Chapter 134: The Sea of Wandering 27
Song Qiaowei and Fu Dong still stood side by side, holding hands, looking for all the world like a deeply devoted couple. However, their inner thoughts were poles apart.
Regardless of her performance in other aspects, Song Qiaowei was at least a very qualified mother—perhaps even crazily so. And a crazily qualified mother would do anything for her child.
Must get out.
Must leave this hellhole.
For Sisi.
Sisi.
Mommy will definitely leave this place.
“Hubby,” Song Qiaowei suddenly spoke with a calm voice. “Next, you’d better cooperate with me completely.”
His wife’s emotional shift was too obvious. A trace of wariness immediately rose in Fu Dong’s heart, and a thin layer of sweat formed in the palm pressing against hers. Before he could ask what she meant, Song Qiaowei tightened her grip and proactively explained, “I have another item card.”
“Another item card?”
“Yes, another item card.”
[Embrace of Requiem] The beautiful Queen spreads her benevolent motherly love, causing the wandering spirits of ocean children to feel infinite attachment, making them willing to be driven by her command.
Accompanied by a gentle chanting resembling a lullaby, semi-transparent, red, swaddled spirit bodies began to rise from the sea one after another. The children who had unfortunately drowned in the ocean were eternally restless and terrified until they drifted near a luxurious royal ship and inadvertently heard the Lullaby the Queen sang to soothe her child. Bewitched by this “motherly love” that did not belong to them, they gathered around her.
Fu Dong looked at the spirits floating on the sea surface. They looked like laboratory cocoons, their dense arrangement causing extreme discomfort. He frowned and asked, “What are you going to use them for?”
Song Qiaowei answered, enunciating every word, “To attack you.”
Fu Dong’s eyes changed. “You are—”
Bang! A swaddled figure suddenly exploding in front of him cut off his words. Even though the spirits didn’t actually splatter blood, he still felt a cloying, humid scent of gore. The shooter was Yi Ke on the deck. Holding a smoking gun, his eyes fixed tight on the red spirits flying toward Fu Dong, he didn’t waste time thinking and continued to pull the trigger!
“Song Qiaowei is doing this on purpose!” Si Fei’ou also fired, taking out a string of spirits. He was a Minister belonging to the Queen, so he could share her thoughts. If the King is attacked, the Princess gets hurt. Therefore, the subjects must protect the King with all their might to spare the Princess from harm.
It was a form of coercive rule.
The gunshots grew denser. Spirits exploded one after another in front of Fu Dong. The sweet, fishy air was as suffocating as the fake motherly love. He choked, barely able to breathe, but Song Qiaowei had no intention of letting her husband off. While continuing to summon spirits, she reminded him unhappily, “I’ve drawn all their attention. Are you just going to stand there and wait?”
Fu Dong almost cursed aloud. He admitted his wife’s skill was effective, but the problem was that the damage transfer target wasn’t just the King and Princess—it was the Queen and Princess too. Yet, this woman was deliberately drawing all attacks toward him, while her side remained pristine! The King’s fury shook the entire sea. Using an item card, he smashed wave after wave against the cruise ship. Caught off guard, the skeleton crew shattered with a clatter into piles of bones. Merfolk were tossed into the sky by the waves, landing on the deck with heavy thuds, splashing water and grit everywhere.
The ice crystals securing the ship had cracked in hundreds of places, and the cruise ship tilted once more. Yi Ke grabbed the railing with one hand and caught Zhuang Ningyu, who was sliding down the deck, with the other, shielding him against his chest. The violently crashing seawater stung their eyes. Zhuang Ningyu put on his goggles with one hand and continued appointing new merfolk ministers, using the giant waves to send them in batches toward Fu Dong, trying his best to protect the King from injury! But even so, the wounds on Qing Gang’s body were slowly increasing.
As for the Sea God high above, watching the fierce battle before him, he finally improved his opinion of his ally. He even generously bestowed a blessing upon the Queen, using water currents to block any bullets that might be aimed at her.
