Chaotic Battle

The Merfolk King bared his sharp teeth. His enormous body seemed to hold boundless strength, and his scaleless tail spoke to his identity: he was the king of the merfolk in these waters. He raced to the altar, his speed incredible, and the smell of blood only made him more furious.

Before he even waved his hand, the currents on the seafloor shifted with his movements, striking Deep Ones and sending them flying. But there were powerful fighters among them, too. Not far from the altar, a bizarre fish-man twice the size of an ordinary Deep One appeared before the Merfolk King and blocked his next attack.

Deep Ones grew stronger with age. Their ancestors—the Father God Dagon and Mother Goddess Hydra—were the first Deep Ones. Their bodies were terrifyingly huge, and the passage of countless years seemed to have turned them into another kind of creature.

The Deep One facing the Merfolk King was another creature whose age was beyond knowing. In a hoarse, piercing voice, he chanted an incantation. A hidden current rose from nowhere on the seafloor, forming a vast whirlpool that drifted toward the Merfolk King, seeking to sweep him away.

The Merfolk King released the magic of the sea into the whirlpool, manipulating the currents until it subsided. Then he summoned even more powerful sea magic and shouted an incantation. His sharp fingernail sliced into his finger, and his blood appeared in the water.

Before long, the creatures that had answered the Merfolk King's call appeared on the battlefield: several enormous great white sharks. Their savage, bloodthirsty eyes fixed on the creatures around them. Obeying the Merfolk King's command, they nimbly hunted Deep Ones and hybrids. They were the terrifying rulers of the sea.

The enormous Deep One and the Merfolk King fought on, occasionally casting bizarre incantations. But the Merfolk King was no pushover. As a creature of the seafloor himself, he knew the sea exceptionally well, and his formidable strength gradually gave him the upper hand.

However, the Merfolk King had not brought many merfolk, and ordinary merfolk were not especially strong fighters. What's more, Ihasli was the Deep Ones' home turf. Deep Ones and hybrids kept arriving in an endless stream, preventing the merfolk from reaching the altar and harming the bizarre lump of flesh upon it—one of the Great Old One's support points.

Watching the battle, Lu Li saw that the merfolk had far too few allies. Destroying the support point under the watch of so many Deep Ones seemed incredibly difficult. Looking at their numbers, Lu Li couldn't see an easy way through. The mission was simply too hard. Without the Merfolk King's help, they wouldn't have had even the slightest hope.

But with so many creatures stirring up the waters, Lu Li wrapped himself in darkness and lay low, drifting with the currents stirred up by the battle. Time seemed meaningless beneath the sea. Lu Li had no idea how long it took before he managed to edge closer to the altar, concealing himself inch by inch. The bubble around his head was remarkable; it had kept him supplied with oxygen for so long.

The bizarre lump of flesh was restless. From time to time, it reached out with a tentacle, seized a passing creature, and fed it into itself. Lu Li hid in the sea sand, not daring to get any closer. The area ahead was teeming with Deep Ones, and the merfolk couldn't break through to it.

A Deep One was killed and fell in front of Lu Li. A rune-engraved spear landed nearby as well. Without making a sound, Lu Li hid beneath the Deep One's corpse and quietly reached out to grasp the spear.

Elsewhere, Hu Wenxu and Gao Xiaowen were growing anxious. They had planned to sneak into Ihasli and destroy the support point, but the sight of so many Deep Ones emerging had left them both in a cold sweat. Deep Ones were cold and ruthless; they had no need for companions and lived year-round in the deep sea. Yet when it came to worshipping and performing sacrifices, they had shown unprecedented unity, defending the altar with their lives.

Fortunately, before they infiltrated the area, they had encountered the Merfolk King, who had come looking for trouble after discovering what had happened to his daughter. After selectively telling him some of the truth, they had managed to gain him as an ally. But the merfolk still couldn't break through the Deep Ones' defenses. Though the Merfolk King had the upper hand against the enormous Deep One, he couldn't defeat him quickly. As time passed, their chances of destroying the support point grew smaller and smaller.

"This won't work. Let's be honest with each other and show our trump cards. If we fail this mission again, the backlash will probably kill us on the spot, and you won't be able to complete the mission assigned to you by the one behind you, either." Hu Wenxu took out bottle after bottle of things as he spoke to Gao Xiaowen, whose face was grim. After they had both eaten herbs and grown gills, they had discovered that they could speak normally underwater.

Gao Xiaowen nodded and took a deep breath, revealing her left arm. The bizarre pattern made of black hair had grown even stranger. With a cold snort, she desperately drew power from the nameless evil ghost implanted in her body. The ghost, which had been dormant, awoke under the strain. Its pair of icy, vengeful eyes stared fixedly at Gao Xiaowen.

Players on the Implant Path had to draw out the abilities of the demons and monsters implanted in their bodies bit by bit. These creatures were provided by the game's creators and had already been prepared; under normal circumstances, they couldn't awaken. Unlike players on the Inner Demon Path, they weren't prone to losing control. But that was only under normal circumstances. If someone drained their power as recklessly as Gao Xiaowen was now, they were courting death. It would awaken the creature inside them without fail, inviting a backlash.

But before the evil ghost could retaliate, rings of strange black markings bound it. Raising her left arm, Gao Xiaowen chanted a great incantation. The evil ghost within her was used as a sacrifice. What she was doing now was like fishing in a dried-up pond: she was using up the ghost in a single stroke. Afterward, her abilities on the Implant Path would be all but incapable of advancing, and she would have to tie her fate to the Great Old One behind her.

Meanwhile, Hu Wenxu had no time to think. He brought out everything he had accumulated. He had dissected and studied monsters without pause, and after several game instances, he had researched and produced quite a few creations. He had been using them little by little to modify his body, which was why he was so physically strong. The modifications took time, but they were safe. If he rushed the process, he risked turning into a monster on the spot.

The bottles and jars before him were all things he had collected and made over time. Some contained concoctions made from vampire blood, some held chunks of flesh from unknown monsters, and others contained all kinds of bizarre viral agents. Finally, there was the Meat Ganoderma he had obtained from the Witch.

Given enough time, Hu Wenxu was confident he could eliminate the side effects of these things. But there was no time to spare. He steeled himself and injected or swallowed each one, putting them all to use in an attempt to keep them in balance by having them counteract one another. Even though he would certainly cease to be human afterward, he said, "If you want to study monsters, you have to become one."