Chapter 165: 101. Exposure
In the girls’ dormitory at night, the only room with the light on was where Jasmine, dressed in pajamas, lay on her bed sketching something.
Upon closer inspection, she was holding a pencil and drawing in a notebook that sparkled with magical light.
She was recording what she had seen and heard since coming to the land using both drawing and writing.
Her mother and aunt were both adventurous Whale Folk, but after visiting countless landscapes, they were not good at documenting what they had seen.
Whenever they traveled and returned to the underwater world to recount their adventures to Jasmine, it always made it hard for her to imagine what kind of magnificent sights they had seen and what thrilling adventures they had experienced.
Her mother’s storytelling typically went like this,
“I swam out from the trench, and after a short swim, I felt a huge thing approaching. I couldn’t see clearly and tried to punch it; I think I hit it, maybe I didn’t. Anyway, it sank down, unmoving, and I just kept swimming forward.”
“Huh? What’s on the seafloor to the north? Let me think. Big rocks, big fish, lots of silly crab people, shrimp people, and jellyfish people… um, that’s it.”
“I once saw humans on land. I heard they don’t have weapons, so I lent him my sword, with the agreement that he’d return it when he turned thirty-five. This was the first time I encountered a Human Race, it was quite interesting.”
Jasmine was very curious about the outside world, and no matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t imagine what kind of sights and life her mother had encountered. Each time she asked too many questions, her mother would become impatient, treating her like a noble of Ramastia, covering her ears and pretending to sleep, which made Jasmine feel very upset.
Her aunt was a great storyteller as well, but she loved to play and didn’t often return to the underwater world to see her.
So, this time Jasmine decided to document all the sights she encountered on land as she emerged from the underwater world.
She made a notebook coated with blue mollusk powder, so it would not get wet when taken underwater, allowing everyone to see the scenery she had witnessed.
Previously, she had drawn many human buildings, ports, steamships, and streets, and after entering Saint Nali University, she drew many people, especially her friendly roommates, Isabel and Milica.
However, recently she had drawn another person in her notebook, who was her strict yet kind teacher, Fisher. Although the description sounded contradictory, Fisher was indeed that kind of human.
He seemed to be very interested in either her or all subhumans?
Jasmine pressed her lips together and carefully sketched Fisher sitting in a carriage with his eyes closed.
Typically, she wouldn’t dare to examine Teacher Fisher closely, only when he couldn’t see her did she dare to observe him, which made the memory quite vivid.
“Hey, heave-ho… heave-ho”
As Jasmine drew, she propped her soft white legs up behind her.
Sometimes she fantasized that Fisher was actually only interested in her, and that the so-called research or teaching assistant roles were just means to pursue her.
Oh my, she shouldn’t have secretly read Milica’s romance novels; this kind of plot was simply… simply too exciting.
As Jasmine thought about it, her face flushed, and she buried her head in her notebook, her legs shaking nonstop behind her.
But as she swayed, she suddenly stopped because Eli, who had been sitting in front of Fisher this afternoon, flashed in her mind.
That lady was like a fully boosted war goddess, making Jasmine feel somewhat breathless.
Being both human and the noblest princess, what if such a lady also liked Teacher Fisher?
She was just a subhuman; did Fisher really like subhumans?
If not, should she secretly tie Teacher Fisher up and take him to the sea?
But Fisher wasn’t a fish, how could he breathe underwater?
If only Fisher could breathe underwater… Maybe her mother had a way to enable other races to breathe underwater!
But if her mother found out about this, would she hit her? After all, her mother’s punches were terrifying.
While Jasmine was lost in her thoughts, a knock suddenly came at the door.
“Knock knock.”
“Ah, I’m here! Who is it?”
Jasmine looked at the door that had been knocked on, unsure who would come at this late hour.
Could it be Teacher Fisher?
Her heart suddenly stopped, but then she remembered it was a girls’ dormitory and Fisher wouldn’t come looking for her at such a late hour.
Confused, she closed her notebook and put on the slippers by the bed, walking toward the door.
When she opened the door, she only saw the dimly lit empty hallway outside. Jasmine tilted her head in confusion, leaned out to look, but saw no one.
Strange. There had definitely been someone knocking just now.
Just as Jasmine was about to go back and close the door, it suddenly seemed to get stuck on something, letting out a soft contact sound.
“Slap!”
Jasmine froze slightly, looked up, and found a woman with an expressionless face stuck to the ceiling. She had just tried to lean in when the door she closed caught her neck.
But even with her throat trapped, the woman struggled to look down at Jasmine in her pajamas and said softly, “Jasmine.”
“Ahhh! It’s a Sea Ghost!”
Jasmine turned pale with fright, almost tripping and falling to the ground, but luckily she just stumbled back a few steps.
