Chapter Text
Shen Yuan calmly made his way down towards the pool. It had been a few days since the storm had swept in and he had been forced to keep the mer, Shen Jiu as he apparently wanted to be called, in his bathtub.
The weather hadn’t completely settled down after the large storm. It had been rapidly shifting between cloudy and stormy, and the wind blew up constant restless waves on the sea.
The mer had thankfully gotten enough of his tub after the first night, and had grumpily agreed to move back into the pool. Even if he had seemed somewhat reluctant in doing so.
It was probably for the best anyways. Whatever problem the mer had with water, he better figure it out if he ever wanted to return to his reef. Shen Yuan was actually surprised the mer hadn’t given the hightide another go yet, he was obviously not very happy with things as they stood now. In fact, the mer’s attitude had only grown worse with each day.
If Shen Yuan received a coin for every time he had gotten angry glares when returning to the pool, he’d be able to compete with Huan Hua Palace’s coffers by now.
Being completely honest with himself, he was having a hard time getting used to the mer’s presence as well. Anywhere he went, he swore he could feel someone observing him. It only got worse the closer he was to the sea.
Which was all very ridiculous, because the mer shouldn’t even be able to see him from down by the pool. Maybe Shen Yuan had just become so used to the solitude again that any presence was bound to affect him.
None of it however, was going to stop him from taking care of his involuntary guest. Shen Yuan had been meticulous in making sure the mer’s injuries were looked after. This mer was going to leave his care in better condition than he arrived in, Heavens so help him.
Speaking of the injuries, as Shen Yuan arrived by the small pool, he was met by the mer warily pulling himself halfway up on the edge. He had placed himself close enough so it wouldn’t be impractical to talk to each other, but far enough away that the mer could easily dive back into the water if Shen Yuan tried to do anything unadvisable.
Still, the mer was at least willingly interacting to him! Even if his words where short and snappish, it was better than nothing!
“I have a few new remedies we could try,” he raised the bag with medical supplies in his hand. “I read that if you mix foaming turtlegrass with the shell of shrilling crescent moon crayfish, it will help the healing and regrowth of damaged scales and fins.”
“Why bother? My fins aren’t just slightly frayed. They are completely gone.” The mer sneered at him, glancing dismissively at the pouch. “No amount of turtlegrass is going to fix me.”
“Hey! We don’t know that until we’ve tried it!” Shen Yuan stubbornly continued to keep his voice light. “If this one doesn’t work I already have a few other recipes we could try out.”
“They won’t work at all! What aren’t you understanding, fins don’t regrow just like that.” The mer was giving him an annoyed look, like he was an exceptionally slow-witted student that refused to listen. And maybe that was true, but Shen Yuan wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing either.
At least until he remembered enough about the restorative millennium kelp to go and get it for the mer.
“If you don’t want to use it, then don’t use it.” Shen Yuan sighed. “I know this sucks, but it’s better than nothing, isn’t it?”
He placed the container with the salve down by the pool’s edge. Backing away to let the mer examine its content.
The mer grumbled something under his breath while dragging himself along the edge. He opened the containers and sniffed at it suspiciously. Shen Yuan tried his best not to get offended by the action. Let the mer smell the medicine if it made things easier for Shen Yuan. It wasn’t like he had spent hours researching and mixing all of those ingredients just to make the salve.
“Ink shooting coral eel mucus” The mer mumbled reluctantly while smearing the turtlegrass salve between his fingers, refusing to look in Shen Yuan’s direction.
“What was that?”
“Ink shooting coral eel mucus,” The mer said louder. “It has moderate healing properties that also aid with the regeneration of small fins.”
“Alright, I’ll see if I can get some for you.” Shen Yuan smiled encouragingly at him.
“Don’t trouble yourself,” the mer sniffed in response. “It’s not something you’ll just find laying around on the beach.”
Oh, Shen Yuan was well aware of that. It had taken him close to a week just to hunt down one at the behest of System. And when he had finally found one, it had spit dark blue ink all over his face! The discoloration had stuck to his skin for almost three months!!
Shen Yuan watched as the mer carefully applied the salve to his scabbed wounds. The mer wasn’t able to reach every area by himself, but when Shen Yuan had offered to apply some to his back, the mer had flared his ear fins while snarling to Shen Yuan to keep his hands to himself.
Afterwards he had dove back down into the pool and Shen Yuan hadn’t seen him for the rest of the day.
Another thing that had become evident since the mer’s arrival was his trouble with moving around. Shen Yuan had at first thought the mer was handling himself surprisingly well considering the damages. But after a few days he had seen enough to know the mer wasn’t being completely transparent with him.
The mer had been trying to hide it from him by hanging around the edges and pulling himself along the sides of the pool to move around. Shen Yuan had only seen the mer swim in the middle of the pool once. And then he had been fighting to move his tail from side to side just to stay still in the same position. The moment the mer had noticed him, he had let himself sink under the water to resurface by the side of the pool.
If there was something Shen Yuan had learned about the mer, it was that Shen Jiu didn’t like to show weakness. Shen Yuan let the smile drop from his face while his thoughts wandered.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to send a message to someone? I don’t mind if anyone from your pod comes around for a visit, and they might now how to help you better. I’m sure you miss them.”
“No.”
No to what? Visitors or missing them?
“I might have found a lead on something that could actually be able to heal you.” Shen Yuan switched the topic.
The mer gave him a dubious look. “What? Are you planning on feeding me another longhorned seasnail extract? Short of a rare panacea, there’s nothing that’s going to fix this.” Shen Yuan tried not to wince at the bitterness in his voice.
“Well, you’re not wrong about that.” He sighed, before giving the mer a curious glance. “Have you ever heard of the restorative millennium kelp?”
The mer gave him a derisive snort. “Stories you tell naïve pups. Don’t tell me that’s your plan? You’re better off just feeding me whatever next concoction you come up with.”
“Hm, I’m not so sure it’s just stories. I’m pretty confident about my source. And with it we could easily heal you completely. Then you’ll be able to return to your pod!” He gave the mer an optimistic smile.
The mer however, only seemed to become more upset with each word. He promptly sank back under the surface, pulling himself out of Shen Yuan’s line of sight behind an overhang halfway down the pool.
“Hey! What about the food!” Shen Yuan shouted towards the water, but received no answer in return.
This wasn’t the first time the mer had stonewalled him out of nowhere. He had no idea what he could possibly have done wrong this time. Was he acting too positive? Too optimistic?? He knew the mer was a bit cynical. So maybe his confidence had made the mer uncomfortable?
He’d just have to prove how serious he was! The only problem was, PISW hadn’t given all that many details on where the restorative millennium kelp grew. And Shen Yuan didn’t even know if it was ready to be picked yet. The mermaid who had received the kelp had been one of many wife acquisitions during the early stages of Luo Binghe’s rule as an emperor over the seas. For all Shen Yuan knew, it might still be years before it could be harvested.
Even if that was the case, Shen Yuan had no intentions of giving up on it. Luo Binghe would just have to do with one wife less! Or find some other miracle treatment to use on the poor mermaid. After all, if anyone could find some mythical plant or relic, it was the protagonist!
