Chapter 280
Mermaid Emperor's Bloodline
Chapter 280 Mermaid Emperor's Bloodline
That day, in the quiet room of the Raging Waves City Inn.
tide Yue sat in the corner, her hands clasped together, moon-white light swirling around her fingertips, as she murmured an ethereal and ancient ballad.
Strands of moonlight gathered from the void, condensing into shimmering threads in her palm, weaving together to gradually create a piece of soft, glossy silk as thin as a cicada's wing.
"Gathering the essence of the moon... and mixing it with the spirit of water..."
Her expression was focused, her azure eyes reflected the moonlight, and her tail fin swayed gently unconsciously, the scales refracting a fine silver-blue light.
Qingheng squatted on a futon beside her, her hands supporting her chin, her blue eyes fixed on the scene, and she muttered softly, "Xiyue looks so beautiful while weaving silk, she's practically glowing."
"what?"
"tide Yue's aura is changing!!"
Chen Jinshu closed his eyes and regulated his breathing in the main seat. The blue lotus mark between his eyebrows shimmered with a warm glow, while his divine sense enveloped the entire quiet room.
Suddenly, her long eyelashes trembled slightly, and she opened her eyes.
Suddenly, tide Yue's weaving motions stopped, and the melody she was chanting unconsciously rose a moment, becoming more ancient and obscure.
The soft, moon-white light surrounding her suddenly transformed into a deep, noble pale gold, with faint tidal shadows surging behind her. There was no wind in the room, yet it was as if one could hear the deep, majestic whale song and the resonance of a tsunami from the distant ocean.
The water elemental energy in the air frantically converged towards her, forming a fist-sized, constantly rotating pale golden vortex above her head. Although the range was extremely small, the ancient pressure originating from the depths of her bloodline made Qingheng exclaim "Ah!" and subconsciously take half a step back.
"This is... a bloodline reversion?" Chen Jinshu's eyes narrowed, and he instantly stood up, taking a step to stand in front of Xiyue.
She could clearly see that a faint golden rune, resembling a trident intertwined with ocean waves, was faintly appearing on Xi Yue's forehead.
Although it was fleeting, the strange phenomenon that stirred the surrounding water spirits and even subtly affected the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was definitely not something that ordinary merfolk possessed.
tide Yue herself was stunned, stopping her movements and staring blankly at the newly woven silk handkerchief in her hand, which faintly shimmered with a faint golden light. She then looked up at Chen Jinshu, her eyes filled with helplessness.
"Master... I, I don't know what happened, I suddenly felt... my blood was burning hot."
Chen Jinshu remained solemn and silent, his hands already forming a hand seal with lightning speed.
With swift movements of his fingers, the spiritual power of the Azure Wood, mixed with a trace of the Creation Aura of the Mysterious Female Furnace, outlined several intricate azure runes in the void, layer upon layer, like chains or a net.
"Concentrate, don't move." She whispered, her fingertip lightly touching Xiyue's forehead.
hum!
The cyan rune instantly disappeared into tide Yue's brow.
tide Yue's body trembled slightly, she let out a muffled groan, and her face paled for a moment.
The pale golden light surrounding her was forcibly suppressed and gathered by an invisible hand, quickly dimming.
The tiny vortex of spiritual energy above his head also quietly dissipated, and the ancient sense of oppression receded like the tide.
The room returned to calm, leaving only the still-settled watery atmosphere.
"There is a seal within you."
She stared at Xiyue and said with certainty, "The anomaly just now was caused by the seal loosening."
Chen Jinshu did not stop. He cast three more sealing runes, one on Xiyue’s dantian, the other on her heart, and the other on the core of her tail fin. Only then did he slowly stop, with fine beads of sweat on his forehead.
These seals are not permanent imprisonments, but rather suppress the overly obvious abnormal bloodline movement, though they do not completely block its slow nourishment of the body.
"How are you feeling?" Chen Jinshu's voice was slightly deep, and he looked at Xiyue with a sharp gaze, which showed a hint of curiosity.
tide Yue touched her chest, where the cool touch of the seal still seemed to linger, as well as the emptiness that followed the previous surge of blood.
