Chapter 73
His palms couldn’t help but sweat.
In the real world, Zhang Zhong had studied kickboxing, and his fighting skills had always been the best among them. After entering the instance, he had become even more vigilant, able to sense almost anyone who approached.
This was Li Feiyang’s biggest concern.
But Jiang Liu was different. In the short two steps it took for her to walk over and crouch down, she moved as silently as a cat. Even the arc of her punch was calculated to prevent anyone from sensing the disturbance in the air. As long as she was fast enough, she could take down an enemy in one move.
He could grasp the principle behind it, but he knew he could never do it himself.
“Where are the keys?” Jiang Liu straightened up, somewhat disgusted by the foul smell on Zhang Zhong.
Only then did Li Feiyang snap back to reality. He coughed awkwardly and, after confirming that Zhang Zhong was completely unconscious, fumbled around on his body and finally pulled out a string of keys.
“Found them!” he exclaimed excitedly. As he stood up, he made a gesture to hand them to Jiang Liu, but for some reason, his body took two steps back.
Li Feiyang’s previously timid demeanor vanished, replaced by a sudden arrogance. He held the keys high and looked at Jiang Liu, his tone negotiating. “Trade the speedboat for these.”
Jiang Liu stared at him expressionlessly, her tone tinged with mockery. “What nonsense are you talking about?”
She couldn’t help but wonder who had given him the courage to challenge her.
Li Feiyang was clearly a bit afraid of her. He gripped the keys tightly in his palm, his voice distorted with nervousness. “I know you’re strong, but those Mermaids can’t be saved. Either you let me go first in exchange, or we both leave the Mermaids alone and go together.”
When he mentioned the Mermaids, his face turned ugly. Constrained by the disparity in their fighting abilities, he didn’t confront Jiang Liu head-on. Instead, he slowly backed away, explaining cautiously.
“Their blood is highly toxic. It’ll drive people mad. That’s why Zhang Zhong and the others fell for it. I’ve been careful not to get touched, so I can still stay sane.”
To win Jiang Liu’s trust, he lifted his foot and pointed to his clothes, which were made of a special waterproof material. It seemed he had made preparations after noticing something was wrong.
“The toxicity is too strong. If they’re released, it will spread throughout the entire sea. No player will be spared then. We can’t do this.”
He spoke breathlessly, looking at Jiang Liu with extreme sincerity. “I’m begging you, can we just ignore this damn thing and leave?”
Jiang Liu sneered. “Why should I believe you?”
This excuse might work on others, but she had been in a fight the moment she entered the instance. Lin Sa’s blood mixed with seawater had practically given her a bath, and she was perfectly fine.
Li Feiyang’s face grew even uglier, as if he’d been pushed to his limit. He finally stopped haggling with Jiang Liu and shouted, “Get them!”
At his command, the few people who had been sleeping nearby all got up at once. Each held a machete several dozen centimeters long and surrounded Jiang Liu’s group with unfriendly expressions.
Jiang Liu clicked her tongue. She had already moved like a Ghostly Shadow behind one of them. A swift chop to the back of his neck, and she had snatched the machete, twirling it in her palm. This blade isn’t half bad, she thought.
“I advise you not to move! You’re all poisoned. The faster your blood flows from moving, the worse you’ll feel!”
Li Feiyang had already retreated to a safe distance outside Jiang Liu’s attack range, his back soaked in cold sweat. He quickly shouted, “If you don’t believe me, look at them!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Tang Rui, not far away, suddenly cried out in pain. He clutched his chest, gasping for breath, his face flushed red. He was already unsteady on his feet, about to collapse.
Jiang Liu frowned, a flicker of surprise flashing through her mind.
They hadn’t touched any of the things Li Feiyang had given them. How could they be poisoned?
Where had things gone wrong?
Seeing that she had finally stopped, Li Feiyang breathed another sigh of relief and spoke with smug satisfaction, “Good thing I had a backup plan. Now give me the speedboat key, and I’ll reluctantly give you the antidote.”
As he spoke, he didn’t forget to let out a mock sigh. “I didn’t want to do this to you, but you insisted on releasing those monsters. We’re all players, there’s no need to be so hostile, right?”
Jiang Liu sneered and slowly lowered the machete, throwing it to the ground. She also made sure to toss the dagger hidden in her sleeve down as well. “I’ll confirm their safety first.”
Li Feiyang didn’t respond, merely giving his men a look to have them back off temporarily.
Jiang Liu ignored their movements and went to check on Tang Rui.
“My chest feels tight, it’s hard to breathe,” Tang Rui said, lying on the ground with a flushed face, full of anger. “Don’t worry about me. Grab the keys and let’s go.”
This Li Feiyang was nothing but a bastard. It was obvious this was all premeditated. Not a single word out of his mouth was true. To think he had actually believed him for a moment.
Jiang Liu patted him, signaling him to be quiet for now, and turned to look at the others.
Tang Ruo and Jiang He had better physical constitutions, so their conditions weren’t as severe as Tang Rui’s, but they also showed clear signs of discomfort.
“What do we do?” Tang Ruo hesitated. Without the speedboat, their upcoming mission would be quite difficult.
Jiang Liu pursed her lips, suddenly feeling something in her pocket heat up.
She reached in and touched it, a flicker of surprise in her eyes—
It was the Scale.
