CH 34.1

The slender shuttle-shaped abdomen was etched over his spine. It had no antennae, and the shadow outline of its wings resembled those of a swallowtail butterfly. 

The four wings were broad in the fore wing and slightly smaller in the rear wing, with two beautiful bands of black shadows hanging below the left and right rear wings.

The front wings extended all the way to his shoulder blades, and as Bai Lixin’s arm moved, the butterfly shadow stretched its wings, and it looked like it was about to lift its wings and fly up from Bai Lixin’s back.

Bai Lixin stared blankly at the butterflies projected in his mind.

He probably knew where it had come from. He hadn’t felt anything strange on his body along the way, so Dijia must have been put on him while he was asleep.

The jellyfish’s stingers carried a paralytic poison, causing Green Hair to swim very slowly.

Bai Lixin slowed down, turned to look behind him and found that the jellyfish did not continue to chase them.

Green Hair was babbling to Bai Lixin, who could understand a few of the words.

Green Hair: “What… back… What is it?”

Bai Lixin’s tail fin gave a slight lurch.

This is the sea, and butterflies are land creatures, so they should not have seen this creature before.

Bai Lixin asked S419M: [How do you say butterfly in mermaid language?]

S419M: [Lord host, after my unremitting efforts, I have finally cracked the language. Do you need me to install the translation program for you? After installation, you will not only understand the language of merfolk but also communicate with them easily.]

Bai Lixin: [Okay.]

S419M: [Ding!]

At S419M’s beep, a small “click” rang out in Bai Lixin’s brain.

[Ding! The auxiliary system has been successfully installed. Lord host, try it out.]

Seeing that Bai Lixin was ignoring him, Green Hair raised his voice and asked again, “What is that strange thing on your back?”

Hearing it clearly, Bai Lixin silently gave S419M a compliment in his heart.

Bai Lixin adjusted his pronunciation and a vibrato wrapped in water flowed out of his mouth, “It’s a butterfly.”

Green Hair clumsily swam behind Bai Lixin, stared at the butterfly for a few more seconds, and muttered in a small voice, “It’s quite pretty.”

Bai Lixin: “……”

He had suspected that the aesthetics of underwater creatures were not quite the same as his own, but it seemed that they could also tell beauty from ugliness.

They could find lantern beasts ugly, and they would find butterflies pretty.

So they thought he was ugly just because he looked different from them?

The mermen supported each other as they swam towards their territory, and while swimming, Green Hair asked Bai Lixin, “Where did you hide yesterday?”

After a pause, he shook his hand and explained, “We didn’t leave you behind. We didn’t see you at the entrance, so we went back to look for you and came to the boundary of the Northern Sea. All we ended up seeing was a dead lantern beast and the harpoon stuck in it.”

A merman looked back curiously, “How did that lantern gargoyle die?”

Bai Lixin’s pretty blue tail swung up and down, “You saw the harpoon and you still don’t know how the lantern beast died?”

The mermen looked at each other for a few seconds before suddenly bursting into a few loud laughs.

“Hahahaha, you mean you killed it? The lantern beast? Stop it, that’s never going to happen.”

“That’s right, the five of us might not be able kill that lantern beast combined, and you, a malnourished, deformed little merman, still want to kill it?”

“I’ll believe you when you say it accidentally crashed into the sea and you stuck a harpoon in its eye, hahaha.”

Bai Lixin: “……”

Believe it or not.

Instead of defending himself, Bai Lixin asked Green Hair, who wasn’t laughing much, “Isn’t the East Sea area relatively safe? Why were you guys trapped again today?”

Green Hair scratched his head in embarrassment, “That’s a dazzling jellyfish, also a creature from the South Sea area. I don’t know what’s going on lately, but the seas are completely misplaced. Looks like we’ll have to call for more men when we come out in the future.”

Bai Lixin frowned.

Was it because the life forms from the Northern Sea Region had invaded other seas, causing the entire oceanic life chain to be disordered?

Or was it the appearance of the split turtles?

Or was there another reason?

As Bai Lixin pondered, he felt that loneliness deep in his heart again.

This time, it was mixed with a bit of deep resentment.

The feelings went as quickly as they came, and in a matter of seconds, they had faded away from Bai Lixin’s heart.

But this time, Bai Lixin finally caught the feeling clearly, instead of thinking it was just an illusion.

It was not an emotion from his heart, but rather like an emotion from another being that had infected him.

But the source of this emotion was something he had no clue about yet. As he pondered the source of this emotion, Bai Lixin glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw a small mound rising out of the distant sea sand.

?

The split turtle had managed to keep up with him and chase him all the way here.

If he let it follow him, would it follow him and sneak into the merfolk’s lair?

