Chapter 37 Aquaman 18

Beneath the cliff of the fifth pillar.

The muscular man was fussing with his climbing ropes and tools. Watching him work seriously, Xia Qi hesitated for a moment before suddenly asking, "Did you run into your ex-boyfriend on the island?"

The muscular man abruptly stopped what he was doing and turned to look at him, puzzled by why Xia Qi would ask about his personal life.

After a brief silence, feeling somewhat uneasy, he replied, "I did see him. His teammate died too. But later, Lin Qing asked me to catch some pearl fish, so I didn't get a chance to talk to him."

Xia Qi frowned, piecing together the sequence of events. It seemed that the young master had sent the muscular man away first, then threw Tony under a large rock, leaving him to fend for himself.

However, the muscular man was unaware of what happened to Tony. It was fortunate that he didn't know; if he had been involved, Xia Qi might have reconsidered continuing their cooperation.

"Lin Qing originally had only one box, but now he has two," Xia Qi reminded him.

"Oh, two boxes. Where did he get them?" The muscular man said while fiddling with the ropes, then paused as if something had occurred to him.

It couldn't be...

The more he thought about it, the colder he felt. His neck cracked audibly as he strained to lift his head. "Are you saying... Lin Qing killed..."

"Yes." Xia Qi looked at him sympathetically.

He walked over to a large stone near the cliff and pointed to the ground covered with branches and leaves. "He's right here. Do you want to see him?"

Hearing this, the muscular man shuddered and, after a moment, moved like a soulless figure to the large stone, then knelt down.

Xia Qi patted his shoulder and told him Tony's last words. Then he added, "I'm going up first."

The muscular man bowed his head, hiding his reddened eyes, and choked out, "Okay, I'll wait for you down here."

Xia Qi nodded at him and then climbed the rope, ascending smoothly.

This time, his climb was particularly smooth. He noticed that the entire Mermaid Island seemed unusually quiet, with no sounds from the octopuses.

Even stranger, there were no bird calls either; the island was eerily silent.

Something was off.

As he climbed onto the top of the cliff, Xia Qi remained vigilant.

When he finally reached the platform, he found Wang Ke standing beside the fifth pillar, where no one had been before.

Unexpectedly, Wang Ke appeared just when Xia Qi was looking for him.

Wang Ke squatted beside the fifth pillar, seemingly waiting for a long time. Seeing Xia Qi stand up and approach, he greeted him enthusiastically, grinning, "Brother Xia, you're here."

"What are you doing here?" Xia Qi slowly stepped back, placing the silver dinner knife behind his back in case Wang Ke made a sudden move.

In the Sin Game, sometimes players could be scarier than ghosts, a lesson Xia Qi had learned well.

Now, only he, the muscular man, and Wang Ke were left alive on the island. Wang Ke's sudden appearance near the fifth pillar puzzled Xia Qi.

"I was waiting for you," Wang Ke said, immediately pulling out two boxes from his backpack and sincerely adding, "Brother Xia, these are two boxes. Please take them and activate the pillar."

Seeing Wang Ke pull out two boxes, Xia Qi found it even more peculiar.

Seeing that Xia Qi still didn't trust him, Wang Ke nervously rubbed his hands and said, "Brother Xia, I really have no ulterior motives. I just want to finish the game quickly. Please take the boxes and activate the pillar. I've had enough, really."

Xia Qi raised an eyebrow. "Alright, then throw the boxes over."

In Xia Qi's mind, Wang Ke's trustworthiness had always been negative, and it was impossible to improve.

"Ah, Brother Xia, why are you being so formal?" Wang Ke complained but obediently tossed the two boxes to Xia Qi.

After opening the boxes, Xia Qi found one contained a spine and the other a skull.

"Do you believe me now?" Wang Ke smiled, his gold necklace gleaming as he moved.

"Yes, okay, I believe you," Xia Qi said, lowering his gaze.

After reaching an agreement, Wang Ke stepped aside to let Xia Qi use the fin to activate the fifth pillar.

After activating the fifth pillar, Wang Ke suddenly asked, "Brother Xia, how many boxes do you have left?"

Xia Qi glanced at him. "Six more, which should be enough to activate eleven pillars."

"Why is one box missing?" Wang Ke looked uneasy, glancing around and muttering, "Could it be with someone else?"

"Maybe," Xia Qi nodded, preparing to meet the muscular man at the cliff. "Let's activate the pillars first and find the last box later."

Wang Ke looked displeased but had no choice since Xia Qi didn't have any boxes. He reluctantly agreed, "Alright, alright."