She sensed it carefully and shook her head: "The heat has disappeared, and the flow of spiritual energy seems to be a little slower, but it's very smooth."
She looked at Chen Jinshu, her eyes filled with lingering fear and confusion: "Master, what was that just now...?"
"If I'm not mistaken, it was the 'mermaid bloodline' hidden within you that was unintentionally activated by the highly concentrated moonlight and your natal water spirit during the weaving of the silk, resulting in a slight ancestral phenomenon."
Chen Jinshu looked at her with complicated eyes: "The bloodline of the Merfolk is said to be the legacy of an ancient deep-sea emperor. They are born to rule over all waters and are incomparably noble, but... possessing such a treasure is a crime."
Qingheng then came over and curiously touched Xiyue's cool tail fin with her little hand, then looked up at her: "The Mermaid Emperor? I don't remember very well."
That sounds amazing!
"Xiyue, are you a princess who's been secretly hiding away?"
Upon hearing this, tide Yue's body stiffened noticeably, and her cheeks, which had just regained some color, turned pale again.
She lowered her head, her long, dark blue hair falling down, obscuring most of her face, her hands unconsciously clenching the soft silk shimmering with golden light.
"Before my mother died, it seemed she left a restriction deep within my soul..."
tide Yue raised her face, her azure eyes filled with bitterness and indignation, tears welling up in her eyes, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall.
"Princess?"
She forced a smile, her voice trembling: "She's just a pathetic creature abandoned by her tribe and nearly sacrificed to the sea."
tide Yue took a deep breath, as if she had made up her mind, and began to recount the deeply buried pain:
"Our branch belongs to the 'Moon Tide' tribe and lives deep within the 'Misty Coral Reef'."
A legend has long circulated within the tribe: every few generations, a member might awaken a diluted bloodline of the Merfolk King. If they grow up successfully, they might lead the tribe to prosperity… but they could also bring greed and disaster.
"From a young age, my sensitivity to moonlight and water spirits was much stronger than that of my peers, and the silk I wove was of the best quality."
Initially, the clan elders had high hopes for me, and resources were allocated to me.
Her tone gradually lowered, filled with a hint of fear: "But later... the clan leader's daughter, my cousin 'tide Lan', was not as talented as me, but she was proud and arrogant, and was the clan leader's favorite."
She began to unite with other jealous members of my clan to spread rumors that the unusual lunar energy I had activated would attract ferocious beasts from the deep sea, an ominous sign.
"At first, it was just isolation and exclusion."
Until three years ago, during a 'Sea God Festival', a 'saintess' needed to be selected to perform a dance.
"My dance moves and resonance with the moonlight were clearly the best, yet they colluded with several elders who favored them to falsely accuse me of deliberately stirring up an undercurrent during practice, almost injuring Xilan."
tide Yue's voice was filled with icy hatred: "The clan leader is biased and won't listen to my explanation."
Finally, they went even further, somehow obtaining a 'tainted sea stone' tainted with an evil aura, secretly placing it in my quarters, and then publicly 'discovering' it, falsely accusing me of practicing evil magic and attempting to pollute the sacred spring of the tribe!
She closed her eyes, and tears slid down her cheeks, once again forming pearls.
"According to the clan rules, those who practice evil arts and harm the clan shall be punished with 'scale splitting' and then sacrificed to the deep sea whirlpool, a ritual called 'sea sacrifice', to appease the sea god's wrath."
"My parents died early, and no one strongly defended me."
On the eve of my execution, my wet nurse, who had watched me grow up, risked her life to secretly let me go.
I escaped the coral reef, but dared not return to the deep-sea colony. I could only wander in the marginal waters, surviving by gathering shallow moonlight and faint traces of water spirits, and then…”
"In the end, the human hunting teams still discovered the trap and caught him."
"But I'm too weak... I'm only at the early Foundation Establishment stage, I can't beat those people at all..."
Qingheng had long since dropped her joking expression; her blue eyes were filled with sympathy and anger as she muttered under her breath:
"They're so mean! So mean!"
Chen Jinshu had already witnessed the cruelty of the cultivation world. Family infighting and fratricide were commonplace, let alone within the alien race.
"A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime. Your talent, when lacking sufficient protection, becomes a death warrant."
