CH 37.2

[The lowest color is purple, followed by blue…Actually, it is similar to the colors of the rainbow, just the other way around. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and orange missions are very rare S-level missions. Some players will never even encounter S-level hidden missions in their entire lives. Dear player, you had great luck this time! I’ve never seen a gold S-class hidden quest myself!]

This escape system had probably never seen one before. Its cold tone was unusually faster than before.

[But the higher the rarity, the more difficult the task is to complete and the more precious the rewards and props obtained. You can do it and see, but if you can’t finish it, it doesn’t matter. The hidden task doesn’t cause any punishment to the player].

Bai Lixin just wanted to help them, and he never thought there was a hidden task inside. This was a surprise.

The trigger condition was to gain the absolute trust of the merfolk?

So when they requested him, they had already placed him in the position of utmost trust.

They placed the hope of the race’s future on his shoulders.

Bai Lixin gave a bitter laugh.

This trust was touching and heavy at the same time.

All the merfolk were stunned when they heard the elderly merman’s words, and their eyes were filled with awe.

That old merman slowly came in front of Bai Lixin, “Let me introduce yourself. I am the Patriarch of the merfolk.”

Bai Lixin looked at the aged merman. His eyes were covered by a white cloudy film, and his hair, nails, and teeth had all fallen out.

—“The first sign of death is the loss of memory, then the loss of nails, the loss of hair, and finally the loss of all the teeth.”

The conversation of the two mermen came to mind.

Bai Lixin’s tone was respectful as he looked at the old merman that he had not seen before: “Greetings, my name is Bai Lixin.”

“I know you.” The Patriarch pulled a toothless smile, “There is little time left for me to speak at length.”

“Aumen is my acting patriarch and the next official patriarch,” the patriarch gestured to the scarred merman, “I am becoming increasingly delirious now and the large and small affairs of the merfolk have been placed solely in Aumen’s hands.”

“I’ve been watching you for the past two days when I’ve been conscious and this may be my last time awake, thank you for coming and helping us. Please help us once more. ” The Patriarch’s eyes grew cloudy and his voice began to break, “I swear by the Patriarch’s name to the God of the Sea that after Bai Lixin saves us, he will receive the Mermaid Heart, the greatest treasure of our Clan.”

The merfolk around were all in an uproar.

“The Mermaid Heart? That is a treasure that our clan has inherited for tens of thousands of years!”

“Patriarch! Even if Bai Lixin is good, he is only an outsider. Do we really have to give him the Mermaid Heart?!”

“Lord Patriarch, please think twice!”

The elderly patriarch took two ragged breaths and said, “Shut up, everyone! What’s the use of keeping the Mermaid Heart if there’s not even a clan left?!”

“I ask you, which one of you dares to stand up and tell me that you can defeat those undead creatures!”

“No matter how valuable the Mermaid Heart is, it is still an extraneous thing. It is our heirs and our heritage that are the most precious things to the merfolk. For a guest who can save our most precious treasures, we must offer them the Mermaid Heart, which is valuable enough to show our sincerity and value.”

There was silence among the merfolk, and countless merfolk bowed their heads in shame.

The Patriarch finished and took a deep breath.

Although he had calmed down, the Patriarch’s spirits had dwindled even further.

He took a deep look at Bai Lixin and waited for his reply.

Bai Lixin, “Okay, I promise you.”

Only after receiving Bai Lixin’s answer did the patriarch let out a long sigh of relief as if he had accomplished something. His back, which had been strongly held up, hunched down.

He struggled to look at the scarred merman beside him and said with his last shred of sanity, “Aumen, you are the official leader of the Merfolk from now on, and the clan is in your hands.”

A key was given to the scarred merman, and without waiting for a reply, the elderly merman’s eyes rolled up and the whites of his eyes darted around wildly.

When the eyes fell back down again, he was already looking dazed.

Grief quickly spread through the merfolk.

They stared at the aged merman and watched as he wandered around aimlessly before finally stumbling away from the training ground.

Seeing Bai Lixin’s confusion, the bald merman lowered his voice and explained, “The old patriarch is our spiritual leader. He was once the strongest warrior in our clan, with immortal achievements and accomplishments. At one time, we encountered sea monsters from the North Sea area, and if it wasn’t for him, we would all have died. He is our hero.”

The voice trailed off.

Bai Lixin did not speak, but he understood what the bald merman meant.

The more legendary the figure, the more disheartening it is when they fall.

Bai Lixin, “Where will he go?”

“I don’t know,” the bald merman said, shaking his head. “It’s an unwritten rule of our clan that we don’t cultivate the paths of our heroes in order to preserve their last dignity. He will always remain the image of the tallest and bravest in our hearts, not the dying.”

Bai Lixin’s eyes darkened.

