Chapter 1160: Chapter 1158: Admit Defeat
The journey is long and winding, I will traverse high and low in my relentless quest.
The Pseudo-Divine Being transformation, a mechanism requiring the sacrifice of twenty lives, has not been used by Fu Qian for several days.
However, at this moment, he activated it without the slightest hesitation.
The journey to the Sea of Ashes has been fraught with insidious twists and elusive fortunes.
Yet with a relentless and cruel determination, Fu Qian’s aggressive advance never once faltered, ultimately confronting the concealed Mermaid princess Nini Anni.
And from this most unique of entities, he received an answer still disappointing—after pushing the oppressive force to its limit.
But is this really the case?
Closing his eyes and relying on the violent elevation of his Authority Level, Fu Qian finally grasped that fleeting thought.
Faced with this seemingly encrypted haze, he directly summoned all the experiences he had in the Sea of Ashes and violently purged them.
Nini Anni by his side made no sound, seemingly gritting her teeth to gather her spirit and ponder diligently.
Yet within this silence, the thought finally emerged into consciousness—
Pushed to the brink, Nini Anni’s "observation" was made with all her might, trying to guess her own intentions, but her final self-assessment was "enigmatic and intangible," a description obviously abstract...
At the same time, she explained that the "island" was essentially a mutation of her body rather than a collective of different individuals, and she spoke of the difficulty of realizing the latter in the Sea of Ashes...
This point clearly conflicted with the fusion of Li Min and Rachel that he had facilitated personally...
In such a case, an inexplicable doubt emerged—perhaps Nini Anni could be ignorant, but how could he so naturally assume that method would work when helping Rachel fulfill her wish?
He had never done such a thing before.
There seemed to be a missing link in the logical chain, one he was completely unaware of.
And even the recognition of this "absence" was rapidly fleeing his mind.
Fortunately, with the violent elevation of his Authority Level, it was finally captured.
Though the missing piece of the logical chain from long ago could not be reclaimed, deducing the answer in reverse was not difficult.
Because of Nini Anni’s connection to this place, her awareness could be considered common knowledge, meaning the creatures of the Sea of Ashes do undergo rampant mutations, but direct fusion between different individuals is not attainable.
And the reason he acted so at that time was that he felt it was possible.
Why have this sense that goes against the facts—because it didn’t contradict the facts; around him, they could indeed graft and merge.
This was the anomaly in the Sea of Ashes that he had been searching for from the beginning until now, which occurred due to his arrival!
It had appeared long ago, but all cognizance related to it had been erased.
Not just from himself, but from others as well.
This is why Nini Anni described him as an "enigma" that was hard to observe.
As a native creature of the Sea of Ashes, with a special connection to the Shattered Crown and wisdom born of prolonged illness, this last critic he found likely had sharper insight than anyone else.
She did not disappoint expectations, indeed noticing the changes he brought to the Sea of Ashes, but this discovery too slipped away from her mind.
The final result was that he became an "enigma" in her eyes, difficult to observe.
...
A maneuver worthy of Authority Level, indeed.
Is it truly that bad luck piles up until retribution strikes?
Moral introspection has never been Fu Qian’s forte; he instantly discarded such a tedious notion and arrived at a reasonable yet frightening conclusion—there must be a Deity-tier existence watching him.
Even conducting their observation so covertly that not even the Red Moon noticed.
Recalling it now, it was almost the instant he grafted Li Min onto Rachel that the Shattered Crown underwent an anomaly, enveloping him and his companions within.
And according to Li Min, the interior of the Shattered Crown would exacerbate "normal mutations."
This cognizance could effectively explain the changes around him, prevent him from realizing the truth, and make the blanks on his logical chain more apparent.
The frog that eventually showed up at his door even directly presented a condition for ascension, thoroughly muddying the waters.
Step by step, traps everywhere, even manipulated so exquisitely and covertly!
Fu Qian commended with admiration.
The abrupt change of the Shattered Crown was clearly a rapid response to her grafting operation.
If it weren’t for our good habit of never questioning ourselves, the best outcome right now would probably be returning empty-handed.
"Alright, time’s up."
The next moment, Fu Qian snaps his fingers, signaling the end of the session.
"Don’t..."
The reaction of Nini Anni can only be described as mournful and desolate, but unfortunately, it does nothing to sway Fu Qian.
"One must face life bravely, let’s continue with the last question we were discussing."
Just a question?
However, what he said next was somewhat surprising to Nini Anni.
"Listen carefully, I will only ask once."
Fu Qian didn’t give her any time to organize her thoughts.
"If the Vivian you’ve been waiting for is already dead, do you want to be freed from the Curse, or continue to bear this pain?"
...
"I’ll admit, the suggestion to be freed is really tempting."
Fu Qian waited a while, until the radiance on his body was almost extinguished. Only then did Nini Anni’s voice sound again.
"I can guess that my sister must have encountered a lot of trouble, but you said ’if’... I think as long as I keep waiting here, there’s still a glimmer of hope..."
"If possible, I choose to let the Curse continue."
"Very good."
Fu Qian actually appreciates this choice. The next moment he reaches out and grabs Nini Anni’s head, initiating the Return Edict.
"Of course, I have the right to interpret the choice."
In just a few seconds, the nausea that had been troubling Fu Qian since the beginning erupted more intensely than ever before.
Accompanied by this was the convulsive struggle of the huge island, with sludge and pus blood flying everywhere.
However, these things could no longer pose any interference to Fu Qian in his Pseudo-Divine Being state.
When the brief divinity rank dissipated, the thick, paste-like blood beneath this secret space had already submerged his knees.
In contrast, the flesh mountain behind Nini Anni had disappeared.
...
When Fu Qian released his hand, Nini Anni’s eyelids fluttered, and she struggled to open a slit.
Unfortunately, it was still pitch black inside.
The "waxy liquid" that had previously sealed her eyes seemed to be the melted and flowed out eyeballs?
Fu Qian said nothing, and Nini Anni seemed not to mind at all, joyfully touching her body with a feeling of rebirth.
"Nice legs."
Fu Qian also looks down and remarks seriously.
The scales below the waist of this Mermaid princess already looked much more fine, but further down, it was not a tail like the little mermaid’s in the corner, but a dense array of sharp feet.
Pale, sharp, each one unfolding several meters long, elegantly arranged on both sides of her body.
Indeed, they were the tongues of Sa Long.
The metamorphosis of the lower body was too severe; even the Return Edict wasn’t omnipotent.
And as a strong survivor within the Shattered Crown, the most refined part of Sa Long’s tongue was undoubtedly one of the most difficult things to purify, so such a transformation wasn’t really surprising.
Even in Fu Qian’s view, this was much more domineering than two smooth, bare feet.
Tongue-footed beauty, if there ever was one.
Of course, what pleased Fu Qian the most was that although the state of Pseudo-Divine Being had ended, the thought he had earlier had not slipped away.
Staring at his counterpart, it seemed like an acceptance of defeat.