There were very few survivors heading in the direction of the square, and Wen Yuzhi had not expected anyone to choose the same route of retreat as them.
And this person was none other than the merfolk princess they had only just met. Behind her were still those two female officials.
Meeting again meant there was fate between them. Since they had already run into each other, Wen Yuzhi politely nodded at her in greeting.
Lottie, however, was extremely enthusiastic. In two or three steps, she leaped right in front of Wen Yuzhi.
She lowered her head. Her faintly glowing eyes looked almost undisguisedly straight at Wen Yuzhi’s face.
That kind of direct, naked gaze always gave Wen Yuzhi the feeling that, in her eyes, he seemed to be a fresh, tender, delicious little lamb.
But now that she was standing close, Wen Yuzhi finally realized that Lottie was very tall.
Her more than two-meter-long fish tail had turned into human legs, and those legs were exceptionally long and superior. Even compared with the height of the Saint Clan royal guards, she was not inferior at all.
And among people who were almost all around one meter ninety or over two meters tall, Wen Yuzhi, who still had a teenager’s build, seemed somewhat petite.
No wonder she called him “little cutie” every time she opened her mouth.
At Lottie’s age, she was still only a child among the merfolk. And Wen Yuzhi, who was even younger than her... in a mermaid’s eyes, a teenager was probably like a moving, talking doll.
She could pick him up with one hand!
As Lottie looked at the doll-like boy in front of her, she secretly thought this in her heart.
Unfortunately...
Looking at the group of obviously overprotective guardians beside him, no matter how itchy Lottie’s heart was, she only dared to think about it.
For some reason, the bodyguards this little cutie had brought made her feel dread from the bottom of her heart. The closer she got, the more she felt as if all the scales on her body were about to explode.
Lottie had always trusted her intuition. She could be certain that the bodyguards around this little cutie were not simple.
However, because of Wen Yuzhi’s face, Lottie, who was hopelessly obsessed with beauty, still could not suppress that feeling of delight at seeing prey she liked. The moment she saw him, she still eagerly ran over to greet Wen Yuzhi.
So what if a treasure was being guarded? At worst, her original plan of abducting the little cutie back to the sea could not be carried out anymore. Couldn’t she at least look a few more times?
Lottie thought this with perfect confidence.
She took the initiative to ask, “Are you going to the square too? Since we’re going the same way, why don’t we go together? How does that saying go... more fish means more strength!”
When merfolk hunted in the sea and encountered troublesome prey, they would also choose to cooperate.
“We are going to the square.”
Wen Yuzhi did not deny the purpose of their trip. After all, anyone with eyes could tell where they were going if they were heading this way.
It was just that they were going to the square because they wanted to find that building. But why was Lottie heading over there too?
Most of the survivors were now rushing toward places like Food Street, where supplies were relatively abundant, afraid that if they went too late, there would be nothing left to find.
And on this road leading to the square, there were only them and these mermaids.
Perhaps the confusion in Wen Yuzhi’s eyes was too obvious. Lottie smiled with all kinds of charm. She lifted a loose strand of hair hanging over her chest and winked ambiguously at Wen Yuzhi.
“If it were someone else, I definitely wouldn’t tell them. But since it’s you, little cutie...”
Lottie bent down. While the guardians beside Wen Yuzhi had yet to react, she swiftly pinched his cheek.
The viewers who had followed all the way over from Qiqi’s livestream: 【???!!!】
In front of the screen, Haisena turned her head away with an expression of unbearable shame.
For a moment, she did not know whether it was more embarrassing that Lottie had actually gotten handsy with an obviously underage cub, or more headache-inducing that Lottie was so useless that the moment she saw someone good-looking, she revealed her greatest secret.
But...
Haisena looked at the Saint Clan members across from her, who were staring over with murderous fury.
“???”
What was wrong with these Saint Clan members? It was not as if she had done anything, right? Why were they all so angry?
On the other side.
Lottie’s sudden action startled everyone.
The two merfolk female officials seemed to have expected it long ago. They quickly pulled Lottie back and dodged away, while the attacks of several Saint Clan royal guards arrived in the next instant, seething with rage.
If Wen Yuzhi had not called for them to stop in time, this fight would absolutely have broken out.
Xi Heyan pressed his lips together, staring at Lottie with a face full of chill.
