Chapter 545, Section 544: Encountering Gululu Again
"Gurgle gurgle, gurgle gurgle gurgle... gurgle gurgle gurgle..."
What are you saying in your gibberish?
Do I have to learn another fish-man language?
Lin Jun felt that her life was simply plagued by language problems.
As the merman emitted muffled, bubbly sounds, he deftly pulled his harpoon back from the wall, and casually used the tip of the harpoon to pry off several of the hardest bone spikes from the shell monster's body, seemingly intending to take them back as materials.
After doing all this, it darted back into the hidden passage, without trying to drive away the Puji fish that was following behind.
The secret passage was short and soon led to an empty stone chamber, which was clearly not the destination.
The fishman barely lingered, skillfully finding another seemingly perfectly fitted stone slab, and then slipped into a new passage.
It wasn't pushed open by brute force; rather, the passage opened by itself when the fishman bumped into it.
And so the fish-men continued to move through the mezzanines and secret passages of this enormous underwater structure.
Along the way, Lin Jun discovered many traces of battle and strange corpses resembling shelled monsters.
The corpses all had a general human shape, but also randomly contained features of various marine creatures.
Some have huge scallops on their shoulders, some have octopus-like tentacles at the end of their arms, and some have twisted shrimp tails or crab legs as their lower bodies... They look like clumsy creations randomly pieced together from different marine creature parts.
The only thing they had in common was that the blood seeping from their wounds was a pale blue color.
This forced Lin Jun to start thinking about a question: There shouldn't be any Cthulhu in this world, right?
The thought of such a terrifying being, whose essence is incomprehensible and would drive ordinary people mad if they came into close contact with it, filled Lin Jun with dread.
The fish-men seemed to be fighting these seafood monsters, but the purpose of the battle was clearly not to hunt. Otherwise, they should have broken off the claws of the shelled monster earlier, since there was obviously a lot of meat inside.
They even encountered a dangerous situation along the way.
The fishman had just peeked out from a dark opening when he ran into a squad of five different types of seafood monsters.
The merman reacted quickly, pulling back abruptly and closing the hidden door.
A dull thud and scraping sounds immediately came from outside. The monsters smashed and pried at the exit for a while, but ultimately could not open the secret passage and could only leave in frustration.
Although it's safe to travel through the secret passages, it seems the fishmen are in a bad situation, having to hide even in their own dungeon.
Finally, the fishman led the Puji fish back to the secret territory belonging to their kind.
Lin Jun also met a familiar face once again.
"It's nice to meet you again, Master Puji."
The sage merman Gugu sat on a chair naturally carved from colorful coral, carried by two strong merman warriors, and came before Puji Fish.
This wasn't just for show; its legs had disappeared below the knees, and the cut surfaces were covered with a thick layer of keratin.
Aside from that, it still looks the same, with skin the deep indigo of the sea, covered in wrinkles, and a pair of bulging fish eyes that are calm and peaceful, looking like a pretentious show-off.
It's worth mentioning that in just one year, this guy has already reached the Diamond level, which is quite fast.
But at this moment, Lin Jun's attention was no longer on the old fishman's level.
Lin Jun's senses were firmly locked onto the scepter held in the other person's hand.
It was a strangely shaped scepter.
The main body of the staff is made of luminescent coral, a specialty of the seabed, and shimmers with a soft, light blue light.
However, the head of the staff was inlaid with a completely different piece of jet-black metal.
It was this piece of black metal that, surprisingly, had a panel within Lin Jun's field of vision:
[Artifact: Ocean Scepter (Fragment)]
A diamond-level disabled fishman, holding almost half of his own artifact?
And this thing is right next door?!
Lin Jun suddenly regretted not coming to visit sooner.
Looking around at the fish-men gradually gathering, Lin Jun even felt a sense of anticipation.
Show your evil side! Catch these few puji fish and offer them as a sacrifice to your gods!
Although Puji doesn't have "vision," the fish-man sage Gugu Lu seems to have sensed something.
It looked down at the scepter in its hand, its voice still calm: "If Lord Puji wants this scepter... you can have it. But not now."
"What do you mean?" Lin Jun asked suspiciously.
The old fishman did not answer directly, but instead gently waved the scepter in his hand.
Several seemingly solid stone walls around the room suddenly opened up into hidden passageways, which then quickly disappeared.
Clearly, the fishmen's ability to freely traverse the secret passages within the dungeon is closely related to the power of this scepter.
"We still need to rely on its power for now to resist the enemies that have invaded the Sanctuary," Gugu said slowly, his fish eyes looking at Puji Fish. "Once the crisis is over, if Lord Puji wants to take it, please do so."
The subtext is that they want you to help them eliminate the invaders, and then give you this artifact as a reward?
Logically it seems to make sense, but who would actually be willing to offer a divine artifact as payment?
This is no scrap or fragment; judging by its completeness, it probably contains at least one-third or even one-half of the original material!
Is that a promise made so casually?
Besides, how can this murloc be sure that it can help it defeat the enemy right now?
If it's just the literal meaning, then after the fishmen dealt with the intruders, they gave the artifact to Lin Jun...
Don't be ridiculous. Lin Jun is a mushroom nurtured by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth; she doesn't have a fishman father.
Or perhaps it simply wants to use one enemy to devour another, using the power of the "Puji" to eliminate the intruders before ultimately betraying them?
To be fair, if that were the case, Lin Jun would find it... much more reasonable and reassuring.
However, as the saying goes, you can't hit a smiling fishman.
The old fishman has at least issued a decent quest involving an artifact, so Lin Jun won't immediately turn on him and try to steal it.
After all, Lin Jun didn't have any urgent need to use this thing; she was just a collector.
Putting the matter of the divine artifact aside for the time being, Lin Jun explained the purpose of her visit.
"Siphon worm crystals...and mermaid tears..." The fish's eyes darted around slightly, as if searching its memory.
"Feel free to ask for anything you need. Weapons, magic crystals, even potions that can regenerate severed limbs—I can get them all," Lin Jun said, indicating her willingness to trade.
The old murloc nodded, letting out a series of low gurgling sounds, summoning another, younger murloc.
They communicated briefly in that rapid, indistinct language, and then the young fish-man quickly swam away.
About ten minutes later, it returned with a large basket woven from tough seaweed, filled with dark red crystalline fragments.
“Master Puji,” Gugu Lu gestured for the fishman to push the basket in front of Puji Fish, “Siphon Worm Crystals, there are indeed some here. If these are not enough, I can also tell you the location where they are stably produced, and you may take as much as you like. As for Mermaid Tears, there are no mermaids living in the Sanctuary.”
The old fishman didn't offer any exchange conditions, seemingly intending to simply give the materials to Lin Jun.
A puji fish slowly approached the coral seat. The fish-man guard next to it tried to stop it, but as soon as it moved half a step, the surrounding water trapped it.
"Tell me honestly, what do you want from me?" Lin Jun felt that this old fishman was acting strangely.
Gugu Lu slowly shook his head, his mind still calm and unwavering: "I just made a judgment that I believe is more beneficial to the survival of the fish people."
"Survival..." Lin Jun remained noncommittal to the answer. "Fine! Wait for me."
...
At the same time, Lin Jun's voice echoed in the minds of the core members of Mushroom Garden.
"We've got a job! We've got a job! Underwater exploration, catching seafood by hand. Anyone interested?"
Louisa, Norris, Hunt, Starfire... all stopped what they were doing and began asking for details on the Fungus Network.
Only Little Black, who was sleeping in the glittery pile, smacked his lips, turned over, and knew nothing.
(End of this chapter)
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