When the Wild Beast is Trapped in the Nightmare Cycle (BL)
Chapter 221: Rewrite History

Chapter 221: Rewrite History

This must be what the side task meant by solving the mystery of the Goddess of the Sea, Shen Nianzu thought. Clenching his fists, he took a deep breath to calm himself and asked, "How do I do that?"

"I just need you to answer one question of mine," she said. Though it sounded simple, Shen Nianzu dared not lower his guard down. How could the side task with double the rewards be anything but easy? Sure enough, he heard her continue, "All this while, I have been wondering— if it were someone else, would they make the same choices as me? Or could they handle the situation better than I did?"

Shen Nianzu’s heart skipped a beat, "So your question is..."

With an ethereal air, she opened her mouth, and the next words she uttered seemed to resonate like the sound of a distant gong, "Will you be able to rewrite history?"

As soon as her last word fell, the space around them began to disintegrate, and he could feel his feet sinking into the sea as if he had just stepped into quicksand. Shen Nianzu’s pupils dilated with urgency. He knew that the task was about to begin, yet he still had no clue what was expected of him!

"Wait!" He quickly called out to her fading silhouette. "What do you mean by rewriting history?! Exactly what should I do to answer your question?!"

Her face began to blur before his eyes, but faintly he seemed to be able to perceive the melancholic smile on her face. "One person... as long as you’re able to convince one person..."

In the next second, Shen Nianzu was plunged into the depths of the sea, and a blinding white light enveloped his senses. His head throbbed in pain— no, it was not just his head, but his entire body. Everywhere ached as if he had just been run over by a truck. Amidst the disorienting sensations, a familiar clamor reached his ears.

"Get out! Get out of our city!"

"How dare you claim to be our Goddess!"

"Our Goddess is the purest and most beautiful mermaid in the whole world. How could she be like you?!"

"Get lost, you cursed creature! Otherwise, don’t blame us for being cruel!"

Shen Nianzu snapped his eyes open with a gasp, only to find himself amidst a familiar scene. These gazes filled with disgust, hatred and malice, and the sharp deadly spears... wasn’t this the scene he had just witnessed earlier from above the surface? Though this time, he was no longer a passive observer, but an active participant!

He instinctively reached for his face and grimaced when a sharp pain tore through the deformed half of his face. In spite of the hard scales, they felt raw and tender to the touch as if they had been forcibly shoved into his skin. As he expected, he had taken the role of the Goddess of the Sea this time!

And his task was to... convince one person of his true identity?

A wave of helplessness overcame him. Having just witnessed what had happened to the Goddess, he knew that no matter how many words he uttered, even if he spoke until his saliva turned dry, even if he bled himself to death in front of these merfolk, they would not believe that he was the Goddess of the Sea. Because the possibility that their once ethereal Goddess had become such a hideous creature had never even crossed their mind. Instead, he would only worsen the situation if he insisted on his claim.

Shen Nianzu tried to calm himself to think of a countermeasure, but the current situation did not even allow him to form any coherent thoughts, because the next second, a merfolk guard growled harshly, "Didn’t you hear what we said?! We told you to get lost!" He thrust his spear forward, ready to rid their city of the supposed cursed creature.

Shen Nianzu’s pupils dilated sharply when he saw the deadly spear hurtling straight towards him. His instinct kicked in and he moved to evade it— only to be caught off guard by the debilitating state of his current body. He had not noticed the details when he witnessed the proceedings from above the surface, but the Goddess’ condition turned out to be worse than he expected.

Bloody wounds and bruises marred his body, and the accumulated impurity weighed down on him, making it hard to move properly and dulling his senses. To add to his plight, he did not possess a pair of legs right now, but a fishtail which left him disoriented and clumsy!

The abrupt movement strained the tense and bruised muscles he did not even know he had, and he almost cried out in pain when excruciating agony crushed his body. As a result, he froze for a split second, causing the spear to pierce into his lower abdomen!

A muffled groan escaped his lips as blood seeped out of the wound to taint the air around him crimson. But the sight of his suffering seemed to stir the merfolk’s aggression as they lunged at him with renewed fury, "Get lost! Get out of our city and don’t ever step foot in here again!"

Damn it! Shen Nianzu couldn’t help but curse as he subconsciously curled up to protect his vitals, his dull colored tail thrashing in agony. It fucking hurt! How the hell did she manage to endure everything for so long? And she expected him to rewrite history even in such a dire state? It seemed like she had thought too highly of him because he felt like he would go insane faster than she did!

What should he do? How should he convince them? At this rate, he would die of blood loss before he could even rewrite the damn history!

Amidst the throbbing pain on his lower abdomen, the frenzied ruckus, and the loud buzzing in his ears, a familiar voice cut through like a strike of lightning, "What is going on here?"

Shen Nianzu froze in shock, his eyes wide in disbelief. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as he raised his head, so slowly that he could hear his bones cracking, to see an extremely familiar face swimming towards them. Nobody knew this face better than him, because it was the sight he found every time he looked into the mirror!

"Your Majesty!" The merfolk guards’ eyes lit up in recognition and they swiftly parted ways to let him through. "This cursed creature is here again! Please do not show him mercy this time!"

"Oh?" The other Shen Nianzu turned to him, intrigued.

Shock jolted through his entire body. W–What was going on?! How could there be the other version of himself here, and one that had been acknowledged as the Goddess to boot! He couldn’t help but rake his gaze all over the other Shen Nianzu’s body. Similar... it was very similar to his own, even down to the micro expressions and the gestures he usually made! If he did not know that he was being tested right now, he would have thought that he had stumbled upon a parallel universe and the one before him was also the real Shen Nianzu!

Before he could even make heads and tails of the current situation, two more familiar faces appeared.

"Xiao Shen, what’s going on?"

"...Again?"

They were Noir and Gu Luoxin!

"As you can see," ’Shen Nianzu’ gestured at him, a tinge of mockery and disgust flashed through his eyes. "This one is here again, and he still dares to claim himself to be the Goddess."

Shen Nianzu couldn’t help but fall into a daze. If this version of Shen Nianzu, Gu Luoxin and Noir were here, then did it mean...

Gu Luoxin put on a troubled look, "Should we call Da Shen to deal with him again? Oh look, there he is! Da Shen, over here! Can you deal with this cursed creature again like you have done before?"

Shen Nianzu subconsciously followed their line of sight, and for some reason, his eyes began to water when he spotted the figure of Jin Jiuchi heading toward him.