Mermaid

Jia Xin, on the other hand, was leisurely sitting on the sofa, sipping tea.

"Jia Xin, are you coming with me?" Zhang Chen asked.

"No, you're going to the lake. If anything happens at the house, it'll be too late. I'll stay here."

Recalling the time they all went swimming before, Jia Xin had just worn his usual clothes and remained unmoved on the shore.

Is this guy afraid of water? Zhang Chen almost burst out laughing at the thought.

"Alright, the lake is too large, and I might stray too far from the villa while searching. Leaving everyone alone in the villa isn't very safe. I'll let him stay here. Anyway, my strength underwater might be greater than on land now."

Zhang Chen nodded, simultaneously transforming his right hand into a water wave to send Er Wa's gear back. Er Wa's eyes lit up as he nodded.

Zhang Chen didn't ask anyone to see him off. It wasn't a big deal, and he'd be back in an hour or two. However, Wang Yizhi held his hand and walked him to the lakeside.

"Zhang Chen," Wang Yizhi said softly.

"Huh? What is it?"

"Well, after you come back, I'll cook for you."

"Okay." Zhang Chen smiled. It seemed this little girl was still jealous of Miao Shuangshuang.

"If I turned into that, would you look for me?" Wang Yizhi spoke her mind as she watched Zhang Chen preparing to enter the water.

"Silly, I would never let you get hurt. Don't overthink it. I want a big meal when I get back, aren't you going to prepare it?"

"Okay!" Wang Yizhi happily ran back to the villa.

Watching Wang Yizhi's retreating figure, Zhang Chen felt a warmth in his heart as he slowly walked into the lake.

Even if I find Xiao Lan, she'll probably just be a walking corpse. Never mind, I'll take it one step at a time and explore the depths of this lake while I'm at it.

His entire body submerged into the lake. Instead of the suffocating feeling of being unable to breathe, he felt as if every cell in his body was absorbing oxygen from the water.

"This feels amazing!" Zhang Chen's movement speed in the water increased several times, like a mermaid.

As he ventured deeper into the lake, he gradually felt something strange.

"What's going on with this lake water?"

Zhang Chen attempted to liquefy his entire body, but after transforming into water, he found he couldn't merge with the lake water. It existed as a separate entity.

In his water form, Zhang Chen gradually noticed something different about the seemingly clear and transparent lake water when observed by his liquid self.

"Every drop of this lake water seems to be mixed with something strange, something that prevents me from assimilating it."

Since he couldn't assimilate large volumes of lake water at once, Zhang Chen focused his attention on a single drop. He enveloped a small drop of lake water within his body, attempting to assimilate it.

"It seems to be working."

Under the immense pressure of Zhang Chen's cells, a faint red filament was stripped from the center of the drop of lake water. The moment it was peeled away, the drop of lake water assimilated into Zhang Chen's body, leaving only this subtle red filament.

Have I seen this thing somewhere before?

After pondering for a long time, he recalled events from a few days prior.

"Right, the clump of red blood in Wang Yizhi's bedroom the night before last. It felt the same. Could it be..."

Zhang Chen set aside his search for Xiao Lan, as he seemed to have stumbled upon a massive conspiracy.

The vast lake was shrouded in mist, making it impossible to see the entire expanse from the villa. Zhang Chen swam rapidly towards the other side of the lake like a fish. After about twenty minutes of swimming, Zhang Chen saw the scenery on the other side of the lake.

"As expected, the villa is so far from Jiaoping Village. How could it have caused problems for the village? So that's how it is."

What Zhang Chen saw was the lake water converging into a small river, and Jiaoping Village was located along the banks of this river.

"In that case, the entire village must have been in trouble long ago. This mission is truly difficult. I should find Xiao Lan first, then go back and discuss with Jia Xin to formulate an escape plan. That seems necessary."

With a "plop," Zhang Chen dove straight to the bottom of the water.

"Is this lake this deep?" Zhang Chen kept swimming downwards, following a disgusting aura. The deeper he went, the stronger the repulsive smell became. Yet, he had swum for about 200 meters and still hadn't reached the bottom. The foul odor, however, was already making his heart pound.

To prevent any accidents, Zhang Chen had been continuously stripping and assimilating lake water since the beginning. By now, he had assimilated an amount of lake water roughly equal to his own body mass.

At a depth of 200 meters in the lake, sunlight could barely penetrate to Zhang Chen's location. It was essentially pitch black ahead, and he could only rely on his telekinetic field to sense his surroundings.

"This..."

When Zhang Chen descended to a depth of about 250 meters, the previously dark lakebed suddenly emitted a faint red glow. This faint red light not only gave off a repulsive aura but also instilled a sense of despair.

Naturally, in his water form, Zhang Chen significantly slowed his pace and extended his telekinetic field to a radius of five meters around him, ready to engage at any moment.

However, the fish that swam past Zhang Chen didn't seem to notice his presence. Slowly, Zhang Chen entered the red-lit area and saw the lakebed.

"How many people died here?"

The lakebed within the red glow was entirely covered with white skeletons. Without counting, it was clear that hundreds of people had died here. Zhang Chen felt a chill run down his spine. The previous guy, Yang Zi, had only killed a few dozen people. This time, just the visible remains on the lakebed were so numerous, it was truly astonishing.

"A Blood Demon? How many people did this Rodan kill? Wait, what is this?"

Zhang Chen continued to move downwards. Upon reaching the lakebed, he saw an object emitting a red light. A slender vine grew out of the skull of a skeleton on the lakebed, and attached to the vine was a circular, glowing red orb.

