When Golden Finger Meets Salted Fish

Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue had assumed that no matter how mysterious the merpeople were, after going to such lengths to incapacitate everyone on the ship, they would surely appear to inspect their handiwork. The two weren't necessarily planning to follow the merpeople's intentions; if they could capture one, they could find another way to investigate what would happen next.

However, both of them had miscalculated. The merpeople never appeared at all, with only their singing resonating throughout half the night.

As time slowly passed and Jiang Mo still hadn't detected any merpeople approaching, she finally couldn't help but slightly open her eyes to peek. In the distance, she saw the sky beginning to lighten—the night was nearly over, with dawn about to break.

Seeing this, her heart immediately sank. Perhaps it was her subconscious belief that misdeeds should be committed under cover of darkness, so what could they hope to achieve now that the sky was brightening? But before she could grow impatient, she felt a slight movement on her sleeve. Glancing furtively, she saw her Senior Sister's finger gently tapping on her sleeve, clearly signaling her not to act rashly.

Fine then, how could she not listen to her Senior Sister's guidance?

Jiang Mo obediently remained still, pretending to be unconscious and only occasionally stealing glances through half-closed eyes. As she watched, she suddenly noticed something amiss—when the wind had risen last night, the ghost ship had begun to drift with the currents, but now its movement seemed far too fast. Moreover, the ship was moving in a definite direction, clearly not by accident, as if something were propelling it forward.

Before Jiang Mo could verify this herself, the system quickly confirmed her suspicions: "Host, there are several large fish pushing the ghost ship from below. The current speed is at least as fast as when the ghost ship was sailing automatically before, if not faster."

Jiang Mo immediately understood, guessing that those propelling the ghost ship must be the merpeople's doing.

But the ghost ship was likely also connected to the merpeople. If they wanted to take everyone somewhere, they could simply have the ghost ship sail in that direction. In the vast sea, people could at most distinguish east from west and north from south, but what lay in the deep sea and where the ghost ship was taking them, no one knew. Without last night's incident, it wouldn't have alarmed anyone, so why bother knocking everyone unconscious? It seemed unnecessary.

Jiang Mo had countless questions with no one to answer them, so she could only keep them to herself. She remained in this state from dawn until afternoon. The sunlight over the sea grew intense, but the people on deck showed no signs of waking, and more strangely, no spirit beasts came to attack again.

Finally, after seeing several seabirds fly overhead, Jiang Mo asked the system: "System, is there an island nearby?"

The system's scanning function wasn't necessarily better than a cultivator's divine sense, but it was certainly more discreet—with so many spirit beasts in the deep sea, even Jiang Mo dared not casually extend her divine sense to probe, lest she disturb some spirit beast with cultivation higher than her own. The system had no such concerns, which was why she often asked it to scout for her.

This time, the system's scan quickly yielded results, confirming Jiang Mo's guess: "That's right, host. There's an island about a hundred li away, and it's directly in the path of this ship's course."

In other words, the island the system had found was very likely the ghost ship's destination.

Hearing this, Jiang Mo immediately perked up and asked in her mind: "What does the island look like? Tell me about it."

The system relayed its scan results: "It seems to be a deserted island, covered with reefs and trees, not much different from the other islands we've passed... Wait, that's not right."

Jiang Mo had initially been puzzled when the system said there was nothing unusual, but upon hearing it correct itself, she immediately pressed: "What's not right?"

The system scanned again and finally told her: "The shape of the island is wrong. If viewed horizontally, the island looks no different from other islands, but from above, its outline resembles a reclining merperson..." This was somewhat of a stretch—people unaware of the context wouldn't associate the island with merpeople just by looking at it, but since they already knew about the connection to merpeople, it made sense.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Mo felt certain that the island must indeed be the ghost ship's destination. And at only a hundred li away, given the ghost ship's current speed, they would arrive by afternoon.

With this realization, Jiang Mo no longer felt impatient and even found some leisure in basking in the sun with half-closed eyes.

༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺

Jiang Mo secretly informed her Senior Sister of her discovery, and both agreed to wait until they reached the merperson island before making further plans. However, things rarely go according to plan, and shortly after Jiang Mo shared the news with Yun Qingyue, the ghost ship encountered another mishap.

Halfway through its journey, it hit a reef!

Previously, the ghost ship had been under the influence of formations that made it seem insubstantial as it sailed, unaffected by ocean waves and passing straight through reefs. But now that the ship's formations had been deactivated and it had returned to normal, colliding with a reef naturally resulted in a very real head-on impact, with no possibility of passing through.

