Chapter 7 The Dragon's Secret Realm (Part 7)
Wei Feng felt a sudden dizziness, and then the salty sea breeze blew all over his face.
Before him was a huge stone cave, with emerald green seaweed entwined around the cliff walls beside it. A red coral nearly a hundred meters tall stood in front of the cave entrance, with small fish with silver-blue scales darting back and forth among it. Above the cave were several strangely shaped characters that emitted a pale white light in the seawater.
"Wei Feng, what are you doing here?" Someone suddenly appeared in front of him.
A head of vibrant red curly hair cascaded over his bare shoulders. He had a pair of phoenix eyes that were upturned and charming, a straight nose and thin lips, and large, thin ears that were pressed tightly against his face, resembling some kind of unique fish fin. As he spoke, he reached out his hand towards Wei Feng. His hand was almost half the size of an ordinary person's, with translucent webbing between his fingers, and long, black, sharp, and sinister nails that were about to touch Wei Feng's arm.
Wei Feng suddenly swam two steps backward.
Wait, a trip?
He slowly lowered his head and saw a large, long fish tail in the water, with pale blue scales covering it neatly. He swayed his tail uncomfortably, his face blank. "What is this?!"
"What are you talking about? This is your tail." The other person laughed and punched his shoulder. "Don't stand there like an idiot. I heard the chieftain brought some humans back. Everyone went to see them. Let's go."
Wei Feng sensed something was wrong. He looked down at the scales extending from his forearm to the back of his hand and the sticky webbing. His sharp nails made a strange scrawl in the water, but his mind was completely blank. "I don't want to go."
"Your parents are waiting for you there too," the red-haired merman whispered in his ear. "Don't you want to see them?"
"Father, Mother..." Wei Feng's heart stirred, and then the red-haired mermaid grabbed his arm and swam into the cave.
A noisy laugh echoed from afar. Wei Feng was pulled forward, passing through rows of stone houses, and arrived at a wide square.
A large number of merfolk had already gathered in the square. They huddled together, whispering among themselves, their long, curly hair floating and tangling in the seawater. Wei Feng's gaze fell on the two merfolk closest to him. A man and a woman were standing intimately close together, and a strong premonition told him that these were his parents.
"Father—" Wei Feng shouted excitedly, but before he could utter "Mother," his tail suddenly stung.
He was lifted up by the tail and shaken around as if someone were pinching his tail. The water around him surged, and he opened his eyes, feeling dizzy.
"I don't have a son as stupid as you." The cold voice sent a shiver down his spine.
Wei Feng snapped back to his senses and then saw the long, straight legs beneath the black robe. Immediately, his blood rushed to his head, and blood dripped down his nose and onto his forehead.
Then, following the calf upwards, he saw Jiang Gu.
Jiang Gu held the barely breathing boy upside down. Between throwing him down and putting him back down, he chose the latter, since he needed to keep the boy alive to refine weapons.
Blood was flowing from Wei Feng's eyes and ears, and his body was uncontrollably chilled. After Jiang Gu put him down, he looked at the familiar cave entrance in front of him, and he could hardly distinguish between illusion and reality. "Senior?"
“You were just bewitched by the merman’s voice.” Jiang Gu looked down at the sleeve he was holding. “Let go.”
Wei Feng opened his mouth, his eyes and nose a little red, "But I think I really saw my parents."
Jiang Gu was too lazy to waste words with him, shook off his hand and went straight into the stone cave.
Wei Feng's hand was suddenly empty, and he staggered after him, calling out, "Senior, wait for me!"
Jiang Gu took large strides, and Wei Feng, who was seriously injured, had a hard time keeping up. However, he also knew that if he didn't follow, with his own cultivation level, staying behind would be a death sentence. Even though this person might have ulterior motives towards him, he had indeed saved his life several times.
Bang.
Wei Feng rubbed his nose, which had been bumped, and glanced guiltily at Jiang Gu's clothes, unsure if there was any blood on them.
Jiang Gu slowed his pace as he looked at the various strangely shaped stone houses along the roadside. All the stone houses had their doors and windows tightly closed, with long water plants swaying in front of the doors, and the luminous pearls in front of the windows emitting a dim glow, as if he were walking through a ghost market at night.