At that moment, since she had taken a step back, the door that should have been closed swung open again, causing the monstrous woman to fall from the ceiling.
Her previously expressionless face finally revealed a bit of a smile upon seeing Jasmine, a smile that was both pale and hollow, making Jasmine feel like throwing up.
“Jasmine, come with me.”
“No way!”
Jasmine hurriedly picked up the mop beside her and, with her eyes closed, stabbed at the person crawling toward her, but it was as if she were stabbing a lump of mud, yielding no results.
In her panic, she stumbled back a bit, and a series of light sounds came from the window behind her. She turned around and almost lost her soul from fright.
Behind her, outside the window, countless elongated necks with human faces crowded in front of her window, and as their eyes met with Jasmine in the room, their expressionless faces twisted into sneers as they began banging their heads against the window, as if trying to squeeze into the small space.
“Chirp!”
Jasmine was so frightened she moved forward, but in front of her was still the woman lying on the ground. As she looked up, several people in Saint Nali University uniforms were staring back at her, smiling.
In that moment, her heart nearly stopped, but she forced herself not to turn back into a Whale Folk.
Now that the noble of Ramastia had returned deep into the ocean to welcome the upcoming fullness period, not being able to respond to her plea meant she couldn’t revert from a Whale Folk back into a human form.
Once transformed into a Whale Folk, everything here… friendly roommates, classmates, and teachers would…
She gritted her teeth, but the window behind her had already been broken through, and multiple heads surged in. Jasmine could only retreat, weakly holding the mop in her hand, stabbing at the monster below her.
A monster suddenly lunged up and grabbed her right foot, causing her to pale and slump against the wall beside her.
Her mother had once advised her that all the strength of her body belonged to herself; there was no such thing as a “battle state.” That state was when the negative forces within lacked balance.
“Your blessing is the largest among the Whale Folk; conversely, the curse is also vast, which is why your companion sea beast, Xianghun, is so massive and can easily stir up waves representing destruction.”
“But the existence of a companion sea beast is merely to help young Whale Folk balance their blessings and curses; remember, the balance of life can only ultimately be achieved by oneself. You are growing up and should learn this.”
Jasmine shut her eyes in terror, desperately recalling her mother’s teachings. No matter what, in such a state, she couldn’t exert her strength. If she permitted the opposing curse to seize her vitality, she would revert to her previous “battle state.”
I… I can’t do it, Mother.
As countless monsters rushed toward her, just as they were about to envelop her, her body suddenly transformed into that of a Whale Folk, and her once soft features shrank significantly compared to before.
When she opened her eyes again, the water that had once sparkled with dim light had transformed into a silent black void. The instant that black water appeared, a shockwave burst forth from her side, scattering all the monsters.
Then, Jasmine rose without expression, raising her finger at the monsters with strange expressions. Wherever she pointed, the monsters quickly withered away, as if the vitality within their bodies had been extracted by some force.
“Crack!”
“Jas…”
The monster struggled to speak, and the next moment, it turned into a withered stone statue, disintegrating into dust.
The monsters in the room were easily cleared away, but the blackness in her eyes became denser, oppressing her as it spread from her pupils, gradually turning the whites of her eyes to black, with twisted patterns appearing around her eyes.
With her small face cold, she walked out of the room and swept her finger at the monstrous beings that appeared, not using physical strength but merely pointing at them, causing the vitality to dissipate at her fingertips.
What she didn’t know was that far below in the ocean, a massive sea beast lying on the seafloor suddenly began to thrash about painfully, its gigantic body trembling more than mountains and volcanoes, continuously emitting mournful cries as if some eerie force were eroding it.
“Roar!”
As it moved its body, the entire dark trench erupted with a massive wave, but at the moment of release, a female hand abruptly stopped the deluge.
Deep in the abyss, a Whale Folk adorned with a deep blue crown suddenly swam out from the trench, moving faster than the eye could see.
She slammed a fist against the void force extending through the ocean, waiting for the immense strength to push back the water that was about to rise, before quickly flying towards the struggling sea beast, lightly tapping her hand on its gigantic body, which was thousands of times larger than her own.
Soft power blossomed from a point, permeating deep into the soul of the sea beast.
The corrosive curse suddenly ceased, and the sea beast relaxed, collapsing to the ground, its weak large eyes still gazing at the Whale Folk female floating in the water.
“Lady, Jasmine is using the power of the curse; she is very likely in danger.”
“I understand, stay calm. Balance can only be achieved by her. I’ve reminded her of this long ago. As for how and when she will accomplish this, we cannot interfere. We should trust in her.”
A melodious female voice drifted softly, causing countless sea creatures of various sizes in the dark trench, stirred from their slumber, to sleepily shut their eyes, comfortably feeling the ocean’s caress.
“I understand.”
