Chapter 36 Aquaman 17

The soul of the merman was pressed extremely close to Xia Qi. Since the merman had no warmth and exuded a chilling aura, Xia Qi shivered uncontrollably, his teeth chattering.

Even so, he did not forget to think of a way out.

To avoid being forced down, Xia Qi straddled the fish tail, keeping himself in a half-suspended state, avoiding the unsettling thing beneath him.

His hands were bound, leaving him unable to retrieve any tools. If this continued, he would eventually exhaust himself and be executed on the spot by the ghostly shadow.

Seeing the merman's ghostly shadow grow increasingly fierce, Xia Qi gritted his teeth.

No, he had to find a way to free his hands!

Xia Qi immediately thought of a plan. He thrust his head forward, and just as he neared the merman's face, he pecked at the corner of its lips.

Even without a soul, the merman did not expect such initiative from Xia Qi. Its eerie green eyes widened in disbelief.

Taking advantage of the merman’s distraction, Xia Qi struggled to free his hands.

Once his hands were free, Xia Qi quickly retrieved the True Love Magic Wand, pushed the merman's shoulder to the ground, knelt down, and aimed the wand at its collarbone, shouting:

"Pain is beautiful, despite... uh!"

Xia Qi barely started speaking when the merman suddenly flipped him over, spinning him around. After a dizzying turn, Xia Qi found himself lying on the ground again.

The merman effectively silenced the rest of his spell.

Feeling the suffocating force above him, even though his mind was fuzzy, Xia Qi knew that the merman was becoming more excited.

The remaining words of the spell turned into muffled sobs.

Then, the merman began rubbing against his face, its cold breath spraying against his neck, freezing his chin. Seizing the moment when the merman rubbed against his forehead, Xia Qi managed to open his mouth and continue:

"You are the wind... uh!"

Another intense bout followed, and Xia Qi's spell was once again interrupted.

Not only that, but his legs were now pinned down by the fish tail, leaving him unable to lift them.

At this point, Xia Qi finally realized that while the True Love Magic Wand had many variations, it had a fatal flaw—it required speech to activate.

Despite being completely under the merman's control, Xia Qi's mind became clearer.

He kept thinking of ways out.

Now that the True Love Magic Wand was useless, he had to rely on other tools, such as the "Silver Cutlery" or the "Cuttlefish Tentacle."

Using brute force would only anger the merman further; he needed another approach.

When Xia Qi's eyes fell on a nearby pillar, he suddenly saw an opportunity.

Just as the merman's soul pressed against his lips, Xia Qi suddenly lifted his head and responded deeply.

Unexpectedly, this worked. The merman relaxed, gradually loosening its grip.

Xia Qi used the momentum to roll toward the pillar, rolling several times before finally reaching it.

"Mmm."

When he was only an arm's length away from the pillar, the merman seemed unsatisfied and tightened its tail.

Xia Qi struggled to keep his legs elevated, dodging the terrifying fish tail while laboriously lifting his right hand, trembling as he reached for the pillar.

"Swish—"

As Xia Qi placed the fin on the pillar, a beam of light broke through the clouds.

The warm beam fell upon the pillar, illuminating Xia Qi's head and the merman's back.

Xia Qi felt the merman's soul tremble.

After a moment, the merman released his hands, and Xia Qi regained his freedom.

Opening his eyes, he saw the merman's soul rising upward, its eyes fixed on him. Xia Qi noticed that its eerie green eyes were gradually fading, returning to their former aquamarine color.

However, in an instant, its entire form began to dissipate, eventually vanishing into a wisp of smoke in the warm sunlight.

In the moment the sunlight fell, Xia Qi heard it say:

"Run..."

Xia Qi lay on the ground for nearly 15 seconds before struggling to get up, exhausted.

He felt aching all over, especially in his shoulders and waist, as if they had been broken.

If he hadn't activated the pillar in time to dispel the merman's soul, he might have lost his life today.

"Wang Dazhuang, are you still alive?"

Xia Qi forced himself to crawl towards where the strong man had fallen.

Upon reaching the strong man, he found that he was still breathing.

Xia Qi marveled at how bold the young master was, daring to kill a player. The consequences of killing a player didn’t matter to him, for sometimes people could be more terrifying than ghosts.

However, the young master had forgotten one thing: murders were forbidden on this altar.

"Wang Dazhuang?" Seeing that the strong man was unconscious, Xia Qi took out some rum and poured a few sips into his mouth.

Then, Xia Qi slapped the strong man several times, finally waking him up.

"Xia, Xia Qi." The muscular man lay on the ground, slowly opening his dazed eyes, "Am I alive again?"

His lips were pale from blood loss, and he looked extremely weak, like a cabbage that had been stored in a cellar for too long.

"I don't have any healing medicine. If you have something to save your life, take it out now." Xia Qi had only participated in two scenarios and had very few supplies, practically none.

The muscular man slowly nodded and then pulled out a bottle from his system backpack: "Re...generation Liquid."

Hearing about the famous healing potion once again, Xia Qi asked in surprise, "Are you really going to drink it?"

In the previous scenario, Xia Qi had heard from an old man that the Red Side had regeneration liquid and understood its uses.