Next, Xia Qi and Wang Ke went to the cliff to meet the muscular man.

Near the large stone at the base of the cliff, the muscular man sat smoking next to a small mound of dirt.

Xia Qi glanced at the empty space beneath the stone, thinking that the muscular man must have buried Tony. At least he showed some decency.

"Can you walk?" Xia Qi politely asked the muscular man.

The muscular man gave a tired smile, patted the mud off his legs, and stood up. "No problem, let's keep going."

The muscular man didn't object to Wang Ke's sudden presence.

His mind was a mess, and he only wished for Xia Qi to activate the pillars quickly and send him back to the central space, where he could calm down.

At the sixth pillar, Xia Qi activated it without showing any emotion, his face expressionless.

Today, everything seemed to go too smoothly, so smoothly that Xia Qi wondered if he was cheating in this game.

It was obvious that he hadn't cheated, so everything else must be problematic.

When they reached the seventh pillar, Xia Qi took out the box and asked Wang Ke, "This vertebra originally belonged to you. Why don't you activate the pillar yourself?"

Wang Ke took a step back, quickly waved his hands, and grinned, "No, no, you do it. You've always been the one to activate them; I'm not used to it."

Xia Qi glanced at him and then silently stepped forward, activating the sixth pillar with the limb bone.

Ever since the activation of the sixth pillar, Xia Qi noticed that the frequency of blood rain falling from above had increased.

Although half the dark clouds had dispersed, revealing large patches of sunlight, the ghostly shadows of the mermaids became clearer.

Xia Qi vaguely realized that these condensed shadows were hovering precisely above the six activated pillars.

Since he had already activated six pillars, each of them now bore six fragmented human shadows.

However, these fragmented shadows looked extremely grotesque, almost identical to the cruel patterns depicted on the pillars. If one observed closely, they would find that these shadows were the mermaids depicted in the patterns on the pillars. The mermaids in the patterns had their heads chopped off, their organs removed, or their tails severed, and their spines extracted. They floated in mid-air, creating an eerie feeling.

Xia Qi felt uneasy. What would happen when all twelve pillars were activated?

"Where's the octopus?"

While heading towards the seventh pillar, Xia Qi searched for the octopus but found it had completely vanished.

Why didn't the octopus come to stop him?

Where was the female assistant? Where had she gone?

As he walked, Xia Qi pondered. When he arrived at the seventh cliff, he gave Wang Ke a suspicious look and suddenly asked, "How did you enter the game?"

Wang Ke paused and explained, "Don't mention it. Someone told me there was money to be made by participating in the game, so I joined..."

Xia Qi pondered for a moment. It was all about money again—very typical of Wang Ke.

Next, Xia Qi activated the eighth pillar with his finger, the ninth with his nail, and the tenth with his eye. Finally, they approached the eleventh pillar.

Looking up at the sky, which was mostly clear except for a patch of dark clouds, Xia Qi turned around and whispered to Wang Ke, "Look, the mermaid shadows on the eleven pillars are all watching us."

Hearing this, Wang Ke felt a chill run down his spine.

In fact, he had already noticed while walking below that the mermaid shadows on the pillars looked exceptionally gruesome. Some had their heads chopped off and eyes gouged out, others had all their flesh stripped away. More bizarrely, when Xia Qi activated the tenth pillar, these mermaids turned their headless, eyeless faces to stare at them as if harboring deep hatred.

Although these mermaid shadows weren't alive, being stared at by these half-human, half-fish ghosts created a significant sense of pressure.

Wang Ke awkwardly smiled and urged, "Brother Xia, what are you talking about? Hurry up and activate the pillar to help us pass through."

Xia Qi smiled and suddenly took a step toward Wang Ke, saying, "We're about to pass through. How about I recite a poem to cheer everyone up?"

"Huh? What poem?" Seeing Xia Qi's sudden change in demeanor, Wang Ke's smile became even more awkward. His eyes kept darting toward the eleventh pillar as he stammered, "You're so talented, aren't you?"

The strong man also frowned in confusion. Why did Xia Qi suddenly want to showcase his talent? Weren't they in an escape game?

On the way up, he had been worried about the octopus suddenly appearing to kill them, but Xia Qi didn't seem to care and wanted to recite poetry in front of the eleventh pillar!

"I'll sing a song for you." Xia Qi, expressionless, slowly approached Wang Ke, revealing part of the True Love Magic Wand from his sleeve. He recited, "Chrysanthemums wither, the ground is strewn with sorrow, your smile has faded... petals fall, my heart quietly weeps!"