“Cough!” As a spirit hit the King, Qing Gang stumbled and fell to his knees.
Zhuang Ningyu reached out to support him, turning his head to shout, “Little Fan!”
“On it, Captain Zhuang!” Fan Xiaoying was slapped into the railing by a mermaid’s greasy tail. Several teammates immediately rushed over, protecting her tightly in the center. A few seconds later, the black abyss that had been washed away by the waves reappeared on the sea surface. Fan Xiaoying turned and nodded at the person on the other end of the deck from a distance. Yi Ke immediately leaped without hesitation, jumping right into the center of the abyss, quickly swallowed by the vortex without a trace.
Fu Dong watched this scene from his high vantage point, his brow furrowing sharply. Although he didn’t know the opponent’s specific intent, his intuition told him it wouldn’t be anything good. Sure enough, accompanied by a torrential downpour, the black abyss in the sea tore through space, appearing bizarrely behind the King and Queen. Fan Xiaoying used high-speed rotating water currents to create a “pipe” connecting sea and sky. In the next moment, Yi Ke leaped out of the pipe, grabbed Fu Dong and Song Qiaowei by their collars, and threw himself forward!
“Ah!” Song Qiaowei screamed. A water blade sliced through her collar just in time—the Sea God had snatched the Queen back.
Yi Ke was left holding only Fu Dong. The two fell straight down from the water column platform, nearly thirty meters high. The wind howled in their ears, and the terrifying waves below drew closer. Fu Dong’s eyes were bloodshot. In mid-air, he raised his gun and pressed it firmly against Yi Ke’s temple, looking like a desperate outlaw. But before he could threaten, negotiate, or pull the trigger, a silver excerpt page struck his wrist first. With a smack, the gun was knocked almost out of his hand!
The listener will protect his beloved poet, anytime, anywhere.
Seeing the cold waves about to hit their faces, Fu Dong didn’t have time to think about anything else. He held his breath, bracing for the impact into the sea, but the abyss appeared beneath the two of them again.
Fan Xiaoying, utilizing extreme spatial distortion and construction, successfully brought them back to the cruise ship. The “water pipe” dissolved into bursting bubbles, adding a touch of childlike whimsy, but the giant waves did not cease. Fu Dong stumbled and grabbed the railing, continuing to use item cards recklessly. Even though his own body was largely submerged in accumulated water, he didn’t care—if he died, it would be Qing Gang who died.
The Sea God’s spiritual body had now separated from the statue, fully manifesting in the air. Amidst the mountain-crushing waves, the merfolk didn’t forget to worship and praise: Great Sea God, Great King, Great Merfolk Race!
“Princess!”
A renewed covenant, an indestructible friendship.
In stark contrast to the merfolk’s joy was Song Qiaowei’s extremely ugly expression. She tried her best to ignore the cheers of those filthy creatures in the sea, but the Sea God beside her uttered the same syllable: “Princess—”
Song Qiaowei gritted her teeth, her voice trembling: “He is on the deck.”
The only person on the deck was Qing Gang.
Another divine wave struck. This time, the target was Song Qiaowei. Her face was slapped to the side, a red, swollen welt appearing quickly, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. The Sea God leaned down, closing in on her: “Princess—”
“The King once made a promise,
To sacrifice the firstborn Princess,
But the indecisive Queen,
Dares to defy the oath!”
The Bard wrote a new poem. Song Qiaowei had collapsed onto the water column. Her eyes filled with tears as she vaguely guessed the truth of this game.
“Fu Han!” She suddenly screamed hysterically like a madwoman. “Lunatic! You lunatic! Sisi is just a child!”
The Sea God looked down at her from above, cold and devoid of any pity. The god’s features were deep and held no trace of Fu Han.
The creator of the game had not written himself into the game.
She couldn’t find Fu Han.
The howling wind drowned out Song Qiaowei’s voice, but the people on the deck heard it clearly because, although Yi Ke failed to bring Song Qiaowei down earlier, he had pinned a listening device to her clothes. Fu Han’s name was chewed to dust by the Queen’s hatred, while the merfolk’s joyous chants for the Princess rose higher with every wave!
