Chapter 608

When Seeing Pei Ye realized this, he looked at the black Chi. The black Chi did not speak and withdrew the large expanse of Chi fire that had dispersed. The darkness closed in again, leaving only two fluorescent lights floating in front of them.

Being unable to absorb Xuan Qi meant that the two could not get supplies from the surrounding environment. What could be utilized was only the true Qi in Seeing Pei Ye's body and the Spirit Xuan in the black Chi's body, and after the consumption of the recent battle, neither of these was that abundant.

The darkness around them seemed to become much heavier all of a sudden.

Seeing Pei Ye managed to regulate his blood and Qi, tried to grip his sword, and swung it in the water. The Chi dragon scales behind him vanished, the claws and head retracted, and it transformed back into a small cat. In this world where Spirit Xuan did not circulate with breathing, maintaining that divine posture was an equally expensive consumption.

"Pick a direction?" Seeing Pei Ye raised his hand to support it into his embrace, picking up his full vigilance again.

"Head north," the black cat poked its head out. "Our only information is that relative to the South Pool, the Moon Palace is indeed in the north."

"Which way is north?"

"I remembered before entering the water. If the orientation here is consistent with the outside world, then that way is due north," the black cat pointed with its claw. "Let's go, be extremely careful... we still don't know what kind of place this actually is."

"Hmm."

Seeing Pei Ye dragged his sword and headed north, surrounded by three Chi fires, two further away and one closer, used for illumination and scouting.

At the bottom of such a lake, he still chose to walk in a human posture, all for the convenience of drawing his sword. He walked twenty-three steps north; this distance was five zhang, exactly the distance the Chi fire had spread when they first landed. He paused when he took the twenty-fourth step, and only then did he catch a glimpse of the tiny school of fish in the reflection of the Chi fires for the first time.

There were no more than a dozen of them in total, each only the size of a fingernail, and Seeing Pei Ye had never seen such fish. Their fins were thin and slender, like wings, and their tiny bodies bore lustrous and beautiful micro-scales. Reflected by the Chi fire, they were simply somewhat iridescent.

There were absolutely no such creatures in the outside world.

The little fish were the most agile and fleeting; once illuminated by the light, they were all startled and fled, diving into the darkness with a faint light on their bodies.

"Little cat," Seeing Pei Ye lowered his head and whispered with a smile, "there are fireflies in the water too."

The black cat's green eyes were another kind of faint color in the darkness. It tilted its head to look and gave a tiny "hmm."

Then Seeing Pei Ye took the twenty-fifth step, and the hair on his body stood on end in an instant!

The green pupils in his embrace suddenly twisted, and a bright vermilion surged toward the bottom of the water. At the same time, Seeing Pei Ye twisted his body with his sword held horizontally, just in time to meet a heavy, hard impact. In an instant, Seeing Pei Ye's arm felt numb with pain, and his whole body staggered backward in the water.

However, what hit the sword was not any weapon, nor was it the sound of metal, but a handful of sharp sand, gathered like a dark arrow. After hitting the Jade Tiger, it scattered with a boom. Seeing Pei Ye avoided most of it, but there were still splashing sand grains that pierced his clothes and hit his skin, making him feel a sharp, piercing pain instantly.

After all, he already had experience in underwater combat, so he immediately stabilized his body. With a flick of his finger, a 【Sword Washing Water】 was returned along the direction from which it was shot, nailing a deep hole into the bottom of the lake.

Dust flew and scattered, but when he focused his eyes to look, he didn't see any enemy at all.

The surging vermilion fire almost emptied the surrounding water in an instant. The bottom of the lake was as bright as day, and he only saw a gloomy, half-person-sized bulge in the sand. It avoided the sword water Seeing Pei Ye had flicked, and the next moment it vanished into the darkness again.

Seeing Pei Ye swung his arm and shot his sword to nail that spot, the Jade Tiger sinking to the hilt, but it was still a step too slow; that thing had already sunk deep into the sand.

Seeing Pei Ye raised his hand to make the Jade Tiger fly back, and immediately sat cross-legged on the ground without a word, pursing his lips to peel open the clothes on his chest.

Looking down, he saw that the places shot by the sand grains showed tiny, bright red holes, his skin and tendons twitching slightly, and the blood flowing out was mixed with oily green.

"Such fierce poison," Seeing Pei Ye frowned and muttered, already feeling a bit dizzy between his eyebrows.

