Clearly, the word "mother" left a deep wound on his heart.
Seeing his devastated expression, Han Tao grabbed his tail and swiftly removed the wailing little mermaid from the tip of his tail.
The little mermaid was about to burst into tears when she met a pair of golden eyes. Startled by the sharp, cold gaze, she forgot all about crying.
Fu Mingxu noticed his movement, immediately pulled the tail back from his hand, and quickly lowered his clothes to cover the fish tail completely.
"What is this thing?" He craned his neck to look after Han Tao restrained the little mermaid, and murmured, "It is a little mermaid, but could it have been thrown here by a mermaid after it was born?"
The little mermaid, who had been pouting, immediately spoke up upon hearing his words: "She wasn't born of any other mermaid!"
Fu Mingxu hadn't expected him to be so eloquent. He had just sighed inwardly when he heard him shout in a soft voice, "I was clearly born from you!"
Han Tao frowned and said coldly, "Nonsense!"
Upon hearing this, Fu Mingxu recovered from his shock and nodded in strong agreement: "Don't slander me, how could I give birth to a little mermaid?"
He leaned closer to look and found that the little mermaid was pitifully small, only about the size of Han Tao's palm.
"Tell me, where did you come from?" Fu Mingxu gently poked the little mermaid with his long, slender fingers, a deliberately wicked smile playing on his lips. "If you keep spouting nonsense, don't blame me for being impolite."
After saying that, he flicked the little mermaid's tail, looking quite threatening.
Han Tao watched helplessly as he threatened the little mermaid, his expression indulgent. He even summoned Long Yan in cooperation and said indifferently, "Roasting the little mermaid should be quite good."
The little mermaid shuddered, glanced at Fu Mingxu, then at Han Tao, and then his lips trembled. Tears rolled down his deep blue eyes, falling into Han Tao's palm in the blink of an eye, turning into tiny pearls.
"Mother, you and Father are both bullying me!" The little mermaid was extremely aggrieved, crying so hard that her whole body trembled, and soon her palm was overflowing with pearls.
Seeing the little mermaid crying sadly, Fu Mingxu and Han Tao both fell silent.
"I didn't give birth to him!"
After a long pause, the two of them said the same thing in unison.
The little mermaid cried even harder after hearing this, and Fu Mingxu couldn't understand why his small body had so many tears to shed.
He continued to sob during the unspoken silence between them, and eventually, perhaps exhausted, he fell asleep with his palms as a bed.
The two looked at the little mermaid and were momentarily at a loss. Right under their noses, in this vast cemetery, there was such a fragile little mermaid. It was impossible not to have some thoughts.
"What do we do now?" Han Tao carried the little mermaid to him, a rare look of distress on his face. "He really has our scent on him."
Otherwise, he would have crushed the little thing to death the moment he discovered it stuck to the tip of Fu Mingxu's fish tail.
"Our auras?" Fu Mingxu murmured, gently tapping the little mermaid with his fingertip. After carefully sensing her presence, he was shocked again, "It really is!"
After saying that, he quickly distanced himself from the situation, looking up at Han Tao: "But I'm sure this isn't my child."
Han Tao fell silent upon hearing this, glancing at his lower abdomen, his brows furrowing even more tightly, "You can't give birth either."
Fu Mingxu breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, pointed to the little mermaid in his palm, and asked softly, "So what do you plan to do about him?"
The merfolk are now all male. When this little mermaid was not yet an adult, it was impossible to tell what her gender was. Now she is a soft, fluffy ball, and she even snores softly when she sleeps in your palm.
The little mermaid posed no threat to the two of them, especially since he had strangely incorporated their auras.
"I can't throw it away," Fu Mingxu simply took out an old shirt he no longer wore, crumpled it into a small ball with his fingers, and nodded slightly to him: "Put it in here."
Han Tao did as instructed and put the little mermaid inside. The little mermaid turned over inside, grabbed a piece of cloth with her little hand, and slept even more soundly.
Fu Mingxu gently pulled the two sides of the small box, and a package with an opening was thus made.
