When the Wild Beast is Trapped in the Nightmare Cycle (BL)
Chapter 209: Perusing Scrolls

Chapter 209: Perusing Scrolls

Upon hearing that question, a piercing alarm instantly blared inside Shen Nianzu’s mind.

He recognized that look on Jin Jiuchi’s face— it was the exact same expression he showed in the previous Cycle when everyone was affected by the poison from the Dance of the Wind. At that time, Shen Nianzu had coughed out a little blood, and Jin Jiuchi had ended up triggering the activation of his Joker skill card.

Shivers ran down Shen Nianzu’s spine at the reminder, and he quickly grabbed Jin Jiuchi’s wrist and exclaimed, "No, I won’t!" With his other hand, he retrieved another portion of stabilizing agent and stuffed it into Jin Jiuchi’s mouth, and he only let out a sigh of relief when he saw the liquid disappearing down the man’s throat. Then, he proceeded to share the observation he had made so far, and ended the sentence with words of reassurance, "I am not going to turn into a cursed creature, don’t worry. I will be able to hold on until we leave this Cycle."

Gu Luoxin wiped his tears and asked hopefully, "R–Really?"

"Really," Shen Nianzu stressed with a helpless look. He turned to Jin Jiuchi and asked with a serious tone, "What’s your SAN value now?"

"My SAN value?" Albeit confused, Jin Jiuchi still reported the number honestly, "It’s 60."

The taut string in Shen Nianzu’s heart finally loosened. Good, it was better than he expected. Perhaps it was the influence of the mirror shard, but Jin Jiuchi’s two sides had been surprisingly stable in this Cycle. It seemed like he did not have to worry about Jin Jiuchi losing control and summoning the Nightmare into this Cycle again.

Shen Nianzu had a superb mental fortitude. After informing his two teammates, he threw the matter of his infection to the back of his mind and immediately turned his focus to the task at hand. "Okay, let’s do this," he clapped. "Now that the merfolk clan has taken me as their Goddess, we will be able to access their library and read everything related to her appearance in the past. For now, I still have no idea what kind of mystery the Cycle wants us to solve, but gathering more information won’t hurt. You two don’t understand their merfolk language, so you will be responsible for sorting out the information I’ve discovered. Any objections?"

Jin Jiuchi immediately thrust his hand into the air.

Shen Nianzu ruthlessly shot him down, "If you are trying to find an excuse to get away, let me tell you that it’s futile."

Jin Jiuchi cleared his throat sheepishly. Goodness, could Nian’er be the worm in his stomach? How could he know what Jin Jiuchi was thinking? However, he still thickened his skin and stubbornly did not want to admit that his plan had been seen through, "W–Who told you that I want to escape? I want to analyze the task too, okay? Analyzing is my life calling! It’s just that..." Jin Jiuchi racked his brain for another matter before he was suddenly reminded of something. "Oh, that’s right! I forgot to tell you, I heard that little girl’s voice again!"

"Little girl?" Both Shen Nianzu and Gu Luoxin were stunned.

"The one I met on the port. Remember?" Jin Jiuchi proceeded to tell the other two about the voice he had heard from the cocoon both inside the cruise ship and last night. He furrowed his brows and declared with passion, "She must have been trapped inside. How pitiful. We have to save her!"

After his eloquent and expressive spiel, all he received was a blank and speechless look from his teammates. "What?" Jin Jiuchi asked in confusion. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Da Shen!" Gu Luoxin suddenly exclaimed out loud. "Have you never considered that she might have something to do with the queen?! No, wait..." he was struck by another inspiration. "Could she be connected to the Goddess of the Sea instead?! She must be, right? Otherwise how could Da Shen hear her twice in a row?!"

Shen Nianzu pinched his brows. "This is my oversight. I should have known not to ignore her when Da Shen first told us about her."

Jin Jiuchi was baffled by their logic. "Wait... how did you two come to such a conclusion? She is crying inside, I told you! If she’s the queen, why would she cry? Shouldn’t she be happy instead to have so many NPCs to eat? And also, she’s a little girl. Just around this height," he gestured around his torso. "With two pigtails and chubby cheeks. Kinda similar to Nian’er when he was a child. How could she be the Goddess?"

Gu Luoxin still tried to defend his point, "Why can’t a little girl be a Goddess?!"

"Well, why can she?!" Jin Jiuchi retorted.

