Chapter 126: Reunion
Heavy rain poured down, Drake activated the wipers, he glanced at the rearview mirror and found that those ferocious mad monsters could no longer be seen, and couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief.
He heard Li Nuowei’s earlier proposal and said, “Does this experience count as a gain for you?”
Li Nuowei nodded, “It’s a path never taken before. All along, we either chose to go deep into the air-raid shelter or go to the island, but both paths, no matter how taken, were almost dead ends. Unexpectedly, there could still be other discoveries here. Moreover, this also let me know that the guy called Ma Hong surprisingly didn’t die. It seems to kill that guy, we still need to do it more ruthlessly.”
Drake tapped his head with his fingertips, “As long as there’s a gain, it’s good. Here, some long-standing puzzles have finally been unraveled, and the whole mysterious disappearance case finally has a relatively clear and complete picture.”
In the early human era before the Sea God of Anhai appeared, humans in the coastal areas were dominated and ruled by sea monsters. To survive better, humans chose to “sign” a contract with the sea monsters, exchanging periodic sacrifices for peace. Over time, this formed a unique and bizarre belief culture.
However, the sea monster’s appetite grew larger and larger; it was no longer satisfied with the initial quantity of sacrifices. Humans, suffering under the sea monster’s tyranny, had no method to solve the problem and kept suppressing it.
Where there is suffering, there will be an outbreak.
Finally, on the day the Sea God of Anhai descended, the sea monster’s survival status suffered a strong impact.
As an otherworldly visitor, the Sea God of Anhai wanted to survive on this planet and grow its own forces, so it had to invade the sea monster’s living space. Thus, the Sea God of Anhai and the sea monster fought openly and covertly. On the surface, it was a struggle between the forces of the Sea God of Anhai and the sea monster; covertly, the Sea God of Anhai was doing everything possible to annex the sea monster’s believers.
The mermaid disease that caused the mysterious disappearance case was also born at this moment. Initially, the Sea God of Anhai injected “gospel” into the treasures and fish “bestowed” upon its believers, slowly spreading something like a “curse” through smuggling it in. This curse could turn people into the Sea God of Anhai’s kin, typically transforming them into mermen.
Humans who received these “bounties” from the Sea God of Anhai had the “curse” implanted into their bloodline from then on, which could continue to cultivate new mermen generation after generation through reproduction. However, it’s worth noting that this curse transformation carries risks; not everyone can succeed 100%. If they cannot evolve organs to breathe underwater like mermen, those people will drown directly due to inability to breathe when entering the sea during the transformation process. Those who succeed in transformation dive to the seabed and never return, abandoning their human identity to become the Sea God of Anhai’s kin.
Later, in the battle between the Sea God of Anhai and the sea monster, both sides’ forces were badly injured. The sea monster was sealed, and the Sea God of Anhai fell into slumber.
Because the Sea God of Anhai fell into slumber, no one could see “miracles” from faith and profit from them anymore, so people no longer believed in the Sea God of Anhai. The Anhai Divine Society gradually declined, leaving only a group of loyal believers secretly holding on until now.
The Sea God of Anhai’s slumber may have also caused the mermaid disease to stop occurring. Those with cursed bloodlines failed to transform into mermen like their ancestors, which is why Liuhua Port had no records of similar cases before this mysterious disappearance case occurred, making it hard for people to trace and investigate the source.
However, the day prophesied in the Anhai Divine Society for the Sea God of Anhai’s awakening is approaching. The long-slumbering Sea God of Anhai finally showed signs of awakening, causing resonance in those humans living near its slumbering place who carry the cursed bloodline. Their spirits communed with the Sea God of Anhai and its kin in dreams, and their bodies, activated by the curse, began undergoing merman transformation due to the effect of the mermaid disease.
Successful mermaid disease patients immediately went to sea, while failures died on the spot. The sudden large number of disappearances and deaths with unknown reasons naturally attracted the attention of the Mysterious Group.
He, Drake, as an important part of that prophecy—the Son of God mentioned in the prophecy—is the key link to resurrect the Sea God of Anhai. Under unknown influence or the call of fate, he returned to his hometown.
