Chapter 27: Kraken “I am the King of Many Waters, the Source of the Ocean…”

“I see… so this is where the Great Elder truly conducted his various experiments on the Anomaly Core…”

Ying Huo reacted much faster than Liu Ming had anticipated. Young Master Liu felt quite gratified; it seemed there was at least one person with a brain in the protagonist’s party. He would have been even more gratified if the Savior standing to the side would stop looking at him with that blank, “What kind of gibberish are you two talking about?” expression.

“…Then those eyes in Du Shui’s Mental Landscape—!”

Ying Huo snapped his head up, looking at Liu Ming in disbelief. A trace of trust and pleading, which he hadn’t even noticed himself, flickered in the depths of his eyes.

“You’d better pray she’s just an unlucky test subject related to Y008.”

Liu Ming’s brow furrowed deeply as he turned and walked away.

Ying Huo felt his head throbbing. Who the hell did this guy learn this cryptic, walk-away-without-explaining-anything habit from?!

He gritted his teeth and, despite his immense reluctance, chased after him.

Liu Ming led the way, navigating the complex architecture of the mysterious shrine hidden within the mountain as if he were intimately familiar with it. The ancient wooden structures had been converted into sterile, pale laboratories. Liu Ming rushed to the shrine’s main hall and used his silk threads to tear down the containment wall blocking him, Yun Zhou, and Ying Huo.

Behind the wall, countless pods filled with medicinal fluid were on display. Inside those pods, without exception, floated the bodies of young girls dressed in hospital gowns.

“They are…”

It was as if Ying Huo and Yun Zhou’s souls had been nailed to the shrine walls; they couldn’t move an inch. They had imagined what kind of scene might await them in this laboratory that once housed the Y008 Anomaly Core. They had expected mountains of corpses and seas of blood, or perhaps a room full of grotesque, twisted man-made Anomalies. But no one had expected this…

Deep within the laboratory, just as Yun Zhou had said, it was literally full of Du Shuis.

Inside those abandoned fluid pods, the faces of the girls who had already lost their vital signs were identical to Du Shui’s.

However, unlike Du Shui, some of the girls in the pods had twisted tentacles growing from their bodies, while others had become translucent and jellyfish-like. Not a single one possessed a complete human body; the sight was exceptionally gruesome.

“What on earth are they…? Are they Du Shui too?”

Yun Zhou’s mind went blank for a moment. The horrific sight before him had shattered his understanding of reality, leaving him momentarily unable to even hear the crying around him.

But soon, those ethereal cries became clear again. The hazy, blurred sounds could finally be identified – they were pleas for help, screamed out in a state of uncontrollable terror.

“Save me… save me…”

The voices of those girls, so similar to Du Shui’s, overlapped with an eerie, non-human sound that exploded in Yun Zhou’s mind. He clutched his temples, struggling to maintain his will amidst the surging waves of sound, but it was difficult.

“Captain?!”

Ying Huo grabbed Yun Zhou just as he was about to collapse forward. At this moment, the various bizarre circumstances made him afraid to think.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t think, but that he didn’t dare to.

If the Great Elder dared to conduct Anomaly experiments so brazenly, even going as far as human-Anomaly fusion experiments, there had to be a terrifying power supporting him that they couldn’t even guess at. Otherwise, there was no way to explain why the Izayoi Family had never discovered this.

And the only power that fit those criteria…

Images flashed through Ying Huo’s mind, from the First District to the Seventh District… The person capable of helping the Great Elder hide this from Izayoi Ame had to be someone within the Seven-District Council.

Only the Seven-District Council.

Ying Huo sucked in a cold breath. His gaze involuntarily drifted toward Liu Ming. After all, the Liu Family’s reputation made them the most suspicious entity within the Seven-District Council.

But…

Ying Huo thought back to how Liu Ming had cooperated when he was being held hostage, and how he had handed over his family crest to let them dismiss and destroy the other laboratories. He forcibly suppressed that uncontrollable sprout of suspicion back into the depths of his heart.

The man was a comrade. Doubting a comrade was the most unforgivable sin in the 6th District.

“Young Master Liu, where do you think Du Shui is now?”

Ying Huo took a deep breath, choosing to trust for the time being.