His eyes fell on the sharkskin bundle behind Green Horn. The bag was flat because they hadn’t caught anything all day.

Bai Lixin stopped swimming and grabbed Green Hair’s bag, “That…lend me your bag for a while.”

Green Hair’s fishtail stumbled a little and his voice was a little flustered, “What do you need my backpack for?!”

Bai Lixin pointed to his back, “I lost mine. I’m borrowing yours to block the pattern on my back.”

“It looks good, why block it?” muttered Green Hair, but he still untied the sharkskin backpack that was wrapped around his back.

He handed it over to Bai Lixin as he said, “Here, this is made of the best shark skin. It’s not like the ordinary one you had.”

Green Hair kept his head down as he spoke, and Bai Lixin didn’t know if it was because he was ugly to look at, or something else.

Bai Lixin took the pack and said thank you. When approaching the mouth of the cave, Bai Lixin pointed to the seaweed in the distance, “I’ll go there and pick some plants; you guys go ahead.”

The toxin in Green Hair’s body was about to spread all over his body. They couldn’t even take care of themselves, so they didn’t even care where Bai Lixin was going. Of the few, Green Hair was a little more responsible and threw down the words “Be safe” before bracing himself and swimming into the narrow tunnel.

Seeing that everyone had left, Bai Lixin wasted no time in finding an open stretch of sand and sat on the coral waiting for the split turtle to come after him.

No weaknesses?

As long as it existed, it couldn’t have no weaknesses. Otherwise, this thing was too abnormal to be allowed to exist.

Bai Lixin watched the snaking line of sand with vigilance, and as the mound came closer and closer, Bai Lixin could even hear the small scraping sound of claws against the gravel.

Just when it was only about half a metre away from Bai Lixin, the line of sand stopped moving.

Bai Lixin looked down at the dune, which was also motionless.

Suddenly, an extremely fast black shadow bounced up from the dune, aiming right for Bai Lixin’s face.

Bai Lixin was ready for it. The moment the shadow popped up, the hook in his hand was flung out and the seaweed wrapped around the split turtle’s body, binding it firmly in place.

The split turtle was clearly not expecting this, and as soon as it landed in the sand, it tried to claw its way back into the sand.

Not caring about him, Bai Lixin pulled the split turtle off the sand with a tug, allowing it to float into the water.

He didn’t know the structure of the seaweed on the Dijia’s bed, but the split turtle bit into the seaweed and couldn’t break it.

You know, the split turtle was a creature that could easily bite through flesh as hard as iron.

Bai Lixin wished he could go back and collect more of the seaweed.

The split turtle looked scary from a distance, but up close, it was even more disgusting.

Its ten claws, spread outwards like palms, kept wriggling, and its teeth were hidden in the palms.

The tiny, jagged teeth were uneven, and the claws kept pulling the seaweed into its mouth even when it clearly couldn’t bite down on it.

As it bit down on the seaweed, the split turtle temporarily forgot to attack Bai Lixin, who also took the opportunity to observe this strange-looking creature.

From the series of experiments he had just conducted, the split turtle was able to find him no matter how much he swam. He didn’t know the basis for it finding him at the moment. Perhaps it was the smell, or maybe it was something else.

It was the same as what the system said. Once he stopped, the split turtle would attack him.

It was a headache for all living things.

No one can move all the time, even if they don’t need to sleep. Walking aimlessly can gradually rob a creature of the ability to think.

After wrapping the split turtle in three layers of sea weed and making sure the other creature could not attack, Bai Lixin shoved it into the shark bag he had asked for from Green Hair.

The split turtle struggled for a moment inside, but when it saw that it couldn’t move, it stopped struggling and began to play dead.

This surprised Bai Lixin a little.

He thought that the split turtle was a thoughtless life form whose purpose for living was to eat. But judging from the way it had just given up its struggle, it had some ability to think.

It could examine its surroundings and make the most appropriate judgement, rather than just struggling.

Bai Lixin swam into the tunnel with the bag in hand and returned to the merfolk’s dwelling.

When he swam in, he noticed Green Hair and the rest, who were lying in the coral bush receiving treatment. The merfolk were considered to be the most intelligent life forms in the sea, and there was a clear division of labour within the group.

The older merfolk made weapons, the stronger and younger males were assigned to hunt, and the relatively thin females were responsible for logistics. The mermaids were much better looking than the mermen as they didn’t have lamprey like mouths.

At least their mouths were shark-shaped. They were a little larger than normal human mouths, with sharp teeth in the lower and upper rows.

Bai Lixin carried the shark skin to a small corner and silently observed the merfolk.

In the middle of the coral sat the lantern beast that he had killed yesterday. The hole must have been too small for them to drag in, so they had dragged it in in pieces.