He unpacked the food and left it nexrt to the pool in case the mer wanted it later. With determined steps he returned up to the hut, he had a mythical kelp to track down.
_ _ _ _
It took him almost two days of constant work and minimal sleep to finally write down everything he remembered about Luo Binghe’s journey for the restorative millennium kelp and compare it to his knowledge of the ocean.
The mermaid, wife 53 if he remembered correctly, had just like Shen Jiu suffered at the hands of vicious mer hunters. She had been caught by a net and hauled up onto a ship where most of her fins had been cut away to be sold to rich human buyers or cultivators. As she was just about to receive the killing strike, the ship had encountered a nasty storm! Thanks to the violent waves she was able to escape back into the ocean, but at that point the damage had already been done.
Her beautiful fins, renowned throughout the shallow seas, had been shredded beyond repair. After Luo Binghe was done exacting his justice onto the mer hunters he had found the poor mermaid crying on the seafloor. His heart had trembled for the weeping mermaid, and so he promised her he would find a way to restore her!
A vow that turned out harder than expected to keep. None of the healing remedies he had picked up during his stay in the Abyss had had any effect. And so the protagonist set out to find a miracle cure that could heal that which was thought irreparable.
To the protagonist’s luck there existed exactly one such panacea, the restorative millennium kelp! A rare brown algae that grew to maturity over the span of a millennium, only able to thrive in a place containing a great amount of natural qi. The restorative millennium kelp had grown in an old ruin of a long-forgotten merfolk sect.
On his journey, Luo Binghe fought many guardians and adversaries also looking for this miracle remedy. Naturally the protagonist had beaten them all! Returning to the waiting mermaid no worse for wear and finally able to give her back her pride and splendor. The mermaid had been so grateful by Luo Binghe’s show of courage that she had immediately accepted his advances. And so she returned with him back to his palace to become one of many, many wifes of the invincible emperor protagonist, etc. etc.
Now back to the kelp. Everything Shen Yuan knew about it was that it grew in remote ruins saturated with qi, and where all manners of large beasts could live their lives unbothered by humans and merfolk alike. Furthermore, the timeline for this specific journey indicated it couldn’t be more than a few days of travel away from the more densely populated reefs in the shallow seas (not counting the superior speed in which the emperor of all the seas travelled).
Luo Binghe had also passed through a smaller colony of mers from which he had picked up another mermaid a few chapters earlier. Which, if Shen Yuan remembered correctly, wasn’t too far away from the underwater cliffs separating the shallow seas from the deep seas, aptly called the Borderlands.
The Borderlands was definitely an area large and isolated enough to hide something as rare as the restorative millennium kelp. It was also large enough for Shen Yuan to spend the better part of a century just investigating every nook and cranny without ever finding any rare treasures.
System had been of no help in his information gathering either. Instead choosing to stay silent the entire two days. Shen Yuan couldn’t decide if it was a blessing or not. The truth was that he needed more information, and lucky for him he had a native resident living in his backyard!
Stepping out into the early sunrise was a brutal affair. Especially since Shen Yuan’s old habits from the modern world told him it was high time to go to bed.
Groaning softly, he straightened his back with a satisfying crack. His cultivator constitution preventing his spine from experiencing the backlash of sitting hunched over his desk for the better part of the night. Mercifully, the sun was hidden behind grey clouds instead of shining straight into his eyes. If he had to guess the time, then the high tide should be reaching the pool right about now.
As usual, he felt that same presence lock onto him as he walked down towards the pool. Although, didn’t it seem closer than usual?
Quickly looking around, he couldn’t see anyone nearby. But when he turned towards the open water, he could have sworn that, for just a moment, there was movement near the entrance of the pool. It was gone before he even blinked.
He swore. If that cranky fish had tried to leave again-
Hurrying his steps, he was almost at the pool when he felt a sensed something hiding behind the shrubbery on the side of the path. Slowing down, he stopped right beside the bushes with a hand on the knife he now carried inside his sleeve.
Slowly parting the branches, he came face to face with a bewildering sight. There was a mer… in the bushes?
“What are you doing?”
The mer twitched and looked up towards the voice, flushing red in humiliation at being caught doing… whatever he was doing. To be honest, Shen Yuan had no idea what to do with this.
“Mind your own business!” The mer hissed back in a low voice.
Shen Yuan hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should just leave the mer to it. Ultimately he let out a deep sigh. No, he couldn’t do that. Being out of the water would do the mer more harm than good. His scales were already starting flake and lose their luster!
“Come on. Let’s go back to the pool, you shouldn’t be out of the water for too long.” Shen Yuan bent down to try and pick up the mer, but his hands were harshly slapped away.
“I’m not going back to the pool.” He snarled back in anger. “And it’s not like my fins will dry up and tear anyways. Leave. Me. Alone.”
Shen Yuan clicked his tongue. “Maybe your fins won’t be damaged, but your scales still might. They’ve already been slow in recovering, so I really don’t understand why you are doing this.” A thought hit him then, he narrowed his eyes at the mer. “How often are you out of the water?”
The mer pressed his lips into a thin line, refusing to speak. It was answer enough for Shen Yuan.
“Why-? You! I-! Arrgh!!” Shen Yuan let out a frustrated noise, dragging his hand over his face. He could hardly believe it! All those elixirs and salves Shen Yuan had been making to help improve the mer’s health were being directly undermined by this… this idiocy.
“Do you simply not care about your health? Is that it?” He had had enough, obviously the mer didn’t respond to niceness, so maybe it was time to try a firmer hand.
“Shut up! I never asked you to do anything for me!” The mer snarled back. “I don’t know what kind of hero complex you think you have, but leave me out of it.”
Shen Yuan was speechless at the mer’s callousness towards his own wellbeing. “Don’t you want to go back to your pod? Don’t you want to feel healthy again?”
Now it was the mer’s turn to become stunned. His eyes widened just a fraction before he regained his composure.
“Stop acting like you care.” The voice was quiet but angry, spoken through clenched teeth.
“I do care.”
The mer turned up towards him, expression defiant and cold, and utterly unconvinced. He did not speak again.
“…If you don’t want to go back to the pool, I could take you back up to the tub-“
“No.” The answer was clipped and immediate.
Shen Yuan stood silently for a moment, considering his next move. He then turned around and walked back up towards the hut, away from the mer. With his back turned, he didn’t see the surprise, and then the uncertainty cross the mer’s face.
The mer was still in the same spot when he returned a few minutes later holding a wet blanket in his arms. He handed it over to the puzzled mer.
“Here, wrap it around yourself so your skin doesn’t dry out.”
The mer silently accepted the wet blanket and placed it over his tail. He looked down into his lap with furrowed brows, Shen Yuan couldn’t decipher his expression.
“Why do you keep resisting going back into the water?”
“What I do or don’t do is none of your concern.”
Shen Yuan bit his lips, trying desperately not to restart the argument. Instead, he decided to change the topic to his original reason for visiting. “I’m going to head out for the day, I was hoping you could help me with something before that.”
Surprised eyes turned back up towards him “You’re leaving?”
The question came out demanding, only counteracted by a low nervous trill. The mer must have realize how he sounded as he quickly turned away with a scowl on his face. Although this time it looked to be directed at himself.
