LMWD 🍁 Chapter 3: The Little Mermaid Comes to Land

Recently, the atmosphere in the sea had grown increasingly tense, and the clan leader summoned everyone to meetings more and more frequently.

Today's gathering left nearly everyone in silence, Wen Yanzhou and Axi included.

It was for no other reason than the news that had arrived in a letter: the Imperial Admiral was cruel and ruthless, harbored a deep hatred for the sea folk, and had publicly shot and killed a mermaid.

"Axi, why would the Admiral do that? Killing a little mermaid in public, was it to declare war on us?"

The two young mermaids swam home together, Wen Yanzhou asking Axi with confusion and sorrow in his voice.

"I don't know." Axi's expression was unusually serious: "There will probably be a war between humans and sea folk eventually. Don't be afraid, I'll protect you."

"I don't need you to protect me. I'm super strong." Wen Yanzhou flicked his tail, swam ahead of Axi, turned around, and said proudly: "If that bad Admiral comes to attack me, I'll go 'pah pah pah' and hit him back so hard that it hurts."

Wen Yanzhou was born unable to control his pheromones, but the strength of the pheromones that overflowed from him was astonishingly powerful. When he was young and faced a fatal attack, his pheromones had spontaneously erupted in an instant, nearly wiping out all living things in that entire stretch of sea.

Therefore, although Wen Yanzhou had no magical abilities in the sea, he didn't need to worry about defending himself.

Axi was infected by his expression and pouted: "Yes, yes, you're the strongest."

The two mermaids continued swimming forward, teasing each other. Today they had chosen a more distant route: the usual middle path had been commandeered as a training ground, so they couldn't pass through.

But today's journey seemed exceptionally long.

"Axi, do you feel like we've been swimming for ages?" Wen Yanzhou was getting tired. If they hadn't been in the water, he would have been dripping with sweat.

"It seems so..." Axi hesitated: "But the scenery around us is definitely the way back."

"Did we... hah," Wen Yanzhou gasped for breath, "...really have this far to go?"

The always cautious Axi seemed to think of something, his little face tensing: "Let's keep swimming a bit more and see."

The two little mermaids sped up and continued forward, but no matter how they swam, the scenery around them remained unchanged.

"We're trapped."

Axi's expression was grave: "Look, our distance to the palace hasn't changed at all."

They had swum out from the palace to head back home. From here they could roughly make out the palace's silhouette, but no matter how long they swam, what they saw was still just the palace's silhouette, no clearer, no blurrier.

"Huh? All that swimming was for nothing!" Wen Yanzhou plopped down on a rock, gasping for air.

Axi sat beside him, trying to send a message out through magic.

After a long while, Axi lowered his hands and shook his head at Wen Yanzhou.

"Magic isn't working either?" Wen Yanzhou was starting to panic, brushing aside the seaweed blocking his view: "We've definitely been here before, and there was nothing wrong with it back then."

"Maybe someone set up a magic formation here, and we accidentally wandered into it." That was the only possibility Wen Yanzhou could think of.

"Probably," Axi replied: "The sea hasn't been peaceful lately. Maybe some clan set up magic in the nearby waters to protect themselves."

"Then the owner of the magic must know we're trapped. If we wait for him to come, we'll be able to get out, right?"

"Mm."

The two reached an agreement and stopped in the unfamiliar waters to await rescue.

That wait lasted three days.

"Why isn't anyone coming? Does anyone even know we're trapped here?" Wen Yanzhou was growing anxious: "It's already been three days. Hasn't the owner of the magic come back yet?"

"Are we going to be stuck here forever?"

Axi wasn't faring much better. A trace of panic had appeared on his usually composed little face: "Logically, the owner should have known we accidentally wandered in three days ago. They wouldn't take this long to come."

"Then what do we do, Axi?" Wen Yanzhou's nose stung: "I haven't seen Father and Mother for three days, and I haven't talked to brother either. Is there any way to get out?"

Although there was no threat to their lives here, being trapped meant they couldn't connect to the outside world at all.

