1.
Dark clouds pressed heavily down from the sky, thick layers of clouds spread out like fish scales, where the joints of the scales slightly revealed threads of sunlight. The heavens and earth were dim; hidden winds stirred the floating sea waves, striking the hull of the ship, letting out deep, heavy roars. Several seabirds swiftly skimmed over the surging sea surface.
Meng Fu stood on the deck, the long wind carrying the smell of salt and fish lifted her long hair. She raised her head, gazing far into the distance, where the water and sky joined — heaven and earth became one color.
Meng Fu was the third princess of the Kingdom of Lotian. Five years ago, she had been sent to the neighboring Kingdom of Saratesis to marry for alliance. At that time, she was already over forty years younger than the King of Saratesis.
But Meng Fu was quite lucky — as soon as she arrived in Saratesis, internal turmoil broke out. She collaborated with the king’s most beloved youngest son, eliminated the several crown princes ahead, and finally succeeded in allowing that little prince to ascend the throne.
Similarly, Meng Fu also gained precious friendship from that little prince. With the little prince’s help, she spent three years traveling among various nations, making friends.
Now, upon hearing that the old king of Lotian was seriously ill, Meng Fu began to have the thought of returning to Lotian.
“Your Highness, why must you return at this time?”
An old man in a gray robe, holding a wooden staff, came up from behind, full of disapproval as he asked Meng Fu.
Meng Fu turned her head, looking at this teacher who had taught her for many years, and said: “If not now, then when?”
The old king was about to die. Her two elder brothers both eyed the throne like tigers, and Lotian would not stay peaceful for much longer.
The old man lightly sighed.
He understood what Meng Fu was thinking — only that this road was destined not to be smooth.
Meng Fu turned her head back again, continuing to look far into the distance. The sea waves surged and rolled; the white foam flipped and turned.
In a moment of daze, Meng Fu seemed to see a huge shadow approaching their ship slowly.
But when she turned to look carefully again, there was nothing. In her heart rose a vague sense of unease.
She asked the old man: “How much longer until we reach Lotian?”
The old man answered: “If nothing unexpected happens, we should reach Port Moria by this evening.”
Meng Fu said no more, only staring blankly toward the horizon.
The storm gathered, but the sky remained bright. Under the ink-colored clouds pressing down on the land, suddenly a silver-white lightning bolt tore through the clouds, heavily striking the surging sea surface. In an instant, heaven and earth lit up.
The rumbling sound of thunder followed closely. The Sea God’s wrath began to ignite.
The furious wind roared, heavy rain poured like pillars, white waves surged to the heavens, countless bolts of lightning crisscrossed the sky, weaving into a giant net.
The ship began to sway violently.
The crew members started shouting one after another — the sound of running, yelling, the howl of the fierce wind, the creaking of the wooden boards…
Tens of thousands of sounds mixed together.
A hidden gust of wind brought a monstrous wave surging in —several crew members fell from the high masts with loud splashes, letting out wails of misery.
In the sky, red lightning appeared, casting the ship into a scene like hell on earth.
With such a strange phenomenon, there must be some monster happening.
Meng Fu felt that the bad premonition in her heart was about to come true.
“Your Highness, it’s better for you to go inside and take shelter from the rain,” the old man reminded her.
Meng Fu made a sound of acknowledgment.
She couldn’t help much here either, and turned to walk into the ship.
“It’s sea monsters! Sea monsters—” someone among the crowd not far away shouted loudly.
Meng Fu stopped in her tracks, turned her head to look — only to see dozens of heads emerging from the dark-colored sea surface.
They had snow-white skin, golden or silver hair, and deep blue eyes like the great ocean under the darkened sky.
They raised their heads — all of them looking straight at Meng Fu.
The old man urged again: “Your Highness, hurry and go inside!”
Meng Fu did not move, lowering her gaze at the sea monsters on the sea surface.
According to legend, sea monsters had human bodies and fish tails — their singing voices could lure passing ships to crash into reefs, sinking into the great sea.
When Meng Fu had traveled among the nations, she had once encountered such sea monsters. Only, that time, the sea monsters had fled in panic at the mere sight of their ship.
At this moment, she suddenly had a flash of realization — maybe back then, the sea monsters were not afraid of them, but had seen something even more terrifying.
