Chapter 80: Compression (7)

80 – Compression (7)

“Senior Brother,” he said, “look who this is.”

Chang Ji opened his eyes and looked at the person.

Chang Ji: “It’s actually him.”

Lin Xun couldn’t stop laughing, picking up his phone and taking ten consecutive shots.

While snapping photos, he said, “Was he turned into a substitute ghost by a water demon? Can he still be saved?”

After finishing, he backed up another set.

In the photos, a dirty mermaid was coiled in a clump of muddy algae, even unconscious, with only a pale face still somewhat clear.

—And this face, with its proper features, looked decent individually, but together they seemed a bit punchable. It was none other than Qi Yun, who had been missing for two days!

Qi Yun had been missing for two days, and it turned out he was playing fish in the company’s artificial lake. Lin Xun thought his stage name shouldn’t be Qi Yun anymore—Fin Yun would be much better.

He went to pat Qi Yun’s face.

“Qi Yun? Wake up,” he said. “Time to practice swordplay.”

No response.

He continued patting: “Trainee, time to dance.”

Still no reaction.

Lin Xun pondered briefly, then leaned down slightly: “Your sword is missing!”

Surprisingly, Qi Yun remained unmoved.

Lin Xun thought carefully, then finally shouted into his ear.

“Brother, you’re trending on Weibo!”

After shouting, he patted Qi Yun’s chest again.

Qi Yun coughed up a mouthful of water. Lin Xun immediately flipped him over and slapped his back hard.

His back was bare, of course—you couldn’t expect a water demon to wear clothes. Lin Xun looked down but didn’t see his legs; instead, he saw a fish tail!

Dark green, the same color as the water demon.

Chang Ji was still purifying with Buddhist light, and the black demonic Qi stains on his body gradually dissipated—precisely because they faded, the human upper body and the fish tail below the waist became even more obvious.

“Senior Brother,” Lin Xun said, “is there anything to cover him with? This doesn’t look good.”

At first, Chang Ji seemed about to take off his jacket, but covering the upper body would expose the fish tail, and covering the tail would leave the upper body naked—though his long hair could cover some of it, it still wasn’t quite proper.

Finally, Lin Xun saw him pick up the backpack beside him and take out—

A golden-red, dazzling, magnificent kasaya.

Chang Ji wrapped the kasaya around Qi Yun, covering the entire fish.

After coughing up more water, Qi Yun’s eyelashes fluttered, and he finally opened his eyes—his pupils also glowed with a faint, eerie green light.

“I…” his voice was weak.

Lin Xun: “Congratulations, you’ve become a mermaid.”

Qi Yun stared blankly, turning his face to look at him.

Lin Xun was prepared for his tearful gratitude; at this point, even if Qi Yun called him “Dad,” he wouldn’t be surprised.

Qi Yun: “Why… why did it take you so long to come?”

Lin Xun: “?”

He immediately let go.

Qi Yun, the entire fish, rolled on the pier, nearly falling off.

“Fuck, you…” Qi Yun propped himself up, seemingly trying to crawl.

With that movement, he saw his own fish tail.

Qi Yun froze.

“Fuck,” he exclaimed shortly, then lifted the kasaya—a long, dark green mermaid tail was fully exposed.

He widened his eyes, looking at Lin Xun.

Lin Xun gestured that he couldn’t help.

“What happened to me!” Qi Yun looked shocked, pinching his own tail, then frantically examining his fingers.

After Chang Ji expelled the demonic Qi, the condition of his fingers had actually improved significantly compared to before—they were just a bit paler, and along with the inconspicuous webbing, from a distance, he still looked like a normal person.

He then reached over and grabbed his own long hair—Lin Xun remembered correctly, this guy had always sported a flashy hairstyle that was neither short nor long, yet overnight, it had transformed into waist-length locks. The abnormality didn’t stop there—his ears had also become pointed mermaid ears, and his entire being exuded an eerie, sinister aura.

Qi Yun examined himself, glanced at Lin Xun, then at Chang Ji: “Have I turned into a carp spirit?”

“We don’t know either. You were hitting me earlier,” Lin Xun said. “So how did you end up in the lake?”

“I…” Qi Yun seemed to be recalling. After a dozen seconds, he said, “There’s something in the lake. Actually, I sensed something was off before, but I wanted to observe it a bit longer.”

Lin Xun nodded—Qi Yun actually knew to observe further.

“Then, that day, while I was having a meal with someone, I saw a… a…” Qi Yun struggled to find the words, finally saying, “An ugly thing.”

“That ugly thing was crawling along the building, then climbed onto the windowsill. I happened to see it—it was so ugly. Its mouth was huge, with two hideous hands—it had demonic Qi, it was a demonic creature. I watched as it pushed the window open, definitely trying to get in to eat people.”

Lin Xun: “Then, for some reason, the power went out, and you jumped out to fight it?”

“No, the power outage was my doing,” Qi Yun said. “Sometimes when I practice swordplay, I don’t want to be caught on surveillance, so I left a sword Qi at the main switch. I can cut off the power wherever I want.”

Alright.

Lin Xun: “So you went out to fight it, and ended up in the lake while fighting?”

“Not exactly,” Qi Yun said. “That ugly thing probably had a late-stage Golden Core cultivation level. I’m only at Foundation Establishment, but I’m a sword cultivator. Fighting it was more than enough for me.”

Lin Xun listened to him brag shamelessly.

“But we were fighting while hanging outside the building, the position was terrible,” Qi Yun continued. “My sword accidentally fell.”

Lin Xun laughed out loud again.

