The next morning, Yun Shu left Xindu City with the Little Fox at daybreak and headed for the island where the boy emperor and the others were staying, ready to put the next stage of her southward plan into action.
Seated inside the Floating Dream Immortal Carriage, Yun Shu opened the system wardrobe and looked through it. She changed into the Thousand-Tide Radiance robe component from the All Things Tidal outfit, along with several other pieces, planning to test their effects once she went underwater.
If the outfit’s skills worked as she expected, she would have to collect the entire set ahead of time.
The north was plagued by disasters such as drought, while the coastal cities in the south suffered from maritime calamities, especially typhoons.
Even in modern times, a major typhoon could cause tremendous damage, let alone in ancient times.
The danger posed by typhoons was in no way inferior to that of drought.
She had to make preparations early.
“Lil’ Sys, find that blue whale from last time.”
Although she was wearing the Sea of Azure and Bright Moon component, which allowed her to communicate with marine creatures, most of those creatures were not particularly intelligent. Their minds were roughly equivalent to those of two- or three-year-old human children. The last time, she and the system had searched for ages before finding a blue whale that could understand what she said and follow her instructions.
The Little Fox worked furiously across the system panel, and soon pinpointed the blue whale’s location.
“Host, that silly fish is just ahead.”
The blue whale that the Little Fox called a silly fish was floating listlessly on the surface of the sea. A large section of its back rose above the water, and from a distance, it looked like a breathing island.
It slapped the waves with its tail again and again while gazing up and counting the clouds drifting across the sky.
One, two, three…
When it reached the seventeenth cloud, a ring of golden ripples suddenly spread across the sea.
The blue whale whipped around.
At the distant point where sea and sky met, a gleaming white immortal carriage was slowly descending. Its iridescent curtains streamed wildly in the sea breeze, as though it were descending from the heavens wrapped in the rosy light of dawn.
The carriage stopped three feet above the surface of the sea, and a water-blue figure stepped out, walking across the shimmering waves.
“Pearl-Pearl!” The blue whale smacked its tail against the water with a loud slap, sending up a great splash.
It swam toward Yun Shu joyfully.
“Pearl-Pearl, you finally came back to see me! Did you miss me? Did you bring me sugar pills?”
Yun Shu stood upon the surface of the water. The hem of her Thousand-Tide Radiance gown trailed into the waves, while its water-blue gauze rose and fell with the tide. Flecks of phosphorescent light flowed through every fold.
A blue forehead ornament strung with pearls rested against her brow, glowing faintly and making her features appear even more ethereal and aloof.
Perched on Yun Shu’s shoulder, the Little Fox rolled its eyes at the silly blue whale. “Silly fish, I’ve told you ten thousand times. My host’s name is Shu-Shu, not Pearl-Pearl.”
“I remember, Lucky-Mud,” the blue whale replied with a dazed nod.
It swam a wide circle around Yun Shu and the Little Fox, stirring up countless waves that surged in every direction.
Fortunately, Yun Shu had the foresight to equip the merfolk pearl. A wall of light automatically formed around her body, blocking the waves.
“Little Blue, how are those humans doing?” she asked, naturally referring to the boy emperor and the others stranded on the island.
Little Blue tilted its head. “Pearl-Pearl, those humans are still repairing their boat on the island. During this time, I’ve been following your instructions and secretly driving schools of fish toward the island so they could catch them for food.”
As though it had suddenly remembered something, it added, “But the boy emperor—the one you told me to keep a close eye on—suddenly stopped eating and drinking a few days ago. He won’t say anything, either.”
The Little Fox immediately broke into a cold sweat. “He stopped eating and drinking, and won’t speak? You didn’t accidentally raise him until he died, did you?”
“I don’t know,” Little Blue said innocently. “He should only be a little dead. If we take care of him, maybe he’ll come back to life.”
The Little Fox fell silent.
“Lil’ Sys, go check on the boy emperor with Little Blue and find out what’s wrong. I’ll come find you after I finish testing the skills. Don’t let the boy emperor die on the island. If he dies, I’ll have to redesign the entire southward plan, and that wouldn’t be worth the trouble.”
Yun Shu raised her hand and turned her palm upward. A staff of deep blue appeared out of thin air.
The staff was made of translucent ocean-blue crystal, with a fist-sized pearl set into its top. Waves of light shifted within the gem.
She gripped the staff and lightly tapped its tip against the water.
A ripple silently spread outward. In the next instant, the sea parted, opening a path that led straight to the ocean floor and allowed her to walk beneath the waves as easily as on land.
With time of the essence, the moment she reached the seabed, she activated the skills of every component in the All Things Tidal outfit.
In an instant, the seagrass that had lain silent on the ocean floor began to grow wildly. Green leaves lengthened at a visible speed, spreading across the seabed and forming a flourishing underwater meadow.
Then came the fish.
Thousands upon thousands of silver, golden-red, and indigo fish poured from the crevices between the corals.
They arranged themselves into a spiral and slowly revolved around Yun Shu’s feet, layer upon layer, like a magnificent flower gradually opening. At its center stood that water-blue figure, holding the Sea God’s scepter, her skirt spreading through the water like wings.
Just then, Yun Shu heard the sound of something falling into the water.
She looked up.
The next moment, she saw a figure slowly sinking from the surface. His robes were soaked through, his black hair drifting loose in the water, and his young, pale face was deathly white. His eyes were tightly shut. Clearly suffocating, he was gradually losing consciousness.
When she recognized the face of the person who had fallen into the sea, a trace of surprise flashed through her eyes.
“The boy emperor?”
Without time to think, she changed into Flowing Clouds and cast out a silk ribbon. It wrapped around the boy emperor and carried him to the surface.
After tossing the boy emperor onto the shore and using the Azurefall Immortal Orchid to preserve his life, she finally noticed that something was wrong with the island.
It was too quiet—unnaturally quiet.
Something must have happened there.
“Sea Goddess… Sea Goddess…”
Hearing the boy emperor’s delirious murmurs, Yun Shu lowered her eyes and thought for a moment before concealing her figure.
A short while later, the boy emperor forced open his heavy eyelids.
He gasped for breath. The salty, fishy scent of seawater still lingered in his nose, but a cool current of energy was slowly circulating through his lungs and organs, soothing the burning pain.
After recovering slightly, he pushed himself upright with one arm. His soaked robes clung to his body, cold enough to make him shiver.
The boy emperor looked around. Apart from the empty beach and the dense forest covering the island, there was nothing to be seen.
Yet fragments of what had happened when he fell into the sea still remained in his mind.
He had originally taken a small boat, intending to escape the island, but a wave had struck without warning and capsized the vessel.
At the instant the salty seawater rushed into his nose and mouth, he had seen a dazzling radiance illuminate the seafloor.
Then a wave of blue light had risen from the depths, and countless schools of fish had surged upward against it. Their scales reflected flecks of golden light through the shifting waves, creating a scene so dreamlike it hardly seemed real.
Amid the fish, he had vaguely seen a figure standing there.
It was the Sea Goddess he had encountered that day.
He could not possibly have mistaken her.