“I told you I had a track on the restorative millennium kelp. I think I know the area where it is, but I have no idea how to get there.”
“And I told you not to bother with it,” the mer shot him an annoyed glare. “You’re wasting your time.”
Shen Yuan ignored the mer’s pessimism, “I’m relatively certain the kelp can be found in the Borderlands. It shouldn’t be more than a week’s worth of travel away from Cang Qiong Reef, and it can probably be found near old merfolk ruins with dense qi. Does any of that sound familiar?”
“It doesn’t.”
Shen Yuan gave the mer a skeptical look, “Alright, then could you at least tell me how to get to Cang Qiong Reef Sect? I’ll find my way from there then.”
“I don’t know where that is.”
Now he definitely didn’t believe the mer. “Really? You don’t know where the largest merfolk sect in the whole coastal region is located? I didn’t know I had come across such a subpar excuse of a merman.” Gods did it feel good to finally throw that one back in his face.
The mer bristled at his words, a warning growl making its way out of his throat.
“Ah, my deepest apologies to cultivator Shen. This one will be sure to share all of his people’s secrets the next time a human with dubious motives asks him for directions to a colony filled with vulnerable pups. Nothing bad could possibly come out of that, I’m sure.”
Shen Yuan blushed at the ridicule, but didn’t find anything to bite back with. The mer was right, he really shouldn’t be tell Shen Yuan information like that.
He still didn’t have to be an ass about it though.
“Fine, I’ll ask someone else then.” He ignored the doubtful look from the mer, instead straightening up from his crouch by the bush. “Try not to stay outside the water for too long. Don’t think I will help scrape your dried scales off the ground when you get yourself stuck.”
He turned away from the mer and started to walk towards his next destination. He raised a hand in goodbye to the mer left behind him.
“I’ll see you later.” There was no answer in return. Shen Yuan refused to turn around and see if the mer was still watching him.
_ _ _ _
So, the information gathering went surprisingly well!
It had started off somewhat lackluster. Shen Yuan had gone to one of the bays popular among the sea dwelling inhabitants of the region as a prime location for trading and information gathering (cough cough, gossiping). Although it wasn’t the first time he had visited the area, most of the mers kept their distance, some even going as far as completely leaving the bay at the mere sight of a human.
After so many years, Shen Yuan was used to the attention and cautiousness. Lucky for him, he had been able to create a little network of his own with some of the more daring mers!
Walking out towards his usual flat rock formation by the water, he was met by a few mers looking to exchange trinkets for human novelties. Apparently they had become quite popular as a show of prestige down below the surface. How fortunate it was that Shen Yuan was more than happy to peddle some for them.
While the mers looked over his collection of human made jewelry, charms and other knickknacks he idly tried for some small talk. Only one of the mermaids had been in a chatty mood, the rest only giving him guarded looks at his inquiries. Unsurprisingly, none were in a mood to give him directions to the Borderlands.
He contemplated if he should mention Shen Jiu to the mers around him. Despite the mer’s claims, Shen Yuan was sure he missed his pod. On the other hand, he didn’t want to be accused of mernapping again. Maybe one of the mers would agree to a private conversation…
He was abruptly dragged out of his pondering when one of the mers dropped a name he never thought he’d get to hear.
“Did you just say Luo Binghe?”
The mermaid interrupted her idle gossip with her companion to give him an uncertain look.
“Yes? You humans know about him?” The mermaid’s question was followed by a mixture of anxious trills from the surrounding mers.
“I’ve heard some,” He gave her a wry smile. “What’s going on with him?”
“Ah, well…” The mer looked towards her friend for support, biting her lip timidly. Finally, she seemed to decide that Shen Yuan could be trusted with some of the gossip. She dramatically lowered her voice. “You see, rumor has it Luo Binghe is tearing up half the shallow seas in search of his former shizun.”
“Oh, really?” This was actually good news! Now he could finally determine his exact position on the PISW timeline! If Luo Binghe was searching for Shen Qingqiu, then that must mean he had escaped the Abyss only recently!
“I assume Huan Hua Palace is helping him in this endeavor.”
“Of course they are!” a second mer butted in. “But not even they can do anything when the Cang Qiong sect leader is refusing to cooperate.” She let out an annoyed low hiss. Several mer’s around them nodded in agreement.
Huh, so he had already associated himself with Huan Hua Palace then. Shen Qingqiu’s trial was probably not that far off in the future if Luo Binghe was looking to capture him. It definitely explained the volatile weather they had been having these past few days.
Tsk, if only Shen Qingqiu could hurry up and give himself over so they could finally have some peace and quiet!
A flash of ripped skin and torn scales flashed across his mind, making something within him tighten painfully. He forced the image away. It wasn’t the same thing, Shen Qingqiu had deserved it.
On a positive note, it meant the restorative millennium kelp wasn’t far off from reaching full maturity! Now he only had to find it before Luo Binghe went searching for it. Shen Yuan did not want to compete against the protagonist halo.
He was just about to question the mermaid some more when the mers around them quieted down all at once, a few even backing away from the platform he was standing on. Looking around in surprise, he saw two mers slowly making their way towards the small gathering.
The smaller mer was a female with her hair braided in two loops on either side of her head, she had an open and curious expression as she looked him up and down. Shen Yuan found her strangely familiar, maybe he had met her in the bay before?
The larger mer was male, and frankly ridiculously pretty. Shen Yuan was almost surprised the mer hunters hadn’t caught and sold him for a small fortune already. His hair fell freely, and despite being weighed down by the water, showed hints of being slightly curly. His coloring was hard to see due to the water, the only thing Shen Yuan could say for certain was that his tail was a darker color. He was swimming towards him with a calm, single minded focus. Shen Yuan swallowed harshly where he stood rooted in place.
Crap, was this some form of merfolk guardian over the bay? Had he done something wrong? Nothing came to mind, but still. The mer looked quite intimidating.
Shen Yuan internally kicked himself, of course he’d have to be intimidating if he’d managed to avoid mer hunters so far in life.
The mer raised an eyebrow at his frozen state, an amused smirk playing on his lips. A slight jerk of his head made all of the mers surrounding Shen Yuan scatter. The female mer by his side gave him a last nod before diving back down in a splash of light green and yellow. Moments later, they were completely alone.
“Shen Yuan was it? We don’t see humans in these parts very often.” The mer gave him a disarming smile, making Shen Yuan’s face heat up.
Wait. How did he know his name?
“Ahaha. Yep, that’s me.” Shen Yuan nervously scratched his neck before clearing his throat, trying to keep a level head. “Pleasure to meet you, eeer… Sorry I don’t think I caught your name.” He gave the mer an apologetic smile.
“No need.” The mer only continued his impassive smile while observing him. It did nothing to lessen Shen Yuan’s nervosity.
Shen Yuan decided not to take offence to the lack of introduction. It wasn’t exactly unusual for mers here not to give out their real names to humans. Though it would have been the polite thing to do considering the mer already knew his.
“So, what business has a cultivator doing here.” The mer idly looked over the goods Shen Yuan had placed out in front of him, picking up a cheap necklace of a jade guanyin for a closer look. In a relaxed drawl he continued, “Don’t tell me you are actually here to sell trinkets.”
