Chapter 244: Extra: Lan Cangming and Anan 1

Chapter 244: Chapter 244: Extra: Lan Cangming and Anan 1

The salty seawater choked her throat, and Su An’an’s eyes flew open.

Sunlight pierced the shallow surface of the water, casting shifting patches of light on the coral reef below.

She instinctively kicked her legs to swim upward, but a tearing pain shot through them.

Her once slender legs were now a single fishtail shimmering with a faint pink luster. In the sunlight, its scales refracted a pearlescent halo.

The fin at its end, however, had an eerie transparency, as if it might dissipate at any moment.

"What’s going on?"

She pressed her throbbing temples as fragmented images flashed through her mind.

Flickering torches in a dark cave, a man’s sturdy back, a strange stone sculpture that suddenly came to life...

"Watch out!"

In her memory, the blurry figure of a man shoved her aside, and a black mist spewing from the sculpture instantly engulfed him.

"Ah!"

Su An’an curled up, her head splitting with pain. When she opened her eyes again, even those fleeting images were gone.

"Your Highness, you’re finally awake!"

A clownfish with a glowing pink spot on its head darted out from a crevice in the coral, circling her anxiously.

It made a choppy, mechanical sound, like a radio with bad reception:

"You and Lan... caught... curse... Black Priest... abyss..."

"Speak clearly!"

Su An’an swished her new pink tail and moved closer.

The clownfish suddenly spat out a glowing bubble that landed precisely on her wrist. "Look... Divine Contract."

Su An’an looked down. A faint golden pattern was barely visible beneath her skin, like a contract that had been spattered with ink.

"WHOOOM!"

The dull sound of a conch horn echoed from the distance.

The clownfish suddenly spun in excitement, the pink light on its head flaring brightly. "It’s Lan...’s fleet."

"PSST!"

A blue Ice Cone pierced the fish’s head, and its mechanical voice instantly distorted into harsh static:

"ZZT... Lan... amnesia... Your Highness... run!"

The pink light went out, and the fish’s corpse slowly sank.

Before Su An’an could react, a powerful current slammed her against the coral reef.

Wincing in pain, she looked up and met a pair of icy blue eyes.

His blue hair drifted in the water like seaweed, the gill covers behind his ears opened and closed slightly, and his chest and arms were covered in fine silver scales.

His powerful tail fin cut sharp arcs through the water with the slightest flick, and his entire being radiated an inviolable authority.

Yet for some reason, Su An’an’s heart skipped a beat.

’I feel like I’ve seen those eyes before.’

"A half-breed?!"

Lan Cangming stared at the pink mermaid’s flickering tail, his voice low and dangerous.

"Who sent you?"

Sensing the danger from the man, Su An’an instinctively turned to flee, but he grabbed her by the neck and pinned her against the sharp coral.

A sharp pain shot through her back. She gritted her teeth, instinctively gathered pink Divine Light in her palm, and slammed it into his chest.

"Ugh." Lan Cangming grunted and abruptly let go.

The moment the pink light touched his scales, they became searing hot, and a burning pain spread across his chest.

’This burning sensation is strangely familiar.’

Su An’an seized the opportunity to escape, her pink tail breaking the surface as she swam away at high speed.

"Stop!"

Lan Cangming’s silver tail cut a sharp arc through the water as he reached out to grab her wrist.

Su An’an jerked back, pushing off the coral reef with her pink tail, but just as she put force into it, the tail suddenly went limp.

The edges of her tail fin had begun to turn transparent.

"Damn it!"

Gritting her teeth, she threw out a blast of pink light, but Lan Cangming dodged it with a sideways movement.

The light grazed his silver scales, exploding into a cloud of tiny bubbles on the seafloor.

Lan Cangming’s handsome face darkened. He conjured several Ice Crystal Lock Chains in his palm, which instantly wrapped around her waist.

A bone-chilling cold spread through her scales, and she realized with a start that her tail fin was rapidly freezing over.

"Let me go!" She struggled, throwing a punch, only to have more ice chains bind her arms.

Lan Cangming swam in front of her, his blue hair floating in the water. A flicker of emotion she couldn’t decipher crossed his eyes.

"Shut up!" he said in a low voice. With a light tap of his finger, a final Ice Crystal sealed her mouth.

The Mermaid Clan’s prison was built deep within an undersea canyon, surrounded by glowing abyssal plants.

Su An’an was thrown into a huge Water Prison. A translucent Barrier kept the seawater out, leaving only a waist-deep pool inside.

She leaned against the edge of the pool, her tail weakly slapping the water’s surface.

The golden pattern on her wrist was nearly invisible in the dim light, but the feeling of being shackled grew stronger and stronger.

Night fell, and the deep sea was plunged into darkness.

Not long after, the cell door was pushed open, and Lan Cangming walked in alone.

He had changed into a simple silver robe, his long hair tied back. He looked less severe than he had during the day, but his eyes were still just as cold.

"Your name," he said, standing at the edge of the pool and looking down at her.

Su An’an looked up and sneered. "If you knew my name, would I still be locked up in here by you?"

Lan Cangming’s eyes narrowed. He suddenly reached out and seized her chin. "Tell me the truth. Don’t play games."

Su An’an bit down hard on his wrist.

"Hiss!"

He let go with a wince of pain, but the instant she tried to flip herself out of the pool, he manipulated the current and slammed her back to the bottom.

"Move again," his voice was as cold as ice, "and I’ll break your tail."

Su An’an looked up from the water, her wet hair plastered to her face, eyes burning with rage. "Then try it!"

She charged toward the cell door, but the Barrier erupted in a blinding Golden Light, throwing her back into the water.

The resulting splash soaked Lan Cangming’s silver robe.

He stood frozen as the strange burning sensation in his chest surged once more.

Staring at her drenched but still defiant figure, fragmented images suddenly flashed through his mind.

A rooftop swimming pool, twinkling starlight, a gentle breeze, and shy roses hiding on a flower wall.

A woman in a light yellow swimsuit walked toward him.

The moment she hit the water, her legs transformed into a pink fishtail and tangled with his...

"Who in the world are you?"

Lan Cangming’s pupils contracted, his voice a few shades deeper than before.

"Why did you appear in the Mermaid Holy Land? And why did you trespass in the spawning grounds?"

Su An’an wiped the water from her face, hunger and anger rushing to her head. "I told you, I don’t remember anything."

"Amnesia?" Lan Cangming sneered, forming tiny Ice Crystals at his fingertips.

"You expect me to believe an excuse like that?"

"Believe it or not, I don’t care."

Su An’an clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms.

"All I know is that I woke up in this sea, and I don’t even know who I am."

"Then how do you explain the Divine Contract Mark?"

He took a step closer, his ice-blue eyes as sharp as knives. "Only someone of the Royal Family’s bloodline can trigger the Barrier of the Mermaid Holy Land."

"By what right can a half-breed like you do it?"

The question left Su An’an speechless, and a wave of dizziness washed over her.

She steadied herself against the wall of the pool. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Still trying to argue?"

Lan Cangming raised his hand to grab her shoulder, but she twisted away to dodge him.

Amidst a splash of water, Su An’an’s tail fin slapped hard against the surface. "Instead of interrogating someone with amnesia, why don’t you go find out who’s really behind all this!"

"Marshal!"

The voice of his adjutant, Lei Ya, came from outside the door. "The Sea Witch is looking for you, sir."

Lan Cangming froze. He shot Su An’an a cold glance—a look that said this wasn’t over—then turned and left.

The moment the cell door closed, Su An’an’s strength finally gave out. She slid down the wall of the pool, the golden pattern on her wrist growing faintly hot.