Chapter 158: 94. Black Market
Under the wrapping of the waters of Ramastia, Fisher felt as though his breath had been taken away, his nostrils filled with the salty stench of seawater.
He first felt dizzy, then the surroundings seemed to be an unfathomable darkness, with overwhelming pressure bearing down on him, as if a giant hand was dragging him into an endless abyss.
But the next moment, the pressure around him suddenly disappeared, and his body felt light as he floated towards the surface of the water, shooting straight out of the constricting seawater.
Immediately after, Fisher felt as though he had awakened from drowning, greedily breathing in the air outside.
He was soaked through and did not know where Ramastia had transported them; he only knew that he was now floating in the water.
The environment around him was pitch black, and once his eyes adjusted to the darkness after a while, he found the surroundings quite familiar.
Wasn’t this the swimming pool of Saint Nali University? He had chased Jasmine here before.
So Ramastia had directly transported them to inside Saint Nali University.
Behind him, Bai Mu slowly surfaced from the water, holding Rena in her arms; they did not show the symptoms of Fisher’s drowning at all, so they looked at him with great concern.
“Mr. Fisher, are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
Fisher coughed lightly, then wiped his face and swam to the shore.
Looking back, the pool was incredibly quiet, with the large crab Haru floating on its back, but the annoying Ramastia was nowhere to be seen.
Rena and Bai Mu had both reverted to their human forms, likely a blessing Ramastia had casually placed on them during the transfer.
“Wait here, I’ll go check on Jasmine.”
Fisher took off his coat, wrung out a lot of water, and draped the rag-like coat over his shoulder, saying to the two subhumans behind him.
He was thoroughly soaked and needed to change clothes in his faculty dorm.
After receiving nods from Bai Mu and Rena, he climbed through the window of the swimming pool. The main entrance of the pool was locked at night, so there was no need to worry about anyone discovering Bai Mu and the others here.
Once he returned to his dorm and changed into a dry outfit, Fisher went to Jasmine’s dormitory. He informed her through the dorm manager, and it wasn’t long before he saw Jasmine rushing down in a pure black dress. Unlike the formal attire she wore during the day, this dress resembled a nightgown.
It was late; she was probably just about to rest when Fisher summoned her.
“Mr. Fisher?”
“Your companion has been attacked and is now with Ramastia in the swimming pool. Come with me to take a look. An subhuman has also been captured.”
“Rena?! I’ll go right now!”
Hearing this, Jasmine showed a tense expression and hurriedly followed Fisher to the swimming pool, where they found Bai Mu covered in injuries next to little Rena.
Upon seeing Jasmine, Bai Mu immediately stood up apologetically and bowed, saying, “Your Highness, I’m very sorry. I don’t know why our movements were exposed, causing you trouble.”
“How could you trouble me? You all came ashore because of me. Right now, the most important thing is to rescue Mr. Ling Jiu, so don’t move just yet.”
Jasmine showed a somewhat guilty expression, then extended a finger towards Bai Mu. As the light in her eyes flowed, Bai Mu’s wounds gradually healed until she returned to her pre-injury state.
Bai Mu looked at her restored body in surprise and gratefully said, “Thank you very much, Lady Jasmine.”
Jasmine shook her head, indicating it was no trouble. After confirming Rena was unharmed, she retracted her finger.
Jasmine knew that in human society, they were not kind to subhumans, so she transformed into a human form to avoid inconvenience. Thankfully, Fisher had not exposed her identity; otherwise, she wouldn’t know what to do.
She glanced at Fisher beside her and then asked Bai Mu and Rena, “Do you know where Mr. Ling Jiu was taken? We need to think of a way to rescue him.”
Bai Mu and Rena were clueless as well. Before they could shake their heads, Fisher spoke up.
“The ones chasing them are bounty hunters; someone must have posted a reward in the black market, so Rena’s father should be taken to the black market. The black market is deep in Snakehead Street, very far from here, and there are many bounty hunters there, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to bring him back with some caution.”
Upon hearing Fisher’s words, Bai Mu’s eyes brightened. She quickly called Haru from the pool to swim over and retrieved a bag tied underneath its belly.
Upon opening the bag, it contained many gold coins and crafts made by ocean subhumans, such as necklaces and bracelets. Those items were exquisitely made and clearly not human-made.
With a puzzled gaze from Fisher, Bai Mu held the bag up to him and earnestly requested, “Mr. Fisher, although this request is quite excessive, could I please ask you to help bring Rena’s father back from those humans? As for payment, these are the treasures we’ve kept from the sea over the years. I don’t know how much they are worth on land, but if it’s not enough, there’s still more at the bottom of the sea.”
