Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
A silhouette with pale golden pupils appeared, standing ten feet away from them.
The whole figure had an intimidating presence. It was emitting a very strong and imposing aura that seemed to contain something terrible.
If he did not show himself on his own, Su Yu might not have detected his presence.
He was none other than the Mermaid Emperor!
No longer rotting away, he was now shining with life and exuding bright light.
The only difference was that his royal eyes were now pale golden instead of the original emerald green color.
“You are not my father. Who are you?” Luzhu yelled out loud. Her chest was undulating profusely and her mind was in a complete tumult.
No one knew her father better than she did. The creature in front of her might have had her father’s form, but the soul was definitely not his.
“Oh, my dear daughter, you and the three generals dug me out of the deep pits of Spirit Vein. Who do you think I am now?” the Mermaid Emperor chuckled.
Luzhu was extremely unsettled. “Who the hell are you? How did you come to possess my father’s body?”
She was agitated, and her whole body trembling. She could not believe that her father, whom she had gone through many hardships to rescue, was dead and his body was taken by another spirit.
Back then, the Mermaid Emperor and the king of Yaksha battled ferociously. Both of them were supremely powerful, and the other deities or strong spirits did not even dare to approach.
When the battle was over, they found the dead body of the Mermaid Emperor in the ruined pits of Spirit Vein.
Little did they expect that in that instance, the corpse of the Mermaid Emperor was already possessed.
They endured many hardships and ventured into the unknown in order to find the Boundless Spiritual Pearl. In the process, they put their lives on the line in an attempt to save the emperor.
Just a moment ago, they were helping him to escape at all costs, protecting him from the rebel generals.
In the end, fate played out in such a twisted manner!
Su Yu sighed in sympathy. The mermaid princess Luzhu was indeed unlucky.
“Stop asking! It is a God-level tomb guard spirit, and it had secretly occupied the Mermaid Emperor’s body,” Su Yu said as he looked at the emperor.
Luzhu was startled. “God-level tomb guard spirit… does that mean Father is like just my sister? He is not dead and only possessed?”
Su Yu shook his head slightly. “I’m afraid not. The reason it could escape my detection was that it had replaced your father’s soul. Therefore, I mistakenly thought it was the soul of the Mermaid Emperor. That was why I restored his body.”
“Haha, I knew that you were actually quite smart!” The Mermaid Emperor expressed his admiration. “Seriously, I do not want to kill you, but you all already knew too much.”
Luzhu gradually recovered from the cruel blow and exclaimed, “What do we know that you feel you have to kill us all? Above all else, it is Su Yu who saved your life!”
“Of course you don’t know anything, but he does.” The Mermaid Emperor’s eyes flickered as he smiled and stared at Su Yu. “Is that right, smart man?”
Su Yu stared at him and said, “Regarding the God-level tomb guard spirit attached to the little princess, I thought that the three rebel generals were pulling the strings behind the scenes and set that up secretly. Now that I think about it, I had overestimated the three of them. The real mastermind behind the scenes must have been you. The God-level tomb guard spirit back then was only one of your clones, wasn’t it? You originally intended to abandon the Mermaid Emperor and occupy the body of the little princess. However, that plan was unexpectedly thwarted by me.”
“As for the ten thousand tomb guard spirits that chased down the two princesses along the way, the fact is, you manipulated the little princess into venturing out and seized the opportunity to gather your army to assist you in conquering the whole mermaid clan.”
“Am I right?”
The Mermaid Emperor clapped his hands and his face was full of approbation. “Absolutely right! In fact, I am impressed. I have been watching your words and actions. It is hard to believe that you have such amazing wisdom.”
At the next moment, the Mermaid Emperor’s smile vanished, and his face suddenly darkened. “So now, do you think that I should kill you?”
If Su Yu were not dead, he would definitely reveal the false identity of the Mermaid Emperor. By then, it would be extremely difficult to take over the mermaid clan.
“From your point of view, of course, you should kill me! But who said you would succeed?” Su Yu said, and the Five Elements Mountain suddenly appeared in front of him.
At the moment the magic was cast, something small and almost invisible struck the Five Elements Mountain and made a crisp tinkling sound.
Upon closer inspection, those were actually two hair-like transparent tentacles that were invisible to the naked eye.
If it were not for Su Yu’s alertness, both he and Luzhu would have been finished off already.
“Oh? You are very vigilant indeed.” The Mermaid Emperor moved his fingers and retracted the two tentacles. His pale golden eyes continued to stare at Su Yu as he slowly approached. “I’m actually very curious to know, where exactly are you from? Why can I detect so much of my race’s aura on you, and where does the energy of your divine blood come from? ”
He seemed to be merely asking questions, but he was actually trying to divert Su Yu’s attention. He made a few advances and suddenly attacked.
With his pale golden eyes, he shot a beam of golden flame that went around the Five Elements Mountain and attempted to extinguish both of them.
