CH 142

The moon hung above the clouds, illuminating the uneven footsteps along the sandy beach of the island.

Bai Chunian’s footsteps became heavier and heavier, his abdominal cavity twisting in pain. He knelt on the shore, propping himself up with his knee. The icy cold seawater rolled against his thigh again and again, curling up the blood dripping down the glands on the back of his neck before retreating back again.. 

The stone on his ear loomed with a dark blue light, guiding him as though it was a heartbeat. Bai Chunian could sense Rimbaud’s location and waded towards the ocean depths, but walking underwater was much more strenuous than walking on land. The energy and stamina that Dr. Han recharged him with was exhausted.

“Rimbaud…come closer…” Bai Chunian’s vision dimmed, and at some point a wave of fishy and salty seawater washed into his mouth. The seawater filled his ears till he could no longer hear the sounds of the wind and he was plunged into the stillness of the sea.

He lost consciousness. The communicator vibrated slightly, but he could no longer hear it.

Rimbaud swam along the deep-water medicine vault dangling a thermal briefcase in his mouth and finally saw the bottommost filter.

The water pressure of where he was already exceeded what a normal person clad in a wetsuit could tolerate. As such, the filter was not fitted with an anti-agent password device. Rimbaud forced the propeller to a stop with his bare hands, and with a yank, pulled the blades off, then used his outstretched pointed claws to rip the filter. Due to it being inconvenient to replace the filter, this special filter was very sturdy and would not rust. At the same time, it was also difficult for deep-water fish to damage it. Rimbaud had to bite and pull before a small hole just enough to stick in an arm was torn open.

The water flowed past Rimbaud’s ear, carrying with it a soft and strange sound. Rimbaud perked up his blue ear fins and listened to the noise coming from above his head.

It was a foreign sound.

The anti-theft door of the deep-water medicine vault did not require a password when entering. When it sensed someone nearby, it would automatically open. Therefore, the person approached him with nearly no hindrance, even carrying a strong murderous aura. 

The noise got closer and closer. The inside of the vault was too narrow; Rimbaud could not move his hands and tail. He spread open his hands, condensing the seawater in his hands into a hydrated steel chainsaw. When it touched the filter, a scattered blue light exploded from it, sawing a big hole into the filter. Rimbaud forcefully bit the filter and tore at it. Carrying his briefcase, he squeezed out of the gap.

The moment he pulled away from the medicine vault, the last anti-theft door also opened. Eris swam down from above, his hand narrowly missing the tip of Rimbaud’s tail.

Eris was an experimental subject transformed from an inanimate object. He did not need to breathe, and suffocation had no effect on him. Underwater, his disadvantages were even smaller.

His body carried a strong smell of blood, and the blood fog he scattered into the seawater hid a faint smell of brandy pheromones. 

“I’ve heard that you cry pearls instead of tears. If I dig out your eyes and raise them in a tank, would I be able to pick up pearls every morning?” Eris used both hands to part the water and propel him towards Rimbaud. He pointed at the briefcase in his hand and beckoned him with the other. “Hand the HD agent over to me. If you all hold onto this stuff, it’s useless for you anyway. I also don’t know its usefulness, but Knicks asked me to come and snatch it.”

Rimbaud glared at him.

A dull pain emitted from his heart, since he had shared a piece of his heart with Bai Chunian, everytime Bai Chunian was injured, Rimbaud was able to clearly feel his pain and suffering.

Now was not the time to wrangle with another though, as Rimbaud hurried to find Bai Chunian. With a swish of his tail, it became a bolt of blue lightning, and he swam tens of meters away. 

He suddenly came to an abrupt pause. His tail and seaweeds had gotten tangled together, and the reef above his head came crashing down, smashing down onto him in its entirety. Rimbaud stretched out a hand to block, and the edges of stone shards sliced into his arm and opened a wound deep enough to see the bone.

Entangling with Eris was simply just entangling with bad luck. His J1 ability Misfortune Arrives consumed little energy and could be endlessly activated.

Taking advantage of the fact that Rimbaud was suppressed, Eris also swam over.

“You’re…looking for death…” Rimbaud shook off the blood on his arm. The wound healed slowly, and he was also irritated. He crawled out from under the broken rocks and swam to the top of the reef. He used his hands’ sharp claws to tightly cling to the edge of the stones, and his tail began to turn blood red. 

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This was a kind of anti-tank rocket launcher. It was a powerful weapon made of hydrated steel, which was enough to make others feel Rimbaud’s anger.

A blue flash was ejected from the rear-end of the barrel, and a transparent shell flew towards Eris, blowing up the collapsed reef. This caused a strong current to erupt from the bottom of the sea, and the surrounding corals were all uprooted.

Eris was pushed over ten meters away by the shockwaves from the shell, rolling a few times on the soft sand seabed before stopping. 

Rimbaud said in a scornful, cold voice, “Wait for me to find my randi, then I’ll come and destroy you. You’re just a damaged rag doll, yet you’re still so arrogant.”

“You!”

