Chapter 99: The Missing Brother
Shang Wei and two team members were all running madly, fleeing from this underground Black Divine Temple. Although they didn’t clearly see the face of that fleeting bluish-black figure, they could imagine it must be a hideous and detestable Merman Monster.
Those monsters were fiercely chasing all of them, their rapid, strange footsteps closely following the three humans, with bursts of whispers coming from their mouths.
“……Hai Da……Hui Ke……Hai Da! Hui Ke!” Shang Wei heard the monsters roaring like this. He gritted his teeth, looked back, drew his pistol, aimed at the moving light-bulb eyes in the darkness behind, and fired continuously.
He heard the sound of bullets striking metal, and also the shattering sound of piercing flesh. He had successfully hit that group of monsters.
Among the three, only Shang Wei could still remain calm and fight back. The other two C-level Mystic Investigators seemed to have lost their minds, only knowing blind escape and running, tirelessly.
It was unknown whether Shang Wei’s counterattack made those fierce and violent Mermen wary, but they suddenly stopped the pursuit, standing in the dark depths not illuminated by the oil lamp flames, quietly watching them, gazing at Shang Wei’s eyes still unsettled from the shock, as if to engrave his appearance into their minds.
Rushing out of the tunnel, back to the ground.
Noticing the abnormal expressions of the three who rushed out of the tunnel, Yu Lianyun unhesitatingly had someone immediately close the tunnel’s iron door, inserting several wooden sticks through the door handle to block the iron door.
“Hurry and go, there’s something below…” Shang Wei paused, supporting his knees, gasping heavily. The two C-level Mystic Investigators who ran out with him seemed completely unaware of the fact that they had already escaped underground and were temporarily safe. They ran past their teammates, out of the woodshed, and out of the Ancestral Hall without stopping.
“Hey!” Yu Lianyun also didn’t react in time and stopped the two already panicked Mystic Investigators.
Shang Wei gritted his teeth, “You guys don’t worry about me first, catch up to those two idiots. I’ll follow slowly.”
Yu Lianyun nodded, leaving one person to accompany Shang Wei, and took the others to chase out the door.
But no one expected that when they caught up to those two guys who had lost their souls, they had already run to the sea cliff edge and jumped off the cliff almost without hesitation, embracing the sea that was ceaselessly roaring with devouring fury.
Seeing this scene, everyone’s expressions changed drastically. They came to the place where the two Mystic Investigators jumped, looked down at the constantly crashing sea waves, but couldn’t find any trace of them in the rolling waves, as if they had been devoured by this terrifying giant beast, the sea, without even a bit of residue left.
When Shang Wei arrived late, supported by a Mystic Investigator, Yu Lianyun impatiently asked about Shang Wei’s experience underground.
The full-of-holes Black Divine Temple, the big fish stone statue engraved with terrifying text, the bluish-black Mermen relentlessly pursuing them… Everything sounded so thrilling.
Shang Wei’s teeth were trembling as he said in a low voice: “I know those two guys who jumped into the sea weren’t voluntary. Like me, they also heard those voices, the low roars coming from the depths of the black pipes in the Black Divine Temple, sounds even more low and violent than an out-of-control accelerating steam train. It must have made them see hallucinations, so they didn’t even realize they were temporarily safe. Their bodies escaped the temple, but their souls were still being chased.”
“We must hurry back to the inland.” After hearing Shang Wei’s experience, Yu Lianyun immediately realized that those crazy Mermen hiding in the darkness had targeted them for intruding into the forbidden area. They certainly and absolutely would not let any of them go. Escaping this small island quickly was the best strategy.
However, Yu Lianyun still had a persistent uneasy feeling of restlessness.
Soon, the unease in her heart was verified. The boat they arrived on was shattered into pieces, with fragments and wreckage barely floating on the sea, covered in claw marks.
“It was those guys who did it, those monsters…” Shang Wei said affirmatively, a trace of fear in his eyes, cold sweat trickling down his forehead.