“What? You dare to trust me now?”

Liu Ming raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t an idiot. On the contrary, aside from a strange mutant species like Yun Zhou, Mental-types were the best at reading people. The moment Ying Huo’s suspicion arose, Liu Ming had already seen through exactly what the other man was thinking.

Ying Huo blinked. Seeing that the other man already knew, he simply stopped pretending to be polite. He supported Yun Zhou with one hand and spread the other out in a helpless gesture.

“Trusting you or not doesn’t matter. We have to find Du Shui and try to change the fate of the Third District, otherwise we’ll all die here.”

Ying Huo sighed. “I can only say that you are a choice I’ve been forced to make. I’m sure you feel the same way about me.”

Liu Ming looked into Ying Huo’s green eyes, as if seeing the secrets buried deep within. Ying Huo frowned in annoyance. The scrutiny of the Liu Family had always been like this – cold as a snake, seeing right through you without leaving a shred of privacy…

It was infuriating.

Liu Ming suddenly laughed. “Let’s speak plainly then. You really are a clever man. And you’re right, trust is the cheapest thing there is. We are currently bound together by mutual interest. Whether you trust me or not isn’t up to you. If you want a more reassuring mode of transaction, then show me your value.”

He was just about to further test Ying Huo, who had shed his polite exterior to reveal his true face, when he saw Yun Zhou’s wolf head lift from Ying Huo’s shoulder.

Those golden eyes were filled with the pain of a headache and a total lack of understanding regarding the current situation. He opened his mouth and said with complete sincerity, “Huh? Liu Ming, what kind of nonsense are you talking? We’ve always trusted you.”

Ying Huo’s face morphed into the “Old Man Looking at Phone¹” meme.

Yun Zhou gave a couple of sheepish laughs. “Haha, well, that’s what I think, anyway.”

Liu Ming also wore an expression that looked exactly like the “old man on the subway looking at his phone” meme.

He had just been on the verge of successfully steering the atmosphere back toward a normal, mutually beneficial cooperation with Ying Huo! Why did this lunatic have to open his mouth and drag the vibe back into the realm of a stupid shonen manga²?!

“Understood, Captain. Let’s go find Du Shui now.”

Ying Huo pulled Yun Zhou along with a forced smile. Liu Ming led the way, casting a threatening glance at Yun Zhou. “From now on, you only need to say what you hear, alright?”

Yun Zhou trembled, terrified. “Okay.”

His eyes were watery, making Liu Ming feel a twinge of guilt, as if he were bullying a small animal.

Damn Savior… Liu Ming thought. How can every single thing about him be so annoying?

Following the sound of crying and the guidance of Du Shui’s spiritual power, Yun Zhou and Liu Ming continued deeper into the eerie laboratory hidden within the mountain.

The lab personnel had vanished, leaving behind rows of liquid chambers. The girls inside were mutated into various forms by Anomaly pollution, but their heads were all turned toward the central corridor, creating a disturbing sensation of being watched.

Du Shui’s trail was intermittent. Fortunately, Liu Ming had performed mental guidance for her before and was very familiar with her aura, allowing him to barely track her movements.

However, Du Shui was too fast. Every time the three of them reached a location, they only arrived in time to see the blade marks she left behind and the dissipating remnants of her spiritual power.

They finally caught up to her behind the shrine, beside a dark blue body of water that connected the mountain’s interior to the outside world.

It looked like a lake, yet also like a stretch of sea extending inland. Much like a normal ocean near a beach, the waves were surging and turbulent.

Waves from the outside world crashed against the pitch-black stone shore. In this space illuminated only by blue bioluminescence, the scene appeared increasingly surreal.

After searching for some time, they finally spotted Du Shui.

The shrine maiden in the blue dress was kneeling on the shore. In one hand, she held a slender tachi; in her other arm, she cradled a translucent little octopus.

She sat there quietly. The waves sprayed mist over the hem of her dress, but even so, she did not move.

“Du Shui!”

Ying Huo and Yun Zhou wanted to rush forward, but Liu Ming blocked them. “Don’t go over there. Something is wrong with your companion.”

