Chapter 124 Long Sword
After the mosquitoes swarmed away, Lin Qiushi and the others left the restaurant. However, as they emerged, they noticed a number of mosquitoes fluttering in the corridor. These mosquitoes flapped their wings, forming a faint black line in midair, leading to an unknown room.
This was probably the meaning of the line. Lin Qiushi had expected it to be more complicated, but he hadn't expected Ruan Nanzhu to stumble upon the correct answer. He glanced at Ruan Nanzhu and said, "Want to follow and see?"
"Sure." Ruan Nanzhu checked the time, confirming it was still early. "Let's go."
After they finished speaking, they followed the direction indicated by the mosquito and headed towards the house.
Every five minutes, the position of the house shifted, and the direction indicated by the mosquitoes also changed. They hung in mid-air, connecting one after another. Lin Qiushi and the other two followed the direction indicated by the mosquitoes, but soon he noticed something amiss—at a certain point, the mosquitoes had split into two groups, one heading left, the other right, pointing in different directions.
"How could this happen?" Gu Longming was dumbfounded as he looked at the forked mosquitoes before him. He casually grabbed a mosquito and trapped it in his palm. When he let go, it quickly returned to its original position. "Why are these mosquitoes forked? Could it be..."
He figured something out. He glanced at Lin Qiushi with a grim expression, "Could there be two monsters?"
This seemed to be the only answer, but Lin Qiushi felt that things were not that simple. He asked, "Splitting up and looking?"
Ruan Nanzhu hesitated for a moment and said, "Okay, Gu Longming will follow you to the left, and I'll go to the right."
Lin Qiushi nodded and did not argue with Ruan Nanzhu. He just reminded Ruan Nanzhu not to force it if he found anything unusual. This time the main focus was on collecting information.
Ruan Nanzhu couldn't help but smile when she heard Lin Qiushi's earnest words. "My Linlin has truly grown up. He's old enough to worry about me now. It's truly comforting."
Lin Qiushi: "...I'm serious."
"Okay, I know you're serious." He walked over and kissed the corner of Lin Qiushi's lips naturally. "I'll be careful. See you later."
Lin Qiushi waved at him: "See you later."
Just as the two of them were talking, the surrounding environment changed again, and the location it had previously led to changed again. This time, the place the mosquito was pointing to seemed to be the cabin on the bottom floor.
Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming did not dare to waste any more time and jogged forward, hoping to find the room indicated by the mosquito before the room changed again.
The two of them moved quickly, finding the room the mosquito had pointed to on the ground floor in half the time. The flying mosquitoes, once they reached the room, swarmed densely on the door. As Lin Qiushi approached, he could smell a strong fishy odor.
The smell was so strong, almost the same as what they smelled in the room that time, which made people suspect that the huge fish-man monster they saw last night was imprisoned in the room in front of them.
As Lin Qiushi approached the house, he didn't rush in. Instead, he pressed his ear to the door, carefully listening for any sounds from within. The room was silent, as if devoid of life, yet Lin Qiushi still heard something unusual: the faint sound of breathing against the door... The breathing was so close to him, as if whatever was inside was only a door away.
Gu Longming stood at the window and looked inside. He seemed to see something through the thick darkness. His face changed slightly and he took two steps back. He pointed into the house to Lin Qiushi and nodded in fear to indicate that there was something inside.
Lin Qiushi stood up and looked towards the window.
Through the gap in the curtains, he saw a pair of yellow eyes hidden in the darkness. They were the eyes of a fish. The pupils were a standard circle, and the whites of the eyes were bright yellow. At this moment, they were peeping at the door with malicious eyes.
The creature's eyes moved slowly, as if it had noticed someone standing outside the door. Lin Qiushi saw it slowly open its mouth, revealing a dense mass of white teeth and a blue tongue that emitted a faint glow.
Wait… yellow eyes? Lin Qiushi held his breath. He felt as if he had grasped something. He quickly pulled out his phone, turned on the lighting function, and cast light through the curtains.
Light shone into the room, and Lin Qiushi finally saw clearly what was inside. It was a creature that was hard to describe, at least Lin Qiushi had never seen it before.
It had a huge fish head and a fragile human body. The fish head was so huge and heavy that it couldn't stand upright at all. The slender body that didn't match the head at all could only lie on the ground. The most eye-catching thing was the long spike on the top of its head. The spike looked sharp and pointed... It immediately reminded Lin Qiushi of the long sword that killed the Minotaur in the myth.
