Chapter 146 - 23: The Truth of Everything

Chapter 146: Chapter 23: The Truth of EverythingHidden Moon Following Wind: Thank you, expert, for clearing my doubts. Wentian Wuji: Haha, no need to be polite. I was free anyway. Xiao Jie turned off QQ and re-entered the game. "Feng, how is it going? Did you find anything?" "It’s all settled. I can now pretty much reconstruct the entire story." Xiao Jie said and then shared the story he had pieced together. "Yu Niang is likely a princess of the merfolk, or at least an important figure. This can be seen from her abilities. Li Bao must have inherited her power since he can control water. Due to some reason, Yu Niang fell in love with Li He, transformed into a human, and came to live on land with him. She used her mana to help Li He have a better life. The reason she appears human is likely because of the Treasure Bead, which seems to have the ability to alter human form. Merfolk are probably unable to speak on land, so Yu Niang is mute. The merfolk we fought yesterday also couldn’t speak. Later Yu Niang had a child, who turned out to be a monstrous infant—since the infant was not affected by the Treasure Bead, the midwife was startled and ran out to call for help. As a result, the villagers thought Yu Niang was a demon and wanted to kill them both. Li He was killed while trying to stop them. Then Granny Li arrived. She was Li He’s mother and also a martial arts expert. Granny Li, in her rage, killed the villagers, saved Li Bao, and then raised him alone. She deceived Li Bao, telling him he was an ordinary human, and had him wear Yu Niang’s Treasure Bead to disguise his true form. This way, once he turned fifteen, he would completely become a human and could carry on the Li family’s legacy. The merfolk, for some reason, wanted to retrieve their prince, so they came here to look for Li Bao. And in two days, it will be Li Bao’s fifteenth birthday. Both Granny Li and the merfolk will make their move then, and it’s up to us to decide how the story ends." "The intent of the River God is already very clear—he hopes we can find out the truth and tell everything to Li Bao on his birthday. This is the meaning of ’Honesty’!" At this point, Xiao Jie paused. There was something he was still not entirely sure about: Was the River God hoping they would help the merfolk? But that wasn’t right; the River God could easily intervene himself. No, although Li Bao was half merfolk, he also had human blood. Perhaps the River God wanted them to tell the truth, letting Li Bao choose his own path. Yes, that was what ’Honesty’ truly meant—a truthful acceptance of one’s identity by Li Bao himself. I Want to Be Immortal, having heard Xiao Jie’s deduction, also had an epiphany, "But if we tell him, won’t Granny Li fly into a rage and go after us?" "It’s possible, but whether Li Bao chooses to become human or merfolk is his decision. It probably won’t lead to a boss battle... Besides, if we don’t speak, the merfolk will come after us, determined to take back their prince." "So, no matter how we choose, we might still end up in a tough fight," I Want to Be Immortal summed up. "Exactly, that possibility cannot be ruled out, so we need to enhance our strength as much as possible—I’m thinking about asking Mr. Ramen to join us. What do you think?" I Want to Be Immortal agreed, "Yeah, Mr. Ramen seems like a good guy—just a bit weak in the game." Indeed a bit weak, only level 16 after a year of playing, but that’s not a big issue. The main thing is reliability, and among those we know, he’s the only choice. As for the rewards, he won’t be able to receive the adventure quest rewards, but just the experience and copper coin rewards from killing the merfolk should be enough to satisfy him. It’s a pity Ye Luo isn’t here; otherwise, it would have been much more secure. "Plus, I’m going to swap my horse for a combat-type pet before the final mission starts. That should increase our combat strength a bit. Three players + one powerful pet should be enough." Although Granny Li is level 24, her Blood Volume is very low; clearly just a normal NPC template, not a real boss. Xiao Jie isn’t too worried about fighting her. And then there’s the River God. Xiao Jie has a hunch that the River God will appear at that time. Not to mention Li Bao and those merfolk. Even if Granny Li turns on them, she’ll likely go after the merfolk first. "Let’s go. We should kill some merfolk. Since this quest will end in two days, we should kill as many as we can while we still have the chance. However, new types of merfolk appeared yesterday afternoon, and they are likely to appear again today. Be careful when we start fighting." "Understood, Feng. Don’t worry, I’m old in this game. Plus, I got a new weapon today. Watch how I chop those minions to pieces." The Battle Axe used yesterday was clearly not as good as the Giant Axe, so I Want to Be Immortal splurged and bought a green weapon, the Xuanhua Giant Axe, last