“Ah, well,” Shen Yuan tried his hardest not to stare at the mer in front of him, but again, too pretty! His uncovered chest had well-defined muscles. Scales of varying shades of red and black climbed their way up his torso and arms. And the smaller fins on his arms and ears where a bright red, while the larger and more ornated fins on his tail seemed to flash in a shimmering red hue under the water. Shen Yuan really wished he could see the entire tail of the mer. It probably looked exquisite.
He tried once more to clear his strangely dry throat “Actually, I’m here looking for some information.”
“Oh? Do tell, perhaps I can be of service?” The mer, who had been preening from the attention, now let out an inquisitive noise. Smiling at him to continue.
“That’s… very kind of you,” Shen Yuan finally allowed, instead focusing on the pendant the mer was idly playing with. “I’m looking for this place in the Borderlands. Old ruins, but rich with qi. Probably not too far away from the large reefs.”
“Hmm,” the mer made a show of pondering the description. “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with a place like that. Anything specific you are looking for?”
“Ah, you know. Just some rare plant.” Shen Yuan didn’t want to admit he was searching for the restorative millennium kelp. He was not going to let anyone steal it from under his nose! No matter how helpful the mer was being.
The mer suddenly looked up like he had remembered something. “While I don’t know the exact place you are looking for, I do know of an area rich with qi that fits your description.”
Shen Yuan immediately perked up. “If I show you a map, can you point out the location?”
Shen Yuan placed the map out on the stone, and they bent over it to discuss the different areas of the Borderlands. The mer exuded a confident air where he floated in front of Shen Yuan. He didn’t at all seem bothered by his presence, a great contrast to the injured mer back home.
It looked like the area really wasn’t too far away from them! With a proper sailing boat it would probably take him only a few days to get out there. Shen Yuan was giddily planning for the journey out, when the mer interrupted him.
“I should probably warn you that it’s not a good time to go out to sea right now.” The mer was giving him a considering look.
“Ah? Why is that?”
“Didn’t Shen Yuan listen to the earlier gossip?” The mer questioned dryly. “You don’t want to get in the way of Luo Binghe’s merhunt.”
“Oh,” How could he have forgotten about that already? “No, I definitely don’t want to get caught up in that.”
“Shen Yuan should also know that Luo Binghe greatly rewards those who aid him in finding Shen Qingqiu.” The mer said pointedly.
“Alright?” As if Shen Yuan didn’t know that already. Hadn’t he read hundreds of chapters about Luo Binghe? Really, he should be considered an expert at this point!
“Thank you for the warning. I’ll make sure to wait a few days for things to calm down before I set sail.” The mer just continued to watch him, as if he was something to decipher. Seriously, was there something on his face?
At last he seemed to come to a decision, making a final nod to himself. “We’ll meet again. Have a safe journey to the Borderlands.”
With that the mer turned around and sank down back under the surface, swimming away with a few strong kicks.
Shen Yuan remained where he stood, dazedly looking out over the bay. Just taking a moment to recover from the mer’s commanding presence.
Wait. Wasn’t he supposed to ask about Shen Jiu?
Kicking himself for his forgetfulness, he instead turned to pack up his wares. Even if he forgot to ask, it ultimately didn’t matter much. With the pretty mer’s help, he had all the information he needed! Now he just had to go back and tell Shen Jiu the good news!
…hold on a minute, where was the guanyin pendant… Don’t tell him he seriously get robbed by a mer??
Going through his trinkets once more, he could only conclude the mer had indeed taken the pendant with him while he kept Shen Yuan distracted. Honestly, he had to admire the hustle. Although he didn’t really understand why such handsome mer would want a fake jade pendant.
Shen Yuan felt a bone deep exhaustion upon returning home. Despite it, the first thing he did was to go and tell the mer about his discoveries.
Walking down, he was happy to see that the mer wasn’t hiding in the bushes anymore. Hopefully he’d stay out of them in the future as well.
When he got within view of the pool he saw the mer sitting on the edge. He was looking down at himself while picking at the still healing scabs on his tail and arms, a grim expression on his face. The wound from his dorsal fin stil looked uneven and raw. Shen Yuan internally grimaced, it was definitely going to scar badly if the mer didn’t allow him to put some salve on it soon.
Next to him Shen Yuan was surprised to see the blanket neatly folded. He bit his lip, feeling ever so slightly guilty over the argument from that morning.
Forcing on a cheerful tone, he called out to the mer.
Perhaps a bit too cheerful? The mer immediately slid back down into the water upon hearing him, giving him a quick glare before cautiously returning to the edge.
“You’re back.” The mer’s voice was carefully neutral as he greeted Shen Yuan. Looking like it didn’t matter much whether the annoying human was around or not.
“I am.”
“Considering you have returned unharmed, I can only assume the mers didn’t drown you for your audacity.” The mer’s voice dripped with condescension.
Ah, how easily the guilt evaporated.
“Actually, they gave me all the answers I was looking for.” Shen Yuan answered smugly, watching the mer’s expression sour. “I know exactly where I’ll be able to find the kelp.”
Exactly was a bit of a stretch, but Shen Jiu didn’t need to know that.
“I hope you didn’t pay for that information.” He sneered in return. “The other mers probably only saw a gullible human and decided to scam you.”
Shen Yuan felt his cheeks heat up, remembering the fake jade pendant. The mer let a victorious smirk show at being proven right.
“Even if the information turns out to be fake, at least I have some place to start.” He retorted. “Really I’m starting to wonder if maybe you’ve grown fond of my company.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m just being realistic.” He sniffed. “Why are you so eager to put yourself in danger for someone like me anyways? Don’t think I’d bother to help you if the roles were reversed.”
Shen Yuan was starting to figure that out... Still, outwardly he said “That doesn’t matter to me.”
“Oh? Then what do you want? Or do you honestly expect me to believe that you want nothing in return?”
“What could I possible want in return?” Shen Yuan frowned at the accusation, it didn’t feel great to have the mer making such assumptions regarding his intentions.
“Oh, I’m sure you can think of something.” The mer remarked.
Shen Yuan gave him a blank expression. Making the mer huff in annoyance.
“It seems like I must spell it out to you. Surely Shen Yuan is aware dual cultivation with merpeople is said to have great benefits for cultivators such as yourself.”
Shen Yuan froze where he stood, his jaw dropping down on the floor. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered if he was suffering hallucinations from a sudden qi deviation. Surely that was the only explanation for what he just had heard. The mer’s amused expression at his reaction barely registered for him.
“ I have NO intentions of.. Of dual cultivating with you!?!”
A frown quickly returned to the mer’s face “Why? Am I not good enough for you??”
Shen Yuan sputtered, unsure when his life had become like this. Or who he should blame it on. Probably System, or maybe even Airplane himself for writing his trashfire world to be this way.
“You really don’t have to pay me back! and especially not like- like that.” He really needed the mer to believe him on this.
The mer, however, didn’t get the memo as he only look back at him with doubt. “No one does anything for free. And I don’t like being indebted to people.”
Shen Yuan stifled a sigh, he was unsure how to convince the mer he had no alterior motives, but also too tired to continue arguing with him.
