The Whole Galaxy Was Hunting Me… While I Sat in the Audience

The sanatorium planet had a comfortable environment. Although the planet was not
large, the four seasons simulated using energy were very precise and extremely
costly to maintain.

Therefore, many wealthy people sent family members with mental energy problems
here to recuperate, as it was more conducive to soothing their consciousness sea
issues.

At first glance, it actually sounded quite reasonable.

To outsiders, living on the sanatorium planet cost a tremendous amount of money.
It was a place for the rich to rest and recover.

There was the astronomical cost of the energy simulation, and the soothing
guarantee provided by the local Mermaid Association branch.

Anyone with consciousness sea problems would want to be sent there to
recuperate.

But in noble circles, this place was a prison.

It was far removed from all centers of politics and power. Once you entered, it
was like being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. You could only regard
yourself as a patient and couldn’t accomplish anything.

Yet this place, where nobles were unwilling to come and ordinary people couldn’t
afford to come, had attracted wave after wave of prying eyes.

Kai knew very well that these people were all looking for the second-place
contestant in the singing competition auditions, ‘Mo.’

That is, Li Chaoci.

In everyone’s eyes, an unregistered mermaid was an incredibly tempting prize.

For this reason, Kai had been very busy lately. Terrified that Li Chaoci might
actually be discovered, he paid close attention to everyone coming and going
from the Mo family, wondering if Li Chaoci would appear.

But the more people came to the sanatorium planet, the less anyone could find Li
Chaoci.

“The Third Prince hasn’t found him either?”

The Third Prince now wanted to find that mermaid more than anyone.

He was worried: what if this mermaid could soothe Wen Zhaoyan?

“No, Admiral.”

Kai was relieved.

These people were all searching in the wrong direction.

Everyone thought Li Chaoci was a mermaid, so they all searched in directions
associated with mermaids.

They didn’t know that he wasn’t a mermaid at all.

“Where do you think this Li Chaoci has gone?” Kai seemed to be talking to
himself, and also to Xixi.

Xixi tilted his head and shook it, indicating he didn’t know.

Kai said, “He’s not online now either. It seems he won’t log on again until the
second round of the singing competition. The second round is tomorrow, isn’t
it?”

Xixi nodded.

He continued fiddling with the incense burner and incense sticks in front of
him.

He had learned this from his owner, from that very scary person.

Kai found it amusing. “Does Xixi have some wish too?”

Xixi nodded emphatically. “Mm.”

Kai asked him, “What is your wish? You can tell me. Maybe I can grant it for
you.”

Xixi shook his head again, indicating that he could do it himself.

Kai didn’t press further. He never forced Xixi to do anything.

So when night came, and he said goodnight to the little mermaid and prepared to
sleep, the little mermaid didn’t sleep. Instead, he went outside by himself and
started burning incense to worship.

He was a little scared when lighting the incense, his little hands trembling,
but he managed to light it in the end.

Then he began to worship very seriously.

Kai, watching the little mermaid mimicking the butler and his group down to
every move, was dumbfounded. “Why didn’t you worship during the day? Why at
night?”

Xixi said very seriously, “Grandpa Butler said, worshipping at night is most
effective!”

Kai: “…”

No, the butler worshipped at night because he was afraid of His Highness the
Crown Prince.

It wasn’t that night time itself was the most effective.

But Xixi looked so hopeful and earnest, Kai didn’t want to discourage him. So he
accompanied the little mermaid in a few bows and prayed that the little
mermaid’s wish might come true.

Only after finishing did Xixi go to sleep contentedly.

He didn’t tell his owner that his wish was to see Mo Li.

Before falling asleep, Xixi thought, Grandpa Butler said they worshipped last
night and it worked the next day.

So would he be able to see Mo Li tomorrow too?

Then, as he drifted off in a daze, he felt like he had gone somewhere.

He looked up and saw a sky full of stars, so beautiful he couldn’t bear to look
away.

“Xixi.”

Just as he was gazing at the sky in fascination, a pleasant voice sounded.

Xixi quickly turned his head and saw an ancient-robed young man walking over
with a light, unhurried step. It was that ‘Mo.’

Xixi was overjoyed, a little shy. “M-Mr. Mo.”

Mo Bai said, “Just call me Mo Li. You were looking for me?”

After sensing the little mermaid’s wish, Mo Bai had come directly.

Xixi nodded, blushing.

Mo Bai asked, “Is there something you wanted to see me about?”

Xixi quickly said, “I… I want to learn from you. I also want… also want to treat
more people…”

Then he lowered his head, disappointed. “My singing, can’t.”

He couldn’t, like Mr. Mo, soothe people even through a screen.

He admired Mr. Mo so much.

