Heroes' Prison

Chapter 293 - 288: The Mermaid’s Tears

At this moment, save for Huang Yi, every person aboard the ship trembled, their faces turning pale as if they had lost their souls all at once.

The song was all too familiar. They had heard it countless times before, but this time it seemed to ring right by their ear, like a death knell from Hell, coming to claim their lives.

"It’s over! We’ve encountered a Sea Monster!" Bai Fan stuttered, looking at the others, "Old mates, we won’t make it back; we’re going to die here."

"Who would’ve thought, after a lifetime of fishing and hearing mermaid tales, I’d meet my end in this very legend today." Another man, in his forties, gave a bleak smile, "My grandson had just learned to call me grandpa. Just yesterday, I kissed his tender little cheek. What a darling he is. I will never see him again, never see him grow up, never see him fall in love with a pretty little girl..."

Meanwhile, the song continued, hauntingly beautiful yet desolate, but at this moment, those on the ship had no mind to appreciate it.

"Don’t panic yet," Huang Yi suddenly reassured the people onboard, "I’ll talk with this Sea Monster."

Having said that, Huang Yi took a few steps forward to the bow of the ship, looked around at the boundless ocean, and shouted, "Honored Mermaid Princess, I know you’ve wandered this sea for countless years, all for your beloved Leviathan. As it happens, I have news of Leviathan. Please, come forth."

As his voice fell, the song suddenly trembled and then stopped, and the air around them filled with a silence as heavy as death. The people on the ship exchanged glances, feeling the brief calm was an even greater torment, with a storm about to hit!

"Splash!" At that moment, a giant column of water surged skyward from the distant sea, hundreds of meters high, with an imposing aura. Even large sharks were swept up into the air, helplessly flailing their tails!

As the water column crashed back down, the sunny side of the ocean appeared as if a violent storm had struck, with waves shaking violently. Huang Yi’s sailboat rocked back and forth, teetering on the brink of capsizing. The sailors clung desperately to the mast, fearing they would be tossed into the sea, and Huang Yi, too, clung to the rail, already drenched with rain and sea spray.

"Boom!" Thunder roared in the sky, as a heavy layer of dark clouds suddenly enveloped the clear skies, thick and oppressive as if the skies were collapsing.

The winds howled, driving the torrential rain into a shroud that blotted out the sun with flashing lightning and booming thunder. The entire ocean seemed to face the End of the World, with fierce winds and towering waves. The sailboat was helplessly twisted and turned by the giant waves, and the sailors on the ship gripped the mast tightly, frightened of being thrown overboard, while Huang Yi, too, grasped the ship’s edge, his body already soaked by the rain and waves.

Just then, the water in front opened up in a straight line, creating a strange corridor through the sea. Soon after, at the end of the corridor, a figure appeared, hazy in the deluge, her features indistinct. But with a closer look, one could see that she was vaguely a woman.

As the woman approached, her figure became clearer. Her body was graceful, shoulders bare, with just a few Scales sparingly covering her chest area, and her lower body was a fishtail, much like the Mermaids of legend.

Finally, the woman arrived in front of the sailboat, her features fully revealed.

This woman was exceptionally beautiful, with lips a seductive red as if freshly soaked in blood, and some fish scales at the corner of her eyes, coloring a kaleidoscope.

"You have news of Leviathan?" At that moment, the Mermaid focused on Huang Yi on the ship, speaking in a melodious and pleasant voice, as enchanting as her song, with a subtle allure.

"Honored Mermaid Princess, please stop this storm. I do have news of Leviathan," Huang Yi called out, grasping the rail tightly amidst the storm.

"Good, I hope you haven’t lied to me!" The Mermaid said, and with a gentle wave of her hand, shaped like a lotus root.

The next moment, the entire world seemed to pause, transformed into stillness.

The raindrops in the sky retained their shape, hanging motionless in the air, neither falling nor moving;

The waves looked as if they were sculptures of crystal, frozen in their very form from just a moment ago;

The dark clouds in the sky ceased their rolling, like a painted canvas;

And the lightning within the clouds stopped spreading, maintaining the brightness and shape from before.

Even the others on the ship remained immobile, preserving the expressions of terror from just a moment before, as if they had been turned to stone.

The world suddenly became infinitely eerie, and Huang Yi could clearly see the shape of every raindrop in the air, every wave along the sea.