“Your Highness—” the old man urged her again with another shout.
Those sea monsters began to sing.
Humans could not understand the meaning of the sounds they made, only felt that the singing was like celestial music.
Within the singing, they saw the most beautiful things of the human world.
Their expressions changed from fear to enjoyment, their eyes gradually became hazy and fascinated, and even the crewmen on the masts began loosening their grips.
The rain grew heavier and heavier, as if the Milky Way in the heavens were pouring down.
Several lightning bolts intertwined together.
Meng Fu stood on the deck, unable to move.
A giant wave surged over — and the old man behind her cried out loudly: “Your Highness, be careful—”
But by the time the shout fell, the wave receded, and Meng Fu’s figure had already vanished from the deck.
Meng Fu was swept into the great sea by the giant wave. The icy seawater poured into her nasal cavity.
Her limbs grew terribly heavy, as if they were shackled by rough, heavy iron chains, unable to move.
She tried to open her eyes.
A piercing bright light shot straight toward her.
A sharp pain exploded in her eyes, and in the next instant, everything before her fell into darkness — she lost consciousness.
Bright red blood seeped from the corner of Meng Fu’s eye, dispersing into the seawater, drifting around her.
Those sea monsters slithered like water snakes toward her.
In an ancient prophecy, it was foretold that the princess passing by here today would become the queen of the Sea King.
Not long ago, the old Sea King who had broken this prophecy stared at Meng Fu with a completely dumbfounded look.
He was getting along so well with his own queen — where had this little pastry suddenly come from?
In order to show loyalty to his queen, he immediately decided to let this princess fall into an eternal sleep at the bottom of the sea.
The sea monsters came to carry out the old Sea King’s command — they were going to tear this delicate little princess apart in the water.
They circled around Meng Fu, stretching out their long claws, constantly closing in on her.
Just as the sharp claws were about to slice through the skin at Meng Fu’s neck — suddenly, all the sea monsters in the square seemed to freeze in place, unable to move.
The flow of seawater conveyed information to them.
In the next moment, they violently swung their claws, frantically thrashed their tails, and fled in all directions at great speed.
“What the heck is this? A bunch of you, not sleeping during the day? Noisy enough to wake the dead fish! Have you no public morals at all? This sea territory of yours is really hopeless! Can’t your Sea King do his job properly? If he can’t, hurry up and change him for another dried fish!”
A silver-tailed merman swam over from the distant darkness, grumbling and cursing.
By the time the silver-tailed merman arrived, all the other sea monsters had already fled. Only a large pink jellyfish floated up and down there.
When the silver-tailed merman glanced at it, it immediately froze, pretending to be a dead jellyfish.
“Swim pretty fast, don’t you?”
The silver-tailed merman flicked his tail, a string of bubbles rising from the tip.
He turned and was about to leave — but the surrounding water currents shifted, informing him that a living person had come.
He didn’t want to pay attention — but the person had already sunk right in front of him.
Instinctively, he stretched out his hand and caught the other party.
It was a fully grown human woman — her complexion pale, her lips purple, looking as if she were about to die.
A human? What did a dead human have to do with him?
As a deep-sea merman, his relationship with humans was even less close than with that pretending-dead jellyfish.
He had originally intended to toss the human away and leave — but somehow his hand refused to obey him!
The silver-tailed merman furrowed his brows tightly, lowering his head to look at the dying princess in his arms. He seemed to be able to feel her life slowly flowing away.
She was really about to die.
Survival or death — it hung between just a single thought of his.
The merman lowered his eyes and looked at her for a while.
In the end, he had to admit — he might really have had his brain corroded by the toxins of a pufferfish, for he lowered himself and kissed her lips, passing a breath of air into her mouth.
Human lips were extremely soft.
After a long while, the merman lifted his head, stared blankly at her lips for a while, then hugged her and swam quickly in the direction of land.
The rain passed and the skies cleared, the wind was calm and the waves quiet, and a few gray seagulls skimmed over the sparkling surface of the sea.
The people on the ship finally came back to their senses, rejoicing over their survival after this disaster.
Only — their princess was gone.
2.
Li Yue was a merman, a merman with a beautiful silver-colored big tail.