Bai Mu wanted to use these gold and jewelry to ask Fisher to help bring Rena’s father back. Fisher glanced at her pitiful expression, reached into the bag, and pulled out an exquisitely crafted bracelet. After tucking it into his pocket, he stood up.
“I understand; I will accept this payment. You two stay here and recover. Jasmine.”
He only wanted to keep a special gift for Renee as a present upon his return; he didn’t want the rest of the gold and such.
Speaking of which, is there a lot of gold at the bottom of the sea? How come so many of the items Jasmine and the others brought ashore are made of gold?
“I’ll go with Mr. Fisher! I can help!”
Just after Fisher finished speaking, Jasmine looked at him and responded eagerly.
At the same time, her body began to transform back into the form of a Whale Folk. Only in this form could she exert her combat ability as a Whale Folk, after all, Fisher had a strong impression of her destructive capacity in magic.
Fisher nodded, about to agree, but when his gaze fell on her, he froze.
It turned out that she was now wearing a form-fitting dress that resembled a nightgown, and her tail pushed the hem of her dress upwards when it appeared.
With the faint moonlight from outside, the fitted dress revealed her body’s curves, which Fisher could see clearly.
Moreover, since Fisher called her just when she was about to sleep, she undoubtedly wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
One second… or two seconds later, Fisher calmly shifted his gaze away, choosing not to look at her body — something a gentleman from Saint Nali would do.
“Eek!”
Jasmine quickly realized something and her face flushed red. She hurriedly covered her body, her fin-like ears flickering, and in the dark, Fisher could only see the glow on her ears and smell the faint floral scent coming from her body.
She always acted carelessly, thinking of rescuing Rena’s father with Fisher, forgetting that returning to her original form might cause her to expose herself.
“I’m so sorry!”
She shyly gave Fisher a quick glance, then rushed to the box beside the swimming pool where they stored clothes, retrieved a cloak she had hidden away earlier, and draped it over herself to cover her body and non-human appearance.
It turned out she had hidden this outerwear in the swimming pool; whenever she needed to go out, she could return to the swimming pool to change into it, as she also needed the water flow to revert to her human form.
After putting on the cloak, she no longer worried about exposing herself.
She walked back to Fisher, wrapped in the cloak, her face flushed and not daring to look at him.
However, as always, Fisher didn’t bring up that embarrassing topic. He simply cleared his throat and said, “It’s nighttime, and there are no carriages to the Snakehead Tavern. Can we ask Ramastia to help us get there?”
He felt a bit guilty when saying this.
After all, Ramastia was a deity, and they called upon her every day either to obscure their appearances or as a means of transportation. Look at how the followers of the Cardu Church treated the non-existent Mother with utmost reverence; some even went so far as to create artificial sorceresses just to reach the Mother’s presence, indicating their piety.
This made the real god seem, well, too kind and approachable, almost like a temperamental underwater friend.
Rena, upon hearing, excitedly gestured to Jasmine and said, “Lady Jasmine, just now Mr. Fisher actually summoned the great Ramastia using the water flow! It was indeed the great Ramastia who brought us here; Mr. Fisher is amazing! My mom and I called on the great Ramastia, and she didn’t hear us!”
Jasmine showed a surprised expression after hearing this, then smiled at Fisher, stating, “It seems the great Ramastia really likes Fisher-sensei; otherwise, she wouldn’t respond so easily to someone else’s summon. This also indicates that her attention has been on you, and only those chosen by her receive such treatment.”
No… why do I feel like she doesn’t particularly like me?
Fisher thought to himself, but upon hearing Jasmine describe the “watching,” he suddenly recalled the gigantic eye he had seen on the Southern Continent.
That thing praised him and said, “I owe you a favor”… If Fisher wasn’t misunderstanding, that was the meaning it conveyed.
But Fisher had no idea how to contact that giant eye, let alone how to claim that vague promise back.
When Fisher first studied soul magic, he had sensed a terrifying presence watching over him from the perspective of the soul. Could that presence be the giant eye or Ramastia?
Fisher had never seen Ramastia’s true form, but seeing that gigantic eye did indeed instill an indescribable fear from within, something that couldn’t be described at any level.
He thought carefully and realized he didn’t seem to have anything special about him, aside from the two completion manuals in his arms; he was just an ordinary human with normal psychology and orientation.
Could it really be because of these two manuals in his possession?
Following this logic, they should have chosen someone like Feilon who had a manual, so why did that huge eye thank him after he killed Feilon?
Then if Jasmine’s words were to be believed, what was the reason for Ramastia’s selection of him?
After all, the Fluid Sword was given to him by Ramastia before the Shivali delegation was attacked, so her reason for paying attention to him certainly wasn’t because he had “offended” her and was holding a grudge against him.
