Chapter 1294: The Adulterous Couple (Two-in-One)

Splash, splash.

Iron chains wrapped around water weeds, tightening and loosening, churning out dense bubbles; their far ends linked to massive cargo crates made of crab shell, and the winter sun pierced the seawater, casting surging, flowing golden light onto the seabed.

"Tsk!"

The current swirled.

Five chubby toes sank in, squeezing out white sea sand, leaving footprints one after another; the four-limbed, knotted and sturdy salamander exhaled streams of air, hauling this year's Whale Emperor tribute, rushing toward Cloud Heaven Palace. Arthopod legs stood like a forest, thrust into the seabed; water spiders shrouded in bubbles walked along the bottom.

East Sea merfolk with skin darker than the Jianghuai merfolk swayed gracefully, fish tails undulating, weaving through the vast procession stretching for miles, holding up treasures in their hands, exchanging goods with the yaoguai; every successful trade set the gills behind their necks fluttering at high frequency, releasing a flurry of bubbles.

Suddenly.

A black dot appeared on the cargo container; catching it from the corner of her eye, the mermaid grabbed a towel and reached to wipe it, but it wouldn't come off — then she discovered the black dot had arrived on the back of her own hand, and from a tiny speck it rapidly expanded into a complete oval.

Not dirt — a shadow.

The mermaid looked up.

Boom!

A huge hole tore open in the sky.

Within the great hole, a seamless pale-green treasure ship rode auspicious clouds, parting the sea of clouds; streaming clouds clung along the hull, wispy and ethereal, condensing into water droplets that swiftly rolled away; the solid, narrow keel resembled a sharp blade, cleaving straight down from the horizon!

The cargo containers were shrouded in shadow; the circling fish schools scattered in panic.

The yaoguai erupted in alarmed cries.

Yaoguai, great yaoguai surfaced one after another — turtles, fish, snakes, whales, porpoises, every kind imaginable.

"A ship? Humans."

"Cloud whales bearing a ship — not coming to pay homage, but personally invited by the Whale Emperor; who has that kind of face?"

"Must be the Whale Emperor's honored guest. Wonder if we'll have the luck to make their acquaintance."

"I recognize it — the Great Shun dynasty's Creation Treasure Ship! Should be the rumored Prince of Huai; could it be related to the Great Hunt? Heard the previous one was hosted by the Prince of Huai in Huangzhou."

"Great Shun — maybe they're here to do business; wasn't it said a few years back that sea merchants had dealings with human factions? A lot more pills appeared."

A spearfish shook its head: "Only dealt for a few years; later when the Skate King took over it stopped again, don't know why. Seems the Sea Steward did a poor job, playing both sides, and together with the White Ape poisoned the Eight-Clawed King, handed over goods not to mention, and after being discovered was driven out by the Merfolk King, went to Jianghuai, and together with the White Ape drove away the Flood Dragon."

"What? There's such a thing? How did the monkey and the octopus manage that?"

"Don't understand, do you? This is the Eight-Clawed clan's innate divine ability! Like this, like that, indescribably wonderful."

"Heavens, no peace wherever they go; broad daylight, bright universe — truly a pair of adulterers! Disgusting, disgusting; I'd rather find nightfall; truly ruining our East Sea customs, endangering our East Sea young fish; I always said female fish can't run a household, the most vicious is a fish wife's heart!

Sigh, miss the days when the old Eight-Clawed King was around; that Jianghuai White Ape harboring the Sea Steward, a den of land and water, wasn't anything good either; not like the old Dragon Lord — I say it's still the Flood Dragon who's magnanimous."

Cloud Heaven Palace — every year yaowang come to pay homage; rarely does a human Wu Sheng arrive; beyond surprise, it caused no panic at all; all yaoguai knew clearly that whether human or ghost, none dared act recklessly on the Whale Emperor's territory.

Several large snakes coiled their bodies, gazes deep and cold, staring fixedly at the treasure ship.

"Wuhu, Master, come quick, look — the fish here are all flying in the sky!"