His owner said Mr. Mo wasn’t a mermaid.

He didn’t believe that. He thought Mr. Mo must be a high-level mermaid.

Legend said that the king of their mermaid clan was an especially powerful
person. One word could quiet people, a wave of the hand could summon wind and
rain.

It must be someone like Mr. Mo.

Xixi truly loved humans.

Knowing that so many humans suffered from consciousness sea torment, he wanted
to become very powerful.

Seeing the little mermaid’s disappointed look, Mo Bai said gently, “Actually,
you can. You just don’t know how.”

Hearing this, Xixi’s eyes widened. “I can?”

Mo Bai said, “Of course. You mermaids are born with special abilities. With a
little cultivation, you can make your special abilities much stronger.”

“Cultivation?” Xixi didn’t understand. “What’s that?”

Mo Bai said, “I can teach you. But first, let me ask you: why do you like
staying at the Mermaid Association?”

Based on his observations over this period, Mo Bai felt that mermaids were quite
simple.

But the Mermaid Association was not so simple.

Xixi said seriously, “Mermaids are very dangerous outside.”

“That’s what the Mermaid Association told you.”

Xixi nodded, then shook his head. “Many people want to take us… dangerous. Also,
we can’t have children.”

Mo Bai frowned. “Can’t have children?”

Xixi drooped his head. “Mm… At the Association, they help us reproduce… Outside,
we can’t.”

This was also why Xixi wanted to repay more humans.

His kind were growing in number, all thanks to humans helping them reproduce and
nurture.

So he also wanted to help humans.

“Why can’t you have children outside?”

“They die. Or… they’re defective. Little Blue and Little Green, for example…”

Little Blue and Little Green were the two little mermaids Mo Bai was now
keeping.

The more Mo Bai listened, the more he felt something was off, but he couldn’t
quite put his finger on it.

Why would they die or be defective if born outside?

But not at the Mermaid Association?

How did the Mermaid Association help mermaids reproduce?

With these doubts in his heart, Mo Bai still advised Xixi not to trust the
Mermaid Association too much.

Xixi didn’t understand, yet he inexplicably trusted Mo Bai’s words. He nodded,
half comprehending.

At dawn.

Xixi rushed out to find Kai, his eyes full of surprise.

“I saw him!” Xixi said. “Mr. Mo… so effective!”

Kai was surprised. “You mean, you wished to see Mo Li, and you saw him?”

Xixi nodded emphatically. “Mm!”

Kai touched his head affectionately. “Silly child, you just woke up. You were
dreaming.”

He knew very well whether anyone had come last night.

Besides, the little mermaid had slept the whole night in the fish tank in his
room. Kai was certain the little mermaid had slept soundly. It was impossible he
had met anyone.

Xixi said, “Really!”

It wasn’t a dream!

Mr. Mo had said he would teach him to cultivate his special ability. When he
left, he had lightly touched Xixi’s head, and suddenly there was so much more in
Xixi’s mind.

That was what Mr. Mo had left for him.

He hadn’t understood it at first, but Mr. Mo said it didn’t matter if he didn’t
understand. Just read it carefully, read it many times, and eventually he would.

Kai didn’t have the heart to dampen the little mermaid’s happiness, so he went
along with it. “Yes, yes, indeed very effective.”

Xixi was satisfied. He immediately began, according to what was in his mind, to…
enter… enter meditation?

What Mo Bai had taught him was indeed a very simple meditation method. First, he
needed to try to sense the presence of spiritual energy.

The special abilities of mermaids was mostly focused on soothing.

When there was a mental energy surge, they would sing to soothe the raging
mental energy down.

But in Mo Bai’s view, this only treated the symptoms, not the cause. That
violent mental energy was still there, ready to erupt again at any moment.

So when it erupted, you had to soothe it. You could never eliminate it.

But if you refined that violent spiritual energy, it would be different.

There were two ways to refine it. One was to refine it within the other person’s
body. This method was more difficult.

The other was to absorb the spiritual energy into your own body and refine it
there. After refinement, it became your own spiritual energy.

This method was more suitable for little mermaids. They needed to cultivate,
needed to improve their special ability, and they needed spiritual energy to do
that.

Although that spiritual energy was violent, there was much more of it than the
spiritual energy floating between heaven and earth.

Mo Bai suspected it was the energy from energy stones. That energy stones was
probably something like spirit stones.

It was just that humans didn’t know how to strip away impurities. After using
it, they would become more and more violent… leading to consciousness sea
problems—the legendary going mad from martial arts.

Mermaids naturally had stronger mental energy. When they improved their special
ability, their mental energy perception would become even stronger.

Then, if they added that kind of mental power when singing, they would achieve
the same effect.

That was why he was teaching the little mermaids to first meditate and absorb.

