# 875
Chapter 836 Chen Yangrong
"There are living people inside this beast?"
Jialan looked at the blade wound that pierced through the beast's mouth. Beyond the shattered fangs, its oral cavity was pitch black in the deep sea—she couldn't make out anything.
"More precisely, it's in its stomach." Lin Qiye stared into the beast's oral cavity, his eyes glinting faintly. "I think I've found that thing."
He patted the anglerfish beneath him and communicated with it through will. The next moment, both of them were enveloped in a pale yellow glow as they slowly flew into the beast's mouth.
The creature was truly massive. Even its oral cavity was the size of an ordinary Gymnasium. Illuminated by the anglerfish's light, Jialan could clearly see the hidden teeth lining its mouth, jagged and scattered about, with fragments of large fish bones wedged between them.
Passing through the mouth, the anglerfish glided down the esophagus. After an unknown time, they arrived at a seemingly endless dim space. Countless fish bones and bizarre skeletal remains floated in the air, like a massive bone graveyard. A strange rotten stench pervaded the air.
"So this is its stomach?" Jialan wrapped her arms around Lin Qiye's waist, observing their surroundings through the anglerfish's faint light, curiosity evident. "This is way too big."
"It's one of its stomachs," Lin Qiye clarified. "It has four more like this one."
Jialan's mouth hung open in shock.
As the anglerfish continued forward, a blood-red wall of flesh emerged faintly from the distant darkness.
The wall's surface was uneven, seemingly coated with some greenish gastric fluid. The tissue extended infinitely in all directions, encasing the entire space.
This was the edge of this particular stomach.
Using the anglerfish's glow, Lin Qiye squinted slightly, looking toward the center of the fleshy wall.
There, a figure on the verge of being swallowed by the wall hung alone in the air. His lower body was completely engulfed by the fleshy mass, while his upper body was bare and exposed, head drooping limply. Wisps of aged hair floated in the stinking seawater, like a corpse.
It was an old man Lin Qiye had never seen before.
But at this moment, Lin Qiye's gaze wasn't fixed on the old man—it was focused on the old man's chest.
On the old man's withered, wrinkled chest, a familiar blade was deeply embedded, piercing through his body. At the hilt of this blade, a radiant ring of flowing light floated freely, unaffected by the seawater, rotating slowly and gracefully. Merely one glance at it was enough to captivate.
As the ring of flowing light rotated, the passage of time seemed to halt. Past and future were intertwined within that small circle, like a serpent biting its own tail—mysterious and powerful.
Lin Qiye recognized this blade.
【Mandarin Arrow】.
"Is that blade…" At the same time, Jialan had spotted it too, speaking with confusion.
"Yes." Lin Qiye nodded. "That's Wang Mian's personal blade."
"How is his blade here? Where is he?"
"This probably isn't Wang Mian's blade… No, more precisely, this isn't the Wang Mian we know." Lin Qiye gazed at the mysterious ring floating at the end of the 【Mandarin Arrow】, speaking slowly. "This blade is bound by the law that maintains this fishing village's temporal loop. This kind of law power is something the current Wang Mian couldn't possibly possess."
So far, Lin Qiye had only seen this blade on two people—one was the current captain of the 【Mask Squad】, Wang Mian, and the other was the elderly Wang Mian who had scattered them into Japan's "Human Enclosure," rumored to be from the future.
Since the current Wang Mian couldn't possibly possess law power, the identity of the blade's owner became clear.
This was a blade from the future Wang Mian.
And this fishing village's temporal loop must have been his doing.
But why had he set up such a loop here? Why was this blade here? And who was the person it had pierced?
Question after question flooded Lin Qiye's mind. Just as he was deep in thought, the old man pinned to the fleshy wall by the 【Mandarin Arrow】 slowly opened his eyes.
The aged hair floating in the seawater swayed gently. He raised his head slightly, and a pair of deep, red-tinged eyes fell upon Lin Qiye and Jialan. For some reason, upon seeing those eyes, Lin Qiye's heart suddenly tightened.
"Another pair of mice sneaking in…" The old man's lips moved, but his aged voice echoed clearly into both their ears.
Lin Qiye had sensed with spiritual power before entering that the old man's heart was still beating. Even though it had been pierced by the 【Mandarin Arrow】, even though the beating was extremely faint, he was still alive… in a form Lin Qiye couldn't comprehend.
"Who are you?" Lin Qiye frowned.
"Me?" The old man replied calmly. "My name is Chen Yangrong, an ordinary fisherman."
Fisherman?
Hearing these two words, Lin Qiye's brow furrowed slightly.
A monster whose heart had been pierced by the 【Mandarin Arrow】, still surviving inside a deep-sea leviathan's stomach—and you call yourself an ordinary fisherman?
"You're also pitiful wretches who wandered into this temporal loop, aren't you?" The old man's voice echoed again in Lin Qiye's ears, sounding somewhat languid. "If you want to live, come pull out the blade from my chest. Once I'm out, I'll reward you handsomely."
"……"
Lin Qiye gave him a strange look. He reached out and pointed at himself. "Do I look like a fool to you?"
Setting aside why an elderly Wang Mian would want to kill this old man—simply looking at his appearance, and that body embedded within the beast's stomach wall, he was clearly no good Samaritan… And you expect me to just pull out the blade and free you based on a few words?
Do I look that easy to deceive?
If you're going to lie, at least come up with something plausible first?
"Hehe, how do you know unless you try? What if you really are a fool?" Chen Yangrong chuckled lightly.
Looking at Lin Qiye and Jialan's stern expressions, Chen Yangrong's smile gradually faded. He spoke unhurriedly, "However, I'm not joking with you, nor am I inclined to waste my breath spinning stories. Whether you're clever or foolish, if you want to get out of here alive, you can only pull out this blade.
Otherwise, death is your only option."
Lin Qiye contemplated for a moment, narrowed his eyes at the old man, his gaze sharp and calculating.
"Death? Why would I die?"
Chen Yangrong studied him for a moment and laughed coldly. "You know to extract information first… Looks like you're indeed no fool."
Chen Yangrong seemed unconcerned by Lin Qiye's小心思. He extended his hand and pointed at the slowly rotating ring of flowing light on his chest. "Either you die by its hands…"
Then he raised his arm high and pointed upward.
"Or you die by 'theirs.'"