"I see it."

Thick boot soles trod the deck with a dull thud; Liang Qu straightened his cuffs, leading Eying out from the cabin.

The treasure ship broke through the cloud layer; the cloud whales turned, diving downward all the way, slowly weakening their true gang, skimming low over the sea surface.

Cold sea wind stirred the air, refreshing the mind.

All beauty, in the high speed, rushed wholesale into the eyeballs.

The sea surface was strewn with shattered gold; seabirds circled at low altitude.

White clouds drifted extremely low — not the conventional several kilometers, but only a few meters, a few dozen meters! As if the interval between heaven and earth had been completely drawn away, pasted together.

Water beasts in the sea poked their heads left and right, watching them whistle past, as if lining the road in welcome; the strangest thing was the big fish in the seawater — they didn't only live in the seawater.

Splash.

Water droplets crystalline.

Big fish flicked their fins, swimming out in spiral ascending arcs; fish schools gathered midair into vortices, occasionally parting gaps for the big fish; sea turtles mixed in the fish schools, swimming along with them. Skates flicked their long slender tails, leaping out of the water, jumping into the white clouds — they actually swam upward through empty air, level by level, striving upward with all their might!

Even the Martial Hall disciples who often followed Liang Qu running east and west had never witnessed such a scene.

The several classmates who came with Wen Wen Shi Yun — He Hanyu, Wen Junxuan and the rest — even more so; ever since seeing the outbound fleet, crossing the Qiujin afterward, they hadn't closed their mouths from start to finish.

The Prince of Yue was already a remarkable big shot, high above; studying in the same academy, in Ningjiang Prefecture they counted as well-informed, and often saw the Prince of Yue, but only the Prince of Yue. Separated by a province, also a Wu Sheng, the Prince of Huai's level was higher; his knowledge and experience were broader than the Prince of Yue's by who knows how much; he frequently exchanged words with this or that Wu Sheng, and now was even invited by the Furnace — something never read in books.

Wen Wen Shi Yun secretly observed from the side; seeing the few of them marvel, especially He Hanyu's marvel, she felt a touch of pride.

White clouds became tiered stairs; water beasts swam through the void. Most numerous were still flying fish, spreading transparent fins like wings, leaping from the clouds, soaring low over a thousand meters was nothing; dancing with the treasure ship, magnificently peerless.

Some unenlightened small fish strayed in, swam up to a hundred meters high, carelessly swam out, and plummeted straight onto the sea surface, stunning a swirl of blood threads; the sea turtles following the fish school immediately flicked their wing-like fins, stretched their necks to snap them up.

A free lunch.

East Sea!

I'm here!

Liang Qu drew a deep breath of cold air; the chill circulated in his lungs, penetrating heart and spleen.

"Master, how is this done? Why can fish fly — are they all great yaoguai with flight divine abilities? Surely not yaowang?" Wen Wen Shi Yun exclaimed, pointing.

"I've never been to the East Sea, how would I know? It's the special cloud layer, right? Yun Bo."

"This is a Cloud Heaven Palace specialty, and also His Majesty's feat of changing heaven and earth." Yun Bo's voice came from below the ship, "Sea and sky as one — every cloud the size of a square inch can bear a thousand jun of force, yet is incomparably soft; can be built upon, can be lived in; especially flying fish, completely freed from the water surface's constraints."

"Sea and sky as one —" Liang Qu chewed on the phrase's meaning, "Truly amazing."

No one present caught the implication; all chimed in with admiration.

"Everyone hold on, we're about to touch the water surface; we won't slow down, so there may be some slight jolting." Yun Bo warned.

Most present had profound cultivation and feared no jolting, but there were also not a few with ordinary cultivation.

The old toad sucked dry the orange juice, tossed the container, braced the chair back and shifted a bit, better wedging his buttocks.

The ship full of golden-haired monkeys shrieked and chattered, grabbing the shrouds, winding them around their waists.