In any case, the ocean floor was no advantageous terrain for Eris. He got up again to continue chasing, but Rimbaud had already gone several hundreds of meters away, only leaving behind a streak of blue lightning.

Rimbaud placed a hand on his beating heart. He perked up his ear fins to listen to the sounds of the ocean, and the weak heartbeat was seemingly already near his ears. 

“Randi……”

“Randi…”

The seawater flowing between each of his blue scales seemed to carry the scent of Bai Chunian. Rimbaud came to a stop in the middle of the sea and spun around in search of him. He feared that Bai Chunian would not be able to swim fast enough and get scratched by a shark’s rough scales, feared that he would run out of energy and sink into the water and suffocate, feared that he would float away to somewhere Rimbaud would never be able to find him.

Eris had already caught up from afar, and Rimbaud was surrounded by a dark shadow. 

All of a sudden, Rimbaud was immobilized. Upon taking a closer look, he realized that his lower body was buried in hot magma. His scales curled up and peeled away from his body, and his skin was gradually being swallowed by the volcanic magma.

Curses of the mermaid tribe resounded from all around him.

“Fanliber. (Sinner who betrayed the mermaid clan)”

“Hoti coon, kimo goon. (When the magma struck, you abandoned us)” 

“Boliea abanda kimo. Nowa siren. (We have decided to exile you, ousted king)”

The scorching heat roasted him, and he spent all his strength suppressing the flames of the magma. He could not even spare a bit to protect his beautiful scales.

The surge of molten rocks buried Rimbaud deep, preventing him from breathing.

Cursemaker’s M2 ability Horror Film would make darkness descend on a person, force them to be tortured by their life’s most painful incidents so they would forever live in the past filled with hatred and damnation. 

Rimbaud lost consciousness in the sea, slowly sinking to the bottom.

“He looks sad, if only I could see what was causing him such agony.” Eris used his arms and legs to swim over, yanking the briefcase from Rimbaud’s hand. His hand was still tightly clutching the briefcase, so Eris took out a dagger, inserting it into the palm of his hand to make a prising motion. “En? His hand looks really nice too, the webs are even shiny, why not bring it back to make a bedside lamp. Wow, why’s he wearing a cat’s claw ring.”

Eris raised his dagger, slashing down at Rimbaud’s wrist forcefully.

Rimbaud’s hand suddenly twitched. Gripping the briefcase with even more strength, he swung it around and smashed Eris on the head with it. The two broke apart upon contact and once again were separated by some distance. 

“In the 200 years that I ruled over the sea clan, I was often called a tyrant. I no longer care about the life and death of those who misunderstand. Only the sea, that lives and dies with me, and a sincere young boy can make me worry.” Rimbaud gently raised his right hand, the unlimited flow of water formed a vortex in his palm, and a quiet anger aroused in the ocean, “Your parlor tricks have no value in my eyes.”

Sharp like a sword, water dragged a blue light that coiled around Eris’s body. The water flow formed a transparent cage, trapping Eris on the bottom of the sea, and he even began to slowly sink into the sand.

Even though Cursemaker had already attained the skill grade of a grade 9 maturity stage subject and he was controlled by Puppet Master’s wind-up key, he still could not offset Rimbaud’s advantage in the sea.

Rimbaud swam toward the shallows. Like blue ghosts, blue jellyfish clustered around him as he left. 

The sound of noisy propellers circled overhead; a helicopter was in the air above them, searching.

Knicks was piloting the helicopter, Specter was hiding in the corner hugging the hourglass, and Sarcosuchus was holding Strange Bones, who had separated from the cultivation fluid. Strange Bones was asleep leaning on Sarcosuchus’s shoulder. Her gold and jade-colored eyebrows were blown by the wind, and her long peacock feathers swayed in the wind, which made sounds of crystals hitting each other.

A blue lightning approached the sea surface. Sarcosuchus yelled, “Electro-optic Phantom is coming up!”

When retreating he was surrounded by the IOA agents, and the wounds all over his body hadn’t completely healed yet. He growled, held the machine gun fixed on the helicopter with both hands, and shot toward the sea where the lightning passed. The bullets fell like rain on the sea, aroused waves, and penetrated the water surface one after another. 

There was a brief silence.

Lightning suddenly struck the sea surface. Rimbaud lept out out of the water and 17 meters up into the air. He had the hydrated steel rocket launcher on his shoulder, and a bullet flew toward their helicopter.

“Goon. (Die)”

Manta Ray’s M2 differentiation ability, High-Explosive Water Bomb—the powerful impact and coverage made the helicopter unable to dodge it. The helicopter was hit and blew up, emitting billowing smoke and ignited flames. 

Although the explosion suppressed the sound of the gunfire, it had awakened Strange Bones.

Rimbaud flipped over and dived back into the sea.

Eris floated up in a state of embarrassment; his silver hair was wetly stuck to his head, and his clothes were torn to pieces by the water blade. He released a golden thread from his wrist to the smoking helicopter and lifted himself out of the water.

Knicks had a calm expression. He put his hand on the nape of Eris’ neck, which was drenched all over, and twisted the silver wind-up key. 

