Liu Zhi's Preparations

Liu Zhi's charge immediately caught the attention of the merman beating the drum.

The moment he saw Liu Zhi, a flicker of delight appeared in his eyes. He gurgled, "Kill him and take back the Golden City Key."

The merman standing before the drummer could not help turning his head. "Prophet, the situation right now—"

"Forget about me, Anute. Go take back the Golden City Key for me. The sea will surely resound with your name."

The burly Anute nodded at the drumming merman, raised the Coral Trident in his hand, and shouted, "Kill that human!"

In the next instant, every merman guarding the area raised their weapons and charged toward Liu Zhi.

Their movements were far more orderly than those mermen who had charged the warships earlier. It was clear they had received professional training. After just a few steps, they transformed from a square defensive formation into a triangular charge formation.

Liu Zhi could tell that these were all elite mermen. That was the confidence the drumming merman had in daring to stop the Tortuga Guard Fleet. If they were allowed to launch a full charge, even if Tortuga Port's forces won, their losses would be considerable.

But Liu Zhi had no time to worry about Tortuga Port. The mermen in their charging formation were less than fifteen meters away, and at their speed, they would reach him in under half a minute.

The huge merman was moving even faster. By Liu Zhi's judgment, he could not block a single blow from that merman. If he wanted to defeat him, he could only keep dodging with his speed.

But the giant merman understood that as well. The reason he had brought out every merman was to destroy Liu Zhi's room to evade.

Nice plan.

Liu Zhi cursed inwardly, then yanked off the backpack from his back. He shook it open, revealing that it was filled with quicklime powder.

To keep it dry, Liu Zhi had specially wrapped the quicklime tightly in layers of parchment. After all these days, the quicklime had remained unaffected.

Now, he tossed the entire backpack into the air and slashed downward with his curved blade. A huge cloud of white powder scattered down.

Then Liu Zhi pointed his curved blade forward.

"Supernatural Ability: Strong Wind!"

As the words left Liu Zhi's mouth, pain shot through his head. Then a fierce wind blew up from behind him, carrying the scattered quicklime powder toward the charging elite mermen.

Liu Zhi's mental strength was his strongest attribute. It had already reached 3.2, three times that of an ordinary person. Naturally, the power and range of this Strong Wind were also three times normal, instantly engulfing all the elite mermen.

Every merman, including the giant one, was covered in quicklime powder. Then wisps of smoke rose from their bodies, as though they had been set ablaze. Sparks even flickered across their skin.

The mermen screamed and rolled about in the sea, trying to use the seawater to wash the quicklime from their bodies.

But the quicklime was simply too damaging. The seawater washed away much of the mucus on their bodies, while their scales softened and became far more brittle. Even if they tried to surface, the wind would make them feel as if knives were slicing into their flesh. It was like having acid splashed over them; even washing with water could not ease pain that ordinary people could endure.

Thus, all those elite mermen, including the giant merman, threw away their weapons and soaked in the seawater, wailing in agony. They had little strength left to fight.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Liu Zhi swiftly stepped on the mermen's heads and rushed toward the merman still beating the drum.

Before he even reached the merman prophet, Liu Zhi took several items specifically meant for dealing with mermen from the small pouch at his waist.

He had developed these items while dissecting mermen and confirmed that they were remarkably effective against them.

The merman prophet had also seen the massive disaster nearby. He knew that however badly he wanted Liu Zhi dead, Liu Zhi wanted him dead just as badly.

He stomped his foot hard, and the shark carrying him and his drum prepared to dive.

Although this was already close to shallow waters, a shark could certainly swim faster than Liu Zhi could run across the sea.

And Liu Zhi could not simply keep running helplessly across the surface. This Supernatural Ability required support and breathing.

As long as he escaped, he would still have a chance to strike back.

But Liu Zhi had long anticipated that the other side would flee when he charged over. The small item he had taken from his waist was meant for exactly this situation.

As the shark prepared to dive, Liu Zhi swung his left hand hard and hurled the small item out.

What Liu Zhi threw was a lump of dried gel. The stuff was actually collected by mermen from seaweed and used to build houses. Even if others knew about it, they would not pay attention to something so insignificant.

Since this gel was made from merman body mucus mixed with the material they collected, it was highly waterproof. As long as a thick layer was spread over fresh seaweed, it could keep seawater from flooding into merman houses.

Liu Zhi had not initially known what use this gel had. But during certain experiments involving the mucus on mermen's bodies, he discovered it. He keenly noticed that the gel was as flammable as oil. Once lit, even pouring water over it could not put it out.

No wonder people used cannon fire to scour the ground before attacking merman villages.

After discovering this, Liu Zhi naturally put that property to use against mermen. He analyzed part of its formula, removed the merman mucus component, then mixed the materials in proportion to create these dried gel clumps.

Now that Liu Zhi forcefully threw it out, the thing smashed into the merman prophet trying to escape.

Whether or not he was a rival arranged by the system to oppose Liu Zhi, he was still a merman. He had merman scales and mucus on his body as well.

When the item struck him, it naturally mixed with the mucus on his body, turning into a pale yellow, jelly-like substance.

The merman prophet also realized that something was wrong. He did not know what Liu Zhi intended to do, but anything Liu Zhi had thrown at him had to serve a purpose. He hurriedly tried to shake the gel off his body.

But the more he tore at it, the more mucus it picked up. Before long, his entire body was covered in the pale yellow jelly-like substance, and a fresh grassy scent even wafted from him.

At that moment, Liu Zhi threw over a lit matchstick as thick as a finger. It struck the merman prophet right on the head, and then—BOOM!