Ta Ta Kai carried his claws behind his back, legs splayed, striking a Grandmaster pose, standing at the center of the deck; he lifted his head, tilting it slightly upward toward the Golden-Haired Monkey King; the Monkey King burned with rage, threw down the shrouds, leapt down from the lookout, stood beside Ta Ta Kai, also splayed his legs, arms crossed, striking a pose.

An otter and a monkey, chests puffed and heads raised, stared at each other, the hair on their heads flying wildly.

Yang Dongxiong embraced Xu Shi, Ko Wenbin embraced Su Xiaoran, Liang Qu embraced Long Eying, and Long Yao and Long Li watched, shaking their heads with tsk-tsk sounds.

The treasure ship's keel touched the sea surface.

Boom—

A long, narrow spray of white water slapped against the hull and flung out, raising a thin curtain of water; the old toad's belly rippled, Wen Wen Shi Yun gave it a hard shake, nearly losing his grip, but fortunately Lu Gang caught his back in time, lifted him lightly, and he stood steady again, turning to glance at Han Yuyu.

Several classmates also had vine soldiers attending to them.

The treasure ship of creation glided along the sea surface, speeding forward, sliding deeper and deeper, gradually becoming steady.

The river otters and monkeys immediately took their respective posts, returned to their familiar domains, successfully stabilized their formation, and the monkey king and otter king, having neither won nor lost, exchanged a glance, killing intent bursting forth as both beasts simultaneously displayed their movement techniques, rushing toward the helm chamber.

Their feet kicked repeatedly, afterimages crisscrossing.

Jin Mao's tail shot forward, coiling around Otter King's foot, pulling him down; the Monkey King bared his canine teeth, his five-toed soles stomping on Otter King's head, laughing as he leapt out. Otter King angrily slapped the ground, using the recoil to leap up, striking first, he seized the Monkey King's tail and yanked hard—back and forth, Otter King stepped on the Monkey King's head and flew higher, leaping first into the helm chamber.

"Squeak-wah!"

"Hey-ya!"

The doors slammed open and rebounded in succession; the Monkey King and Otter King jointly seized the helm, using all their martial skills—monkey fists, otter claws, patting,

pushing, stepping, ramming, biting—successively gripping the steering rod, finally reversing their grip to seize each other's head hair, pulling hard, eyes rolling down to reveal large patches of sclera, using peripheral vision, they jointly steered.

The ship's speed gradually decreased.

A school of fish swam alongside the ship.

Wen Wen Shi Yun reached out to grab, but couldn't hold on; he couldn't keep up. The sea surface flashed by rapidly, the merfolk in the sea greeted him, unafraid, and returned the salute: "Master, I feel the merfolk of the East Sea are darker in color than those of our Jianghuai."

Ran Zhongshi nodded: "That's correct. I don't know whether it's because the merfolk of the two regions have been separated too long, or due to water and soil conditions, but the Jianghuai merfolk are somewhat paler, and the gills on both cheeks are closer to transparent, while their tail color is sky blue, not deep blue."

"There's such a difference?"

"Naturally."

"Wow, what kind of fish is that?"

Blowing in the sea breeze, asking east and west, Wen Wen Shi Yun had countless questions to ask and countless answers to seek. The cloud layer above pressed close to his face; he was about to reach out and touch it when, under the unobstructed sunlight, a thunderous sound exploded, and crystalline water droplets sprayed onto his face.

The crescent-moon tail submerged into the sea surface and vanished, leaving only the whale's song, lingering and lofty.

Wen Wen Shi Yun's pupils contracted, his mouth gaping open. The treasure ship was already absurdly huge, and the giant whale just now was even more exaggerated—before it, the treasure ship resembled the model ships his master often built in his courtyard, the gray-white cloud layer being its belly pattern!

Liang Qu, Long Eying, Long Yanrui, and several others all had their expressions shift.

"Just now that was———"

"It was Haishan and Lady Hai Yun; perhaps some of you can tell—Haishan is the dragon whale." Yun Bo said, "In ancient times, the Dragon Lord and the Whale Emperor were close friends, who once exchanged essence blood, sharing two dragon whales; today, Haishan and Lady Hai Yun have come especially to welcome the Huai King."

