Chapter 544.1 - Tears of the Mermaid Princess
“Whoosh!” Huo Yuhao was suddenly freefalling toward the ocean.
He had been tossed quite a distance away before this, so he was relatively far from his Spirits as he was falling, while Tang Wutong was still unconscious as she hovered in midair.
“Yuhao!” The Snow Empress exclaimed as she flew as fast as she could in his direction.
The Princess of the Sea raised her right hand at Huo Yuhao, and a beam of blue light struck his body.
“No—” The Snow Empress shouted as Huo Yuhao’s other spirits pounced in his direction as quickly as they could. But how could they be faster than the Princess of the Sea, who was firing a beam of blue light at him?
Blue light permeated the air as it swallowed Huo Yuhao’s body.
Huo Yuhao’s five Spirits could feel their souls quiver in that instant, and an unspeakable fear coursed over their bodies. They couldn’t imagine how their futures would be if they lost Huo Yuhao in this moment.
But their eyes shone brilliantly once more in the next moment.
The blue light that enveloped Huo Yuhao’s body immediately transformed into a layer of blue air bubbles that cocooned him. He stopped falling, and hovered in midair once more as it allowed the Snow Empress to jump over.
The layer of air bubbles didn’t have any offensive or defensive capabilities, like all it could do was float. The Snow Empress almost immediately returned to Huo Yuhao’s body and controlled him.
The murderousness in the Princess of the Sea and her daughter’s eyes had completely vanished, and gentle blue light now shone from their bodies.
The Princess nodded in Huo Yuhao’s direction and said, “I’m sorry, Snow Empress. Looks like we did have a misunderstanding before this.”
The Snow Empress reoriented herself and attempted to recall what had just happened. She felt extremely astonished and in disbelief, as her heart was still filled with fear even to this moment because she was afraid of losing Huo Yuhao. At the same time, she was also fearful of the shadow that Tang Wutong’s ninth soul skill had drawn out.
That shadow had suppressed everything around it when it appeared. It was more easily explained for Spirits because they were in their spiritual forms, and their original strength was long gone. But the Princess of the Sea and her daughter weren’t like that! The Princess had more than six hundred thousand years of cultivation, and she would be ranked in the top four among the Ten Great Savage Beasts if she was ranked with the ones on land. But she didn’t have any intention to resist that shadow. What kind of soul skill was that, that it could achieve such an effect?!
Tang Wutong had reopened her eyes by now. A layer of bluish-golden light flickered and disappeared in the instant when she opened her eyes.
“Yuhao!” She screamed as well before she raced in Huo Yuhao’s direction and hugged him. Tang Wutong was still unleashing her martial soul, but it was evident that her ninth soul ring had turned gray. One couldn’t even see that it was there without inspecting her closely.
The Princess and her daughter left the ocean’s surface and flew towards Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong. Their hostility was completely gone by now, and all that was left was an apologetic expression.
They flew in front of Tang Wutong and bowed to her respectfully. “Greetings, Messenger of the Sea God. We express our apologies for our behaviour before this. You are our beacon and guide, and we pray that the Sea God’s light will shine upon us for eternity.”
Tang Wutong nodded and said, “Now you should understand that we don’t harbor ill intentions?”
The Princess nodded hurriedly and said, “Are the two of you, my valued guests, willing to come into our ocean?”
She could vividly remember every single word that the shadow had just said to her, and her eyes were full of eagerness and urgency as she spoke.
The Snow Empress’ voice came from Huo Yuhao’s body as she said, “It’s too late for you to understand. Let’s go, Wutong. Forget about them. If you hadn’t unleashed that ability of yours before this, both you and Yuhao would be in the ocean feeding fish by now.”
The Princess’ expression changed drastically as she forced a laugh and said, “I’m begging you, Snow Empress. Give us a chance. My daughter is about to die, and it’s my fault. If you can save my daughter, I will agree to whatever price you wish us to pay.”
Her voice was full of grief and agony. Her daughter beside her began to sob at the same time, and she bent down for a deep bow.
“You decide, Wutong.” The Snow Empress’ voice became a little more friendly. They were all soul beasts after all. Furthermore, their conflict with humans that the Princess had just told her about moved her in the end.
Tang Wutong nodded in the Princess’ direction and said, “Take us to your child.”
The Princess was overjoyed. She bowed deeply at Tang Wutong before she raised her hands, and gentle blue light enveloped everyone. It transformed into an enormous blue air bubble before it sank into the sea.
