When the Wild Beast is Trapped in the Nightmare Cycle (BL)
Chapter 219: The Sea I Love

Chapter 219: The Sea I Love

Gu Luoxin painstakingly steered the hole-riddled ship towards the desolate city of Atlantis, now a mere shell of its former grandeur.

He couldn’t care less about where those ingrate merfolk were. If he still felt goodwill towards them at first, then everything had dissipated once they pointed their weapon at Shen Nianzu, clamoring to kill him. Who did they think Shen Nianzu was? Someone they could worship one second, then denounce the next second as soon as the situation turned unfavorable? How could they be so fickle? It was not like Shen Nianzu wanted to be infected either!

He raised his head to observe the massive dome, his knees feeling weak just by the mere notion of Shen Nianzu and Jin Jiuchi battling the queen inside. Moreover, what about Shen Nianzu’s condition? Argh, he was so stressed that his hair would fall out sooner or later!

"G–Great God, can you see what’s going on inside?!" He raised his voice to ask Noir, who circled around the dome, searching for any weak spots to strike with his spear. Unfortunately, he could find none as the entire dome seemed impenetrable. He shook his head at Gu Luoxin, causing the latter’s heart to sink.

"Oh no, what should I do now?" He buried his face into his hands, a wave of helplessness and despair overcame him. "Da Shen, Xiao Shen, you two must stay alive..."

***

Shen Nianzu’s consciousness returned to him in stages. First, he became aware of the ache and stiffness in his limbs. He attempted to move them, only to realize with bafflement that he was standing on his own feet. After that, he began to discern his surroundings, taking in the faint sniffles that echoed around the space.

Where am I?

He opened his eyes in a daze and discovered that he was standing amid an obscure void, and everywhere he saw was pitch-black darkness.

For a few seconds, he remained standing, disoriented, until the memories of the previous events flooded his mind like a tidal wave. He gasped and inspected his hands and face. That’s right, everything started to go downhill from the moment he laid his eyes on Ariel. He had believed that he could keep the infection at bay with the help of the stabilizing agents, but his determination abruptly faded into a wisp of smoke when he saw the azure-tailed mermaid. At that time, his mind turned blank, and a primal urge – one that he did not even know existed within him – consumed him, compelling him to take the mermaid’s life and offer her as a sacrifice to the queen. And the next thing he knew, he woke up to find his hands wrapped around Ariel’s throat. What happened next was...

"Have I died?" Shen Nianzu murmured, his expression lost. He still retained the hideous appearance he had from the last moment— sharp nails, fin-shaped ears, jagged teeth – and even speaking was a struggle as he kept inadvertently biting his lips. He hissed in pain when a sharp pinch tore into his mouth, and he carefully wiped his lips, finding his hand coming away crimson.

He could still feel pain, so... he shouldn’t have died yet, right?

Exactly what was going on right now?

Confusion filled his mind as he pondered on the current situation. However, amidst the swirl of questions, he heard the sniffles again. Weak, faint and delicate... akin to that of a little girl.

Stunned, Shen Nianzu began to walk toward the direction of the voice. Guided solely by the cries, he groped his way around the thick darkness. It sounded faint at first before growing louder and louder as he neared his destination, until he finally caught sight of another figure in this boundless space.

There, sitting with her back turned to him, was a little girl wearing a pastel blue summer dress with her hair tied into twin pigtails. This... wasn’t this the exact appearance of the girl Jin Jiuchi had encountered on the port?!

Who was she? A nightmare creature or the Goddess of the Sea?

Shen Nianzu’s body involuntarily tensed, and he moved his hand to summon his blade, only to grasp onto empty air. Sucking in a breath, he tried to reach his skill card and other props, but none of them seemed to work! Damn it, he was truly defenseless this time!

He looked at the little girl’s back with some hesitance. If he was attacked, he should be able to fight back, right? After all, his opponent was a little girl, and he had also grown a set of sharp nails that could serve as a weapon as well.

With that in mind, Shen Nianzu finally steeled himself to take a step forward.

Beneath his feet, the darkness rippled as if he had stepped into a shallow lake. Then like a cicada shedding its wings, the void receded with a speed visible to naked eyes, and in the next second, he found himself standing on top of the sea.

The sky was blue and clear, devoid of any clouds, and the vast expanse of the ocean stretched as far as the eye could see. The water was astonishingly clear, so much that he could see his own reflection staring back at him, as well as the colorful reefs and fishes thriving below. He raised his head in astonishment and found that, at some point of time, the little girl had stopped crying. She rose to her feet, still with her back turned to him.

"Who... are you?" Shen Nianzu found himself asking.

Somehow, his instinct urged him to go closer, and thus he did. Following his intuition, he closed the distance between them until he was only a few steps behind her. She tilted her head, revealing half of her delicate face. Despite her red and swollen eyes, a beautiful smile adorned her lips. "Isn’t it beautiful? This is the sea I love the most."

Shen Nianzu stared at her fin-shaped ear that resembled his own, unable to react momentarily. He couldn’t help but gasp when she fully turned to him. Half of her face... it was deformed, covered in silver scales, with a slit pupil and tiny jagged fangs in her mouth. The stark contrast in her two features struck him like a bolt of lightning, seizing his heart. This transformation was twice... even thrice as worse as the cursed ones! It was not exaggerating to say that she looked like a sea monster depicted in storybooks!

"You..." By now, Shen Nianzu would be an idiot if he did not have an inkling of her true identity. "You are the Goddess of the Sea? And also... the creature inside the cocoon? What happened to you?"

She looked up at him. The juxtaposition between her exquisite and deformed features did not scare him, much to his own surprise. Instead, he only felt a little... sad. He was taken aback when the feelings caught up to him. Wait a moment, why would he sympathize with this little girl whom he had just met, and an NPC to boot?

"What happened to me," she replied lightly. "wouldn’t you know best?"

...What?

Presumably sensing his shock and confusion, she waved her hand, and the tranquil scenery around them began to move as if everything had come alive. The truth of this Cycle finally unfolded before Shen Nianzu’s eyes.