Chapter Seventy-Two: The Battle of Fish

While Xi Chunxue and Xie Miouan were still debating whether to enter the water bubble, Su Yuanbai had already stepped inside calmly, seeking refuge from the onrushing sea. In the tangled haze of Su Yuanbai’s memories, there was not a single recollection of being skilled at swimming. Whether the bubble proved a blessing or a trap, he had no choice but to enter.

Seeing this, Xie Miouan followed Su Yuanbai into the bubble, and Xi Chunxue, moving with measured, ritual steps, also slipped inside. As for Qu Hanchen, he needed no urging; he hurried after them. The bubble was yielding as soft dough—at first, Qu Hanchen bounced off its surface, unable to breach it. Only with considerable force did he manage to break through the elastic membrane and tumble inside. When he staggered in, the membrane behind him, which should have torn, was once again whole.

At that moment, the furious sea burst into the cave. Qu Hanchen, watching the overwhelming flood, felt as if a maritime disaster were about to engulf him. Terrified, he squeezed his eyes shut. Only when he heard the tranquil murmur of water did he dare to open them.

He could still breathe with ease, as if on land. Around them, the water bubble was submerged, drifting up and down with the currents, sometimes pressed by water or knocked against the jagged crystal edges of the cave. Yet, no matter the force, the bubble’s surface merely indented—it never broke, though it looked as if a touch could pierce it.

Sounds from outside filtered in clearly. Gunshots echoed, hammers thundered, the cries of shrimp and crab soldiers resounded endlessly, and now and then, the angry shouts and mocking laughter of fish demons. From the sound of it, Su Bufan was in dire straits.

“If only that malicious dragon were here now,” Xi Chunxue said, her brow furrowed, unable to see anything beyond the coral cave. “Among us, only he is skilled in water, and the only one truly able to fight submerged… is him, I suppose,” Xie Miouan added, glancing at Su Yuanbai, who remained calm.

Su Yuanbai said nothing, but it was true. Just as those inside the coral cave had heard, Su Bufan was struggling outside. He had hoped to escape amidst the chaos as the seawater flooded in. Yet, only the golden-scaled fish demon followed him into the cave; outside, the crab and shrimp soldiers had already formed ranks, waiting under the command of the silver-scaled shad demon.

“Prince Su, wouldn’t it be better for you to come back with us to the Dragon Palace? We’d treat you well, with fine food and drink, and the princess has nothing but sincerity for you—she’d grant your every wish,” said the silver-scaled shad demon, waving its silver hammer and blocking Su Bufan’s path with its tail. It was in no hurry to fight, trying to persuade him gently.

“Every wish? You won’t even let me return to Yunhai Prefecture to help my father, yet you call that granting my wishes? You’d have me linger in the depths of the sea, listening to my father’s pleas from the shore, watching him executed in Rainy City after autumn’s judgment?! I can’t even collect his whole corpse!” The shad demon’s words only inflamed Su Bufan. His fair, handsome face twisted into a fierce scowl, glaring at the shad demon with rage.

“That Su Wenyu is a rebel and traitor. If the princess let you go ashore, not only would you fail to help your father, you wouldn’t even keep your own corpse intact!” The golden-scaled carp demon emerged from the coral cave, brandishing its golden spear, ordering three green-shelled crab soldiers to block the cave entrance. It had realized the humans inside were different from the thieves who had stolen the Water-Stabilizing Pearl from the Dragon Palace—they had no ability to resist, relying solely on Su Bufan’s transparent bubble to repel the water.

The shad demon dispatched four blue shrimp soldiers to follow. Now only two blue shrimp soldiers and four green-shelled crab soldiers remained, forming a ragged blockade around Su Bufan between the carp and shad demons.

“Filial piety surpasses all virtues. I would rather die than live in disgrace within the Dragon Palace! I’ll make the ancient Qin emperor pay in blood!” Su Bufan shouted.

“How dare you! Do you think you can defy the ancient Qin emperor here?” The carp demon thrust its golden spear, its tip plunging like a dragon into the sea, stirring waves that crashed toward Su Bufan’s heart.

With a clang, Su Bufan flexed his fingers and flicked several streaks of fiery lightning at the spear, each strike ringing like metal upon stone. Yet the golden-scaled spear was a fine weapon: the lightning did not deflect it, but instead fueled its power, making it surge from dragon-in-sea to dragon-in-sky, unstoppable. Its tip cut through the water, trailing sparks of red fire.

Seeing danger, Su Bufan pressed the dazzling red stone at the center of his jade dragon-belt. Suddenly, the stone blazed with light, overwhelming the carp demon’s unblinking fish eyes, so that blood seeped from them and its vision clouded.

The crab soldiers were luckier—they quickly retracted their eyes. But the shrimp soldiers had no such luck. Unable to close their eyes and lacking the carp demon’s strength, they were instantly blinded, darting about with spears like headless flies.

Though the golden spear’s assault was fierce, it was not fast. Su Bufan found an opening amid the shrimp soldiers’ aimless swimming and tried to escape.

But without warning, a silver hammer struck his back. Had it been anyone else, their spine would have shattered and they’d collapse, if not die outright. Su Bufan, however, only stumbled; his blue-tasseled crown askew, hair loose.

“Prince Su, if you refuse to return with us, the princess will continue to suffer the torment of the Second Flame! They say a day of marriage brings a hundred days of kindness—are you truly so heartless toward her? Look—what is this?!” The shad demon, always wary of Su Bufan, had hidden behind a coral ledge when Su Bufan reached for the red stone at his belt. Timing its move, it struck Su Bufan with the hammer, then produced an object from its scales.

Su Bufan, suppressing the pain in his back, was about to flee when the shad demon’s urgent shout made him turn. Seeing what it held, he paused.

It was a handkerchief woven from water-silkworm and shark silk, the token the Dragon Princess had given him at their first parting. Its presence made Su Bufan forget his peril. The carp demon, ever hunting him, seized the chance.

Though the shad demon struck aside the carp demon’s spear with its hammer, Su Bufan, fixed on the handkerchief, left himself exposed. The golden spear pierced his shoulder, pinning him to the coral reef. Blood seeped silently from his shoulder, mingling with the surging water.

Su Bufan stretched out his fingers, then slowly let them fall.