"No wonder———"

Liang Qu glanced at Ze Ding.

【Absorbed a wisp of Dragon Seed Qi】*2

【Dragon Seed Qi: Nine】

【Consuming eleven wisps of Dragon Seed Qi can generate one Yinglong pattern.】

An unexpected delight.

"Martial saints of the human race visiting Yun Tian Palace are few, but not nonexistent; for the East Sea Great Hunt, His Majesty has even ordered us to construct numerous docks for ships to moor."

The treasure ship slowly approached the shore, the iron anchor sank into the seabed, catching on the specially prepared white clouds above.

Liang Qu stepped onto the ground like white jade stone, observing the neatly aligned, straight walkways extending on both sides, resembling a white jade comb, and the walkway only rose three cun above the sea surface, yet it would not be wetted by waves, giving a feeling akin to the Third Prince's divine power of creation.

There were also the white clouds in the sky, and they bore a few similarities to the wind and water edicts he had just obtained.

"Please, everyone."

Yun Bo bowed, his figure further shrinking to the size of one zhang.

Under the observation of countless demons and beasts, a crowd of hundreds shouted and surged as they departed from the harbor.

Yun Tian Palace stood between heaven and earth, above the East Sea, with both its above-water and underwater parts intact, palaces numerous, truly resembling the Great Mountain Fairyland—peaks crowned with forests, the crowd entered from a rear side path, as if stepping into the deep mountains, clouds and mist obscuring vision, vanishing quickly.

The Manta King watched from afar, the treasure ship's mast swaying, a few monkeys squatting in the crow's nest eating peaches and gazing at the ship, worried: "I've heard the Harbor Master gets along well with the Huai King and Bai Yuan; Merman King, will he bear a grudge against me? This Huai King is truly formidable."

The Merman King glanced sideways: "A grudge, so what? Your realm is higher, your cultivation deeper—what is there to fear? Even if he became a furnace or a martial immortal, out of respect for the Whale Emperor's face, he wouldn't dare do anything to you."

"Even if he's a martial immortal, it's still easy to say—big fish bullying small fish is just a couple of pushes; if they start wailing, it's actually embarrassing—either they don't lose their lives, or only a martial saint would be troublesome. Is the cultivation of the withered bones of Nanjiang inferior to this person's? I've heard it said: one spear, just one spear!

Splashed, split in two, and moreover, this person seems to be impacting the Thousandfold Root Sea, making him even more terrifying! Why not, I prepare a generous gift, first go apologize?"

"————" The Merman King fell silent for a moment, "If you don't wish to be a sea merchant, then go be sacrificed."

"，don't, alright alright, let's go in first."

The Manta King flicked his two side fins, found an excuse, said he had some matters for the Merman King to handle personally, waited for his departure, then shifted his gaze and quietly summoned his several confidants.

"Go, fetch the precious medicine I prepared————and also take out that one, repackage it————like this, like that, make sure no other fish sees it, clear and understood? You're asking about this?

This one too should be given to the Huai King, but let him pass it on to Bai Yuan and the Harbor Master, wishing them a hundred years of harmony; I'm not intentionally attacking—position vacant, I'll immediately submit a nomination form, isn't that right? I'm willing to engage in trade with Jianghuai."

"You, yes, you, take out what I prepared, have you seen those few giant snakes over there? The serpent of the Jiaolong————like this, like that, make sure no one—just say I deeply sympathize with the Jiaolong's plight, sternly rebuke Bai Yuan and the Harbor Master, this pair of adulterers! Oppose corrupt customs, firmly refuse to trade with Jianghuai, sanction them with action!"

"Traveling far and wide, today there is a banquet; before the banquet, the Huai King may bring his family to freely tour Yun Tian Palace; if any need arises, call my name, or go out to see the East Sea Chamber of Commerce; after the Huai King rests well, tomorrow he may meet His Majesty."

