Chapter 18: “Your Humble Servant is Here, Welcoming Your Arrival!”

Chapter 18 "Your devoted follower awaits your arrival!"

After sending the message, Yi Fengchu stood up and once again pinched that strange, coiled tentacle between his fingers, murmuring softly, "So, the fish I ate in my dream was actually an old corpse?"

This was also why he was confident in instructing Luo Shengle to summon him in the Tidal Prince's dream—evidence suggested that the Tidal Prince was genuinely terrified of him and had been completely reduced to prey in their confrontation.

Look, even its tentacle had been taken as spoils to be devoured...

Since his phone was blocked by a similar unknown force, preventing him from channeling more power into the dungeon, he couldn’t deal with the Tidal Prince in reality. So, he might as well continue his previous "hunt" in the dream.

"I wonder what state I’m in during the dream—what makes me so savage that I can casually gnaw on a True God's progeny?"

Yi Fengchu himself found this quite baffling, but ever since the phone came into his possession, the supernatural occurrences around him had piled up to the point where one more hardly mattered. So, he merely sighed casually, without obsessively seeking the truth.

—Joking aside, if he had to investigate every weird occurrence he encountered, he’d have aged ten years by now!

Yi Fengchu firmly believed that when destiny would unveil the right time, it would naturally reveal everything he needed to know. Thus, he never forced the issue.

Setting this aside, Yi Fengchu recalled the unnaturally rich and fragrant taste from his dream and couldn’t help but swallow.

Hunger burned fiercely in his stomach like a stove stoked with firewood, scorching his nerves.

Closing his eyes briefly, Yi Fengchu finally overcame his psychological resistance and took a bite of the tentacle...

To his surprise, there was none of the expected fishy smell. Instead, it was smooth and sweet, like red bean paste.

As for the ocular structures inside the suckers, they tasted like bursting caramel boba, their sweet fragrance sliding down his throat and silently soothing the gnawing famine.

Yi Fengchu’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t resist taking a second bite.

"How does it taste?" the phone asked.

Around mouthfuls, Yi Fengchu found time to answer, "You know what? This thing actually tastes really good... kinda like sesame nori flavor..."

Truly, appearances can be deceiving—it looked so unappetizing, yet tasted delicious.

Chewing away, Yi Fengchu unknowingly finished the entire tentacle. Staring at his empty palm, he sighed softly.

He would miss it—sesame nori... no, the Tidal Prince.

Just as Yi Fengchu was still savoring the aftertaste, the phone abruptly spoke up, "If I told you that entering the instance to wield high-level energy might cause some unnecessary trouble... would you still want to save her?"

"Not just her," Yi Fengchu settled back with deliberate ease on the sofa, "but 'them'—I don’t have the hobby of letting corpses remain trapped forever in instances, perpetually sustaining the piscine."

"If I keep standing by without making a change, how am I any different from those detestable lofty gods I despise?"

After a pause, Yi Fengchu chuckled, "The trouble you’re referring to—is it the enemy you’ve been hiding from in the Gods' Amusement Park?"

The phone fell silent for a moment. "...You’ve known all along?"

"Isn’t it obvious?" Yi Fengchu adopted a tone of mock surprise. "Just because I don’t say it outright, you really think I’m some witless dullard?"

"By contacting players one after another through the phone, you’re clearly questing for something across instances."

"But you can’t infiltrate too much power, so you resort to oblique methods to influence the instances. There must be some antagonistic entity in the Gods' Amusement Park that you’re avoiding... Am I wrong?"

"You’re not wrong."

The phone pressed again, "So even knowing the risks, you insist on resolving this instance?"

"Why? Because of some pitiful sense of justice and compassion in human nature?"

Yi Fengchu interlaced his fingers behind his head and answered with affected casualness, "If you really need a reason, you can think of it this way..."

"I just want to partake of the Tidal Prince for a change of taste."

As he spoke, he smiled faintly, revealing a pair of sharp canines that, at a glance, resembled the toxin-laden fangs of a viper, silently proclaiming his appetite.

That night, Yi Fengchu fell asleep early.

Just like the previous night, in the haze between dreams and wakefulness, he felt an etheric buoyancy, as if shedding his corporeal encumbrance like a snake shedding its skin.

His soul then rose like mist or an untethered boat, floating untethered into the distance.

He traversed cities, wilderness, deserts;

wandered beneath the deep starry sky, between realms of kaleidoscopic hues...

until he arrived above an endless ocean.

Just as Yi Fengchu was about to plunge into the depths, an ethereal, harpy's melody rose from the sea, its melodious notes swirling with the mist like a diaphanous shroud, disrupting his senses.

