Gong Yuan could not help but roll her eyes. “Are you coming or not?”
“Sure!” Li Qingshan smiled and arrived on the cliff, peeking into the pitch-black abyss. His vision was swallowed by the pitch-black sea very soon. He asked Gong Yuan beside him, “Just how deep is this abyss?”
“You’ll know once you go down and take a look. Don’t waste time.” Gong Yuan leapt into the abyss. Li Qingshan shrugged and followed right behind.
The abyss originated in the east and stretched towards the west. It was over fifty kilometers wide and seemed like a huge, pitch-black mouth, devouring the endless seawater. Compared to the huge mouth, Li Qingshan and Gong Yuan were as insignificant as two specks of dust.
Gong Yuan swam extremely quickly through water. Li Qingshan had just experienced a great battle, and he had not even recovered half of his strength, so he struggled to keep up with her. All he saw was the slender fish tail leave behind magnificent, azure blurs right before him. He reached out and grabbed the fish tail, which was smooth and cool in his hand.
Gong Yuan turned around and broke her fish tail out of his grip. She stared at him furiously. “What are you doing?”
“Slow down a little,” said Li Qingshan.
“We’re going to the bottom of the ocean anyway. So what if I’m a bit faster and you’re a bit slower?” Gong Yuan said.
“What’s the point of us dual cultivating? If we don’t even have this little bit of understanding and cooperation, what’s the point of it?”
“Fine then! Let’s just say that’s reasonable!” Gong Yuan considered it and still ended up slowing down, allowing Li Qingshan to keep up. The two of them sank towards the bottom of the ocean side-by-side.
They dove several dozen kilometers, yet the end was still not in sight. Li Qingshan felt the pressure on him grow greater and greater. The tremendous water pressure made him feel like he was burdened with a colossal weight. His movements became extremely difficult, leaving him secretly stunned. Even my body that’s on par with Daemon King feels so pressured. If it had been a cultivator instead, even a great cultivator, they’d probably struggle to reach the bottom of the sea abyss.
Instead, Gong Yuan right beside him continued to swim extremely freely. This was a natural advantage that Li Qingshan could not help but acknowledge. On top of that, the abyss seemed deathly silent, but it was actually anything but peaceful. There had been so many times when he was overcome with a sense of danger for some reason, but they all seemed to recognise Gong Yuan. The vague sense of danger did not turn into any actual attacks. After all, she could be regarded as the ruler of this region of the sea.
Otherwise, fighting against dangerous creatures of the sea in this environment definitely would not be easy. If the battle occurred here, then even if Gong Yuan took on the three Fire Devouring Kings alone, it would be no problem. Even if they possessed the Divine Fire tablets, they would not be able to unleash a lot of power.
They dove for a few more kilometers. Right when Li Qingshan suspected that the sea abyss was bottomless, he finally saw the ground he had missed for all this time. His feet planted on the ground. The tremendous water pressure was no longer just withstood with his body. He had to circulate the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression at all times to suppress the seawater around him. He saw power that resembled black water emanate around Gong Yuan too, which was the power of Ruin’s End.
“This really is a fine place for cultivation!”
Li Qingshan looked around and discovered that the surrounding rock was actually all spiritual stone. This was a colossal spiritual stone vein, and there were even a few pure water spiritual stones. Seeped in the spiritual qi, the seawater was like spiritual fluid. It was no wonder that the legendary true dragon preferred hibernating here. Compared to the luxurious Crystal palace, now this was a treasured land of cultivation. However, he could not find any traces left behind by dragons, probably because it was already too long ago!
“Let’s begin!” Gong Yuan urged. She had already grown accustomed to the scenery here a long time ago.
“Alright.” Li Qingshan turned around and laid out his hands, his palms pointing down.
Gong Yuan also extended her hands, but they also pointed down. Li Qingshan shook his head. How picky. Do you really have to bicker over some small details like this? He brought his hands beneath hers and met them, their palms facing each other.
The azure-blue light and the dark power of Ruin’s End immediately melded together. The two auras became entangled.
Li Qingshan said in his heart, “Power the All Water to Ruin’s End as much as possible. If you can increase your cultivation to late third heavenly tribulation before the battle, our chances of victory will increase yet again.”
“You know how the All Water of Ruin’s End works? Oh right, I almost forgot. It’s her!” Gong Yuan’s expression changed. A long time ago, she had once practised the All Water to Ruin’s End together with her little sister. They constantly challenged the limit and dove deeper.
Back then, their personalities were gradually being influenced by Ruin’s End. They became cold to everyone apart from one another, until one day when her sister apologised to her with tears and said she could not endure it anymore.
She felt betrayed, but she still ended up accepting it, as her sister’s personality had always been relatively gentle, nowhere near as cold and arrogant as her. However, she never managed to understand why she fell in love with a fire devourer and why she would become so “lovesick” with him as the Merfolk described it.
Li Qingshan could feel the deep sadness in Gong Yuan’s heart. He thought, So she isn’t as cold as she seems. She was just overly influenced by Ruin’s End. It hasn’t been easy for her to reach her current cultivation!
Gong Yuan immediately sensed the hint of sympathy in his heart and basically became even more furious and ashamed than when he grabbed her tail. She held back her urge to act up. “This isn’t fair!”
“What’s not fair?”
“The All Water to Ruin’s End is a secret of my race. You shouldn’t know it!”
“Then how would you like to make it fair?”
“Teach me your cultivation method.”
