The basement is where the staff work.
Ruan Mingchu and Mu Yu split up; Mu Yu went to attend the auction, while Ruan Mingchu went to check if there were any people in the portraits drawn by Meng Shuo on the spaceship.
After the two parted ways, Ruan Mingchu found a corner toilet, the kind that was usually deserted. She went inside, found the innermost stall, locked the door, and began to unleash her spiritual energy.
During the competition, he was like a blind man who had lost his eyes because he couldn't use his mental power. Ruan Mingchu also thought that he seemed to be overly reliant on mental power.
For example, right now, without mental power, he would have to disguise himself and compare each person's portrait with his own, instead of staying in one place and knowing everything.
After thinking about it for a long time, I felt that this problem was unsolvable. Since this thing exists and it's useful, it's impossible to abandon it. The only way is to keep cultivating so that I will never lose my spiritual power.
He'd been stuck at level 3S for a long time, and Ruan Mingchu had a feeling that the world of mermaids would offer him a chance to break through.
Ahem, I've gone off on a tangent.
Ruan Mingchu's spiritual power penetrated through layers of obstacles. Whenever he encountered a person, he would entrust his consciousness to that person's spiritual power to "see" their appearance.
Consciousness spreads quickly, but it remains confined to one place, only able to spread one thought at a time. Ruan Mingchu tried to disperse his consciousness, but not only did he fail, he also suffered a splitting headache.
Throughout the lower level, Ruan Mingchu discovered eight people who were figures drawn by Meng Shuo. These eight people were divided into two groups, presumably carrying out different missions.
Everyone remained silent, and Ruan Mingchu was unable to obtain any additional information.
After observing the eight people in turn for a long time, Ruan Mingchu identified his target. He would talk to this person with Mu Yu after the auction and interrogate him in detail.
After receiving the message from Mu Yu, Ruan Mingchu finally came out of the toilet stall.
As soon as he came out, he saw people looking at him with pity, which puzzled Ruan Mingchu. Ever since Mu Yu mentioned this matter, he had tried to avoid the toilet stalls with his mental energy.
Little did he know that this person had diarrhea and went to the toilet five times in a row, only to find that the person occupying the innermost stall hadn't come out yet; the constipation must have been too severe.
As soon as the two met, Mu Yu said, "They were just auctioning off a mermaid again. Although they claimed it was an artificial mermaid, Xiao Tian and Xiao Hao both said it was a real mermaid."
Rabbit Aotian puffed out his chest: "Rabbit Lord's certification, absolutely no mistake."
Menhao nodded in agreement.
“Also,” Rabbit Aotian said arrogantly, tilting his head back, “I’ve smelled quite a few kinds of fishy smells here. There must have been more than five fish on this spaceship in the last half month.”
Ruan Mingchu frowned upon hearing this. Where did they get so many mermaids from?
This is a big problem.
Ruan Mingchu and Mu Yu went to see the place where the mermaids were being held. The guards were completely different from before, and the two of them had no way to get rid of the mermaids without alerting anyone.
Ruan Mingchu said, "Ask Marshal Mu for his opinion on whether to take him away or leave him here."
If this spaceship had appeared in the central star system, Ruan Mingchu would have definitely seized the entire ship. But now his men are still on their way, and if he wants to seize it by force, he can only rely on Marshal Mu's troops.
After sending the message, Mu Yuanshuai replied to Mu Yu after about three minutes: "I will arrive in thirty minutes. Command is now yours."
Mu Yu immediately handed over command to Ruan Mingchu, who was more suitable to command than him.
Ruan Mingchu naturally wouldn't stand on ceremony with him.
The two didn't waste the thirty minutes they waited; they went and struck the man Ruan Mingchu had chosen with a blunt instrument.
Why circle him? Because he's easier to approach. Ruan Mingchu observed that he frequently clenched his fist, clearly indicating he was holding in his urine.
He can't hold it in and has to go to the toilet at the slightest stimulation, making the toilet the perfect place to ambush someone. If he doesn't go out for a long time, his companions will just think he's stuck in the toilet, either because he has anal discomfort or because he's lazy.