He came from another sea region.
He was a king there.
While chasing an octopus monster, by a twist of fate, he ended up here.
Li Yue didn’t particularly like it here.
The mermen here didn’t abide by martial ethics, fighting and killing all day long.
Their Sea King didn’t manage anything either — busy currying favor with his beloved queen, causing trouble and making nuisances every day.
And now, under the situation of having been “poisoned by a pufferfish”, with his mind unclear, he had saved a two-legged human.
A… beautiful human.
Even until he sent this human onto a rocky reef on the beach, Li Yue still couldn’t figure out why he had wanted to save her. Could it be he had been infected by the other mermen here?
The human’s complexion was very pale, but her lips weren’t as ghastly looking as before.
Li Yue stretched out his hand, brushed aside the hair stuck to her cheek, and carefully examined her, wanting to see what was different about this human.
As he looked and looked, his gaze fell on her lightly colored lips.
Thinking of the touch just now, Li Yue’s heart started pounding faster — her lips couldn’t have poison smeared on them, right?!
The silver-tailed merman immediately fell into enormous confusion.
Meng Fu didn’t know how long she had been unconscious.
When she opened her eyes, in front of her was still a vast darkness.
She immediately realized — her eyes might be damaged.
But for her, this was already very good — she had thought that this time, she would be buried at the bottom of the sea.
Before setting out to sea, she should have gone to find an astrologer to take a look.
Meng Fu wanted to sit up, but the moment she exerted strength with her hands, a sharp pain shot through her. She let out a muffled groan and gasped.
Hearing the sound, Li Yue turned his head, looking at this human who was trying to sit up.
Sensing that someone was sitting beside her, Meng Fu managed to stay calm. In a hoarse voice she asked:
“Was it Your Excellency who saved me?”
The other party did not reply.
Meng Fu could only continue speaking: “Many thanks to Your Excellency for the grace of saving my life.”
Still getting no response, Meng Fu fell silent for a while, then asked again:
“Who is Your Excellency? Where is this place?”
Li Yue tilted his head slightly.
He did not understand human language at all, and naturally couldn’t comprehend what she was saying, much less answer her questions.
After waiting for a long time without the other party opening his mouth, Meng Fu could only give up the idea of communicating with him. Perhaps the other party did not want to reveal his identity, or perhaps he could not speak for some other reason.
Unfortunately, her eyes could no longer see — she didn’t know where she had drifted to now.
The old king of Lotian wouldn’t last much longer.
The time left to her was already not much.
And now she had encountered this — was this fate?
In her ears came sounds that were not fluent human speech.
Meng Fu was startled, turning her head — the other party had left?
Would he still come back?
Meng Fu gritted her teeth and, enduring the pain, sat up.
The sea breeze blew gently, the waves lapped against the reef.
She tilted her head up, taking a long deep breath — since she had survived, then she had not yet reached a true dead end.
Everything still had a turning point.
Right now, she had to think about how to leave here — but were there any other people here? Which direction should she go?
As Meng Fu tried to climb down from the reef, in her ears again sounded the splash of water.
Li Yue had returned, and he was holding something like a piece of seaweed in his hand, offering it to her mouth.
Meng Fu could not see, and didn’t know what the other party was holding. But if the other party had wanted to hurt her, he would not need to use such methods.
Given her current state — if he wanted to be rough, she would have had no way to resist.
After judging the other party’s intention, she directly opened her lips and bit the food he had brought over. The texture was a bit like a banana, but the taste carried a fishy smell — not exactly delicious, but not too bad either.
Meng Fu lowered her head, slowly swallowing down the entire long strip of food, and softly said:
“Thank you.”
Li Yue did not reply with words, he only slapped his silver tail twice joyfully in the water. He suddenly felt that raising a human might actually be quite interesting — then he could fatten her up a bit more.
As dusk fell, a full moon hung on the deep blue night sky. In the distance, sporadic lights flickered in the city.
Meng Fu sat quietly on the reef, listening to the gurgling sound of the tides flowing.
After a while, the other party somehow found a giant clam shell. Meng Fu hid inside the shell, and her world seemed to fall silent in an instant.
She touched that man’s hand.
In her heart, Meng Fu uneasily sketched out his image — broad palms, thick joints — clearly an adult male.
