Chapter 117: Strange Deaths Increase
Hearing Li Nuowei’s slightly teasing words, Drake’s originally somewhat panicked mood was instantly replaced by a surge of anger. He irritably slapped away Li Nuowei’s hand that was placed right in front of his nose.
Li Nuowei chuckled and said, “No problem, I remember you know sign language, right? I can understand sign language. You can use that to communicate with me. You told me on one of my reincarnation lines that you once specially learned sign language courses to attract a deaf-mute girl, but in the end, you found out she had a boyfriend, and it came to nothing.”
Drake looked at the other in astonishment, then showed an annoyed expression, probably thinking about how loose-lipped he was on that reincarnation line to have even told him about such an embarrassing thing, but this also indirectly proved that he on that reincarnation line really trusted Li Nuowei.
Helplessly, Drake made a few hand gestures: I think I know which direction those people fled in.
Li Nuowei thought for a moment and guessed the answer: “Your sense of smell has become more acute during your transformation into a merman, hasn’t it?”
Drake nodded. He was indeed now experiencing the ability of superhuman smell. This was a sensitivity of senses that he could not have felt in his previous human body. Just now, he suddenly felt his sense of smell amplified, detecting a strange smell mixed with fishy odor and human blood. It might be almost imperceptible to Li Nuowei, but to him, it was as intense as if it were right under his nose, and the bloody smell gave him a ravenous appetite, making his whole body somewhat excited.
Of course, it wasn’t just smell. Drake felt his hearing was also enhancing, his strength seemed to have increased, and his limbs’ muscles had a sense of expansion. His originally loose sleeves were starting to feel tight against his skin.
Led by Drake, Li Nuowei climbed over the hillside, bypassed most of the mountainside, and finally found a cave.
The cave was a scene of devastation, with a strong fetid smell hitting them in the face. Fresh blood was flowing out from inside the cave in torrents. Several broken merman corpses lay scattered around the cave. Some corpses had only half an arm left, some only a head, with morsels of meat and internal organs everywhere.
Drake’s Adam’s apple moved up and down on his neck. Looking at the cruel and bloody scene before him, he received a strong visual shock.
Li Nuowei also experienced a certain degree of visual shock, but his attention quickly shifted elsewhere. Looking at the unidentified mucus covering the surroundings and those merman corpses, he felt extremely puzzled: “How did they die in this way?”
Drake gestured in sign language to Li Nuowei: It looks like some very large creature raided them.
“It doesn’t look like the work of large mermen either.” Li Nuowei shook his head. From his few experiences of direct contact with mermen, mermen did not cannibalize their own kind. Instead, they had a strangely strong group consciousness. Harming one merman would incite a group of mermen into mad siege for revenge.
Drake felt doubtful and gestured in inquiry: In this anomaly event, are there any other large anomalies?
Li Nuowei said, “I can’t be sure, because I can’t fully see the whole picture of the event.”
He couldn’t be sure of many things. Before experiencing this current reincarnation line, he had never been to this island either. From his lack of understanding of the “bronze statue life,” it was clear he was not completely familiar with all things.
Gulu lulu lu…
A strange clicking sound came from the deep cave, interrupting the two who were discussing.
Hearing this Unease-inducing sound echoing, both their hearts trembled slightly. Drake even keenly heard the sound of water splashes and some soft-bodied creature slapping against the wall.
Drake looked at Li Nuowei and gave him a look: Shall we go in and investigate?
“Sure, anyway, if I die, I can start over.” Li Nuowei nodded. Although he was averse to facing death, he was not afraid of it, so he took the lead and walked in front.
Drake smiled silently and dryly, following behind the other.
Walking inside the cave, both Li Nuowei and Drake felt their feet stepping on large patches of sticky substance. The strange touch made them uncomfortable and also made it somewhat difficult to walk, as it was both slippery and sticky. Lifting a foot risked the mucus snapping back if too forceful, and placing it down risked slipping and falling directly. They also had to control the noise, as they didn’t know if the thing making the clicking sound was sensitive to their voices as well.
Crossing over the corpses and through the mucus-covered cave passage, they soon discovered that at the end of the cave, there was actually a dark stone chamber.