“Don’t laugh,” Qi Yun said irritably. “I jumped down to look for my sword. It probably fell into the lake. I have a connection with my sword, so I planned to dive in and retrieve it, but I didn’t expect that ugly thing to follow me down.”

Qi Yun scratched his head: “Then I forgot what happened. It felt like I was suddenly eaten, but I didn’t want to die, so… I just kept refusing to die.”

Chang Ji said, “He became a substitute for the drowned ghost, but the water ghost couldn’t fully digest him, so he was able to retain part of his human form.”

Lin Xun stared at Qi Yun: “That’s great, you know? You merged with that ugly thing.”

Qi Yun flared up: “And you dare say it’s great?”

Lin Xun: “You should thank the heavens you ended up with a human upper body and a fish tail, not a fish head combined with human legs.”

Qi Yun: “Damn.”

Qi Yun: “So what do I do now?”

He slapped his fish tail on the ground several times, trying to straighten his upper body, but failed.

“Nothing much you can do,” Lin Xun said. “But it looks like you’re about to go viral.”

Qi Yun perked up: “What?”

Lin Xun looked up at the surrounding skyscrapers.

The closest was Qi Yun’s talent agency, where the windows of the tall building were all open, revealing countless curious heads peering out.

Looking further around, it was no different.

Meanwhile, the path beside the pond was surrounded by a large crowd of people. They huddled together, craning their necks to look over, their expressions a mix of shock, fear, and some simply eager to watch the spectacle unfold.

Lin Xun thought, “This is bad.”

He recalled everything they had just done.

In a public area, under the watchful eyes of countless onlookers, they had fought a water ghost on the surface of the water. Brother Chang Ji had floated in mid-air the entire time, and he himself had flown around, even performing a feat of walking on water. The scene was like something out of a fantasy film, and because the special effects weren’t dazzling enough, it looked rather cheap. More importantly—anyone with eyes could see there were no wires or harnesses by the lake.

Finally, the terrifying, enormous monster of a water ghost had transformed into a merman.

“I’m not human anymore, and they saw it all,” Qi Yun covered his face with his hands. “You’re trying to get me killed.”

At this point, Lin Xun was also frantically thinking of a solution.

Just then, he saw a car slowly approaching.

“You won’t die, it’s fine. Don’t cry,” he reassured, patting Qi Yun’s head.

Qi Yun felt utterly hopeless. “No one can save me now.”

“Let me sing you a song,” Lin Xun offered.

Qi Yun retorted, “You’re still…”

“A child without a mother is like a blade of grass—that’s you,” Lin Xun said. “Brother and I are different. We have someone to look after us.”

As he spoke, a blue Phantom slowly came to a stop by the lake—Butterfly Madam, dressed in a deep purple gown and high heels, walked over, followed by Peacock Madam in a blue suit. Shortly after, two bodyguards with Miao-style facial tattoos, whom Madam often kept by her side, stepped out of another car.

The crowd’s attention shifted to Madam, and they began taking photos—such was the treatment of a movie queen.

Madam quickly approached, her voice tinged with reproach. “You just never know how to let people rest easy.”

Lin Xun went over to support her, putting on an obedient act. “We knew your studio was nearby, after all.”

“If it weren’t for the Zhou Tian Xing Dou Formation detecting abnormal demonic Qi here,” Madam didn’t let him off easily, “I’d like to see how you three little troublemakers would handle this.”

Lin Xun replied, “Next time, we won’t go out alone again.”

A purple butterfly landed on Madam’s shoulder.

Peacock Madam behind her produced a bone-colored flute from somewhere and began playing a haunting melody.

More and more butterflies fluttered over, their wings sprinkling faintly glowing powder. Lin Xun felt slightly dizzy.

Butterfly Madam said, “I’ll handle the situation. You all get back in the car.”

Then, she glanced at the fish on the ground. “Take this one back too.”

Lin Xun asked, “Can he change back?”

Madam replied, “We’ll do what we can and leave the rest to fate.”

Qi Yun, now a fish, looked half-dead.

Lin Xun wasn’t sure if he could carry him, but fortunately, Chang Ji stepped forward first, lifting Qi Yun by the waist, the long fish tail draped over his other wrist.

Wrapped in the kasaya, Qi Yun had nowhere to settle and could only rest his chin on Chang Ji’s shoulder, looking utterly defeated as he stared back at Lin Xun. With his pale complexion, he actually appeared somewhat pitiful.

Lin Xun smiled.

But the moment they left the lake, Qi Yun’s tail suddenly stiffened.

“I’m so thirsty,” he cried out. “I’m a fish! I can’t leave the water!”

Chang Ji ignored him and stuffed him into the back seat.

Lin Xun, holding the innocent and completely clueless Zhi Zhen, also got into the car.

Qi Yun struggled, “I’m dying, you’re murdering me, I’m dying of thirst.”

Lin Xun said, “You’re a mermaid, an amphibian, you’ll be fine. I’ll get you a bathtub later.”

Qi Yun retorted, “You’re dead.”

Lin Xun replied, “Save your breath.”

After a futile struggle, Qi Yun slumped dejectedly on the back seat, wrapping the kasaya tightly around himself, and said, “I want my phone. My phone fell into the water, and I didn’t even manage to retrieve my sword.”

Seeing how genuinely miserable he looked, Lin Xun handed him his own phone.

Qi Yun hugged the phone and rolled around, muttering, “When I was unconscious, I think I heard someone say I was trending.”

Lin Xun: “…”

Yes, I made that up.

Just as he was about to shatter Qi Yun’s pointless fantasy, he saw Qi Yun’s fish tail suddenly slap against the car seat.

Qi Yun exclaimed, “It’s really true!”

Qi Yun added, “And you’re trending with me!”

Lin Xun: “?”