I Was Raised After Being a Mermaid - Chap 76
Chap 76
: Escalation
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Kiramekineko
An Jin was no stranger to this uncomfortable feeling. Ever since he got the water ability, whenever he saw or felt a harmful substance, he would have this feeling. It just never felt as deep and uncomfortable as it does now.
He knew immediately that the sacred tree was heavily contaminated. He thought for a moment and sang to the trunk of the tree, singing his heart out and hoping that the tree would become lush.
Blue energy particles spread from his spiritual sea outward and scattered to the black trunk, the energy particles disappeared, the trunk skin flashed a very light green, and soon turned black again.
The expression of the three elders and Norman changed subtly. They all felt that after the song, a weak but pure energy appeared in the direction of the tree trunk, and soon disappeared again.
An Jin felt the flash of energy and was moved to think of the baptism Jorens had mentioned. He continued to sing, but soon he realized that singing was useless.
The trunk was too big, the energy particles were scattered, and after removing a little impurity, the place would soon be contaminated again. He stopped after a few lines and confirmed his suspicions to Jorens. “The energy needed for the baptism is transmitted by the sacred tree?”
Jorens nodded with a worried look. “The tests show that the impurity coverage is expanding and the condition of the sacred tree is becoming more and more troubled, with fewer and fewer mermaids successfully undergoing baptism.”
An Jin recalled the scene just now. “The moment the singing removed the impurities, I felt the energy, but after being contaminated, I couldn’t feel it again.” He pondered for a moment. “The energy of the sacred tree is actually there, but it is masked by the impurities.”
Jorens nodded. “The king is right.” His expression did not relax in the slightest as he explained to An Jin, “Singing temporarily removes the impurities, and after removing them, the original energy of the sacred tree will emanate enough energy to be able to support the adult mermaid to differentiate legs. In recent years, Rabe has been organizing coming of age events every other day. At the coming of age, a large number of mermaids sing for the sacred tree, and after the impurities are removed, the energy of the sacred tree is automatically emitted and passed on to the adult undifferentiated mermaid with two legs.”
He sighed. “The rate of contamination is too fast, and the energy of the sacred tree is limited after singing, and the number of mermaids that have successfully differentiated in recent years is getting smaller and smaller.”
An Jin had heard Jorens mention this before, but only now knew exactly why.
The grand elder said, “At the current rate of contamination, theoretically, the only way to fully recover the sacred tree is to continuously remove a large amount of impurities at once or in a short period of time.”
An Jin thought about it, and with a thought, the water ability converged into a fist-sized ball of water, which was close to the surface of the tree trunk, and the water with healing power purified the surface almost instantly.
An Jin immediately noticed that the color of the trunk had lightened, no longer deep black, but greenish, with only a faint hint of black.
At the same time, there was pure energy emanating from there. His eyes lit up, water ability was more useful. Unlike singing, the water ability could precisely determine the range, and the ability could work in one place and not be scattered.
The three elder’s eyes instantly burst bright light, looking excited. They thought, What has the king done? Although there was a huge doubt in their hearts, none of them ventured to speak, fearing to disturb the king.
An Jin didn’t pay attention to their reactions and turned his head to ask Jorens, “Do you have a picture of the sacred tree?”
Jorens nodded his head and showed the photo to An Jin with some doubts. An Jin took a glance at the picture, made sure that the branches of the sacred tree were originally lime green and stopped looking. He looked up at the sacred tree, which was very large, with a trunk diameter of over thirty meters and a height of over two hundred meters, and his face became serious.
The healing power water ball formed with the ability, and the amount was small but contained a lot of energy.
This was different from the attacking water arrows and defensive water walls, they were formed by invoking the water of nature; the water was originally there, the ability just changed the method to use them. In comparison, the healing power consumed more spiritual power.
With his current spiritual power, even if he could absorb spiritual power through the beast core, it would take a long time to completely heal the sacred tree. He decided to try the amount of spiritual power needed to completely purify a piece of the trunk. He looked at the lightened trunk and once again ran the water power. A fist-sized ball of water covered the same spot, and the skin was immediately purified completely, and the inner part became lighter in color.
The rest of the group immediately felt the energy emanating from the sacred tree become stronger.
An Jin also felt the same, and to the rest of the people, unlike in his vision, the color of the tree had also changed dramatically.