Ying Huo looked at him, unable to understand. “Of course I know something is wrong! Her eyes have turned blood-red, but that’s exactly why she needs us more than ever!”

Liu Ming took a deep breath. He had thought Ying Huo was a rare intelligent individual, but he hadn’t expected the man to be just as reckless as Yun Zhou at a critical moment.

“Do you think she can even recognize you anymore?”

Liu Ming’s voice was cold. He went straight to the heart of the issue that Yun Zhou and Ying Huo hadn’t realized—or rather, didn’t want to realize.

As his words fell, Du Shui seemed to finally notice them. She slowly turned her head.

The girl’s hair hung down completely, obscuring the upper half of her face. As she moved, it slowly slid behind her shoulders like a curtain being drawn back.

A terrifying aura swirled around her. Two jellyfish Spiritual Bodies circled her, radiating agitation and unease.

She held the artificial Spiritual Body in her arms tightly—a creature on the verge of dissipating after being removed from its functional chamber. Her bangs finally parted, revealing the eyes behind them.

They were a pair of… completely blood-red vertical slits.

That crimson was different from the ruby-like eyes of the Liu Family. It was deep, a dark red bordering on black, like dried blood, carrying despair and endless rage.

They were identical to the eyes Liu Ming had seen within Du Shui’s Mental Landscape.

Blood-red vertical pupils were the mark of an Anomaly. Those were the eyes of a beast, not a human.

“She doesn’t recognize you anymore…”

Liu Ming took a deep breath. “If I’m not mistaken, Du Shui has already completely turned into an Anomaly.”

“How is that possible?!”

Ying Huo and Yun Zhou were in disbelief. They didn’t dare believe the sight before them, even though it had already become reality.

“Who… are you…?”

Du Shui moved.

In the dead silence, she asked the question in a raspy voice. She stood up, pointing the sharp tachi at Liu Ming, who stood at the front.

A terrifying pressure spread from her Spiritual Body. The two jellyfish collided in mid-air, merging together to transform into a colossal entity that flowed like water.

Massive jellyfish tentacles, carrying a force capable of leveling everything in their path, surged toward the three of them. Yun Zhou immediately rushed to the front, using swirling golden air currents as a shield to protect his companions behind him.

Ying Huo grabbed Liu Ming and shoved him to the very back, shouting harshly, “Have you lost your mind?! A Guide running to the front line?”

He had expected Liu Ming to snap back instantly, but he heard no sarcastic retort.

Ying Huo whipped his head around, only to find that Liu Ming’s eyes had lost focus. He had fallen into deep thought.

Something’s not right…

Liu Ming thought.

This isn’t right… A Spiritual Body of this level… it’s wrong.

He had been mistaken.

Du Shui’s connection to Y008 went far beyond what he had imagined.

Even if it was just a piece of discarded artificial Spiritual Body about to dissipate after being abandoned by the Elder Council, it shouldn’t be able to exert such world-destroying power…

The root cause lay with Du Shui, not those octopus Spiritual Bodies!

Those octopuses weren’t Anomaly Cores at all… they were just artificial Spiritual Bodies meant to provide a familiar spiritual environment for Y008. The thing inside Du Shui’s Mental Landscape was the true Anomaly Core. That was why the Elder Council’s plan would succeed regardless of which artificial octopus escaped.

Since that sky-blotting Y008 could be killed by Izayoi Ame in the future plot, it definitely wasn’t the real Y008.

But if that was the case… if Y008 was the thing inside Du Shui’s Mental Landscape… then who was Umizuki no Mikoto?

“Who is Umizuki no Mikoto…?”

Liu Ming murmured.

He instinctively looked at the bullet-chat comments, but the screen seemed to be covered by some special power. They were repeatedly scrolling the same pieces of information.

【Umizuki no Mikoto is the condition for ??????’s awakening!】

【This is why the cycle ends every time you come to Haiyue Shrine, because Umizuki no Mikoto is the condition for ??????’s awakening!】

【Young Master Liu, aren’t you supposed to be smart?! Think! Who else could it be?!】

【Haven’t there only ever been two powerful existences of that level entangled in this mess?】

…

Only two.

Liu Ming felt his brain go silent with a heavy buzz.