The black cat immediately raised its claw and pressed it on top. Strands of gorgeous blue fire lines drilled in, hooking out these toxic sand grains that had entered his body. Then the fire color turned into vermilion, tracing the path the poison had entered to burn it away one by one.

Seeing Pei Ye pursed his lips and held on, pain gathering in his eyebrows. After a long while, the fire lines were withdrawn, and only then did he let out a heavy breath, his voice slightly hoarse: "... what was that?"

"Not clear," the black cat shook its head and looked at the surrounding darkness. "It's still watching us."

"It actually isn't afraid of you."

"Hmm."

Seeing Pei Ye leaned on his sword and stood up. The danger of this realm revealed the tip of the iceberg to him at this moment—it was easy to think that this cunning evil thing had sensed them when the black Chi flew down. After avoiding the sweep of the Chi fire, it had been hiding in the dark watching them, silently lying in wait where they were passing.

Seeing Pei Ye also realized at this time that even though it seemed to him that everything around was deep, thorough darkness, the creatures living in this realm had their own sensitive perceptions. When he hadn't seen anything, he might have already been in someone else's field of vision.

But he didn't release true Qi or more Chi fire to scout the path, but instead restrained his aura even more cautiously, and even extinguished the three Chi fires surrounding him.

Burying himself in darkness, the youth opened the Quail Head in his mind, while his outward behavior remained slow and sluggish.

Proceeding in such silence for more than a quarter of an hour, Seeing Pei Ye never relaxed his tense body. Occasionally, he heard a faint rustling sound coming from the darkness nearby, and he knew clearly that the thing was still trailing them.

However, before this thing made a move, the black cat suddenly paused and whispered: "Something else is coming."

Seeing Pei Ye stood his body still, true Qi poured into his sword, and the next moment he indeed felt the message delivered by the water.

Just behind and above them, an extremely swift water flow was approaching rapidly. The pushed water had already surged toward him. He slowly stepped and hid behind a rock, trying to restrain his aura... but with just such a tiny movement, that water flow suddenly stopped.

Then the gaze suddenly descended upon him. Seeing Pei Ye raised his head to look, and in the distant darkness, two dark yellow pupils were staring straight here.

The next moment, the chilling sharpness suddenly broke through the water. Seeing Pei Ye had absolutely never seen such speed in the water—even Chen Renzhong from two months ago could hardly hope to see its back.

It just flashed past his side, a cold chill flashed, and it left a quite deep gash on Seeing Pei Ye's flank.

Like a ghost in the water.

The opponent was too sensitive, or Seeing Pei Ye was too sluggish in the water. He had long prepared the Quail Head, but the sword held in his hand actually failed to grasp that instant of opportunity. The feeling of powerlessness from the underwater battle that day descended again.

Only, this time the black cat was on his shoulder.

Compared to Chen Renzhong's meticulous thinking, this underwater ghost seemed to be full of direct bestiality. There was no probing or game-playing. After showing its extreme speed and flexibility once, it drew an incredible sharp-angled turn not far away and flew over again at the same speed.

"Draw your sword."

Before Seeing Pei Ye had sensed the direction, the black cat had already spoken at a certain moment.

Without any hesitation, the sword already gripped in his hand suddenly thrust out.

The strange coldness approached his body first, then the fishy smell brought by the water. At the same time, an extremely bright sword light bloomed in the dark water, which was 【Plucking the Sun and Shining the Feathers】.

The perfect timing, the speed gap created by the Quail Head and his behavior, this sword thrust into the opponent's body instantly. The blade made an impact first, then the tactile sensation of cutting through tough leather, and then it broke into flesh and blood with irresistible force. The smell of blood dispersed instantly.

The sharp hissing that pierced both ears almost gave Seeing Pei Ye's head a blow. At the same time, another blade-like sharpness cut into his shoulder. That thing crashed into his body, and the cold, heavy scale sensation pressed against his body.

They were in close-quarters combat, and the weapon growing on the body took advantage first. The sharp claws embedded deeply into the youth's right shoulder... but the next moment, the vermilion fire condensed into a jade spear, piercing its throat in an instant.

It was also in this light that Seeing Pei Ye saw clearly the enemy he was facing.

Human facial features, hard scales covering the face, there was no such thing as skin. The coarse, messy hair was like a clump of seaweed. The bestiality in its expression far outweighed the humanity, and a pair of dark yellow eyes were cold, indifferent, and manic.

These eyes could probably see everything in the dark water, with a layer of transparent eye membrane covering the outside, excluding the turbulent water dust.