The color of the tree bark completely turned green, no longer a little black, and was slightly glowing green.With just a glance, you could feel the vitality.
The next moment, many green energy particles suddenly floated out of there, and in the blink of an eye, they scurried into An Jin’s body. An Jin froze for a moment, then felt his body heat up and his limbs swell, and he let out an uncontrollable muffled grunt, his brow furrowed.
“An An!” Norman quickly wrapped his arms around him, his eyes falling on his face with worry.
“King!” The three elders leaned over in a hurry, looking at him nervously.
An Jin closed his eyes, the heat in his body was not dissipating, but there were no more unpleasant sensations either. He opened his eyes and shook his head at the rest of them. “I’m fine.”
He looked at the trunk of the tree, the lime green bark had lost its luster, and a hint of black ran from below to this piece of bark. He was shocked, the contamination was too fast!
Before the energy did not reach him, the speed of contamination was not so fast! But the sacred tree was not a human being, and there was no way to communicate with it so that it would not transmit the energy to him.
Jorens asked An Jin how he felt and then mused, “Maybe because you haven’t fully received the inheritance and still need to be baptized, the sacred tree is automatically passing the energy to you.”
The grand elder nodded in agreement. “Because of the lack of energy, the king just has a warm body.”
An Jin’s heart twitched. “If I remove more impurities at once, won’t I have more energy?”
“That’s the theory,” Jorens said.
An Jin thought about it. “I’m going to try.” He looked at Jorens. “Didn’t you say that? After I fully inherit, my ability will become stronger.” He paused, adding, “My current ability is not enough to heal the sacred tree.”
Norman wrinkled his brow. “Will it be dangerous?”
Jorens said, “No, the king has successfully divided, and the lack of energy will only lead to the inability to receive the inheritance.”
An Jin held Norman’s hand. “Just now the energy is not enough, I am just a little feverish now, no discomfort.”
The grand elder said, “King, if you want to try, please enter the sacred pool, it will be more beneficial to you.”
An Jin looked at the pool in front of him. The sacred tree was in the pool. In the inheritance, he remembered that there were many mermaid eggs in the pool. He walked down to the pool and turned his head to ask Jorens, “Did the mermaids used to put the mermaid eggs here?”
Jorens nodded. “Yes, but that was a long time ago. Mermaid eggs absorbed the energy released by the sacred tree and grew healthier, then the sacred tree energy weakened, mermaid eggs were cultivated with nutrient solution, and only adult baptism was allowed to happen here.”
An Jin took out the beast core, absorbed the energy, and when the spiritual force was sufficient, he started to take action. He used his water ability and spent most of his spiritual power to gather into a square piece of thick water cloth, then attached the water cloth to the tree trunk.
In a flash, the square area on the surface of the trunk was purified, revealing a lime green color with just a hint of black.
An Jin had previous experience and was very precise in controlling the amount of water. He paused, absorbed the beast core again, and repeated the previous step when the spiritual power was restored.
When the water cloth covered the tree trunk for the second time, the black surface disappeared without a trace, and the green trunk glowed green and turned into energy particles that flew to An Jin’s body.
An Jin’s body instantly heated up, his limbs swollen and painful, his feet unconsciously turned into a tail, his head was dizzy and his consciousness jerked away.
Norman nervously stared at the small mermaid who was leaning against the edge of the pool, his face flushed, and resisted the urge to go forward.
Half a dozen times, a strong wave of energy emanated from An Jin’s body, and soon disappeared without a trace.
Jorens lowered his voice and said excitedly, “The king’s spiritual power has increased!”
Norman’s expression was slightly relieved, and the remaining two elders’ faces rose in excitement.
An Jin opened his eyes, his body felt strong but tired, the memory of the inheritance still remained in his brain, and he knew more about the Rabe Star and was closer to it. He felt the spiritual sea, his eyes glowed, his spiritual power had risen to level five! He turned his head to look at the shore, and not surprisingly met Norman’s eyes. He raised a smile. “I’m fine, spiritual power has become stronger.”
Norman complimented, “An An is amazing.” He leaned in closer and asked, “Shall I carry you up?”
An Jin shook his head. “Not yet.”
He absorbed the energy of two third-level beast cores in a row, wagged his tail, and swam to the trunk of the tree. His hand rested on the trunk, his senses spread along the watery substance in the sacred tree, and the image of the sacred tree appeared in his sea of consciousness.
