Early morning, a light mist spread over the East Sea, and the gorgeously coloured sunrise seemed to divide sky and sea far in the distance.
A few morning stars still hung in the azure sky. Several seabirds glided leisurely past, skimming the blue-violet surface of the sea as they flew with carefree ease.
Xu Qi’an stood at the bow, facing the sea wind, pressing forward as though cleaving waves and chopping through billows.
Several dozen feet behind him, the Nine-tailed Fox sat leaning against the ship’s rail. Her slender waist was wrapped in fur, and her nine tails served as a skirt. She narrowed her alluring fox-like eyes and gazed into the distant sea.
In the blowing sea breeze, her eyelashes trembled faintly. Her profile was delicate and peerlessly beautiful, a stunning creature of unmatched grace.
The ship beneath their feet was a magical artefact from the Sitianjian. It could sail a thousand li a day. Its power came from water and wind formations engraved in the lower hold by Sun Xuanji. Given the materials used to build the ship, its service life was roughly two months.
Any longer than that, and it would need maintenance from an Arcanist, with the formations and the materials carrying them needing replacement.
“Finding it all a bit novel?”
The Nine-tailed Fox smiled like an experienced temptress teasing a little brother who hadn’t yet graduated. “The Hell Silkworm isn’t all that far from the Southern Marches. This is your first real voyage out to sea, isn’t it? You’ve been longing for the overseas world, haven’t you?”
He’d already been standing at the bow for several hours.
Xu Qi’an acted as though he hadn’t heard a thing. He stood still and looked into the distance. After a long while, he pointed towards the end of the horizon and said in a low voice:
“Do you know what’s on the other side of the sea?”
The Nine-tailed Fox froze for a moment, then instinctively replied:
“The descendants of gods and demons…”
“No!”
Xu Qi’an shook his head, turned around, and fixed her with burning eyes.
“I used to think the other side of the sea was freedom. Later I found it was enemies. And only later did I realise it was actually a virus!”
Seeing the fox seductress staring blankly at him, her face full of confusion, Xu Qi’an immediately lost interest.
How boring. She doesn’t get my meme.1
At that point, the Nine-tailed Fox reacted and said in mock annoyance:
“You’re talking nonsense again.”
Xu Qi’an shot back:
“What do you mean, again?”
As though we know each other that well.
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox was obviously not some obedient woman who answered every question. She blinked and said slyly:
“Guess!”
Other than Fuxiang, who else could it be… Xu Qi’an ignored her. He couldn’t be bothered replying, and simply continued looking out at the sea.
“Tell me about what you’ve seen overseas.”
The silver-haired yao enchantress put away her flirtatious manner and looked towards the south-west.
“If we sail another five hundred li to the south-west, there’s an island full of karst caves. Merpeople live on it. The Mermaid Queen is beyond-mortal, probably around the early third rank in strength. That’s the first landmark after we set out to sea.
“Once we reach Mermaid Island, we’ll have to sail south.”
Merpeople, eh. Beyond-mortal is too low. Even if I drained all her essence blood, it wouldn’t help me in the slightest… Xu Qi’an’s heart stirred.
“Can they sing? Use their songs to lure fishermen out at sea, trick them into the water, then eat them?”
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox shook her head.
“If they want to eat people, why would they need songs? They can just stir up wind and waves and capsize the boats.”
That’s not at all like the mermaids I imagined… Xu Qi’an asked unwillingly:
“What do they look like?”
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox explained casually, as if chatting idly:
“They have human upper bodies and fish tails. Their tails are covered in hard azure or black scales. Merpeople are handsome and beautiful, whether male or female, and all of them have exceptionally fine looks. Mm, it’s said they’re extremely loyal to their mates. Once they form a pair bond, they’ll only go into heat for that one person.
“And if their mate dies, they won’t seek another lover. Some even leave the group and live alone. When a merman reaches the age of three hundred, a kind of pearl forms within their body. If they hold that pearl when they see the one they love, it glows.”
That reminds me of that eternal question troubling young men everywhere, do you pick the top or bottom half… Xu Qi’an grumbled inwardly while commenting aloud:
“A very interesting race.”
The only pity was the human body and fish tail combination. Extremely pleasing to look at, but not very practical.
“Other than the route you already know well, have you ever tried broadening the sea lanes?” Xu Qi’an said. “If you haven’t found your own kin, there’s a good chance they aren’t on the route you’re familiar with.”
“That’s because you’ve never been out to sea. Your experience is limited.”
The silver-haired yao enchantress smiled sweetly, with a certain sense of superiority in that smile, like an eagle soaring in the sky looking down at a frog in a well.
“The world overseas isn’t as simple as you think. Even though you can now travel to the Western Regions by morning and Mount Jing City by evening, Jiuzhou is only one part of this world, not the whole of it. You have no idea how vast the world beyond Jiuzhou really is.
“Nor do you know how immense and boundless the ocean is. Once you take the wrong route, you could very well lose yourself in the endless sea. Even if you’re a first rank martial artist and can ride the wind, you’d still lose your way.