Utuo floated back inside the bubble.
“Master, there is no sign of any living creature in these ruins.” Wu Tuo, realizing he was half a step behind, followed at his feet. “But I always feel like something is watching me.”
“Mermaid Bay was destroyed long ago.” Jiang Gu twirled his ring, then glanced at Wei Feng. “Follow me.”
Wei Feng touched his aching nose.
“I know that. The merfolk weren’t in such a bad state before. They had several powerful figures at the Golden Immortal and Taiyi realms. Even if the major sects hunted merfolk, they could only do so secretly. But more than ten years ago, merfolk experts fell one after another, and the Yanghua Sparrow Kite and Pingfeng sects joined forces to slaughter Merfolk Bay. Since then, the status of merfolk has plummeted. Now they are not even as good as spirit animals in the cultivation world.” Wu Tuo shook his head and sighed, “It can only be said that the Divine Kite Merfolk was born at the wrong time.”
Wei Feng rubbed his burning fingertips. "If the Divine Kite Mermaid were still alive, would she avenge the Merfolk?"
He didn't feel anything about Yanghua Sect's involvement in the extermination of the Merfolk. After all, the cultivation world is a dog-eat-dog world, and the extinction of a race is a perfectly normal thing.
“The Divine Kite Shark is too busy taking care of itself to seek revenge.” Wu Tuo stepped on the soft sand through the bubbles, leaving two small claw marks that were quickly washed away by the undercurrents at the bottom of the lake. He said proudly, “Once it falls into the hands of its master, it will definitely lose its life.”
Jiang Gu, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped. "Something's coming. Hide."
Wu Tuo nimbly darted into the spirit pet space at his waist. Jiang Gu glanced at Wei Feng, who was turning his head around trying to hide behind a rock, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and pulled him into a narrow stone house next to him. A slight light flashed, and the concealment barrier was already set up.
Jiang Gu had a strong grip, and Wei Feng rubbed the back of his neck, wincing in pain. When Jiang Gu looked at him, he gave an embarrassed smile.
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that ever since he "accidentally" spilled the water balloon on Jiang Gu's hand, the other person had been touching him intentionally or unintentionally.
This guy is such a hypocrite!
Jiang Gu quietly pushed open the stone window. A rustling sound came from afar, like hard scales rubbing against sand. Soon, the scene before him confirmed his guess.
A fully grown male merman was seen gliding forward with his tail bent backward, his long, red, seaweed-like hair floating in the water. His right hand was in a strange grasping posture as he looked up. A thin dragon silk covered his eyes, and his gray-white pupils were faintly visible within it, making him extremely eerie.
"That's the one I saw in my hallucination just now." Wei Feng also leaned out the window, looking out with a strange excitement in his voice. "Senior, could he be the Divine Kite Shark?"
"No." Jiang Gu looked at the half of his body that was about to lean out, reached out and hooked the back of his neck to pull him back, and said coldly, "If you move again, I'll throw you out to feed the fish."
Wei Feng blinked innocently and obediently hid behind him. But when he wasn't paying attention, the transparent thread silently wrapped around the black ring on Jiang Gu's middle finger. Soon, the thread seemed to dissolve into water and disappeared without a trace, and Jiang Gu himself didn't notice at all.
After doing all this, Wei Feng slightly curled the corners of his mouth. Seeing Jiang Gu's solemn expression, he followed his gaze and felt a chill run down his spine.
Behind the red-haired merman followed countless other mermen: strong, tall males, petite, pretty females, white-haired old mermen, and hungry baby mermen, stretching as far as the eye could see. Their postures were all the same as the red-haired merman's: long dragon silk veils covered their eyes, their heads tilted back, their right hands tucked in, some even shedding tears. The sandy path was covered with luminous pearls of all sizes.
“They’re definitely going to the plaza over there,” Wei Feng whispered. “I just heard that red-haired merman say in my hallucination that their chieftain brought back some humans.”