The song grew louder, like swells mounting higher, until it reached a crescendo—and in an instant, a storm descended.

Purple-white lightning split the night, weaving a vast net across the chaotic sky, its blinding flashes illuminating the dark sea, attempting to deter the formidable interloper.

—To make ships lose their way in the mist was the most adept trick of the ocean's scion.

Under such conditions, Yi Fengchu, too, struggled to orient himself. Even the connection to his tether point grew faint, causing him to hesitate momentarily.

Dizzily shaking his head, he glimpsed his current form amidst the rising tides—

The first thing he saw were two radiant "disks," burning like the sun yet gleaming with an inorganic coldness.

It took Yi Fengchu a moment to realize—these were his eyes now, dazzling like molten gold, vast as twin suns rising from the sea.

These auric serpent orbs were set upon the body of a leviathan argent serpent, its countless scales undulating like piscine respiration. Beneath the scales, more golden eyes blinked open, or slender silver snakes unfurled.

These silver snakes coiled and writhed together, paying homage beneath the serpent’s massive form—from afar, they resembled a vast seething serpent brood, bearing the boundless form of the King of Snakes as they surged forward through the night.

"King of Snakes"...

The title Luo Shengle had spontaneously given him turned out to be uncannily appropriate.

Ah, right—Luo Shengle?

—Hadn’t he come here to find this human?

Yi Fengchu was jolted into remembering his purpose, and his ophidian slits contracted, glaring at the interposing swells and brume before him.

Perhaps sensing the threat, the harpy's chorus faltered, its volume diminishing as if in fear.

Hiss, hisssss—

The singing faded, replaced by low, sibilant, throaty exhalations and the cold sound of scutes whispering against one another, slowly echoing across the tempest-tossed depths.

Even the mist seemed to quail in dread, ceding ground incrementally as the serpents advanced.

...

At the same time, Luo Shengle had arrived early in the Tidal Prince's dream.

Unlike her first visit—filled with confusion and panic—this time she headed straight for her objective, attempting to summon Mr. Narrator.

Since ancient times, any words invoking the divine would be heard—but summoning a deity in person was no casual undertaking. Even the most audacious heretics dared not act casually or irreverently.

Though Mr. Narrator appeared unconcerned with the formality of rituals, Luo Shengle wouldn't dare be careless.

Moreover, if the ritual could strengthen the occult connection and ease His manifestation, it would only benefit her without any harm.

"At the very least, it can't be worse than becoming a vengeful sacrifice for a god's offspring and being trapped in this dungeon forever..."

She let out a self-deprecating laugh before beginning preparations for the Narrator's arrival.

Luo Shengle coalesced wind into a thin, razor-sharp blade, pressed it beneath her eye socket, her hand trembled briefly—then plunged it deep!

The metallic tang of blood roused the golden-eyed serpent coiled deep within her eyes. Scales rasped against her brow and eyelids, yet strangely, they caused no pain, nor did the pristine white serpentine scales stain with even a drop of blood.

The snow-white serpent emerged from the wound, gliding down Luo Shengle's arm before reaching the ground.

Simultaneously, the darkened aquarium slumbering in darkness seemed to sense an intruding presence—the ground began to tremble violently.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Glass tanks shattered one after another as pale corpses crawled out, screeching and thrashing toward Luo Shengle, leaving trails of slimy water in their wake.

"Heretic... vile heretic!" The drowned corpses stretched out their bloodless tongues, their decayed throats gurgling curses.

Following the will of their master—the Tidal Prince, who had transformed them—they swore to stop the descent of that terrifying entity by any means necessary. Their immediate task was to disrupt Luo Shengle's ongoing ritual.

Blood dripped steadily, staining Luo Shengle's eyes crimson. Her vision blurred, leaving her unable to focus on the monsters lunging at her. Instead, she kept her focus unwavering.

Though limited by the dream's conditions, an Ability user's blood was one of the most sacred ritual components in the occult.

Dipping her fingers in blood, Luo Shengle carefully traced the Narrator's holy name before the serpent. Then, under its calm gaze, she knelt deeply and prayed with solemn reverence:

"Great Mr. Narrator, golden eyes that behold the future, King of the Silver White Snakes—may this blood pave the path for Your arrival, may my body guide Your way—"

By now, the drowned corpses' bloated, pallid hands nearly brushed the hem of her clothes and the ends of her hair. Claws reached for her from all directions, yet she remained unmoved, not even sparing them a glance.

Blood gushed from the wound beneath her eye, streaming down her reverent face before splattering onto the ground.

And with that crimson offering came her solemn invocation—

"Your humble servant awaits, welcoming Your descent!"