The fish-man was attracted by the bright light held by Lin Qiushi and let out a strange roar. Gu Longming looked at its strange appearance, touched his arm involuntarily, and forced a smile, "What the hell is this thing?"
"What we first saw in the room seemed to be this mermaid," Lin Qiushi said. "Do you still remember the pair of yellow eyes in the room?"
Gu Longming nodded, indicating that he remembered.
When the yellow eyes were mentioned, he suddenly realized something. The man-eating fish monster's eyes weren't yellow, but rather an uncomfortably pale white. However, this detail was easily blurred by the shocking imagery. Only after Lin Qiushi's reminder did he vaguely remember it.
"So there are two monsters?" Gu Longming swallowed. "Then could this monster's function be..." He shifted his gaze to the sharp spikes on the monster's head and said something similar to Lin Qiushi's idea, "Is it a longsword?"
Lin Qiushi said, "That's a guess."
At least for now, they hadn't found anything else on the ship that looked like a weapon. In fact, the moment he saw the fishman's appearance clearly, Lin Qiushi had a similar guess in his mind, and Gu Longming clearly shared the same thought.
The sound of the two people talking seemed to stimulate the monster inside. It began to crawl around the house in a somewhat violent manner, and its twisted appearance looked grotesque and terrifying.
When Lin Qiushi saw its irritable look, he had a bad feeling, so he grabbed Gu Longming and took a few steps back.
Just as the two men stepped back, a sharp spike appeared on the solid wooden wall in front of them. It was obvious that something in the house had used the spike on its head to pierce the wall, and then left several holes in the wall one after another - it is conceivable how painful it would be if they had not stepped back and were unfortunately pierced by the spike.
However, just after Lin Qiushi confirmed the identity of the things in the house, the time for the room to change arrived. The house in front of them disappeared, and was replaced by another ordinary bedroom. The direction indicated by the mosquito also changed, and the location of the fish moved to the deck.
Gu Longming felt nauseous at the thought of the appearance of the fish. In fact, he quite liked eating fish before he came to this door, but after being influenced by the fishy smell in the past few days, he now has a conditioned nausea reflex when he thinks of the taste of fish. I am afraid that even if he leaves this door, he will have to maintain this state of nausea at the sight of fish for a long time.
Lin Qiushi said, "Let's go check on Zhu Meng."
Gu Longming nodded.
The two left the lower cabin and went up to see Ruan Nanzhu standing on the deck, leaning his head to look at the dark sea. He turned back when he heard their footsteps and asked, "What did you find?"
Lin Qiushi said, "We seem to have found the long sword."
Ruan Nanzhu's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Found it?"
Lin Qiushi nodded and briefly described what they had seen, emphasizing that he saw a long thorn on the head of the fish-man monster. The thorn looked strong and sharp, and seemed to be a good attacking weapon.
Ruan Nanzhu said that in the room he went to, he saw the giant fishman who ate people last night.
"But how are we going to kill that murloc?" Gu Longming crouched on the deck, dejectedly eating the candy Lin Qiushi had given him. "I don't think that thing is any easier to deal with than the murloc monster we saw before."
The most worrying thing about a wound is not its width but its depth. Once the wound is deep, it is difficult to heal, especially on a ship with a lack of medical care and medicine. It is conceivable that if someone is pricked by a sharp long thorn, even if he does not die on the spot, he will die from tetanus and other complications in a few days.
Ruan Nanzhu listened to Gu Longming's concerns and comforted him, saying, "Don't worry, when the time really comes, everyone will give you a quick death."
Gu Longming: "...still no, thank you."
Lin Qiushi felt that this was a paradox. They had to kill the yellow-eyed fishman first before they could kill the Minotaur, which represented the monster. But now the problem arose again. How were they going to kill the yellow-eyed fishman? Could they only use the restaurant knife to fight that thing head-on?
The three were discussing how to proceed when they heard a noisy sound coming from the restaurant, mixed with human exclamations and screams of pain.
Hearing this sound, they knew something must have happened again. Lin Qiushi gave Ruan Nanzhu a look and turned to head for the restaurant. Before he even entered, he could smell a strong smell of blood. Lin Qiushi looked down and saw a pool of blood on the floor. A wounded man lay on the floor inside the restaurant, his hand covering his abdominal wound. The wound seemed very deep, and bright red blood was oozing out.
