Chapter 71
I wonder what sea monsters dream about.
Xia Yi’s dreams were always chaotic, and often, after waking up, he vividly remembers everything, only to forget it all an hour later.
But in another dream, the forgotten things come back. There was always a layer of white mist before, or geometric shapes that couldn’t be counted.
It was empty everywhere.
Sometimes, he would see a dirty flower ball in the corner. Occasionally, he would see familiar faces in the mist, but they appeared quickly and disappeared even faster, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Now, his dream was an endless expanse of blue. Initially, nothing could be seen, but now it’s gradually becoming clearer—it’s the sea, but in this dream, both above and below the sea were clear and bright.
So when Xia Yi, still groggy with sleep, opened his eyes, he thought he was still dreaming.
The water is crystal clear, shining brightly far above his head. Xia Yi felt as though he had been awakened by the light, and he found his posture strange—he was lying on his back.
Waking up to find oneself in a peculiar position wasn’t surprising. This posture was like lying at the bottom of a swimming pool.
Xia Yi moved slightly and realized his body was pinned down.
The siren was lying beside him, his fishtail resting directly on Xia Yi’s waist and abdomen. They were lying on a protruding coral reef, somehow cushioned by large seaweed. Anemones and shells were scattered nearby, clearly forcefully swept away. Their growth pattern seemed unnatural, with some dark sea cucumbers sluggishly attempting to crawl back, moving so slowly they seemed to be climbing.
Some light pink fish swam over, nibbling at the seaweed.
A long tentacle drooped over the edge of the reef, and Xia Yi turned his head to look.
Sure enough, not far from the surface of the sea, there was a large shadow. Abiseth was hiding under the aircraft carrier, enjoying the shade and sound asleep. Its round body undulated with the sea currents, drifting along with the carrier. Due to the relaxed strength, the layers of teeth in its tentacle suckers were visible, which was actually quite terrifying.
At least in this nearby area of the sea, apart from the tiny fish, there were motionless shellfish and sea cucumbers—unusually quiet.
These small fish seemed to have discovered the truth. No matter how the giant squid moved, it couldn’t reach the reef. They all happily nibbled on the lush seaweed. Their sleek bodies wriggled and wriggled, weaving through the siren’s loose hair. One curious fish tapped the siren’s face with its head, then darted away in an instant.
But these fish were too small. Their light touch didn’t compare to the sensation of the sea’s currents.
The siren remained oblivious, allowing two small fish to squabble over a fist-sized fragment of seaweed beside her. More fish vigorously gnawed on the seaweed, starting from the edges, resembling silkworms.
Xia Yi felt speechless, lying among swathes of seaweed.
Some fish mistook his clothes for seaweed and nibbled on them for a while, cluelessly unaware, continuing their nibbling.
With his arms braced against the reef, Xia Yi attempted to move and found that the soreness in his muscles from being in the sea for several days had eased considerably. Xia Yi didn’t think this was a side effect of superpowers; it was purely because the rhythmic flow of the sea acted like a massage.
It would be strange if it didn’t feel good.
So in these days, Xia Yi hadn’t tried to swim out of the water layer again. He fell asleep suddenly and woke up in a strange place. This was very uncomfortable for him.
The siren seemed very anxious and reluctant to delay on the way.
The temperature of the seawater became higher and higher. If he guessed correctly, they had already crossed the equator. The specific direction was to the south, maybe first to Australia. The day before yesterday, the cyanide of the sea once again to day before,
The sea temperature kept rising. If he guessed correctly, they had already crossed the equator and were heading south, probably towards Australia. Two days ago, Abiseth had wheezed and asked Siren, “Are we going back to your hometown?”
Siren didn’t even bother to respond.
Was that a sign of anger?
Xia Yi was puzzled. He had never seen a mermaid show anger, but the best way to deal with Abiseth was undoubtedly to ignore it—no, to eat delicious food in front of it and make it stare with wide eyes, that would be amusing.
Xia Yi used to love coral reefs at first; they were the most beautiful places under the sea. However, later on, he dared not approach them casually anymore.
Beautiful places always harbored hidden dangers. Just because large predatory fish couldn’t enter tropical coral reefs to hunt didn’t mean there were no dangerous creatures there.
There were countless species alone that were poisonous. Even the seemingly neat and beautiful starfish weren’t peacefully lying on the seafloor; they wriggled, attaching themselves to the bodies of dead fish, slowly devouring everything edible in their path without a hint of mercy.