The Princess lived up to her name as the Ice Sea’s ruler. The blue bubble landed on the ocean’s surface, and the seawater split around it. There wasn’t a single trace of hindrance as the bubble took them deeper into the ocean. They couldn’t feel a single bit of underwater pressure, and they could even breathe casually.
The seawater’s color grew dark. They could only see the things around them with the light shining faintly from the blue air bubble, but their visibility was low.
All the aquatic soul beasts beneath the ocean automatically backed away when they felt this air bubble’s aura.
They were descending very quickly, and they only started to slow after roughly ten minutes. The depths of the ocean began to light up.
Tang Wutong looked, and her beautiful eyes were overcome with astonishment.
An enormous patch of buildings that resembled halls and palaces were just standing there, deep beneath the ocean. They emanated faint blue colors, and lit up the surrounding several dozen kilometers. There were mermaids swimming through and around them, and every single one of these buildings was made from corals in the oceans, and all sorts of rare minerals.
They weren’t like true human structures, but they possessed the ocean’s characteristics. For instance, Tang Wutong witnessed a mermaid who had just come out from a gigantic seashell that was five meters tall, and was swimming around swiftly in the ocean.
This is the underwater world! It’s magnificent.
All the merfolk swimming around stopped when the Princess of the Sea and her daughter returned. They lowered their heads respectfully and expressed their reverence.
The Princess waved her hand, and only then did those merfolk swim away once more. They didn’t dare to come near, and only those who were especially daring would stare curiously at Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong in the air bubble. Some were confused, while most felt hostile.
The Princess controlled the air bubble and floated to some structures that were completely made from corals. This building was also the largest one in this underwater world.
The bubble gradually grew smaller as the two mermaids emerged from within it. They left two elongated bubbles that covered Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong’s bodies.
Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong could breathe on their own with these bubbles around, and they wouldn’t feel the seawater’s pressure around them.
“My two honored guests, please.” The Princess used her consciousness to pass a message, and gestured at them at the same time before she went ahead to lead the way.
This coral palace was extremely large. It was thirty meters tall and more than a hundred meters wide. A building of such scale was rarely seen even in the human world. This palace radiated dense soul power undulations, and the building itself possessed certain offensive and defensive capabilities. Considering how deep this palace was beneath the ocean, there was no doubt about its safety.
The Princess and her daughter escorted Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong as they drifted inward. Of course, the Snow Empress was still controlling Huo Yuhao’s body.
Huo Yuhao’s unconsciousness was even more absolute after he blocked an attack for Tang Wutong. Even his five Spirits couldn’t feel his spiritual undulations at all; he was in a deep slumber. It wasn’t hard to see how costly using that Godsealing Spell was to him.
The Princess and her daughter took them all the way into the palace’s innermost regions, and stopped when they arrived at a pristinely white room that was constructed entirely from corals.
The two mermaids were already overcome with grief and sadness in this moment, because they could clearly feel that their loved one’s life force was becoming increasingly weaker.
They opened the coral door and took Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong inside.
The room was huge, and there were all kinds of ornaments and decorations inside. There were pearls the size of human heads, shells that were translucent like crystals, and gorgeous seven-colored corals. Every single item would command exorbitant prices in the human world.
There was a bed in the center of the room. The bed was also white, and it seemed a little like jade as it emanated faint chills.
Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong had seen something like that before. It was ice jade.
Back when Huo Yuhao had first discovered the Clear Sky Sect, he had completed his Spirit fusion with the Snow Empress on ice jade, and had nearly made a grave mistake.
There was a young mermaid lying on this bed of ice jade. She looked very similar to the other young princess, except she was a little smaller and more petite. She had flowing blue hair and a golden tail, and still radiated astonishing beauty even though she was just lying there in a deep sleep.
However, her life force was so weak that it was almost undetectable. Her face was ghastly pale, and it carried a tinge of defeat. It appeared like her life was coming to an end.
The Princess and her daughter sobbed uncontrollably as their pearly tears floated through the water and radiated faint white light.
The Princess of the Sea turned around and went down on her knees toward Tang Wutong. “I’m begging you, please save my child. If you can save my child, I promise I will fulfill whatever request you have.”
Tang Wutong arrived in front of the mermaid princess who was in a deep slumber, and she observed her condition closely before she shook her head gently and said, “I’m sorry, Princess of the Sea. There’s nothing I can do.”