Gu Longming took a few steps forward and said, "What happened? How did you get injured?" He took off his coat, used it as gauze and began to treat the wound skillfully, as if he wanted to help the man stop the bleeding.
Watching his actions, Lin Qiushi had some guesses about Gu Longming's occupation.
"He found those mosquitoes outside pointing him in certain directions, so we went over to take a look," said the man's companion, who had just witnessed the entire process of his friend's injury. His voice was trembling, and he said, "But when we got there, a long thorn suddenly shot out from the room and pierced him directly."
Gu Longming frowned. "It's not good. It looks like he's pierced the kidney." They didn't have any medical supplies. Judging by the amount of bleeding, this person might be...
A girl next to him said, "I brought some hemostatic spray. Can I use it?"
"Let me try." Gu Longming said, "We can only try it out."
He tied up the man's body as much as he could to reduce the bleeding from the wound, then sprayed a large amount of hemostatic spray, which at least stopped the continuous gushing of blood.
"What on earth was it that stabbed your friend?" Seeing that the situation had stabilized, someone turned their attention to the person who was still alive.
“It looked like a fish,” the survivor replied, “I’m not sure… I just took a look and something happened.”
"Let's go and take a look." Everyone was obviously more interested in the fish and left the restaurant one after another.
So after a while, there were only a few scattered people left in the restaurant.
"What happened? Can my friend be saved?" the man asked Gu Longming eagerly.
Gu Longming sighed and said, "If we get out earlier, we may still be saved, but..." They can't leave here just because they want to.
So everyone quieted down. Gu Longming looked at the blood in his hand and said, "I'll go wash my hands first." He got up and went to the bathroom.
The man who was stabbed in the abdomen was breathing weaker and weaker. Although Gu Longming tried his best, he still died after a few hours.
The entire restaurant was filled with the strong smell of blood. It happened to be dinner time, and the dead fish set meal had just arrived. The stench of the dead fish, combined with the smell of blood, further diminished everyone's appetite. Without even the slightest thought, they all left the restaurant.
Ruan Nanzhu sat there without moving, and Lin Qiushi did not urge him. He knew that Ruan Nanzhu did not leave because he must have his own ideas.
Gu Longming became somewhat silent because of the death of that man in the afternoon. He was listless and poked the noodles on the plate in front of him with a fork, looking like he had no appetite at all.
When most people in the restaurant had left, Ruan Nanzhu took out a few plastic bags from his arms.
"What are you going to do?" Lin Qiushi was stunned.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "I don't think the sect will let us confront that thing head-on. The difference in strength is too great."
Lin Qiushi: "You want to..." He watched Ruan Nanzhu stuff all the dead fish on the table into his pocket, filling it up completely. "Give the fish to that thing?"
"In the myth, it was the aperitif that intoxicated the Minotaur," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Now we have a pretty good idea of what an aperitif means."
The fish you eat ferments in your stomach, and you can taste it when you open the stomach sac. It is truly a genuine "aperitif".
So Ruan Nanzhu wanted to use dead fish to lure the Minotaur to the side of the yellow-eyed monster fish. He didn't know if this would work, but he had to give it a try anyway.
After all, this method is much more reliable than going to fight that thing alone with a table knife.
Ruan Nanzhu packed the dead fish and walked out with it. Following the trail of mosquitoes, he found the room where the yellow-eyed monster fish was again.
At this time, there were many small holes outside the yellow-eyed fishman's room, which were obviously made by the sharp weapon on its head.
Ruan Nanzhu asked Lin Qiushi and the others to stand further away, then he reached out and threw the fish in his hand through the gap in the window.
The dead fish clattered to the ground. The yellow-eyed fish excitedly pounced on the dead fish, picked it up with its hands and began to gnaw on it roughly. It ate the fish very quickly and soon ate the whole bag of fish that Ruan Nanzhu had thrown. Fortunately, they had been prepared and quickly threw in the other bags of fish they had brought with them.
While it was gnawing on the fish, Ruan Nanzhu stood by and watched. Lin Qiushi was a little worried that it might get hurt, after all, the blood of the previous injured person was still hanging on the window.
The yellow-eyed monster fishman ate all the fish, leaving not even the heads. After eating, it looked satisfied and lay down on the floor and fell asleep.
"Let's go." Ruan Nanzhu said to Lin Qiushi.
It was already getting late, and although he wanted to see what would happen here at night, it was not wise to stay outside.
The three of them went to find another bedroom to rest, lay on the bed and waited for the night to come.
