Mistaking My Wife for a Spirit Pet - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The corner of Nan Zhi’s mouth twitched.

Although all water creatures were from the same origin when the world was first created, she really didn’t want to admit that she was related to this silly fish.

A fish head and a human body, so foolish. This guy must be a hybrid from a different race, right?

Thinking this, Nan Zhi asked in a roundabout way.

The silly fish was immediately angered. He huffed angrily through his nose and said in a very nasty tone, “This Young Master is of pure bl00d, do you understand, pure bl00d!”

Oh.

This pure-blooded silly fish in front of her was actually the son of the Mermaid King.

Nan Zhi pressed her lips together, wanting to laugh but not wanting to.

Seeing this, the Mermaid Young Master was even more annoyed. He waved his fists threateningly, arguing excitedly, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. When I break through the illusion, my peerless beauty is no worse than yours.”

With that, he took a step and walked back and forth around Nan Zhi and Yu Shu, scrutinizing the two of them with sharp eyes.

Nan Zhi and Yu Shu both avoided his gaze. The reason was simple: the Mermaid Young Master’s bright eyes were truly too dazzling.

“Young Master, what are you doing?”

The Mermaid Young Master didn’t mind. He snorted proudly.

Finally, he pinched his chin, stroked his clever green head, and said profoundly while nodding,

“This person next to you… is not from the water race.”

That’s obvious.

Nan Zhi took over the conversation and explained, “She’s from the land-walking lineage. She hates water.”

Yu Shu nodded. “Her original form is a tiger.”

Her guess was confirmed. The Mermaid Young Master happily hummed, and his gills bubbled with excitement.

“A tiger?”

“Come on, come on. I’ll take you to the clan grounds to show you to my Father King. He’ll definitely be happy to see an outsider!”

Nan Zhi quickly stepped forward, blocking the Mermaid Young Master’s attempt to pull Yu Shu. She held out her hand to create a barrier between them and said tactfully, “Young Master, it might not be a good idea to see the Mermaid King in such a hurry.”

The Mermaid Young Master’s steps paused. He belatedly realized that this wasn’t a good idea. He sighed deeply and said disappointedly, “You’re right. My Father King and I still have work to do later, so we might not have time…”

Work?

Nan Zhi choked, caught off guard.

Why did the Mermaid Young Master describe himself and his Mermaid King father as if they were long-term workers?

“Why does the Young Master have to work?”

The Dragon Clan has a history of sending half of their disciples to mine at the borders of the Nine Provinces for thousands of years. Could it be that the Mermaid Clan has declined over the years and is even poorer than them?

Mentioning the work made the Mermaid Young Master cry two streams of broad tears.

He sighed and said with a tearful voice, “It’s a long story—”

Logically, a normal person would ask him to make it a short story, but Nan Zhi was inexplicably interested in the history of the Mermaid Clan’s decline.

She pulled Yu Shu to her side, thoughtfully took out a small stool, and said expectantly, “We’ll listen.”

Yu Shu lowered her eyes. Her gaze fell on the hand on her wrist. The tip of her ear suddenly turned red. She furrowed her brows in a conflicted manner and gritted her teeth, but in the end, she agreed with an “okay.”

Nan Zhi was very happy. She and Yu Shu sat side by side. The Mermaid Young Master didn’t mind. He immediately sat on the ground and began to tell his story slowly.

Half an hour later, Nan Zhi finally understood.

The Mermaid Young Master’s rambling was all about a few things—

The previous Mermaid King’s previous one had found a second spring in his old age. On the surface, she was a fox from Qingqiu, but in reality, she was a demoness from the Immortal-Demon War tens of thousands of years ago.

The demoness, who was like a rat in the street in the Nine Provinces, had found a place to stay after latching onto a Mermaid King, but she was not content with that.

Later, while the Mermaid King was so infatuated that he lost his mind, the demoness began to secretly cause trouble. In the end, she succeeded.

