Chapter Seventy-Four: Oppression

Su Yuanbai’s gaze drifted lightly as he turned his eyes to the seascape beyond the water bubble. In the distance, there was only a vast blackness, but nearby, coral and seaweed of every hue could be seen, with the occasional water bug darting through the grasses.

He had only wanted to test whether the water-repelling incantation could be used on himself. If Xi Chunxue refused to teach it, Su Yuanbai would not hold it against her.

But not everyone viewed matters as simply as Su Yuanbai.

“Why not try teaching it?” Xie Miu’an, watching Su Yuanbai’s profile, coughed lightly and reminded Xi Chunxue.

Among these people, Su Yuanbai was without question the one of greatest status and strength—this was why Xie Miu’an had opened his mouth earlier only to close it in the end. By both sentiment and reason, it was best not to pass on the technique.

But one also had to consider the current situation.

Xi Chunxue herself had not thought so far ahead, but after Xie Miu’an’s meddlesome suggestion, she suddenly understood why the Langhuan Palace of the Mountain Ji Library had not sent anyone to reclaim the technique, and why her own cultivation had not been erased; it could not possibly be because someone in the palace had simply forgotten.

Someone in the palace was protecting her.

If she now passed on the water-repelling incantation—one unique to Langhuan Palace—and this was discovered and used as evidence that she had privately spread the palace’s techniques, Xi Chunxue would have no defense.

She might even bring trouble upon the one in the palace who was sheltering her.

So, Xi Chunxue chose to completely ignore Xie Miu’an’s warning, her deep eyes gazing into the black expanse of the distant sea.

“Miu’an, do you think he’s angry?” Qu Hanchen whispered to Xie Miu’an beside him.

Even though Xie Miu’an had changed so much from before, now aged beyond recognition, Qu Hanchen still habitually called him Miu’an.

“He’s been with you all longer than I have. If you can’t tell whether he’s angry, how would I know?” Xie Miu’an replied, glancing at Qu Hanchen, whose whole body now glowed a ghostly blue-green, and coughing softly.

This man had changed so much in just a few days that Xie Miu’an could hardly reconcile him with the ordinary prison warden who once moved corpses, served food, and patrolled the cells.

“If you humans keep making noise, I’ll eat you all,” the Silver-scaled Shad Demon swam to the edge of the bubble, its fish eyes fixed on the humans inside. From the start, it had heard their incessant chatter within the bubble.

It was thoroughly irritated.

“You, come here and keep pushing,” the Silver-scaled Shad Demon ordered the blue-shelled crab soldiers, who had just finished devouring the blue shrimp soldiers, waving its silver hammer at them.

Qu Hanchen wondered if it was his imagination, but the crab soldiers’ pincers seemed even larger now, with several new blue markings on their shells.

“Why are these crab demons eating the shrimp demons? Is it because of that strange chant the fish demon uttered earlier?” Qu Hanchen hesitated for a moment, looking up and asking Su Yuanbai.

He was genuinely curious, but also wanted to probe Su Yuanbai’s current mood.

“I do not know,” Su Yuanbai replied calmly to Qu Hanchen’s question.

Unfortunately, Qu Hanchen still could not discern any hint of emotion from Su Yuanbai’s unperturbed voice or his tranquil, expressionless face.

“He’s not the type to dwell on such things…” Xi Chunxue interrupted Qu Hanchen before he could press further, shaking her head with a gentle smile.

“If the situation turns dire—if your lives are at stake—I will teach you the water-repelling incantation,” Xi Chunxue said, raising her eyes to Su Yuanbai.

She found herself wishing that Su Yuanbai had never leapt into that deep passage, never recovered the fragments of memory from the underworld. Then, this handsome man would still be the muddled, curious, and candidly warm soul he was in the beginning.

But now, Su Yuanbai was more and more like a flawless statue, or perhaps a “divine being” who had severed all passions and desires. Though he would sometimes show emotion, a slight smile or gentle doubt, Xi Chunxue was inexplicably filled with fear—not just because of what she had already considered, but more because, when Su Yuanbai’s dark eyes rested upon her, she felt as though she stood alone on a deserted plain beneath a vast, endless sky—the sun and moon above were the calm, black eyes of Su Yuanbai, watching her.

That invisible pressure nearly crushed her Dao heart; if she had not still been able to breathe deeply and recite the Langhuan Jade Sutra, she might not even have been able to shake her head.

Su Yuanbai himself was entirely unaware of the oppressive aura he exuded.

“All right,” he replied.

Su Yuanbai glanced calmly at Xi Chunxue as she looked up at him, then turned away again to gaze at the sea outside the bubble. His serene countenance and tone left everyone unable to guess what he was thinking.

Truth be told, Su Yuanbai was not thinking anything at all. He was simply looking at the sea.

The blue-shelled crab soldiers pushed the bubble down the coral cliffs, arriving at a mangrove at the mountain’s base. The bubble pressed down on the red dates scattered beneath the trees, sending small fish and shrimp darting away in alarm.

At the front, the Silver-scaled Shad Demon swung its silver hammer to smash aside any bushes or brambles blocking their path, clearing the way for the crab soldiers to push the bubble forward without hindrance.

Jellyfish glowing with a cold light floated down from the mangrove canopy, illuminating the dark water. When the Silver-scaled Shad Demon moved on, the jellyfish would drift up again to the treetops.

Beyond this mangrove, they reached the foot of the towering undersea mountain and came to a stretch of soft, flat sand, where ugly, strange fish swam everywhere.

The Silver-scaled Shad Demon reached out and snatched one of the unsightly fish swimming nearby—a fish with a bright, lantern-like growth on its brow.

Caught, the odd fish ceased to struggle. The demon mounted the fish’s back, plucked a scale from its own body, and tossed it into the fish’s mouth.

The fish began to swim, illuminating the dark seabed with the lantern on its forehead.

Its pace was slow, but the crab soldiers pushing the bubble could keep up. Its sole purpose seemed to be lighting their path and avoiding obstacles.

“I don’t see Duan Lingqi,” Su Yuanbai observed quietly to the others in the bubble.

“Could that fellow have become a dragon and fled into the sea? But in this situation, where could an outsider dragon escape to in such a vast ocean?” Xie Miu’an wondered aloud.

“With the blood pact binding him, he can’t possibly have run off. He must have encountered some trouble. But what could threaten a fiendish dragon like him?” Xi Chunxue said, frowning slightly.

Little did they know that, at this very moment, Duan Lingqi was already inside the Dragon Palace of the Sea, leisurely stroking his lobster whiskers, swishing his tail, and following a perch demon into a grand hall.