Su An'an stared at him, bewildered, her round brown eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
"When did you give me an Induction Agent?"
Ying Jiuyao ground his teeth.
"Are you insane? Who would give you an Induction Agent? Let me go."
Su An'an angrily kicked his leg.
'Ouch, ouch, ouch!'
'How is his leg harder than a steel plate?!'
"You really didn't?"
Seeing her cry from the pain and realizing he wasn't going into heat, Ying Jiuyao hesitantly released her hand.
"That fish's life is on the line. Who has time to give you an Induction Agent? Hurry up and find Lan Cangming."
Su An'an rolled her eyes at him, quickly slipping into a black one-piece battlesuit and short boots. She tied her long black hair into a high ponytail.
Just then, the radar beeped:
[Search complete. Marshal Lan Cangming's position has been located.]
Su An'an quickly looked at the screen.
In the center of the swarm of Mutant Beasts, a flash of silver-blue light scythed through them like the grim reaper, leaving severed limbs in its wake.
A tall figure hovered in the middle of this blood-red patch of sea.
His narrow eyes were blood-red. Dark blue markings spread across his exquisite, jade-white face, and his flared ear-fins looked like sharp steel fans.
Fine blue scales covered his entire body, and menacing Bone Spikes jutted out from his spine.
His two-meter-long fish tail had swelled to five meters, pulled taut into the arc of a half-moon.
He radiated a terrifying aura of berserk, bloodthirsty rage.
The salty, humid scent of the sea mixed with the thick stench of blood, filling the air.
The air was as thick and heavy as a gloomy fog.
Lan Cangming stood in a bloody vortex formed by the remains of the Mutant Beasts.
His crimson lips parted slightly as he began to chant the 'Siren's Call.'
The seawater coalesced into a colossal wave that shot toward the sky, instantly dragging down most of the fighter jets.
The remaining jets, shaken by the sonic vibrations, also plummeted into the sea.
Hearing the eerie song, Su An'an found herself uncontrollably reaching for the landing button.
Ying Jiuyao grabbed her hand and steered the hovercar away from the berserk Lan Cangming.
The chanting stopped, and Su An'an instantly snapped out of it.
She saw the Beastman troops that had fallen into the sea and cried out,
"Ying Jiuyao, quick, save them!"
'I can't let Lan Cangming destroy his own loyal troops with his own hands.'
"It's no use. The ocean is his absolute domain."
Ying Jiuyao ran a hand through his short silver hair in frustration.
He was the king of the land; in the water, he'd just get crushed by Lan Cangming.
Conversely, Lan Cangming couldn't beat him on land.
"Then take me down there. I'll stop him."
Su An'an opened the medical kit, clutching the life-saving syringe tightly in her hand.
"You're a useless F Level. Even as his betrothed, you won't survive his berserk storm."
"Strange... even if he took a Spiritual Stimulant, he shouldn't have gone berserk this quickly."
Ying Jiuyao's face was filled with confusion.
It wasn't uncommon for a Beastman to go berserk. He himself had done it a few times on the battlefield, but even in a killing frenzy, he would never attack his own men.
Lan Cangming, that arrogant and aloof Frozen Fish, had always been self-restrained. He wouldn't lose control like this.
Ying Jiuyao whipped his head around to face Su An'an and demanded,
"What exactly did you give him?"
'Could it be...?'
His gaze instantly turned cold.
Under his murderous glare, Su An'an tremblingly uttered two words:
"Man... Mandala Alkaloid."
"How. Dare. You?!"
Ying Jiuyao's eyes blazed with fury. He bit out each word as if he were chewing her up, bones and all.
Mandala Alkaloid—the most forbidden of all Forbidden Medicines!
Any ordinary Beastman found carrying it could be executed on the spot.
"The black market seller tricked me."
Su An'an whimpered.
She wasn't lying. The body's original owner had only wanted to buy a strong Induction Agent; she never intended to get Lan Cangming killed.
"Idiot!"
Ying Jiuyao looked like he wanted to bite her head off.
Su An'an flinched but then bravely met his gaze.
"Blaming me now won't help. Hurry and get me down there so I can give him the injection."
"It's no use. He's already completely berserk."
"Still, with his Genetic Level, even the Mandala Alkaloid shouldn't have made him go this berserk..."
Ying Jiuyao frowned, watching the terrifying mermaid hovering in the sea of blood.