“The fullness period has arrived; we cannot assist her much; we can only wait for good news.”
The situation at the bottom of the sea was temporarily unknown, but Jasmine in the girls’ dormitory had clearly reached a frenzied state.
In the hallway, wherever she pointed her finger, life would rapidly wane.
At this moment, the gloom in her eyes grew even thicker, as if it were about to materialize into tangible water flowing down.
Monsters
How many monsters
Come to die
Jasmine stood at the door, watching the many dissipating monsters around her in silence, yet she had not exited her original battle state.
The next moment, voices came from the staircase,
“Hurry! The female students above may have been attacked!”
“Faster!”
Jasmine turned around indifferently, raising her finger toward the stairwell. In the next second, several men in security uniforms rushed up with rifles.
Upon arrival, they saw the female subhuman with a gigantic whale tail pointing indifferently at them.
“Subhuman, what is… ahhh!”
Before the leading security guard could finish his sentence, his arm holding the rifle suddenly began to shrivel, and he cried out in extreme pain.
That cry seemed to awaken Jasmine slightly; simultaneously, the swirling black water in the distance was violently shattered, revealing the originally clear water beneath.
Jasmine’s softness returned to its previous size; after a brief moment of shock, she looked at the human who had collapsed beside the woman holding their arm.
“Hey?”
A second or two later, after confirming they were humans and not monsters, she panicked, raising her finger to help the injured person.
However, this time, the security team would not let her have her way.
“Get away!”
“Bang!”
The sound of the rifle echoed, a bullet grazed her arm. After Jasmine cried out in pain, the leading man’s shriveled arm returned to its original form.
But Jasmine looked down, only to find that she had lost her human appearance and reverted to her original Whale Folk form.
“She is a subhuman!”
“Wasn’t there supposed to be a female student?”
The security personnel approached her with their guns raised. Jasmine covered her injured left arm, just about to explain, but the sound of the rifle echoed again, and this time it missed, only blasting a large hole in the doorframe beside her ear.
“Stop!”
From behind the stairs, Fisher, wielding the Fluid Sword, finally arrived and stopped them from further escalating the conflict.
Many monsters outside had intended to attack Jasmine, but basically, he had blocked them all; otherwise, there would have been far more than just these few monsters upstairs.
He had instinctively felt something was wrong upon seeing the security guards when he entered, and sure enough, the atmosphere in the stairwell was tense, aside from the one security guard moaning while clutching his arm, the remaining ones all had rifles aimed at Jasmine, who had returned to her original form.
Jasmine was also injured; she had been holding her lips tightly, but upon seeing Fisher, her face turned even paler.
She glanced at the security guard lying on the ground; though she had healed him, she still felt very guilty. In front of Fisher, she felt like a student who had made a mistake.
In the next second, she gritted her teeth and directly turned around, dashing into her bedroom. Fisher hurriedly followed, only to see her grab the notebook from her bed and leap out through the already broken window, quickly vanishing into the vast night.
Fisher angrily knocked on the windowsill, his face cold as he turned back to the still armed security guards. After confirming Fisher was human, they sighed in relief and slowly lowered their guns.
“Captain, are you alright? Just now your hand suddenly looked like it aged several years, it scared us to death.”
“It still hurts a bit.”
Ignoring their conversation, Fisher gazed at Jasmine, who had vanished into the night. He took a deep breath before returning to the hallway, glancing at the security personnel and asking,
“What’s the situation? Earlier, someone infiltrated the school; where are you all?”
“Infiltrate? We didn’t see anything strange except that female subhuman just now.”
The security guards looked bewildered, clutching their guns as they stared into the dark expanse of Saint Nali University, saying,
“We were patrolling in the southeast direction, everything was particularly quiet in the school, not a sound to be heard. Just as we were about to head back to the security room to switch, a female student ran over, saying someone had been attacked in the girls’ dormitory.”
“And when we got here, we only saw a female subhuman here. Without saying a word, she attacked us; she must have already eaten that female student!”
After hearing this, Fisher completely understood. Those scoundrels had originally wanted to take Jasmine directly because of their numbers, but since he had stopped most of the monsters downstairs, Jasmine had been slaughtering her way through upstairs, making it impossible for them to take her.
So, they changed their strategy to expose Jasmine’s subhuman nature.
A subhuman studying at Saint Nali University was big news; soon, not just the people from the Pink Pavilion would come looking for her.
They didn’t even need to spend time finding Jasmine; the official Nali people would help them find whom they wanted; they just needed to figure out how to take her away.
Now it seemed likely that the Pink Pavilion had connections with the Nali officials as well?
Fisher took a deep breath, and even though he understood their intentions, he could only plan for later.
After all, now that Jasmine had fled in fright, Fisher was left alone staring at the chaotic hallway, unsure what to think.
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(This chapter ends)