Yet Lottie still wore that smiling expression. She opened her mouth and silently mouthed something to Wen Yuzhi.
Wen Yuzhi understood. She was telling him not to forget to keep it a secret.
The boy froze for a moment.
Wen Yuzhi discovered that, other than him, it seemed no one present had heard that sentence—
'Our merfolk race once had an ability to sense the future. And my intuition tells me that you will guide us and lead us out of danger.'
Wen Yuzhi was certain that the voice belonged to Lottie.
But...
He looked at Lottie.
The other party must have had some special method to send that voice into his mind. Only he could hear it. To everyone else, it looked as if Lottie had suddenly leaned in and pinched his cheek.
They did not know that in that instant of contact, Lottie and Wen Yuzhi had exchanged a private whisper.
Only Haisena had seen the clue, which was why she felt rather troubled.
Her younger sister’s bad habit of being unable to walk away whenever she saw a beautiful person—who knew when she would ever fix it?
Was this kind of thing something she could just casually tell someone?
“Your Majesty...”
The female official behind her spoke with some concern.
Haisena waved a hand. “It’s fine. That child doesn’t look like someone who would speak recklessly. Besides...”
Her eyes abruptly chilled, and her voice carried a cold edge.
“We merfolk are not so easy to bully either. If someone really wants to use this to make trouble, I will let them know the consequences of daring to target my sister.”
Although Haisena had already lowered her voice, she still could not hide it from the Saint Clan’s keen five senses.
Mond vaguely recalled a rumor.
The merfolk race had an ancient origin. Like the Saint Clan, they had once been born in the earliest civilizations.
It was said that in ancient times, the merfolk race had priests. Their priests were usually chosen from clanspeople who possessed the ability of “prophecy,” and such merfolk were also called prophets.
But for reasons unknown, as civilization continued to develop, the merfolk race had not produced anyone with prophetic ability for a very long time.
Without prophets, the merfolk priests gradually became a legend.
Now, many races did not even know that the merfolk had once possessed a very prosperous and brilliant civilization, much less that in the past, merfolk priests could predict the future.
This was also a pain the merfolk race was unwilling to mention. Even now, they still did not understand why the Ocean Goddess was no longer willing to favor them.
And Lottie’s appearance had allowed these merfolk to see a ray of hope.
After several civilizations had passed without a single prophet appearing, Lottie was the only mermaid who possessed prophetic ability.
It was precisely because of this that the merfolk race indulged this oversized brat quite a lot.
Indulging her again and again had raised her into such a domineering personality.
Haisena was rather helpless about this too.
And right now, that oversized brat was still saying to Wen Yuzhi with great enthusiasm, “Let’s go together. I’m very good at fighting. When the time comes, I can protect you too.”
Wen Yuzhi: “........”
It was obvious that she was indeed very good at it. She alone could press an entire group of Fire Lizards to the ground and beat them.
In the end, Wen Yuzhi chose to refuse her goodwill in wanting to protect him, but agreed to let the merfolk follow them.
After all, as Lottie had said, more fish... no, more people meant more strength.
If they encountered a large number of stray beasts, one more person would mean one more helping hand.
And so their team gained a few more mermaids. Everyone’s goal was the same: to head toward the most dangerous Central Square.
The closer they got, the more deathly still the surrounding atmosphere became.
No one knew whether all the survivors had gone to the other side of the streets, or whether all the survivors who had stayed here were already dead.
When Wen Yuzhi and the others reached the street entrance, they only felt an indescribable chill nearby.
The surroundings were very quiet.
It was clearly still noon, but the sunlight here was covered by dark clouds.
The dim environment, together with the broken, empty shops around them, made Wen Yuzhi feel as if they were currently inside a scene from a horror film.
Just as they were about to walk out of the street, the Saint Clan royal guard at the very front stopped.
Wen Yuzhi and the others looked down and discovered that the road here was actually covered in sticky liquid.
This mucus had clearly spread over from the square. It carried a deep reddish-brown color, like blood.
Lottie and the others were still rather curious, but Wen Yuzhi had seen this mucus before.
Back in that clothing store, the stray beast hiding inside had used this mucus to capture prey.
Once one was entangled by this mucus, it would be extremely troublesome to break free.
And Wen Yuzhi did not know whether it was his imagination, but he kept feeling as if something was wriggling inside the mucus.