The bright colors of starfish, either red or bright yellow, and the intricate patterns formed by tiny particles on their bodies no longer interested Xia Yi. He had developed a subconscious aversion to these creatures.
The ocean was always magical; even staring blankly at one spot could bring surprises.
Two small fish continued to chase after the fragment of seaweed they were fighting over. Soon, they strayed away from their group. In fact, there was plenty of seaweed around, so there was no real need to stubbornly pursue that particular piece. Nevertheless, their antics were evidently amusing, and Xia Yi’s gaze followed them intently.
The mutation occurred right at that moment.
A dark brown stone with mottled patterns suddenly collapsed, forming a black hole, swiftly engulfing a small fish. Another startled fish darted away, but its tail fin was torn apart, struggling to maintain balance as it swam frantically. The fragment of seaweed drifted aimlessly in the seawater, ignored by the fish.
Xia Yi stared fixedly at the stone for a long time, as if searching for hidden animals among a pile of lines, just like in childhood. It took quite a while before he roughly outlined its contours from the surrounding stones of similar color.
Also not right, the only thing that can be determined with effort is its head, because it has two eyes on it. The size of the latter half of its body is unclear; it looks completely like a stone, even with small holes, resembling other eroded reef rocks seen from afar, crawling with some seaweed and gently swaying in the seawater.
Moreover, this fellow is very cunning. Its position is quite hidden, conveniently concealed beneath a protruding reef. Larger fish won’t bump into it, and if it hadn’t swallowed a small fish, Xia Yi probably wouldn’t have noticed its presence swimming nearby.
Want to eat?
Xia Yi jumped, turned around, and found Siren already awake, lying beside him, unwilling to move its fish tail.
“What? Sonar waves are always a bit good,” came the subconscious response.
Otherwise, Xia Yi must have been silently pondering in his mind, and it wouldn’t have been possible for him to ask until he figured it out!
“Aren’t you staring at it?”
Siren raised its head strangely, ran a hand through its hair, and suddenly several small fish darted out from between its fingers.
“You guessed right. These are Abiseth’s favorite things to eat. But it can never seem to find them… these rose-toxin pufferfish are very good at hiding.”
“That’s a fish?” Xia Yi was very skeptical.
This time, the mermaid didn’t answer either, just swung its fish tail and swam forward gracefully.
This movement caused Xia Yi’s chest and abdomen to itch from being scratched by the fish tail. When he got up, he nearly tripped over the seaweed. Therefore, he didn’t actually see Siren’s movements clearly. When he looked up, the mermaid had already grabbed the piece of stone and returned.
It was almost like a stone decoration on the table, not even as big as an inkstone. When it was thrown onto the reef, it was still wriggling desperately, its whole body oval-shaped.
What’s more, Xia Yi was speechless to discover that what he initially thought was its head was actually its back!
A fish with eyes on its back!
The mouth was at the front of its body—Xia Yi couldn’t be sure if that was the head anymore. After all, can you call the place without eyes a head?
The shape was even more intriguing; it was crescent-shaped.
However, since it was a waxing crescent, it looked like it was smiling. If it had been a waning crescent, it would have looked like it was pouting…
Looking closer, this creature, which might be a fish, had a body full of bumps and even tumors, just like a toad. That’s why from a distance, it looked like an ordinary sandstone with small holes eroded. However, growing into this manner, it seemed to have poison in its name.
Can this be eaten?
Xia Yi firmly didn’t believe it.
You know, the concept of what sea monsters “can eat” often leaves him speechless. Perhaps in the sea monster’s mind, the simplest way to categorize things in the world is whether they can be eaten or not.
“Don’t get close to it! The spines on its back are poisonous!”
After Siren stopped Xia Yi, he promptly flipped the creature over, revealing its round and bulging gray-white belly.
“Well, finally found the fish-like part…”
Normally, when a live fish is gutted, there isn’t much blood in its belly; only the dead ones have a lot of blood clots. If it were that kind of food, Siren probably wouldn’t even take a look at it.
“Its flesh has no fish spines.”
Hearing Siren say this, Xia Yi hesitated before accepting it.
Considering how oddly shaped this fish was, it might be best to steam it with vapor.
Xia Yi surfaced because of the high temperature, causing the water to boil shortly after he took the snow-white fish and threw it into the pot.