Li Nuowei wanted to turn on the light to see the situation inside the stone chamber, but suddenly felt the hand he had reached into his pocket to take out his mobile phone being grabbed by a hand full of scales. He puzzledly turned his head back, only to see Drake staring at him intently with a pair of slightly glowing yellow eyes.
Li Nuowei understood in his heart, realizing that Drake, whose vision had unknowingly been enhanced, seemed to be able to see some terrifying thing happening in the dark stone chamber.
In Drake’s view, inside the stone chamber painted with various eerie heretical texts murals, several ink-green tentacles emerged from a cave in the center of the stone chamber. They swayed their bodies, and the tips of the tentacles could split open into petal-like mouthparts, each petal covered with dense serrations. In the center of the mouthpart, like a stamen, there were two sharp spikes. At this moment, one of the tentacles was skewering a merman corpse, and those tentacles could easily tear apart the tough merman corpse, splitting it open to devour.
Seeing this eerie scene, Drake finally knew that in this anomaly event, there was another terrifying anomaly participating, and this was most likely an anomaly from the sea monster’s side, treating mermen as food.
Drake held his breathing, shifting his attention away from those tentacle creatures. There were no other human figures in the stone chamber. He then quickly noticed that the murals in the stone chamber were related to the ritual between the small island’s original inhabitants and the sea monster. Before the small island’s original inhabitants believed in the Sea God of Anhai, that alien great fish, they originally worshiped the sea monster. It was speculated that later, people had a better faith choice and betrayed the sea monster.
He then also noticed one mural depicting the offering of sacrifices, which was almost a reenactment of the bizarre scene currently playing out, except that in the mural, it was humans being eaten by the tentacle monster, whereas now it was mermen.
Drake could thus determine that these tentacles in front of him were most likely another part of the mud swamp monster’s body below the air-raid shelter, that is, the sea monster often mentioned in Liuhua Port legends. Back then, the Sea God of Anhai had not completely dealt with this opponent.
Of course, if it wasn’t the sea monster, it could also be some kin anomaly similar in form to the sea monster.
Just like the relationship between mermen and the Sea God of Anhai, the two looked very similar in appearance, but their powers differed as vastly as heaven and earth.
Drake wanted to test if these tentacles without eye organs were sensitive to sound. He picked up a stone nearby and threw it toward the wall inside the stone chamber.
The moment the stone hit the wall, two of the tentacles, like hungry beasts smelling food, immediately lunged out without hesitation, piercing through the wall and gouging out several huge gaps.
Seeing this, Drake’s heartbeat accelerated. It seemed the other was really sensitive to sound. Fortunately, he and Li Nuowei had been cautious enough when entering the cave, not speaking another word and carefully controlling their footsteps.
But now, it was probably not easy to exit the cave. Those tentacle monsters seemed too hungry; they probably wouldn’t leave easily until satisfied.
Hui Ke!
Just as Drake was pondering, a deafening muffled roar came from the cave side. The tentacles that had emerged from the cave suddenly stiffened straight like bristling fur, then abruptly contracted and rushed underground. Immediately after, several splashes of water sprayed out from the cave.
Boom boom boom!
The cave began to sway, and a strange roar from the abyss came from below the cave.
Drake seized the opportunity, grabbed Li Nuowei’s hand, and ran toward the cave exit. If they didn’t run now, it would be too late.
Li Nuowei cooperated, following behind Drake, running with all his might.
The two quickly ran out of the cave and felt the earth trembling. They ran purposefully toward the pier at the foot of the mountain.
Rushing back to the pier and onto the speedboat, Drake pulled up the anchor rope, Li Nuowei started the speedboat, turned around, and left.
The sea was surging with waves, as if calls from another realm kept coming, even making the sea tremble with sound.
“What did you see?” Li Nuowei asked loudly to Drake who had returned to the cabin while steering the boat. Watching the turbulent sea surface with waves constantly slapping the boat, he struggled to control the rudder. He was somewhat anxious, foreseeing that their lives were numbered. They must collect enough useful information before the next reincarnation.
Drake probably also realized they might not escape this sea. With the fastest hand speed of his life, he gestured in sign language, telling Li Nuowei everything he saw in the stone chamber.
Li Nuowei steered the boat while watching Drake’s sign language, trying hard to memorize Drake’s description.
