Into The Sea

Late at night, a series of loud knocks echoed outside Dongchi Inn. The innkeeper, while fastening his sash, slowly went to open the door. “Who is it? In the middle of the night! Don’t you know… Oh, why is it the Hall Master?”

Lin Wantang strode into the inn, asking, “Which room is the Second Princess of the Merfolk staying in?”

“She’s a distinguished guest. What business does the Hall Master have with her?”

“Urgent business!” Yao Zhu, who followed closely behind, looked up at the towering floors, feeling a sense of urgency. She simply raised her voice and shouted, “Lan Yuan, Lan Yuan!”

“Who is it?” A voice responded from above. A young woman poked her head over the railing, frowning. “Who are you? How dare you be so rude and call our princess by her name directly?”

“Who cares about formalities now?” Yao Zhu shouted. “If you don’t come out, your Third Princess is going to die!”

As soon as she finished speaking, a figure suddenly landed in front of her. The person stepped forward, grabbed her collar, and said coldly, “What did you say?”

Yao Zhu was stunned, staring at the woman’s face. “They really do look alike…”

Lan Yuan glared at her. “You…”

“Lan Yuan…”

At that moment, a pair of blood-stained hands reached out from behind Yao Zhu, trembling as they grasped her wrist. Lan Yuan frowned, about to shake them off, but then she heard the person say, “I’m Ji Lingyue…”

“Who is Ji Lingyue? I’ve never…” Lan Yuan’s words trailed off. She stared intently at the blood-covered face, slowly repeating, “Ji Lingyue?”

Ji Lingyue struggled to get off Yao Zhu’s back. Her legs buckled, and she fell to her knees before Lan Yuan. She gasped, clutching Lan Yuan’s hem. “Quick… Quick, save Lan Wu!”

“Then, why did you capture Xuan Yu?” Lan Wu asked sadly. “What does she have to do with all of this?”

Lan Yueyao was silent for a moment, not answering directly. Instead, she lowered her head and started to mutter to herself, “During the decades I was imprisoned in the underground palace of Penglai Island, I was cut open every day to have blood taken.”

“After it healed, I would be cut again. There were other merfolk imprisoned with me at the beginning, but they gradually couldn’t endure it and died one by one. Only I held on until the very end…”

She closed her eyes in pain, as if recalling the dark, endless decades. After a moment, she took a deep breath and continued, “But one day, Chu Chen let something slip. He said the woman in the underground palace was growing more and more insane.”

Lan Wu was startled, staring at her intently.

“Chunhan once told me that the underground palace only held the dead queen and her lover. There shouldn’t have been any other living beings there.” Lan Yueyao said, “So either the queen wasn’t dead, or she had succeeded in resurrecting her lover.”

“But at that time, I didn’t care about it. I only wanted to escape. Fortunately, one day, Chu Chen got drunk and fell asleep beside me while he was taking blood. I seized the opportunity, took the key from him, and escaped through the waterways. You know what happened after that.”

“After Chunhan died, I was heartbroken. I fled to the demon realm to survive, with only one thought in my mind: to cultivate hard and kill Lan Zhichuan and Chu Chen! But not long after, Chu Chen died inexplicably, and his son became the new island master.”

“Two hundred years passed. Through fighting with other demons and refining their demon cores, my cultivation grew greatly, and I even became the new Demon Queen. With everything ready, I could take revenge on Lan Zhichuan anytime. Then, I heard someone talking about Penglai.”

“Penglai, the great Penglai, a place everyone yearned for! They took so much merfolk blood, enough for them to live without worry for a hundred years and even become a respected immortal sect!”

“But my hatred never stopped. I wanted to take revenge on all of Penglai, and I wanted to see that underground palace, see that mad woman, and see who she really was!” Lan Yueyao chuckled, her eyes curving into crescents.

“Guess what? That night, I led my demons to Penglai. Instead of protecting their disciples, they focused on stopping me from entering the underground palace. That made me even more interested. I killed everyone who stood in my way and finally saw that woman.”

“Woman?” Lan Wu said in surprise. “It wasn’t a vine demon?”

“Of course not,” Lan Yueyao shook her head. “When I saw her, she was in human form, and she even retained some instincts, guarding the coffin and not allowing anyone to approach.” The woman’s eyes grew brighter, her voice trembling. “That queen had succeeded!”

“That’s not right. Even if the body was revived, Qing Miao didn’t have any consciousness…”

“That’s because she forgot to retrieve her soul from the beginning!” Lan Yueyao interrupted her, her voice excited. “But Chunhan… perhaps she was the only lucky one. She self-destructed her spiritual core, her soul scattered, unable to reincarnate. That allowed me to gather her fragments, piece by piece…”

Lan Wu froze, her hair standing on end, her heart pounding, making her feel dizzy. “You want to… you want to revive her…”

“In that underground palace, there was a Hall of Eternal Life. In the hall, a statue held a stone tablet, and on that tablet was the method of resurrection.” Lan Yueyao whispered, “The soul of the dead, the blood of a relative, the Guling flower, and… a suitable body.”

