After a brief murmur, the lead mermaid waved to her companions. The other mermaids sheathed their weapons, gathered at the tunnel entrance, and then slipped out one after another, filing out—it seemed they were withdrawing.

Li Xiaohao stood before the compass, hands tucked into his pockets, his weight shifting between his heels and toes. His angel-like face remained perfectly composed. If I were a woman, I’d surely be utterly charmed by his mere presence.

“I thought they’d fled to the Sea of the Dead, but they’re actually at Silent Mountain,” he murmured to himself, his eyes fixed on the compass, a cold smile touching his lips.

“How do we get to Silent Mountain?” I understood perfectly well that we were currently dancing with wolves; every step required extreme caution.

He looked up at my voice, his clear, turquoise eyes gazing at me for a long moment before he spoke. “I didn’t think I’d ever have another chance to speak with you face-to-face like this. It seems you are quite perceptive, understanding when to assess a situation.” He paused, pacing slowly from the compass to the edge of the cliff. “Silent Mountain is in the Four Continents. I have a map. You three follow Hou Dayong by car from Xiangcheng; we’ll meet at Silent Mountain. I sincerely hope Comrade Li Xiaoshu won't keep hiding; what must be faced will eventually have to be confronted.” With that, he turned back, offering us a slight smile. He inclined his body to the side, lightly, as if a swallow were taking flight, and drifted down as weightlessly as a feather.

Wang Jue and I watched, dumbfounded. We hadn’t realized he possessed such formidable abilities; it seemed even being a fiend required a few distinct talents.

“Let’s go,” Hou Dayong said, gathering the daggers from the floor and gesturing for us to follow. He then lifted off the ground, climbing into the tunnel. Wang Jue and I followed in his wake, retracing our steps out of the stone chamber, one behind the other.

When we returned to the Sea of the Dead, the sharp-beaked fish and the mermaids had completely vanished. The sea was utterly silent; apart from the water weeds, there wasn't a single living creature. Even the stones that had served as our resting spots on the seabed were gone without a trace. Without landmarks, returning to our original starting point would not be a simple task.

Wang Jue suggested we swim to the surface first, assess the situation on the shore, and then decide which way to swim.

Hou Dayong nodded in agreement. We immediately began paddling our arms and kicking our legs, swimming toward the water’s surface overhead. I broke the surface first. The coppery scent of blood on the lake surface was even stronger than what I had smelled from the shore. The rain had stopped, and the sky above was a pale, unsettling pink, carrying a subtle thread of killing intent.

Looking around, the entire Sea of the Dead had transformed after the downpour. What had been a lake no wider than a kilometer from east to west was now boundless, stretching out limitlessly—a true sea.

No shore in sight, no direction clear. What were we to do? Just as I felt utterly lost, Wang Jue and Hou Dayong broke the surface. Seeing the sight before them, they too froze in astonishment.

“Did the rain flood the entire shore? How will we get back?” Wang Jue asked Hou Dayong anxiously.

Hou Dayong, however, seemed less perturbed. “No rush, no rush…” he said, biting his right little finger until it bled. He squeezed a drop of black blood onto his left palm and closed his eyes to meditate.

A moment later, the drop of black blood on his palm began to pulse gently. The single, unified drop split in two: one half moved toward Hou Dayong’s heart, and the other settled at two points ahead of him.

“That is the direction we came from. The tide is coming in; everyone needs to be extremely careful.”

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