Chapter 687: Section 474: Fishman Youth, Cang Xu Converge
White Hair Sea Trench.
Deep beneath the sea.
The enormous Magic Array had been activated, emitting a buzzing sound.
Countless Magic Runes and Divine Texts intermingled in brilliance, lighting up the seafloor as if it were bathed in bright light.
The radiance illuminated the faces of each Mei Lan Believer, casting their expressions—be it devout or fanatical—into sharp, even fierce, relief.
Out of place among the people around were the Undead Mages.
Their expressions were generally grave and gloomy, with an undeniable layer of panic.
Similar to them were entities like Ba Qi, Sea Snake Lady, and Gum Man among the pirates.
Qing Xin stood beside the pirates but kept a certain distance.
Her complexion was very pale.
When she was captured, even though it was along with the Undead Mages, she had been placed with the Human Race pirates upon being imprisoned.
Zhou Zhang’s strategy for these Human Race pirates was the same as that for the Undead Mages.
Under the leadership of the ship ghost, the Undead Mages adopted a relatively fair policy and ultimately elected Cang Xu as the leader.
However, there was no such response on the side of the Human Race pirates.
Qing Xin had no relations with these people, and, undoubtedly, she became the first person they put forward.
The only consolation for her was that in this special Blood Sacrifice, Zhou Zhang had arranged only for Cang Xu to participate, allowing the other captives to merely watch.
“After Xu Jia, I will be the next captive to participate in the Transmission Blood Sacrifice,” Qing Xin thought to herself, her heart filled with pressure and utter despair.
To speak of it, her experiences recently had truly been dreadful.
Originally, Zi Di summoned Qing Xin back to her side, genuinely intending to help her, to unite her strength.
But the identity Zi Di revealed in front of Qing Xin had little to do with the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, it was even rather tense.
Zi Di was more worried about the exposure of the survivors’ secrets and found it inconvenient to disclose the identity of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps to Qing Xin at the time.
Until proving Qing Xin trustworthy, she could only delay.
This delay continued until Qing Xin and Cang Xu joined the ship ghost.
It dragged on to the battle at Nether River.
Then to the confrontation with the Ba Qi pirates, and finally to being captured by Zhou Zhang.
Now, Qing Xin had become a prisoner with belief conversion as her only way out.
To speak of it, Qing Xin was not only a Transcendent but also a Silver Level Mage. If she were in a place like Flower Skirt Island, she could also hold sway, leading a small faction.
But here, under Zhou Zhang’s close watch, she could only struggle on the edge of life and death, completely deprived of freedom and hope.
The Blood Sacrifice continued.
A large number of sea beasts vanished into nothingness upon the Gold Altar.
The Believers had been carefully chosen, kneeling in a large circle around the Gold Altar. Some of their bodies trembled slightly as they prayed loudly, some wore faces marked by tension, a matter of life and death after all, but some appeared calm and composed.
Cang Xu was among them.
He was so unique that a great many gazes were focused on him.
“It seems this luckless Undead Mage is the first one they’ve abandoned.”
“He’s doomed!”
“Don’t underestimate him; perhaps he’ll successfully convert.”
“Even if he does convert, I don’t want an Undead as one of our fellow believers.”
The Mei Lan Believers whispered among themselves in private.
“Xu Jia…” the Little Prince murmured, looking at Cang Xu’s back, feeling very guilty.
Standing next to him was Ku Feng, the Undead warrior felt no guilt, but he greatly admired Cang Xu’s calm.
Cang Xu’s demeanor was composed, his calm and collected state visible inside and out, making it easy for one to notice, as if he were not the one participating in the Transmission Blood Sacrifice at all.
Cang Xu even had the leisure to look around.
When his gaze fell on Qing Xin, it paused slightly.
Qing Xin looked terrible, it was evident that the female mage was filled with despair.
Cang Xu very much wanted to go over and comfort Qing Xin, but he ultimately did not take such action. Comforting Qing Xin for no reason would create a flaw, causing the ship ghost, Zhou Zhang, and others to grow suspicious.
Similarly, without revealing a major secret, Qing Xin would not believe his comfort. If Qing Xin did not believe, then any comfort would be feeble and powerless.
Cang Xu wouldn’t engage in ineffective actions.
Zhou Zhang stood on the Gold Altar, looking down at the scene below.
Her attention was not focused on Cang Xu.
She was meticulous with the arrangements for the Undead Mages, but Zhou Zhang’s attitude was also very positive, not overly expecting these people to truly convert.
After all, even if the conversion failed, these people would become sacrifices.
Zhou Zhang’s real concern was hidden deep within his heart, “This time, the blood sacrifice required significantly more offerings than the last, yet the frequency of the transmission blood sacrifice had decreased.”
“Could it be that my lord’s injuries have worsened, requiring more divine power to stabilize his condition?”
However, the real reason wasn’t Zhou Zhang’s wild guess.
It was the Divine Artifact, Mermaid’s Fairy Tale, aboard the Deep Sea Monster Fish, continuously drawing on the divine power from the Ocean Nest.