“Chunhan was a rare pure yin body. After searching for so long, I finally found another one.”

Lan Wu’s long lashes trembled as she murmured, “Xuan Yu…”

“As for her soul, I have already found two souls and six fragments. Only one soul and one fragment remain missing, but it’s enough.”

At this point, Lan Yueyao narrowed her eyes, saying with interest, “However, there’s something you might be interested to know. More than forty years ago, I discovered that a strand of her soul was trapped in the Abyssal Sea. When I went to retrieve it, your dear father somehow timed it perfectly and brought army to kill me.”

Lan Wu paused, her eyes slowly widening.

“Yes, that’s where I killed him. The irony is, he came to the Abyssal Sea for me all along, but he used the excuse of searching for you. Even the rumors of your presence in the Abyssal Sea were spread by him.” Lan Yueyao laughed mockingly. “You see, even in death, he wanted to pin the blame on you.”

Lan Wu bit her lip, her eyes turning red. Then, Lan Yueyao suddenly struck her chest.

“Ugh!”

Her face turned pale instantly. She lowered her head, watching a few drops of blood emerge from her chest, congealing in Lan Yueyao’s palm. “Now, I have the blood of a relative. Only the Guling flower remains.”

Lan Wu gasped for breath, enduring the pain as she said, “You can’t… you can’t start a war just to revive one woman. If the two races go to war, countless lives will be lost in this catastrophe…”

“That’s exactly what I want.” Lan Yueyao said coldly. “The Guling flower grows in troubled times and needs the blood and souls of millions to grow. The queen of the Zisang Kingdom started a war for it, but it took her fifty years to grow just one flower. I don’t want to wait that long.”

Lan Wu was shocked. “So that’s your true goal.”

“Yes, I don’t care about the well-being of the demons. But after years of mutual slaughter, they have already reached a point of no return. All the demon lords are focused on driving out the humans and occupying their land. We’re just taking different paths to the same end.”

“No,” Lan Wu sobbed, struggling to lift her head. “You can’t do this. Didn’t you once dream of resolving the hatred between our races and leading the merfolk back to the shallows? Didn’t you once want to be a Sea Empress who breaks tradition?”

“Yes…” Lan Yueyao smiled, sighing softly. “That’s why I’ve fallen so low.”

Lan Wu trembled, staring at her blankly. The woman suddenly released her, letting her fall to the snowy ground.

“Ji Xing,” she turned away coldly, walking towards the depths of the eaves. “Deal with her.”

The sound of rustling footsteps approached. Lan Wu remained kneeling, unmoving. The cold snowflakes fell silently onto her bare neck.

A familiar, malicious voice sounded in front of her. “Lan Wu, why aren’t you as smug as before?” Ji Xing grabbed Lan Wu’s chin, forcing her to look up, and mocked her. “Look, no one in this world loves you. Not your father, not your birth mother. They all wish for your death. Your existence only brings trouble.”

Lan Wu clenched her fists, her shoulders slowly trembling as she began to laugh softly.

Ji Xing paused, frowning. “What are you laughing at?”

“What do you want to achieve by saying all of this?” Lan Wu asked, her eyes red. “Do you want to see me in despair, see me collapse, or see me beg for mercy?”

She said hoarsely, “There are people who love me. My mother loves me, my sister, Ah Yue, my master… and Shanye, they all love me.” Wet tears flowed down her face.

Lan Wu whispered, “Even if I die, I won’t be like you expect, filled with despair, dying with sadness. I won’t let you have your way.”

Ji Xing stared at her without blinking, the smile on her face slowly fading. After a moment, however, she seemed to remember something and burst into laughter, her eyes curving with delight. “Is that so? You aren’t afraid of death?”

She pressed down on Lan Wu’s shoulders, leaning close to her ear, whispering, “Then do you know that Ji Lingyue has made a life-and-death contract with you?”

The body beneath her suddenly stiffened. After a long silence, a trembling voice said, “No…”

“Believe it or not,” Ji Xing laughed. “It’s a pity. I wasn’t planning to kill her, but it’s her fault for falling so deeply in love with you.”

Lan Wu blinked, her eyes filled with panic. “No,” she suddenly lifted her hand, gripping Ji Xing’s wrist, pleading with despair for the first time. “I beg you…”

***

In the silent depths of the sea, the black-robed mermaid suddenly woke up.

Floating on the bed, she stared blankly for a moment before slowly rising, her mind uneasy as she swam out of the priestess’s hall.

Her little disciple was arranging bone sticks on the sand. Seeing her come out, she asked in surprise, “Master, weren’t you going to rest?”

“Yes, but… something feels wrong.”

“What could be wrong, Master? This is the Kunlun Sea.”

Fuyou frowned. “Did you check the soul lamps today?”

“No, why?”

Fuyou shook her head, instinctively turning around. Her little disciple was startled, and hurried to follow her. When she caught up, she saw Fuyou standing motionless beneath the towering sea spirit tree, staring up at a certain spot.

“Master?”

“The Third Princess…” Fuyou suddenly murmured, “The Third Princess’s soul lamp… has gone out.”