Eris’ broken bones were sewn together by golden thread and more than half his used-up energy was restored.

He sat with one leg bent in the helicopter full of smoke and flames, stuck out his tongue, and smiled sinisterly at Rimbaud. “Will you still have the final say when you get ashore?”

Rimbaud stuck half his body out of the water, raised the suitcase in his hand, and asked indifferently, “Do you want the agent inside?”

Knicks’s eyebrows wrinkled slightly. “Eris, take it back. Don’t let him destroy it.” 

Eris immediately jumped off the helicopter and stretched his hand to grab the suitcase in Rimbaud’s hand.

But it was too late.

“Come get it from the seabed.” With the suitcase, Rimbaud crushed a chunk of it in one bite, threw what remained into his mouth full of sharp teeth, chewed, and swallowed it.

When Eris realized it was too late, there was already no turning back. 

The HD horizontal development agent was extremely precious; it could immediately give birth to an associated ability related to the characteristics of the user’s glands, and it was permanent.

Under natural circumstances, an associated ability could only be acquired probabilistically every time a subject differentiated. The ability itself wasn’t an offensive type, but as long as the user possessed an associated ability, it could already greatly assist them.

Knicks tightly clenched his fist. Electro-optic Phantom was already strong enough. He couldn’t imagine how it would be if another associated ability appeared.

Rimbaud swung his tail, the fish tail appearing bright red as it swelled with blood, and each scale was suddenly covered in a golden outline. 

Manta Ray’s third associated ability, Koi Blessing: Grant great luck for a short period of time.

Eris, “???”

Before Rimbaud could figure out how to use his new associated ability, he was struck from behind.

He turned around and looked; Bai Chunian was actually floating on the sea and had hit his head on his waist. 

“Randi, randi.” Rimbaud immediately forgot about the enemy. He held Bai Chunian, stuck their cheeks together, and injected soothing pheromones into his body.

Rimbaud could smell the scent of blood on him. He suddenly saw the bite mark on the back of Bai Chunian’s neck.

“…Wei. (Why)” Rimbaud dazedly used the tip of his tail and gently touched Bai Chunian’s seawater soaked nape. “Ne boliea Quan eiy. (My Queen (gland) has been bitten)”

Bai Chunian moved. He coughed violently, raised a hand with difficulty, and put it lightly on Rimbaud’s shoulder. The seawater trickled down between his fingers. 

“Scythe… Let me borrow it…once more.”

Rimbaud patted Bai Chunian’s back in reassurance. He raised his right hand, the seawater was extracted into water droplets following his beckoning, and the starry water droplets gathered in Rimbaud’s palm to form a rock. The rock gradually elongated, turning into a scythe with electric lights, and he held it in his palm.

“It was meant for you.”

Bai Chunian weakly raised his head in astonishment. 

Rimbaud looked at the smooth and cool surface of the scythe. “The ocean has two hearts. One is the heart of the living, which is the one in my chest, the source of billions of life in the ocean. The other one is the heart of the dead, the Dead Sea heart rock, which gathers the long-cherished wishes of those who died in the deep sea. It’s not auspicious for me to hold it.”

A glimmer of light rose in Bai Chunian’s eyes.

“Give me…”

Rimbaud pursed his lips. “But this is not what you need right now.” 

“Oh.” Bai Chunian’s animal ears, which he could not hide due to excessive weakness, drooped down.

The scythe in Rimbaud’s hand melted and returned to its original rock shape. The rock was casting in his hands, melting into a solid and transparent beast muzzle, which imprisoned Bai Chunian’s sharp teeth and jaw together. A thin chain was extended from the back of the muzzle, and the end of the thin chain was in Rimbaud’s palm.

“You can go now.” Rimbaud pulled at the hydrated thin chain emitting faint blue light and examined it closely. “You won’t lose control with me here.”

Eris hung himself on the helicopter with a cursed golden thread and looked at Bai Chunian—whose hair was white and his eyes filled with dark blue light—in amazement. His fangs imprisoned by the muzzle grew wildly, and he was becoming more and more like a male white lion. 

“A controller…?”

Bai Chunian’s body drew a silver-white arc under the moon and suddenly threw Eris off the helicopter. His arm strength was far different from that of the previous fight, but Eris still didn’t feel the fluctuation of his pheromones emitted from him from using his A3 ability.

The two touched each other in the air for only a moment, and then fell separately. Eris was already stunned speechless by the shocking power displayed by Bai Chunian.

He froze in place, then looked down at his own right arm. 

His forearm had been so easily amputated that he didn’t even sense it in the slightest.

Knicks stared closely at Bai Chunian. The veins in his hands that operated the helicopter slowly bulged, and his knuckles turned white.

The muzzle Bai Chunian was wearing obviously didn’t give him any boost whatsoever; what he demonstrated was entirely his own strength. On the contrary, the muzzle restricted him like shackles.

The strength of a normal envoy-type experimental subject should have been enhanced after obtaining a controller, yet Divine Envoy needed to rely on it to weaken himself.