“The thing that killed the mermen is the sea monster or kin similar to the sea monster. The previous islanders worshiped the sea monster…” Li Nuowei engraved the important information emphatically and briefly in his heart, silently repeating it.
Pang boom!
Suddenly, a huge water column surged up on the side of the speedboat. A large merman, with only its upper body exposed above the sea surface and already over about twenty meters long, tore and bit at a large multi-eyed multi-legged soft-bodied creature similar to an octopus, breaking through the water surface. They entwined and tore at each other, leaping over the water surface and then plunging back into the sea, surging up huge waves that made the entire boat pitch and toss.
Li Nuowei struggled to control the rudder, not letting the boat veer in other directions, clinging to a slim hope of survival to keep the boat going.
However, with a sensation of weightlessness from underfoot, the entire speedboat was suddenly lifted above the water surface, flying into the air more than twenty meters away from sea level. Li Nuowei and Drake were forced to leave the ground with their feet, their bodies slamming against the cabin ceiling.
“Strange death methods increased.” As Li Nuowei felt the boat falling, he smiled and said this to Drake, who was showing partial merman features beside him, as his last words before death.
Drake smiled helplessly and gave him a thumbs up.
As the boat crashed into the sea surface, the hull emitted a breaking sound of unbearable weight. Li Nuowei and Drake, who had been stuck to the ceiling, both slammed face-first onto the ground due to the falling inertia, turning into meat paste.
…
“Wake up! Wake up!” Yu Lianyun pulled the mystic investigators floating on the sea back onto the beach one by one, then performed first aid on each, hoping someone among these retrieved corpses would respond. While pressing and thumping their hearts, she loudly called their names.
However, after several in a row, all were fruitless.
Yu Lianyun could only inject strong heart stimulants into each of them. In the end, she only heard a weak heartbeat from Shang Wei. She was instantly overjoyed and continued drowning first aid on Shang Wei.
“Pfft—cough cough!” Shang Wei spat out seawater from his mouth and nose, waking up in a daze. His eyes were bloodshot, murmuring some unintelligible things from his mouth, his spirit not yet fully awake.
Yu Lianyun immediately gave Shang Wei a few slaps, as if slapping out the voices troubling his mind. Shang Wei suddenly perked up, sporting a pig’s head face, his eyes astonished yet bewildered. “Holy shit… we… where is this?”
“It seems like somehow we floated back to land.” Yu Lianyun breathed a sigh of relief and said. A misty drizzle was falling from the sky, drenching her delicate face quite miserably.
“We’re back?” Shang Wei was somewhat incredulous. He looked at the several corpses beside him, his eyes gradually turning red. Rain pelted his face, making it indistinguishable whether the water on his face was tears or raindrops. “We actually made it back…”
Half an hour later, they got into the convoy sent by the organization to pick them up.
Wrapped in a blanket, Yu Lianyun reported this investigation to the group leader: “…That’s how things are. My suggestion is to immediately upgrade the ‘Liuhua Port population disappearance case’ to A-level. We need more personnel to handle this. It’s no longer something that can be solved by me and the branch organization people.”
Wei Chengye listened to Yu Lianyun’s report and summary, his facial expression serious. He said, “I understand. I’ll immediately order the level of this anomaly event changed and dispatch the two zodiac teams closest to Liuhua Port to rendezvous with you. After that, you’ll act together. As a firsthand witness to this event, you have the highest authority.”
“Yes.” Yu Lianyun nodded heavily, then discussed a bit more with Wei Chengye before ending the communication.
Pale-faced Shang Wei seemed to have suffered a major blow, his expression numb and somewhat dazed. Then, as if suddenly remembering something important, he looked up at Yu Lianyun: “Right, that detective, that F-level amateur mysterious investigator, isn’t he still inland? We should stop his investigation. He can’t continue anymore.”
Shang Wei was emotionally agitated. He really didn’t want to see anyone else die because of this anomaly event.
Yu Lianyun comforted him: “Calm down first. I’ve thought of him too. I’ll call him right now.”
Shang Wei breathed heavily, nodded with red eyes, then stared blankly out the window again, his eyes full of sorrow.
Yu Lianyun sighed inwardly, then found Drake’s contact number on her mobile phone and pressed the dial button.
Please vote for collections and such.