“Look, I don’t know how to convince you I’m really just trying to help. But you really do not have to repay me for any of this.”
The mer just observed him for a moment, before stating pointedly “I did not ask you to do any of this for me. I don’t want to hear you come crying about unpaid debts in the future.”
“Then what would you have me do? You really can’t mean you’d be happy just stay in my pool for the rest of your life?” Shen Yuan was starting to feel the frustration build again. Arguing with the mer really wasn’t good for his blood pressure.
The triumphant glint crossing the mer’s eyes made him immediately regret his words. “Well, if you really do feel so strongly about helping me, then maybe there’s something else you could do for me.”
Shen Yuan perked up a little, ignoring the obvious manipulative tone in the mer’s voice. “And what’s that?”
“You can find a way to get me a pair of legs.” The mer held his gaze while stating his demand. There was no indication of the mer messing with him, not matter how much Shen Yuan was searching for it.
Wait what?
“Legs?” Shen Yuan echoed dumbly, just staring down at the mer. Said mer immediately straightened in defensive and swished his tail in an increasingly agitated manner.
“Yes, legs.” the mer huffed, nodding towards Shen Yuan’s lower half. “I do believe you are quite familiar with these items, despite me having to question your proficiency in using them.”
“Why do you want legs??”
“Does it matter?” The mer scowled up at him. “Will you help me or not? Or have you changed your mind now that I finally ask something of you?”
“I said I’d help you heal,” Shen Yuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Would you actually rather become a human than for me to just get the restorative millennium kelp for you?”
“A pair of deformed meat stilts is far from enough to turn me into a human.” The mer sneered, “I would never let myself become something so disgusting.”
Honestly, ouch. Was the vitriol really necessary. Shen Yuan thought he did rather well for himself as a human, but what did he know.
Maybe scenting the cultivator wavering, the mer pressed on. “I’m just being logical, there’s no proof this kelp will actually be enough to heal all of my injuries. And I have no wish to showing myself looking this decrepit in front of my old pod.”
Something seemed off about that last part. Sure, Shen Yuan already knew the mer to be prideful, but was it really to the point he’d rather stay on land than return home?
Whatever, just thinking about it was taking too much energy of him. Not to mention, he’d never heard of anything similar ever being done in PISW. Maybe he’d just do some light research in the morning and suggest the restorative millennium kelp again when nothing turned up.
“…I’ll look into it.” The mer nodded back at him, looking quite pleased with bending Shen Yuan to his will.
[User has accepted new mission ‘Give Me Legs or Give Me Nothing!’]
Oh, now you show up. Where have you been the last few days, huh?
[System was preparing the new mission for User! But System is happy to know it has been missed! （*＾ワ＾*）]
Missed my ass, and why even bother. PISW was meant to a harem story about a undefeatable stallion protagonist! If any of the future wives were able to escape their fate by going up on land, it would defeat the whole point!
[Not even User knows everything PISW has to offer! Perhaps user needs some additional encouragement. If User completes the mission, he will receive 1000 B-points as well as unlocking a secret storyline!]
Shen Yuan raised an eyebrown. 1000 B-points was… really good… actually ridiculously good. Suspiciously good even. And if he succeeded, he’d unlock a secret storyline? Did that mean Shen Jiu was connected to the main story somehow? He squinted down at the mer, deep in thought. The mer squinted back at him in suspicion.
He excused himself to the mer before walking back up to the hut, continuing to weight his new options. He still had no idea where he’d even find a way to turn a mermaid into a human. But considering the reward, maybe it was worth looking into.
_ _ _ _
After a good night’s sleep, Shen Yuan woke up ready to take on this new challenge System had given him! A short conversation with the mer had proven he knew just as little as Shen Yuan himself.
Meaning it was time for Shen Yuan to go back to the source of all information, namely his books! With all the research he had done on the worldbuilding of this place, he’d probably be eligible to become a guest scholar on Qing Jing Reef.
The following couple of days went to first rereading his collection of bestiaries, history books and various legends. Followed by a quick visit into the nearby village to ask around if anyone had ever heard of such a thing. Shen Yuan even shortly entertained the idea of going back to the bay, but the thought of coming face to face with that handsome mer again made him hesitate.
Shen Yuan was just about to give up and once more suggest the kelp to the increasingly annoying mer (who had started complaining of “being bored” and “having nothing to do” while Shen Yuan ran his ass off, the nerve!). When System suddenly popped up in front of him, chipper as ever.
[Would User like to buy the recipe for the Elixir of Lasting Transformation for 200 B-points? (⌒ω⌒)]
“You corrupt System! You had the recipe this whole time and didn’t tell me?!?”
[User never asked for any help ( ¬_¬)]
“That’s because you never do antything actually helpful when I do ask!” Shen Yuan flung himself backwards in his chair, throwing his brush across the workbench.
“You know what? Fine, just give me the recipe.” With a happy chime, System processed his purchase and showed him the recipe.
Quickly reading through it, Shen Yuan hummed to himself. The recipe was long and complex, which was to be expected, but there were only two ingredients he actually had to worry about!
“System, you don’t happen to know where I can find the white whispering willow and the golden-lipped vitality oyster?”
[Would user be interested in buying a map indicating their locations for 50 B-points?]
“Why are you being so helpful all of a sudden? Whatever, sure, I’ll take one.” Shen Yuan felt slightly freaked out by System’s sudden cooperation, he was however even more scared it would end if he pointed it out, so he kept silent.
Receiving the map, Shen Yuan was pleasantly surprised! Both items could be found relatively close by, lucky him! He gave System a suspicious glance.
[Is User happy with his purchases? （＾－＾✿） ]
“I am. One more question, you don’t happen to have a simple way to go and collect these two items?”
[User will still have to do some work for himself...]
“Worth a shot,” Shen Yuan shrugged.
After spending the whole evening making up a new plan, Shen Yuan rose a few hours after dawn to put it into motion. Walking down to tell the mer the good news, he was surprised to see him dozing on his stomach, spread out on the warming bedrock a short distance from the pool.
He noted that the still healing injury on his back looked a bit redder than earlier, but most of the other injuries seemed to be healing well enough. It was a relief his salve had been able to aide at least that much. Looking closer at the mer’s tail, it still missed some of the merpeople’s characteristic luster, and some patches around the wounds were peeling especially badly. But the color of the scales did look clearer and brighter than when he first met the mer. No doubt because of the constant access to food and moisture. The mer’s ribs weren’t jutting out as severely as earlier either! And the mer’s skin had lost a lot of its initial sickly pallor!
Shen Yuan was so distracted while studying the mer, he didn’t notice how close he had actually gotten. Nor did he notice how the mer tensed up when he finally sensed Shen Yuan looming over him.
With a sudden and violent movement of the mer’s tail, he swept Shen Yuan’s feet from under him. Moments later Shen Yuan felt a heavy weight position itself on top of him as the mer forcefully pressed his arm down on Shen Yuan’s throat.
Shen Yuan felt dazed and a little nauseous from his head hitting the rocks. He looked up at the mer, snarling furiously down at him with green eyes searing into his very being (it was odd, how he’d never noticed how pretty the mer’s eye color was).
“What. Do you think you are doing?” The livid mer spit at him.
