Chapter 145

Chapter 145

Deep in the night.

In the quiet lamplight, Lu Yan pressed his lips together, momentarily at a loss for words.

Fortunately, a knock sounded abruptly at the guest room door.

The visitor was, or had been, a polite gentleman. He—or it—rapped on the door three times. No more, no less. The rhythm was steady and measured.

It’s the Captain. Pollution value, twelve thousand. We call him Luo Yi. Even when he was human, Luo Yi was responsible for navigating and maintaining the Noah. It’s the same now that he’s a pollutant. Besides that, he also protects the passengers on this ship.

Lu Yan raised a brow slightly. "Protects?"

Of course.

Although Luo Yi isn’t a perfect evolution… during the annual pilgrimage voyage to Laleye, Captain Luo gains power that rivals any perfect evolution.

Thank the seas for no signal. Over twenty years have passed, and the Captain hasn’t had any communication with Lu Cheng.

Lu Yan placed his hand over Tang Xun’an’s, pressing the blade the other man was about to draw back into its sheath.

He gave a low cough and opened the door.

The pungent stench of the sea hit him like a physical blow. Lu Yan lifted his gaze to the colossal figure before him.

Well, hello. A giant octopus in a naval uniform.

Luo Yi’s uniform was tattered and ancient, his body grotesquely swollen as if pumped full of water, his head brushing the ceiling.

Like the other crew, his own head had been replaced by that of a massive octopus. The edges of his tentacles dripped with a slick, revolting mucus.

His bulging eyes, like those of a goldfish, hung on either side of his face.

Now, those eyes fixed on Lu Yan.

Do as I say. Time for a real performance. Did you ever study acting?

"Long time no see."

Lu Yan’s voice had changed slightly, grown raspy and low, as if he’d aged a decade in an instant.

"Indeed, my friend. Over twenty years… and you still haven’t become a pollutant? Seems the surface world isn’t chaotic enough yet."

A small tentacle from Luo Yi’s face crept stealthily from behind, aiming for Lu Yan’s neck.

Lu Yan’s arm shot up, his fingers closing like a vise around the unruly appendage.

His nails were long and sharp. Like a dinner knife, they sheared through the tentacle tip. Pale red fluid oozed out. Lu Yan tossed the pulped meat to the floor.

"Getting there," Lu Yan replied. "Your tentacles are as disobedient as ever."

The Captain ignored the comment, sniffing the air loudly. "I smell it. There’s someone else in your room. Fresh. Fragrant…"

Several tentacles hooked over the doorframe, probing forward with ill intent.

Lu Yan didn’t stop them. He spoke slowly. "This year’s chosen offering. You seem to like it?"

The writhing tentacles froze.

Luo Yi retracted them, his voice still carrying a thread of amusement. "How would I dare touch an offering meant for the god? Speaking of which… where is the child?"

Lu Yan knew "the child" meant himself.

He waited for the system’s answer.

After a moment of heavy silence, it replied with difficulty. He did not mature. He was merely a flawed product. I have already disposed of him.

Lu Yan lowered his eyes. "He did not mature. He was merely a flawed product. I have already disposed of him."

Luo Yi’s large hand—a human one—clamped onto his shoulder. "Don’t lose heart. We still have time. Why the sudden visit this year, and without word? So quiet. If I hadn’t sensed a human presence on board, I wouldn’t have known you were here."

"I prefer not to be seen by too many," Lu Yan said.

"Heh… of course. You are the Prophet, after all… I owe this form to you."

The pressure on Lu Yan’s shoulder intensified suddenly. Had his body not been enhanced, the force would have shattered the bones of any mammal.

Lu Yan didn’t speak. In one fluid motion, he drew the dagger from his waist and drove it backward into his own shoulder.

Hellfire pierced through Luo Yi’s thick palm, the blade tip burying deep into flesh.

A stream of foul-smelling liquid bubbled from the Captain’s wound, the stench identical to the burst fluids of a dissected giant.

A burn mark appeared on Luo Yi’s palm. He withdrew his hand. "No need for tension. I bear no grudge. Humanity was indeed too weak. I quite enjoy my current existence."