“I’ll tell you a secret that ordinary beyond-mortal experts would never know. Once, a descendant of gods and demons went out to sea to explore, and ended up lost in the boundless ocean. By the time it returned to Jiuzhou, more than ten years had passed.
“Do you know how it found its way back? That involves one of the secrets of this world.”
After saying that, the silver-haired yao enchantress stared fixedly at Xu Qi’an, trying to see surprise and curiosity in his eyes.
“What secret?”
Xu Qi’an asked offhandedly.
At worst, it just circled the world and discovered the world was round… he mocked inwardly.
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox disliked his attitude. She gave a delicate snort and changed her mind, deciding not to tell him what the world was really like.
For example, beyond Jiuzhou, upon the vast oceans, there weren’t only islands, but also endless stretches of immense land.
For example, after drifting for years, that descendant of gods and demons had flown in one direction and somehow returned to Jiuzhou, discovering that heaven and earth were round.
These secrets might not be important, but they concerned the fundamental nature of the world.
Ever since this fellow Xu Ningyan had advanced to first rank, he’d become so arrogantly aloof. She no longer felt like telling him any of it.
Let him stay an ignorant native of Jiuzhou.
“Among the routes you know, are there any descendants of gods and demons at second rank?” Xu Qi’an asked.
The silver-haired yao enchantress shook her head.
“This queen alone can sweep aside every settlement of descendants of gods and demons along the route.”
That’s a bit grim. The ones left are all crooked melons and split dates, completely useless. Xu Qi’an frowned deeply.
If he wanted to rely on third rank essence blood to advance to a half-step Martial God, it was practically impossible. It was true that quantitative change could produce qualitative change, but where exactly that threshold lay, Xu Qi’an himself had no idea.
Perhaps even slaughtering every third rank in Jiuzhou, including all the descendants of gods and demons, still wouldn’t be enough to support his ascent to half-step Martial God.
“We were always just heading out to sea to try our luck in the first place, so don’t hope for too much. Still, after Mermaid Island, if we go eight hundred li south, we might find something. There’s a very interesting place there.”
The Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox didn’t talk them into a dead end.
“What kind of place?” Xu Qi’an asked at once.
But the silver-haired yao enchantress kept him in suspense and didn’t tell him.
And so the two of them drifted at sea for three days. On the fourth day, Xu Qi’an sank his consciousness into the Earth Book fragment and discovered that, within the chaotic space, the light orbs corresponding to the eight fragments had already become extremely dim.
This meant the connection between the fragment in his hand and the other eight fragments had become extremely weak. To put it plainly, there was no signal.
At this rate, in a few more days I’ll have drifted out so far I’ll be completely cut off… While his consciousness remained immersed in the Earth Book, his ear twitched and he heard the silver-haired yao enchantress’s soft and charming voice.
“That’s Mermaid Island over there.”
Xu Qi’an hurriedly opened his eyes and saw the tall figure of the Nine-tailed Fox standing at the bow and pointing towards the end of the horizon.
There was the faint outline of an island there.
Because of the distance and angle, they could only see one corner of it and couldn’t tell how large it actually was.
The silver-haired yao enchantress said with a smile:
“Merpeople are fairly mild-tempered. We can go there as guests, and while we’re at it, find out whether there are any settlements of descendants of gods and demons beneath the sea. You know, descendants of gods and demons with water attributes like living in the sea.
“And the seabed isn’t a realm we’re familiar with, whereas Merpeople can live both on land and under the sea.”
Although she’d gone out to sea several times, she’d never explored the ocean floor.
Fox spirits weren’t good at fighting underwater. If her luck was bad and she met a water-attuned beyond-mortal of the same rank, it could very easily turn to a bad situation.
Of course, crude martial artists didn’t have that concern. Even if attacked by a water-attuned beyond-mortal of the same rank, a martial artist could rely on their own crudeness and, after taking the nastiest beating, still return safely to the surface.
“Mm, if I remember correctly, the Mermaid Queen is still unmarried. Silver Gong Xu could subdue her, keep her by his side, and favour her whenever he’s lonely,” the fox spirit said with a seductive smile.
“Does teasing me make you happy?” Xu Qi’an shot her a sidelong glance, then changed tack. “Right, no time to lose. Let’s hurry to Mermaid Island and gather some information.”
Just as he was speaking, the rolling blue waves brought over a floating corpse. The body had soaked until it had turned pale. Its upper half looked much like that of a human woman. Its hair was dark green, and a row of small dorsal fins ran along its back.
Its lower half should have been a fish tail. The reason for saying should have been was that the tail had been severed at the waist. The wound was a bloody mess, as if some monster had bitten it clean off by brute force.
This mermaid wore a light suit of vine-woven armour. Beneath the armour, the flesh was mangled, and it had clearly been dead for quite some time.
“Oh?”
After examining the corpse for a moment, the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox said:
“This is one of the Mermaid Queen’s personal guards. Mm, looks like the Merpeople have run into trouble.”
References attack on titan ↩
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