Chapter 270: Trembling in the Shell

A moment later.

The Flower Ship quietly came to a stop, and the faint, ethereal singing finally reached Liszt's ears once again. He could not understand the language of the song; the pronunciation of the words was very strange, but there was a certain noble, condescending charm to it.

However, the singing now clearly carried a tone of sorrow and pain.

"It's a woman's voice. The song demon is female, if it has a gender," he listened silently, not rushing to find it, afraid that he might scare the song demon away.

At the same time, he carefully distinguished the direction from which the singing was coming.

Finally, he identified the direction the song was coming from—the left front, where there seemed to be several connected reefs. He used his Magic Eye to look over, but because of the distance, he couldn't see anything.

"Captain Kosto, set sail, head in this direction, towards those reefs."

"Yes, my lord!"

The Flower Ship set sail again, cutting through the shimmering sea surface under the setting moonlight. It was unclear whether the noise of the ship had drowned out the singing or if the song demon had stopped upon noticing the Flower Ship's movement. Liszt could no longer hear the sorrowful, moving song. As for the sailors, they hadn't heard anything at all.

The sails billowed in the wind, and the oars moved in unison.

The Flower Ship rapidly approached the reefs.

Liszt's Magic Eye continuously scanned the area but still found no signs of magical presence. However, he guessed that the song demon was here, and only this area had reefs—if the song demon didn't need the reefs to live and could freely drift across the vast ocean, then he would have no choice but to accept his misfortune.

Trying to find a song demon that could move around freely on the vast ocean would be a task of hellish difficulty.

"Lower the boat. I'll search the reefs personally." After circling around, Liszt decisively boarded a small boat and began searching the shallow waters within the reefs.

The boat sailed between the reefs.

Liszt's Magic Eye kept observing, and finally, when scanning near a central reef, he saw a faint trace of magical presence in the shallow waters by the reef.

That faint white glow was incredibly captivating in the night.

"This way, quick, paddle this way!"

The sailors rowed with all their might, and the boat shot forward like an arrow, rapidly closing in on the reef. The closer they got, the clearer the white magical glow appeared in his Magic Eye. He could already see the exact location of the glow, nestled within the rocky embrace of the reef's waters.

Waves continuously crashed against the surrounding reefs.

Rowing became difficult.

But with Liszt's guidance, they slowly inched closer to the source of the magical glow.

Finally, they were within fifty meters.

In the Magic Eye's vision, there was a humanoid creature curled up into a ball. Strangely, there seemed to be a faint, shell-shaped aura around the creature. It was so thin that it was hard to see clearly, especially when the waves crashed, causing the aura to flicker in and out of view.

"Lord, we can't move anymore. The boat's bottom has been grounded on underwater rocks," a sailor reported.

"Get out of the boat."

Liszt, certain that there were no sea monsters around, jumped out of the boat. The water in this area was already very shallow. The seabed was littered with various rocks and pebbles, making it difficult to stand steadily. With the moonlight unable to illuminate the bottom, walking was quite challenging.

Fortunately, Liszt was prepared. He took out a crystal lamp equivalent to a table lamp, which could barely illuminate a small part of the water surface and the rocks below.

Carefully stepping on the stones, avoiding the potholes, letting the seawater wash over his legs and waist.

He led a few sailors, groping their way slowly. When they were within ten meters, he could clearly see what the magical glow actually was.

In the vision of the Magic Eye, there was a huge shell, with a humanoid creature curled up and trembling inside. The clear female outline could be seen, but there were other faint magical outlines around it. The humanoid creature had wings and fins.

She had fins behind her ears and fin-like wings on her back, and from her ankles down, her leg outlines blended into the faint magical glow around her, making her feet invisible.

The entire shell was emitting a faint magical glow.

Liszt dispelled the Magic Eye.

The white, large shell was clearly within the light of the crystal lamp, stranded between two rocks.

"My song demon!" Liszt's heart surged with excitement, sweeping away his mental fatigue and previous irritation, silently muttering, "Don't be afraid. Actually, I'm a good person."

Finally.

He reached the side of the shell.

It was an exceptionally standard scallop-shaped shell, about three meters in diameter. The fan surface had a radially wavy pattern, a perfectly symmetrical structure, with no other colors, just a pure, unadorned white.

"What a beautiful large shell!" Captain Kosto, who was following Liszt, exclaimed.

The sailors also marveled, "Oh my god, it's so big!"

"It's really beautiful!"

"To think there's such a large shell here, it's even bigger than the giant clam shell at the entrance of Lord's castle."

Liszt raised an eyebrow, not wanting the group to disturb him, and instructed, "Captain Kosto, take the men back and bring a large net. We'll drag the shell onto the ship." The song demon had to be taken away, and since it lived in the shell, they would have to take the shell as well.

"Yes, my lord." Kosto promptly herded the sailors back to the Flower Ship to fetch the net.

Once everyone was gone.

Liszt tapped the shell and said, "Hi, can you hear me?"

His Magic Eye focused on the trembling song demon inside the shell, who curled up even tighter, clearly having heard Liszt's voice.

Liszt softened his tone, making it sound gentler, "You should be able to hear me. I am a passing human, a noble lord, and these reefs are part of my territory. I heard your song; it was very sorrowful and painful. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

He wasn't sure if the siren could speak Serpentine, but he had to try to communicate first.

After all, she was a spirit of the sea and should be treated gently.

If it were a sea monster, he wouldn't hesitate—he'd pry open the shell and kill it. But for the siren, who had a feminine silhouette and seemed to have a rather graceful figure, he couldn't be so rough.

"Don't be afraid, I really just want to help you. My name is Liszt Tulip, and I am the Lord of Flower Town. I am a Lord who believes in peace. I believe that whether human, spirit, or siren, we are all part of nature and should live in harmony, not harm each other."

He continued to speak endlessly about his peaceful ideals.

It seemed to work. The siren, who had been trembling, finally relaxed a little. She turned her head, seemingly wanting to respond to Liszt.

But just then, Kosto and the others returned, shouting, "Lord, we've brought the net!"

Startled by this, the siren curled up tightly again.

Liszt's face darkened. He turned around, glaring at Kosto and the others who had rushed over. Suppressing his anger, he tried to speak as quietly and sternly as possible, "Shut up, don't move, no, step back, retreat at least a hundred meters!"