"Give it to me." Han Tao pretended to pick up the package, took a couple of steps, and seeing that he was still standing there, said, "Let's keep going."
He walked with large, sweeping movements, his blue robe swaying back and forth, making Fu Mingxu's heart pound with fear, lest the little mermaid fall out of the opening of the bundle.
Such a small, soft thing, if it falls down, won't it just turn into a lump of minced meat?
Fu Mingxu glanced at Han Tao, then looked down at himself, sighed softly, took the package from the other's hands, resignedly tied the little mermaid package, and slung it diagonally in front of him.
The blue robe and blue wrapping were not out of place. When he lowered his eyes, a hint of tenderness involuntarily appeared in his brows and eyes, followed by an unusual struggle.
After all that, I actually put the little mermaid on.
"Never mind, let's find records about the Witch Clan first." The sudden appearance of this little mermaid, who carried the aura of two people, was like a mystery that appeared out of nowhere. After a brief moment of shock and confusion, Fu Mingxu actually felt that abandoning this little thing was a sin.
Could it be due to the influence of the aura?
He gently patted the outside of the package, then stepped forward: "Let's go."
Han Tao glanced at him without changing his expression, silently swallowing the words, "What you've done is indeed very much like his mother's."
It's best not to make him angry.
The two walked together for about fifteen minutes, and there was nothing else to see but densely packed graves. They were walking on a path in the middle of the cemetery, and it was eerily quiet on both sides; they could clearly hear each other's breathing.
The pale moonlight lingered above the tomb, unable to penetrate, like a hard, transparent barrier separating the tomb into its own world.
The further they went in, the more tombs were opened. Fu Mingxu would occasionally glance at the dark tomb entrances, as if he could see many dark human figures crawling out from inside.
Fortunately, Long Yan remained floating in front of them, and the familiar light dispelled the eerie darkness, making them feel much more comfortable.
The cemetery was simply too vast, and the two of them walked for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before reaching the end. What was even stranger was that not only did all the graves lack tombstones, but they were also all built exactly the same, making it impossible to tell which merman was buried inside.
"That's too many," Fu Mingxu couldn't help but sigh as he reached the end, then questioned, "Could there really be so many merfolk who died?"
Under the golden-red firelight, the chill was gone; only the sheer scale of the cemetery created a sense of psychological pressure.
Han Tao's jawline was taut, but he said, "He can wake up if he wants to; you don't need to waste your energy taking pictures of him."
"Huh?" Fu Mingxu was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then realized that he was being talked about.
He subconsciously looked down and saw himself patting the package lightly, just like an old mother who is good at coaxing children to sleep.
Han Tao regretted keeping the little mermaid. He didn't want Fu Mingxu to pay any attention to anyone else, not even a little mermaid.
After saying that, he untied the straps on the package and opened his mouth, saying, "I'll carry it."
She was just a little mermaid. Although Fu Mingxu found his reaction a bit strange, he also felt there was no need to fight with him over this matter.
So, the package containing the little mermaid was transferred to Han Tao.
Fu Mingxu looked at the bundle tied to his body and found it quite comical. He suppressed his laughter, but his shoulders twitched.
“Keep searching. There are differences between the old and new graves. Based on the time the witch clan existed, it should be at the very back of the graveyard.” He turned around and finished speaking, suppressing a laugh.
Han Tao agreed wholeheartedly. Just as he was about to follow Fu Mingxu, he sensed movement coming from the package in front of him.
Looking through the opening, a pure white little mermaid with deep blue eyes was rolling around inside, as if trying to get out.
Before the little mermaid could speak, Han Tao glanced at the figure in front of him, slapped the outside of his bag heavily with one hand, and said in a low voice, "Be quiet."
The impatient threat in his voice made the little mermaid feel extremely wronged. But since he couldn't see Fu Mingxu's figure, he could only grab a piece of cloth that was stained with Fu Mingxu's scent and huddle inside it, sobbing.
"What was that sound?" Fu Mingxu stopped and looked around. "Han Tao, did you hear something?"
Han Tao pinched the opening of the package, silencing the sobbing sounds inside, and said seriously, "There's no sound anymore. Are you too nervous?"