“We can’t get close to this mucus. We have to go over the rooftops.”
Xi Heyan pointed at the shops on both sides of the street.
For the sake of appearance, the outer walls of the shops on both sides of the street had all sorts of decorations, and those decorations happened to be useful to them now.
The Saint Clan royal guards soon used the outer-wall decorations and reached the rooftops with ease. With Xi Heyan’s skills, climbing a building only six or seven meters tall was no problem at all.
As for Lottie and the other merfolk, they showed no discomfort on land whatsoever and went up at once.
Even Wen Yuzhi, the youngest among them, very nimbly climbed up to the rooftop in just a few moves.
Now, only the fat man was left below, looking like he wanted to cry but had no tears.
Fortunately, Wen Yuzhi was softhearted. He jumped back down of his own accord and brought the fat man up.
While dragging him, the boy even muttered quietly, “You’re heavier than my A’Wu.”
The fat man asked who A’Wu was.
Wen Yuzhi said proudly, “A’Wu is a handsome white wolf. But he’s a little overweight recently. Mu Luo said being too fat isn’t a good thing.”
As he spoke, Wen Yuzhi secretly glanced at the fat man, then silently finished the last sentence: “Whether it’s animals or people, it’s the same.”
Fat man: “.........”
Don’t think I didn’t see that look!
But perhaps because he had been provoked by this, the fat man gritted his teeth and instantly scrambled onto the roof.
After his figure appeared, the boy flipped up after him like a nimble cat.
The livestream room was frantically praising him, saying the cub was amazing, the cub was so capable.
Looking at the bullet comments that had suddenly multiplied, the Saint Clan was clearly a little confused.
But very soon, Alvin investigated the cause and effect.
“The person little highness rescued earlier is a very famous influencer on StarNet. Many people are watching her, and little highness has therefore received attention as well. There are now many discussions about little highness on StarNet too. Do we need to delete them?”
“No need.”
From beginning to end, Mansendis’s gaze remained only on the boy inside the screen. Toward Alvin’s question, the silver-haired sovereign was clearly somewhat absentminded.
When he brought Wen Yuzhi to attend this conference, Mansendis had already thought that the cub’s identity might be exposed.
In the past, they had hidden it because the cub was still too young. But now his child had already grown up and had some ability to protect himself. Naturally, there was no need to keep hiding it.
It would be better to let everyone openly know—
Zhizhi was his child.
“Delete all negative comments.”
Mansendis seemed to think of something and added one more order.
Alvin bent slightly. “As you command.”
Even without the king’s instructions, the Saint Clan had already been watching closely at all times. As long as there was even one sentence speaking badly of their little highness, the Saint Clan would immediately pressure the Alliance to delete those negative comments.
.........
Wen Yuzhi and the others did indeed avoid a great deal of trouble by traveling over the rooftops.
Fortunately, the shops on this street were all built close together, and the rooftops were very near one another. In this way, they made it all the way to the street corner.
From here, they could already see the square below.
But after seeing the scene down there clearly, the fat man nearly fainted on the spot.
Wen Yuzhi quickly pulled him behind a pillar to avoid being discovered by those stray beasts.
That was right. Those stray beasts.
A dense mass of stray beasts had gathered in the square. The fat man had no way of counting exactly how many there were. He only knew that the place below had already become something like a monster’s nest.
It had not even been a day, yet Central Square, which had previously attracted countless tourists, had already completely changed.
Countless stray beasts were crouched there. Beneath them was a large amount of mucus. Not only the ground, but even the buildings immediately beside the square were wrapped in mucus.
The sight of all that scarlet, together with the densely packed stray beasts, made one’s scalp go numb.
Quite a few viewers in the livestream room felt physically sick.
But the viewers could exit the livestream and stop watching. Wen Yuzhi and the others could not.
They were the first group of survivors to arrive here.
Before this, neither Wen Yuzhi and the others nor the viewers in the livestream room had known that the square had turned into this.
But now that they had already come here, and seeing that this seemed to be the lair of these stray beasts, Wen Yuzhi and the others naturally did not want to give up this opportunity.
Forcing down the nausea, they lay by the wall and carefully watched the intensely shocking scene below.
“Look over there.”
Wen Yuzhi lowered his voice almost to the minimum, speaking very, very softly.