“I knew it! Big sis, I’m helping you cultivate right now. You’re not helping me cultivate. If you find it unfair, then let’s forget about it!”
“Then forget about it!” Gong Yuan immediately pulled her hands away. “Even without you, I can still cultivate like before. If you think you can coerce me with this, then you’ll be utterly mistaken!”
Li Qingshan lost his temper too. “Why would I coerce you? You’re a half-man, half-fish monster. I can’t even use you. What’s there to coerce for?”
“Y- you filthy animal! How dare you talk to me like that!” Gong Yuan almost struggled to believe her ears had just heard such foul language.
“That’s exactly how I’m going to talk to you. What are you going to do about it? Stop acting like the entire world owes you. Hmph, do you really think I don’t know?”
“Know what?” Gong Yuan was utterly furious. If it were not for the fact that Li Qingshan had just saved her earlier, she basically would have lashed out.
“You’re a siscon, or maybe even a lesbian!”
Gong Yuan blanked out, clearly clueless about what the two words meant, so Li Qingshan gave a slight explanation. Before he had even finished explaining, the surrounding seawater froze into ice, sealing him in there. Then the pitch-black ice cube shattered under the tremendous pressure. He felt like he was almost going to be ripped apart.
“What, was I right on the dot? You damned siscon. Hehe, actually there’s nothing embarrassing about being a siscon. The embarrassing part is you actually still failed in the end. Your sister was stolen by someone else, and they were even an enemy. You really are a failure!” Li Qingshan was still as unscrupulous as ever.
“Shut! Up!” Gong Yuan’s voice seemed to ring out from the very bottom of an abyss, and that was the reality. It was so cold that it seemed to be able to freeze water, and that was the reality too.
Their great plan of dual cultivation had entered a deadlock right in the beginning.
Li Qingshan fell silent before suddenly smiling. “Siscon!”
“All Water to Ruin’s End!”
A battle was on the brink of erupting. Waves of black water flowed out between Gong Yuan’s hands, filled with a deep, deathly stillness as they surged towards Li Qingshan. The gentle healing from earlier had now become lethal killing intent.
“The Spirit Turtle Suppresses the Seas!” Li Qingshan called out, and the figure of the spirit turtle appeared, suppressing the black water.
The bottom of the abyss that had remained silent for all these years suddenly surged violently. Under Gong Yuan’s full-powered attack, all the seawater within fifty kilometers was drawn over.
Li Qingshan truly witnessed the Merfolk Queen’s strength now. Fortunately, his Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression could suppress the power of Ruin’s End tremendously, or he would have been in danger of defeat with that.
The dual cultivation had completely devolved into a battle!
Gong Yuan’s attacks seemed vicious, but they were not methodical at all. She did not use the Heart of the Abyss either. Instead, it seemed more like venting. Li Qingshan never drew Tiger’s Fang either, fending her off with his bare hands.
An hour later, Gong Yuan showed a hint of exhaustion, shooting a vicious glare at Li Qingshan nearby.
Numerous parts of Li Qingshan’s body that he had just rebuilt were frozen and frostbitten. There was a layer of frost over his pale-whiteness, which made him seem like he was in a rather horrible state. However, he continued to smile like before and asked, “How’s it? Do you feel a little better? You do look like you possess a little more humanity now.”
Gong Yuan was mildly surprised. Did he intentionally trigger me and make my emotions fluctuate in order to nullify the influence from the power of Ruin’s End?
Ever since she became the Merfolk Queen, she stood above all in the Crystal palace. Only “granny” could converse a little with her. The two other Merfolk Kings treated her with great politeness, not because they feared her power, but because they respected her sacrifice. They all knew she suffered severe inner demons from practising the All Water to Ruin’s End, so they understood why she had such a horrible temper and did their best to not provoke her. As for the other merpeople, they went without saying. All they did was admire and worship her. Never did anyone talk to her like Li Qingshan, reopening her scars fearlessly.
However, her expression immediately turned cold. “Do you think I’ll forgive you for what you said just with that?”
“Hah, who needs your forgiveness? My beloved, you‘re a little too self-centred! You thought you had to take responsibility for the Merfolk, so you banished her, and then you feel like you caused her death!”
“Isn’t that the case? What was I supposed to do? What could I do? What would you have done?” Gong Yuan turned into a smear of blue light and immediately appeared before Li Qingshan, gripping him by the throat with her icy hand.
“I would have protected her. You can’t even protect your own family, yet you say you want to protect the Merfolk. Isn’t that hilarious? Even now, you still refuse to admit you were wrong!” Li Qingshan gazed at Gong Yuan fearlessly.
He felt the hand around his neck gradually loosen. Gong Yuan said in a daze, “I was wrong?”
“Completely wrong!”
“Is this what she told you?” Gong Yuan was referring to Ru Xin. Otherwise, there was absolutely no need for Li Qingshan to tell her this at the risk of his own life.
“No, that’s my own opinion. She’s too difficult to deal with. If it were me, I’d definitely curse you out, maybe even give you a proper beating, and properly vent!”
“The world sure would be much simpler if everyone was like you. Though, you still don’t have the strength to give me a proper beating!” Gong Yuan said with slight disdain, “Stop wasting time and start cultivating. The storm waits for no one!”
Li Qingshan suddenly said to her with great seriousness, “Actually, there’s no reason for you to be too disheartened. Even if your lower half is a fish, the top half still works.”
“Li Qingshan!”