Princess, Sisi.
Sisi, Princess.
Song Qiaowei forced herself to stand up. Like a lioness who had lost her reason, she continued to lure more red spirits to swarm the cruise ship. Every spirit erupted with piercing infant cries. The exploited little souls, carrying bewildered and terrified rage, crashed aimlessly everywhere!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Under the continuous impacts, the cruise ship was already battered and dented. Qing Gang twisted Fu Dong’s arms behind his back, pinning him firmly against the wall. Yet, Fu Dong struggled to turn his head, his eyes behind the lenses flashing with mocking sarcasm. Princess. The King’s daughter. The scapegoat leading the charge.
BOOM! With another loud noise, the ice crystals supporting the hull finally succumbed to the burden and snapped at the base. The suddenly weightless cruise ship slid toward the ocean, snapping in two like a crisp biscuit. Seawater poured into the cabin, and the hull sank rapidly. The Sea God seized the opportunity to raise a vortex in the sea, wrapping around Fu Dong and lifting him into mid-air, reclaiming the King.
Qing Gang didn’t chase. Instead, he raised his gun and fired two shots—Bang! Bang!—at the Sea God’s head. It didn’t do much damage, but the insult was extreme. A filthy mermaid was lifted by the Sea God on a water column, aiming for Fu Dong. With blood-streaked sharp teeth, it gently rested its jaw on the King’s shoulder, and then—SNAP!—the upper and lower jaws bit down hard!
“Ahhh!” Fu Dong let out an incredibly miserable scream as blood flowed from beneath his suit.
The Sea God’s smile vanished.
And according to the Law of Conservation of Smiles, it transferred to Qing Gang’s face.
Fate, cunning as ever, had secretly stolen the Queen’s authority. The item card in Song Qiaowei’s hand had become a useless card. The bond between the Princess and the King was forcibly severed—she would never be his shield again!
Fan Xiaoying, holding the “Twin Pact,” let out a deep breath of relief. It worked.
Alice: “Told you, you’re the best!”
Fu Dong, unaware of the reason, crudely attributed the excruciating pain in his shoulder to his wife’s betrayal—or rather, even if she hadn’t betrayed him, she must suspect something to have removed her protection. So, before Song Qiaowei could speak, he grabbed her arm, enduring the pain, and spoke with sincere urgency, “Weiwei, trust me, Sisi will be fine. I didn’t do anything. I will definitely protect our child. Calm down first, okay?”
Song Qiaowei clutched the blank item card in her palm, her heart freezing cold. After sharing a bed for so many years, she knew the man, and she knew his disguises. She hadn’t actually done anything just now, but he thought she had, and his first reaction was to drag the child out to explain.
He would always put himself before Sisi.
Song Qiaowei lowered her gaze. After a long time, she spoke again, her voice hoarse as she explained, “My item card failed.” She opened her palm, showing him the bloody blank card to prove she wasn’t lying.
Fu Dong glanced at it, his expression obscure, but ultimately said nothing. He simply gave a grunt of acknowledgement and helped her up.
Song Qiaowei’s knees were weak, and she couldn’t stand steadily. The surging spirits on the sea turned into a blur of bright red light in her eyes, triggering a photosensitive dizziness. Her brain throbbed with a dense, prickling pain, but she had to forcibly suppress it, trying to keep her vision clear.
The broken cruise ship was now completely overturned on the sea surface, just one giant wave away from total capsizing. The Sea God was very satisfied with his work. His spiritual body floated in the air, drifting back and forth. Only after admiring the mortals’ predicament enough did he arrogantly prepare to return to the statue. But out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a patch of… familiar black.
The black object, guided by the seawater, bobbed along, clunking and banging as it collided with broken ship debris, chipping everywhere!
The Sea God flew into a rage, letting out a roar from hell!
