IRM Chapter 52

Apart from the Demon King’s castle with its special rules and the Eternal Day Yura Summit entirely from Light Stones, the Demon Sword Continent had no time differences. So when Ji Chi and his companions teleported from the desert in the evening, it was also dusk in the Weiss Sea area.

The Elliott family’s private teleportation array in the Weiss Sea was open-air. The three had just stepped out of the gleaming magical formation when they were greeted by the salty sea breeze and the afterglow of sunset over the water.

The teleportation array was located on a small island in the center of the sea area. A magnificent manor was built on the island, with purple irises blooming across the entire isle, like thousands of purple butterflies dancing in the sea breeze.

Tang had concealed his form upon emerging from the teleportation array, following loosely but never straying from behind the two men. Bard couldn’t see him and could only hear his voice clicking in admiration. “I’m only now realizing that money really is a wonderful thing… When this matter is finished, I should also come buy a small island in Weiss.”

Bard looked around, and even he, who was obsessed with crafting in his workshop, couldn’t help but be captivated by the island’s beautiful scenery. He couldn’t help but nod, but quickly remembered the debt of seven million gold coins on his shoulders and his face immediately grew solemn again.

The old butler hadn’t been bluffing them—he really had ordered all the servants to return to their rooms and await orders. So now, the entire island showed no sign of human presence, only the sea breeze carrying flower fragrance whistling and swaying gently.

The small island wasn’t very large, and after walking for over ten minutes they reached the seaside.

Ji Chi glanced at the vast, empty sea surface and turned to ask Bard, “Could the component be hidden on the seabed? Will we need to dive to search for it?”

To enhance players’ immersive experience, the Demon Sword online game had a drowning system. As long as one’s mouth and nose were submerged below the water’s surface, an oxygen level bar would immediately appear in their field of vision. Once the oxygen value hit zero, it would mercilessly begin deducting health points.

Combined with the game’s setting that underwater potions couldn’t be consumed, this added some trouble to exploring the Weiss Sea area.

However, Ji Chi had also conducted experiments on this. Based on his current health points, he could sustain himself for three to four hours while drowning—as long as he didn’t foolishly fall asleep on the seabed, there should basically be no problem.

Bard thought for a moment, then shook his head and nodded. “The scroll only gives a general location. I still don’t know what the situation there will actually be…”

Bard smiled bitterly. “To be honest, I’ve speculated about where the component might be and prepared a lot, but when I actually arrived here, I found that my preparations were still far from adequate…”

Ji Chi nodded understandingly. Yes, that was indeed the consequence of blindly guessing test points.

Bard lowered his head and took out a small paper boat from his toolbox, gently placing it on the beach.

The paper boat seemed to be folded from some kind of special sea fish skin, pitch black and only palm-sized, emanating a not very pleasant fishy smell.

As soon as the small boat touched the seawater, it slowly expanded, finally forming a dark blue small leather boat that could accommodate four or five people, floating steadily on the sea surface.

This was an artifact Ji Chi had never seen before. He curiously stepped forward to touch it—the tough leather was smooth and elastic, able to bear people’s weight very well.

Bard was the first to climb into the leather boat, a trace of nostalgia and smile flashing in his eyes. “Surprised, aren’t you? This is also a kind of artifact. At the time, my student really wanted to make a trip to the Weiss Sea area but was worried about having nowhere to rest in the vast ocean, so we researched and developed such a portable small boat together. I never expected it would actually come in handy one day.”

Ji Chi was indeed somewhat surprised. In his impression, engineers only researched weapons, and in their pride they disdained creating research tools, considering that the work of the lowest-level craftsmen. This had resulted in this high-magic, high-martial world still having technology levels that remained at Earth’s medieval period.

But Ji Chi was surprised by more than just this. “Your student? Anthony? He would think to develop this?”

He recalled that face full of fat, always feeling that wasn’t someone with clever thoughts.

The smile in Bard’s eyes faded, replaced by a trace of mockery. “How could it be? Do you remember the weapons the guards used to punish civilian slaves at the underground city entrance? Those were his masterpieces. But these tools…”

Bard’s expression became somewhat dejected. “Were the ideas of my other student. I’ve never seen such a gifted child, and very spirited too, not limited by profession and purpose. He always felt that every piece of machinery had life, but unfortunately…”

Bard touched upon sad matters and was unwilling to continue, turning his head to gaze at the sparkling waves on the distant sea surface.