“uuh…what?” Shen Yuan tried to pull himself out of his haze.
“Why! Are you. Sneaking up. On. ME?!” Shen Jiu pressed down harder on his neck as he spoke through gritted teeth.
Realization dawned on him how angry the mer was. Swallowing thickly, Shen Yuan tried to explain himself in a nervous, high-pitched voice.
“I wasn’t! I’m sorry! I thought you had already noticed me! And then I got distracted and… umm. I really didn’t mean to haha, pleasedontdrownme.”
The mer sneered down at what was undoubtedly a pathetic sight. Shen Yuan felt a cold sweat gather down his neck as the mer kept eye contact with him, trying to ascertain the truth behind his words.
At last the mer slowly let off, giving him a low warning snarl. “Don’t do it again.”
Shen Yuan quickly pull himself away, coughing from the pressure put on his chest and throat. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to, sneak up on you.”
The mer scoffed at his words and pulled himself back into the water. A few minutes went by and Shen Yuan started to fear the mer had swam down under the overhang to sulk, when the mer surfaced again.
“Why are you still here?”
“Ah,” Shen Yuan pulled himself up in a sitting position, resting his arms on his knees. He gave the mer his best attempt at a self-assured smile “Do you want to go on an adventure?”
“What??” The mer frowned, his expression twisting from a still simmering anger to confusion and annoyance.
“So, I think I’ve found a way to get you your legs,” Shen Yuan explained. “It’s called the elixir of lasting transformation. I’m still missing two ingredients to actually make it though.”
“So go get them,” the mer snarked. “I don’t see why you have to come and bother me about it.”
Shen Yuan suppressed an eyeroll, “Obviously because I’m going to need your help in collecting them. One is found in a forest near the coast, but it needs to be picked by the one meant to undergo the transformation. The other can be found in a shipwreck near the Borderlands, and I’ll need your help in finding it.”
“In case you’ve somehow missed it, I don’t have the legs yet. How do you suppose I’m going to do that?”
“Don’t worry,” Shen Yuan felt his smile become slightly crooked. “I already have a plan for that.”
“Do I dare ask?” The mer gave him a dubious look. When Shen Yuan didn’t immediately give him an answer, he moved on to nitpick another part. “It can’t be that easy to make the elixir, or I would have heard of it before. What else aren’t you telling me?”
“Those are the only two we still need to get! I promise!” Shen Yuan lifted his hands defensively. He then explained the rest of the recipe to the mer, and added that he had already collected all the other necessary ingredients.
At the end, the mer had a downright incredulous expression. “Do you even realize how rare some of those items are? How do you even have those in the first place?? Are you just stupidly rich? Or maybe you are some form if beast hunter after all?”
“It’s really nothing like that! I’ve just happened to come across them before!” Shen Yuan knew some of those beasts and plants weren’t easy to find, but surely the mer was exaggerating. He supposed he should thank System for sending him on all those missions, or there would have been a lot more work for them.
“Still, you should probably know I’m not entirely sure how the transformation will be affected by your missing fins. Maybe you’ll be unaffected, maybe you’ll be missing a few toes.” He shrugged at the mer, System had refused to answer any specific questions about the transformation process when he'd asked. That should be suspicious enough if you asked him.
“So what?” the mer asked flippantly. “It’s not like you actually need those for anything.”
“Actually you do! They are important for balance.” On second thought, he was not going to explain toes to a mermaid. “You know what, forget it. Just don’t be surprised if your legs come out wrong.”
“As long as they work I don’t care. Let’s go to the white whispering willow first, I’ve not recovered enough to go out into the ocean yet.”
“I thought you might say something like that, Let me just go get the cart and we’re all set.” The open confusion in the mer’s face made Shen Yuan unwittingly let out a loud snort, he quickly left to get out of the splash zone.
_ _ _ _
Getting the mer into the cart turned out to be easier said than done. When Shen Yuan first brought the cart to the side of the pool, the mer had taken a look before immediately getting offended. He had loudly and passionately argued how absolutely humiliating it would be for him to be dragged around on that. Shen Yuan had tried to gently cajole the mer into agreeing, first by mentioning how much easier it would be compared to carrying the mer around, then by offering the mer some of his books from his stash of trashy novels when they returned.
The mer had had none of it, even threatening to dive down to the bottom of the pool if Shen Yuan tried anything. The showdown had ultimately ended with Shen Yuan in his exasperation told Shen Jiu to just walk there himself if that suited him better. The mer immediately shut up after that, at last coming to terms with the cart being his only option. Although that didn’t mean he had accepted it with anything but gritted teeth and a scowl promising a slow death if Shen Yuan expressed even the slightest hint of ridicule.
Finally they were on their way. Shen Yuan walking next to Xiao Mei, a donkey he had managed to borrow from an old man in the village, pulling the cart. Behind them sat the sulking mer, wrapped snugly in multiple wet blankets with several moisture capturing talismans slapped on top. Shen Yuan had wisely not mentioned to the pissed off mer that he looked strangely adorable rolled up in the blankets, on the account of him rather not getting strangled to death in the middle of the night by the terrifyingly tenacious mer.
Shen Yuan was also not going to admit that the silent treatment he had received since they left the pool was slowly but steadily getting to him. So, to counteract it he had quickly started up a constant stream of chatter, telling the mer about their plan going forward and what to expect. He was idly petting Xiao Mei’s neck while doing so, comforting himself more than the donkey. From a quick glance back to the mer, he wasn’t even sure he was listening! Too busy looking around on their surrounding.
“-so it really is not all that surprising that you’ve never heard of the elixir of lasting transformation, considering you need ingredients from both land and sea alike. In fact, under normal circumstances it would be virtually impossible for a mer to get their hands on it.”
“Do you ever shut up?” Shen Yuan turned back in surprise at the formerly mute mer.
“Umm, not really?”
“Tsk, figures.” The mer didn’t even bother to look at Shen Yuan, too busy studying a purple speckled leaf next to the cart.
Ouch? He was trying his best here. If the fish didn’t want to hear about their plan to get him his legs, then he could decide the conversation topic himself. Shen Yuan stopped his sullen line of thought when he saw the mer wrangle an arm out of the blankets to reach for the leaf.
“Stop! Don’t touch that!” Shen Yuan felt a squeezing panic as he reached out to stop the mer from touching the plant.
The mer, upon seeing him rapidly and loudly reaching out for him from the corner of his eye, immediately turned around and snarled in warning. Shen Yuan stopped his movement, instead raising his hands in front of him in appeasement.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, but you really shouldn’t touch that.”
“Who is startled.” The mer snapped back immediately, before warily glancing back at the bush with the purple speckled leafs. “What is it?”
“It’s a many-leafed stinging madness. The underside of the leaves have small hairs that give you really nasty rashes, and if the sap gets into your wounds it can trigger a qi-deviation.”
The mer instantly leaned away from the bush with a aghast expression. “Why are you just standing there then?? Make that hairy beast move forward! Now!!”
“Alright, alright! Calm down. As long as you didn’t touch it then there’s no danger.” Shen Yuan tried to calm the mer. Jokingly he said, “Although I’m a bit surprised you didn’t want to collect some to use against me later.”