Many animals had this same habit. When they sensed that they were dying, they would silently leave the breed and go to a long-chosen graveyard and take a path to their death.

Bai Lixin sighed.

The merfolk folded their hands, lowered their heads, and closed their eyes, already in silent mourning.

Bai Lixin followed their example and also closed his eyes.

The moment he closed his eyes, the feeling of loneliness that had appeared several times before came over him again.

The loneliness was more intense than ever before, and it was mixed with resentment and anger.

All these emotions tangled together and rushed into Bai Lixin’s heart so violently that he almost stumbled.

The surging emotions were like steaming hot air locked in a pressure cooker, expanding and rising under strong pressure, as if they were about to explode in the next moment and sweep through the sky.

The blood faded from Bai Lixin’s face as these emotions not only invaded his heart but also fought their way through his body.

He only felt his sea of consciousness being swept into a violent whirlwind, and he was at the center of this vortex.

The unknown emotions morphed into hideous ghostly faces that kept changing in the swirling vortex, roaring in fury with huge mouths and faces that were blurred into lines.

His head was buzzing, and Bai Lixin’s face was a little pale as he watched these unknown emotions vigilantly.

Suddenly, he heard an extremely subtle cry for help amidst these roars.

He forced back the dizziness that made him want to vomit and opened his eyes to look into the swirling storm before him.

Countless faces shifted, and he realized that these emotions were not only loneliness and madness, but also grief, joy, anger and so on.

Each face represented an emotion; a smiling face, a crying face, an angry face, a treacherous face ……

The whirlwind spun faster and faster, and the hideous faces within it became more and more blurred, and the countless faces gradually began to merge into one.

Vaguely, Bai Lixin heard a cry for help.

“Come.”

“Come and join us.”

“You were born to belong here.”

“You can feel our emotions, you are our companion.”

“Come and join us.”

“Good boy, come here.”

A call, like the compulsion of Satan, like the murmur of Cain luring an ignorant maiden into the abyss.

It was not a voice from outside the body, but an emotion that intuitively invaded the interior of the soul.

The voices were like a deep-water bomb hitting the sea, bursting one after another into the sky.

Bai Lixin covered his head and sneered.

This crashing sensation is really exciting. 

In the storm, he steadied himself and slowly stood up. The storm blew up and he took human form in his sea of consciousness.

The corners of his clothes were blown up hungrily, and his hair flew wildly in the wind.

Bai Lixin frowned, looking at these evil thoughts that had been tangled up into countless emotions, and said in a low voice, “I refuse.”

The voice was low but firm enough.

The storm stopped abruptly.

It was as if time had been frozen, turning this inner world into a three-dimensional painting that did not move.

The emotions that had turned into faces because of their rapid movement also revealed their true colors.

The vortex, which he thought was just wind, turned out to be full of faces.

Countless faces and countless emotions, all paused at this moment.

What the hell were these things?

“He wouldn’t.”

“He was surprisingly reluctant.”

“Why was he able to refuse?”

“No, it shouldn’t be like this.”

“You should have joined us.”

“We are your companions.”

“Let’s take revenge together.”

“Hehehe, take revenge.”

Just when Bai Lixin was about to round up these emotions, countless more voices bore in.

It was clear that he had already refused, but these greedy emotions had no intention of leaving yet.

It was really difficult to deal with.

Bai Lixin, “What are you things?”

“He spoke to us.”

“He asked us what we were.”

“Hehehe, we’re your friends.”

“Only our companions can feel us.”

“You can feel us, you’re our friend.”

Bai Lixin rubbed his brow.

It was too noisy.

The noise and cacophony were like a needle, sticking into his mind and giving him a splitting headache.

“Get the hell out of my consciousness.”

“Hehehe, we won’t just get out.”

“We can’t leave once you’ve accepted us.”

“It’s so comfortable here, I want to live here.”

A bunch of unknown emotions invaded his mind in a dignified manner and refused to leave.

What kind of hooliganism was this?

He had been aware of the unusual feeling of loneliness and had deliberately felt it in order to find out where it came from.

This was what they call “acceptance”?

The emotions that had just calmed down became agitated once more.

“He’s not talking.”

“Is he thinking of joining us?”

“Come on, join us!”

“We’ll always be waiting for you!”

“Yes, it doesn’t get any better than here.”

It was pitch black around him, with a dense array of faces before him and an endless stream of conversation in his ears. Bai Lixin’s head hurt even more.

Suddenly, a distant ethereal low voice pressed down from overhead.

As soon as the voice came out, it immediately overwhelmed the other voices with a domineering force.

The faces trembled, and one by one, they fell from the air, sliding past Bai Lixin and falling into the even darker abyss at the bottom.

A pair of warm hands suddenly grabbed Bai Lixin’s shoulders from behind, and he fell into a warm, familiar, broad chest.