By now, the shell-like Mermaid’s Fairy Tale could no longer hold all the Pearl Bubbles.
Many Pearl Bubbles had already spilled out of the shell, scattering across the surrounding tables.
Zhou Zhang couldn’t possibly imagine that the great thief stealing divine power was right under her eyes, hidden within the Ocean Nest, undetectable even by the Holy Domain Level Snowy Octopus guarding it.
When the spatial fluctuations reached their peak, Cang Xu and other Mei Lan believers were transported and disappeared from the spot.
“Here they come!” The Dragon-man youth aboard the Deep Sea Monster Fish had been on high alert, preparing for some time now.
When the Mei Lan believers teleported into the Ocean Nest, he immediately located Cang Xu.
Several Rubber Swallower Model Alchemy Puppets were promptly deployed.
These puppets had long been lying in ambush nearby.
They were all enhanced with Deception and Disguise Skill, Anti-Intelligence Prophecy Skill.
One Rubber Swallower opened its mouth, spitting out a large quantity of Magic Potion. The potion, like a mist of blood, instantly covered a large area, preventing the believers from detecting any abnormalities nearby.
Then, another Rubber Swallower spat out an Alchemy Puppet that resembled Cang Xu.
While the real Cang Xu was swallowed directly by a third Rubber Swallower.
As the Mei Lan followers were being transported, they hadn’t even reacted when they were enveloped by a mist of blood.
The blood mist quickly dissipated. These people quickly scanned around, clueless that the nearby Cang Xu had already been swapped. Their attention was swiftly drawn to the Holy Domain sea beast, eliciting exclamations from many.
The Rubber Swallower that had swallowed Cang Xu slipped into the sea, swam downwards, and eventually entered the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
Soon after, Cang Xu emerged from the landing chamber, meeting the Dragon-man youth.
“Squad leader, sir!” Cang Xu bowed deeply to the Dragon-man youth, his expression agitated.
The Dragon-man youth chuckled at Cang Xu and with a flash of blood light on his body, shifted from his Dragon-man form to his Fishman form.
The youth took the initiative to explain, “This is my latest form. The previous Dragon-man form was really not suitable for underwater combat. Time is very short, let’s talk while we walk.”
Cang Xu knew about the Blood Core, and he had already learned of the youth’s Fishman form when communicating with him earlier.
Cang Xu followed closely behind the Dragon-man youth into the metal corridor.
As they passed, they arrived at the cabin storing the Divine Artifact, Mermaid’s Fairy Tale.
He saw with his own eyes that the shell was filled with Pearl Bubbles, and many had even scattered onto the tabletop.
The old Mage sincerely remarked, “I’ve never seen so many Pearl Bubbles before. Just this collection alone, we’ve made a huge profit!”
However, the Fishman youth remained calm, “All these only matter if we safely leave this place.”
Currently, they had already tested the Deception and Disguise Skill in front of Zhou Zhang, still effective.
But it wasn’t foolproof.
What they deceived was the ordinary state of Zhou Zhang.
Should Zhou Zhang sense something amiss and use surveillance-type Divine Arts, it might still be possible to break the Deception and Disguise Skill.
Meanwhile, the Fishman youth and Cang Xu had reached some consensus during their secret communications.
Such as this Ocean Nest.
It was an excellent source for replenishing Pearl Bubbles!
Also, it was the only path the survivors had unexpectedly discovered so far.
Directly destroying the Ocean Nest for a chance to escape posed risks and was too wasteful.
Cang Xu believed that they should preserve the Ocean Nest as much as possible because the survivors heavily relied on Deception and Disguise Skill, meaning that Pearl Bubbles, a Divine Level material, were essential!
The survivors didn’t yet know how long their plan to repent before the Empire’s high echelon would last, nor if it would eventually succeed.
Thus, the more Pearl Bubbles, the better.
This also meant that preserving the Ocean Nest was very beneficial for the survivors.
In this scenario, the Fishman youth didn’t rashly destroy the Ocean Nest, but instead patiently awaited Cang Xu, placing their greatest hope of leaving on him.
The two forward, arriving in front of a cabin.
The metal cabin door slid aside, and they entered inside.
This was the place the Fishman youth had already prepared for Cang Xu.
Inside, the Memory Transformation Device awaited, ready for Cang Xu to operate.
“I’ve already tried using this alchemy device. With the heritage content you sent back, I can use this device to forge memories. Currently, the forged memories we devised are completed,” stated the Fishman youth. Although a fighter, he was able to forge memories with high efficiency using this device.
Indeed, this was precisely the role alchemy tools should play.
Just like Magic Scrolls and Enchanted Weapons, these items enabled fighters to utilize Mage methods.
The Memory Transformation Device, invented by You Can, greatly facilitated the forging of memories. Even the ship ghost, an Undead Mage of the Golden Level, had once lamented how, with such a device, forging memories wouldn’t necessitate cooperation with others.