Chapter 268: Harbour city 9.

The egg, still not fully hatched, grew warmer and more active by the day, occasionally emitting a faint humming sound that only Su Yubing seemed able to soothe with a few gentle strokes of ice qi against its shell whenever it grew restless in the middle of the night.

Rumors about the Frost and Blade pair kept spreading too, jumping from ship to ship whenever they crossed paths with other vessels making the same crossing, until by the time they were within a couple weeks of the southern continent border, there were at least three completely different exaggerated stories circulating about how Mo Yuxin had supposedly fought off an entire Blood Shadow Sect fleet single handedly while Su Yubing froze the ocean solid for several li in every direction around the ship. Neither of them bothered correcting any of it. It was more entertaining, honestly, to just let the stories keep growing on their own.

The real trouble, the last real trouble of the crossing anyway, came less than a week before they were due to sight the southern continent’s coastline, when the water ahead of the Tide Dragon’s route turned an unnatural shade of dark green and the entire ocean surface for what looked like several li in every direction began to churn and boil without any visible cause behind it.

"Abyssal Leviathan," Captain Han said grimly, gripping the ship’s wheel tight enough that his knuckles went white. "I have heard stories about this stretch of water my whole life. Old sailors call it the Sunken Strait. Nobody who meets one of those things and survives usually wants to talk about it afterward, from what I have always heard."

The Leviathan, when it finally surfaced, was easily the largest creature any of them had ever seen up close, its body stretching longer than the Tide Dragon itself several times over, dark scales shifting between deep green and black depending on how the light hit them, and a single massive eye that swept across the surface of the water with an intelligence that felt uncomfortably deliberate for a mere beast. Several other ships making the same crossing nearby had already scattered in panic, and the Tide Dragon’s own crew braced for what looked like a hopeless fight against something so far beyond them.

Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing exchanged a look, the kind of look that had become fairly familiar to everyone who had spent enough time around them by this point, the silent conversation of two people deciding without words who was doing what in the fight ahead.

"Together this time," Mo Yuxin said. "It is bigger than the jiao beast by a fair amount, and I would rather not take chances with everyone else’s lives on the line."

"Together," Su Yubing agreed, already stepping up onto the railing beside her, the egg’s pouch secured safely against her hip.

They dropped from the ship’s railing at the same moment, falling toward the churning water below with the kind of calm that made half the watching crowd forget to breathe entirely. Su Yubing struck first, spreading her arms wide as a massive dome of frost qi erupted outward from her position, freezing a huge section of the boiling water solid in an instant, trapping the Leviathan’s lower body against the newly formed ice and slowing its enormous thrashing tail just enough to matter in the fight ahead. The creature roared, a sound that shook the air itself and sent spray flying in every direction, twisting its massive head toward her with obvious fury at being restrained so suddenly.

That was exactly the opening Mo Yuxin needed. She moved through the air like the wind itself was carrying her, sword drawn and trailing that same silver ribbon of light from before, except brighter now, sharper, gathered with clearly far more intent than she had bothered using on the jiao beast weeks earlier. The blade found the exact space just behind the Leviathan’s skull, driving deep in a single decisive strike that sent a shockwave rippling outward across the frozen water, and the enormous creature’s roar cut off mid breath, its whole massive body going still and then slowly, finally, slumping sideways into the ice covered sea with a splash that rocked every nearby ship hard enough to knock a few unprepared sailors clean off their feet.

Silence followed, the kind of stunned silence that seemed to stretch on forever, before someone on one of the nearby scattered ships started cheering, and then someone else joined in, and within moments the whole stretch of ocean was filled with the sound of relieved, disbelieving cheers from crews who had genuinely expected to die only minutes earlier that same afternoon.

Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing floated back up toward the Tide Dragon’s deck together, hand in hand, looking mildly pleased with themselves in the understated way that had become their trademark by now, while Ruan Xue practically screamed with excitement and even Captain Han, normally so composed after decades on the water, let out a long breath and shook his head with something like disbelieving respect written plainly across his weathered face.

"I have sailed this route for forty years," he said. "I have never once seen anything like the two of you in my entire life, and I doubt I ever will again."

"We try not to make a habit of it," Mo Yuxin said modestly, sheathing her sword, though the faint smile tugging at her mouth suggested she did not mind the attention nearly as much as she pretended to.

A representative from one of the other scattered ships rowed over within the hour, offering an almost embarrassing amount of spirit stones and a formal invitation to visit their sect as honored guests, which Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing politely declined together, insisting they were only passing through toward the southern continent and had no interest in detours or formal recognition for simply protecting people who did not deserve to die out here.

.........

Three days later, the southern continent finally rose up out of the horizon, a long dark line of coastline that slowly resolved into visible cliffs and distant mountains as the Tide Dragon closed the remaining distance, and the entire ship seemed to hold its breath collectively at the sight of it, months of open ocean finally coming to an end after everything they had all been through together. The border port waiting for them, a sprawling cluster of docks and stone buildings built up against the base of the cliffs called Nanwu Border Port, was already busy with ships from a dozen different sects and factions, all of them drawn here by whatever opportunities the southern continent supposedly offered to cultivators willing to make the long crossing to reach it.

Ruan Xue and Chen Hao’s group would be parting ways here, their sect having business further inland in a different direction than wherever Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing were ultimately headed next, and the goodbye on the docks turned out to be more emotional than any of them quite expected after months of shared voyage together.

"You have to promise you will find us again," Ruan Xue said, gripping Su Yubing’s sleeve with a fierce sort of determination, her eyes suspiciously wet despite her best efforts. "I still have so many things I want to ask you. About the ice technique, and the manual, and just, everything really."

"We will find you," Su Yubing promised gently, and pressed a small token into her hand, a simple carved jade pendant that would let them locate one another again no matter how far apart they ended up traveling. "Take care of yourself, Ruan Xue. Keep training hard, and do not forget everything Mo Yuxin taught you about your shoulder."

"That was Chen Hao’s lesson, not mine," Ruan Xue sniffled, laughing wetly despite herself.

Chen Hao bowed properly to both of them, though his usually composed expression cracked just slightly at the corners as he straightened back up. "It has been an honor, senior Mo, senior Su. I hope our paths cross again soon, wherever we all end up on this continent."

"They will," Mo Yuxin said with easy confidence. "The world is big, but it is not that big, not for people who actually want to find each other again."

Once the goodbyes were finished and the crowd on the docks had thinned somewhat, Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing stood together near the edge of the pier, looking out at the sprawling southern continent stretching before them, an entire new world of unknown sects, unknown dangers, and unknown opportunities waiting just beyond the border port’s walls. The egg in its pouch at Su Yubing’s hip gave another small trembling pulse, warmer than ever before, like it too could sense they had finally arrived somewhere entirely new after so long at sea.

"So," Su Yubing said, threading her fingers through Mo Yuxin’s. "Where to first, wife?"

Mo Yuxin looked down at their joined hands, then out at the unfamiliar horizon ahead of them, and felt that same steady warmth settle in her chest that she had carried with her every single day since Su Yubing had finally agreed to be hers, months of ocean crossing and monster fights and quiet nights together only making it grow stronger rather than fading with familiarity the way she had once, briefly, worried it might.

"Wherever you want," she said simply. "As long as we go there together."

Su Yubing smiled, the kind of smile that still, after everything, made Mo Yuxin’s chest feel tight in the best possible way, and together they stepped off the dock and into the southern continent, the egg warm between them and the whole unwritten rest of their journey waiting just ahead.

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TO BE CONTINUED.