Chapter Seventy-One: Resurrection

"Then why did you give those cultivators anything?" Qu Hanchen shouted.

"Because they can help me kill him. Everyone has their own thoughts and motives. Did you really think that just because you have a close relationship with him, I must be on good terms with him as well? Besides, are you and I really that familiar?" Xie Miou'an looked calmly at the agitated Qu Hanchen as she spoke.

"But... but they'll end up killing him!" Qu Hanchen cried out, his emotions surging.

"And what does that have to do with me?" Xie Miou'an suddenly smiled. "In my life, not to mention those I've harmed, I've killed more than a few with my own hands. Merely the chaos I stirred on Sangyu Island by drawing cultivators here has already led to countless deaths. I am a ghost cultivator—wherever profit is found, so am I. You didn't mistake me for a good person, did you? And are you truly a selfless friend, anxious only for your companion's sake? Or is it simply that nagging conscience, unable to bear the weight of morality?" Xie Miou'an laughed softly.

"He's back." Xi Chunxue's words interrupted the exchange between Xie Miou'an and Qu Hanchen.

At the mouth of the cave, amid the coral, a blurred figure appeared once again, darting swiftly through the cracks in the coral and plunging into the water-repelling array.

"Consort Su, running off is useless!" A golden spear pierced through the coral crevice like a swimming dragon, its tip carrying immense force as it shattered the vibrant seaweed among the coral.

"If you have the courage, come into this cave. My companions will gouge out your fish eyes and strip your scales!" The blurred figure stood tall inside the cave, bellowing loudly. Xi Chunxue finally caught a clear glimpse of his face.

The man was strikingly fair and handsome, slender in build, dressed in a blue scholar’s robe, topped with a blue tasseled crown, his waist cinched by a jade belt carved with dragon motifs and a dazzling red gem at its center.

"Who are you?" Xi Chunxue asked, frowning.

She sensed a trace of dragon aura about him, and his prominent horns and patches of dragon scales on his cheeks made it difficult to discern whether he was beast or human.

"The one called 'Consort' by the fish demons outside—in the past thousand years, aside from Su Sheng in 'Su Sheng Cooks the Sea,' the son of the foreign-named Prince Su, who else could be the Consort of the Dragon Palace of the Canghai?"

Xie Miou'an already knew the origin of this pale scholar. Her cloudy gaze fell on the man in the scholar's robe as she laughed softly, "You know my origins? Are you a cultivator from Lingyun Pavilion? I didn’t see you among those who came earlier. You all said that if I stole the Sea-Stabilizing Pearl for you, you’d bring me back to the mainland. So, how do we return to the land?"

The scholar’s eyes brightened with hope rather than alarm as Xie Miou'an revealed his identity, and he looked expectantly at her.

"You really are the scholar Su Bufan from 'Su Sheng Cooks the Sea'?" Qu Hanchen stared in astonishment at the man in the scholar's robe.

He had watched countless performances of 'Su Sheng Cooks the Sea' in the theaters, but never imagined the character would come to life before his eyes. The shock swept away his earlier worries for Tang Changhong.

After all, three years of shared duties and hometown ties in the prison were enough for Qu Hanchen to remember Tang Changhong now, and even to speak a few words for him—a kindness in itself.

Xie Miou'an had reminded him: Was he truly so close to Tang Changhong? Was Qu Hanchen really a selfless friend willing to risk himself? Or was it simply that he could afford to heed his conscience and morality because he was safe?

"What is 'Su Sheng Cooks the Sea'? Are you all cultivators from Lingyun Pavilion as well? Why aren't you wearing water-repelling robes like the others? Or are your magical abilities strong enough to withstand the pressure of the vast Canghai?" Su Bufan, hearing the words of the man with dark blue skin, looked at Su Yuanbai in confusion.

He could clearly sense the thick ghostly aura around the old man who exposed his identity, and a faint nether energy around the blue-skinned man—likely a ghost cultivator. The woman nearby had previously walked with Daoist steps, so she must be of the Daoist sect.

But the handsome man leaning against the cave’s stone wall, clad in navy robes, gave off no aura at all—just like an ordinary mortal Daoist. Only his appearance was refined, his demeanor somewhat noble.

Strange.

Su Bufan had never encountered this before. Even when someone’s cultivation far surpassed his own, he could still discern their aura. Whether Buddhist, Daoist, beast, or demon, none could hide from his perceptive eyes.

Unless this man's realm was so high that it exceeded the scope of his insight, or perhaps he truly was just a regular person, like those earlier cultivators in water-repelling robes and red crane mantles.

A sharp, crisp sound like a balloon popping rang out.

The golden spearhead pierced the array’s transparent screen, thin as cicada wings. As the spear trembled, the fish-patterned shell at the center of the array cracked audibly.

"This Ao Shilian even gave the Golden Scale Spear to that fish demon—he must truly want to grind my bones to dust!" Su Bufan exclaimed in alarm.

"Do you have a way to repel the water?" Xie Miou'an raised her gaze and glanced at Su Yuanbai.

"I have no memory," Su Yuanbai replied calmly.

"That’s a real problem," Xie Miou'an coughed lightly and laughed.

"I know the Water-Repelling Art." Xi Chunxue quickly formed seals with her fingers, chanting incantations as she cast spells on Qu Hanchen, Xie Miou'an, Su Yuanbai, and finally herself.

Fortunately, the water-repelling array still held firm. The screen, thin as cicada wings, rippled with water patterns. Although the fish-patterned shell was cracked, it was not entirely broken. Yet it looked as though it would not hold much longer.

"This level of Water-Repelling Art is fine for streams and rivers, but it can't withstand the waters of the Canghai, which shares its source with the South Sea." Su Bufan immediately saw that while the technique was ingenious, the caster’s cultivation was not deep enough. If the seawater of the Canghai flooded in, it would not last even a few breaths.

"Let it be. If you die here, I won’t escape the Canghai either." Su Bufan sighed heavily. He parted his lips, and a bubble emerged, floating in mid-air and slowly expanding into a sphere as tall as a person.

"I’ll draw them away. If I die, this bubble will burst instantly, and you’ll all drown in the Canghai. So you’d better think of a good plan." Su Bufan reached out, and a fiery red lightning shot from his fingertip, striking the already fragile fish-patterned shell.

Crack.

The shell shattered.

The water-repelling array ripples ceased, and the screen, once thin as cicada wings, dissolved like flowing water. The sea surged into the coral cave in an instant.

The dragon scales on Su Bufan’s cheeks flared. He pressed his hands to his waist, his feet moving like fish fins, swimming against the incoming flood toward the outside of the coral cave.