"—True Love Value 1000"

"True Love Curse: Chrysanthemums Wither"

"Effect: The enemy is locked onto, and a certain indescribable part will be attacked by a gut-wrenching blade."

"Duration: Immediate effect."

"Description: A fatal wound that cannot be treated by Ma Yinglong, causing permanent damage to the enemy's indescribable part."

Wang Ke stood there in a daze, but when Xia Qi pointed the magic wand at him, he felt as if something had pierced him violently.

"Ahh!!!"

Wang Ke let out a piercing scream, clutching a certain part of his body and jumping up, then falling to the ground and rolling around frantically.

"Wang Dazhuang, tie him up," Xia Qi said, frowning in disgust as he watched Wang Ke on the ground.

The strong man, upon receiving Xia Qi's reminder, slowly regained his composure.

He felt like he had just witnessed a dramatic scene, but even after it ended, he still couldn't figure out what had happened.

Nevertheless, he never liked to ask many questions. Whatever Xia Qi told him to do, he did. So he silently walked over and tightly bound Wang Ke with ropes.

"Ahhh—Xia Qi, why did you attack me!" Even though he was tied up, Wang Ke continued to scream. His face was pale, sweat pouring down his forehead, and his red eyes glared fiercely at Xia Qi.

Xia Qi frowned and asked sternly, "Tell me, what deal did you make with the female assistant?"

Actually, he didn't like attacking other players, but Wang Ke's intentions were too malicious. He had no choice but to use a curse against him.

Killing someone on the altar would trigger death conditions, and Wang Ke was just an ordinary intermediate player, unlike the young master who had powerful equipment. Curses like "Lightning Strike," "Flying Sand and Rolling Stones," and "Shattered Bones," which dealt massive damage, were too risky to use on fragile Wang Ke.

Therefore, Xia Qi could only use a relatively "milder" curse to preemptively disable Wang Ke's combat ability.

Wang Ke was stunned, momentarily forgetting his pain. He looked at Xia Qi in disbelief. "H-how did you know?"

Many intermediate players only knew how to foolishly kill bosses or complete tasks to pass the game. They didn't realize that using NPCs could achieve certain goals... But how did Xia Qi know?

Xia Qi looked at him coldly and said, "Your box was given to you by the female assistant, wasn't it?"

Xia Qi had initially planned to snatch the box containing the skull from the female assistant, but unexpectedly, Wang Ke handed it over himself.

How could this not raise suspicion?

It was thanks to Cha Gong's vivid lesson that Xia Qi learned to be wary of other players disrupting the normal progression of the game.

Initially, when the Red Side found they couldn't progress normally, they decided to throw caution to the wind and ally with the Old Count, leading them down an unconventional path to catalyze the boss encounter.

The plan Wang Ke has in mind is likely similar to Cha Gong's.

"How can you be so sure it was her who gave me the box? Couldn't I have just taken it? Isn't there still one box unaccounted for?" Wang Ke bit his pale lips, stubbornly arguing.

Facing this greedy and malicious landlord who refused to admit his wrongdoing, Xia Qi shook his head and said, "Unfortunately, I have all ten boxes. When I said I had nine, I was lying to you."

Including the two boxes from Wang Ke, Xia Qi had now collected all the boxes needed to open the pillars.

He had deliberately lied about having nine boxes to deceive him.

"What! You actually have all ten boxes!" Wang Ke's expression changed dramatically. It turned out that Xia Qi possessed all the boxes except for the two he had given away. No wonder he was so certain that Wang Ke had made a deal with the NPC!

"I... I won't tell you anything!" After being completely exposed, Wang Ke clenched his teeth tightly, refusing to speak.

Xia Qi frowned and asked the Strong Man, "Do you have any way to make him talk?"

The Strong Man was momentarily stunned. While he was good at fighting, he wasn't skilled in interrogation.

Hesitantly, he raised his fist and said, "Should I give him a few punches?"

"I won't say anything even if you hit me! Hmph!" Wang Ke lifted his head defiantly, glaring fiercely at the two of them, showing no fear.

Xia Qi didn't expect the usually timid Wang Ke to be so defiant.

"Humph! You idiot, Xia Qi! You'll never know, even if you die!" Due to the intense pain in a certain area, Wang Ke howled while cursing at Xia Qi.

Xia Qi, already annoyed by his wailing, stepped forward and pointed his magic wand at Wang Ke's stomach, saying coldly, "How about another taste of the 'Chrysanthemum Wither'?"

The author has something to say: I changed the chapter title to 'Sea King.' Suddenly, it feels much more imposing!

[1] Reference to the song "Chrysanthemum Terrace" by Jay Chou.