However, to be fair, Jiang Xiao felt like he had seen this thing somewhere before...

"Deep Ones! They are Deep Ones!!!"

Bai Liu had thought they looked familiar before, and upon closer inspection, finally remembered what these creatures were called.

A legendary race said to reside in the ocean depths, who would have thought they actually exist!

"Uh..."

Jiang Xiao raised his hand, hoping Bai Liu could elaborate on these 'Deep Ones' and the legends related to them.

Bai Liu nodded, then began to narrate, explaining that these legends were stories she heard from her grandmother when she was a child.

"The Deep Ones are a marine race with fish-like characteristics, and they possess an almost eternal lifespan."

"The Deep Ones have numerous cities in oceanic regions around the world, all submerged beneath the waves."

"For countless ages, the Deep Ones have built their mythical cities deep within the sea, hidden from the eyes of outsiders."

"Some folk tales about the ocean mention strange jewels, massive stone artifacts, and peculiar underwater structures."

"Some theories suggest that myths about mermaids might have originated from them."

"The entire race venerates their father god Dagon and mother god Hydra, serving them while also worshiping the great..."

Suddenly, Bai Liu's words halted, her eyes glazed over.

Her entire demeanor started to become aggressive.

Just as Jiang Xiao and the others thought Bai Liu had touched on something "unspeakable," her eyebrows shot up.

"Does the grand dame also say you're incredible? Cthulhu!"

Cthulhu!

Cthulhu!!

Cthulhu!!!

The three words echoed like thunder in Jiang Xiao's ears, causing his eardrums to hurt and his heart to clench.

An intangible and mysterious energy seemed to pierce through the air, striking directly at Jiang Xiao's soul.

It felt as if heavenly lightning exploded inside Jiang Xiao's mind, instantly stirring a thousand ripples.

Jiang Xiao felt his consciousness being drawn by an invisible force, plummeting rapidly into an unknown and profound world.

A chaos appeared before his eyes, stars shattered, the universe collapsed, and all order seemed to lose meaning in front of the words 'Cthulhu'.

Soon, Jiang Xiao's mental state became deranged.

His eyes were unfocused, and a frenzied smile appeared on his lips involuntarily.

In his haze, it was as if he had touched upon the most beautiful thing in the universe...

It was a beauty that surpassed the human understanding, an extreme, wild, and unrestrained freedom!

But this beauty was only fleeting, quickly replaced by a bottomless terror.

Jiang Xiao felt as if he were being watched by countless invisible eyes.

It was a gaze from the abyss, cold, ancient, filled with greed and cunning.

His body began to tremble uncontrollably, sweat pouring from his forehead like rain.

He tried desperately to break free from this state, but found his will bound by some invisible chains, unable to move.

"Dad! Dad! What's wrong with you?!"

Shi Shi's anxious, tearful voice seemed to come from afar, but sounded like it was coming from underwater, unclear and distant.

Jiang Xiao wanted to respond, but found his vocal cords had also failed him.

He wanted to reach out to Shi Shi, but discovered his body had already turned into a 'nonexistent' state.

His vision began to blur, the whole world spinning, and he felt his soul being sucked into an endless vortex, unable to escape.

At this moment, a blurred figure appeared in his sight, it was Bai Liu.

He saw Bai Liu reaching out, trying to pull him back from this madness.

Jiang Xiao struggled with all his might to grasp that hand, but it seemed to be an illusion, his fingers passing through her palm.

His consciousness fell into darkness again, an indescribable darkness, as though the entire universe sank into silence in this gloom.

Yet, deep within this darkness, Jiang Xiao sensed a faint glimmer of light, a warm and familiar feeling.

He struggled towards that light, knowing it might be his only hope.

If he couldn't grasp it, his fate would be the same as that of Doctor and Elder Peng.

Finally, his fingers touched the light, and his consciousness began to recover, with the anxious calls of Bai Liu and Shi Shi reaching his ears once more.

"I'm... I'm fine."

Jiang Xiao said with difficulty, his voice hoarse and weak, but at least he had returned to reality.

He knew he had just experienced a mental upheaval, and all of it was due to those three words—

Cthulhu!

Utterly terrifying!

In all likelihood, this Cthulhu was the root of everything and the main culprit.

But, could he really handle an existence that nearly annihilated his entire soul just by mentioning its name?

He looked down at the "light" he had grasped.

Was it it?

Jiang Xiao initially thought he was saved by a deep-sea bomb with almost "infinite power" under certain conditions.

Unexpectedly, it turned out to be the clown mask he got from Pennywise.

Finally, Jiang Xiao's consciousness fully returned, and the anxious voices around him became clear and normal.

"Jiang Xiao, what exactly happened just now? You seemed to be out of your mind, with all your strength rapidly draining, even your vitality was quickly fading away!"

Bai Liu summed up Jiang Xiao's earlier state in one go.

"It was terrifying..."

Jiang Xiao shook his head, unsure how to explain to them everything he had just felt.

"It was like a dream..."

"You know the unparalleled beauty before you is actually an abyss, yet you can't help but willingly dive into it; that feeling is hard to describe."

"Eh? But on the other hand, why do all of you seem so normal?"

This shouldn't be, right?

Uh...

The group exchanged looks, and finally Bai Liu sighed and spoke.

"That's because they didn't hear those three words, only you did."

"Oh, I forgot...

These three words cannot be spoken by an ordinary person, and even if they are, ordinary people can't hear them.

Only Bai Liu, carrying a nine-star Kaidan in his soul, could withstand the pressure and utter those words unscathed.

Unfortunately, Shi Shi and Wang Dayong were somewhat weaker, so they couldn't hear them.

Only Jiang Xiao, weaker than Bai Liu but stronger than Wang Dayong, falls into the range where he could hear the three words but couldn't withstand the aftermath.

"Pah!"

Jiang Xiao spat on the ground, cursing his luck in silence!

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