"Although I have temporarily sealed your bloodline's abnormality, if there were any high-level merfolk or cultivators with keen senses nearby, they might not have failed to notice that subtle phenomenon just now. This place is no longer a place to stay for long."
tide Yue trembled, looked up abruptly, and exclaimed in panic, "Master, you...you want to send me away?"
She instinctively grabbed Chen Jinshu's sleeve, her expression pleading.
Chen Jinshu glanced at her, spoke gently, and a smile appeared on his lips: "The contract is complete, you are mine now."
"I, Chen Jinshu, do not discard my people so easily."
"But Raging Waves City is close to the sea, and although merfolk are rare, they are not extinct. Just in case, we need to leave as soon as possible and head inland. The Blackwater Swamp is filled with poisonous miasma and mixed with other scents, which will actually help to conceal your presence."
tide Yue's tense body relaxed instantly, and tears welled up again.
"Thank you, Master! Xiyue... Xiyue will do her utmost and never let you down!" Chen Jinshu smiled slightly, took out a jade slip, and handed it over: "This is the Taiyin Condensing Water Technique, a fourth-grade high-quality cultivation technique that I obtained by chance. It is dedicated to cultivating the essence of moonlight and water, and it is compatible with your bloodline."
"Please study the first three levels first. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me."
tide Yue accepted it with both hands and kowtowed solemnly:
"I will never forget my master's kindness in saving me."
Chen Jinshu nodded, then took out a bottle of pills and several pieces of moonstone from his storage bag:
"This is the 'Water Spirit Nourishing Pill' to help you stabilize your cultivation."
Moonstone can aid in cultivation and can also be used for weaving silk.
From now on, you will weave a piece of silk every day, no longer to gain freedom, but as part of your cultivation.
Infusing the silk with the power of moonlight is both a process of refining the weapon and a process of refining the mind.
tide Yue nodded vigorously: "Yes, Master!"
……
Soon after, Chen Jinshu arrived at the Spirit Plant Space.
We arrived at the front of the Yinshan Sparrow.
On the nest where the Yinshan tit originally lived, there was now an oval-shaped, ice-blue giant cocoon.
The cocoon was about half a person's height, crystal clear, with fine and intricate frost patterns naturally condensed on its surface. Wisps of white mist seeped out from the cocoon, covering the surrounding ground with a thin layer of frost.
Inside the cocoon, the figure of the Yinshan Sparrow could be vaguely seen curled up, its breath calm and deep, as it entered the deepest hibernation.
"Little Sparrow?" Qingheng flew over, her little hand lightly touching the ice cocoon before immediately withdrawing.
"So cold!"
"It is refining a demon core."
After a moment of sensing, Chen Jinshu's eyes showed surprise: "Much faster than expected..."
It seems the dragon whale demon core is extremely compatible with its Ice Phoenix bloodline.
Qingheng asked curiously, "How long will it take for him to wake up?"
"It could take as little as three months, or as long as half a year," Chen Jinshu estimated.
"Once it emerges from its cocoon, its bloodline will be able to advance to the 'Mysterious Ice Phoenix' level. At that time, not only will its cultivation reach the mid-Golden Core stage, but it will also be able to further enhance its innate divine abilities..."
Three days ago, she gave the demon core she obtained from the Ice Soul Dragon Whale, along with several kinds of medicinal liquids, to the Yinshan Sparrow to consume. Not long after, the current situation occurred.
The vast and pure Ice Soul Demon Power within the Demon Core is being slowly and steadily devoured, refined, and fused with the Ice Phoenix Bloodline within the Yinshan Sparrow's body.
"The Ice Soul Dragon Whale is a descendant of an ancient dragon-like beast. The Ice Soul True Meaning contained in its demon core is a great tonic for the Yinshan Sparrow and a key to unlocking the deep potential of its bloodline."
"At that time, its feathers will contain even purer Xuanbing power, which can be launched from the body with lightning speed and unparalleled sharpness. Those hit will have their blood frozen and their souls chilled."
Its power is no less than that of a flying sword or magical artifact used by an ordinary Golden Core cultivator.