He was much taller than her, good at swimming, unable to speak, but very gentle.
Perhaps he lived nearby.
Perhaps he didn’t even have a home.
If the other sea creatures knew what Meng Fu was thinking at this moment, they would surely sigh in their hearts: this blind human truly sees the world differently than us.
Inside the clam shell,mthere were dry, soft seaweeds, glowing pearls, and some unknown fruits that could fill her stomach.
He had prepared it all very well, but Meng Fu, troubled by her thoughts, had no appetite.
Her fingers tapped lightly on the clam shell, playing out a melody she herself had never heard before.
The song was tranquil and peaceful, like the calm sea after a storm.
Meng Fu closed her eyes, quickly fell into a deep sleep, and had a very beautiful dream.
In the dream, she walked barefoot through the depths of the great sea, her bare feet stepping on the soft fine sand. Glowing jellyfish danced around her, and five-colored corals lined the sides.
She lifted her head to look into the distance — there, in front of a crystal castle, stood a tall merman whose appearance she could not clearly see — as if he had been waiting for her for a long time.
Li Yue kept watch outside the clam shell, guarding Meng Fu for one night.
The light moonlight poured down softly, falling over the ground.
The next morning, Meng Fu came out from the clam shell. Compared to yesterday, her eyes seemed a little better — blurry, but she could finally see a little bit of light.
Today, she must leave this place, and return to Lotian as soon as possible.
From her ears came the sound of splashing water — and Meng Fu immediately knew: the man had returned.
The man brought the food to Meng Fu’s lips. Meng Fu opened her mouth and lightly bit down. She accidentally touched the man’s fingertip, and he quickly pulled his hand back.
Meng Fu curved the corners of her mouth slightly, feeling a bit curious — what kind of person had saved her?
Only, in the future, when she wanted to leave this place, she wanted to bring him along. But he didn’t want to meet any strangers, nor did he want to leave here.
Meng Fu ate all the food he had brought back. Then she lifted her hand, and undid the necklace hanging around her neck. From the silver chain hung a blue gemstone, its color shifting in depth with the passing of the sun and moon.
It was something she had bought at an auction — its price could be exchanged for two cities.
Meng Fu reached forward to grope around — not finding anyone, she waved her hand and, somewhat helplessly, said:
“Could you come a little closer?”
Li Yue still didn’t understand what she was saying, but from her gestures, he could more or less guess her intention.
He hesitated for a long time before finally moving a little closer to Meng Fu. Meng Fu groped for quite a while, and finally caught his hand. She stuffed the necklace into his palm, leaned her body forward, and whispered lightly into his ear:
“If one day, you want to find me, go to Lancheng in Lotian — my name is Meng Fu.”
Her warm breath brushed across Li Yue’s face.
The tips of Li Yue’s ears suddenly turned hot. He lowered his head, looking at the blue gemstone lying in his palm.
Why would this human give him such a sparkling, shiny thing?
Did she like this kind of thing? He still had many more — he could bring them all to give to her.
Meng Fu waited for a long time, but still did not hear him speak. In her heart rose an unspeakable trace of disappointment.
She was about to leave — and she didn’t know if she would ever see him again.
Her eyelids drooped slightly, and the dense lashes cast a small curved shadow under the sunlight. The sea breeze whispered, the sea waves were soft and gentle.
Suddenly, Meng Fu raised her hands, cupped Li Yue’s face, and tipped her head up, planting a light kiss onto his cheek.
It was a farewell kiss.
Li Yue had not at all expected that this human would do such a thing to him. His body froze stiff, his mind went blank, his hand still clutching the necklace that Meng Fu had just given him — he didn’t know what he was supposed to do.
Was she considered to have harassed a merman?
What crime was harassing a merman?!
He should have immediately pushed her away — but now, both his hands were powerless.
He just knew she had smeared poison on her lips!
Such powerful poison!
Meng Fu, unaware of what he was thinking,.stood up from the clam shell, and in a low voice said:
“Goodbye.”
Then she turned around, and quickly walked toward the direction from which human voices came. That person did not follow her. Even though she had already anticipated it would be like this, at this moment Meng Fu still felt a slight trace of disappointment.