"It seems not." When Fu Mingxu listened carefully, he indeed couldn't hear anything. He thought he was just being too nervous. "Then let's keep going."
After saying that, he turned to look at Han Tao behind him and urged, "Hurry up and come forward, this place looks rather scary."
Han Tao didn't sense any danger around him. He quickened his pace and simply enveloped the bundle in a layer of dragon energy. This way, even if he loosened the opening, they wouldn't be able to hear the little mermaid crying loudly inside.
He soon discovered that he had left behind a big problem.
The little mermaid's cries didn't appear, but the entire package was glowing.
From Fu Mingxu's perspective, it looked as if a bright luminous pearl was embedded in front of Han Tao, its white light flashing like a signal light on a lighthouse.
The two had no choice but to take the little mermaid out of the package.
This mermaid looked small, but it was said to be very capable. As soon as it appeared, it jumped onto Fu Mingxu's palm and rattled off everything Han Tao had done to it.
Finally, he added, "My mother still loves me the most."
Han Tao didn't even have time to stop him. Hearing this, he paused for a moment, "He's too noisy."
Moreover, he keenly noticed that the little mermaid was actually vying for Fu Mingxu's attention.
This is simply intolerable.
He was about to say something when he saw the little mermaid turn her head and pout, "Daddy's bad."
Father?
Does this guy really treat the two of them like his parents? Fu Mingxu was startled by this address and looked at Han Tao for help.
Looking at the two faces, one large and one small, at the same time, even though their eyes were respectively azure and deep blue, Han Tao could still see a resemblance between them.
This time, he was truly stunned.
The little mermaid continued her coquettish accusations, leaving Fu Mingxu's head buzzing, yet he softened a little at her soft, yielding appearance. In the end, he could only sigh deeply and take the package from the still dazed Han Tao.
Finally, the package remained hanging on Fu Mingxu's chest, while the little mermaid happily poked her head out of the opening.
Fu Mingxu assumed that Han Tao was unhappy because he had lost face with the little mermaid, so he raised his neck, patted Han Tao's shoulder, and said loudly, "Be generous, just think of it as picking up a child."
The little mermaid was still unconvinced: "I wasn't found; I was born of my mother and father."
Fu Mingxu flicked the little mermaid back into his pack with a flick of his finger, and smiled at Han Tao: "Let's go, don't delay any longer."
After saying that, he turned around again and continued forward, muttering the records of the Wu tribe.
Han Tao stopped behind him, and only when he saw that he was a little further away did he quickly suppress his doubts and confusion and catch up.
The cemetery seemed to stretch on forever, until Fu Mingxu's legs were about to give out. He had to bend down and rest for a moment. "It's like there's no end to this place," he remarked.
“There’s something in the cemetery that makes divine sense stagnate, and I can’t see very far.” Han Tao naturally squatted down and rubbed his calves, continuing to speak as he did so, “But judging from the way we’ve come, we really can’t see the end yet.”
He was certain that this was not some kind of formation to obstruct the view, but rather a genuine collection of countless graves.
Fu Mingxu looked down and saw the ends of the golden hairband falling down to his chest along with his dark hair as he moved.
The muscles in his calves quickly relaxed under the slightly heavier pressure, and he enjoyed the comfort, but his thoughts drifted far away: "Do you think there are other races buried here besides merfolk?"
"Alright, my leg doesn't count anymore." Fu Mingxu moved, gesturing for him to get up.
Han Tao slowly stood up, his sharp gaze sweeping around in his golden eyes. His imposing aura precisely avoided Fu Mingxu and relentlessly pressed forward.
For a fleeting moment, Fu Mingxu seemed to see him standing in the sky, looking down on all living beings with indifference amidst the collapse of heaven and earth.
Cold and heartless.
"Can you see anything?" Fu Mingxu subconsciously broke the silence, looking at his slightly hard jawline as he spoke.
The moment he turned his head, the coldness vanished, and the scene that Fu Mingxu had seen before his rebirth disappeared completely, leaving only the gentle eyes and brows of the person in front of him.