Eldritch Horror Theatre

It was extremely easy to lose one's bearings on a stormy sea.

Yet the small boat that had quietly set sail did not slow for a moment, slipping through the heavy curtains of rain like a ghost.

Outside the rain-lashed windows, a faint layer of dark mist shrouded the hull, blending the vessel seamlessly into its surroundings and hiding it from prying eyes.

They had even set up active concealment. Professional!

As a stowaway enjoying a free ride, Fu Qian was highly satisfied.

Even more to his satisfaction, these ruthless, tight-lipped poachers clearly had a specific goal in mind. They were heading straight for the outer edges of the Ash Sea.

There was good reason to call them tight-lipped; so far, Fu Qian hadn't heard a single person discuss the objective of this voyage.

Aside from the obvious person in charge—a man called Lane who constantly checked their heading and distance—the transcendents on board spent their time either resting or preparing their weapons.

Even so, Fu Qian could tell from their progress that they would reach the perimeter of the Ash Sea before long.

Had it not been for this severe weather, it would have taken him at least a few more hours, and he might have even had to swim the final stretch.

Things were going so smoothly that it almost made him suspect this storm was a mutual attraction driven by his traits.

Plop!

Amid his musings, an incredibly faint sound echoed behind him. It sounded like something stealthily dragging itself across the floor.

Sitting in the darkness, Fu Qian didn't rush to turn around. Instead, he watched the dim reflection in the window with great interest.

Given the ship's modest size, almost no detail could escape his senses as a Demigod.

He had been monitoring the thing behind him since earlier, curious to see exactly where it was heading.

A moment later, a long, thin, translucent whip poked in through the gap beneath the door.

As it twisted and flipped, rows of suction cups became faintly visible along its surface.

This was no wandering crew member out on patrol, but a Native of this deep sea.

Despite its striking resemblance to an octopus, the marine creature didn't give off any transcendent aura at all.

And that was exactly what made it so fascinating.

It seemed like an ordinary creature, yet its actions were anything but. Not only had it hitched a ride during the storm, it even knew how to sneak aboard carefully without disturbing anyone.

For instance, picking an empty room for itself.

One translucent tentacle after another slid in through the gap beneath the door. Its gelatinous body was incredibly elastic, stretching so thin it almost looked like a membrane.

At a glance, Fu Qian could even see a green, ink-like fluid flowing inside it, shifting and morphing into bizarre patterns.

Seeing this, Fu Qian activated his Blood Crusade to conceal his presence as he watched, doing his best not to disturb the creature.

...

It took several minutes for the soft-bodied creature, barely a few dozen centimeters long, to successfully slip into the cabin.

Two pitch-black eyes swam across the surface of its body. Without pausing, and still stretched thin rather than fully snapping back into shape, it crawled straight toward him.

Fu Qian watched it the entire time, following its movements until it tucked itself away beneath a bed.

Naturally, this minor obstacle didn't stop Fu Qian from sensing that its body was rapidly returning to its normal shape, even swelling up bit by bit like a balloon slowly filling with air.

The Ash Sea truly was a wondrous place.

The creature's life force was visibly destabilizing. It clearly didn't have much time left to live.

Yet, given how flawlessly it had snuck aboard, it was hard to imagine it had gone through all that trouble just to find a warm place to die.

The underlying reason was quite intriguing.

While he was pondering this, there was another shift. The small boat braving the storm actually began to slow down.

Clearly, things weren't playing out in the most ideal way, where they would sail straight to their destination without a hitch.

Before long, the vessel came to a quiet halt amidst the churning wind and waves.

At the same time, the dark mist swirling around the hull rapidly thickened, blending the boat almost perfectly into the color of the water.

A few minutes later, an ethereal melody drifted from the deck, piercing through the heavy rain.

Though the sound was faint, not even the roaring thunder and howling storm could drown it out as it drifted far into the distance.

A transcendent item? Professional as always.

Fu Qian naturally knew exactly where the melody was coming from.

Out on the deck, the various experts who had boarded the boat earlier were now all gathered together.

At the center of their attention, the gloomy, long-faced, and beardless person in charge, Lane, stood on the deck. Holding a pale blue Harmonica to his lips, he played it gently, completely ignoring the torrential rain soaking his entire body.

At first glance, the scene possessed a rather poetic charm—giving off the vibe of a man braving a tempest to seek a kindred spirit.

So much so that Fu Qian didn't rush to urge the crew to get moving, choosing instead to watch the spectacle unfold with great interest.

As it turned out, the man seemed to have actually found a kindred spirit.

The solo in the rain lasted for several minutes. Then, from the vast expanse of sky and sea, a sound drifted over in response. At first, it sounded like the cry of a whale, but it quickly shifted into an endlessly melodious humming.

This naturally enchanting rhythm, however, lasted for barely half a minute before fading away.

Unfazed, Lane gently blew into the Harmonica once more.

A moment later, the humming returned. This time, it came from a different direction, and the tone sounded a fraction more cheerful.

The brief snippet from before had clearly been a test, waiting to see if Lane would respond.

This time, the humming lasted much longer.

Stopping his performance, Lane finally gave the others a nod.

The next moment, several figures slipped quietly into the water.

...

They had hit the jackpot!

Drifting along with the ship, Fu Qian quickly caught on to what was happening.

It was obvious that Lane's Harmonica performance functioned much like a legendary ultrasonic Fish-Luring Technique.

And his target—the creature that had eagerly popped out to return his song—was highly likely a legendary mermaid. Wait, actually... it really was one.

As a Demigod, Fu Qian possessed senses far sharper than anyone else on board.

As the boat quietly tracked the sound, gradually drawing closer to the source of the humming, he was the first to spot the figure darting through the wind and waves.

It was roughly the size of a human adult. Just as the legends described, its upper half was humanoid, while everything below the waist resembled a fishtail.

Shimmering, translucent scales covered its body all the way up to its chest. Its most striking feature, however, was its tail fin—half azure and half purple, looking exceptionally gorgeous.

Of course, just as he had seen in the dossiers earlier, its upper body was only vaguely humanoid.

Its scaleless, deathly pale skin bore the physical traits of a human woman, but a glance higher revealed a fish-like mouth. Densely packed with razor-sharp teeth, the jaw took up nearly half of its entire face when it opened and closed.

The other half of its face was dominated by a pair of massive, yellowish-brown eyes.

While it lacked a gill-like structure, its bulging, hairless head also lacked a single strand of anything that could be called hair. Instead, it was sparsely covered in short spikes.

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