This wasn't surprising; it was an inevitable outcome. What was surprising, however, was that despite the ship's materials being incredibly sturdy—Jiang Mo hadn't been able to scratch it even with her claws—it shattered upon impact with the reef!

With a tremendous "BOOM," the entire ship shook violently, followed by a teeth-grating "creaking" sound.

Before Jiang Mo could even contemplate what the creaking signified, she discovered that the ghost ship beneath her was beginning to disintegrate—truly disintegrate, not just the bow or hull being damaged, but the entire ship breaking apart, fragmenting into wooden planks. There was no time to react before the surface beneath her disappeared, and she began to fall straight down.

When suddenly faced with such a situation, one's instinct is to sense danger and attempt self-preservation, especially considering the unknown number of spirit beasts that might be waiting in the sea below. Falling might not just mean entering the water, but potentially dropping directly into a spirit beast's mouth.

Despite her impressive skills and courage, even Jiang Mo couldn't maintain her pretense any longer. She reached back to grab Yun Qingyue's wrist, intending to take flight. However, her Senior Sister moved even faster—before Jiang Mo could grasp her wrist, a always pale and cool hand had already seized hers, and a cool voice quietly sounded at her ear: "No rush."

Jiang Mo's mind faltered briefly before she recovered, stealing a glance downward and thinking: How can there be no rush? Can't she see the big fish with open mouths waiting below? If we don't fly now, we'll fall right into a fish's mouth!

But despite her thoughts and urgency, her trust in her Senior Sister outweighed her concerns.

The system took the opportunity to whisper in her ear: "Host, why are you so easily swayed? You do whatever your Senior Sister tells you. Aren't you afraid she might misjudge, and you'll both end up finished?"

Hearing the system still had the mood to jest, Jiang Mo's anxiety immediately eased. She responded composedly: "What's there to fear? They're just a few fish. Even if they swallow us, I'll just tear through their bellies from inside." She tilted her chin up proudly: "I don't believe it—I, the majestic White Tiger, who eats fish, would be eaten by fish!"

Before her words were finished, she and Yun Qingyue had already fallen, landing squarely in the open mouth of a massive fish.

Seeing this, the system immediately burst into laughter, and this time it wasn't hiding in the database to laugh secretly, but openly guffawing in Jiang Mo's ear, as if mocking her earlier confident declaration.

The fish was truly enormous; its size compared favorably to a whale, if not larger, but its appearance differed from any fish Jiang Mo had ever known. Faced with such a large fish, humans seemed much smaller. With a single opening of its mouth, it swallowed not just Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue, but also seven or eight cultivators near them.

Jiang Mo had intended to resist, but after glancing at Yun Qingyue beside her and seeing she still hadn't moved, she again exercised patience. However, the system's laughter in her ear was truly annoying, making her want to lock it in a "black room" (solitary confinement).

Whether the system would eventually be confined to a black room remained unknown, but Jiang Mo herself had now been confined to a "black room"—after the giant fish swallowed them and closed its mouth, there was no light anywhere, just like a black room. However, contrary to Jiang Mo's expectations, she and her Senior Sister weren't directly swallowed into the fish's stomach, but instead remained in its mouth.

Not just her and Yun Qingyue, but also the seven or eight cultivators who had fallen with them, as well as several dozen cultivators who had been swallowed before or after them—surprisingly, none had been truly eaten, but were merely being held in the fish's mouth!

This handful of people wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between the fish's teeth, so it surely wasn't saving them for its next meal?

Jiang Mo quickly calmed down, realizing the giant fish had another purpose, and with her Senior Sister beside her, she wasn't panicking.

Yun Qingyue was even calmer. Before being swallowed by the giant fish, she had seen ten or so streaks of light from escaping figures rising from the disintegrating ghost ship—evidently, despite the merperson singing for half the night, not everyone had been affected. Besides her and Jiang Mo, there were many other powerful individuals on the ship, though they had all remained hidden until this moment.

What Yun Qingyue, now in the fish's mouth, couldn't see was that just as those dozen or so streaks of light rose from the ship, several dozen figures suddenly leapt from the calm sea, emanating imposing auras—all high-level spirit beasts.

Those dozen streaks of light were immediately surrounded, and the next moment, a battle ensued, churning the sea into surging waves.

However, Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue knew nothing of this. They were being carried in the giant fish's mouth into the deep sea, swiftly swimming toward the merperson island. The system, however, had noticed, secretly extending its feelers to observe the excitement, and only then informed its host of what had transpired.