The small boat fell silent for a moment.

This small boat was not only the masterpiece of two excellent engineers—Bard had also asked a mage to draw a magic array on the bottom, allowing it to move forward automatically powered by magic crystals.

Bard had long since memorized the map of the Weiss Sea area deeply in his mind. He adjusted direction twice along the way, and the small boat arrived at an island that looked quite large and prosperous.

This prosperity was of course compared to the surrounding endless sea area. An island in the center of the ocean, no matter how prosperous, only had slightly more human activity, still quite distant from truly bustling central streets.

However, most of the people walking on the island shared common characteristics—fair and beautiful faces, ears shaped like translucent fish fins, and thin webbing connecting their fingers.

These were the mermaid tribe of the Weiss Sea area. Whether male or female, they all had lush, seaweed-like long hair draped over their shoulders, each person emanating a unique charm.

However, when they passed Ji Chi, they all couldn’t help but turn back to look at him with amazement.

Ji Chi’s ears happened to be covered by the messy curly hair Tang had styled, and his palms were also loosely clenched into fists, making it impossible to tell whether he was human or mermaid. But his skin tone and appearance were indeed quite misleading, especially in such a sea area, easily categorized as part of the mermaid tribe.

After the mermaids had walked far past, they kept turning back to look at him, their gazes strange. Amazement was only part of it—more was a kind of incomprehensible pity.

Ji Chi felt uncomfortable under their scrutiny and frowned as he asked Bard, “Is what we’re looking for on this island?”

Bard looked at him in surprise. “Of course not. It’s already night now, the sea surface is very dangerous, and aren’t you hungry? I didn’t see you eat much in the desert.”

When Bard mentioned dinner, Ji Chi belatedly pressed his stomach. He indeed hadn’t eaten much all day. The auction house had provided quite a few snacks, but they were all desert specialty foods like lizard jerky and charcoal-grilled snake meat. After trying some, he had cheerfully given up.

The island they had come to was called Mouvira Island, an island where merchants and mermaids coexisted, which could be considered the second largest city of the mermaid tribes—the largest being the underwater city of Manheim.

There were quite a few taverns and inns opened by humans on the island, with the occasional sounds of drunkards shouting and laughing.

They found an inn that looked clean and tidy and pushed open the heavy wooden door.

This inn didn’t have many guests, but they were all merchants with large and small packages of goods, sitting in groups of two or three around wooden tables in the hall, drinking and chatting—a warm and pleasant scene.

However, when they saw Bard and Ji Chi enter, they all couldn’t help but stop their conversations, their meaningful gazes lingering on Ji Chi for a long time before falling on Bard.

The inn suddenly fell silent, the strange atmosphere making Bard’s heart race. He noticed the merchants’ covetous looks toward Ji Chi and couldn’t help but blame Tang’s wild imagination.

The actual victim of cross-dressing, Ji Chi: “Heh.”

Tang hidden in the darkness: “Ehehe~”

They found a corner seat, and Bard ordered several dishes that looked reasonably normal, vigilantly straightening his body to watch the surroundings.

The inn’s waitress noted down the dish names, glanced up at Ji Chi, then quickly lowered her head and bit her lip as she asked, “Would you like a serving of fresh fish sashimi for this young lady mermaid? She doesn’t look very well…”

Ji Chi was startled upon hearing this and couldn’t help but turn to look at her.

The waitress met those mysterious black eyes for a moment, her face inexplicably reddening, but then she sadly looked away.

Bard was somewhat confused, but he didn’t explain unnecessarily and simply waved his hand to refuse her.

The waitress lowered her eyes and sighed softly. “Alright, please wait a moment.”

The waitress didn’t dare say anything more, but the nearby merchants couldn’t stand it anymore. Several of them exchanged glances and walked over, sitting familiarly beside Bard. “Brother, you’re confused! Such beautiful goods could easily sell for several thousand gold coins. Why are you reluctant to spend money on a plate of fish sashimi?”

Goods? Ji Chi looked up at the merchants.

Only then did the merchants notice his eye color and became even more excited. “It’s even a precious black-eyed mermaid! What kind of luck do you have, boy! How about I introduce you to the Third Prince Audis’s faction? I’ll only take a two percent commission after the deal is made!”