Several thick tentacles coiled around Lu Yan’s waist in a grotesque parody of an embrace. "Welcome aboard the Noah ferry. I wish you a pleasant journey, my passenger."

---

Though the Captain’s killing intent had been faint, a large, dark purple bruise still bloomed across Lu Yan’s shoulder.

The Hellfire had pierced Luo Yi’s hand and also sliced through Lu Yan’s own flesh.

Thanks to his Regeneration talent, such an injury was inconsequential. But the mucus on the Captain’s tentacles effectively inhibited the healing. Minutes later, the wound still seeped a steady trickle of blood, gradually soaking through his jacket.

"Let me see," Tang Xun’an said.

Lu Yan let him undo the buttons of his shirt.

He watched the man before him. Those golden eyes looked straight ahead, his head slightly bowed. Even from this unflattering, downward angle, his handsome features were flawless.

Tang Xun’an studied the wound on his shoulder for a moment. "May I… lick it?"

Dragon-dog is indeed a treasure trove. Bones for arrows, sinew for bowstrings, scales for armor… even saliva works as a healing salve. I must admit, it’s the best anti-inflammatory and analgesic you’ll find under these conditions.

"You may," Lu Yan replied.

A faint itch spread over his shoulder. Lu Yan’s mind drifted for a second. If he ever had a big dog, he supposed it would lick him like this too.

Finally, the wound began to repair itself.

"You heard everything," Lu Yan stated.

Denial was pointless. "Yes," Tang Xun’an answered.

Chilled and weary, Lu Yan’s voice was listless. "I only know a little more than you do. Lu Cheng wasn’t my biological father. He fished me out of the sea. I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have brought you here. But I was too afraid."

Afraid.

Lu Yan never imagined that word would ever be associated with him again.

He was born with muted, fractured emotions, rarely feeling any fluctuation. Even anger was a recent acquisition.

He had only ever told the dead that he had lived in fear since childhood.

A senseless, numbing, maddening fear. It only eased after Lu Cheng was taken away.

Lu Yan knew it wasn’t leaving Lu Cheng that brought relief.

It was finally understanding that "Little Brother" wasn’t a figment of his imagination. He was real. Existed like a flower or a tree. No one else knew Little Brother had awoken for a moment, but Lu Yan knew.

Now, after all these years, the feeling had found him again.

Just as the system said, Little Brother was waking up. However he chose to awaken.

Lu Yan knew, with cold certainty, that it was nothing good.

Tang Xun’an carefully re-buttoned his shirt. "Don’t be afraid. And no apologies needed."

Tang Xun’an chose to believe the future he had seen—a future where Lu Yan lived. Whether he himself would still exist in that future was another matter.

---

The Noah remained anchored for two days. In the pre-dawn hours of the third day, it finally set sail.

Lu Yan had wondered how such a massive ship moved without an engine. The answer soon presented itself.

Captain Octopus’s tentacles squeezed out from the drainage pipes, acting like oars to part the waves.

The ferry headed into the deep ocean.

The passengers boarding weren’t just Meat Fish, but numerous marine pollutants Lu Yan had never heard of.

Standing among them was like being in a wholesale seafood market, the floor littered with freshly caught fish.

The system murmured in his ear. Wasabi octopus, mackerel gelée, bluefin tuna sashimi, salmon belly, sea urchin, krill, arctic surf clam… Ah, I’m so hungry. So fragrant. So plump.

It finished with an audible gulp.

"Do you have to talk about this at two in the morning?" Lu Yan asked.

If I don’t say it now, in a few days there’ll be no chance. Don’t find me annoying.

The system’s voice held a strange note of grievance.

Lu Yan pressed his lips together. "Why are pollutants boarding too?"

Laleye promotes evolution. A few more trips, and they’re one step closer to their dream of dominating sea, land, and air.

These pollutants had paid their fare: Meat Fish scavenged from around the world, quantities ranging from fifty to a hundred.

The Deep Sea Cult devotees, being still-living fish, were of the best quality. They were stored separately in a hold.

The other Meat Fish weren’t so lucky. They were tethered to the masts, strung up like laundry left to dry, or fish curing in brine.

