Eldritch Horror Theatre

It wasn't long before a massive cluster of fishmen gathered on the water near their initial landing point. A few had even crawled onto the jutting reefs.

The new melody seemed to have a powerful soothing effect, stripping away the frantic aggression they had shown during the hunt.

The crew on the poaching ship, by contrast, was visibly bewildered.

After sailing a distance away in a subconscious panic, they seemed to notice the fishmen's strange passivity. Following a brief hesitation, rather than fleeing further, they awkwardly steered the ship right back around.

'Just as I thought—there's no need to worry about them running off.'

Withdrawing his gaze without surprise, Fu Qian went back to monitoring the quiet stretch of sea in front of him.

Just as he'd predicted, Lane and his crew could wage war in their own minds all they wanted, but they were never going to walk away from the mystery staring them in the face.

Once they confirmed the fishmen posed no immediate threat, Fu Qian fully expected them to push directly for the island—just like those two had—

Squinting at a spot slightly down the shoreline, Fu Qian watched a figure stealthily drag himself ashore. Satisfied, he finally stood up.

Sure enough, he hadn't escaped; he'd been swept right into this with the rest of them.

A moment later, after carefully scanning his surroundings, Delanlai turned and hoisted something out of the water.

At first glance, it looked like a vine-woven Fish Trap, though the craftsmanship was exceedingly poor.

Pressed against the inside of the cage was a seemingly familiar, ferocious face. It was the ignorant young mermaid.

Several vines from the Fish Trap had even been lashed directly around her body, apparently to ensure she couldn't make a break for it.

...

'I knew you guys wouldn't take the proper path on a pilgrimage.'

Vivian's singing was clearly much more effective on her own kind.

Beyond the fishmen outside who had already accepted the "blessing," there was a freshly abducted newcomer in that cage—or rather, a new fish.

Back on the outskirts of the Ash Sea, the young mermaid had already shown a desperate urge to swim deeper. It was entirely reasonable to suspect she had been guided all along.

Vivian had been singing for quite a while now, meaning the little mermaid had likely built up a terrifying amount of pent-up desire.

Given Delanlai's previous behavior, he wasn't likely to reject this voice of nature either.

That made the odds of this duo following the sound extremely high.

Considering Delanlai would definitely want to avoid Lane's crew, spotting their anchored ship would naturally force him to abandon the river route and find a different spot to make landfall.

When Fu Qian was tracing the shape of the island in his mind earlier, he had been calculating exactly where Delanlai would choose to come ashore.

The results proved his luck wasn't bad, both for him and for them.

...

"Judging by where the sound is coming from, we shouldn't be far once we cross that ridge up ahead."

After a final check of his surroundings for anything out of place, Delanlai easily hoisted the little mermaid up and made a casual remark.

It was hard to say whether she understood him, but she gave no response.

He didn't seem to expect one anyway; he was simply informing her.

"It's actually still a bit of a trek. Are you sure you don't want to swap that out for a bucket of water?"

The voice chiming in from the side struck Delanlai like a bolt of lightning.

In all honesty, the voice wasn't unfamiliar, but that was exactly what made it so terrifying.

"You..."

Turning his head with agonizing stiffness, Delanlai was met with a smiling face. The very last shred of hope in his heart was ruthlessly shattered.

"We meet again. Are you here to listen to the song too?"

Fu Qian didn't mind the man's rude stare at all, his expression remaining perfectly amiable.

"But you still can't change your habit of abusing animals, can you?"

He pointed at the little mermaid in the cage.

She clearly remembered Fu Qian as well. Her body language screamed pure terror as she curled in on herself, trying to shrink as far back into the trap as physically possible.

'Animal abuse?'

The sheer shamelessness of the accusation made Delanlai's blood boil.

But having witnessed this man manipulating the tentacles in the sea to obliterate a giant tree in a single strike, Delanlai certainly wasn't going to write him off as a simple lunatic.

This was clearly a mastermind manipulating everything from the shadows.

He could have slaughtered them all with ease, but instead, for some unfathomable reason, he had herded everyone here, even dragging along this innocent mermaid. Was the singing further inland his doing too?

A second later, Delanlai realized the implication and went pale.

'He knew I was coming, and he's been waiting here this whole time!'

He thought his aquatic mobility had perfectly masked his approach, but in reality, every step had been meticulously tracked.

He really had been naive. The sea monster that destroyed the massive tree had never even shown itself—it had probably been tailing him beneath the waves the entire time...

'The real question is, what exactly does this maniac want?'

"Don't be afraid. I wasn't waiting for you."

Seeing the shock and rage warring on Delanlai's face, Fu Qian didn't wait for him to speak, offering a kindly word of comfort instead.

'Not waiting for me?'

Delanlai obviously didn't buy it, but then a realization hit him, and he whipped his head around to stare at the little mermaid.

"Your target is her? What are you going to do with her?"

"What makes you think I have an obligation to explain?"

Faced with Delanlai's courageous questioning, Fu Qian politely declined to answer.

"Hand it over to me, and you can leave."

"She's really still very young..."

Delanlai was visibly fighting a fierce internal battle, but in the end, he slowly raised the Fish Trap.

Of course, right before handing it over to Fu Qian, he couldn't stop himself from voicing his reluctance.

"I can tell, but she sings quite well—"

Fu Qian paused mid-sentence and looked down at himself.

Thick vines lashing out from the Fish Trap were rapidly snaking around his body, binding him tight.

In stark contrast, the bindings on the little mermaid inside the trap vanished in an instant.

"Run!"

Delanlai roared like a crack of thunder, snatching up the mermaid and hurling her bodily into the sea. At the same time, the vines surged with explosive speed, fully constricting Fu Qian.

Using this frantic distraction as cover, Delanlai spun and sprinted for the water's edge, running for his life.

Unfortunately, the moment his foot hit the ground for the very first step, an invisible force slammed into him, sending his entire body flying.

The terrifying sheer power behind the impact left him completely paralyzed the moment he crashed into the dirt.

Though stunned by the technique, he had largely expected this outcome. His first instinct was to immediately look toward the thrown mermaid.

To his absolute despair, the little mermaid—who had been fighting tooth and nail to escape earlier—now broke the surface of the water, simply staring blankly at the shore without making a single move to flee.

"Quick—"

Overcome with furious desperation, Delanlai opened his mouth to scream, but only managed a single word before his lungs gave out.

The damage to his body was far worse than he had realized.

Ironically, that single strained syllable made the mermaid hesitate. She actually paddled two steps closer toward the shore.

"What a truly touching scene."

Exuding the absolute aura of a demonic villain, Fu Qian let out a perfectly timed sneer and casually beckoned with his hand.

"Unfortunately, it still has work to do, so it should stay."

Amidst a piercing shriek, the mermaid was yanked bodily out of the water as if snared by an invisible force, flying helplessly through the air.

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