The dizziness made it easier for Ruan Mingchu to invade his mental sea. Due to limited time, Ruan Mingchu did not carefully examine his memories. Instead, he compressed almost his entire memory palace to the smallest size and then copied it into Ruan Mingchu's own memory palace, temporarily sealing it in a corner.
Ruan Mingchu ordered the Mu family army to disguise themselves as space pirates and fire at the location where the mermaids were imprisoned and the first floor.
A group of space pirates suddenly appeared and opened fire without saying a word, which was an absolute provocation from the perspective of the spaceship crew.
They were used to running rampant in the Twin Nine Star System and never expected that any force would provoke them. Even the temporary cleaners on the spaceship looked humiliated. Who could tolerate that?
No one could tolerate it, and the ship's commander immediately gathered his forces to organize a counterattack. To put it bluntly, their ship's weapon system was more advanced than that of the Shuangjiu Star System's military; these petty thieves didn't even bother to open their eyes before causing trouble.
The leader was stunned for a moment when he received a message from his subordinates that "they are at a disadvantage and request reinforcements." He thought that a small group of space pirates would be easily wiped out.
Well, so they came prepared and had a specific target in mind.
The person in charge grinned maliciously: "Go and treat them with the highest level of hospitality." He emphasized the word "hospitality."
All those capable of fighting were called to meet the enemy.
Those who were less qualified were assigned to appease the anxious guests.
Thus, Nguyen Minh Thu's objective was achieved.
The guards left on the lower level to watch over the mermaids were just a bunch of small fry. Mu Yu and Ruan Mingchu easily distracted them, while the other stole the mermaid out.
The mermaid remained unconscious this time, looking very haggard, unlike how Meng Shuo was treated like royalty back then.
Why is there such a difference? It can't be that there are more mermaids now, so they're no longer appreciated.
Ruan Mingchu and Mu Yu brought the unconscious mermaid to the research institute to find Meng Shuo, just in time to find Meng Shuo singing for the researchers.
The mermaid's song was melodious and captivating, possessing a power that seemed to pierce through flesh and strike straight to the soul. The researchers sitting below all had their eyes slightly closed, their faces filled with rapt attention; one might mistake them for having stumbled upon a pornographic scene.
With the blessing of Meng Shuo's singing, even the mermaid who couldn't be awakened began to move.
As if sensing something, Meng Shuo abruptly stopped singing and looked towards the door.
The first thing he saw was not the large fish tank, nor his clansmen, but Ruan Mingchu.
Meng Shuo hesitated for a few seconds, then stepped off the stage and walked toward Ruan Mingchu. Only when he got closer did he notice a golden-haired, red-tailed mermaid in the fish tank behind him.
"Runyu!" Mengshuo exclaimed.
The mermaid he called Runyu was now fully awake and greeted Meng Shuo with a roll of her eyes.
Later, the two met an old friend in a foreign land and held hands, looking at each other with tears in their eyes.
*
Author's Note:
Sending love to everyone~
41. You're so stingy, I'm only letting you try it because you're my friend.
After Meng Shuo and Runyu, the two mermaids, chattered away, everyone realized that Meng Shuo's arrival in this world was not accidental, but rather she had been "fished" here by those people, only to unfortunately suffer the torment of spatial turbulence.
Runyu said, "They seem to have some special method that not only allowed them to control the wormhole, but also to capture the mermaids near the wormhole."
“When I arrived, there was a trap waiting for me. I couldn’t fight against so many people, so I was defeated.”
"I heard that Lord Galo was also brought here by them, but they clearly underestimated Lord Galo's power. Not only did all the people they sent go down with them, but I also heard that Lord Galo took some treasures with him."
"After Lord Galo arrived, no more of our kind were captured."
Ruan Mingchu and Mu Yu handed Runyu over to Meng Shuo, since mermaids were always treated very well at the research institute anyway.
