The youth had a pair of deep blue eyes like the sea, with features so beautiful they seemed painted. In addition to their allure, they carried an indescribable fragility.

From below his eyes to his cheeks grew a layer of fine silver scales. These silver scales were mysterious, but since mermen were born beautiful, not only did they not seem terrifying, they added several degrees of demonic charm to him.

He didn’t have a beautiful silver fish tail, but with this appearance, no one would doubt his identity.

Rong Yu looked down at everyone on the constellation platform and laughed loudly: “Who am I? Don’t you already know?”

“Demon merman…” the guards of Li’er Kingdom cried out in alarm. “It’s a demon merman! Protect His Majesty, quickly protect His Majesty!”

The guards covered the sovereign’s retreat toward the back of the white jade palace. The cultivators on the constellation platform, suddenly encountering this change, couldn’t care about anything else and summoned their magical artifacts one after another. But the merman paid no attention. He only turned his head to look at the merit tablet beside the white jade stairs, his face showing a mocking expression.

“Merit tablet… they have the nerve to erect it…”

“What are you trying to do?” Princess Lizhu stepped forward regardless of danger and scolded, “You mustn’t show disrespect to the late emperor!”

The merman turned his head to look at her and suddenly smiled again. He said, “Master Gu, Miss Yang, you investigated for so long in the Tianlu Pavilion. Why don’t you tell the royal family the truth about the Yanyang Secret Art? Li’er Kingdom’s royal family, to cover up their scandal, didn’t hesitate to use mermen as scapegoats. It seems your cultivation world’s famous righteous sects are birds of a feather. You speak so righteously about killing demon races at will, but when you encounter royalty, you won’t say anything, will you?”

“Demon creature, stop spreading confusing words!” a cultivator shouted. “What is Yanyang Secret Art? It’s nothing but sophistry!”

“No… I’ve heard of it,” Nie Xinghong gripped the folding fan in his hand tightly, a flash of shock in his eyes. “I heard that if you use the fresh blood of young women born in yin months, yin days, and yin hours for ritual sacrifice, you can extend life and achieve immortality. Could it be…” He looked up at Gu Baiying.

“What does he mean?” Princess Lizhu also asked.

Tian Fangfang cleared his throat lightly: “We investigated those young women who were killed forty years ago. They were all born in yin months, yin days, and yin hours—pure yin bodies. Rather than being harmed by demon mermen, they were more like sacrificial offerings for the Yanyang Secret Art.”

“But demon races are naturally long-lived,” Putao frowned. “There’s no reason to do this.”

“Demon races are long-lived,” the merman laughed mockingly, “but the previous sovereign of Li’er Kingdom, Emperor Shengning, was a short-lived, sickly weakling.”

Emperor Shengning was a short-lived, sickly weakling!

Everyone present wasn’t foolish. They could instantly understand what this meant.

“Nonsense!” Li’er Kingdom’s sovereign completely changed from his usual gentle appearance, his face flushing red. “You demon merman, to bewitch people’s hearts, you’re pushing the blame onto my father emperor!”

Rong Yu sneered: “Whether it’s true or not, why don’t you ask that Master Gu?”

The sovereign looked at Gu Baiying. Gu Baiying didn’t speak.

“No, no…” Princess Lizhu’s body swayed, and she only managed to stand steady by grasping the railing beside her.

Emperor Shengning back then had harmed innocent young women in Li’er Kingdom’s city to extend his life, and in the end, he even framed the mermen. The truth was so different from what everyone knew. All these years, that golden statue by the sea was like a joke.

“Your Royal Highness,” the merman looked down at her again, as if he found her current pain insufficient, and continued, “Do you know why Master Gu asked about your birth date and time? Why don’t you think about your birth date and time? You were also born in a yin month, yin day, and yin hour.” He smiled maliciously: “You are also a sacrificial offering carefully selected by your husband!”

Princess Lizhu’s face turned deathly pale.

In a trance, many past scenes appeared before her eyes. The inexplicable marriage proposal, the hurried wedding, the overly considerate imperial husband, those meticulous and thoughtful cares—now they all seemed like the tolerance of raising a pet, permissive and accommodating, because he knew she would die eventually.

Zanxing had once said, “As long as it’s a person, they’ll have flaws. Even if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, those harmless little flaws would seem cute to the other party, but there would always be some flaws. The princess and the old sovereign were husband and wife—didn’t the old sovereign do anything wrong, even just a little bit?”

Even the most loving couples would have friction if they cared. Emperor Shengning treated her so well, yet they had no conflicts between them—this was unreasonable to begin with.

Because in his eyes, she was never a wife, but a “sacrificial offering.”

So that was it.

Seeing Princess Lizhu’s face suddenly become lost and dispirited, Rong Yu laughed even more happily. He suddenly reached out his hand, and a surge of demonic power shot straight toward the merit tablet beside the white jade stairs.

“Bang—”

Countless tiny stone fragments danced in the air. Those carefully engraved “great achievements” now crumbled to dust like tofu in the blink of an eye.

A vicious aura suddenly arose in the merman’s eyes. He tilted his head and smiled: “This way, it looks much better.”

Everyone came to their senses. Princess Lizhu looked at Rong Yu. Despite her shock and pain, she had already regained her composure in just a moment. The woman asked coldly, “Are you seeking revenge for what happened back then?”

“Revenge?” The demon merman was stunned. The silver scales below his eyes became even more brilliant. He spoke lightly: “It’s more than just revenge. I want to kill everyone here. I want to destroy Li’er Island, so that not a trace of this place can be found on the maps of Duzhou!”

“Small demon creature, how dare you speak so arrogantly?” Tan Tianxin pointed his long sword at the demon merman and flew up to meet him: “Today is your death day!”

Chihua Gate’s swordsmanship had always been superb, but Rong Yu only smiled slightly. His robes fluttered in the wind, and before everyone could even see clearly how he attacked, they heard a muffled sound. Tan Tianxin was sent flying. He crashed into a constellation pillar on the high platform and staggered back several steps before standing steady. When he looked up at Rong Yu again, his gaze was full of horror.

Among the cultivators present, Tan Tianxin’s cultivation was not poor, yet this move not only failed to gain any advantage, but he was knocked away by the demon merman.

“Sect cultivators dare to make fools of themselves?” Rong Yu laughed arrogantly. “Never mind you—even if a demon-exterminating formation came, I’d still kill without hesitation!” With that, he flew toward the constellation platform.

That final step posed no obstacle to him whatsoever, and he easily broke through.

“This isn’t a demon-revealing formation?” Rong Yu was stunned.

“Of course not.” The white-clothed youth shrugged his shoulders. “Even the simplest formation would take at least a month from setup to completion. This is just an ordinary foot-binding technique,” he smiled infuriatingly. “I was just bluffing you, yet you revealed everything. It seems you, as a merman, aren’t very smart either.”