However, judging from the muscular man's reaction, although the side effects of regeneration liquid sounded severe, the survivors would rather deal with side effects than lose their lives.

Under the muscular man's insistence, Xia Qi had no choice but to open the bottle of regeneration liquid and pour a little into his mouth.

In just a moment, the muscular man jumped up from where he was lying.

Not only did he personally pull the young master's knife out, but he also flexed his muscles vigorously on the spot. Seeing Xia Qi looking close to fainting, he even offered to carry him.

Xia Qi looked up at the ghostly shadow of a mermaid in the sky and shook his head guiltily, refusing the muscular man's kindness.

Forget it; he didn't want to harm anyone.

"You've helped me too much. Let me assist you from now on!" Worried that Xia Qi might not trust his abilities, the muscular man waved his strong arms vigorously.

Seeing the muscular man's performance after drinking the regeneration liquid, Xia Qi belatedly suspected that Cha Gong must have drunk it as well.

At that time, he remembered that Cha Gong's injury was in an indescribable place. If he drank the regeneration liquid, then...

Xia Qi couldn't help feeling a chill down his spine, not daring to think further.

Everyone was men; they should let each other go.

"Xia Qi, the young master has two boxes in his backpack." The muscular man rummaged through the young master's backpack and pulled out two boxes.

After helping Xia Qi open the boxes, he presented their contents to him.

"It's the limb bone and the finger." Xia Qi said after seeing what was inside the boxes.

The limb bone belonged to the male player who was the cooking god, while the finger belonged to the young master.

Xia Qi thought silently for a moment, then frowned, "This doesn't seem like the key to activate the fifth pillar. Could it be that the fifth pillar is in Wang Ke's possession?"

Xia Qi counted the remaining players in the game. There should only be four people left: himself, the muscular man, Wang Ke, and the male player from the second room.

"Look at my memory! I still have another box here." The muscular man, like Doraemon, pulled out another box from his backpack.

Upon seeing this box, Xia Qi knew that the male player must have died halfway through.

So now, there were only three people left in the game: himself, the muscular man, and Wang Ke.

Xia Qi silently opened the box and found a dorsal fin inside.

Xia Qi held up the dorsal fin, examined it against the sunlight, and said, "This should be the key to activate the fifth pillar."

The muscular man nodded without comment.

Xia Qi pondered over what he had and said, "We need to find Wang Ke. He should have the key to the seventh pillar. As for the key to the eleventh pillar, it should still be with the captain."

The muscular man scratched his head. For matters that required thinking, he always listened to the young master. Now that the young master was gone, he decided to follow Xia Qi's lead.

"Alright, we'll go find Wang Ke later." The muscular man agreed, then looked at the young master's body and suddenly remembered something important, "What... should we do with the young master's magic wand?"

After a player dies, the items in their system backpack become inaccessible. However, the young master had taken the magic wand out before dying, and it was still lying on the ground.

Xia Qi got up from the ground, limped over to the young master, and picked up his traitorous magic wand.

"Item: Traitor's Magic Wand (Formerly Bound to: Lin Qing)."

"Usage Effect: Consume traitor energy points, recite your traitorous spell. The higher the traitor value, the stronger the magical effect."

"Level: LV10."

"Other Notes: Organize reunions when you're free, break up one couple at a time! Spread your love, help those blinded sisters see clearly, and rescue them from scoundrels!"

Xia Qi: "..."

Judging from its LV10 level, this magic wand had truly been put to good use by the young master, creating many glorious moments.

"Do you want to bind the Traitor's Magic Wand? Yes/No"

"No."

Hearing the familiar system prompt, Xia Qi rejected it without hesitation.

Putting aside the pitfalls of the magic wand system, just considering the activation mechanism and effects of the traitor's magic wand, even if he were killed by the boss, he wouldn't bind such a harmful item.

Xia Qi said to the muscular man, "I'll keep this magic wand for now."

"No problem, I have no interest in it." The muscular man had suffered greatly because of Lin Qing. If it weren't impossible to destroy items, he would have wanted to grind the magic wand into dust right away.

Xia Qi nodded and put the magic wand into his own system backpack.

He didn't throw away the traitor's magic wand because he was worried that if someone else picked it up, they might use it to cause trouble again. It was safer in his hands.

After all, he possessed the True Love Magic Wand and had no intention of breaking up couples or using the traitor's magic wand to sing songs of betrayal.

The two quickly tidied up and then headed towards the fifth pillar.

Walking along, the burly man suddenly lifted his head and said, "Xia Qi, have you noticed that the number of mermaid ghosts in the sky has decreased, but their appearances have become much clearer?"

Hearing this, Xia Qi raised his head and looked up at the sky.

He found that what the burly man said was true; the number of mermaid shadows overhead had indeed decreased, but their clarity had significantly increased.

At that moment, a few droplets fell from the sky, landing on Xia Qi's face.

He raised his hand to wipe his face, only to find it covered in blood.

Frowning, he thought, it couldn't be what he imagined...

Author's note: I might revise a few chapters soon, but it won't affect the progress of the story; just changing the way things are expressed. Those who see me revising can ignore it. Good night, everyone~