As Zhang Chen approached, he was stunned.

Inside the red sphere was a small fish, like an infant gestating in a womb.

"Is this fish hatching? It's exactly like a child being nurtured."

At this moment, another red sphere not far from Zhang Chen moved. A fish slowly emerged from it, with something resembling an umbilical cord still attached to its belly. The fish opened its mouth, bit off the umbilical cord itself, and then swam towards the surface.

"Is this a mermaid breeding ground?" This was completely different from Zhang Chen's imagination of mermaids.

"If so many mermaids are breeding here, who is giving birth?"

Just as Zhang Chen thought this, he felt an extremely dangerous aura coming from the depths to his right, where he couldn't see. The opponent's movement speed was not inferior to his own at all.

"Speak of the devil. No time to leave, I'll just hide here. Those fish won't find me, so I can only hope this guy won't either." Although Zhang Chen in his water form couldn't assimilate the surrounding lake water, his other forms looked the same.

Before long, a giant 'mermaid' approached. This one was truly a 'mermaid'. Its lower body was a massive fish tail, at least 5 meters long, while its upper body was in the form of a human 'female'. However, this 'female' was composed of hundreds of women.

Hundreds of young women were pieced together to form the upper body of this 'mermaid'. Each woman seemed to be in a deep sleep, with her eyes tightly closed. Only the very top one, an extremely beautiful 20-year-old girl, had her eyes open, surveying her surroundings.

"Isn't that Xiao Lan?"

Zhang Chen saw a short-haired woman with her eyes closed in the upper left area of this mermaid; it was indeed Xiao Lan.

At this moment, the giant mermaid arrived at this red light zone and stopped. This stop startled Zhang Chen, who thought he had been discovered.

However, the beautiful woman with open eyes above wasn't looking at him but at the surrounding red spheres.

Suddenly, the woman moved her hands, and all the women on the upper body of the giant mermaid opened their eyes. Then, they detached from the main body of the mermaid and transformed into individual mermaids. This was what Zhang Chen had imagined a mermaid to be.

After over a hundred mermaids separated, only a honeycomb-like cylindrical structure remained on the giant mermaid. These mermaids began to care for the spheres emitting red light, like mothers, with kind and gentle expressions on their faces. The scene was quite eerie.

The separated Xiao Lan was different from the other mermaids because her legs were only covered in scales, not transformed into a fish tail. At this moment, Xiao Lan swam to a red sphere not far from Zhang Chen and began to care for it meticulously.

"Let's see if she still has self-awareness. If she does, I'll have to risk saving her. If not, I'll just go back. I probably can't handle this big guy by myself. This guy is much more powerful than the previous two ghost entities."

The mass of liquid that Zhang Chen had transformed into slowly moved towards Xiao Lan. As he got closer, he realized that Xiao Lan's eyes had become round, fish-like eyes, with pupils shrunk into the center. Two gills had grown on her cheeks, and her entire body, except for her head, was covered in silver scales.

"Let's try. Even if she has consciousness, she probably won't survive if I save her. But Jia Xin might have a way."

Zhang Chen still decided to try. At worst, he would expose his location and flee at full speed.

"Xiao Lan," Zhang Chen softly called out by Xiao Lan's ear.

However, Xiao Lan underwent a huge change. Her pupils began to dilate slowly, and her entire face contorted in pain.

"Xiao Lan, Miao Shuangshuang and the others are very worried about you," Zhang Chen said softly.

This time, Xiao Lan's body also began to move. She started to tear at the scales on her body with her hands, her expression one of extreme pain.

"She really has consciousness. Alright then."

Zhang Chen separated a portion of his water and directly merged it into Xiao Lan's cervical spine, instantly severing the connection between her brain and body. This was the same move used by the drowned ghost last time.

With her limbs limp, Xiao Lan was supported by the liquid Zhang Chen had transformed into, and slowly pulled out of the red light zone.

"This is bad. Xiao Lan seems to have a connection with that giant mermaid."

As soon as Zhang Chen brought Xiao Lan out of the red light zone, the gaze of the woman on the giant mermaid fixed on him. Then, the mermaids below, who were wholeheartedly caring for their offspring, grew sharp claws and teeth and swam towards Zhang Chen.

"So fast."

Zhang Chen dragged Xiao Lan and moved at full speed. The hundreds of mermaids behind him followed at an equally fast pace. Furthermore, Zhang Chen's path back to the villa was blocked by these creatures. He could only swim towards a small hill on the other side of the lake, hoping they wouldn't be able to come ashore.

"Kill a few, fewer to deal with." Seeing the hundreds of mermaids relentlessly pursuing him, Zhang Chen's killing intent surged.

Zhang Chen, who could already control water with telekinesis, now unleashed his strongest combat capability in the water with his water form.

Zhang Chen directly separated the lake water he had previously assimilated and simulated dozens of water spikes, enhanced by telekinesis, which he shot towards the hundreds of mermaids behind him.

"Swish, swish, swish!" The invisible water spikes directly pierced the bodies of the first dozens of mermaids, and their fresh blood instantly dyed the water red.

The previous attack consumed nearly half of Zhang Chen's telekinesis and the lake water he had assimilated along the way. However, the effect was achieved; the deaths of the first dozens of mermaids clearly slowed down the overall speed.

Zhang Chen looked back and saw that the pursuing mermaids had returned.

"Scared? No."

As soon as he thought this, the giant mermaid appeared in his vision. It turned out the returning mermaids had rejoined the giant mermaid.

"Yaaah!" A sharp scream reached Zhang Chen's ears through the water.

"It's over, this big guy is angry..."