Upon hearing this, Qingheng's green eyes widened, and she clapped her hands, saying:
"Then Little Sparrow will be even more powerful! She can help Jinshu fight bad guys!"
tide Yue also looked at the beautiful ice cocoon, her eyes filled with envy.
She knew that her master, though seemingly aloof, was actually extremely attentive to the spirit beasts and companions around him, bestowing upon them opportunities and helping them grow.
Chen Jinshu turned around, his gaze sweeping over Xiyue and Qingheng, and then said:
"The bloodline of Xiyue needs to be hidden, and the transformation of Yinshan Sparrow needs time. This place is no longer suitable for us to stay."
"Tomorrow, I will process the remaining pills and exchange them for enough supplies to ward off poison, heal wounds, and conceal one's presence."
Three days later, once everything was ready, we set off for Blackwater Marsh.
"Yes, Master/Jinshu!" Xiyue and Qingheng replied at the same time.
……
Three days later, at the West Wharf of the city.
The Demon Sea has been repaired, and the newly painted protective array patterns on the hull shimmer with a dark blue luster under the sunlight.
Sun Mao stood by the gangway and, seeing Chen Jinshu approaching, quickly went to greet him:
"Fellow Daoist Chen, the ship owner instructed that you have reserved the No. 3 Heavenly Quiet Room. Here is the key."
He handed over a jade plaque engraved with wave patterns.
Chen Jinshu accepted it and nodded slightly: "Thank you for your trouble."
"Don't dare."
Sun Mao rubbed his hands together, his smile ingratiating: "Fellow Daoist, you've certainly made a name for yourself in Raging Waves City this time! Those Moon Essence Youth-Preserving Pills are now extremely rare!"
Chen Jinshu said calmly, "It was just luck."
She didn't want to talk much and went straight to board the ship.
Room No. 3, the top-floor quiet room, is much more spacious than the one we came in. It has a window overlooking the sea and offers a wide view.
Chen Jinshu set up a restriction, releasing Xiyue from the spiritual plant space.
The little guy's complexion had returned to its rosy hue, but there was still some lingering shock in his eyes.
"Sit down and regulate your breathing. I will reinforce the seal for you."
Chen Jinshu had her sit cross-legged on a futon, while he took out a jade slip.
This is a secret technique called "Hidden Pulse Locking Spirit Technique" that she found in the Southern Xinjiang Miscellany given to her by the old man Songhe. It is specifically used to seal special bloodlines and prevent the leakage of energy.
"This method will be somewhat painful, so please bear with it."
She gathered cyan and white flames at her fingertips and outlined runes in the void.
The runes are intricate and profound; each stroke stirs up subtle ripples of spiritual energy.
tide Yue bit her lower lip and gripped the hem of her dress tightly with both hands.
When the first rune entered her heart, her body trembled violently.
She felt as if countless tiny needles were piercing her heart, the pain almost causing her to faint.
"Concentrate!"
Chen Jinshu gave a low shout, his hands moving without stopping.
Runes fell one after another, binding the golden halo like chains.
The halo struggled, but could not withstand the suppression of the runes. It gradually shrank and finally turned into a tiny golden ray the size of a grain of rice, hidden deep within the heart.
The final stroke was made.
A thin layer of sweat was visible on Chen Jinshu's forehead.
She withdrew her hand and carefully examined Xiyue's body.
The bloodline of the Mermaid King had been completely sealed off, and no more energy could be leaked out.
"All right."
She handed him a gentle pill: "Take this and regulate your breathing for three days, and you should be fine."
tide Yue took the pill and swallowed it, feeling the burning pain in her chest gradually dissipate, replaced by a warm current that nourished her damaged meridians.
"Thank you, Master." Her voice was weak, but full of gratitude.
Chen Jinshu waved his hand and walked to the window.
Outside the window, the Demon Sea slowly departed from the dock, cutting through the waves towards the southwest.
Originally, the Demon Sea was only supposed to dock at Langtao City, but a day ago, when she was worried about how to get to Blackwater Marsh, Sun Mao found her and said that the Demon Sea's plans had changed and it was about to go to Gushu River near Blackwater Marsh to help its employer hunt a Jade Horned Centipede. He could take her to the outskirts of Blackwater Marsh on the way.
She certainly wouldn't refuse such a good thing.