Under the huge trunk, there were countless roots, which spread through the island, reaching deep into the water and spreading into the distance.
The tree roots covered a huge area, but were buried deep under the water, not known to man.
After a while, An Jin frowned involuntarily. There were too many roots, too scattered and particularly long, and even if his ability just upgraded, he could not explore further. He withdrew his spiritual power, and then followed the trunk of the tree to feel the situation of the sacred tree.
From the roots to four fifths of the trunk, were all impurities; the remaining one-fifth of the trunk, the higher up the tree, the fewer impurities.
When An Jin’s ability reached the top, he immediately felt the energy of the holy tree, which was no longer running uncontrollably to his body as it had been before.
He withdrew his ability and his hand left the trunk of the tree. After thinking about it, his hand was placed back on the sacred tree, and the water ability worked on the farthest roots that he could sense.
Compared to the tree trunk, the slender roots quickly returned to their original earthy color, faintly emitting a shimmering light. However, it did not take long for the shimmer to disappear and the area to turn black again. They were being contaminated even faster than the trunk.
But like the tree trunk, it was contaminated from below to above. He couldn’t help but think of the scene in the backyard where the saplings were planted, and couldn’t help but suspect that the impurities were being absorbed by the roots!
He swam to the shore, his tail turned into legs, and he walked next to Norman, leaning his body against Norman.
Norman wrapped his arms around him. “Tired?”
An Jin nodded. “My body seems to be stronger, but I’m tired.”
The grand elder said, “King, I will send you back to the palace to rest immediately!”
An Jin smiled, he was not uncomfortable except for the fatigue. He told his findings and then asked, “Is there any way to use the instrument that detects impurities to find the location with the highest concentration of impurities?”
The grand elder immediately said, “I will immediately contact the research institute.”
An Jin said, “It is currently impossible to completely remove the impurities from the sacred tree, if there are mermaids who are anxious to divide, I can help afterwards.”
The three elders looked moved and Jorens said, “We will discuss this later, the king will rest first.”
The three elders sent An Jin back to the palace and then immediately convened a meeting where the military personnel and the research department worked together to zone the concentration of impurities.
Norman carried the little mermaid to the bathroom. “You take a bath first, I’ll get your clothes.”
An Jin washed up, changed into the clothes Norman brought in, and walked out of the bathroom, only to find that Norman had also showered and was sitting on the couch operating the terminal. He looked at Norman’s clothes and then looked down at his own. Their clothes were clearly the same style of casual clothes, only his was beige and Norman’s was brown.
An Jin was a little surprised, and when Norman finished messaging, he asked, “Did you buy this?”
Norman hmmed and asked, “Do you like it?”
An Jin nodded and looked at Norman’s serious look and couldn’t help but smile. “When did you buy it?”
“Before I left.” Norman added after a pause, “It’s on the list of most popular couple’s clothes, you know it’s a couple.”
He took the teenager’s face and kissed it for a while before releasing it. “An An is too much for a mermaid.”
An Jin’s lips were red from the kiss and he whispered, “If we don’t wear couple’s clothes, everyone in the Star Alliance will know that we are getting married.”
Norman’s fingers brushed the white side of the boy’s face, his eyes fell on his crimson lips, his eyes deepened, and he wanted to kiss again when An Jin’s terminal rang.
An Jin rubbed his cheeks in embarrassment and answered the communication.
Little Silver sounded very excited. “An An, when are you coming to see our school? We’ve been divided into classes, and we’re getting acquainted with the school this afternoon, and classes will start tomorrow.”
An Jin laughed. “So happy to go to school this afternoon?”
“Yes! It’s fun and I want to learn a lot of things.” Little Silver said a lot about the curriculum and school in a quick tone and then asked in anticipation, “An An, when can we be baptized?”
An Jin laughed and asked, “Don’t you think it’s not nice to have a bare human form?”
Little Silver exclaimed, “But it works, and driving a mecha with two feet is much better! It’s easier too!”
An Jin thought for a moment. “I’ll make some preparations and get you all baptized as soon as possible.” I’ll have to ask Jorens how much energy it takes to get a mermaid to split its legs.
Little Silver cheered up. “An An is great! See you this afternoon.”
After Becoming A Mermaid