“The signal is also strongly jammed.” A accompanying C-level Mystic Investigator said in a dry voice.
Everyone’s faces looked grim. They were trapped on this secluded island hiding extreme danger.
……
Drake listened to Li Nuowei’s narration of the origin of Mermaid Disease and learned that Mermaid Disease was a curse from the Sea God of Anhai. Those cursed by the Sea God of Anhai would slowly transform into the Mermen he saw in his dreams, becoming hideous monsters with dull expressions and bizarre behavior.
At the same time, Drake finally guessed the origin of his other half bloodline. At least one of his parents must have been a believer cursed by the Sea God of Anhai, and the curse of Mermaid Disease had followed the bloodline to him.
From childhood, he had yearned for the Shenzhou Region, wanting to find his family history from his bloodline homeland. It turned out it wasn’t simply the instinct in his genes to return to his roots. A considerable part might be the malice hidden deep in his blood influencing him, including his ability to pick the “Liuhua Port Mysterious Disappearance An” mission at a glance, which might not be coincidental.
This was a destiny he couldn’t avoid or escape. Drake suddenly realized he had never truly been free. He was locked in the cage of fate, and those beings outside the cage watched him like humans watching monkeys in a zoo. Like those monkeys enjoying peace in the cage, he thought his behavior came from his free will, unaware that the “people” outside the cage were sneering at his “freedom”.
However, Drake felt no anger about this, only a deep sense of powerlessness, filled with helplessness.
Drake looked at his bandaged wrist from the explosion, tremblingly lifting the gauze. Seeing dense tiny bluish-black scales growing from his wound and spreading to the surroundings, his heart grew even heavier.
“Mermaid Disease… Is there a way to cure it?” Drake asked in a deep voice. He looked at the youth beside him, a glimmer of hope in his eyes, wanting an affirmative answer from the youth.
However, Li Nuowei shook his head: “I don’t know, but no matter how I think about it, the only method worth trying seems to be destroying the source of the curse.”
Hearing this, Drake was stunned. The youth’s casual words seemed to state something obvious.
“Kill… the Sea God of Anhai?” Drake swallowed his saliva, also swallowing his rationality into his stomach. “Is this something humans can do?”
The youth showed a confidence and arrogance that Drake couldn’t comprehend, though the youth himself wasn’t aware of it. He smiled and said: “There will be a way. We’ll know once we try.”
Try once? Die once?
Drake couldn’t help but ask Li Nuowei’s identity again: “Who exactly are you?”
“Me?” Li Nuowei grinned, “Just an ordinary university student about to go mad.”
An ordinary university student? Drake didn’t believe it.
Dawn broke, and the clothes were dried. After putting on their respective clothes, Li Nuowei planned to say goodbye, but Drake wasn’t willing to give up following him. He still had many questions to ask the other.
Li Nuowei seemed to have known Drake would do this. He didn’t stop him, just said: “I’m not planning to run away. Following me has no meaning. When the time comes, I will definitely come find you, so… please don’t do what you did last night again. I can’t save you in time every time.”
Facing Li Nuowei’s serious expression, Drake was somewhat stunned. He actually saw a sincere request in the other’s eyes.
Drake was slightly silent, then nodded almost imperceptibly.
Although Li Nuowei had advised him not to follow, Drake still got the other’s current residence address from him in the end, in a student apartment near Liuhua Port Comprehensive University.
Thus, Drake couldn’t help but somewhat believe Li Nuowei’s identity. Perhaps he really was a university student, but definitely not ordinary.
The two came out of the summer house and parted ways. Drake walked the same path as yesterday and once again arrived at that deep and dim narrow tunnel.
Feeling the loneliness and chill emanating from the tunnel, Drake had a feeling as if it were yesterday.
But just like yesterday, he safely passed through the tunnel without incident.
