Time passed in a hurry. In the blink of an eye, it was already a few days later.
The rain poured down, whistling through the air with no signs of stopping. The horizons in the distance shimmered with golden light, gilding the cloud layer with a golden edge. The sunlight sprinkled on the sea.
Looking down from above, the entire Giant Ship island was enveloped by a thick, dark cloud, while the weather elsewhere was clear, with white clouds floating about.
A mountainous cloud approached Giant Ship island with the sea wind, melding with the thick, dark clouds like it had been swallowed. It made the rain even greater. No matter how the sea wind blew, the dark clouds refused to budge.
This was obviously the handiwork of Merfolk. Merpeople disliked leaving the ocean for land, and they only felt slightly better when it rained. Regular merpeople obviously were not capable of something like this, but the sea fair this time had numerous powerful merpeople under Gong Yuan’s lead. As natural creatures of water and given the moist climate of the South sea, making it rain wherever they went was nothing.
Legends had it that when dragons set out, wind and rain automatically accompanied them without the use of any techniques, which was why dragons represented clouds.
In the centre of the storm was a lake. A magnificent palace hovered above the lake. The pillars and walls, eaves and cornices, were all created from flowing water that resembled jelly. When the rain landed on the palace, it created a series of ripples, which filled it with a phantasmal beauty within the hazy rain and mist.
At this moment, the mist above the lake split into two, and an old man with a goatee and goat horns arrived on the shore under the accompaniment of a Merfolk elder.
“Thank you for accompanying me, but that won’t be necessary.”
Mister Ram clasped his hands, leaving the residence of the merpeople once again. Even with his composure, he struggled to hide his feelings of misfortune. This was already his fifth visit during the past few days. He had raised the price with every visit, already extremely close to his bottom line now, but Gong Yuan had never relented.
If that were all, then so be it. He had paid numerous visits to Ji Changfeng and Ye Duanhai during the past few days, as well as the wretched Li Qingshan, with only a single objective in mind. He wanted them to board the war chariot of the Kingdom of Yue, to become honoured guests of the king’s estate, but it all ended in failure.
The end result was far too difficult to accept. It was basically one of the few miscalculations he had made in his life.
“Li Qingshan!” Mister Ram ground his teeth resentfully. He had a feeling that this would happen from the moment he had been forced back in the Feilian hall.
Human mentality was subtle. With his cultivation at the second heavenly tribulation, Li Qingshan needed to be a little domineering in order to be treated as an equal by Ye Duanhai and the others so that he could successfully make deals with them. Mister Ram had to demonstrate the might of the king’s estate as well. After all, he also had a cultivation at the second heavenly tribulation, but he never expected to be forcefully overshadowed by a cultivator whose cultivation was even weaker than his as soon as he arrived in the Cloud Sail sect. This indirectly led to a huge impact.
The Myriad Poison Ancestor’s abnormal behaviour disrupted many of his plans too. Originally, he planned on using the Myriad Poison Ancestor’s hostile relationship with the South Sea Sword pavilion and Savage mountain to pressure them to a certain degree. The king’s estate did not have to do anything directly, just supporting the Myriad Poison Ancestor slightly, and Ye Duanhai and Li Qingshan would have to consider the consequences.
How could the disharmony and discord between him and the Myriad Poison Ancestor in the Feilian hall escape the eyes of the sharp-witted?
With one step wrong, all went wrong.
Apart from in the very beginning, when he met with Gong Yuan alone for the first few times, his momentum and influence had weakened drastically, nowhere near enough to pressure Ye Duanhai and Li Qingshan now.
Sure enough, nothing good can come out of this kid coming to the Mist province! The potential that he and Xiao An have demonstrated is overly startling. I need his majesty to consider nipping them in the bud. If we can make them remain in the Mist province forever, the benefit that comes out of that is no less than killing two great cultivators of the Green province. Though, perhaps there’s no need for that.
Mister Ram gazed at the Silver Dragon King within the mist and clouds. A cold light flashed through his eyes, and he vanished into the curtain of rain.
Soon after mister Ram had left, a masked figure arrived before the residence of the merpeople and bowed. “I wish to see her majesty.”
A while later, the mist parted again.
Ru Xin walked over the surface of the lake, approaching the residence step by step. Enchanting laughter rang out from under the rippling surface of the lake as beautiful figures swam about, studying her.
A beautiful mermaid emerged from the water and asked curiously, “Hey, what’s your name?”
Ru Xin glanced at her and recalled a distant name, but she did not answer her. She arrived directly in front of the residence and stopped there for a while, studying the place. Reminiscence appeared on her face, but it was hidden behind the heavy mask, for no one to see.
South sea, I’ve returned.
She entered the residence, and the whistling sound of rain suddenly grew distant. A world of water unfolded before her.
Numerous beautiful mermaids swam and played around in the water. Their fishtails of various colours, dark-blue, crimson-red, inky-green, and so on, produced a series of colourful streaks.
The exchange of regular goods had already been completed. Most of it had been bartering, exchanging for resources that the sea lacked, as well as some supplies for war, like pills, talismans, food, and so on.
They could finally stop maintaining a pair of legs and dealing with those ugly humans. Splitting their fishtails did not bring the slightest comfort at all, and walking on land was very difficult too, nowhere near as easy as swimming. The merpeople who had just transformed their fishtail into a pair of legs recently basically felt like they were walking on razor blades as they walked on land.
Once the auction tomorrow came to an end, they could go home, so all of them were in a good mood. However, what made them the happiest was that the queen who had always been so icy-cold seemed to warm up a lot too. In her spare time, she would even guide their cultivation, which had never occurred before.
Ru Xin glanced at Gong Yuan sitting on the crystal throne and sucked in a deep breath, adjusting her mental condition. The feeling of being a bystander in the crowd really was different from facing her directly!
“You’re the Myriad Poison Ancestor’s disciple?” Gong Yuan asked from above.
“I am.”
“How dare you! If you want to see the queen, remove your mask right now and state who you are!” The captain of the guards, Gong Kun, scolded.
“Refining poison has destroyed my appearance, so I don’t wish to show my face to anyone, so please forgive me, your majesty. As for a name, that’s just a label given to a person. It can be real, but it can also be fake, so why place so much emphasis on it?” Ru Xin said hoarsely.
Gong Yuan waved her hand and dismissed Gong Kun. Those demonic cultivators who refined poison regularly frequently disfigured themselves. Seeing how she was a woman, it made sense that she did not want to show her face to anyone. Most importantly, she must have come under the Myriad Poison Ancestor’s instructions. There was no need to provoke that narrow-minded old man over a trifle like this.
“Since it’s the Merfolk sea fair, I’d like to make a deal with your majesty,” said Ru Xin.
“Oh? Let’s hear it. What do you have, and what do you want to exchange it for?”
“I want to use the lives of all fire devourers that have not undergone a heavenly tribulation in the Fire Melt mountains to exchange for something in your possession, your majesty.”
The hall suddenly fell quiet. The merpeople were all stunned.
Gong Yuan was surprised too. She frowned. “Do you have any idea what you are saying? This is not a place where you can talk nonsense!”
