The violent waves came to an abrupt halt when they encountered this silver ripple.

“This is…” Meng Ying was stunned.

Countless surging tides calmed down under this gentle caress, and the earth returned to silence once more. The seabirds stopped flying about chaotically. From Zanxing’s body, a silver shadow gradually emerged. He took two steps forward, walking out from within Zanxing’s body.

This was a slender and beautiful youth, extraordinarily lovely, with skin so fair it was like transparent jade. He wore the guard uniform of Li’er Kingdom’s imperial palace, with very long hair hanging to his waist, looking like an ordinary youth of sixteen or seventeen.

But he had a pair of beautiful eyes the color of the West Sea.

He looked exactly like Ying Ying, but perhaps because he lacked those scales, he appeared much gentler, with some youthful innocence about him.

“Yinli?” Ying Ying was stunned. “You’re still alive?”

Yinli walked before him, knelt on one knee, touched his head, and there seemed to be an apology in his eyes.

“He’s only a wisp of primordial spirit,” Zanxing said. “When I came out of the demon-extermination formation, I let his primordial spirit attach to my body and brought him out together. Perhaps you have something to say to him.”

Yinli looked at him. After a long time, he hesitantly spoke: “Ying Ying, have you been well?”

Ying Ying began to laugh lowly. White light seemed to flash beneath the merfolk’s eyes, and his voice was calm and cold: “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 it would come to this, I should have killed you back then. That would have been better than ending up in this situation.”

Had he been well all these years? Ying Ying thought—of course, he hadn’t been well. Even though he had told himself ten thousand times that Yinli, that fool, had brought it upon himself and couldn’t blame others, when he saw fishermen spitting at the golden statue by the seaside, when he saw the merit stele covered with writing beside the white jade steps of the imperial mausoleum, when he saw Princess Lizhu in the royal palace looking sorrowful as she remembered her deceased husband…

Who still remembered Yinli?

Only him.

The seawater of the West Sea was warm all year round. They had grown up here from childhood, watching fishermen cast their giant nets at dawn, watching seabirds fly over the mangrove forests, leaving light traces across the azure sky. The sunrises and sunsets here were all the same, yet they never tired of watching them. A hundred years passed in an instant, but only the West Sea never changed. Ying Ying thought that the happiness of merfolk would also never change.

Until one day, a merfolk came ashore.

Thus, fate became unfamiliar.

The other merfolk had gradually left the West Sea one by one, swimming toward places further south. Only he refused to leave. In familiar places, he swam angrily and unwillingly, imagining that someday he might see Yinli again—he would scold that fool until he was completely humiliated.

Day after day, year after year, the former playful joy had long since faded. He swam alone under the sunlight, dragging his shadow in solitude.

He had become the only merfolk left in the West Sea.

Yinli’s voice trembled slightly. He looked at Ying Ying, his fingers curling uneasily, and said in a low voice: “I’m sorry, Ying Ying.”

Ying Ying didn’t speak. All his unwillingness and resentment vanished like smoke at this moment, and he became somewhat confused. All these years, what had he stubbornly stayed here for?

People often said that merfolk were a long-devoted demon race, or rather, a conservative demon race that refused to adapt. He scolded Yinli for being naive and not understanding the sinister human heart, but wasn’t he also indulging in the past hundred years, unwilling to wake up? He hated fate’s arrangements, yet didn’t even know how to change his destiny.

“You don’t need to be sorry,” Ying Ying said, looking away. “I’ve said many times that what I’m doing isn’t to avenge you.”

“I believe he’s indeed not doing this to avenge you.” Gu Baiying walked toward him. “Or rather, not entirely to avenge you.”

Yinli: “I don’t understand.”

“He’s here to enter the secret realm. As for killing innocent young women throughout Li’er Kingdom before entering the secret realm, that was probably done in passing.” Gu Baiying looked at Ying Ying. “However, merfolk’s demonic power wouldn’t be this strong. Your brother is abnormally powerful.”

Ying Ying sneered: “Incompetent mortals always attribute everything to others’ capabilities. When will you prove yourselves? You cultivators aren’t much to begin with.”

Zanxing felt that Ying Ying was someone who refused to lose face verbally.

Gu Baiying was also ruthless. Hearing this, he said indifferently: “Well said. So I plan to take you back, cut open your demon core, and investigate thoroughly. Perhaps there’s something worth learning from for cultivators. In the future, sect disciples could advance by leaps and bounds in their cultivation without much effort.”

Anger immediately flashed in Ying Ying’s eyes.

“Ying Ying, what’s going on?” Yinli asked with some worry. “While in your body, I discovered an aura that doesn’t belong to you.”

The surrounding cultivators all watched Ying Ying. They were wary of this merfolk’s astonishing demonic power and dared not approach, only observing his every move.

“Speak up. We’ll find out eventually anyway,” Zanxing said. “The black scales at your left ventricle should be the source of the problem.”

Ying Ying’s expression shifted slightly.

After a long time, he finally spoke: “What secret realm? I don’t care about it at all. I don’t even know what’s inside. Coming here was just fulfilling someone’s request.”

“I enter the secret realm to help him find something, as payment for him giving me demonic power. That’s all.”

“Find what?” Gu Baiying asked.

“How would I know?” Ying Ying sneered. “I don’t care about that.”

Back when Yinli was killed by the demon-extermination formation and reduced to ashes, Ying Ying wandered daily along the West Sea shore. Over all these years, all the merfolk of the West Sea had left except for him. Only Ying Ying still stubbornly remained here.

He didn’t know what he wanted to do either. His demonic power wasn’t sufficient for revenge. He probably felt that if even he left, there would be no one left in this world to remember who the merfolk Yinli was. That fool had given everything and only gained infamy—anyone would feel indignant.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when Ying Ying encountered a man.

That was a mysterious man, his entire body shrouded in swirling black mist. Ying Ying couldn’t see the other’s face, and even his voice was unclear and indistinct. The man said to him, “A merfolk’s demonic power is insufficient for revenge.”

“I don’t want revenge,” Ying Ying retorted.

“I can give you powerful demonic power, enough to destroy all of Li’er Kingdom. As payment, when Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm opens, you must enter and find something for me.”

Ying Ying ultimately made a deal with this man.

He indeed gained incredibly powerful demonic power. He could even gradually conceal his demonic power. He killed innocent young women in Li’er Kingdom, creating tragedies identical to those of the past.