Chapter 2836: Sea King Palace

"Speaking of which, you appeared too abruptly. Didn't the Illusory Music Goddess stop you?"

"How could she not?" He Lingchuan lifted his shoulder guard, revealing the wound.

The Earth Mother saw a bloody mess: He Lingchuan was badly wounded.

But after thinking, it still said: "How do I know you're not illusions conjured by the Illusory Music Goddess? That one is extremely skilled at changing faces to deceive people!"

The Illusory Music Goddess initially impersonated Shangguan Biao to provoke the Earth Mother into breaking free from her dream, thus jumping into her trap.

If there's one, there might be two; perhaps all these people before us are transformations by the Illusory Music Goddess scheming against it.

To trick it, the demon realm spared no effort.

"Fine, tell me two things only you and I know." He Lingchuan smiled helplessly, "The agreement we signed is not a vassal treaty. We are merely in a cooperative relationship; you may come and go freely, roam the world."

The Earth Mother blinked. Indeed, when it signed this agreement with the Nine Abysses, no outsiders were present, so it remained unknown to outsiders.

Indeed, it is a secret between the two of them.

"This alone is not enough……"

"Moreover, if necessary, even from ten thousand li away, I can directly cross over to the plains……" He Lingchuan interrupted the Earth Mother, staring at it and speaking slowly, "To be precise, one step into the Secret Realm brings one to the plains. Wasn't this how we coordinated during the battle at the Lingyun Palace and at the Liuli Sea?"

"Hmm……" Yes, this is even more of a secret within a secret; the Nine Abysses could never leak it to outsiders. Only a few know, such as the Mingke Immortal guarding the plains, Ling Jinbao, etc.

Hearing this, the Earth Mother believed somewhat.

It was about to speak when He Lingchuan waved his hand: "Let me say one more secret absolutely no one knows: you like to use dew lotus to calm your spirit, but this wind-dew golden lotus is actually planted in——"

He paused: "planted in the Panlong Secret Realm."

Upon hearing this, the Earth Mother finally dispelled its doubts: "Alright, alright, I believe you are truly the Nine Abysses."

How would others know such details? There are also few who know on the Earth Mother's plains.

Someone nearby grew impatient: "Are we done yet? We need to hurry out."

This stone giant is too sluggish; is it really the sluggish earth nature from legends?

Thus everyone gathered by the lake, preparing to enter the water.

Bao Chi Hai noticed the Earth Mother's hesitation and took out a pill for it: "Take it; it will help you enter the water."

The Earth Mother took it and looked at it, strangely asking: "What is this for?"

"This is a Water-Repelling Pill." Bao Chi Hai explained, "You are not skilled in underwater combat, are you? After swallowing this Water-Repelling Pill, seawater will hardly affect your movements."

The Earth Mother found it even stranger: "Where did you get this?"

"In the dream ahead, we killed a sea demon and extracted several Water-Repelling Pearls from its body."

For example, dragons, snakes, turtles, and some sea demons indeed condense pearls in their bodies, each with wonderful uses. The Earth Mother also didn't think much, swallowed the Water-Repelling Pearl in one gulp, and followed everyone into the lake.

Indeed, after entering the water, it felt no resistance from the surrounding seawater, and its movements were exceptionally light.

The pearl indeed worked.

Sure enough, there was a pitch-black large hole at the lake bottom. As they swam closer, they felt a tremendous suction.

They offered no resistance, allowing the current to sweep them in.

The Earth Mother's vision darkened, and after a few breaths it recovered, only to find the scene before it completely changed:

It was now in the deep sea; as far as the eye could see, seabed reefs crisscrossed, with not a single flat spot.

Yet at such depth, the water was not pitch black, because the seabed was everywhere filled with luminous organisms:

Small fish darting in and out of rock crevices shone in five colors; if in schools, their light shifted in unison.

The squid that had just rushed past from beside the Earth Mother, from tail tip to tentacles, flashed waves of azure light, looking like a signal lamp.

As the group patrolled the seabed, originally pitch-black corners, when they passed, the ground would suddenly bloom with flowers—red, yellow, blue, orange, green, and so on.

But those were not actually flowers, but various kinds of sea anemones. They varied in form, not only in color but also in the frequency of their glow, outlining this seabed as a dreamlike dance floor.

However, the Earth Mother now had no good impression of the words "dreamlike."

"Is this the Sea King's Palace?" the group had just walked past a huge gate tower.

Unlike on land, this gate tower was not built of wood or brick, but naturally formed coral reef, with no trace of human craftsmanship from top to bottom.

Above the gate tower, three large characters were clearly visible:

Sea King Palace.

As they moved forward, the passage widened, the creatures grew more extraordinary, and enemies also rushed forward.

This truly lives up to being the Sea King Palace; the enemies coming forward were either shrimp soldiers and crab generals, or sharks, whales, crocodiles, and eels, surging from all directions, forming a mighty force covering sky and earth.

Fortunately, He Lingchuan had many people here; while advancing, he could still repel wave after wave of enemies.

The group also intentionally protected the Earth Mother, letting it act less. After all, it was already somewhat fatigued, yawning continuously along the way.

This is the manifestation of spiritual exhaustion.

No one knows how long they walked; according to the Earth Mother's feeling, they had at least repelled half the ocean's creatures.

Meanwhile, the buildings in the Sea King Palace grew ever taller and more splendid. Finally, they stood before a vast palace. The Earth Mother could see it from afar, for the entire palace was cast from crystal, each crystal containing luminous matter, making the whole palace resplendent and dazzling beyond description.

He Lingchuan had focused on battle all along, rarely speaking; upon reaching here, he suddenly hummed: "The Sea King's palace is actually this vulgar?"

Bao Chi Hai laughed: "Shouldn't an underwater palace be like this? Or should it be pitch black?"

He Lingchuan glanced at him, said nothing, did not respond, only said: "Let's go in. Barring accidents, the exit from the dream should be here. Of course, the Sea King Xuan Du will not let us pass freely."

The Earth Mother hummed: "That's not up to him."

The group rushed into the palace.

Inside the crystal palace, along the way many sea demons came to intercept, all defeated one by one.

Finally appearing was a huge red sea dragon. Though called a "sea dragon," it actually has no relation to the dragon race; rather, it resembles an eel more, with a flattened body, fins growing on both sides, and skilled in illusion.

Finally, they detoured around a cluster of enormous coral trees and entered a vast, hollow rock cave, where there was no seawater.

Directly ahead, two protruding broken rocks overlapped, forming below a hollow like a half-round door, and within this stone door were fine points of light flickering; at first glance resembling an underwater garden by two parts, but the Earth Mother stared closely:

That was clearly a nebula!