“Tempting as it may be, I’ll have to decline the offer. You might be a pain in my gills, but I have no interest watching any more people die of deviations.”
Shen Yuan perked up at that. Could it be, he’d finally get some backstory from the tightlipped mer?
“Any more people? You’ve seen it happen before?”
“Just once really, but that was enough for me.” Shen Jiu looked off into the distance with a vacant look.
Okay, now Shen Yuan was just brimming with curiosity!
“What happened? Who was it?”
The mer glanced quickly over to him. He looked surprised at Shen Yuan’s genuine interest, and perhaps also a bit hesitant? He stayed silent for a few moments, his usual acidic personality out of sight. The moment wasn’t long lived however, as he snapped out of it with a high-pitched, derisive laugh.
“Someone from my pod, he stubbornly demanded to go into secluded cultivation. Of course the brute had to overdo it. Trained himself right into a qi-deviation and made it my problem. In fact, he almost took me out with him in his madness.”
“But he didn’t.”
“No,” the mer sneered a little. “In his last moments he seemed to regain some of his bearing. Just long enough to direct hos weapon towards himself. That brute, always so disgustingly righteous. He should have just attacked me, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.”
Shen Jiu spit out the last part, incensed by the memories of his long dead podmate. Shen Yuan could only look at him in confusion and mild concern. Would he really rather have been killed as well? Perhaps the guilt of surviving was too heavy for him to bear.
Noticing Shen Yuan’s evaluating gaze, he quickly reigned himself in. Instead looking Shen Yuan up and down. “I doubt you’d make much of a threat even if you were to spiral down into a deviation. Your cultivation hardly seems great enough to be a danger to anyone, much less me.”
Ha! Shen Jiu thought he was being slick by trying to rile Shen Yuan up after telling him something like that. Nice try! But Shen Yuan knew what he was doing. Not to worry dear acquaintance.
“Don’t worry, I won’t die on you.” Shen Yuan said with a confident smile. The mer looked momentarily stunned at his words, before turning it into anger.
“Why do I care if you live or die?! You wouldn’t be the first one to fail to keep up your end of a promise, so don’t kid yourself! Don’t think I actually need you! Just you watch, I could easily have that beast lead me back to the sea if needed!”
Shen Yuan only hid his smile from view of the irate mer, continuing to lead Xiao Mei forward.
It took them close to two miserable shichen and moving the cart through increasingly dense vegetation to finally arrive at their destination. Shen Yuan tried to keep the conversation going with the sour mer, hoping for some more bits of information about Shen Jiu to be revealed. Alas, the mer seemed allergic to normal conversation and stayed mute. However, at times Shen Yuan found the mer raptly paying attention to his explanation of the plants and animals they encountered. But whenever the mer noticed him watching, he’d immediately switch back to an uninterested scowl.
They arrived at a small clearing. A willow with white leaves and a grey trunk stood in the middle. The leaves hung down around the tree, creating a curtain they could not easily see through. When a slight breeze rustled the leaves, there came a sound as if a small group of people stood on the other side, whispering among themselves. It was enough to make the hairs on Shen Yuan’s neck raise.
He suddenly remembered something he had learned a long time ago about the white whispering willow. The story had claimed that the tree listened to the people speaking in the forest, and then repeated it in hushed whispers. If you were lucky (Shen Yuan started to feel like unlucky was a better description) you could hear the words of people from centuries ago repeated back to you.
“So this is it?” The mer was captivated by the tree, staring at it with open fascination.
“Yup. The seed should be hidden in a hole somewhere between the roots, I think.” That’s at least what System claimed.
“You think?” Shen Jiu scoffed back at him. “I just have to pick it up then?”
“Yes. I’ll help you look but I can’t touch it. Once it leaves the safety of the mother tree it will imprint on the closest qi source available, which in this scenario is you. After that no one else can use the qi it contains.”
“And one seed will contain enough qi to power the transformation process?” The mer still seemed quite sceptical at the idea.
“The white whispering willow spends centuries just gathering qi from its surrounding. It all then goes into one seed, making it into a small energy bomb! Just eating it would be enough to push you into a breakthrough in your cultivation!” If Shen Yuan was more ambitious, he might have considered taking the seed for himself. Lucky for the mer, he felt quite content with the state of his cultivation.
Shen Jiu gave the willow another thoughtful glance, a complicated expression crossing his face, before he ultimately sighed. “Let us just get this over with.”
Shen Yuan led Xiao Mei and the cart closer to the tree, but before they could cross under the leaf curtain Xiao Mei abruptly stopped. When Shen Yuan tried to pull the donkey forward again, she pinned her ears back and started pulling away from the tree. Behind him the whispering became louder, Shen Yuan tried his best to ignore how he felt like he could almost decipher the low voices now.
Shen Jiu swore on top of the cart after being jostled around by the frightened animal’s attempt at turning around. “Shen Yuan! Get control of your beast!”
“I’m trying! I think the whispering is scaring her!” Shen Yuan tried to calm Xiao Mei down, but she still refused to budge from where she had placed herself several steps away from the tree. She trampled nervously, glancing between the whispering tree and out into the woods. Shen Yuan gripped her ropes tighter, he’d rather not she run away with the mer still in the cart.
“She’s refusing to budge! I’ll have to carry you the last bit.”
Shen Jiu grumbled angrily but started removing the wet blankets around him. He rigidly accepted Shen Yuan’s outstretched arms, his body stiff as Shen Yuan lifted him up. Despite all the earlier times Shen Yuan had carried him, it had not become less awkward.
While they walked around Xiao Mei towards the tree, she continued to step nervously where she stood. The mer cast her a wary look, just in time to catch her looking nervously out into the forest once more. He turned his own head in the same direction, squinting at the foliage and shadows moving in the wind. Shen Yuan gave him a questioning look.
“We should hurry up.” The mer momentarily tightened his arms around Shen Yuan’s before catching himself.
“Why?” Shen Yuan looked out into the forest as well but couldn’t see anything out of place, the loud whispers of the tree next to them drowned out any noise from outside the clearing.
“Don’t question me! Just do as I say.“ The mer frustratedly kicked out with his tail, making Shen Yuan stumble as he resumed his walk towards the tree.
They had barely touched the outermost leaves of the curtain when a reverberating growl echoed out into the clearing.
They quickly turned around to see a dark shape detach itself from the shadows. The beast was large with a body like a deer, its legs were long and transitioned to scaly feet that of a reptile, a thick scaly tail also swished threateningly behind it. The most unnerving part however, was its face. The long neck ended in a muzzle not much unlike a canine’s, it bared its yellow teeth towards them, head hung low as it stalked closer. The beast’s eyes faced forward on its skull, light brown and predatory.
Shen Yuan had never heard of a beast like this before, whatever it was, it was not something he had read in any of his sect’s bestiaries. What the beast was stopped feeling important when Shen Yuan stared back into those strangely intelligent eyes. Understanding hit him as he realized what they were facing.
“Damn it! That’s a yao.” Shen Jiu seemed to have come to the same realization. He desperately looked around the clearing, trying to find a way out of the inevitable confrontation.
“It’s probably looking for the seed as well.” Shen Yuan agreed, sweat dripping from his temple. They were in so much trouble right now. The yao already seemed to be highly cultivated, no doubt it wanted the seed to cultivate even further.