"He took a heat suppressant before the battle," Su An'an said in a small voice. "His Life Value dropped by half."
SNAP!
Ying Jiuyao snapped a steel handle clean off. He glared at Su An'an, grinding his teeth.
"You've really done it now!"
Su An'an bravely met his gaze.
"There are still four minutes before Lan Cangming goes completely berserk! He can be saved!"
"Four minutes is a four percent chance of success!"
"I'm not letting you risk it. After all, your worthless life is tied to me and the other Beast Husbands."
Ying Jiuyao sneered. "Stop putting on a show for me."
"Even if he dies, nothing will happen to you. After all, you're the 'Princess'!"
'Hmph. And I thought she had actually changed for the better.'
'Turns out she's just scared of her scheme being exposed, so she's playing the victim for me.'
Ying Jiuyao found Su An'an even more disgusting than before.
Su An'an insisted, "I have to go down."
"Shut up! Don't make me hit you!"
Ying Jiuyao slammed his fist into the steel console, leaving a deep dent.
Su An'an flinched in fear.
'Even if I don't die, I'll be sent to a military tribunal and stripped of my status as a Princess.'
'As mentioned before, this is a mature-rated novel.'
'Besides describing the heroine's intimate escapades with various handsome men, it also contains a lot of dark and terrifying content.'
'After this villainess character is stripped of her Princess title, she gets trafficked to the Black Star Slave Market.'
'And becomes the subject of all sorts of depraved plotlines.'
'It's tragic. Very tragic. Unspeakably tragic!'
'So tragic that her only escape is being skinned alive, having her tendons ripped out, and being dismembered by the Five Great Beast Husbands.'
'To reverse this tragic fate, I have to stop Lan Cangming from going berserk and killing people right here.'
'Three minutes and thirty seconds left. I have to risk it all!'
Gritting her teeth, Su An'an slammed the emergency escape button.
A silver-white capsule enveloped her as she was ejected from the hovercar, shooting toward Lan Cangming like a bullet.
"Are you insane?"
Ying Jiuyao immediately leaped out after her, transforming mid-air into a giant White Tiger and flapping his wings to fly toward Su An'an.
Lan Cangming tilted his perfectly sculpted chin upward.
His blood-red pupils locked onto Su An'an inside the silver-white capsule.
Just as Ying Jiuyao was about to grab her, the Siren's call echoed once more.
A towering wave swatted Ying Jiuyao away, pushing him and the ten thousand Beastman troops far into the distance.
Lan Cangming steadily caught Su An'an as she was ejected from the capsule.
His handsome face was flushed and his breath came in hot gasps. A large hand gripped her slender waist tightly.
The heat, which had been forcibly suppressed, now surged back with even greater intensity.
The rich, salty scent of the sea exploded outward, a clear warning to all males.
"Are you fucking insane?! Going into heat here? You'll kill her!"
Ying Jiuyao flew toward Lan Cangming again, only to be blocked by the endless waves he summoned.
Su An'an was draped across Lan Cangming's solid chest like a small doll, her nose filled with the cool, rich scent of the sea.
Lan Cangming raised a hand, his sharp, webbed claws slicing through Su An'an's black battlesuit.
He ripped it open as if unwrapping a gift, revealing the fair, delicate girl within.
'So fair, so soft, so sweet... as delicious as a cake.'
Soaked in the cold, stinking seawater, Su An'an shivered uncontrollably.
Lan Cangming nuzzled her face with the tip of his nose.
Su An'an wrapped her arms around his neck, aimed the stainless steel auto-injector at his nape, and cooed as if speaking to a kindergartener,
"Be good now. Don't move. It'll be over in a second."
Lan Cangming watched her lips move and thought of sweet cherries.
'Thirsty. Want a taste.'
The mermaid was a creature of action.
He lowered his head and captured his target with perfect accuracy.
'Sweet, cool, and juicy. The more he tasted, the better it got.'
Su An'an let out a few muffled grunts and frustratedly raised the syringe.
She jabbed it hard at the vein in his neck, but it was blocked by his hard scales.
'Jab... jab again...'
The needle of the stainless steel injector wouldn't even deploy, let alone pierce a vein.
This sudden obstacle left Su An'an stunned.
More terrifyingly, the AI's alarm suddenly blared:
[Warning! One minute remaining until Marshal Lan Cangming enters a fully berserk state. Princess, please evacuate immediately.]
[Warning! Countdown commencing: 59... 58... 57...]