The moment her fingers touched the Scale, an invisible warmth surged from her fingertips to her heart, as if some strange power was soothing her emotions.
Wait a minute—
Jiang Liu’s eyes darted around as a thought quickly came to her.
It was now basically certain that Li Feiyang was full of nonsense, but his tone when he said he didn’t want to release the Mermaids was exceptionally genuine. His face had momentarily darkened, as if he feared something.
What if the blood was indeed poisonous under certain special circumstances?
Her mind raced, and her peripheral vision couldn’t help but glance at the group of people surrounding her. In the firelight, it was clear that their clothes and shoes, like Li Feiyang’s, were made of special materials. Only Zhang Zhong’s were not.
Li Feiyang’s initial target was Zhang Zhong. He wanted to use Jiang Liu’s power to get rid of this companion, then take the speedboat and leave.
Recalling the fear in his voice, Jiang Liu’s thoughts gradually became clearer.
She calmly had the three of them sit together. “Don’t move.”
Before they could answer, she had already walked straight towards Li Feiyang. As she moved, the group of men also tightened their grip on their machetes and moved with her.
“Now you believe me, right?” Li Feiyang was still shouting from a distance.
Jiang Liu curled her lips into a smile, her gaze intentionally or unintentionally glancing eastward.
As if compromising, she said to Li Feiyang, “You save them, and I’ll give you the speedboat key.”
After speaking, she readily took out the key and threw it forward, landing it accurately two meters away. She then held out her hand to Li Feiyang.
The key lay gleaming on the ground. A flash of ecstasy appeared in Li Feiyang’s eyes. After repeatedly confirming that Jiang Liu was no longer a threat, he quickly ran in her direction.
Jiang Liu let out a soft laugh. While his attention was elsewhere, she quickly twisted around, grabbed the arms of two men, and with a forceful crisscross pull, pressed them to the ground.
A cry of alarm came from their direction, but Li Feiyang paid it no mind, his thoughts consumed by the key.
He was only thinking of his own escape, completely unconcerned about the lives of these people.
As Jiang Liu thought this, she had already snatched a machete and used its spine to subdue the men. This group’s skill level was truly amateurish; even with knives, they didn’t dare to strike a fatal blow.
Hesitation made them easy to deal with. Jiang Liu took care of the six of them in a few moves, then took a running start and leaped, landing right where the key was, two meters away. She stamped on the key just before Li Feiyang could reach it.
Just a second away from escaping, Li Feiyang’s face turned pale. He heard a mocking voice from above. “They listen to you so well. Isn’t it a bit inappropriate for you to leave like this?”
Li Feiyang cursed under his breath, looking at Jiang Liu’s unfazed appearance with particular astonishment. “How can you be fine?”
Jiang Liu ignored him, kicked him to the ground, and looked down at him. “You should be worried about yourself right now.”
She smiled playfully and slowly shouted to the six men she had knocked down behind her, “You all saw it just now. He never intended to take you with him, did he?”
The men were aching all over from the beating, but it had also allowed them to see Li Feiyang’s true colors. Hearing this, they were instantly filled with rage and, despite the pain, ran to Li Feiyang’s side and cursed him.
Their words fell like knives on Li Feiyang’s heart, which in turn ignited his own anger. He raised his head and shouted furiously.
“This godforsaken place will eat people! Is it wrong for me to want to live?!”
He glared at Jiang Liu, his eyes bloodshot. “I proposed a partnership long ago. If just the few of us had left, everything would have been fine. It’s all your fault for insisting on releasing those things!”
Jiang Liu stared at him coldly, causing Li Feiyang’s righteous words to get stuck in his throat. He felt an uncharacteristic pang of guilt.
These six players were ordinary people. During the fight, they held their knives and bluffed, not daring to make a move, yet they still summoned the courage to help Li Feiyang intimidate others.
But he only wanted to save himself. That was what he had done wrong.
“It’s not wrong to want to live, but you shouldn’t have deceived them.”
A cool voice fell from above. Before Li Feiyang could react, another kick came and knocked him out.
Jiang Liu gripped the Scale and walked over to Tang Rui in a few steps.
It was now basically certain that the Mermaid Princess’s Scale could cure the poison. She had been unaffected because she had been carrying it with her.
As she approached, the players who had been cursing Li Feiyang came to their senses. They looked at Jiang Liu’s actions with dazed helplessness and spoke in low voices, “They’re beyond saving. They’ll turn into monsters. There’s no antidote at all. We’re all going to die.”
As soon as this was said, the other few people also fell to their knees in despair, and some began to sob quietly.
What does ‘turn into monsters’ mean?
Jiang Liu raised an eyebrow in confusion. Just as she was about to ask, she heard a shout from the east, accompanied by a massive wave that descended from the sky with great momentum.
“Reinforcements are here!!!!!”
She was drenched from head to toe by the splashing water, which even contained a slippery piece of seaweed. She managed to stand up and squinted into the distance.
In the center of the splash, a dark green fishtail was faintly visible. The upper body was incongruously clad in that work uniform shirt, and on its head was a messy pile of seaweed. It was a comical yet somewhat serious sight.
It was the Guide Yang Caisi had mentioned—Gao Yuan.
Jiang Liu coughed violently as if she had choked on water, feeling her eyes burn.