Chapter 794

Ahead on the deck, densely packed were the same strange fish from the cabin, completely covering the entire surface.

Those red-eyed strange fish hopped up and down, leaping like a crimson tide.

Jing Yan, who had gone up earlier, had slipped to the ground unnoticed and was submerged by the strange fish; his body twisted and writhed uncontrollably, his only exposed head stuffed with a strange fish covered in blood-red tiny eyes, emitting meaningless cries of despair and terror.

"Mmmmm! Mmmmm!!"

His eyes rolled back, Jing Yan seemed on the verge of death, yet the red-eyed strange fish in his mouth kept desperately drilling deeper, as if trying to enter his body through his mouth.

Seeing this, Fang Yue and Chen Qing suddenly snapped back to awareness.

"Jing Yan?!"

"Ye Ge, save him!"

Without Chen Qing's reminder, Fang Yue was already charging forward—but before he could summon the black silk, a spear hurtled down from above, spinning at high speed.

Hummm… Boom!!

The rapidly spinning spear pierced straight through the dense mass of red-eyed strange fish below, its tip driving clean through the wooden deck.

Along with the spear came a dark shadow.

As the shadow landed, a shockwave erupted, blasting away the surrounding red-eyed strange fish.

Glancing at the stunned Fang Yue and Chen Qing, the shadow gripped the spear with one hand and slowly removed his eye patch.

The sealed crimson eye, trembling violently, slowly opened.

"You… fall back!"

Black blood trickled slowly from the opened right eye.

With a flick of his wrist, the shadow drew the spear and swept it in a circle, leaving behind dark afterimages in the air like dragged trails.

With a loud boom, the surrounding red-eyed strange fish were flung to the deck's edges, clearing a patch of open space.

Then, turning the spearhead, Lin Ling stabbed repeatedly at Jing Yan as if firing a rapid-fire machine.

Jing Yan heard nothing but continuous, swift, powerful whooshing sounds of the spear around his ears.

When he came to his senses, he found all the red-eyed strange fish on his body had been pierced and flung off by Lin Ling; the few remaining still hung impaled on the spear like skewers ready for roasting.

"Lin Ling!"

"Captain Lin!"

Fang Yue and Chen Qing cried out in relief.

With Fang Yue here, he wouldn't let these strange fish kill Jing Yan.

But his wounds were still fresh; he moved a fraction too slowly, and Lin Ling had already leapt down to rescue him.

With Lin Ling handling it, he was spared the trouble.

"Xiao Ye, what's going on with these red-eyed strange fish? I was on watch above and didn't notice the deck—when I finally looked down, it was already covered in these fish."

Though Lin Ling had jumped down to help, he didn't understand the situation here and looked questioningly at Fang Yue.

The latter also shook his head slightly.

Strange entities came in countless varieties, and Fang Yue recognized few of them.

These red-eyed strange fish fell squarely within the knowledge blind spot of Fang Yue—or most people.

Because these were Han Jiang's peculiarities, and only a handful knew of them.

Yet to the naked eye, these red-eyed strange fish, aside from their unsettling crimson covering, seemed nothing more than ordinary fish.

Moreover, from Lin Ling's effortless sweeping strikes that cleared entire swathes, their strength was plainly mediocre.

But what worried him was the possibility that those eyes held some danger, or that the red-eyed strange fish carried a special curse.

On water, unlike land, none of them had brought a physician; if cursed, they'd have to endure until reaching Jingcheng to find a solution.

As Fang Yue was pondering this, he saw Chen Qing pick up a red-eyed strange fish at his feet and examine it closely—even pulling out a small knife to slit open its belly…

Fang Yue's eyelid twitched; he felt Chen Qing was growing increasingly like a strange entity enthusiast, in a way reminiscent of the late An Shenyi.

Too bad An Shenyi was gone; had he seen this vast sea of red-eyed strange fish, he'd have lit up with excitement and loudly declared Han Jiang his personal fishpond, ready to claim it and trade the strange fish for money.

Ignoring Chen Qing's bizarre actions, Fang Yue approached Jing Yan and shook him urgently: "Jing Yan, are you alright?"

Lin Ling glanced over and said: "Xiao Ye, take care of Jing Yan and Chen Qing. I'm heading to the bow—I saw these strange fish leaping onto the ship at both bow and stern. If Jing Yan's fine, the three of you go clear the stern."

"Got it!"

Lin Ling, having served as Captain for years, knew well how to allocate labor and respond to emergencies.

After Fang Yue responded, Lin Ling immediately headed to the bow; Fang Yue began slapping Jing Yan's face.

After a few slaps, Jing Yan slowly stirred awake.

"Ye… Ye Ge! Ye Ge!! Waaaah! I'm okay, I'm okay, thank goodness—I thought I was done for! Thank you, Ye Ge, thank you so much!!"

Jing Yan clutched Fang Yue's hand tightly, face streaked with snot and tears.

In the past, Fang Yue would've thought Jing Yan was overreacting.

But times were different now—the game's death synchronized with reality.

Thus, dangers in the game were truly life-threatening!

Jing Yan's carelessness—or low power level—had left him overwhelmed by a swarm of red-eyed strange fish; fearing he was about to die was perfectly normal.

Now that he saw he was alive, his emotional outburst was understandable.

Fang Yue soothed him briefly, then prepared to call Chen Qing and head to the stern to clear the remaining red-eyed strange fish.

But Jing Yan grabbed Fang Yue's sleeve, eyes watery, voice trembling: "Ye Ge! I—I feel uncomfortable in my throat!"

"... Let go."

"Ye Ge, really, my throat feels awful… No! It's getting worse! I—I…"

Before he could finish, Jing Yan vomited violently onto the deck.

Fang Yue stared: the thick, sticky mass he vomited was a cluster of translucent, fish-egg-like blobs, grossly viscous.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

Fang Yue's expression shifted slightly. Qing Chen, meanwhile, had suddenly stopped the dissection work at hand, his eyes lighting up.

"So that's how it is! No wonder that fish had that kind of organ inside…"

Qing Chen said things neither of them could understand, while Jing Yan, looking at Qing Chen, reached a finger into his mouth, gagged violently, and then with a "wail" vomited out a pile of fish roe along with… a heart.

Jing Yan's heart!

On the other end of the heart, there were transparent, blood-vessel-like things connecting into Jing Yan's mouth, as if they had always been like this, still linked to Jing Yan's body.

"Ah… ahhh! Ahhhhhhhhh!!!"

(End of this chapter)