However, Su Yu was already prepared. The Strength of Five Elements surrounding the Five Elements Mountain transformed immediately into the water element. Then, the power of the water element gave birth to the power of ice, forming an ice dragon that opened its mouth and swallowed the golden flame that engulfed the sky.
“Such pure power of the Strength of Five Elements! It is almost reaching the level of the Five Elements Divine Path.” The Mermaid Emperor narrowed his eyes, then shook his head and said, “Unfortunately, for me, it is nothing but a party trick.”
Boom!
The ice dragon disintegrated suddenly. The golden flames burned it as if it were made of paper.
There was no obstruction for the golden flames any longer and they engulfed both Su Yu and Luzhu completely.
“Nine-Emperor Shroud!” Su Yu opened up his fingers and the shroud inflated limitlessly, turning into a giant cloth and wrapping the golden flames within it.
Following that, the shroud began to shrink continuously. The golden flames within it were gradually put out and eventually turned to ashes.
Then, Su Yu recalled the Five Elements Mountain and the Shroud in each of his hands respectively, while condensing the rich water element around them at the same time.
“Almost there! Water Escape!” Su Yu grabbed Luzhu and decided to flee from the scene.
The Mermaid Emperor smiled slightly. “Do you think you can escape from me?”
However, just as he was about to give chase, he suddenly frowned and looked behind him.
There were three groups of divine light that shot forward, one reaching first before the other two arrived together.
The former was General Blackfish, wearing a dull expression on his face. When the Scar Mermaid died, he realized things were not good and immediately came out of the entanglement to investigate the situation.
General Tiger and General Carp could not sit still either witnessing the resurrection of the Mermaid Emperor.
Unexpectedly, the three of them rushed over one after another and found that the one waiting for them was the Mermaid Emperor!!!
He was indeed resurrected!
The Mermaid Emperor glanced in the direction of Su Yu and muttered, “So this is the reason why… the fact that he calculated this with such precision is not bad at all!”
Su Yu never wanted to fight against the Mermaid Emperor directly. He already assessed the situation and calculated his moves ahead. When the Scar Mermaid died, General Blackfish would surely turn up.
Therefore, under the pretense of defending against him, he retreated immediately, letting General Blackfish and the other two generals stall him.
This remarkable capability to plan with such precision made the Mermaid Emperor feel unsettled, and he realized that Su Yu was an extremely dangerous character.
Swoosh!
The three generals rushed over and looked at the Mermaid Emperor in front of them with uncertainty.
General Blackfish backed off slowly, and said to General Tiger and General Carp softly, “This is not the time to continue our internal strife. The Mermaid Emperor is recovering from illness, and his strength is not as great as it was at his peak. We have a chance of killing him if we work together.”
General Tiger and General Carp looked at each other and nodded in agreement after weighing the pros and cons.
“Mermaid Emperor, don’t blame us for being cruel. You can only blame yourself for not staying dead!”
The three generals joined forces to attack, with all of them unleashing their strongest moves on the Mermaid Emperor.
Facing the three generals, the Mermaid Emperor sneered, took a step forward, and the pale golden flames rose suddenly and sharply around his whole body.
Ahh!
Three agonized screams could be heard. With a single move, the three generals were burning with golden flames and screaming in torment.
“You are not the Mermaid Emperor! Who are you?” General Blackfish roared.
General Tiger and General Carp hurriedly extinguished the flames and looked on in horror.
The Mermaid Emperor in front of them was even far stronger than he had been during his prime!
They finally realized that this Mermaid Emperor was actually an impostor.
The Mermaid Emperor placed his hands behind his back and stared at them scornfully. “Who exactly am I? I’m afraid you don’t deserve to know yet. If you want to die now, I can grant that. But if you want to live, make an oath now to obey me.”
The Mermaid Emperor threw over three green jade tokens that were inscribed with ancient runes.
The jade tokens were densely enveloped with the vicissitudes of the years, and a faint hint of rigor still exuded from them.
“The Divine Warrior’s Oath Token? Who are you, and where did you get the oath tokens that were engraved by the Divine Warriors of Heaven and Earth?” General Blackfish was taken aback. The oath token was a token personally sculpted by the Divine Warriors of Heaven and Earth and symbolized their greatness during the era of the Ancient God Realm.
If one swore upon this token and broke one’s vows, a terrible backlash would follow.
Since ancient times, anyone who swore upon it had never escaped their fate if they became rebellious.
This token was supposed to have long disappeared with the death of the Divine Warriors of Heaven and Earth. Who exactly was this being that was occupying the body of the Mermaid Emperor now?
“Stop all your nonsense, swear now, or die,” the Mermaid Emperor said.
The three generals were stunned and their eyes were filled with bitterness.
They all respected and were in awe of the Mermaid Emperor during his prime period, but this was a more mysterious and powerful being.