And he had also taught this method to Little Blue and Little Green. Those two
defective little mermaids could now enter meditation on their own.

While many people searched the sanatorium planet for ‘Mo’ without success, the
second round of the singing competition finally began.

The top 200 contestants from the auditions could all advance.

The second round was a live competition, meaning every contestant could take the
stage.

And Mo Bai, who hadn’t been online for a long time, logged back into the
interstellar network.

As soon as he logged in, his inbox was flooded with messages.

The Mermaid Association, still sending him messages day after day, was blocked
one by one.

Mo Bai also saw that Xixi and Wen Zhaoyan had added him as a friend.

He accepted both.

And with his login, countless hackers immediately locked onto him, starting to
search for his IP address and location.

They quickly confirmed that he was still on the sanatorium planet.

Some hackers were very skilled. They cracked the minor protection system and
traced Mo Bai’s login location to the Mo family villa.

Wen Zhaoyan, who had just added him as a friend, immediately contacted him via
the interstellar network.

[Wen Zhaoyan: You’re at the Mo family villa?]

[Mo: So?]

[Wen Zhaoyan: Hackers traced your address.]

[Mo: It’s fine]

Wen Zhaoyan frowned slightly.

Had the young man really been at the Mo family villa all along?

If so, now everyone knew his whereabouts…

How could that be fine?

But soon, new posts appeared on the interstellar network.

‘Checked it. Can’t be the Mo family villa. Probably someone stealing their
wifi.’

‘Lmao, think about it. Would a real address be that easy to crack?’

‘Apart from the guards, servants, and the Mo couple, the Mo family only has
their son. He’s been dull since birth, they say. They’ve ruled out the
possibility of a mermaid being at the Mo family villa.’

‘Apparently, Mo Xiangtian even returned his adopted mermaid to the Mermaid
Association because of his simple son. If the Mo family had a mermaid, the
Association would definitely know.’

Reading these debunked messages, Wen Zhaoyan understood at once.

No wonder Mo Li said it was fine. It was because no one would believe he was at
the Mo family villa.

Mo Bai ignored all the interstellar network commotion and continued to surf the
web openly.

The more openly he used the Mo family’s network, the less the hackers believed
that ‘Mo’ was there.

And everyone coming and going from the Mo family villa had been carefully
checked. There was indeed no sign of ‘Mo.’

If he really were at the Mo family villa, once exposed, how could he be so calm?
He would probably have switched network domains by now, let alone have the
leisure to participate in the second round of the singing competition?

But he didn’t.

Thus, it only made people more suspicious.

The second round of the singing competition was live. The competition officially
began.

The audience stands were packed with people.

[Wen Zhaoyan: Where are you?]

[Mo: In a corner. I set my face to blurring. No one recognizes me.]

[Mo: You came to watch the competition too?]

[Wen Zhaoyan: Mm. When are you performing?]

[Mo: I’m not performing.]

He had signed up initially just to see if The Great Compassion Mantra could
soothe.

Now that he had his answer, he was no longer interested in participating.

Sure enough, as soon as the competition started, the host announced the
contestants who had withdrawn from the second round.

Among them was ‘Mo.’

The interstellar network users were shocked.

No contestant in the top five had ever withdrawn. Making it into the top five
meant at least a few million in prize money. How could anyone withdraw?

But the happiest about Mo Bai’s withdrawal were Xixi’s fans and the fans of the
second-place singer.

‘He must have been scared! His singing is so bad. Who cares if it can soothe?
This is a singing competition. It’s about who sings well!’

‘Exactly. He must know he’s not good and would be eliminated later. To avoid
losing face, he just withdrew!’

‘Withdrawing now was smart. If he kept going round after round, he’d eventually
be pushed out. That would be even more embarrassing. Better to withdraw while
he’s still popular.’

Fans of the various contestants swarmed into the comments to attack.

But the fans who had come to love Mo Bai after being soothed by The Great
Compassion Mantra naturally wouldn’t take that lying down. They shot back,
saying that if Mo had continued, no one knew who would have taken first place!

In an instant, bullet comments flew everywhere. The entire venue was chaotic
with noise.

Finding it too noisy, Mo Bai muted all sound beyond a certain distance from him.

The moment he muted the distant noise, a deep male voice suddenly spoke beside
him. “Are you Mo Li?”

Mo Bai turned his head and saw a stranger standing behind him.

He had blurred his face to avoid being recognized. Logically, no one should
recognize him.

But although the man was asking, his expression was very certain.

Mo Bai looked the stranger up and down. He hadn’t seen him before, but most
people on the interstellar network changed their appearance.

So he opted to view the man’s profile.

All the man’s information was hidden, leaving only one piece visible: a name.

Li.