The others followed the direction he indicated and saw a group of stray beasts rushing here from the street. They all seemed to have eaten their fill.
Visible to the naked eye, their stomachs hung down with astonishing heaviness, almost dragging against the ground.
Clearly, these stray beasts had returned only after devouring enough flesh and blood.
After they reached the square, the stray beasts found a place and crouched down.
What was strange was that after they crouched down, the mucus on the ground seemed to have consciousness. It climbed onto the stray beasts’ bodies.
In an instant, those stray beasts disappeared. Replacing them were things tightly wrapped in mucus, like tumors of flesh.
If one looked carefully, one would discover that the surfaces of those “tumors” were still expanding and contracting, as if the living creatures wrapped inside were breathing.
And as far as the eye could see, almost the entire square was covered in these “tumors.”
Among them, at the place where the musical fountain had been before, there was an incomparably enormous “tumor.” Its body was abnormally huge, dozens of times larger than the other “tumors.” Its massive form nearly filled the entire fountain pool.
“...Fuck! What the hell is that?”
The fat man cursed in a low voice.
Wen Yuzhi’s face was also a little pale.
At this moment, Xi Heyan pointed to the left.
Wen Yuzhi saw that the building they were looking for was over there.
The bad news was that the building was also within the area wrapped in mucus. The outer walls of the lower floors all had traces of mucus clinging to them.
And the even worse news was that if they wanted to get there, they would have to cross more than half the square.
There was no need to think. With the density of stray beasts below, Wen Yuzhi and the others would probably be swallowed by the beast tide the instant they showed themselves.
“What do we do?”
The fat man was also starting to feel frightened.
He wanted to leave this place, but he did not want to throw his life away so quickly.
As they were speaking, new movement came from the square.
Along with the sound of flesh being torn open.
Several tumors near the fountain were ripped apart from the inside by sharp claws, and a group of even larger stray beasts appeared.
No. Strictly speaking, they no longer looked very much like stray beasts.
Their bodies already faintly had human-shaped outlines.
The moment these eerie monsters emerged, they threw their heads back and let out a roar. Then they charged into the surrounding streets at an astonishing speed, their eyes full of longing for flesh and blood.
It was very obvious that these stray beasts were beginning to hunt.
They seemed to have consumed a great deal of energy while inside the tumors, and now they were feeling hungry.
Xi Heyan quietly said a sentence by Wen Yuzhi’s ear.
“They should be evolving.”
The changes in these stray beasts clearly answered Xi Heyan’s previous confusion—what would happen when these stray beasts reached a certain threshold by devouring flesh and blood and absorbing the energy inside?
Now Xi Heyan knew.
These stray beasts would evolve. They would become... like humans.
Perhaps it was not obvious yet. But what if these stray beasts evolved a few more times?
At that time, would they become completely human-like?
This guess made all of them feel a chill down their spines.
At the same time, Wen Yuzhi and the others once again confirmed that if they continued playing according to the other side’s game rules, the survivors’ side would only have a dead end.
Just those few evolved stray beasts alone could cause enormous casualties among the survivors on the streets, let alone the fact that those survivors probably still did not know these stray beasts could evolve.
They knew even less that there were hundreds, even thousands, of such stray beasts in the square, and that one of them was incomparably enormous.
Once it came out, all the survivors put together might not be enough for it to eat in one meal.
“We need to think of a way. It would be best if we could get rid of them.”
Wen Yuzhi and the others were currently hiding behind the pillar, discussing in low voices.
They could not allow these stray beasts to live. Otherwise, once they crawled out of the tumors one by one, that would be the true nightmare for the survivors.
But saying it was easy. An entire square full of stray beasts was not so easy to deal with. If just the few of them rushed in, it would not even be enough to fill the gaps between those stray beasts’ teeth.
The Saint Clan royal guards beside Wen Yuzhi would indeed not fear these stray beasts if they changed back into beast form. But enough ants could bite an elephant to death. Wen Yuzhi had only brought six Saint Clan royal guards with him on this trip, and he was unwilling to let a single one of them get hurt.
To put it unpleasantly, the Saint Clan were his family. These survivors were pitiful, but Wen Yuzhi would not use the lives of his own family in exchange for a chance for them to live.
In Wen Yuzhi’s heart, there was naturally an order of closeness and distance.