Li Yue stayed where he was. The human he had raised just left him like that — without even turning her head.
Several seagulls circled above his head,.crying out.
He raised his hand and pressed it against his own chest, watching her figure slowly disappear from his line of sight.
He felt as if the place where his heart was had suddenly become hollow — he suddenly wanted to follow her, and leave this vast ocean with her.
Also — what exactly did her last words to him mean?
3.
Huaiming was a merman, and a famous sorcerer in this sea region.
His favorite thing to do was to stay in his cave under the sea and conduct experiments. He would turn seaweed into sea snakes, turn turtles into furniture, turn pufferfish into bubbles.
And now, he was carrying out a very grand experiment — he wanted to turn a male merman into a female merman.
Previously, his experiment had reached a critical step, when suddenly knocking sounds rang out from outside. Startled, Huaiming’s hand shook — he accidentally spilled half a tube of green potion. In the next moment, the previously beautiful, flowing hair exploded into something like a clump of seaweed.
Right — he had originally been bald. His current head of hair had been plucked from the head of another merman who had once come to trade with him.
Huaiming turned his head, glanced at himself in the mirror, let out a long sigh, and could only comfort himself that this was just business, and he would soon get something even better.
He stomped angrily to the door, ready to “teach the visitor a lesson” when he opened it.
With a “bang,” he swung the door open — and saw outside a very strong, robust male merman.
Huaiming’s fury immediately died down by more than half.
He had seen the Sea King of this region before — he thought the Sea King was the largest and strongest merman. But the merman in front of him looked even stronger than the Sea King.
When had such a merman arrived here?
Huaiming shifted sideways slightly, letting this merman enter from outside, then carefully examined the merman in front of him, thinking to himself what he might be able to get from him.
The voice of a merman was a gift for making medicine; the flesh and tears of a merman could also be used to create potions; the scales of a merman could make armor impenetrable to swords and spears.
Considering he had just ruined his own experiment, Huaiming figured he had more than enough reason to demand greater compensation from this merman’s body.
Huaiming quickly calculated the prices in his heart. Only, what he absolutely didn’t expect — was that as soon as this merman entered the door, he immediately revealed a face full of extreme dislike.
Before Huaiming could even speak, the merman became the one taking charge and said: “What kind of place is this? Why is it so sticky and gross everywhere? How long has it been since you cleaned? Is the sanitation even up to standard? Wouldn’t eating here poison the fish to death?”
Huaiming: “……”
This was truly the first time he had seen such a scene. After being a sorcerer for so many years, this was the first time encountering a “customer” like this.
Couldn’t he respect his profession a little?
He was an evil sorcerer! Evil!
But this merman clearly had no such awareness — he swaggered inside boldly, striding around like a patrolling sea yasha [海夜叉 hǎi yè chā — “sea yaksha,” a fierce sea demon].
For a moment, Huaiming even started doubting: whose house was this, anyway?
Li Yue walked into Huaiming’s little experimental hut, lifted his hand and swiped across a shelf by the door — and immediately wiped off a layer of sticky, gooey slime.
He quickly wiped the dirty stuff from his hand onto Huaiming’s clothes.
Huaiming: “……”
“How long has it been since you washed this pot? Were loaches and squid taking baths inside? Are you making medicine or brewing poison?”
Li Yue circled around the room again, then pointed at two iron barrels in the corner: “Here, here — food and garbage are stored together! Can’t you pay a little more attention to sanitation? Some of this stuff has been lying here for days — why are there no maggots yet?!”
Huaiming moved his lips, but for a moment, he didn’t even know where to begin. He had never seen a merman like this before. Truly, the ocean was vast and held all kinds of strange fish.
He suppressed his anger and asked Li Yue: “Where are you from?”
Li Yue turned his head to glance at him, and replied righteously: “I’m from Zu’an. What, got a problem?”
Faced with such a loud retort, Huaiming’s imposing manner immediately weakened.
He shrank his neck and muttered: “……No.”
This was a Zu’an merman — who would dare have an opinion?! Who the heck would dare have an opinion!
Huaiming had long heard that mermen from Zu’an were very good at fighting — he was afraid he couldn’t even withstand a punch from one. He laughed awkwardly and asked Li Yue:
“What brings you here?”