Another immediately interrupted him. “I still have connections with the eldest prince! I only want one percent!”

The remaining one was obviously much cleverer than them. He moved close to Bard and pulled out a heavy bag of gold coins from his pocket, asking quietly, “Which island area did you capture her from? Near those eastern islands? Recently the beautiful mermaid girls have been hiding very tightly. I must say, you’re really lucky!”

Bard was silent for a while, then chose to accept the bag of gold coins, vaguely telling him the name of an uninhabited island on the edge of the map. The rarely known island name added credibility.

The merchant’s eyes lit up as he carefully inquired about the specific location of Bard’s island.

Seeing that they had already struck up a conversation, the other merchants sighed with regret and left the wooden table with unwilling expressions, though they didn’t pester further—this was an unwritten rule among island merchants.

After giving the information, Bard rummaged through the bag of gold coins he had just received, took out two coins, and placed them in front of the merchant, asking nonchalantly, “When do the princes want the goods?”

The merchant somewhat complexly accepted the gold coins he had just given out, somewhat confused by his question but not suspicious. “Of course before the ritual begins, but calculating this way there aren’t many days left… It still takes a day’s journey from Manheim to the temple.”

“Temple?” Bard’s eyes lit up when he heard the keyword. He had a premonition that was exactly the place they were looking for.

The merchant looked at Bard and laughed heartily, with an understanding expression. “I knew any merchant would be interested in the temple! But don’t think too much about it—that place has long been blockaded by the mermaids! Speaking of which, the mermaid tribe is also pitiful. Not only did they find nothing after searching the temple thoroughly, they also angered the ancient god, awakened the guardian monster, and became bound by generational curses…”

The merchant shook his head and stood up, feeling this topic was somewhat unlucky. He stuffed the two gold coins into his pocket, waved at Bard for a while, then left the inn, apparently preparing to try his luck fishing for mermaids in that Silian Daihe Archipelago.

Bard shook his head. That place was the edge of the world—there might be mermaids there… returning safely would mean running into good luck.

Before long, rich white salmon soup, fragrant baked scallops, plus a large serving of golden, tempting baked bread were brought up, along with a serving of tender red fresh sashimi, which wasn’t within Bard’s order range.

The waitress said quietly with lowered head. “This is complimentary for you. Enjoy your meal.”

She quickly left the wooden table after speaking, leaving the two people at the table in deathly silence, both staring at that serving of bright red fish sashimi.

Ji Chi didn’t wait for Bard to speak before firmly refusing. “Don’t even think about it.”

Bard turned around, looking at him earnestly and pleadingly, “But this is the most direct method! I’ll give you defensive weapons, Tang will be responsible for dealing with that monster, you just need to disguise yourself as a mermaid and set up a teleportation array in the temple!”

Ji Chi sneered. “I’ll do the first two, how about you take charge of disguising yourself as a mermaid?”

Bard huffed indignantly. “If I could, I would have done it already!”

Ji Chi pointed behind him. “Well, he can too. I’m not the only precious black-eyed mermaid.”

Bard didn’t know where Tang was, but imagining him disguised as a mermaid made his whole body shudder slightly. He said quietly, “I don’t think the mermaid princes would want him.”

Tang poked Bard’s back in dissatisfaction.

Ji Chi was difficult to persuade. He looked directly at Bard and said word by word, “First, I’m not a young woman. Second, I’m not a mermaid. So, do you think all those mermaids are blind?”

“Haha, you don’t need to worry about that!” Tang circled back behind Ji Chi, chuckling. “First, no one can see through my disguise techniques. Second, I have a way to make you become a mermaid. So, I support this proposal!”

Ji Chi suddenly turned back to look coolly at Tang’s shadow.

Bard turned around and sighed softly. “If you’re unwilling, forget it then. I have another method. First, we can spend several months exploring this sea area. Second, we need to eliminate all the mermaids near the blockaded area. So, is everyone prepared to be hunted by the mermaid tribe?”

Ji Chi clicked his tongue in annoyance at what he said.

Because Bard had indeed reminded him of something—his vacation was limited, and he didn’t want to waste it on boring sea area searches.

Ji Chi’s face was stern. “…So, how does one become a mermaid?”