“Yao, it’s really lively this year?”
The old Daoist also stopped among the crowd to watch.
He stroked his beard, counted on his fingers, and looked with surprise at the most dazzling golden-haired youth.
“Oh? A Formless Spiritual Root, not bad. That must be the legendary Shenhua Disciple—abandoning the heritage of the Palace of the Heavenly Pivot Star to go learn the sword in the East Pole Province. Shen Zhong has a worthy successor.”
“Strange, wasn’t it supposed to be a girl? Why is he fighting with the men now?”
The old Daoist had seen every kind of genius in his lifetime, so he only glanced once and withdrew his gaze, unimpressed.
But when Yunliu Yiyi stepped step by step toward the storm center, readying himself, Wuwei Shangren instantly beamed with delight and rubbed his hands together.
“You little rascal, so you’re after a woman after all—why didn’t you say so!”
“That martial nephew of mine at Cangqiong Dongfu is a first-rate femme fatale, a true beauty of the mortal world. I could introduce you to a single female Daoist!”
“You already have a beauty like that by your side and still go picking flowers and grass. Not bad, not bad—you’ve got the spirit of this old Daoist in his younger days.”
With that thought, the old lecher decided the young lecher suited his taste even more. The more he looked, the more pleased he became.
At first, taking a disciple had only been a joke, but after a thousand years, Wuwei was truly moved by the idea of passing down his legacy. Of course, the Talisman Turtle Shell mattered greatly as well.
Though a Heavenly Spiritual Root wasn’t considered extraordinary talent, as the saying goes—aptitude is easy to find, but true insight is rare.
To be granted the four characters “Housheng Kewei” by a martial uncle was enough to cause an uproar across the Duankong Court.
Within the storm, the heat was fierce. Youths from the islands competed to climb, shoving and trading blows, and within moments they were black-eyed and bruised.
Throwing the embroidered ball wasn’t much different. Madam Yingluo certainly knew how to stir things up. The sea market crowd watched with great amusement, thinking it wasn’t so different from noble young ladies on the shore. Madam Yingluo really knew how to put on a show.
Just then, a rumble came from the Hailie Haigou, shaking the earth like war drums, or like heavy footsteps.
Cultivators unaware of the truth turned to look. Beyond the whirlpool, a flood of foam surged without warning, and furious currents violently battered the vortex.
The expanding Prism Artifact was actually being suppressed. The whirlpool domain began to shrink, and the tides gradually stripped away the foothold of the land visitors.
Bang!
A wave broke through the whirlpool, shooting straight into the sea market and slamming against the jade towers of the deep.
At the crest of the giant wave stood a tall youth with his hands behind his back. His features were eerie, his temperament cold and feminine.
He had twin horns on his forehead, sharp claws, and a scaly tail. Behind him thronged countless sea demons and giant beasts.
Twin-headed serpents, sharp-toothed flying sharks… hundreds upon thousands of deep-sea demons made the scalp crawl just to look at.
“The Little Dragon King?”
Fortress Master Wu and Fang Laozu exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other’s eyes. A young flood dragon actually had such power.
Seawater gathered into a wave spear, slowly condensing in the youth’s hand, aimed directly at the Qiongxiao Palace, standing off against the pond-tailed koi that served the Storm Artifact.
Madam Yingluo’s face darkened. What was bound to come had come.
“The Dragon King is taking a bride! You mortals, get back now!”
The hunchbacked elder at the youth’s side slammed his cane hard. The force sent the crowd staggering, and many pearl seekers tumbled from the air into the coral clusters.
“Insolent!”
The sea market maintained its whirlpool form. Madam Yingluo let out a sharp cry and released more spiritual power to drive the prism.
“Colluding with outsiders, stirring chaos in my sea domain, and now trying to marry the Dragon Girl to a mortal to birth more deformed mongrels—you despicable race!”
Many merfolk glared with indignation, but they trembled under the spiritual pressure, unable to resist.
Another great demon king sneered: “You’re the insolent one—you race-traitor mongrel!”