Li Yue had asked around with other mermen for methods of living on land. They had recommended this sorcerer to him. But after seeing the filthy state of the place, Li Yue thought:
Would this disgusting sorcerer even survive eating dead fish?
After a round of mental preparation, Li Yue finally asked Huaiming:
“Do you have any potion that can turn a fish tail into human legs?”
Huaiming nodded. He had seen many mermen who wanted to go to the human world. The colorful world dazzled the eyes — even mermen could not escape temptation.
Only, this potion couldn’t be given away for free. Originally, Huaiming had intended to take this merman’s voice as payment.
But now, he found this merman’s voice so unbearable that he only wanted to drive him away as soon as possible. On the other hand, taking away his voice and turning him mute would actually be pretty good too.
“Yes,” Huaiming smiled warmly and said. He was determined to complete this deal — but as a sorcerer with principles, he still needed to explain the consequences clearly:
“Once you grow legs, every step you take on land will feel like stepping on the tip of a knife.”
Huaiming didn’t think this would affect the result much. Every merman who wanted to go to the human world wouldn’t care about a little pain like this.
But the one he encountered today — was clearly not a normal merman.
“The side effects are that bad? This counts as a failed product!” Li Yue furrowed his brows and said.
“You’re still selling this? Do you even have any professional ethics as a sorcerer?”
Professional ethics? Since when did sorcerers have professional ethics?
Had he ever heard of such a thing?
Were all sorcerers in Zu’an this miserable?
Huaiming was also getting angry — the sea-anemone-styled hair on his head puffed up even more.
He pulled a long face and said: “Are you buying it or not? If not, then hurry up and leave!”
“Buy what!” Li Yue’s face was even uglier than his. “You only sell this useless junk! Do you even verify where your ingredients come from? Do you even have a proper license for making potions? This filthy place of yours — eating dead fish here could cost someone their life!”
Huaiming wanted to refute, but really couldn’t find any words.
Li Yue grew angrier the more he talked. In the end, he declared:
“Just wait! When I become Sea King, I’ll properly manage all you fish who are messing around!”
Huaiming no longer wanted to speak — if this merman truly became the Sea King here, then he would have to flee this sea domain overnight riding a whale.
The sorcerers here were useless. Li Yue had no intention of staying any longer either.
He turned around to leave — but when he swam to the door, he stopped again.
Huaiming’s heart skipped a beat, then he heard Li Yue ask:
“Do you speak human language?”
Huaiming: “?”
Huaiming did know a little bit of foreign (human) language, but he didn’t want to teach this merman in front of him even a single word.
Only, under the absolute suppression of strength, he couldn’t say no.
Help!
4.
A newcomer merman had arrived in the sea region — he meddled in everything, and never listened to the old Sea King’s commands.
The old Sea King felt that his authority was being challenged — he swore he would throw this unruly merman into the dark, icy trenches at the bottom of the sea.
When the old Sea King found Li Yue, Li Yue was seriously studying human language under Huaiming’s guidance.
Most mermen were very talented with languages — it would only take a few days for them to learn enough.
By now, Li Yue could almost communicate fluently with humans.
The old Sea King saw that Li Yue didn’t even bother to salute him, and even blatantly ignored him.
He was furious — and immediately raised his staff high, aimed at Li Yue, and began chanting a spell.
A giant vortex appeared in midair, sucking up countless stones and gravel, and hurled them fiercely toward Li Yue.
The bystanding mermen were injured by the flying stones, shrieked sharply, and scattered in all directions.
Li Yue’s studies were interrupted — he frowned, looked up, and Huaiming, seeing things were bad, hurried to hide to one side.
The sand and stones flew wildly. The earth trembled and mountains shook.
The multicolored coral shattered into dust in an instant. Underneath the mud, ghastly white bones were exposed.
All living creatures fled in terror.
The black vortex was just about to swallow Li Yue — but Li Yue’s face showed no fear at all. He only stood up with a look of annoyance.
The old Sea King gave a sinister smile, and raised his staff again — but in the next second, his smile froze on his face.
Because Li Yue lightly and easily jumped over the vortex — reached right in front of the old Sea King — and at the same time as snatching the staff from his hand, he chanted a spell:
“Hand it over!”