The moment Bai Lixin tried to turn back, a pair of slightly calloused, hands covered his face.

“Don’t look.” The distant voice reached his ears and whispered, “Now is not the time.”

Bai Lixin’s body, which had been tense, slowly relaxed, entrusting its weight to the man behind him.

……

“Bai Lixin!”

“Bai Lixin!”

One anxious voice after another came in, and Bai Lixin supported his aching head as he slowly opened his eyes.

In front of him, the blue water was crystal clear, and the lamprey-like mouths that were about to stick to his face zoomed before his eyes.

Bai Lixin’s eyes snapped shut, “……”

Shit, I almost fainted again.

The scene before his eyes was really alarming.

Although I know that these “beautiful and lovely” merfolk are very good-natured, knowing is knowing.

Bai Lixin gulped, “Stop shaking me, I’m awake.”

The scarred merman, who was shaking Bai Lixin vigorously, suddenly paused, “Ah, you’ve finally woken up, you scared us to death.”

The fat merman almost cried out, “You mustn’t die; the future of our clan is in your hands!”

Bai Lixin: “……”

You didn’t have to stress it to such a high level.

“Did I just faint?” Bai Lixin was still a little dizzy, and memories gradually returned to his muddled consciousness.

“Yeah, right at the training ground.” Green Hair was also around, and besides Green Hair were a bunch of merfolk surrounding him.

“……”

Although he was aware that they were staring at him out of concern, the small eyes coupled with the open mouths made him wish he was alone right now.

“Okay, okay, it’s okay, all of you go do what you need to do!”

The scarred merman had the sense to see that Bai Lixin had woken up and chased away the other merfolk who were making a scene, leaving only a few that Bai Lixin knew.

There was the sound of swimming, and in a moment, the merfolk around him left.

Only the scarred merman, the bald merman, the fat merman and Green Hair remained by his side.

Green Hair continued. “You fainted just after closing your eyes, and after fainting, you seemed to have some kind of nightmare. You were dancing around like you were possessed, and your mouth kept saying ‘leave my body’ or something.”

Green Hair suddenly had grievance in his voice, “Hearing you say that made me think you didn’t want me to help you even when you were having a nightmare because I confessed to you. So I didn’t dare to help you.”

The other three mermen. “Confession?!”

Bai Lixin. “Get to the point, will you? I don’t even know what’s going on.”

Can we get past the whole “confession” thing? What if Dijia goes fucking crazy again?

Wouldn’t I be the one to suffer?

“Ahem, well,” Green Hair scratched his head in embarrassment, “then your face went white and the patriarch brought you here.”

Bai Lixin looked around and found that he had left the training ground and was now in a coral thicket. He was lying in a huge clam shell, and a thick layer of water plants and pretty pearls covered his body.

In a place where the four mermen couldn’t hear, a voice entered his ears, “You look like a hibiscus on the water, like a pearl waiting for me to come and pick. It’s a pity that there are more eyesores around.”

The voice was even tinged with regret.

Bai Lixin’s face suddenly reddened.

Bai Lixin, “How long have I been unconscious?”

The scarred merman, “I don’t know, quite a while.”

Oh, I forgot that they had no concrete idea of time.

Bai Lixin opened the task bar, two hours had passed.

He thought it was just a moment, but so much time had passed in reality.

Bai Lixin looked down and noticed that there were many pearls of different colors placed next to the sea plants in the shell.

They were colorful and quite pretty.

He remembered how Dijia kept sweeping the pearls down from the corner of his eyes.

It seemed that the color of the pearls was not quite the same each time.

Out of curiosity, Bai Lixin asked the scarred merman.

“Lord Patriarch, what do blue pearls mean?”

He didn’t believe Dijia when he said it meant “love”.

The scarred merman froze for a moment and blushed slightly, “Why are you asking that, you little brat?”

Bai Lixin was slightly stunned.

No way? Really?

The bald merman, “Hey, get out of the way, if you don’t tell, I will. I’ll tell you, little one. You know that pearls are our tears,  right?”

Bai Lixin nodded.

In ancient times, there were merfolk who cried tears that turned into pearls, and the merfolk in the West also shed tears that became pearls.

Although the merfolk here were a bit different from those in fairy tales, this Mary Sue setting was surprisingly still the same.

So only pearly tears and tails are the criteria for identifying merfolk?

The bald merman, “White pearls are the most common, and there is no emotion in them.”

“Blue is a bit better, when the love is strong, it turns blue.”

The scarred merman kept winking, which the bald merman ignored.

Bai Lixin then asked, “What about the purple tears?”

Even the bald merman blushed at this question.

“Ah, it’s…during “that”. So tears that fall are usually that color.”

Bai Lixin: “……”

Needless to say, he got it.