Sea imps on patrol swarmed forward to defend the master of Qiongxiao Palace.
The youth merely crooked his finger, and from the giant wave behind him burst a sea serpent whose massive maw devoured dozens of brave guards on the spot.
“Kneel. Mongrels should know their place. How dare you stand level with the dragon race?”
Madam Yingluo shouted in fury: “Stop!”
Jie Lin wore a smile, staring obsessively at that azure tear bead, as if it stirred some fond memory.
“The side show ends here. I gave you a chance, but you kept provoking my bottom line again and again. Today, I’ll take back everything that’s mine—your way.”
“Including, but not limited to, your daughter…”
Madam Yingluo answered with a cold smile.
“That line should be mine. If not for old ties, and Xia Consort’s desperate pleas, you wouldn’t have lived to see this day. My tolerance for you has reached its limit!”
The others listened in confusion, not understanding what grievance the Little Dragon King had with the widowed elder, but it clearly wasn’t like the old days when the Huanchao Clan’s old Dragon King protected Qiongxiao Palace.
Canghai had an ominous feeling and quickly pulled Li Su closer, having heard rumors about the deep sea situation.
Madam Yingluo’s noble ideals were like these bubbles—hard to realize. In the eyes of other sea demons, it was just sycophancy to outsiders. The war-favoring demon kings had long been dissatisfied.
When the Huanchao Zhizhu took the lead in breaking away, the bloodthirsty sea demons flocked to join. The Master of Boundless Pavilion could no longer hold the other races in check.
The tower city was likely to be in turmoil.
“That’s far too arrogant.”
The white whale emitted a dull sonar call from its throat, summoning an old friend. This time, to prepare for the worst, the opportunity at the Boundless Pavilion was secondary. If it came to it, they might need to make such a grand appearance. Did he intend to wipe out all the humans present?
Big White, please escort them out of Qiongxiao Palace.
Just as everyone was about to slip away, Jie Lin halted his restless subordinates. The sea market was at daggers drawn, and some timid merchants were already preparing to flee.
“The Dragon Girl’s selection—female demons can participate too, right? Or does the lady only claim neutrality in words while actually excluding her own kind?”
“You!”
Madam Yingluo’s tone faltered. Qiongxiao Palace had always upheld peaceful coexistence between the two races. She could never betray that principle.
Seeing this, Jie Lin smiled with amusement but had no intention of starting a battle on the spot.
After all, this place would soon be the dragon race’s domain. It would be a shame to destroy it.
“Fall back. I alone am enough—no need for the ants on shore to say we bully the weak.”
The Five Islands immortals, who had been secretly mustering their spirit breath, sighed in relief. Jie Lin’s meaning was that he would take the pearl himself. That way, their only opponents would be the younger generation of cultivators from the Boundless Sea.
But judging from the momentum of the wave just now… would they really stand a chance against the Little Dragon King?
This was the shocking first appearance of Jie Lin in the script, bringing an intense suffocation to Ji Xiao and the others. Luo Wanru felt as if she were being stared down by an abyssal behemoth, her fortune overwhelmingly suppressed.
“What’s going on now?”
Ji Shiyu craned her neck to look, baffled that another pig-eater had shown up—and such an arrogant yin-yang freak at that.
“So tiny, and so many people fighting over it. Not even enough to fill a gap in your teeth—how are they supposed to share?”
“I thought it was something tasty. Turns out it’s just a tear bead. How disappointing.”
“Trash fish, downer girl!”
Still, judging by how those lunatics below were losing their minds, it seemed to be some rare treasure.
The little yellow hair rolled her eyes, planning to snatch it and bite off half to share with her teacher—feeding it mouth to mouth.
“Yum!”
A water spear came out of nowhere at that moment, shooting like lightning toward Ji Shiyu’s back.
“Young Master Ji, watch out!”
Mu Shaohua screamed in terror.
Jie Lin rode the waves down, his gaze vicious. His first target was the yellow-haired girl high above. With a savage motion, he hurled his spear!