The violent waves came to an abrupt halt when they encountered this silver ripple.
“This is…” Meng Ying was stunned.
The countless surging tides calmed down under this gentle touch, and the earth returned to silence. The seabirds stopped flying around. From within Zanxing’s body, a silver figure gradually emerged. He took a couple of steps forward and walked out from Zanxing’s body.
He was a slender and beautiful young boy, exceptionally pretty, with skin as fair as translucent jade. He wore the uniform of a palace guard from the Li’er Country, and his long hair fell to his waist, making him look like an ordinary boy of about sixteen or seventeen.
But he had a pair of beautiful, Western Sea-colored eyes.
He looked exactly like Yin Ying, but perhaps because he lacked those scales, he appeared much gentler, with a touch of youthful innocence.
“Yin Li?” Yin Ying was stunned. “You’re still alive?”
Yin Li walked up to him, half kneeling down, and gently touched his head, his eyes filled with apology.
“He is just a trace of his soul,” Zanxing said, “When I came out of the demon-slaying formation, I let his soul be attached to mine and brought him out together. Perhaps you have something to say to him.”
Yin Li looked at him for a long time before hesitantly speaking, “Yin Ying, are you doing well?”
Yin Ying chuckled softly, a hint of white light flashing under his eyes, his voice calm and indifferent, “I told you back then that you would regret it. Whether you regret it now, I don’t know, but I regret it,” he raised his head, “If I had known earlier, I would have killed you back then, so as not to end up in this current situation.”
Has he been doing well all these years? Yin Ying wondered. Of course, he hadn’t been doing well. Despite telling himself ten thousand times that Yin Li was to blame for his own misfortune, he couldn’t help but feel resentment. When he saw fishermen spitting at the golden statue by the sea, when he saw the Merit Stele filled with inscriptions by the white jade steps of the imperial mausoleum, when he saw Princess Lizhu reminiscing about her deceased husband with sadness in the palace. Who still remembered Yin Li? Only he did.
The sea water of the Western Sea is warm all year round. We grew up here, watching fishermen cast their huge nets in the early morning to catch fish, watching seabirds fly over the mangrove forests, leaving light traces in the azure sky. The sunrise and sunset here are clearly the same every day, yet we never tire of watching. A hundred years pass in the blink of an eye, but the Western Sea always remains the same, Yin Ying thought. The joy of the shark demon clan would also remain unchanged forever.
Until one day, a shark demon came ashore.
And then fate became unfamiliar.
Other shark demons had gradually left the Western Sea, swimming to places further south. Only he refused to leave. In familiar surroundings, he swam angrily and unwillingly, imagining the day when he could see Yin Li again, determined to scold that fool mercilessly.
Day after day, year after year, the playful laughter of the past had long since gone, leaving him swimming alone under the sunlight, dragging his shadow in solitude.
He became the only shark demon in the Western Sea.
Yin Li’s voice trembled slightly. He looked at Yin Ying, his fingers curling uneasily, and he whispered, “I’m sorry, Yin Ying.”
Yin Ying did not respond. All his resentment and anger dissipated at this moment, leaving him somewhat bewildered. Why had he persistently stayed here all these years? People often said that merfolk were a long-lasting, sentimental demon race, or perhaps, a conservative, inflexible one. He had scolded Yin Li for being naive and unaware of human deceit, but hadn’t he himself been mired in the past century, unwilling to wake up? He hated the arrangements of fate, but he didn’t even know how to change his fate.
“You don’t need to apologize.” Yin Ying turned his eyes away. “I’ve said many times, I’m not doing this to avenge you.”
“I believe he indeed isn’t avenging you,” Gu Baiying said as he walked toward him. “Or rather, it’s not entirely to avenge you.”
Yin Li said, “I don’t understand.”
“He wanted to enter the secret realm. As for killing innocent girls in the Li’er Country before entering the secret realm, that was probably incidental,” Gu Baiying looked at Yin Ying. “However, the power of a shark demon shouldn’t be this strong. Your brother’s power is unusually excessive.”
Yin Ying sneered, “Incompetent mortals always blame everything on others’ strengths. When will you prove yourselves? You cultivators aren’t that impressive to begin with.”
Zanxing thought that Yin Ying was truly someone who wouldn’t back down from a verbal fight.
Gu Baiying, also a tough character, replied indifferently, “Well said. That’s why I plan to take you back, dissect your demon core, and find out what’s really going on. Maybe there’s something worth learning for cultivators. Then, our disciples can advance rapidly without much effort.”
Anger flared in Yin Ying’s eyes.
“Yin Ying, what’s going on?” Yin Li asked worriedly, “I sensed a presence in you that doesn’t belong to you.”
The surrounding cultivators watched Yin Ying intently. They were wary of the shark demon’s astonishing power and didn’t dare approach, so they could only observe his every move.
“Speak up. Everyone will find out in the end,” Zanxing said. “The black scales on your left atrium must be the issue.”
Yin Ying’s expression shifted slightly.
After a long pause, he finally spoke, “I don’t care about any secret realm, nor do I know what’s inside. I came here because someone asked me to.”
“I entered the secret realm to find something for him, in exchange for the demonic power he gave me. That’s all there is to it.”
“What were you supposed to find?” Gu Baiying asked.
“How would I know?” Yin Ying sneered, “I don’t care about that.”
When Yin Li was destroyed by the demon-slaying formation and turned to ashes, Yin Ying wandered the Western Sea shore every day. Over the years, all the shark demon clan of the Western Sea had left, except for Yin Ying, who stubbornly stayed.
He didn’t know what he wanted to do either. His demonic power was insufficient for revenge. Perhaps he felt that if he left too, no one in this world would remember who the shark demon Yin Li was. That fool had given up everything yet ended up notorious; anyone would find that unjust.
He didn’t know how long had passed until he met a man.
That man was mysterious, shrouded entirely in swirling black mist. Yin Ying couldn’t see his face, and even his voice was indistinct and muffled. The man said to him, “A shark demon’s demonic power is not enough for revenge.”
“I’m not seeking revenge,” Yin Ying retorted.
“I can give you powerful demonic energy, enough to destroy the entire Li’er Country. In exchange, when the secret realm of Li’er opens, you must enter and retrieve something for me.”
Yin Ying ultimately made a deal with this man.
He indeed gained immense demonic power, and he could even gradually conceal his demonic energy. In the Li’er Country, he killed innocent girls, recreating the same tragic scenes from the past.