Yun Luohe decided to change tactics.She would use the Blue Vortex’s seawater-purifying property to drag the octopuses into its range.See if it could scrub off their radiation as well.Yun Luohe drove the trident clean through one octopus’s mantle, then spun hard, tangling its arms with the arms of several others.Their wits had clearly dulled under radiation; stupidly, they let her tow them along.If anyone stumbled on this scene, they’d be stunned.She advanced with a glowing long trident in hand while a dozen giant octopuses trailed her. One was skewered on the shaft, its inky discharge darkening the water around her—spectacle and nightmare at once.—As the phosphorescent octopuses entered the blue glow, their movements visibly slowed and the luminous speckles dimmed.Seizing their dazed moment, Yun Luohe went all in.The Thunder Vortex Trident in her grasp became a lash of blue lightning, reaping octopus after octopus.Each killed phosphorescent octopus collapsed into a fading mote-cloud and dropped a glowing Phosphorescent Ink Sac.The last of them finally went down.Breathing hard, Yun Luohe checked her Sanity—already down to a dangerous 55.She hurried a bottle of Bitter Melon Tea from her pack and drained it.The bitterness spread across her tongue.“So bitter.”Hard to describe—unpleasant going down, comfortable after.Watching Sanity begin to tick back up, Yun Luohe let out a breath.“Hey… this ink sac looks just like a squid’s!”Maybe it worked the same way.She examined the octopus sac.Not the same—similar, but different.A Squid Ink Sac is for repairing the Merman Luminous Coronet,while an octopus ink sac is a key material for brewing Night Vision Potion.After a brief rest, Yun Luohe kept scouting the area.Around the Blue Vortex the water had been purified, and schools of fish and shrimp hid there.Several whales rested nearby as well.There was also plenty of sea grass and shells.She spotted something familiar and rushed over.Mother-of-Pearl!She hadn’t expected to find it here. Perfect.She was short on Mother-of-Pearl; it was needed for all sorts of things—For example repairing the Merman Luminous Coronet and building a Teleportation Array.She searched high and low but only found three pieces of Mother-of-Pearl.Forget it—no need to be greedy.Better than nothing.There were other clams and snails, too; she scooped them all into her pack.While she was focused on gathering, a distant, ethereal singing drifted over.The song curled and lingered with a thread of sorrow, as if from another world. Yun Luohe followed the sound and saw a translucent silhouette drifting around the Underwater Ruins.The figure had a human upper body and a fish tail.A merman?!No—something was off.The instant Yun Luohe’s gaze met the merman’s spirit, a fierce wave of vertigo hit; her Sanity began to drop again.She snapped her eyes shut, not daring to look directly.What is going on!Something was wrong with this merman—was it irradiated too?But one glance shouldn’t hit this hard.Worse than the green fog.Still, a merman here meant a lead—and likely an Underwater Ruins location.She couldn’t just drop it.So Yun Luohe gritted her teeth and decided to risk following it.She cracked one eye open, watching carefully.The merman’s form was transparent, flitting about, searching.Every extra glance shaved her Sanity down.No good.It was dropping too fast.What is this?She checked the wristwatch.No, there wasn’t any radiation here.Then what was it?The more she looked, the less she understood.She observed for a long while; the merman did nothing at all—seemed not to notice her. It even swam past her without reacting.“…”The merman didn’t react—but her Sanity had already fallen to 60!Two more points bled off. She was just about to pull out food when a voice sounded.“Who are you?”The merman snapped its gaze to her, the voice beautiful as it drifted closer.[Quest Triggered: Heart of the Merman.][The merman’s spirit wanders here because she lost the necklace her beloved gave her. She hopes you will help her find it.][Quest Reward: Unknown]Ah.So the Sanity drop was because she was seeing a ghost.As expected…And only under that state could the merman’s spirit see her, allowing the quest to trigger.With the quest accepted, Yun Luohe followed behind the spirit—but she still—The merman spirit kept singing its mournful song and led her deeper. Along the way, the melody told the story of her and her beloved.Listening bled her Sanity down, so Yun Luohe could only keep dosing Sanity-boosting food and rubbing on mint balm to stay afloat—without letting Sanity rise above 60, or the merman wouldn’t see her and the quest might break.Brutal.By now they’d left the Blue Vortex—the seabed purifier—far behind, and the radiation fogs scented the trail and drifted in.The merman spirit brought Yun Luohe to an even larger fissure, and the Fluorescent Green fog behind them was now within arm’s reach.Without hesitation, Yun Luohe dove into the crack.The sight inside left her wide-eyed.It was like a pocket world—countless luminous sea grasses climbed the walls on both sides, weaving a glittering passage.The spirit really had led her to another Underwater Ruins.And this one was bigger than any she’d seen.From her observations, it had stood for a very long time. Strange runes were carved into the distant ancient pillars.The runes had dimmed, but a powerful aura still seeped through.She couldn’t take it all in.Staring a little too long, she missed how much Sanity she’d burned—her skull throbbed and her vision swam.Biting back the vertigo, she smeared on a heavy dose of mint balm.She didn’t dare stop; rubbing as she went, she trailed the spirit through the sea-grass-lit corridor.Crossing the threshold, her body felt rejected by the place; without the merman spirit leading, she doubted she could have entered.And there was danger in the air.She tightened her grip on the trident and edged forward.Soon she spotted a familiar giant clam.Ha—where there are Underwater Ruins, there are giant clams.The mermen must treat them as sacred, so every site used them as a signature piece.This clam was made of pearl, glowing with a soft luster—exquisite, flawless.No time to admire it. She moved in to crack it and see what was inside.But she knew there would be guardians.Sure enough, as she neared, the ground split and dozens of green sea snakes pushed up through the sand.Bulbous growths jutted from their heads; they hissed, tongues flickering, and spat highly corrosive venom.Yun Luohe rolled aside from the spray and swept the trident, cleaving two snakes in half.Hit a snake at seven inches—that should do it.But the severed snakes didn’t die; fresh bodies sprouted ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) from the wounds, splitting into two smaller snakes that kept attacking.Only then did she realize these snakes regenerated by division.Trouble—cutting them would multiply them.Dodging strikes, she scanned for a weakness.She noticed that whenever a snake attacked, the head growth pulsed with light, as if it were the energy source.Timing her move, she drove the trident through a snake’s head and ruptured the growth.With a shriek, its body looked corroded; the flesh vanished and it shriveled into a strip of snakeskin.That snakeskin had to be valuable.Bag it, bag it.With the snakes dealt with, she approached the clam again—only to find no treasure inside, just a passage.The merman spirit slipped in first, as if summoned.Yun Luohe went in after.Past the passage, an ancient structure stood not far away. Complex patterns were carved across its surface, glowing a ghostly blue—it looked like a seafloor temple.The vast dome was broken, but its former grandeur still showed.This must once have been a dwelling of a great merman clan.Where there’s a temple, there’s definitely a merman sacred relic.High-tier loot incoming.Through a corridor etched with golden sigils, a massive altar came into view.At its center floated a fist-sized transparent crystal; inside, a tear seemed sealed.But nine chains woven from water circled the altar, their ends fixed to merman statues at the four corners.“Looks like a Merman Tear Crystal…” Yun Luohe wasn’t certain. She didn’t sense danger, so she stepped in to lift it—and a force flung her back.The system voice chimed:[The altar is sealed. Use a Merman Clan token to release it.]

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