The black statue that stood before the Sea God Temple had, at some unknown point, been secretly swapped by the skeleton crew for the white statue of Selansha. At this moment, the God of Beauty stood dignified on the pedestal, silently drawing infinite divine power from the depths of the temple. The light around the statue shifted from warm to blinding, until moonlight turned into sunlight.
The entire sea area was purified by this supreme beauty.
The merfolk covered their stung eyes. The red swaddled spirits felt a true, broad, and holy beauty beyond deception and bewitchment, and they actively swam toward the God of Beauty.
Golden music also rang out at exactly the right moment!
A tattered wooden plank huffed and puffed, carrying an old-fashioned black Bluetooth speaker powered by a battery, gliding smoothly across the calm sea surface. Its waterproof performance was truly excellent. The 14th Century Golden Spindle and the Mysterious Flawless Mirror began with a sprite-like, nimble flute melody, then gradually built up in majesty. The final timpani strike was incredibly soul-shaking, making one feel as if their soul and brain were trembling together. Ah! Solemn, mysterious, and incomparably holy.
As for why this great BGM appeared at this time and place, the story begins a while back when Zhuang Ningyu felt that eating in the crew’s mess hall was too painful and needed some beautiful music to soothe his teammates. After all, brown bread and grape juice without BGM is just brown bread and grape juice, but brown bread and grape juice with BGM is called Holy Communion—even Maria would say it’s good.
In this game’s setting, Selansha’s return to the divine throne calms the entire ocean. Even the Sea God could not raise another wave. With a gunshot, the Sea God statue completely broke into three pieces, adding a tiny bit of black garbage to the ocean. The enraged Sea God dive-bombed toward the broken ship, attempting to attack, but was sucked into a black vortex midway!
Only after the last wisp of spiritual power disappeared did Fan Xiaoying close the vortex entrance. The Sea God, cut off from his supply of divine power, was now trapped by fate at the bottom of the deep sea forever. The high water column platform he had condensed gradually lowered back into the sea, depositing Fu Dong and Song Qiaowei onto a large piece of the ship’s hull.
For a moment, on the empty sea, only the King, Queen, Princess, and their subjects remained—along with the trembling merfolk who dared not open their eyes, the skeleton crew happily crowding around the Beauty God with intoxicated grins, and the quiet, happy red spirits. No side spoke first; only the high-decibel speaker continued to loop the glorious holy track!
“Hubby,” Song Qiaowei took a deep breath. “I’ll go negotiate with them.”
Fu Dong’s grip on her hand tightened.
“In a head-on fight, we have no chance. You saw it—even the Sea God wasn’t their match. Negotiation is the most beneficial option. Trust me, I will save you.” Song Qiaowei continued to persuade her husband. “After we get out, take care of Sisi. Even if… anyway, take care of Sisi.”
Fu Dong didn’t reply, but Song Qiaowei knew he had been swayed. After all, whenever problems arose in the company, she was always the one responsible for negotiations and appeasement, and the vast majority of the time, she solved the problems well. It was her forte.
Sure enough, Fu Dong’s hand slowly loosened.
“Okay,” he said. “Be safe. If it doesn’t work, just come back. Sisi is still waiting for you.”
Their held hands slipped apart. Song Qiaowei took two steps forward, raising her hands toward the group opposite her to show she meant no harm. Because the sea was calm, the shipboard was stable, rocking only very slightly. Fu Dong watched his wife’s retreating back, but felt his King card heating up slightly. He took it out for a glance, then unhesitatingly raised his gun and pulled the trigger at the back of Song Qiaowei’s head!
“Look out!” At the critical moment, Zhong Mu fired a shot at the plank the two were standing on. The sudden violent shaking caused Song Qiaowei to fall forward, just dodging the flying bullet!
Bang! Bang! Bang! The other team members fired several shots at Fu Dong’s feet, forcing him to dodge backward. Zhong Mu seized the chance to pull Song Qiaowei onto another plank!
“Despicable villain,
Greedy parasite,
Cowardly craven,
The Queen looks at her former bedmate with eyes full of disgust,
Determination firming once again,
If one wishes to change fate,
Only one can become the King!”