The three of them looked at each other, dripped their respective blood essence on the token and vowed on the spot to be loyal to the Mermaid Emperor.
The Mermaid Emperor smiled slightly and took back the three jade tokens.
“Very well. As long as you obey me, I will not treat you badly. I can even reward you with something more than you would get from the mermaid clan,” the Mermaid Emperor’s tone was very self-assured.
“Your wish is my command, Lord Mermaid Emperor.”
“Mermaid Emperor… Okay, the moment I escaped from there, I had no choice but to look for this weak divine body as a temporary vessel. Alright, then I shall be the Mermaid Emperor for a while!” The Mermaid Emperor laughed. “I have two orders for you. The first is to take over the mermaid clan. I plan to unify this water territory within six months. The Frogman clan, the Yaksha clan, the Water Snake clan… these weak clans do not need to exist. ”
Upon hearing those words, the three generals were taken aback. What sort of being would dare to have such ambitious plans?
The Empire of Eternal Darkness existed for hundreds of millions of years. The ninety-nine clans in the southern region were independent. They were interrelated and helped one another. Even those in power within the Empire, namely the royal family, would not dare to try to colonize the various clans.
“Second, go and catch Su Yu and Luzhu. Make sure you do not let them escape into the Spirit Vein, where lies the quiet tomb of my master.”
His master? The three generals were secretly shocked. This being was so powerful. Who exactly was this master he was talking about?
After hearing his orders, the three generals immediately started moving in the direction of Su Yu.
Su Yu rode the Garuda and entered into the Xuanjing Mountains.
This mountain range was blessed with an abundance of spiritual energies, and liquefied spirit serum could be seen everywhere, scattering among the mountains with no one to soak it up.
Many rare and precious treasures were lying everywhere, and no one collected them.
“What a curious and strange spirit vein,” Su Yu was surprised. He thought that out of all the wonderfully blessed places he had seen, this was where the spiritual energies were strongest.
Generally speaking, the spiritual energies of the spirit veins would either be diluted across space or absorbed by the spirits that grew on the veins. Such large-scale liquefaction of spiritual energies rarely occurred.
Only at this place, not only did the spiritual energies remain undiluted, but they even got more and more concentrated.
“This is the spirit vein that our mermaid clan and the Yaksha clan are fighting over for. It is also considered a rare spirit vein in the southern part of the Empire of Eternal Darkness.”
Su Yu stared and observed for a long while, and shook his head slightly. “It is not about it being rare. This strange spirit vein seems suspicious. If I’m not wrong, there must be an abnormal being in this vein.”
“Take me to the place where you found the Mermaid Emperor,” Su Yu ordered.
Luzhu was stunned. “Why do you want to go there?”
“To test my theory about what exactly is hidden under this spirit vein.” Su Yu just could not help thinking about the master mentioned by the God-level tomb guard spirit who possessed the Mermaid Emperor’s body.
Since it occupied the body of the Mermaid Emperor in the deep pit, he guessed he should start investigating from there.
Luzhu’s face was bleak. “What does it matter? Father cannot be resurrected anymore.”
“Don’t you want to avenge him?” Su Yu said lightly.
“Yes, I want to!” Luzhu’s eyes flashed coldly. “Fine, I’ll take you there!”
The deep pit was located in the middle of the spirit vein. In the beginning, the two clans negotiated an alliance here, but it was hindered by the secret plotting of the Yaksha king.
As she was leading the way, Luzhu asked, “How did you know that he was not my father?”
Su Yu said, “I am very familiar with the poison which your father contracted. At the place where I came from, it was named the Demonic God’s Poison. It contained demonic aura and shunned virile matter. Since the Mermaid Emperor had the divine power of thunder, in theory, it was impossible for him to be weakened by this kind of poison. The only explanation was that the poisoned being was not your father.”
“I see.” Luzhu’s eyes were becoming dimmer. Now that she thought about it, when her father was driven into the deep pit, he was likely to be already dead, but then he became possessed by the God-level tomb guard spirit.
Soon, they came to a desolate place.
The aftermath of the devastating fight could be seen everywhere, especially at the deep pit in the middle, which almost destroyed the vein.
At the bottom of the deep pit, there was a turbid cloud, and the dust was still settling.
The divine powers of that day’s battle were not completely dissipated yet.
Was this the place? Su Yu gazed, using the power of his transparent eyes, and looked down from above, gazing through the dust.
When his sight reached the bottom, Su Yu’s pupils shrank slightly. “This deep pit is very suspicious indeed. There is a crack at the bottom and I don’t know where it leads.”
“A crack? Why didn’t we see it that day?” Luzhu was surprised.
Su Yu pointed to the lingering divine power and said, “You all must have been distracted by the divine power back then. In addition, the crack must have been far smaller back then than it is now.”
