It was obvious that Little Lin had good days with Chuyi.

 H

is soul had resumed its original shape. The little boy now wore a gold-sparkling red dudou. When he saw me, he started clapping his hands and beaming at me. The boy didn’t forget me, his first master. 

“

G

et in there through the slit and see if you can track it down 

through

 its smell.” 

Chuyi brought a scale to Little Lin’s nose. The little ghost closed his eyes to concentrate and sniffed the scale. Then, he plunged swiftly into the ground. 

“Cough. Cough…” 

As m

y 

father-in-law

 was old

, he 

couldn’t endure the cold weather. I took off my coat and 

put it over

 him. 

After t

urning back to see the slit the sword had made 

in

 the ground, I waited

, feeling tense. 

Soon, Little Lin returned. He looked a little embarrassed

. He shook 

his head and 

pointed

 at the ground. 

Chuyi sighed and retrieved Little Lin to 

the

 calabash. “Little Lin said that the Eight-hundred-mile Scaled Dragon ha

s 

run deep into the earth.” 

Except for the dead who were buried, there were 

a lot of

 other unknown creatures in the ground. With Little Lin’s cultivation base, he didn’t dare to enter too 

far

 underground. 

The Scaled Dragon made good use of the soil to cover its Yin energy. In other words, we couldn’t track it down from here. 

On the way back, 

I

 felt a little awkward as this was a very tough case, and it had happened to my family. 

My father tried to comfort me, while Chuyi put on a dark face

. He said 

nothing. 

When we got home, Yin Xinyue was sleeping

 as s

he 

didn’t get enough sleep

 these days

. 

Chuy

i’s presence 

was like a sedative to us, 

which made

 her feel safe. I tucked her in bed and went outside to talk to Chuyi. 

“Do you know where we can find water nymph’s tears?” 

“Possibly in Laizhou Bay.” Chuyi recalled then said, “I remember 

some

 seniors mention that mermaids used to 

show 

up in Laizhou Bay.” 

“When?” 

“Before the Reform. 

There

 was a big turmoil at that time,

 b

ut the government ha

d

 suppressed the news.” 

There was a village called Dragon King in Laizhou Bay

, where a dam was located. The o

ld people said it was 

built a very

 long, long time ago. During the Shang Dynasty, this area had a horrible 

drought

. King Tang of Shang sent 

his army

 here to rescue the people. They decided to break the dam in Dragon King Village to release the water. Unexpectedly, not long after they started to dig, dark clouds began to congregate in the sky, 

followed

 by heavy rain. 

Afterward, people assumed that the dam was the ‘Dragon Eye.’ Throughout 

the ages

, as long as there was a drought in the area, people would 

go

 to the place to dig

, and the same thing

 happened every time. In the end, all the people were convinced that it was the Dragon Eye. 

After the Reform, the government sent a famous expedition team to Laizhou Bay to 

investigate the

 Dragon King Village’s Dragon Eye. However, 

t

hey were beset by 

a

 brutal water nymph, which 

resulted in

 the deaths of the entire team. 

This expedition team was rich in exper

tise

 as they 

had previously explored

 the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and even the underground mausoleum in Kunlun Mountain. They had survived the hardest circumstances, but all of them were killed in Dragon King Village. The situation was beyond shocking. The government 

tried 

to conceal the news. 

Moreover, except for the members of the expedition team, many villagers had seen the mermaids. Despite the efforts of the government to hide the news, it spread 

quickly

. 

Chuyi kept silent. I was still curious

 and asked

, “What happened after that?” 

“After that…” Chuyi suddenly shed a 

tear

. Except for the 

instance when

 the little Daoist boy had sacrificed himself to save us, I had never seen him 

cry

 before. I became worried

 and asked 

him again. 

“After that, many otherworldly merchants 

went

 there. They all died

, i

ncluding the one I loved the most.” 

He lifted his head

, 

wiped his 

tears, and tried 

to 

smile at me

. “Thank you. If it weren’t for you giving me this chance, I’m afraid I 

would have

 never thought about 

stepping

 in Dragon King Village again.” 

I was baffled. I had never thought that Chuyi 

carried so many

 burdens on his back. I felt something falling inside me

. 

I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. In the end, I mumbled

, 

“Brother, we should go together!” 