Actually, this cooking method is quite good apart from not reaching microwave temperatures. At least, you don’t need to flip it while boiling; the water automatically turns over.
You also don’t need to filter and fish out the first batch of boiled water; it all evaporates away. Naturally, its ability continuously condenses and supplements fresh water. Before long, a tantalizing aroma wafted out.
Hmm, smells so good?
Suddenly, a large octopus burst out from beside them, splashing Siren and Xia Yi with seawater. Its tentacles swiftly wrapped around that little ball of water.
Siren remained motionless, his lips curved strangely as he continued to watch the spectacle.
Almost instantly, Abiseth let out a scream and swiftly withdrew its tentacles into the sea.
“It’s scalding me!!”
The boiling water must have been at least a hundred degrees Celsius. Due to constant replenishment of fresh water, the outer layers of steam brought even more heat. In the past, steam boilers reached temperatures of several hundred degrees, but fortunately, the water globule was not large, or Abiseth’s tentacles would have been cooked through.
As Abiseth withdrew its tentacles from the water globule, it spun in the air. Xia Yi amusingly noticed that the fish seemed to cook faster. Indeed, flipping the cooking is essential, isn’t it?
Remove the steam, condense it into ice, and then use it to cool down the fish meat.
After patiently waiting for a while, when he finally swallowed it, Xia Yi felt like he had never eaten such tender and delicious fish in his life, and the most important thing was that the fish had no fine thorns! Unfortunately, the stone fish was so small, even though Siren gave him half, it was still not enough to eat.
The big octopus quietly peeked its head out again, staring eagerly until Xia Yi finished eating the last piece of fish, then stared straight at the fish shell in Siren’s hand, which was now just a stone-like skin without any meat.
No meat to eat, no soup to drink, won’t they even let him gnaw on the bones?
Correct!
Without hesitation, Siren finally pulled out a bulging fish bladder and threw the unlucky stone fish forward in an arc.
The trajectory was extremely long, landing on an aircraft carrier not far away, and probably rolling under a fighter jet on the deck. Abiseth’s eyes widened as if they were about to fall out.
“Siren?”
The mermaid simply ignored it.
Balancing the fish bladder in his hand as if waiting for it to dry, this thing made Xia Yi feel uncomfortable, recalling the time when Siren had dug out a fish bladder resembling a yellow croaker right in front of him, first placing it in his own mouth to melt, then half-kissing, half-feeding it to him to swallow.
Xia Yi was initially extremely embarrassed and didn’t want to remember.
Then his thoughts took a strange turn—could the usually white bubble in the fish’s belly be edible?
It seemed that in the past, when he watched his mother and chefs gut fish, they always threw this thing away directly.
Looking ahead, they would soon reach Abiseth’s homeland… Siren suddenly warned Xia Yi cautiously, advising him not to stray far from him and Abiseth, as there were jellyfish there more dangerous than the Nereids.
Before Xia Yi could reply, the giant octopus howled:
“Siren, you finally see me? I thought you couldn’t see me all along.”
That, he should just ignore.
Xia Yi quietly turned his head and asked the Siren, “Where exactly are you taking me?”
“We’ll swim south first, passing through Australia, then into the South Pacific. Vertically, we’ll reach the Ross Sea, where Yuribia will be waiting for us. It’s the route least likely to encounter humans. Of course, there aren’t many islands in the South Pacific, and the closer we get to the Antarctic Circle, the fewer people there will be.”
Xia Yi only caught the last sentence, which clearly pleased him. However, he still directly voiced his doubts over the past few days, “Are you hurrying somewhere? You’ve been swimming forward with me while I was asleep?”
The Siren hesitated for a moment, evading the question, “You can’t always stay in Antarctica. There’s a place where there definitely won’t be any humans. Maybe you’ll like it there.”
“Hmm?”
“Bermuda.”
Xia Yi calculated silently. Following the Antarctic Circle to South America, then entering the Atlantic, and circling back up? If they chose to go through the Panama Canal, they could definitely cut two-thirds of the journey. But even if sea monsters knew how to take shortcuts from there, they probably wouldn’t pay the Panama Canal navigation taxes, right? It’s a canal with strict regulations, several locks; it’s quite challenging to pass through unnoticed.
And the final point—this journey spans half the globe, but the Siren talks about it as if it’s a casual outing. Sea monsters really have an odd sense of distance!
Special thanks to Willow for donating a ko-fi! Thank you sooo much T__T ❤️🙇♀️