"There is one way..." Axi said hesitantly: "A spell I secretly learned from Father and the others a few days ago. It won't be blocked here."

"What? What is it?" Wen Yanzhou was excited.

"Teleportation magic." Axi pressed his lips together, recalling his lessons: "It sends people to random locations, and it can only be used on others, not on yourself."

"Why didn't you say you knew such an awesome spell earlier!" Wen Yanzhou looked at Axi with admiration.

"Quick, quick, quick, send me out to get help. I'll have Father and the others come rescue you."

Axi looked away shyly: "This spell doesn't control where it sends people. I was afraid you'd run into danger."

"What danger is there? There's no place in the sea I haven't been. I've even snuck into that forbidden deep-sea zone who knows how many times."

Wen Yanzhou curled his lip: "Besides, don't I still have these pheromones? They'll protect me when I'm in danger. You forgot?"

Axi wanted to say something more, but in the end said nothing.

"Alright. This is a message scale I made following the instructions in a book. Take it. If anything happens after you get out, speak into it and I'll be able to hear you." Axi pulled a scale from behind him and handed it to Wen Yanzhou. The pale green scale glowed with a warm luster, and if you smelled it closely, you could catch a hint of Axi's pheromones.

"Mm." Wen Yanzhou nodded vigorously.

Closing his eyes, a strange sensation of weightlessness swept over Wen Yanzhou.

Then came a dull, crushing pressure, as if every organ in his body was being squeezed between two large stones, unable to move.

This pressure lasted quite a while. Whether it was Wen Yanzhou's imagination or not, at some point in the middle, the outside world seemed to suddenly grow brighter.

The crushing sensation finally vanished, replaced by another strange feeling: the friction of something rough beneath him.

Was... was it over?

Wen Yanzhou opened his eyes in a daze.

What lay before him was no longer the familiar seawater. The sun overhead scorched the earth, and the surroundings were empty and barren. In the distance, he could faintly make out the edge of the sea. His delicate skin stung slightly from direct contact with the sand.

This was... land.

Why had it sent him here? Wen Yanzhou panicked a little. He'd thought the farthest he'd be sent was some uninhabited place in the deep sea, where he could swim back to get help without too much trouble.

Wait, land! Then his tail...

Wen Yanzhou quickly looked down. His tail had been replaced by two, thicker appendages. His skin was smooth and delicate, and all his scales had completely vanished.

Wen Yanzhou touched his new "appendages."

"Are these... legs?"

Before Wen Yanzhou could send a message to Axi, a rumbling sound suddenly arose beneath him. Immediately after, the ground seemed to move, dragging him forward several steps.

A few seconds later, Wen Yanzhou realized it wasn't the ground that had moved, it was that he was sitting on top of some unknown creature!

And, having been disturbed, that creature was now awake!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" In an instant, Wen Yanzhou was thrown off the creature, landing five meters away.

The creature finally shook the sand off its body, revealing its full form.

It was an enormous spider, Wen Yanzhou deduced this based on the sea spiders he knew from the ocean.

The spider was dark red all over, with white rings between its legs. Six hairy legs supported its bulky body, making the head in the middle look rather small by comparison.

Its deep red eyes were now fixed on the completely naked Wen Yanzhou.

What delicious food.

Wen Yanzhou could almost read those words in its eyes.

He immediately turned around and ran forward, ignoring the fiery pain beneath him.

The moment the spider saw him run, “Ssswish...” A strand of white silk shot almost straight toward the back of Wen Yanzhou’s head.

Wen Yanzhou used all his strength to dodge to the right, barely avoiding the web.

However, the sudden movement threw him off balance. He had only just acquired these two “unfamiliar legs,” and the moment he dodged, he stumbled and fell.

“Riiip...”

His pale, delicate skin scraped against the coarse sand, leaving behind a bright red line of blood.

The moment Wen Yanzhou fell, the spider had already caught up again. Its furry legs sank into the sand as it slowly approached him.