Just out of the tunnel, Drake saw law enforcement officers’ vehicles parked by the roadside not far away. A pair of anxious middle-aged couple was randomly stopping passersby with the officers, holding a photo of a lively and cheerful twin boy, pointing to the one on the left of the photo with the bright smile, asking passersby if they had seen their child.
And from afar, Drake recognized after seeing the photo that the middle-aged couple and the person the officers were searching for was the boy he met at the tunnel entrance yesterday, who fantasized about sending his precious things through the somewhat eerie and terrifying tunnel behind him to his brother who had already gone to heaven.
Still remembering the boy’s innocent and pure appearance, Drake felt a heaviness in his mood.
Thus, he proactively walked toward the couple and the officers and said straightforwardly: “I saw this child yesterday.”
“Really? Where is he!?” The boy’s parents excitedly grabbed his arms and asked urgently.
The officers also put on serious expressions. One middle-aged officer said earnestly: “Please tell us. Where was the last place you saw this child, and what was he doing at the time?”
Drake told them everything he knew, “It was right here, at that tunnel entrance, that I saw the child. He was holding a box of things, like beauty photo magazines, game consoles, and movie discs, packing up the things he liked, then placing them at the tunnel entrance, saying this way he could send the things to the dead… I didn’t chat much with him in the end. My stomach was starving, so I immediately went to find breakfast.”
After hearing Drake’s narration, the officers looked puzzled and glanced at the deep tunnel behind Drake, while the missing boy’s parents suddenly turned pale after a daze, greatly shocked, as if discovering some cruel truth.
Noticing the boy’s mother’s near-fainting appearance, the officers and the boy’s father hurriedly supported her. Drake also noticed something unusual from the couple’s expressions.
The boy’s father, with slightly red eyes, stared hard into Drake’s eyes, wanting to find signs of lying in them, confirming repeatedly and asking again: “Are you sure the things he had were photo magazines, game consoles, and such? Did he say himself that he liked these things?”
Drake nodded affirmatively: “That’s what he said.”
Hearing this, the boy’s mother suddenly broke down emotionally and cried loudly, while the boy’s father regretfully covered his face.
Seeing this, Drake and the officers could only comfort the couple’s emotions. After the couple calmed down in despair, they learned the reason for their breakdown from them.
“I have a pair of twin sons. The older brother is Yang Zuo, who likes reading, quiet and scholarly. The younger brother is Yang You, who likes watching movies and playing games, outgoing…” The couple cried as they spoke, but by this point, Drake and the officers had already guessed the real reason for the couple’s breakdown.
It turned out that all along, the couple had misidentified the dead child. They thought the one who died in the car accident was the younger brother, and the now missing one was the older brother, but the result was the exact opposite.
The one who actually died in the car accident was the older brother, and the one who was alive and now missing was actually the younger brother.
The reason for switching identities was unknown for now. Perhaps the child didn’t want the couple to be sad, so he came up with the plan to impersonate his deceased brother.
Although the truth was cruel, there was now something more urgent than the cruel truth. While one officer comforted the couple, another took Drake back to the tunnel entrance, then pointed to the empty box at the entrance, “Was the box placed there at the time? Where is the box now, and where did the things go?”
Drake shook his head: “I don’t know either. I left after hearing his reason for placing the things here.”
“Can you come with us to the Law Enforcement Security Bureau, Mr.?” the officer said. Although asking, he left no room for refusal.
Drake saw the look in the other’s eyes. As a former high-quality detective who often dealt with officers, this expression was all too familiar to him—it was the look when regarding a crime suspect.
Although somewhat amused, Drake knew that according to experience and procedure, he did have suspicion of involvement, and being deemed a suspect was reasonable.
Drake chuckled, then took out his F-level Mysterious Investigator documents from his pocket. This document instantly stunned the officers who were still suspecting him of being the murderer.
“You’re a Mysterious Investigator?” The officer swallowed, his tone as if seeing an insignificant worker mixing cement at a construction site suddenly transform into a superstar experiencing life.
“White paper black text, I am.” Drake smiled, then turned back to glance at the tunnel.
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