Xu An simply looked at him quietly. She wasn't curious about a mermaid appearing here.
After all, her own body housed an existence that didn't belong to this world, one she couldn't even explain herself.
As a result, Xu An felt her rebirth seemed ordinary.
"If I were to take you back to the sea, would you still want to live?"
The mermaid tilted its head and thought for a moment.
"Are there any of my kind in the sea?"
Xu An shook her head. She squatted down, bringing her gaze level with the mermaid's.
"I don't know, but I think probably not."
According to her memories from her previous life, merfolk hadn't evolved on Blue Star.
"Is there bright sunshine and the fragrance of flowers?"
Xu An shook her head again. She didn't know what was in the deep sea, but undoubtedly, it wouldn't have what the mermaid desired.
The mermaid shook its head as if disappointed.
"Then forget it. Just kill me."
Xu An looked again at those pure eyes, unmarred by any worldly impurities.
For the first time, she saw a word in a creature of a different gender from her own.
Innocence.
So Xu An, for the first time, as she would normally pet Gou Dan, gently placed her palm on the mermaid's wet head.
Stroking the other's soft, shiny black hair.
She finally compromised, softly uttering a single word between her lips: "Okay."
The long saber Xu An had put away was drawn again. She raised the saber high, pointing it at the beautiful mermaid before her.
He calmly watched Xu An's actions, his eyes devoid of any fear of the impending death.
Just as Xu An was about to swing the saber down, the proprietress, who had been restrained all along, seemed to muster all her strength.
She struggled to utter two words: "Don't..."
Xu An looked at her in surprise. According to Zeyuan, the mermaid's words possessed a special kind of curse power.
It could control people's speech and actions.
Logically, the proprietress shouldn't have been able to break free from the mermaid's control.
Even the mermaid hadn't expected this woman to be able to briefly escape its control.
But breaking free came at a price. Blood began to flow from the proprietress's nostrils and ears simultaneously.
Like winding streams, flowing down her neck and into her collar.
The mermaid looked at the woman, seemingly unable to understand why she would go this far for it.
After all, would humans feel sad for their food?
The mermaid didn't understand.
Xu An understood a little, but not much.
Perhaps the reason she struggled and said not to kill the mermaid was something only the proprietress herself knew.
"Go ahead," the mermaid said sincerely to Xu An, with a hint of eagerness in its eyes.
It was as if it had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
Xu An no longer hesitated. The moment the proprietress's eyes welled up with blood,
the saber that had slain countless zombies plunged straight into the mermaid's tail.
Xu An didn't look back. With a swift motion, half the tail was severed.
As the tail was cut off,
everyone present felt their control suddenly released, their bodies regaining freedom of movement.
The proprietress almost immediately rushed forward, embracing the mermaid's body, which was beginning to grow cold.
Xu An initially thought the proprietress was reluctant to part with the mermaid, having developed some inexplicable affection, which was why she held its corpse so dearly.
But the next second, something even more shocking happened.
She watched as the proprietress pulled out a dagger she carried.
With bloodshot eyes, she began to cut off pieces of flesh from the mermaid's chest, one by one.
Xu An: "What are you doing!"
But the increasingly frenzied woman couldn't hear Xu An, only muttering something repeatedly.
"Can't die, can't die, can't die..."
As she spoke, she ravenously fed the mermaid's flesh into her mouth.
Blood mixed with tears, dripping onto the mermaid's mottled chest.
Xu An looked at the heart that had long stopped beating and let out a mocking smile.
Indeed, what was she expecting?
Before long, Sixth Brother also broke free from Zhou Haimei's restraint and rushed forward. Like the proprietress,
they began to fight over the mermaid's flesh and blood.
But this time, it was different: this mermaid was thoroughly dead.
And its body would never revive.
Xu An left the scene of chaos. When she and Zhou Haimei emerged from the basement, she could still hear the horrific chewing sounds from within.
"I suddenly understand this fish a little."
Zhou Haimei's expression was somewhat grim. She looked at Xu An, as if wanting to ask something but unable to voice it.
"An'an, was the roast meat I ate also mermaid meat?"
Xu An nodded, not hiding anything.
"I'm sorry, Sister Mei. At first, I also thought it was ordinary monster meat. I thought it wasn't poisonous, so you could try it. I really didn't expect this."
Zhou Haimei shook her head and waved her hand. "It's okay, I don't blame you. I was the one being curious and wanting to eat it, and you did tell me the meat might have some effect."
She gave a wry smile. "But just for a moment there, I also really wanted to pounce and eat the mermaid's flesh with them. But it was just a fleeting impulse; I managed to control myself."
Xu An hadn't expected the mermaid's death to cause such a reaction in these people.
She had thought that by cutting off the source of this evil, she could resolve this farce.
But now it seemed this matter was far from as simple as Xu An had imagined.
"What kind of impulse?" Xu An asked, her mind calmer now, looking at Zhou Haimei to voice her confusion.
Since she hadn't eaten that meat, she didn't understand any of this.
Zhou Haimei thought for a moment and described it: "It was like a rich rose fragrance seeping out from the fish's blood, lingering around my nose, strand by strand. I don't know if it's because I ate so little, so the effect on me was minor, but the scent I perceived was very faint."
Xu An frowned slightly with concern after hearing this, but knew they couldn't stay here any longer.
She grabbed Zhou Haimei and quickly slipped away in the direction they came from.
The severed half-tail was also quickly stored away by Xu An into her spatial inventory.
During the chaos, no one had paid attention to Xu An's actions.
As expected, the main city of the southern base was already in complete disarray.
Men and women, young and old,
everyone who had eaten the roast meat was in agony, clutching their heads and writhing on the ground.
They wailed and roared incessantly.
Conversely, those who couldn't afford the roast meat because of their lack of money were unharmed.
This commotion had naturally alerted Chu Yu.
When he followed the special method to find the basement,
only a skeletal frame with streaks of blood remained.
But this skeleton was quite bizarre.
Half human, and half in the shape of a fish tail.
Beside the skeleton sat two bloodied, dazed individuals.
Chu Yu, looking at the mess, was enraged. He drew his pistol and fired wildly at the two as if venting his frustration.
But not a single shot hit them.
In the end, Chu Yu could only say with a cold expression to his deputy who had caught up: "Take them back and interrogate them thoroughly."