Wen Yanzhou trembled all over. His heart pounded violently, and at some point, sweat had begun to seep out, blurring his vision.

“Hiss...”

It was getting closer.

The red spider spat out silk, yet for some reason, it did not immediately wrap Wen Yanzhou up with it. Its six legs carried its head from side to side as it searched, while the red eyes in the middle remained fixed on Wen Yanzhou.

Wen Yanzhou stared back tremblingly and suddenly realized.

There seemed to be no reflection of himself in those eyes?!

Could it be… this spider is nearsighted?!

Soon, as though confirming Wen Yanzhou’s guess, the spider simply continued approaching in his direction. It slowed down more and more as it came closer, eventually veering slightly off course. When it reached Wen Yanzhou, it narrowly missed him and brushed past his left side.

Wen Yanzhou held his breath. His adrenaline was almost at its peak, and he could practically feel the horrifying sensation of those furry legs brushing against his skin, making his scalp crawl.

A faint pain returned to his arm. Wen Yanzhou swallowed, and the instant the spider had passed him and could no longer see him, he bolted in the opposite direction.

This is the best opportunity. Once the spider takes a few more steps and realizes it still hasn’t found me, it’ll definitely notice that it has gone off course and start searching from the side of its path until it finds me.

Without caring about the stones digging into his feet, Wen Yanzhou ran with all his strength.

But the place was far too open. There wasn’t even a slightly larger rock to hide behind. No matter how hard Wen Yanzhou ran, he had no idea where he could possibly go.

“Whoosh...”

Another strand of silver web shot toward him. The spider had already found his trail again.

Wen Yanzhou twisted his body to dodge, but this time, he wasn’t so lucky. The web slashed viciously across his right arm.

In an instant, agonizing pain swept through him, and his heart pounded so hard it nearly stopped.

At this moment, Wen Yanzhou could only keep moving forward.

The beads of sweat grew more numerous. His newly acquired legs and feet seemed rather useless. After running this far, they were beginning to give out, growing heavier and heavier…

The spider behind him drew closer and closer.

“Whoosh...”

Another strand of web wrapped around Wen Yanzhou’s wrist.

This one was only meant to restrain him and did not carry that terrifying, excruciating pain.

Wen Yanzhou desperately tore the web apart, practically praying in his heart.

“Pheromones, please, be useful for once.”

“I’m about to die! Can’t you feel it? Come on, erupt already, please!”

He placed his hopes in the pheromones that had erupted to protect him whenever he was in danger since childhood. He didn’t know whether they would still be useful on land.

Unfortunately, the answer was no.

He could tear away the first strand of web, but when the second, third, and countless more strands attacked him all at once, Wen Yanzhou was completely helpless.

His body gradually became wrapped in sticky webbing. The sensation reminded Wen Yanzhou of the seaweed he often ate. The more he struggled after becoming entangled, the tighter it wrapped around him.

It was just that this web couldn’t be eaten.

Soon, Wen Yanzhou had been thinly wrapped in a layer of webbing. When another strand shot toward him, he discovered that he could no longer run.

There was no other reason. His entire body had already been lifted into the air by the webbing wrapped around him. His feet dangled helplessly above the ground as he was drawn closer and closer to the hideous red spider.

I’m going to become the spider’s meal.

I hope I taste good.

Wen Yanzhou closed his eyes.

“Clang...”

The sound of webbing being severed by a blade.

Wen Yanzhou almost thought he was hallucinating.

He slowly opened his eyes and pushed aside the strands of web blocking his vision.

A gigantic curved blade gleaming with cold light had cleaved through the incredibly tough webbing. Where the two came into contact, even tiny sparks of light flew.

The web snapped apart. In the blink of an eye, the blade plunged into the spider’s head, and white brain matter slowly flowed from the wound.

Following the curved blade to the right, there were long, well-defined fingers gripping its hilt. Then came a dark green cuff, an immaculate uniform, and higher still, the throbbing veins along the neck. And then...

A face breathtaking enough to astonish heaven and earth.

“What’s your name?”