[Nether God Sacrifice] Setting sail

"There weren't any other outsiders in the village then... and the Village Chief couldn't hold on any longer... By the time we found out, Mother was already gone."

Xu Xiaocai finally lost control and began to cry.

"Father nearly went mad. He thought about killing himself, about killing the people who took Mother away, and even about killing the Village Chief."

"But he couldn't. He still had me and Xiao Hong. If he did that, Xiao Hong and I would die too."

In the inner room, Xu Xiaohong rolled over and smacked his lips in his sleep, sleeping soundly.

Shao Lan fell silent.

No wonder Xu Gao had seemed so conflicted.

He would beg the Village Chief to give Xu Xiaocai eyes, yet even after she received them, he still couldn't be happy.

He wanted Xiao Hong to receive eyes too, but when he thought of how the sacrifice would be Qin Ning, who had saved Xiao Hong, guilt and anguish kept him from even looking at her face. He had even wanted to save her by destroying her eyes.

This man had been living in profound conflict and despair, nearly driven mad by the tug-of-war between his conscience and his love for his family. If not for his two children, he probably would have wanted to die long ago.

Xu Xiaocai wiped away her tears, her expression turning resolute.

"I'm Mother's daughter. No one but me can fulfill her wish."

"Mr. Shao, I can already tell how capable you both are. You're very clever. You can uncover so much of the truth and find solutions too. Miss Qin is a powerful fighter. She may seem cold, but she's actually very kind."

"I'm willing to help you leave, but on one condition: you have to protect me until we reach the Deep Sea." Xu Xiaocai looked at Shao Lan. "I want to see Mother Ming."

Shao Lan took a deep breath and briefly closed his eyes.

"I can take you to see Mother Ming, but are you willing to pay any price for it?"

"Think carefully. I mean any. Price. At. All."

Xu Xiaocai considered this for a moment, then nodded firmly. "Yes. My mother's wish was to end this curse forever. I'm willing to give everything for that, even if the price is my life..."

Suddenly, Xu Xiaocai stopped. Looking behind Shao Lan, she cried out:

"Father..."

The door had opened at some point, and Xu Gao stood quietly outside.

Xu Xiaocai rose to her feet, nervously clutching the hem of her clothes, not daring to look up at Xu Gao.

Xu Gao crossed the room, went into the backyard, and sat down in silence.

After a moment's thought, Shao Lan followed him.

Xu Gao lit his pipe. Smoke shrouded him, and his back looked even more stooped than usual.

Xu Xiaocai slowly came outside and timidly called, "Father."

"Don't call me Father," Xu Gao said. "You're grown now, and I'm old. I can't control you anymore."

Xu Xiaocai opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but ultimately said nothing. In the end, she bowed to Xu Gao, then turned and left.

Shao Lan looked at Xu Gao, but Xu Gao showed no intention of speaking again. He leaned wearily against a pile of straw as the sound of waves drifted in from afar.

Shao Lan turned and followed Xu Xiaocai.

A blood moon rose into the sky.

Xu Jiawei stood on the Seashore, the sea breeze stirring her long hair. Her hands were clenched tight, her dark red nails nearly digging into her palms.

She knew Shao Lan had already turned the tide.

Ever since he had used Xu Nan to divert everyone's attention and escaped right under their noses, the situation had begun tipping decisively in Shao Lan's favor.

Xu Jiaojiao had been devoured by the Blind Fish from the Deep Sea, and the villagers had just discovered Xu Zijian's corpse in the bushes.

Of the four players in Xu Family Village, only Xu Jiawei remained.

Of course, within the village, the villagers and Xu Jiawei shared the same interests, so she could draw on their strength.

But there were too few villagers, and the village was surrounded by the sea on three sides. Blocking every route to the Sea was impossible.

She had gone to great lengths to persuade the villagers to burn all their boats, solely to hinder Shao Lan as much as possible.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "There's a boat over there!"

Xu Jiawei's eyes flew wide.

She climbed onto the highest rock and looked into the distance.

There was a small wooden boat over there. Shao Lan and Qin Ning were pushing it off the beach and into the sea.

"Stop them!"

Xu Jiawei shouted.

It was too late. They were too far away. By the time Xu Jiawei rushed onto the beach, the boat had already been pushed out to sea.

The waves surged, and within moments, the boat had traveled more than ten meters.

Xu Jiawei's face turned ashen.

Without a sacrifice, she would die here.

Closing her eyes and steeling herself, Xu Jiawei charged toward the Sea!

But the rolling waves and the silver glints shimmering beneath the moonlight stopped her in her tracks.

The Blind Fish were in the water. They had swum here from the Deep Sea and hadn't gone far after devouring Xu Jiaojiao. If she rushed in now, she would immediately become their food.

There was nothing she could do.

Or perhaps there was one last option.

Xu Jiawei closed her eyes. Rubbing her four dark red nails, she chanted softly, "I shall die in the water. I shall be born in the water..."

Shao Lan and Qin Ning sat in the boat, with Xu Xiaocai inside a wooden barrel at the stern.

To mask Xu Xiaocai's scent as much as possible, they had packed the barrel's double walls with dried flower petals and coated its exterior with fluid from dead fish. Now the rotten fish stench mingled with the floral fragrance, producing a reek on par with a biological weapon.

The silvery-white tails of the Blind Fish surfaced and vanished in the sea. Gradually, one Blind Fish seemed to notice something and swam over.

It was like a chain reaction. After the first Blind Fish, a second and a third were drawn over too. Within just a few minutes, five or six Blind Fish surrounded the boat, circling like sharks.

"Masking her scent isn't doing much," Shao Lan said quietly. "At best, it'll buy us a little time."

A Blind Fish surfaced and poked its head out. Standing at the bow with her blade in hand, Qin Ning kicked it.

The Blind Fish was knocked back into the water, its tail curling.

Shao Lan rubbed his chin, a little surprised.

It seemed the monsters' combat strength varied between instances.

For example, the monster [Su Xia] in his first instance, [Night of the Cannibal], had been incredibly powerful on her own because she was the only monster in the entire instance. Humans were nowhere near a match for her.

Perhaps because there were so many Blind Fish, their individual strength wasn't particularly impressive-probably about equal to a fairly strong adult man.

But their sheer numbers were the problem.

There could be hundreds of Blind Fish throughout this Sea Area... If they all swam over, even if each fish took only one bite, the three of them wouldn't be enough to go around.

"Only five or six fish have come over because most of the Blind Fish are busy devouring the last person."

That was Xu Jiaojiao.

Xu Jiaojiao's corpse was roughly a hundred meters away from them. A huge number of Blind Fish had gathered there, and beneath the moonlight, the entire Sea Area shimmered an eerie silvery white.

"Once they're done eating, they'll come over."

The two of them rowed with all their strength, trying to get as far away as possible before the Blind Fish swam over.

Suddenly, Shao Lan sensed something was wrong.

The boat was slowing down.

The wind hadn't changed direction, nor had the current. He and Qin Ning were even rowing harder.

Yet the boat was still slowing down.

This definitely wasn't normal, unless...

Unless something beneath the water was dragging on the boat.

The instant that thought occurred to him, a rotting hand reached out of the sea and seized Qin Ning's calf.