It wasn’t strange for this sentence to appear on Si Fei’ou’s Minister card, because he was originally the Queen’s subject. But just now, after Fu Dong read the King card, he seemed to have seen through the Queen’s determination to defect.
“What skill is that?” Si Fei’ou asked in confusion.
“You probably aren’t just a simple confidant of the Queen,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “But a confidant planted by the King beside the Queen.”
The Minister spies on the Queen’s thoughts and relays them to the King. So the Queen’s decision isn’t shared by two people, but three.
Song Qiaowei listened from the side, her face grim. She didn’t know the relationships between the various item cards, but she knew her husband had indeed tried to kill her just now, and the act of planting spies around her wasn’t limited to this Rule Zone.
The mask of hypocrisy was completely torn off. The Queen trembled violently amidst a tangle of emotions, but the King was very calm, as if he hadn’t been the one who fired the gun.
“You know I love you, and I love our child,” Fu Dong said. “I will certainly forgive your momentary bad decision. But Weiwei, you’d better think clearly: who is truly your family, and what is truly the most beneficial choice for Sisi!”
Song Qiaowei looked at him, her face pale.
The Queen fell into hesitation once more.
“No way, he tried to kill you, and you can tolerate that?” Qing Gang watched from the side, astounded.
“From a mother’s perspective,” Zhong Mu said, “it’s not entirely incomprehensible.” After all, she was currently standing in the exact center of the scale. Her final choice would determine the child’s future direction, so she couldn’t be too cautious.
Dark clouds quietly gathered in the sky again.
The calm, beautiful sea surface and the sky filled with thunderstorms looked like they belonged to two different layers; it was very disjointed. Under Selansha’s protection, the King could no longer stir up waves in the sea, but he still had one last item card—
[Greedy Kingship] The King, at a dead end, chooses to use power and money to corrode human hearts in order to solidify his rule.
With a loud bang, a rainstorm came pattering down, accompanied by a thick, sour stench.
“Hiss!” Qing Gang sucked in a breath of cold air, shaking rain drops off the back of his hand. Looking at the white scar burned into his skin, he said in shock, “Physical corrosion?”
The only two people this sulfuric-acid-like rainstorm wouldn’t hurt were the King and the holder of the King’s Scepter. Zhong Mu quickly put on a protective suit and put one on Song Qiaowei as well. A few minutes ago, a line of golden poetry had appeared in the Bard’s collection: The Queen is hesitating between revealing the secret and keeping the secret. This meant she was the key to leaving this game, so until the game ended, the action team had to protect her safety.
The corrosive nature of power and money was undeniably high, and it had a tendency to gradually increase. Later on, when it landed on the protective suits, it even emitted wisps of white smoke. Zhuang Ningyu glanced at Yi Ke, who understood immediately. He took off running toward the Sea God Temple! He stepped precisely over one floating plank after another, and finally, with a powerful leap of his long legs, he slammed his body into Selansha’s statue, spreading his arms and hugging it as they fell into the sea together!
Skeleton Crew: Shocked!
The sea area, having lost the Beauty God’s protection, whipped up into a storm again. Zhuang Ningyu, manipulating the King’s Scepter, used seawater to prop up a water barrier over everyone’s heads. The corrosive raindrops could only slide down the edges. Seeing this, Fu Dong also raised giant waves. A tornado collected all the acidic rainwater in the center of the air, then smashed it viciously against that barrier!
BOOM!
At the moment of collision, the world emitted a terrifyingly loud noise. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, rain poured, wind howled, and waves skyrocketed! It was unclear if Fan Xiaoying was using walls of water to create new spaces again, but in short, within a few seconds, everyone’s vision was filled with nothing but thick white mist.
Zhuang Ningyu’s arm seemed injured. He hung precariously from the edge of the broken hull, his slender white fingers gradually losing strength, slipping inch by inch. Meanwhile, a massive, eerie black vortex was surfacing from the sea, quietly opening its giant mouth like a beast of the abyss!
Beneath Fu Dong, a similar abyss appeared.