“Holy crap! Was Du Shui always this strong?!”

Yun Zhou stood at the very front, but his wind shield couldn’t stop that terrifying blade capable of cutting through anything. For the girl standing by the sea, a casual swing of her blade produced a flash of light sufficient to pierce through all defenses.

“It’s no use! Move!”

Ying Huo shouted, grabbing Liu Ming and rolling frantically to the side behind Yun Zhou.

The sharp light of the blade slashed directly toward the shrine behind them. The terrifying cutting force separated half of the shrine’s structure, leaving behind a perfectly smooth cross-section and endless dust rising from the collapsing building.

“Cough, cough…”

“…That’s not Y008.”

Ying Huo was coughing violently in the dust when he heard Liu Ming, whom he was shielding under his arm, suddenly look up and say something nonsensical.

“Who? What isn’t Y008?”

Ying Huo felt a splitting headache. The Du Shui before them and the giant shadow above the ocean both possessed the terrifying power associated with Y008. Who was Liu Ming talking about?

Liu Ming didn’t answer him. Or rather, he had no time to answer. The silver-blue haired youth rushed out from Ying Huo’s protection and pulled up Yun Zhou, who was still choking on the dust. “From the moment you arrived here until now, have you heard any clear words?”

Liu Ming’s tone was solemn, as if Yun Zhou’s next words concerned all of their lives.

Yun Zhou froze. Though he was dazed, he knew that if a smart person like Liu Ming was asking such a question, there had to be a reason for it.

He lowered his head and thought for a moment before speaking. “Mostly I heard cries of pain. The voices were very blurry, but I could barely tell they sounded like a girl’s voice. And… there were strange monster roars in the background.”

Seeing Liu Ming’s expression grow increasingly grim, Yun Zhou quickly waved his hands. “But there were clear words! I think I heard… someone crying and calling out… Big Sister?”

As he spoke those last two words, his golden eyes seemed to be possessed by a different soul, stained with the boundless pain, collapse, and uncontrollable madness of the whisper lingering in his ear.

“Big Sister…?”

Amidst the churning dust, the figure holding the blade drew closer.

Liu Ming let those two words roll over his tongue. He took a deep breath and suddenly began to laugh.

“Big Sister… fine. I should have realized when I saw those ‘Du Shuis’ in the lab that such a connection would exist between the Experimental Subjects.”

Liu Ming sighed. He looked at the girl walking out of the smoke, the seriousness and calculation on his face fading, replaced by the familiar, effortless composure of the Liu Family heir.

As long as he knew who the opponent was, even just a general direction, he could understand her stance.

And a stance itself… determined the possibility of a deal.

The world bustles for profit; the world hustles for gain³.

As long as the opponent had a stance of her own, Liu Ming was confident he could negotiate a deal with her.

“Shall we make a deal? In exchange for everything you want to know?”

Du Shui walked forward step by step. Those blood-colored eyes were like something inorganic. She approached with a terrifying pressure, and with a light flick of her blade, she instantly dispersed the surrounding dust and mist.

Ignoring the “are you crazy” looks from Ying Huo and Yun Zhou, Liu Ming stood up. He stood his ground with his arms crossed, not retreating a single step as Du Shui approached.

“Know…?”

Du Shui tilted her head. The face of “that thing,” which was identical to Du Shui’s, showed an expression the real Du Shui would never make: a blank, almost hollow confusion.

“That’s not right.” Du Shui shook her head. “Your terms might be tempting to Izayoi Ame, but I am not like Izayoi Ame.”

“Du Shui” looked on with a touch of innocent pride, as if she were merely a ten-year-old child. “He knows nothing, but I know everything.”

“Du Shui” raised her blade high, prepared to strike. She tilted her head at Liu Ming. “Do you understand? I know everything.”

Therefore, any deal you propose is meaningless.

Yun Zhou and Ying Huo stared intently at the confrontation between “Du Shui” and Liu Ming, ready to rush forward and pull Liu Ming out the moment her blade fell.

“Do you really know everything?”

Liu Ming did not fear the long blade held high above him. If anything, he was long accustomed to such things. He pushed up his glasses. “Let me think. When exactly did you replace the real Du Shui?”