His mother should have sent him out of the Shenzhou Region to the New York region across the ocean while maintaining her humanity, leaving behind a nursery rhyme equivalent to an “admonition” before disappearing, probably drawing away the firepower.
Drake guessed that his mother wanted him to stay away from the place of trouble and escape his destiny.
Unfortunately, Drake still came back.
Now, the mysterious disappearance case is no longer a simple case. Or rather, preventing personnel disappearances is no longer the top priority. Their most urgent matter at present is to prevent the resurrection of the Sea God of Anhai.
As long as His resurrection can be prevented, other problems will be easily solved.
As for the method to prevent the Sea God of Anhai’s resurrection, the one Drake could think of was a stopgap that doesn’t address the root cause and couldn’t achieve the hidden goal at all: lifting the seal on the sea monster, letting it fight the Sea God of Anhai again, and have them fight to the death, both suffering heavy losses.
But this method is impractical because the battle between two abnormal gods would inevitably recreate the past catastrophe. A massive tsunami would sweep the coastal cities again, which naturally goes against their original intention of not involving innocent people.
Drake looked at Li Nuowei: “After going to the air-raid shelter, what do you plan to do? Lift the seal on the sea monster?”
Drake thought Li Nuowei’s idea would be the same as his, but Li Nuowei denied it and said seriously, “The seal is fine as is; no need to unseal it. Releasing the sea monster would only worsen the devastation. We have another purpose for going to the air-raid shelter. Do you still remember the green light gemstone I mentioned before?”
“You mean the thing that might allow me to lift the mermaid disease and return to being a normal person?” Drake still remembered; after all, it concerned his life.
“That green light gemstone has a restraining effect on the Sea God of Anhai’s power. If used as a weapon against the Sea God of Anhai, there should be a chance to kill it.” Li Nuowei nodded and calmly stated his ambition that he still couldn’t give up. “I want to solve the Sea God of Anhai problem at its root. As long as we kill it, you won’t turn into a merman and ultimately won’t die.”
Drake fell silent. He could tell Li Nuowei was serious; the other party’s earlier talk of “god slaying” wasn’t just lip service—he really intended to do it.
“You’re really crazy, you guy.” Drake grinned.
Staring at you, Staring at me, It’s a slow dance……
Drake’s mobile phone ringtone suddenly rang, and the phone in his pocket vibrated.
Hearing the ringtone, Li Nuowei froze in place because this phone call was something that had never happened on any of the previous reincarnation lines he experienced, meaning there were still variables he wasn’t familiar with.
Drake was also curious about who would have the time to call him at this moment. He tossed the phone to Li Nuowei and had him answer the call.
A pleasant female voice came from the phone, with a mature and cold tone, “Hello, is this Drake Wu? This is the Mysterious Group.”
“It’s me.” Drake responded almost without thinking. This phone was given by the contact person for missions; if that contact person’s identity was fine, then those who could call this phone were basically allies.
“I’m Yu Lianyun, Captain of the Tiger Group in the Mysterious Twelve Zodiacs.” The woman identified herself, then said seriously, “Agent Drake, I issue you an order as your superior: terminate your current mission. The rating of this anomaly event has risen to A-level and is no longer within your business scope.”
Hearing this late order, Drake couldn’t help but laugh out loud, but the laughter was filled with a bitterness that only Li Nuowei could understand.
“Agent Drake?” Yu Lianyun also heard Drake’s laughter and couldn’t help but be puzzled.
Drake sighed, glanced at Li Nuowei with hesitation in his gaze, as if asking. But Li Nuowei seemed to understand his mind and nodded at him with a smile.
Only then did Drake say, “Captain Yu, is it convenient for you to switch to video there?”
“…What do you mean?” Though puzzled, Yu Lianyun still sent a request to switch to video call.
Li Nuowei, who was holding the phone, immediately accepted the video call invitation and steadily aimed the camera at Drake, who was driving.
Less than two seconds after the video call connected, a surprised voice came from Yu Lianyun’s side.
“Drake, you!?” Drake noticed the woman in the video, drenched all over, wrapped in a blanket, looking at him with shock on her face.