With a sudden pounce the yao came upon them. Shen Yuan yelped and quickly maneuvered to the side, the sudden movement making him lose his grip on the mer. With a fearful shriek Xiao Mei turned around and sprinted out of the clearing, leaving the two alone with the large yao.
“Are you alright?!” Shen Yuan quickly jumped back up on his feet, turning halfway back to the mer on the ground.
“I’m fine! Your beast left us here, what the hell do we do now?!”
Shen Yuan though frantically as he watched the yao turn around to face him, staring unblinkingly back at him. He made a quick decision and pulled out his sword to face the beast.
“I’ll distract it! Go find the seed!”. Shen Yuan heard the mer acknowledge his command, the leaves behind him rustled as Shen Jiu started pulling himself through the leaf curtain. The beast immediately turned towards the mer, contempt clear in its eyes, it let out a warning growl and made to go after him.
“Hey! You’ll have to go through me first!” Shen Yuan aimed a sloppy sword flash at the yao, distracting it from the mer.
The yao jumped to the side, refocusing on Shen Yuan with an expression that emanated rage. Swallowing thickly, Shen Yuan straightened his back and pointed his sword at the yao, ready to intercept its next move.
The beast apparently decided to take his words seriously as it aimed its next attack at him. Shen Yuan was barely fast enough to block a hit of its muscular tail and was pushed multiple steps backwards. He grit his teeth as he prepared himself again, trying to lead the beast even further away from the willow.
Next, the yao swiped at him with black gnarly claws, followed quickly by snapping teeth as Shen Yuan ducked out of the way. The beast snarled in frustration and continued after him in a slow but steady pace.
Shen Yuan felt his blood pumping loudly in his ears, his breathing heavy and labored. It was still not enough to drown out the whispers, which had grown increasingly distressed behind him. He fought the impulse to look back and see how Shen Jiu was doing. Forcing himself to keep his eyes on the yao as they circled each other.
The yao hissed at him, its breath odd and choppy. A shiver ran down his spine as he realized the yao was trying to talk to him. Apparently, it had not cultivated human speech yet. It didn’t need to though.
Behind him, the whispers of the willow coalesced into low, but very understandable words.
“It’s mine”
“I’m sorry, but you can’t have it.” Shen Yuan fought to keep his voice steady, feeling deeply unsettled at having to face away from the direction of the voice talking to him.
“Then perish”
With a howl the yao ran straight towards him. Shen Yuan raised his sword and pushed forward in a desperate attempt to counterattack. The beast shrieked loudly as the sword made contact with its shoulder. Shen Yuan didn’t have time to celebrate his victory as a thick tail hit him hard on his side, knocking him off his feet.
He landed hard on his back, and before he even had the chance to catch his breath, the beast was upon him. A large, clawed hand pressed down on his chest. Looking back up, he was met with gleaming teeth as the yao lowered its head towards him. A warm, nauseating breath hit his face and a rumbling growl erupted from its throat.
Shen Yuan tried uselessly to push of the beast, but was not able to budge it even the slightest. The jaw in front of him opened wider as the yao prepared to finish the job. Shen Yuan’s breath caught in his throat. He instinctively closed his eyes, hoping Shen Jiu would forgive him for not keeping his word, when suddenly everything became quiet.
There was no sound in the clearing, no disembodied whispers, and no words from the yao. The only thing that could be heard was their intertwined breaths as cultivator and yao stared at each other.
Both moved their heads toward the tree when Shen Jiu appeared between the hanging leaves. Inside the palm pressed to his chest was something even Shen Yuan could feel was pulsating with qi.
The clawed hand on his chest contracted where it painfully pressed down on Shen Yuan, followed by an angry snarl directed at Shen Jiu. Moments later the pressure eased up and the yao stepped off Shen Yuan. With a last resentful huff, the beast trudged back into the forest.
Shen Yuan swung an arm over his eyes as he tried to regain control over his breath. Relief flooded his body, and moments later the heavy silence was broken by a light, hysterical laughter. Trying to rail it in only made it worse, so Shen Yuan could only let it take its course. Looking up, he saw the mer staring back at him with an incredulous expression.
“Are you insane? What the hell are you laughing at??” The mer was rapidly switching between disbelief and anger.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just, haha, I almost died.”
“I saw,” the mer commented coolly. “I’m starting to think it had the right idea. Control yourself!”
“Alright! Alright!” Shen Yuan forcefully took control of his body by circulating his qi, and sat back up. The mer was still watching him with caution.
“Why didn’t it kill you anyways. Seems rather idiotic to just let us go like that.”
“When the seed imprinted on you it made it unusable for anyone else, so it must have decided we no longer were worth the energy.” Shen Yuan shrugged.
“That doesn’t make any sense. If it was me I’d kill it for destroying my chance to collect the seed.” Shen Jiu scoffed. Shen Yuan just amusedly shook his head at him and walked back to the tree.
“So? Can I see it?” This might be the only time Shen Yuan would ever lay his eye on something so rare, sue him for being curious.
The mer gave him a hesitant look while cradling the seed closer to his chest. He ultimately seemed to come to a decision, and slowly opened his hand to show the round fuzzy ball laying inside. Its circumference was slightly smaller than the mer’s palm, thin white strands of fuss growing out of a dense grey core, the seed. It was softly swaying in the breeze on the mer’s palm, as if it wanted to roll off and onto the dirt to lay roots.
Shen Yuan suddenly thought of something and started digging through his sleeves, pulling out a small pouch that he handed over to the mer.
“Here, use this to carry the seed.”
The mer accepted the pouch and gingerly placed the seed inside, then tying the pouch to a rope around his waist. After some deliberation they decided Shen Yuan would carry the mer back. Shen Yuan had first offered to go search for Xiao Mei, but they then decided they didn’t want to take any chances with the yao returning while he was gone. Luckily the donkey hadn’t run too far off, and once they found her, she happily approached. Glad to see someone familiar in this large, wild forest. There was no sighting of the yao the entire way home.
Back at the pool Shen Yuan immediately placed the mer in the water, his poor scales already flaking from being out in the middle of a forest for so long. He then retrieved the salves he had made for the mer, instructing him to smear some onto every injury again. It wouldn’t do to have him fall ill from an infection after dragging himself across the ground all day. Shen Jiu, naturally, strongly opposed the idea. Only giving in when Shen Yuan bribed him with a whole bag of sweets he had originally bought for himself.
For the first time, they sat together in an almost companionable silence at the pool. Watching the sky clear up and transform into a breathtaking red sunset over the sea. Shen Jiu had even been gracious enough not to say anything when Shen Yuan sat down.
Shen Yuan couldn’t help but glance towards Shen Jiu. To himself, he could admit that he had grown quite lonely living by the sea. In his old sect he had had his martial siblings to talk to daily, but out here he could only socialize by going into the village. In some strange way, it had been nice to finally have someone to talk to every day. Even if that someone was as cranky as Shen Jiu.
Honestly, he might actually miss their verbal sparring matches when all of this was finally over and they went their separate ways. Shen Yuan felt a tight lump form in his throat, and turned back to watch the sun set beneath the waves.