Demon bl00d began to spread from the Mermaid Clan’s territory…

It was so fast that within just two days, the West Sea became a murky mess.

The Mermaid King, who had been dazed by love, suddenly woke up. To prevent the demon bl00d from contaminating the three other seas, he sealed off the West Sea. From then on, the West Sea could only be entered but not left. This was the origin of the West Sea Mermaid Clan retreating from the world ten thousand years ago.

The days that followed were—

The demon bl00d contaminated the water. The demoness cast a formation and a spell. The Mermaid Clan, who once had beautiful appearances, were turned into their current state under the persecution.

They went from being a beautiful mermaid with a human body and a fish tail to a silly, dazed fish with a fish head and a human body, like the Mermaid Young Master.

In fact, the appearance of the demoness was not a seamless plan.

Although the old Mermaid King’s strength was formidable, and the West Sea’s seal only allowed entry but not exit, others could still get in. However, it was highly suspicious that no one had ever come to rescue the West Sea in the past ten thousand years.

But the truth was—it was all the fault of this group of mermaids.

The Mermaid Clan was always troublesome. Their actions were fierce, brutal, and unreasonable. Humans and demons were unwilling to interact with them, and they would even spit at them when they saw them.

For ten thousand years, the Mermaid Clan was not rescued. The demoness who had harmed the old Mermaid King to death was once at the peak of the Soul Transformation stage. After she used her innate abilities to kill the great cultivators of the Mermaid Clan, she had leisurely passed the last ten thousand years and even reached the early stage of the Calamity Crossing stage.

In fact, she had not been idle during these ten thousand years.

During the Immortal-Demon War, a demon general had fallen in the Mermaid’s homeland. She had found his remains. To achieve her great goal of resurrecting the demon general and opening the Demon Realm Gate, she forced the mermaids to cry beside the remains every day.

For ten thousand years, the Mermaid Clan had been enslaved for a full ten thousand years.

Working from nine to five every day, the mermaid tears that could be seen everywhere in the West Sea were the evidence.

The more he spoke, the more the Mermaid Young Master couldn’t stop crying.

Nan Zhi’s mouth twitched. She couldn’t help but show her disgust.

If a certain little tiger cried, she would definitely be moved. But when this silly fish with a fish head and a human body cried, she just wanted to slap him.

She flicked the Mermaid Young Master’s forehead from a distance and said leisurely, “Stop crying. The day the Mermaid Clan rises from being a serf and sings will soon come.”

The Mermaid Young Master let out a “ga” sound, his eyes confused.

Nan Zhi took a Swiftness Talisman from her storage bag. With a few folds from her slender fingers, a fresh, yellow paper crane was made.

She bent her fingers and lightly tapped spiritual energy onto the paper crane. “The task of saving the West Sea is up to you.”

The paper crane nodded solemnly, shouldering the important responsibility as it flew toward the sea surface.

It hadn’t flown far before it was scooped back by Yu Shu.

Nan Zhi turned her head, asking in confusion, “Young City Lord?”

Yu Shu: “Isn’t a communication jade faster?”

Nan Zhi’s face turned red. It was because she was poor.

A hundred years ago, Yu Shu had appeared out of nowhere. She had become famous at the Immortal Sect Assembly and then refined all sorts of artifacts that benefited the people.

One of them was the communication jade.

That precious item was something only her clan’s elders had. It was said that as long as they infused spiritual energy, they could send messages in real-time.

Now, facing Yu Shu’s gaze, she forced a smile and said awkwardly, “But I don’t have that…”

Yu Shu let out a soft laugh.

Nan Zhi’s face turned even redder. She felt a little mortified.

Yu Shu took out a communication jade. She infused spiritual energy into her fingertips. One second, two seconds. She pulled her gaze back, glanced at the Mermaid Young Master, and finally looked at Nan Zhi again.

She said softly, “It’s done. They should be here in about half a day.”