Though Lu Yan’s scent closely mimicked a pollutant now, he wasn’t one.

To avoid accidents, he spent most of his time in the cabin, waiting for the ship to reach its destination.

The voyage lasted longer than he’d imagined. Understandable, he supposed. Biological propulsion couldn’t yet match mechanical power.

As they drew closer to their destination, the color of the sea grew darker, inkier.

On a storm-lashed night, Lu Yan, feverish, lay curled against Tang Xun’an, drifting in a hazy half-sleep. Suddenly, the ship shuddered violently.

His voice was a dry rasp. "Are we there?"

The system didn't answer.

A torrent of seawater surged down the corridor, flooding in.

Lu Yan's swollen eyelids cracked open. In the next instant, Tang Xian'an's arms were around him, lifting him from the floor.

"A pollutant is attacking the ship. It's alright."

Though the ocean's denizens had expanded their diets for survival—preying on other pollutants beyond their own kind—Meat Fish remained their most coveted prize. It was a craving written into their very bones.

A colossal blue whale rose and fell with the swells, its skin a crusted landscape of barnacles. Its size was monstrous, reminiscent of long-extinct sea dragons. Two slender hind limbs had begun to sprout from its underbelly; in a few centuries, this leviathan might crawl onto land, reversing the ancient journey its ancestors had made from shore to sea.

The Noah stretched over a hundred meters long. The blue whale lurking beneath them looked just as vast.

Now Lu Yan understood what the system meant about the Captain's duty to protect the passengers.

Those tentacles, which served as oars, elongated and thickened once more. They lashed out like a bull's tail swatting flies, driving the great whale away.

The rest of the squid-faced crew moved with dull efficiency, gathering armfuls of Meat Fish and hurling them far out into the black water.

But the blue whale refused to leave. It continued to batter the hull from below.

Captain Luo Yi let out a furious, guttural shriek. "I can't stop you! But if this ship goes down, none of you will ever taste fish again! Are you all gambling that He will never wake!?"

The massive pollutant ceased its thrashing. With a string of Meat Fish clamped in its jaws, it turned and retreated into the depths.

Across its body, barnacles detached and leapt. For years, they had gnawed at the whale's flesh.

Though individually small, their appetite was relentless. Over time, they had carved pockmarks and craters across the leviathan's hide.

Now, strung on lines like grotesque wind chimes, they unfurled crimson tongues from their central pores. In rapid, biting motions, they devoured the Meat Fish until nothing remained.

Some, now sated, drifted away with the tide to seek new grounds for breeding. Others, still ravenous, swam back to reclaim their places on the whale's broad back. Soon, they had reclaimed most of its spine.

Tang Xian'an held Lu Yan tight, his brow furrowed.

This blue whale had never appeared in the Prevention Center's surveillance data.

Yet according to the Captain, pollutants of this level were not unique in these waters.

Aboard the ship, constantly bathed in the radiation of a potent pollution source, Tang Xian'an's long-dormant spiritual power threshold had surged again. It was nearing the fifteen-thousand mark.

He had hoped this journey home would be uneventful. Now, it was clear the future remained fraught with uncertainty.

The blue whale vanished into the storm-lashed night, descending back into the abyss.

The Captain stood at the highest point of the deck, his voice booming over the rain. "Dear passengers, do not be alarmed! A minor incident on our voyage. We are nearing our destination. The Lord President has been awaiting your arrival! The City Beneath the Waves will not disappoint."

The Meat Fish, still lost in their induced euphoria, beat their fins and emitted choruses of joyful clicks and whistles.

Tang Xian'an let out a slow, controlled breath.

In his arms, after a moment of fragile clarity, Lu Yan slipped back into unconsciousness.

Tang Xian'an spread a wing to shield him from the lashing rain, his voice a soft murmur against Lu Yan's temple. "Don't be afraid, Yan Yan. Don't be afraid. Sweet dreams."

In the distance, a vortex of impossible scale churned the ocean's heart. The hundred-meter ferry was a grain of rice adrift on its rim, insignificant.

The maelstrom was a black hole in the sea, devouring everything.

Tang Xian'an knew. That was the place Lu Yan had spoken of so many times.

Laleye.