Meanwhile, the two also acquired a portrait of the mermaid Galo. Finding this powerful mermaid would be ideal. According to Runyu and Mengshuo, Galo can sense the location of other mermaids. Finding Galo would make rescuing the other captured mermaids much easier.
Ruan Mingchu was also interested in the thing that Galo had taken. If the organization could no longer capture mermaids after Galo took it, it was highly likely that the thing was related to wormholes.
The only possible way for him to get to the mermaid world is through a wormhole.
Therefore, from any perspective, finding Galo is necessary.
Of course, there's no news about Galo's whereabouts right now; all we can do is keep an eye on him. All we can do now is analyze the memories of that unfortunate soul we've already acquired, and try to find anything useful.
The human memory palace is extremely large and complex. Even things that one doesn't remember have a place in the palace, only they are locked.
It took Ruan Mingchu three storage disks to fill in the memories of this unlucky guy named Wang Gou Dan.
They hired a group of criminal investigators to help, and Ruan Mingchu and Mu Yu spent a day analyzing Wang Gou Dan's memories.
First, this organization is called Miracles, and its highest leader is called the Messenger of God.
Secondly, they obtained the appearances of thousands of members of the Miracle Organization and twelve captured mermaids, but most of the mermaids were sold, and only two were still in their hands.
Thirdly, the features around their hideout can be used to deduce their approximate location. Wang Gou Dan, being an unofficial member, was always blindfolded when entering and leaving, so he could only guess the general location.
Of course, there are also the thousands of illegal things they've done, many of which can be corroborated by memory. Once we have the evidence, we can openly and legitimately arrest them.
No matter how many powerful people are standing behind you, it won't work.
It has to be said that they are really bold to use a tourist star as a base, and even set up their base in the most popular mountain scenic spot.
With so many people coming and going every day, are they confident they won't be discovered, or are they unafraid of being discovered? If it's the latter, then that's truly appalling.
The night before departure, Ruan Mingchu told Mu Yu to dress casually so as not to look out of place in the scenic area.
The next day, Ruan Mingchu was almost blinded by Mu Yu's combination of one person and two rabbits.
The jacket and pants feature a fish-scale pattern of gold and silver sequins, making the wearer appear like a ball of light in the sunlight, almost blinding.
Menhao and Tu Aotian were also dressed in traditional Chinese dresses, one in pure gold and the other in pure silver. Menhao even wore several large gold chains, which had a reflective effect better than a mirror.
"Who told you that leisure means being sparkly?"
Ruan Mingchu blinked her sore eyes and wiped away the tears that had welled up in the corners of her eyes with her index finger.
Mu Yu pointed to a rabbit: "These are the two of them. They said they want to be the most dazzling ones in the crowd."
Ruan Mingchu: ...
"Doesn't it look good?" Mu Yu stammered, fiddling with the hem of his shirt, his innocent, round eyes filled with apprehension. It seemed that if Ruan Mingchu said it didn't look good, he would immediately take it off.
"It looks good..." Ruan Mingchu had to admit that this cool and cute outfit really suited Mu Xiaoyu.
But it was just too eye-catching. However, before Ruan Mingchu could say that, Mu Yu pulled out another set of the same style from behind her back.
"I've prepared one for you too!" Mu Yu stared at Ruan Mingchu with longing eyes. Who could refuse him?
Anyway, Ruan Mingchu couldn't refuse.
Ruan Minh Thu added a pair of sunglasses just to protect his eyes.
As a result, Rabbit Aotian thought it was very cool and also wanted sunglasses, so Mu Yu had no choice but to get a pair of children's toy sunglasses for both him and Menhao.
For the sake of overall harmony, he also put on sunglasses.
The two people and two rabbits walking down the street attracted a lot of attention; no one would guess they were there for a covert investigation because they were so high-profile.
Not long after entering the scenic area, Tu Aotian started complaining that he was bored.
"What's so interesting about these things? They're just ruined mountains, rivers, trees, and air. How can anyone actually appreciate such things?"
People who grow up in high-tech cities are always particularly interested in the green mountains and clear waters they haven't seen much of before, and feel refreshed and relaxed when they stay there.