Although the older mermen could no longer carry out high-intensity hunting, they were doing all the weapon making.

A dozen or so mermen removed the sharp, hard spines from the lantern beast’s skin in an orderly fashion and were debating what to do with them.

Bai Lixin swam over with a swish of his tail. The two mermen who had led him in at the beginning were among them, and he immediately swam over to them, “How about making a crossbow?”

“Huh?” One of the mermen looked at Bai Lixin, “The little one can talk?”

This merman had a thick scar on his arm, and Bai Lixin remembered that he was the one who showed him how to eat.

Bai Lixin nodded, “Yes, thank you for bringing me back yesterday.”

Scar’s eyes narrowed, “Not bad, the little one is in much better spirits today. What’s your name?”

Green Hair, who had been receiving treatment nearby, peaked his ears up secretly.

“My name is Bai Lixin.”

Scar: “Bai Lixin? It’s a strange name. What did you just say?”

Bai Lixin picked up the spikes they had thrown to the ground, “I said to make these into a crossbow.”

He swept around the ground and saw some hard fish bones, “We can grind the fish bones into certain shapes, so that the merman can be unstoppable even when held by old mermen.”

A dozen elderly mermen looked at each other and burst into laughter.

Green Hair’s face turned a little red and he shook his head.

Another merman asked, “Stop it, little one, where did you hear about this rare thing. By the way, I was going to ask you, where the hell did you come from?”

This merman was Scar’s companion yesterday. His hair had fallen out of his head because he was old and bald.

Bai Lixin was in no hurry to defend himself, and he sat down in the same position as the old mermen, “I will make one for you to see, and you can say whether it is good or not after the demonstration.”

With that, Bai Lixin selected a few suitable pieces of fish bones, which he polished and put together, and used the fish tendons as springs.

About two hours later, Bai Lixin placed a sharpened spike on top.

The mermen had long been distracted by the little merman’s movements, and they all watched as Bai Lixin held up the strange tool they had never seen before. Some had curiosity in their eyes; others were purely looking for a good time.

Bai Lixin looked around the cave and asked the old mermen, “Where would be the best place for me to test it?”

The bald merman was stunned for two seconds, “You come with me.”

He then swam his body towards a place.

Bai Lixin followed closely behind, as did about twenty other mermen who were watching the show.

Bai Lixin followed the bald head through the coral thickets for a while and came to an open sand field. It was not covered with coral, and there were countless tiny honeycomb grooves in the towering walls and many damaged harpoon weapons on the floor.

The bald merman: “This is where we test the damage resistance of our weapons. You can try it here; just use it against that wall.”

Bai Lixin had only polished three spikes, and he stuck the first one in first. He didn’t deliberately feel the flow of the sea, and he just threw it out randomly.

He had made crossbows before, but that was a long time ago. Moreover, the ones he had made before were all made of wood and iron. This was the first time he had made one from fish bones.

It was a novelty for the others, but it was also an experiment for him.

And it was not just for his own use. Other merfolk might not be able to sense the flow of seawater, and his purpose was to make this weapon universally effective.

As Bai Lixin flung it, the spike flew out of the spring with a “snap”, and pierced straight into the wall, penetrating a quarter of the way in.

The mermen, who were still watching the show, looked at each other in astonishment, and they all stopped talking.

Baldy’s eyes lit up, “It can’t be! Can this thing be that powerful?!”

Bai Lixin frowned and held up the crossbow, silently looking at the springs on it.

Although the place was made up of rocks all around, the rocks in this place were extraordinarily hard, which was why the merfolk used it as a training ground. If a weapon could be inserted into the walls here, it could also be inserted into the epidermis of its prey.

This is also where they are tested to see if they have lost their fighting prowess. When the mermen raise their harpoons and their attacks no longer penetrate the rocks, they are considered old and must take second line to assist the younger merfolk with their children, which is torture for the warlike ones by nature.

The other mermen whispered.

“Was it a bluff? Is that weapon really powerful?”

“Perhaps this merman is very strong himself?”

“Can us old mermen do the same?”

Bai Lixin handed the crossbow to the bald merman who was next to him, “Want to try?”

The bald merman hesitated for two seconds and quickly took the crossbow, “How do I use it?”

“I’ll teach you.”

Bai Lixin briefly taught him how to use it.

The operation of the crossbow was very easy to learn, and Baldy quickly picked it up.

He fitted the spikes as Bai Lixin had done, and pressed the spanner against the wall. Once again, the spike went a quarter of the way into the wall.

It was only when the bald mermaid shot the spike into the wall that a cry of surprise erupted from the group of mermen.

The bald merman was already very old, and if he could shoot it in, so could the others.

What was this weapon called?

Crossbow?

No, it can not be called a crossbow.

It should be called the Divine Crossbow!