night. This thing does more damage than his previous Giant Axe, and being a long-handled axe, it has a larger attack range, perfect for AOE. When the two arrived at the lakeside, Granny Li had already woken up. "Oh, thank you for the wine yesterday. It’s been a long time since I had such a restful sleep. I’ll be relying on you two again today." "Don’t worry, Granny, we’ll definitely take care of this matter," Xiao Jie said with a double entendre. At nine o’clock, following a reminder from Granny Li, the merfolk finally began to respawn. The first to appear were the Merfolk Pearl Seekers, as usual. The two of them dealt with them quite easily, knowing that their objective was to retrieve the prince, but they didn’t hold back at all in killing them. Wild monsters should have the consciousness of wild monsters; after all, they are just cannon fodder spawned by the system. After finishing off the first wave and recovering quickly, the second wave started coming ashore, introducing a new type of monster. Level 14 Merfolk Piercers! These javelin-throwing merfolk dealt extremely high damage and gave Xiao Jie a tough welcome as soon as they appeared, almost killing him instantly with a volley of javelins. Fortunately, Xiao Jie was well-prepared; seeing that the enemies were ranged, he immediately rolled to dodge, narrowly escaping danger. Moreover, these Merfolk Piercers were weak in close combat, and "I Want to Be Immortal" rushed up to engage at close range. A few Sweeping Strikes with the Xuanhua Giant Axe quickly took out a group. Xiao Jie also took the opportunity to move in and harvest them one by one. By the afternoon, a new type of merfolk monster appeared: Level 15 Merfolk Barbarian Soldier. This type of monster was much stronger than ordinary merfolk, clad in Armor made from shrimp shells and turtle shells, wielding thick coral sticks; compared to the Merfolk Pearl Seekers, they felt like the difference between soldiers and civilians. The two of them felt threatened for the first time. Fortunately, although the Merfolk Barbarian Soldiers had fierce Attack Power and higher defensive power, they were still as slow as ever. This was their fatal weakness, and the two of them simply kept their distance, kiting with bow and arrow, and then moved in close to harvest the remaining cannon fodder. By three or four in the afternoon, their arrows had all been shot, and they had to engage in close combat. Fortunately, through the previous battles, Xiao Jie had already found out the weakness of these Merfolk Barbarian Soldiers. That was their short reach. The Gale Saber Technique was not usable in this fight; these creatures were highly resilient, and the Saber Technique couldn’t deliver combos, instead easily inviting counterattacks and blood loss. Combat Skill—Thrust! Ptui! The blade stabbed into the chest of the Merfolk Barbarian Soldier—47! Rolling back, Combat Skill—Thrust! The biggest advantage of the Thrust skill was its longer attack range; as long as the distance was maintained, one could mindlessly repeat the Combat Skill. Plus, with the slow movement of the Merfolk Barbarian Soldier, it was possible to kite and launch Combat Skills. The only issue was that it consumed a lot of Energy. "I Want to Be Immortal" didn’t need to think too much, swinging the Xuanhua Giant Axe and mindlessly chopping down; two chops would stagger an enemy. As long as he wasn’t mobbed, he felt no pressure in a one-on-one situation. The only problem was the high consumption of blood bottles. By four thirty, the last wave of merfolk had been cleared, and both had successfully leveled up to 12. A flash of white light, and seeing the extra five attribute points, Xiao Jie let out a sigh of relief. Phew, finally done. Looking at the corpses scattered everywhere, Xiao Jie felt a wave of fatigue. He checked the medicines in his bag – almost out of Power Pills, and had consumed several blood bottles; despite being careful, he still lost blood occasionally, and the pressure was mounting. Tomorrow, he definitely needed to include Mr. Ramen in the team. Granny Li came over with a beaming smile, "Thank you both so much. With the merfolk slaughtered so fiercely, I doubt they will be attacking again today." If you say so... Xiao Jie had figured it out; this Granny Li was just a mouthpiece for the system. After collecting the bounty for killing merfolk, the two had killed a total of 228 merfolk in one day, each earning a bounty of 11,400 Wen. Even after deducting the cost of medicines, arrows, repairs, and food, each made a profit of seven or eight taels. Although they had earned a significant amount of money, they were still some distance from affording a horse. Unless they bought the cheapest pack horse, they feared they wouldn’t gather enough in two days; but no big deal, they could always borrow if needed. Besides, he still had a house deed. After bidding farewell to Granny Li, the two made their way back to Luoyang Town.