"Stop!" Shen Nianzu raised his voice to interrupt the two bickering children. "There’s no use arguing. Let’s go to the library now and see if we can find something about the Goddess of the Sea."

Jin Jiuchi and Gu Luoxin glared at each other before turning away at the same time with a loud harrumph. Together, they trailed after Shen Nianzu and left the room. When Shen Nianzu relayed his request that he wanted to learn more about the Goddess, the head guard was ecstatic, thinking that Shen Nianzu would assume his position for real this time. He immediately invited the trio to a reading room and ordered the guards to bring all the books about the Goddess of the Sea there.

Soon after, Ariel appeared through the water canal when she caught wind of the news. "Is there something I can help you with... Goddess?" She asked nervously. Her entire person looked haggard, with dark circles hanging below her red and swollen eyes. It was apparent that she had mourned for the rest of the night.

"No need," Shen Nianzu refused her tactfully. "You should go back and rest for a bit, Princess. You look tired. Also, there’s no need to call me Goddess." Even though he had received the role, having someone call him Goddess left and right still made him feel somewhat awkward.

Ariel offered him a haggard smile, "Thank you... for being here with us. I don’t know what would have become of Atlantis without you here. As for our mating ritual..."

As soon as Shen Nianzu heard this, a hint of vigilance flashed through his eyes. She couldn’t have wanted him to go through the ritual until the end, right? Without waiting for her to continue her sentence, he spoke up, "Let’s talk about this again later. It’s the mourning period now, and I think you need some time to recover. Am I right, Princess?" He showed a tight-lipped smile, to which Ariel responded with a nod.

He pretended not to notice the disappointment in her eyes as she swam away.

Sighing in relief, he looked away and almost choked on his breath when he met Jin Jiuchi’s intense gaze pinned on him. Since when had the man been looking at him like this? "W–What is it?"

"Why are you smiling so much at her, Nian’er?" Jin Jiuchi asked. Though his tone was light, upon closer inspection, one would be able to discern the darkness hidden beneath. He was akin to a fuse on the verge of exploding. Only God and devils knew how he could still hold himself back from devouring that fish and never allowing her to enter Shen Nianzu’s line of sight again.

Unaware of the dangerous thoughts brewing inside Jin Jiuchi’s mind, Shen Nianzu rolled his eyes in exasperation, "It’s called a professional smile, okay? We can’t have her running away before you eat her, can we?"

All of a sudden, the darkness seemed to part to reveal the dazzling ray of sunshine. Jin Jiuchi’s eyes curved into crescents as he replied happily, "Nian’er is right."

Soon, the guards brought in numerous scrolls pertaining to the Goddess of the Sea, and the trio spent the rest of the morning perusing them. Shen Nianzu was in charge of translating, Gu Luoxin sorting out the information, while Jin Jiuchi... let’s not hope too much from him. Halfway through, Shen Nianzu suddenly recalled that someone was missing among them.

"That’s right, where is Noir?" He asked, as he had not seen the man anywhere all morning.

Gu Luoxin showed a helpless look. He recalled again the message Noir had left him the night before. "He doesn’t want to stay underwater again. He said... he will be hanging out on the spires above the surface if we want to find him."

Noir had always been one to follow his own pace, so Shen Nianzu did not dwell too much on it and simply nodded.

They spent the rest of the morning in the reading room, and even lunch was taken there. However, despite going through every single scroll in the clan’s library, they couldn’t find any direct connection between the little girl and the Goddess of the Sea.

According to the historical records, the Goddess had first descended in the form of an extremely beautiful mermaid. She was described as the most mesmerizing creature ever seen, so dazzling and ethereal to be true. However, she disappeared around the emergence of the cursed clan, and the merfolk clan believed that she had been enraged by their greediness and decided to abandon them. From the start to the end, there was no mention of the little girl, or what the cocoon which the cursed clan was meticulously feeding would become.

"Maybe... this part is not recorded in the text?" Gu Luoxin speculated.

Shen Nianzu massaged his temples. "I’m not sure..." he had been feeling worse with each passing hour. His throat felt like it was on fire, and he noticed a subtle change in the texture of his skin. It was as if a thin sheen had been added, making him feel uncomfortable all over.

All of a sudden, Jin Jiuchi grabbed his hand which he was using to massage his temple, and he snapped impatiently, "What is it?"

Jin Jiuchi looked at him in the eye, stunned. "Nian’er, your eyes..."