“Du Shui” froze, a look of almost naive bewilderment appearing on her face, making the scene look like Liu Ming was coaxing a small child.

Even if this child possessed enough power to slice everyone present into pieces.

Liu Ming continued his persuasion. “It was when Y008’s remains were triggered by the Anomaly Core, wasn’t it? At that time, you were chosen along with us by Izayoi Ame’s power and returned to the front of that blue Torii, but—”

Liu Ming looked at “Du Shui.” A blood-red Kanshou-himo⁴ hung from her tachi, looking as if it had been dyed in fresh blood.

On the tachi in her hand, that Kanshou-himo was not Du Shui’s blue, but a red one of the same style.

“I originally thought the Kanshou-himo in that room was a gift from the District Chief. But looking at it now, that Kanshou-himo wasn’t placed there by Izayoi Ame. It was placed by you. Or at least, by someone who knew the past shared by you and Du Shui.”

“You aren’t Du Shui,” Liu Ming paused. “Most importantly, you haven’t taken over Du Shui’s body. That’s why you can’t control yourself and ended up running here to Haiyue Shrine, instinctively trying to find the Du Shui who went missing after falling off the steel platform… your big sister.”

It wasn’t just the Kanshou-himo; many details about “Du Shui” had changed. The person standing before them was indeed not the Corrector from Tree Tower Academy, but a completely different individual.

No matter how he thought about it, Liu Ming could only find one possible moment when Du Shui could have been swapped for this “Du Shui” – the moment the remains of Y008 fell.

Only then was Du Shui completely out of everyone’s sight. Given Izayoi Ame’s status within the Izayoi Family, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to use that special Blue Torii to transfer the real Du Shui elsewhere.

As for the Du Shui before them… she was in all likelihood that Dumbo Octopus that had shown such unusual friendliness from the start – the one they had initially mistaken for the Anomaly Core.

“Du Shui” froze completely. She stared fixedly at Liu Ming, trying to find fear or hesitation in his eyes, but there was nothing. There was only absolute confidence.

He was certain that what he had discovered was the truth, and the facts were exactly as he said.

Liu Ming smiled. “I can help you find Du Shui’s whereabouts. It’ll be much faster than you searching for your sister alone in the Third District. You can’t afford to wait any longer. Do you still think a deal is useless?”

“Du Shui” lowered her tachi.

Just as Liu Ming said, she could no longer wait.

“…What do you want?”

“Du Shui” spoke in a raspy voice. She was prepared to kill this man the moment he tried to extort her with an outrageous demand.

“I don’t need anything.”

But to her surprise, Liu Ming shook his head. He placed a hand over his heart, trying his best to appear sincere and trustworthy.

“You only need to tell me… who you really are, and what exactly you want to do by finding your sister. That’s a vital clue for us to find her.”

Seeing that “Du Shui” was still watching him warily, Liu Ming sighed. He pointed to Ying Huo and Yun Zhou behind him. “If you don’t trust me, at least trust them. These two Sentinels are your sister’s best friends. They will definitely help you.”

Upon hearing this, Du Shui tilted her head. “They… will really help me?”

Liu Ming nodded. Ying Huo and Yun Zhou looked at each other and also nodded repeatedly.

“…I am indeed not my sister. As for my real name… if it were the people living in these waters… they would probably prefer to call me-“

Du Shui finally agreed to speak. She lifted her head, her lifeless, blood-colored eyes staring intently at the three Correctors. “Kraken.”

The Kraken who had driven the ocean to submerge everything, only to be shattered by lightning and sink to the bottom of the sea.

Those two syllables acted like a divine command, pinning Ying Huo and Yun Zhou to the spot. Only Liu Ming wore a knowing expression that said “as I thought.”

“As for my goal…” Kraken looked toward Ying Huo and Yun Zhou. “I want to find my sister, and then…”

She gripped her tachi tightly and pointed the tip of the blade at herself. She smiled as she uttered something truly terrifying.

“Have her kill me.”

Kraken tilted her head. “Since you are Sister’s best friends, you’ll definitely help me, right? If I kill you, Sister will definitely kill me.”

Yun Zhou/Ying Huo: …We really can’t help with this one!

Translator’s Notes