It was a

 fact that Chuyi’s loved one had died in Dragon King Village

. But regardless of whether

 we could find the mermaid, how could I 

refuse

 to go there to investigate? 

After that, we

 returned 

to our respective rooms to rest. 

The

 next morning, I told Yin Xinyue that I was going with Chuyi to find the water nymph

’s

tears

. 

I knew it would be extremely dangerous this time, so I didn’t tell her where we were going.

“Honey, stay home and take care of our parents.” 

“Hubby, I… I’m so sorry you have to take on the danger…” 

Yin Xinyue smiled like a tabby cat. I understood her mind. On one hand, she didn’t want me to take risks. On the other hand, she couldn’t stand 

to see 

her parents suffer

ing

. No matter what, it hurt her. 

“Wife, stay home and wait for me. We’ll 

be back

 soon.” I stroked her silky hair

. I smiled 

while feeling 

a

sharp

 pain in my heart. 

When we were about to depart, Yin Xinyue and her mother were crying. My 

father-in-law

 had red-brimmed eyes like the first time he saw me. He grabbed my hand

 and

 shakily 

said,

 “Son, don’t worry about us. Yin Xinyue’s here with us.” 

To be assured, Chuyi discreetly released Little Lin before we left and asked him to stay here. 

If

 something wrong happened, he 

would

notify

 us immediately. 

Laizhou Bay wasn’t far from this village. Since Chuyi drove a 

sports

 car, we got there 

in

 four hours. He used the navigation s

ystem 

to 

reach

 an antique street. I understood that he wanted to prepare something, so I followed him without asking. 

O

ne hour later, 

Chuyi

 had bought a 

tripod

 from the Xia Dynasty, a Five Thunder Heavenly Master Talisman, and a bust of Jiang Ziya. 

Linking these to the legend Chuyi had told me before, it wasn’t hard to imagine how these items would work. Jiang Ziya went fishing without bait

. He waited 

for the fish to bite his empty hook proactively. 

According to the

 legend, Jiang Ziya was a famous fisherman

, so h

e would somewhat be a threat to the mermaid. 

The Five Thunder Heavenly Master Talisman was powerful 

in t

hat it could suppress all kinds of monsters and ghosts. At the same time, the 

tripod

 was the symbol of power

, which in 

itself had a strong aura. But I knew the Xia Dynasty 

tripod

 Chuyi had bought was a fake one. “Hey, do you have any plan

 on what 

to do with this fake 

tripod

?” 

“It’s the best container to keep the water nymph

’s

 tea

rs

. It can store the Yin energy in the tears

, and w

e don’t want the Yin energy to evaporate.” 

After Chuyi said that, I noticed that the corners of his mouth 

curved

 into a faint smile. I realized that he was even more handsome 

than

 I had originally thought. 

However, it wasn’t a happy journey

 from

 Laizhou City to the bay. Although the interprovincial roads in Shandong 

had

 improved a lot, the roads in Laizhou were horrible. I thought it might be because of the big traffic volume here. There were so many big trucks.

It was a distance of a couple of dozens of miles, but we 

were

 stuck in traffic jams several times. We finally arrived at Dragon Ki

ng Village a

fter 3:00 PM

. 

When the car pulled to a full stop, I wanted to get out to find someone to ask for the way. Unexpectedly, Chuyi grabbed my arm

 and said 

coldly, “Jiulin, do you trust me?” 

“I do! What’s wrong?” 

He made me confused and skeptical. 

Chuyi wore a cold face

 and looked 

at the people moving outside

. H

is voice was icy cold. “The villagers here are xenophobic. You know, 

there’s an 

80% 

possibility

 that the otherworldly merchants were killed by the villagers that year.” 

“

What

…” I was shocked. How could it be?

Still, 

t

he national expedition team and Chuyi’s loved one 

were

 all hotshots in the field,

 b

ut they 

had all died. 

And, the common people in the Dragon King Village weren’t even hurt. It spoke up about the problem here. 

Moreover, 

we had been 

held 

captive

 by the locals more than once while solving the otherworldly items 

throughout

 China. Since Chuyi’s loved one 

had died 

here, my wish to go out and ask for directions 

was 

gone. I sat 

idly and sank 

into my thoughts.