi Xiaoyin asked.

"I didn't answer and fell into a deep sleep again. I... had worked night shifts for several days in a row before crossing over here, and I was so sleepy... I just..."