After pondering the possible reasons for being “chosen by the god” and coming up with several guesses without certainty, Fisher had to shift his focus back to reality.
He saw Jasmine gently reaching into the swimming pool to call upon Ramastia once more, and the water serpent kindly responded to her call again, emerging from the pool and looking at Jasmine squatting by the side of it.
Indeed, Ramastia was a deity with absolutely no dignity — the kind that was always at your beck and call!
Fisher thought silently, and the next moment, the water serpent seemed to have understood their thoughts. It extended two water-formed hands towards Fisher and Jasmine.
As the water approached Fisher, a location image flash automatically appeared in his mind, as if the thought had come forth on its own.
Next, the water flow seemed to determine direction, enveloping Jasmine and Fisher separately before suddenly disappearing from the spot.
Originally, Fisher thought he would have to enter deep waters again, so he braced himself to hold his breath, but this time there was only a feeling of weightlessness, and after a second or two, Fisher felt himself land.
“…”
Wait, so the drowning and tumbling underwater earlier were part of Ramastia’s revenge, right?
Upon arriving at their destination, Fisher looked down at his dry suit with a dark expression and instantly understood Ramastia’s thoughts. That guy didn’t act up in front of Jasmine, appearing friendly, but secretly unrelentingly targeted himself, right?
Alright, well played, Ramastia.
“Fisher-sensei?”
The surroundings were somewhat dark; some light fell from above but not high enough for Fisher to stand straight, so he could only bend forward slightly.
Hearing Jasmine’s soft voice beside him, Fisher gently illuminated his staff, and Jasmine’s beautiful, rosy face instantly appeared before him, her watery eyes staring straight at him.
But as soon as Fisher looked over, she hurriedly averted her gaze, pretending to examine her surroundings. However, if one observed closely, they would realize she was still secretly glancing at him.
She looked like a shy little whale, and coupled with her long ears, it was even more pronounced.
“Where are we?”
Fisher listened attentively to the faint sounds of water from outside and knew they were currently somewhere within Snakehead Street; that was the sound of the underground dark river.
He held his glowing staff up to look around and realized they seemed to be beneath a certain building.
Most buildings on Snakehead Street were made of wood, as the conditions for these people didn’t allow for the construction of finer houses like outside; a common requirement was merely to be livable, and only certain shops or gang territories would be somewhat better.
And now, they were likely beneath a certain shop.
From above them, faint sounds of footsteps and conversations could be heard. Fisher raised a finger to indicate to Jasmine to be silent.
“Sir, thank you for your order. Would you like me to turn off the lights?”
“No need, hurry over, I have business in the market soon.”
“Yes, please wait a moment.”
After the words were said, sounds of clothing rustling and falling could be heard from above.
Jasmine blinked in confusion but Fisher had already realized what was going on. He grabbed Jasmine’s hand and began to move sideways.
When they reached the edge of the floor, Fisher discovered that the brothel was perched on the edge of an underground cave. Peering through the wooden gaps towards the dark river below, they could spot many caves chiseled into the rock face, lit by flames.
Above the rock wall was the essence of Snakehead Street, surrounded by numerous buildings.
The illuminated caves were where the underground black market of Snakehead Street was located. It seemed to be managed by a gang from Nali, and it was particularly lively today, with many mercenaries entering and exiting the caves.
While Fisher was observing, a carriage slowly stopped at the roadside above in Snakehead Street, flanked by many burly men, clearly significant.
Carriages were a rare sight in Snakehead Street; only those permitted by the gang could drive in. Given that a carriage appeared there, could the person inside be the one who had issued the bounty for capturing ocean subhumans?
Fisher looked at the situation, thinking that Rena’s father was likely in the black market inside the cave, pondering how to bring him out.
“Oh, right there.”
“…”
Above the wooden planks, a man’s voice sounded, and Jasmine blinked in confusion, raising her head. With light and scenery falling simultaneously, she stared blankly at the scene above.
Her mouth slightly opened, a pink hue starting from her neck spread as if a door to a new world was opening to her. The holy light-filled sight made her quite shy, yet very curious, so she kept staring upwards.
Fisher turned and noticed her reaction; he helplessly reached out to push her raised head down, forcing her not to look at the “intense battle” above.
She covered her eyes with blushing cheeks, silently moving her steps to follow behind Fisher.
The two of them approached the wooden plank facing the cave’s black market across the cliff. With Fisher’s excellent eyesight, he saw a woman wearing a hat and dressed in conservative Nali attire stepping down from the carriage, walking into the black market followed by many burly men.
That was Anna, a woman Fisher had encountered before.
**End of Chapter**