Jiang Gu said, "Mermaid Bay has long been devoid of living creatures. They are merely the resentful lingering spirits of the dead mermaids. Don't look into their eyes, or you will be assimilated—"
"Mermaids, merfolk, just like them?" Wei Feng's trembling voice sounded behind him.
Jiang Gu took a deep breath and slowly turned around.
Wei Feng's tattered red clothes had long since disappeared, his black hair had turned into curly silver-blue, draped over his bare, fair upper body, and his legs had transformed into a mermaid's fishtail, covered with fine, dense scales the same color as his hair. Perhaps because he was still young, only a small part of the sharp teeth at the corners of his mouth were visible, resembling protruding tiger fangs. A nearly transparent, soft dragon silk fell in front of his nose, obscuring his terrified eyes.
"Senior, I... I think I'm losing control of my tail." Wei Feng moved towards the door, tears welling in his eyes, his sharp claws gripping the window frame tightly. "Senior, help! I don't want to turn into a fish!"
Two small, round luminous pearls slid down his cheeks and rolled to Jiang Gu's feet.
"..." Jiang Gu felt that this brat was going to exhaust all his patience in this lifetime. He impatiently grabbed the fish tail that was floating up and dragged it to his side, and roughly stuck a freezing talisman on the back of the brat.
Wei Feng felt as if he had been hit hard on the back with a hammer. The whole shark swayed and spat out a mouthful of blood. He found that he could only move his head. The fish tail that Jiang Gu had pinched earlier was now tingling and numb. The piercing itchiness from before burst forth from his dantian again. He grinned at Jiang Gu, showing off the two not-so-sharp little teeth on the side of his mouth.
As a result, Jiang Gu, who turned his head, saw it right in front of him.
Wei Feng's arrogant demeanor immediately diminished, and he nonchalantly turned his head, pretending to shake off the dragon silk that covered his eyes.
Jiang Gu now deeply regrets not having taken the time to refine this troublesome thing first.
"You stay inside the barrier and wait." He didn't give Wei Feng any more glances and turned to leave the barrier.
Wutuo jumped out of the spirit pet space at his waist and hugged the two luminous pearls that Wei Feng had dropped earlier with his little paws.
Wei Feng said angrily, "That's mine!"
Unfortunately, Wu Tuo didn't care about him. He hid the two lustrous luminous pearls in his fur and then huffed and puffed as he followed Jiang Gu.
“These resentful spirits are very sensitive; simply hiding our bodies will reveal us.” Wu Tuo transformed into a mermaid egg. “Master, let’s transform into mermaids, blend in, and see what they’re up to.”
Jiang Gu looked at the white and yellow merman egg at his feet with a complicated expression, then transformed into an adult male merman and mingled among the group of mermen.
Utuo whispered, "Master! Master, you've left me behind! Hold me!"
"Get lost," Jiang Gu said coldly. "Male merfolk don't carry eggs."
Wu Tuo was so anxious that he jumped up and down on the spot. Just as he was about to endure the humiliation and roll over, he was picked up by a pair of soft hands.
The one who picked it up was a female merman with long, smooth, light yellow hair that covered her upper body. Although she was looking up, she bent down with difficulty and rubbed her chin against the egg that Wutuo had turned into, muttering something. Even though he couldn't hear her clearly, Wutuo could still feel her gentleness.
Then it was carried into the group by the female mermaid.
Trapped within the stone house's protective barrier, Wei Feng watched helplessly as Jiang Gu and Wu Tuo blended into the merfolk and left. He desperately tried to shake his tail but remained unable to move. His eyes, hidden behind the dragon silk, darted around twice. In any case, the Soul-Chasing Thread was already wrapped around Jiang Gu's ring, meaning he could find him anytime, anywhere. Regardless of Jiang Gu's purpose, the fact that he hadn't killed him yet meant he had something to do with it, and staying any longer would only make things more dangerous.
If not now, when?
Wei Feng's frozen claws twitched violently, his long black nails trembling slightly. He was overjoyed and after several attempts, he finally hooked the small wooden plaque at his waist. A flash of white light appeared in the barrier, and the young merman vanished into thin air.
Jiang Gu, who was moving forward among the merfolk, narrowed his eyes slightly.
Sure enough, he wasn't very honest.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