Drake rolled his yellowish eyes and bared his mouth full of shark teeth, saying calmly, “As you see, I have no way out now. There’s no reason for me to abandon this mission.”
Yu Lianyun annoyedly touched her forehead, “This is really unexpected. I didn’t expect you, who came from across the ocean, to also bear the curse of mermaid disease… In that case, no need to say more. Presumably, after reading the information we sent you, you have a general idea of your own situation, what stage of transformation you’re in, and an estimation of how much time you have left.”
Hearing Yu Lianyun’s words, Drake nodded, “I know, so I’m eager to resolve this anomaly event. This is also for my own good.”
“Do you have any solution?” Yu Lianyun frowned tightly; she heard some confidence in Drake’s tone. “Did you investigate something inland?”
Then, Yu Lianyun noticed the anomaly with Drake, who was on the call with her, and asked, “You have someone else with you now. Who is it?”
Upon hearing this, Drake was about to say something when Li Nuowei flipped the phone, aiming the camera at himself.
Li Nuowei chuckled lightly and waved at the lens, greeting the beautiful woman on the call: “Hi, I’m Li Nuowei, now Drake’s private partner.”
Hearing Li Nuowei’s self-introduction, Yu Lianyun was puzzled: “Private partner? You’re also a mysterious investigator?” She incredulously sized up Li Nuowei. This Li Nuowei looked too young on the surface, and it was unbelievable that such a young man was actually a mysterious investigator.
“I’m not a mysterious investigator, but regrettably, I’m also deeply trapped and have to get involved.” Li Nuowei said with a face full of regret.
Upon hearing this, Yu Lianyun couldn’t help raising her voice: “Mr. Drake, I have to say, you have already violated the action rules of mysterious investigators.”
Drake just shrugged at this, as if expressing his indifference or helplessness.
“In that case, let’s meet up first.” Yu Lianyun sighed inwardly and said.
But Drake immediately shook his head, “If it’s meeting elsewhere, it might not work. If you’re willing to trust us, please come to the tunnel near Cape of the Horizon Beach…” As he spoke, he explained the reason for going there to Yu Lianyun and shared his investigation discoveries with her.
After listening to the rich intelligence provided by the two, Yu Lianyun couldn’t help but marvel at their investigation abilities.
However, Drake and Li Nuowei could only respond with a bitter smile, especially Li Nuowei— the intelligence he gathered was exchanged with his own life, and the hardships involved were hard to describe and no one could empathize with him.
After the praise, Yu Lianyun also showed worry.
Another abnormal god… and two of them.
Plus prophecies and nursery rhymes about the Sea God of Anhai—too horrifying. Their authenticity was hard to verify, but no one dared to test it.
“When the stars align… doomsday.” Yu Lianyun gritted her teeth inwardly, looked up at the overcast sky outside the window, as if seeing countless unknown eyes peeping at this planet.
Learning that Li Nuowei and Drake planned to go to the sea monster’s seal beneath the air-raid shelter and steal the green light gemstone that might restrain the Sea God of Anhai from the sea monster, Yu Lianyun said she wanted to go along too.
As for waiting for the other Twelve Zodiac Groups to arrive and meet with them, she decided to leave it to Shang Wei, even though he had just recovered from near-death and was physically and mentally fragile. But Shang Wei was currently the only person around her whom she could relatively trust.
She instructed Shang Wei to wait for the other zodiac group members at the branch, then have them help evacuate the masses from Liuhua Port city with the others at the branch, while clearing out the remnants of the Anhai Divine Society in the city. Those extremists must be properly disposed of.
Afterward, Yu Lianyun got a car, changed into a set of dry new clothes, and headed straight for the air-raid shelter.
While Yu Lianyun was on her way, after waiting three minutes in place with no sign of anyone, Li Nuowei and Drake gave up waiting and directly passed through the tunnel wall into the area below the air-raid shelter.
Li Nuowei held the Sea God Ancient Texts brought from the museum, as if holding a world-shaking divine artifact. Not only was he no longer fearful or worried, but he even felt a strong confidence.
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