But now, he was not in the mood for appreciation; he fixed his gaze on the Mermaid and immediately said, "Your beloved Leviathan hasn’t died, in fact. He wished to go to the Deep Sea to find you, but as he was but a mere mortal, he fell prey to the King of the Fallen, Biliev, and gained immense Strength, becoming a Tidal Hunter. However, he was soon sent by the King of the Fallen to the Death God’s Temple to investigate, and was eventually captured and imprisoned in a place called Heroes’ Prison, where he has now died."

"Hm?" The mermaid’s body trembled slightly as she asked sternly, "Do you have any evidence? If you cannot produce evidence, I will torture you to death!"

"The prison where Leviathan’s body is located is in my hands, and I can let your clone enter to see," Huang Yi said, staring at the mermaid’s incredibly beautiful face.

Upon hearing this suggestion, the frost on the mermaid’s face instantly melted away. Her body flickered, and she split into an identical mermaid, though this clone appeared very weak. It was indeed one of her clones.

Next, Huang Yi immediately took out the Book of Heroes and summoned the Heroes’ Prison.

Suddenly, a dragon head appeared out of nowhere on the surface of the sea. It opened its mouth majestically, directly facing the mermaid as if about to devour her.

The mermaid was startled and stared at the dragon head, her surprise evident: "I didn’t expect you, a tiny ant, to be able to summon such a strange thing. I seem to have underestimated you."

"Alright, go inside," said Huang Yi, glancing at the mermaid’s clone. "Respected Princess, this prison is very special; outsiders are not allowed to enter at will, so you will need to hold my hand to enter together." After speaking, he extended his hand in a gesture for holding hands.

The mermaid’s clone didn’t mind and immediately placed her snow-white, delicate hand gently into Huang Yi’s, like a couple in love.

Huang Yi could only feel warmth and softness in his grasp. He held the mermaid’s tender, boneless hand and led her into the dark maw of the dragon head.

This was the first time Huang Yi had brought an outsider into the Heroes’ Prison.

"The aura here is so immense; I can sense the presence of countless powerful beings!" The mermaid trembled as soon as she entered, clearly feeling an endless pressure. Her tail moved slightly as she swam forward and said, "Where is my beloved Leviathan? Where is he? Quickly, take me to him."

"Please follow me!" Huang Yi nodded and led the mermaid toward the morgue.

After a series of twists and turns, passing many prison cells, they finally arrived at the morgue and stopped in front of the Tidal Hunter’s corpse.

Huang Yi pointed at Leviathan’s body and said, "This is Leviathan’s body. He has turned into what you see now. I wonder if you can recognize him."

The mermaid’s clone hurried to examine the Tidal Hunter, her expression slightly dazed, seemingly unable to believe that an ordinary boy could turn into such a monstrous creature.

After scrutinizing for a while, she eventually walked over in a daze and reached out to touch the Tidal Hunter’s body.

At that moment, the mermaid’s clone trembled as if electrified, motionless as if she had turned to stone.

Then, tears poured down from her beautiful eyes, as if all the grievances of countless years cascaded with them. She sobbed, "Leviathan, we have finally felt your presence again! For countless years, this aura has always appeared in my dreams..."

Huang Yi immediately breathed a sigh of relief, his worries eased, seeing that Leviathan indeed was the mermaid’s lover from the past.

At this moment, the mermaid clung to the Tidal Hunter’s body, crying and recounting, "My Leviathan, do you know? I’ve tirelessly roamed this sea area, singing the song of our first meeting, hoping to see you again one day. Yet every night, I could only sing under the moonlight alone, my song reaching all around, entering the ears of mortals, but no longer yours. I miss you so much, and I want to sing on the sea surface as before when you were a clueless boy, enchanted by my singing, falling into the water, and I saved you, and we embraced under the moonlight..."

"He left a few last words; take a look, they are carved on that anchor," Huang Yi said, pointing at the anchor next to the Tidal Hunter.

The mermaid was slightly startled and hurried over to the anchor, looking in the direction Huang Yi was pointing, and immediately saw the few lines of text—

I traded my soul,

For a fallen eternity,

Just to dive into the endless deep sea,

To find the one I deeply love...

At that moment, the mermaid stood motionless, just staring blankly at those few lines, seemingly having lost her soul.