The Mermaid Young Master let out an exclamation and was very excited.

Nan Zhi was startled. She looked at the Mermaid Young Master and told him the cruel truth to remind him. “The cultivators will arrive in about half a day, so you’ll probably still have to work, young man. Go on.”

As if on cue, a conch sound with three long and two short notes came from a distance.

“Doo doo doo—”

The conch sound traveled through the layers of water and into their ears. The Mermaid Young Master’s smile immediately froze.

At this moment, it was time to work.

After exchanging information with Nan Zhi, the Mermaid Young Master said goodbye to the two of them and went to work, bearing the hardship without complaint.

Looking at that hopeless back, Nan Zhi couldn’t help but sigh. As she sighed, she belatedly felt that something was wrong.

Yu Shu had been looking at her the whole time.

She looked at her in confusion. “Young City Lord?”

The Young City Lord held out her tightly clenched hand, offering the item in her hand, and said softly, “For you.”

Nan Zhi focused her gaze. She shook her head without a second thought, refusing it.

A communication jade was very valuable. Although she loved money, she had already received so many benefits from the Young City Lord. How could she ask for everything?

The Young City Lord frowned, asking in confusion, “Why?”

Nan Zhi said with a dignified air, “The items the Young City Lord has already promised are enough to cover the reward for the West Sea trip, and they even far exceed it.”

Yu Shu thought for a while. She probably understood what Nan Zhi meant.

But she didn’t think that way. A reward was a reward, and a gift was a gift. When Nan Zhi said “I don’t have it,” she had already involuntarily reached into her storage bag to take it out.

After being rejected, she didn’t put the item away. She explained softly, “With this, it will be easier to contact each other in the future.”

Nan Zhi still shook her head.

She wasn’t very keen on getting too involved with this Young City Lord. She only wished that this trip would end as soon as possible so she could go back to her own little life.

Although the Young City Lord was generous, she was also very troublesome.

But things did not go as planned.

Nan Zhi watched with her own eyes as Yu Shu’s eyebrows gradually furrowed and her expression changed. If she were to describe it, it would be—unhappy, very unhappy.

The unhappy Young City Lord repeated again, “With this, it will be easier to contact each other in the future.”

Nan Zhi kept her eyes to herself and her nose to her heart. She quickly took the communication jade from Yu Shu’s hand.

However… she didn’t have a gift of equal value, so she could only give her a sincere compliment:

“When this item was released, the disciples in my sect were talking about it all the time after dinner. Even when they went to the secret realm, those cultivators were all happily talking about it.”

“The Young City Lord is so amazing.”

“You’re the most amazing artifact refiner I’ve ever met.”

Nan Zhi looked at her seriously.

Yu Shu’s cheeks suddenly flushed. She hurriedly turned around. Not long after, she gritted her teeth and said, “You don’t always have to use words to flatter me.”

“…”

Nan Zhi put on an awkward but polite smile.

She was just telling the truth.

But… as the number one artifact refiner in the Nine Provinces, the praise from others must have been over the top. So why…

Is she so unaccustomed to being praised?

Nan Zhi was a little amused. Her eyes flashed with cunning, and she said again, “I’m just telling the truth. It’s not flattery.”

“It’s an honor to be on a journey with such an amazing artifact refiner as the Young City Lord.”

“Nan… Zhi.”

The Young City Lord’s voice was filled with shame and anger.

She turned around, her cheeks flushed. Her tone was ashamed and annoyed:

“Stop talking.”

In Yu Shu’s eyes, this was not just flattery, but Nan Zhi expressing her affection for her.

One person’s love can be unrequited. I admit that I’m not interested in the Dragon Clan and I don’t even like Nan Zhi.

What else can I do? Yu Shu didn’t know what other methods she could use or how to face Nan Zhi.

But…

After many rejections, it was still useless. She could only beg Nan Zhi.

Please, stop talking.

And stop flirting with me.