I set you up on a blind date, and you've managed to overcome all the weirdness?

A pale, large hand gripped the edge of the ground, its fingernails scraping across the surface, causing the concrete to crack.

Then, two pairs, three pairs...

A dozen hands reached out, flailing wildly in the air, trying to grab anything that was alive.

If Wang Hui had been here just now, and if he hadn't been kicked away, he would probably be nourishment for these things by now.

The agents outside the safety line who witnessed this scene turned pale and broke out in a cold sweat.

Their gazes toward Lin Yan now held even greater admiration.

Brother Lin was incredibly insightful! That kick of his really saved a life!

However, Lin Yan had no interest in enjoying the admiring gazes of those around him at that moment.

The rune left behind by the mermaid is about to go berserk.

Lin Yan tried to put aside the pain and think about the cause and effect of this matter.

In fact, the truth is already quite obvious.

The mermaid did not lose control.

Meanwhile, the mermaid's loss of contact is most likely due to being trapped by something.

If we allow those below to succeed, the mermaids will be harmed or even perish during this crucial half-step advancement period.

From now on, it will be like losing a major leg.

All his previous efforts were in vain.

What Lin Yan finds most intolerable is that someone still dares to stab him in the back on his turf and try to shift the blame onto him.

Lin Yan stood on the edge of the vortex.

Asking Lao Zhao for reinforcements or waiting for heavy artillery support from the provincial bureau were not options he considered.

In situations like this, even a minute's delay could mean the difference between life and death.

"Special Envoy Lin! Don't come any closer! Danger!" someone shouted from behind the defensive line.

Lin Yan didn't turn around. He touched the rune on his left hand and took another step forward.

Facing those dozen or so waving ghostly hands.

Take a leap.

As Lin Yan plunged into the whirlpool of black water, he instantly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

The bitter cold enveloped me, and the surroundings were pitch black. My whole body felt like it was being squeezed by something, making it difficult to move.

Lin Yan held his breath, afraid to breathe.

Until he felt a warmth coming from his wrist.

After entering the vortex, the runes left by the mermaid finally stopped holding them back.

A light blue light membrane emerged from the rune and rapidly spread across his body.

Lin Yan felt a sudden lightness as the surrounding water pressure disappeared.

He tried breathing through his mouth again. Water rushed into his mouth, and his body immediately tensed up, but then a cool stream of air seeped out from the water.

It felt like drinking water but actually inhaling air.

Once he felt he could move freely, Lin Yan opened his eyes.

But the scene before him left him speechless.

This is not what Lin Yan had imagined the sewers to look like, nor is it even what the water should look like.

This is a city submerged by seawater!

Office buildings, neon signs, traffic lights, even rows of asphalt roads...

All the buildings here are exactly the same as those in the real Jiangcheng!

The only difference is that gravity is reversed here.

Lin Yan floated in the water, with Jiang Cheng hanging upside down above his head.

It's as if someone uprooted the real Jiangcheng from the ground and then shoved it headfirst into the water.

Skyscrapers plunge downwards toward the seabed, while viaducts face downwards and their piers point upwards.

The car's four wheels were stuck to the asphalt road as if held by a magnet, preventing it from falling off.

He turned his gaze from above his head to his feet.

A deep abyss that swallows all light, stretching ever deeper and deeper, its bottom unseen.

Wait, something seems to be moving.

At first, Lin Yan thought it was silt stirred up by an undercurrent.

He didn't realize it was a human-shaped thing until one of the clumps emerged from behind a building.

It is translucent, with pale skin, edematous limbs, and no hands or feet at the ends, only a few wispy strands floating in the water.

Lin Yan discovered more of these things; they resembled large jellyfish, drifting between skyscrapers with the undercurrents.

The combination of the deep sea and giant humanoid creatures was something even Lin Yan was finding hard to handle.

This is definitely not a place for mermaids.

"We must find her quickly..."

Lin Yan suppressed his fear and used both his hands and feet to try to adapt to the upside-down environment.

Finding someone in this vast underwater city is like finding a needle in a haystack.

He looked down at the mermaid rune, which had been flashing blue light since the beginning.

Lin Yan noticed that whenever he turned his arm to a certain direction, the flashing frequency would increase slightly.

He guessed that this thing was imbued with the essence of mermaids, and it was trying to resonate with the mother.

Lin Yan decided to give it a try and swam in the direction indicated by the runes.

After swimming for a while, we arrived in front of an office building, when suddenly a huge shadow appeared in my peripheral vision.

Lin Yan turned his head and saw a plaza a few hundred meters away from the office building; the shadow came from there.

That thing didn't appear suddenly; it had always been there. It just took Lin Yan a while to recognize it.

Having experienced so many bizarre events, Lin Yan was quite confident in his mental resilience.

The bizarre and unusual were no longer enough to stir Lin Yan's emotions.

But this thing in front of me is a bit unusual.

It was even more bulky than the office building next door, semi-transparent, and looked like it was made of countless pieces of flesh glued together.

Each piece of flesh had a human face growing on it, and those faces seemed to be alive, with gaping, blood-red mouths, clinging to the building like leeches.

It seemed to be sucking on something, sucking very slowly, but with each suck, the piece of meat emitted a baby's cry.

Lin Yan felt a chill run down his spine and wanted to look away, but he was so captivated by the bizarre sight that he couldn't help but glance at it a few more times.

Finally, he withdrew his gaze and hid on the other side of the office building, not daring to make a sound.

This thing is definitely the real culprit who framed the mermaid.

And judging from the way it eats, it's probably going to suck the entire body of water dry!

We can't confront it head-on; our priority now is to find the mermaid.

Following the directions, Lin Yan slid down the exterior wall of the office building toward the top floor, which was the deepest part of the water.

The deeper you dive, the greater the water pressure becomes, and the dimmer the surrounding light becomes.

Finally, on the top floor of the office building, Lin Yan sensed a familiar presence.

He swam in from the rooftop and soon saw the figure.

Was that figure locked to the wall a mermaid he knew?

The once shimmering fish tail is now riddled with cracks, so deep that the bone is visible.

Several chains pierced through her collarbone and were finally nailed to her tail fin, leaving her hanging on the wall.

From the collarbone to the waist, large patches of black cracks rolled up like withered tree bark, and dirty blood seeped out from the cracks, dissolving upon contact with water.

Gone was the oppressive aura, gone was that cold arrogance that regarded all living beings as ants.

She just hung there, her head drooping to one side, her long hair spread out in the water, like an abandoned corpse.

He had no time to lament.

Because he discovered that the other end of the chain was connected to the monster with a human face that had just appeared downstairs.