Chapter 773: Chapter 159: The Girl and the Sunken Ship

——Ghost?

Vid instinctively had this thought.

But it wasn’t any ghost that frequently appeared in the castle.

As the distance closed, the figure suspended in the water seemed to be slowly spinning under the influence of the current, until it was completely facing Vid.

It was a girl who seemed only about ten years old, with a very beautiful face, almost as stunning as Fleur’s. Her body appeared slender and supple, exuding a kind of ethereal and eerie allure.

Vid felt as if his violently beating heart was about to burst out of his chest. He distanced himself from the eerie presence, cautiously keeping his eyes on her while swimming upwards.

When they were almost at the same height, the figure suddenly opened her eyes, blue like stars, and a strange smile appeared on her pale face.

Vid’s heart skipped a beat.

Everyone knows that ghosts are entirely pearl white, including their blood, so it’s impossible for them to have a pair of blue eyes.

He quickly swished his tail to ascend rapidly, while his magic wand pointed at the eerie girl. The next moment, his mind went blank, and in his vision, only that glowing beautiful figure remained.

The girl extended her pale arm, waving her hand gently in a silent invitation.

When she saw the wizard-transformed merperson gradually approaching her, her smile grew even brighter, as beautiful as a full moon appearing in deep water.

But under the robe, her lower body suddenly expanded and spread, countless green water plants like extended tentacles entangled the wizard’s wrist and tail, dragging him into the deeper darkness.

The soft arms of the girl also entwined him, her icy body snuggling close, embracing the young man intimately like a lover, swaying gently towards a massive shadow in the dark.

In the pitch-black lake water, silver-white hair interwove with black hair, green water plants like long ribbons danced and revealed both their pale faces.

Suddenly, a golden flash seemed to pass through those hollow gray eyes, the eyeballs slightly moved, and slender fingers wavered in the water, struggling to reach the magic wand almost entirely wrapped in water plants.

His lips moved, whispering:

"Akayas-Tomio!"

Several bubbles drifted past his ears, and the girl curiously turned her head, just catching the wizard’s gaze for a moment.

The next second, she suddenly felt a great sense of crisis, and her hands forcefully threw the wizard away, but it was too late!

Countless dazzling white beams exploded from the gaps in the water plants, like a miniature sun bursting directly in the dark depths, slicing the lake bottom into countless flickering golden cages, completely engulfing the girl’s figure.

Vid tightly shut his eyes, his arms crossed shielding his face, feeling waves of searing pain all over his body.

Merperson’s body allowed him to move freely at the lake bottom, but at this moment, it couldn’t completely shield him from the power of the Sunlight Charm.

He heard a piercing scream, like shattered glass scraping his eardrums, and the restraint surrounding him vanished instantly, the dragging force completely left him.

After a while, when the burning sensation was gone, Vid lowered his arms and quickly cast an Iron Armor Spell. He blinked several times until his vision returned to normal.

He waved his magic wand, making a ball of bright light appear underwater, illuminating the darkness.

Large patches of water plants scattered around, slowly drifting apart, a faint bloody hue diffusing in the water.

The colossal shadow the girl wanted to drag him to turned out to be a palace sunken underwater, enormous columns entwined with black water plants, eerie shadows flickering behind dim windows.

Suddenly, a pair of cold eyes appeared behind one of the windows.

It was a monster entirely scarred by burns, its skin a mix of red and black, covered with large bloody wounds, a few broken water plants wrapped around its body.

Its face looked like a horse, its silver-white mane uneven, one eye bleeding, and the other blue eye maliciously staring at the wizard nearby.

Vid, who had previously wanted to avoid it, now faced the monster unwaveringly, floating in the water, coldly meeting its gaze, then raised his magic wand again.

The monster was startled, quickly disappeared from the window, escaping to somewhere unknown. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Vid lowered his magic wand, waited a while longer, then continued to slowly ascend.

The surrounding water pressure gradually decreased, but the piercing cold lingered, yet the steep rock wall slope began to ease, occasionally revealing underwater caves or protruding stones.

Vid saw an upside-down old wooden boat at the lake bottom, its hull covered with bluish-gray algae, and several pale gold small fish swimming nearby.

The oar was slantedly stuck in the nearby mud, only half of the wooden handle exposed, like a tilted tombstone.

As Vid swam closer, he saw letters engraved on the wooden handle——

[God.]

"——God?"

Vid thought, "Did this boat originally belong to a believer?"

The Lumos Spell’s light illuminated the mottled patterns on the hull, Vid discovered, although the boat’s hull looked dilapidated, the bottom was still intact.

Just like Durmstrang’s large ship, it gave a feeling of "though it’s a ghost ship, it seems still usable."

Vid naturally wouldn’t take a broken boat back from the lake bottom. When he felt a peculiar attraction to this boat, he accelerated his tail movement, swimming towards the surface.

Finally, faint light from the water above shone through, getting very close to the lake surface. Vid even saw a blue small fish (the Mother Mirror for filming) noticing him, rapidly swimming over, giving a sense of urgency.

Vid slowly exhaled, not rushing to surface, but changing direction to swim further away.

Merpeople are very sensitive to changes in water currents, so he could sense a battle seemed to be happening not far ahead, the lake water violently disturbed.

After passing through a dense forest of water plants, Vid suddenly saw a figure—Uagadou’s competitor, Jabari, was struggling underwater with a catfish head, his hands desperately trying to pull away the Grindylow clinging to his neck.

But by now, more than a dozen Grindylows were latching onto him.

These green little monsters had seven or eight tentacles and slender fingers, they choked Jabari’s neck, grabbed his arms and legs, working together to drag him into the deeper water.

Even with his head transformed into a catfish, Jabari was still weakened from lack of oxygen, his limbs convulsing. His magic wand had slipped, slowly sinking towards the lake bottom.

Something’s reflection caught Vid’s eye.

An object like a short sword was tied to Jabari’s belt, swaying in the water with his struggle.