The last ray of light disappeared in the sky as the sun set below the horizon. Tonight was a moonless night, with only the howling sea breeze and dark clouds hanging in the sky like a curtain.
Lin Qiushi couldn't sleep and stared out the window in a daze.
Ruan Nanzhu was originally lying on a different bed from him, but while sleeping, she moved closer to him and the two of them squeezed together.
There was no conversation, no eye contact, they just seemed to have experienced the scene before them a thousand times in tacit understanding.
Both of them were waiting, waiting for the answer after the test.
Around three in the morning, their wait finally paid off.
Lin Qiushi's ears caught a roar similar to that of a wild beast, followed by the sound of fierce fighting. They were some distance away from the place and could not hear clearly what was happening, but the sound of fighting did continue for a long time, and only gradually disappeared until dawn.
"Who do you think will win?" Ruan Nanzhu asked in a low voice.
"I don't know," Lin Qiushi said. "It's the same for everyone."
Although most things went smoothly, there were some unexpected surprises. Shortly after the fighting subsided, the sounds of human cries and screams rang out on the ship. Lin Qiushi was startled by the noises, and he climbed out of bed and walked to the window. He wanted to see what was happening outside, but the night was too dark for him to see clearly.
Fortunately, Ruan Nanzhu's eyesight played a crucial role at this time. He saw the fishman dragging a struggling person onto the deck.
"How could this happen?!" Lin Qiushi was a little incredulous after hearing Ruan Nanzhu's description. "No one was eating fish in the restaurant today—"
Ruan Nanzhu frowned and said, "Do you...remember the person who was scratched by Jian Qianyuan yesterday?"
Lin Qiushi: “…” He nodded.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "It seems he hasn't come to the restaurant today."
Lin Qiushi's entire attention today was focused on the two monsters, so he didn't notice this: "But isn't it a good thing that he didn't come to the restaurant?"
If you didn't come to the restaurant, it means you didn't eat fish, then why were you targeted by the monster?
Ruan Nanzhu smiled bitterly, "There are more places with fish than just restaurants."
Lin Qiushi: "..." He immediately thought of the dirty kitchen.
"There are still so many edible fish in the kitchen," Ruan Nanzhu said, "there must be a sacrifice."
Lin Qiushi sighed. He had originally thought there would be no more casualties tonight, but now he realized he was too naive. The sect wasn't that merciful. The longer they stayed here, the greater the casualties would be.
The man's screams gradually subsided, and finally only the long and silent night remained.
Lin Qiushi managed to get some sleep before dawn, but he didn't know if it was because he had a nightmare or if he didn't sleep at all, but he kept feeling that thing lingering around their room for the rest of the night. He even smelled that nauseating fishy odor again.
On the third day, the three of them were not in good spirits. They had not slept well in the past few nights and were troubled by various things.
After the baptism of the previous few days, everyone had become numb to the corpses appearing on the deck. They skillfully disposed of the corpses, cleaned the deck, and acted as if nothing had happened.
Lin Qiushi's attention wasn't on the deck. He had gone to the dining room early, hoping to find any traces of mosquitoes. But to his disappointment, the mosquitoes that had appeared as a line yesterday were gone.
"No need to rush." Ruan Nanzhu looked at his watch. "It's still early."
Lin Qiushi nodded, indicating that he understood.
Without the line, they couldn't find the two monsters and could only continue to wait.
At around eleven o'clock, the scene Lin Qiushi had been expecting finally appeared. The NPC who had transformed into a mosquito yesterday appeared in the restaurant again, wearing the same clothes and maintaining the same expression, just like a regularly refreshed NPC in the game.
This time, Ruan Nanzhu was not needed. Someone walked up to the NPC and patted him on the shoulder.
Then the same scene as yesterday appeared again. The mosquitoes swarmed and disappeared in the restaurant. At the same time, two lines made of mosquitoes appeared outside the restaurant, leading to an unknown place.
Lin Qiushi and the other two began to follow the clues to find the place they wanted. A few minutes later, they arrived outside a house. The house was very different from yesterday. It was obvious from the outside that this house had experienced a fierce battle last night. The wooden windows were completely shattered, and the lock on the door was also violently removed.
It seemed that the two monsters had indeed engaged in a fierce battle. However, judging from the final results last night, it seemed that the giant fishman had the upper hand in this battle.
The author has something to say: Monster: Eat my salted fish thorns!
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