Further down, it was also human arms and chest, only they were all covered by hard, large scales. There were fins on the elbows and between the fingers, and the sharp claws were like daggers.

Then it was the scale sensation pressing against Seeing Pei Ye—a slender, thick, large tail, enough to provide abundant power for this body's movement in the water.

If Xiye was the first merman Seeing Pei Ye had ever seen, then the appearance before him greatly lacked the "human" part, but he was undoubtedly still a strange creature under this legendary name.

Merman.

An adult merman.

That day, Chen Renzhong was suspected of transforming in this direction, and now a real one had appeared before him.

The Vermilion Lotus fire in its throat did not make it die instantly. The dagger-claws were still cutting deeply into Seeing Pei Ye's flesh and blood, and another claw was hissing and probing toward his throat.

Seeing Pei Ye was hesitating whether to leave a live one to apply the fake edict, but the black cat beside him had already said coldly: "Kill it immediately."

So Seeing Pei Ye no longer hesitated. The Jade Tiger cut horizontally, severing the probing sharp claws. Seeing Pei Ye twisted his hand to grip its forearm that was hooked into his shoulder. This time, in a simple contest of strength, he didn't lose again. Pressing down on the large tail that the opponent had swung over, he used the blade to cut off its entire head.

A large mist of blood scattered into the water in an instant.

Being alone and having already left deep wounds on the master who carried the immortal beast, this kind of species was simply terrifyingly strong in the water.

"Leave immediately, it was chasing us," the black cat repeated calmly. "We both left blood when we entered the water. These things have too sensitive a sense of smell in the water—if I'm not mistaken, these are the 'Merman Servants' mentioned in that short note."

Seeing Pei Ye immediately understood—if one found them, naturally there would be more.

"Moreover, Yu Sicheng has come down," the black cat helped him seal the new wound with Chi fire.

Seeing Pei Ye shifted his gaze to look at it.

"During the exchange, I left a trace of Chi fire on him," the black cat said. "Just now, this trace of Chi fire appeared in my sensing. There are still two hours before the shark pearl powder loses its effect. We cannot expose our tracks now, leave quickly."

"Good," Seeing Pei Ye replied, making a movement to swim forward, but his arm swung violently backward, and then he pointed his fingers together. The Jade Tiger drew an extremely sharp angle and cut through a piece of lake sand.

However, the shape hiding and peeking underneath had vanished a step earlier, only stirring up a cloud of sand and dust.

"Just ignore it," the black cat said.

Seeing Pei Ye hooked his finger and the Jade Tiger returned. He gave a "hmm," and his body was already swimming swiftly toward the north like a swimming fish.

And behind him, the sand in the darkness watched him leave before slowly approaching the merman's remains, poking out an ugly, dark green sharp claw, and dragging both the head and body into the sand.

A moment later, the crunching sound of crushing bones echoed at the bottom of the lake.

"Is the injury okay?"

"Still able to grip the sword," Seeing Pei Ye whispered. "How far is Yu Sicheng from us?"

"Still a thousand zhang away."

"Do you think these mermen are under their control?" Seeing Pei Ye muttered to himself.

"Since they are called servants, presumably so."

"After we intercepted the 'South Golden Wind' that time, I thought about it with Xie Chuantang," Seeing Pei Ye pursed his pale lips. The residual poison and continuous injuries still made him significantly weaker. "The Prince Yan's residence smuggled mermen, why did they need to transport them to the Divine Capital? In a place like the Divine Capital, every extra step passes an extra eye. Wouldn't it be much more appropriate to unload them outside the city, or even on a desolate beach hundreds of miles away?"

"So at that time we thought, these mermen—at least some of them—were to be used in the Divine Capital. However, until Li Du collapsed, we didn't find any trace of mermen in the Phantom Tower," Seeing Pei Ye said. "Now it seems they were actually used here. Then, Little cat, these mermen were captured by them, why can they be driven?"

"..."

"Do you think this is a mind-spirit method?"

"Ninety percent."

"Hmm." Seeing Pei Ye swam silently, not knowing what he was thinking. After a while, he mobilized his true Qi again to suppress the injury on his shoulder and lowered his head: "Little cat, those two just now really had bad breath."

The black cat was silent for a while: "Yu Sicheng is coming in our direction."

"You are a naturally divine object, how could your body have filth?" Seeing Pei Ye sighed lightly. "I said your mouth was smelly just to tease you. If we are hanging by a thread later, you should still swallow me if you have to."

"Bite you to death."