"Many thanks."

—

Mist and haze rose, faint and elusive.

Plop.

Water splashed open, the Frog Tyrant monopolized the backyard pond, calling for the river otter to add a meal.

For the Great Hunt, many things had already been prepared; the entire estate was little different from that of a human clan, Liang Qu occupied the main house, Long Yao and Long Li, familiar with the place, laid out the beds, just got down from bed, put on their shoes, and Liang Qu's figure shifted, he lay down on it, raising a breeze.

"Huff, exhausted to death."

"Sir, you are a martial saint, after all—only two days on the road, eating well, drinking well, enjoying yourself." Long Yao hugged the quilt, "You say you're tired—what are we saying?"

"What's wrong with the Wu Sheng? Can't the Wu Sheng get tired? Don't you know that now, all thirteen ports along the Two Rivers are on my shoulders alone as an elder?"

"Can get tired, can get tired."

Long Li interjected: "Isn't what the elder is carrying on his shoulders all Lady Eying's big white legs?"

"You little brat, what nonsense are you spouting?" Lady Eying closed the door and embraced Long Li from behind.

"Where did I spout nonsense? Is it that the elder isn't carrying, or is it that Lady Eying's legs aren't white?"

"Still talking?"

"Ow ow ow, Lady Eying, stop digging into my forehead, I won't say it anymore, I won't say it anymore, ow ow ow."

"Hahaha. Knowing it hurts and still not working seriously, be careful Lady Eying will knock your heads, you're naturally not smart, don't knock too much or you'll drool."

"I'm working, I'm working."

Long Yao and Long Li were bustling about, crossing paths in the room.

Lady Eying bent over the desk, rechecking Liang Qu's Great Hunt proposal.

"Huu————"

Liang Qu lay on the bed, his hands intertwined behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He would only see the Whale King tomorrow, and for now he didn't know what he could do in the enemy fish's stronghold.

Look for problems? If you could find any, there'd be ghosts.

Leave a backup? Same logic— the Whale King is benevolent, not easy to bully. Lu Tixia opening a soy sauce shop, a silk shop, and a full hall of water and land dojos would take three punches, but the Whale King only needs one.

He thought and thought.

"Go to the East Sea Chamber of Commerce to look for coral and mermaid tears, feel for water essence, and buy a batch of dragon spirit gauze?"

Since the Jianghuai Grand Theater gained fame, shadow puppets have remained in high demand, especially after the Merfolk joined— basically not enough, and Liang Qu's dragon spirit gauze often has to be taken for emergencies.

Just now, a fleeting glance at the sea still gave people a sense of overwhelming scale.

It was the first time he had seen so many merfolk and treasures— mermaid tears and precious coral must be abundant, possibly leading to a great harvest, and incidentally, to see what the King is really up to.

When Hai Yun first came to him with complaints, this King actually dared to spread rumors, slander the Harbor Master with vicious words, and attack the Harbor Master's subordinates.

The Harbor Master's affairs are Liang Qu's affairs.

Slandering the Harbor Master, attacking the octopus— it's nothing short of wearing open-crotch pants, riding on the Huai King's neck to defecate, and beating Ah Fat right in front of him.

Can this be tolerated?

The Wu Sheng's wife can't just run around freely anymore, must pay attention to influence, wanted to find something but couldn't, now that we've met, we can't act on the Whale King's territory, but we need to figure out a way.

"Idling is idling, Lady— done writing? Come on." Liang Qu sat up, threw on the dragon spirit gauze, put on his boots, "Let's go stroll the Sea Chamber of Commerce together."

"Didn't the elder just say he was tired?"

"Keep being stubborn and I won't take you guys."

Long Yao and Long Li covered their mouths.

"Hmph, that's about right— you two go ask others if anyone wants to go out and stroll the Sea Chamber of Commerce together."

3

"There are, Master, there are." Wen Shi Yun brought Han Yu Yu out, poking their heads out, "Master and disciple, we truly have a tacit understanding— Master, I just came to look for you."

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