Chapter 334 - 326

Chapter 334: Chapter 326

No one dared say another word.

Shame spread through their hearts.

After drinking the Vitality Water left by Shen Yue, a gentle warmth instantly surged through them. The wounds on their bodies healed at a visible rate, and their hoarse voices regained some clarity.

The dejection in the eyes of Huang Ziyue, Bai Chaosi, and the others vanished, replaced by a do-or-die resolve. Shen Yue had entrusted her back to them, trusted them with the children and the people of the Sea Clan. They could no longer afford to wallow in self-blame; they had to bear this responsibility.

From then on, several figures moved ceaselessly, day and night, between the Deep Sea and the land. Huang Ziyue led the Dragon Guard, scouring the seabed ravines and reef caves. They searched every inch of seawater, desperate not to miss the slightest trace of the black-robed figures. Bai Chaosi and Gu Fangqi tracked the ocean currents in the Sea Clan’s territory, coordinating with coastal Beast Clan tribes to cast an inescapable net, hoping to find any clue, however small, of the children. Meanwhile, Mu Silin and Ye Siqi remained with the evacuated Sea Clan, calming their fears while dispatching teams to aid the search. Yun Lie Ting, relying on the keen senses of the Beast Clan, patrolled the border between the Deep Sea and the land. If he caught even a whiff of an unfamiliar scent, he would give chase for hundreds of miles.

But the month dragged on, feeling as long as a century.

The Black Sea remained deathly still, its inky waters churning with an icy mist. There was no news of Shen Yue, as if she had completely dissolved into that deadly Purgatory, never to return. The children, too, had vanished without a trace. Though the Dragon Guard scoured every desolate forest on the continent and agents from the Mystic Mechanism Building exhausted every lead, they found nothing—not a single cry, not a wisp of a familiar scent.

Despair, like an undercurrent in the Deep Sea, slowly enveloped Huang Ziyue and the others. The bloodshot veins in their eyes never faded. They grew thinner by the day, and the aura around them became increasingly cold, yet their determination to find them never wavered. Every night, they would gaze toward the Black Sea, their hearts wrung with guilt and longing. They feared for Shen Yue, worried she had met with disaster, and they feared for the children, imagining their suffering at the hands of the black-robed figures. The dual torment pushed them to the brink of collapse.

Meanwhile, dissent among the people of the Sea Clan grew louder with each passing day.

Initially, the people were uneasy but still placed their trust in the Mermaid King, Huang Ziyue, and the others. But a month passed. The Black Sea didn’t advance; in fact, it was eerily calm. With no progress in finding the missing children, suspicion and discontent erupted.

"It’s been a month, and we haven’t seen so much as a shadow of the Black Sea! This is all a lie, I tell you!"

"Exactly! They made us leave our homes, and now we can’t even go back! This so-called ’crisis’ is probably just a lie cooked up by the Emperor’s Master and those from the Land Beast Clan!"

"They can’t even protect their own children, yet they claim they can protect us? They’re nothing but a bunch of incompetents!"

"We want to go home! Even if the Black Sea really comes, we’ll defend our homeland! We won’t just cower here, barely surviving!"

The tribal leaders gathered, their faces ashen, and pressured the Mermaid King to return to their home waters immediately. The young Sea Clan warriors grew restless, gripping their weapons and threatening to go back on their own. The elders gazed toward their homeland, sighing endlessly, their eyes filled with longing. Their gazes, once grateful toward Huang Ziyue and his companions, were now filled with resentment and distrust.

The Mermaid King and Queen watched their enraged people, their brows furrowed with worry. They explained the dangers of the Black Sea again and again, but with nothing happening, their words felt empty and powerless. The Mermaid Queen stared at the chaotic crowd, her eyes red-rimmed, unable to offer any more words of comfort. She knew that if this continued, the Sea Clan would tear itself apart before the Black Sea even arrived.

Meanwhile, in the depths of the Black Sea, Shen Yue had been reduced to a mere vessel for the Devouring God Flower’s power.

She continued to wander aimlessly through a sea of corpses, her eyes vacant and lifeless. A dense black mist, perfectly fused with the power of the Devouring God Flower, coiled around her. The faint golden Vitality Power was sealed deep within her Divine Soul, unable to emit the slightest glow. The shrieks of lingering souls and the wails of the dead were all she could hear; fragmented visions of death were all she could see.

Her skin grew cold and pale, her hair stained with flecks of inky petals. Every breath she took carried the decaying stench of the Devouring God Flower. Countless withered vines from the flower wrapped around her limbs, pulling her deeper into the Black Sea, toward its core where the black mist was thickest and the stench of death was strongest. She didn’t resist or struggle. Like a marionette, she allowed the vines to guide her, utterly lost in darkness and death. She forgot everything—the world, who she was, and the people she had fought so desperately to protect.

When Huang Ziyue and the others received word of a disturbance deep within the Black Sea—a report from a Mystic Mechanism Building agent who had risked their life to investigate—they were frantic with worry. They repeatedly approached the edge of the Black Sea, desperate to charge in and find Shen Yue. But the sea’s wards and its black mist were too bizarre. Anyone who came within several hundred yards was assaulted by a violent, deathly power that threatened to devour their very Divine Soul. After several failed attempts, they were forced back, able only to gaze at the inky expanse and roar in frustration.

A month of agony. The children were still missing, there was no way to find his wife, and the Sea Clan was turning against them. All the pressure weighed on Huang Ziyue and the others like a mountain, leaving them barely able to breathe.

One day, the group gathered again at the edge of the Black Sea. They stared at the deathly still, inky water, their eyes filled with grim determination.

"I can’t wait any longer," Bai Chaosi said, their voice hoarse but firm. They clenched their fists, their aura flaring. "Even if charging in means my soul will be annihilated, I have to find Yueyue!"

Mu Silin, Ye Siqi, and the others followed suit, activating their powers. Light flared around them, all hesitation gone from their eyes. Even if the Black Sea was a deadly Purgatory, even if they were facing near-certain death, they could not abandon Shen Yue. And they certainly couldn’t give up hope of finding the children.

Huang Ziyue’s dark red eyes were fixed on the depths of the Black Sea, a menacing aura churning around him. He raised his hand and commanded in a deep voice, "Dragon Guard, form up! We’re charging into the Black Sea!"

Just as they gathered their power, poised to plunge into the Black Sea, a figure shot toward them from the distant waters. Moving with the speed of lightning and radiating the unique aura of the Beast Clan, the newcomer landed before the group in a flash.

Everyone turned at the sound, their eyes wide with shock.

The newcomer’s clothes were travel-stained, his expression grim. It was Si Muye, who hadn’t been seen in a long time.

He glanced at the group, poised to strike, then at the churning black mists of the sea. His brow furrowed, and he spoke with an urgent gravity that cut through their preparations. "You can’t go into the Black Sea! If you go in now, you won’t save Shen Yue—you’ll just be throwing your lives away!"