Chapter 96 - Echoes of the Deep
Just then, Yu Jin arrived in a high-powered, sporty vessel, coming to a smooth halt before Fanli and Su Li. He rolled down the crystalline window and lifted a portable, metallic aquarium equipped with a built-in charging unit. "Sister Fanli, look at this." Behind the transparent glass of the tank, a boxfish with an orange body and black circular spots puckered its lips, swimming in frantic, adorable circles.
"Isn't that Dudu?" Fanli paused, realizing that the original Dudu couldn't possibly have lived this long. "No, wait—is this Dudu’s descendant?"
"Exactly. This is Little Dudu. I only found out this morning after chatting with some people from the Endless Palace that you can actually buy specialized tanks in Bamanboya designed for Light Sea pets. I rushed to the mall to get one immediately."
"Then how did you bring him here before?"
"By using stored arcane energy, of course. But that doesn't last long—a week at most."
"…Were you really planning to travel back to the Light Sea every single week just to keep Little Dudu by your side?"
"I was. But now I don't have to go through all that trouble. The Fel energy in the Abyss is truly miraculous; its conversion rate is incredibly high. It really is a formidable power known for its ability to consume and transform… Wait, Sister Fanli, why are you looking at me like I’m a piece of salted fish?" Yu Jin rubbed his chin, his expression turning mock-serious. "I get it. Sisters of your age have lived through the Great Famine and the Economic Depression. You carry so much pressure and lead such arduous lives that you can’t quite grasp the hobbies of us younger folk. You probably think we’re a 'collapsed generation.'"
*Today’s first metaphorical arrow to the chest: Check.*
"I am only a hundred and eighty-six years older than you! For the Sea God Race, a gap of less than two hundred years is practically nothing. Stop acting like a pampered youth!"
"Even if it's only a hundred and eighty-six years, I’ve never been married, you know."
*Thwack. Another arrow to the heart.*
Yu Jin blinked his eyes, gazing at her with a shimmering, "bling-bling" intensity that practically screamed, *Sister, look at this pure, untainted piece of fresh meat.*
But Fanli only decoded one message from that look: *Sister, you’ve already been married four times.* Dealing with two "bear children" in a single morning was giving her a massive headache.
"What is that thing…" Su Li, who had been silent until now, stared at the aquarium Yu Jin was holding. She finally couldn't help herself. "Is it a boxfish?"
"It is." Yu Jin finally noticed Su Li, his expression shifting to one of surprise. "You must be the Princess of the Crimson Moon?"
Fanli nodded. However, Su Li didn't even hear his question. She swam over slowly, her attention entirely fixed on Little Dudu. Her large blue eyes were filled with a raw, genuine curiosity that finally gave her the aura of a pure, innocent princess. "This is the first time I’ve seen a live boxfish. Its mouth is so upturned… and how does its little tail fin move so fast?" As she spoke, she even mimicked the boxfish’s movements, fluttering her hands rapidly.
"Has the Princess never been to the Light Sea?" Yu Jin asked gently.
Su Li looked up at Yu Jin, momentarily struck by the handsome features of this high-clan "big brother" from the Light Sea. She shook her head softly. "No, never."
"That is truly tragic."
"How is it tragic? Is not visiting the Light Sea some kind of sin?"
"No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that when I was little, my father used to take me to the Dark Sea to play all the time."
"..."
"His Majesty Su Shiye must be very strict, not letting you go out to play at all."
"..."
Fanli felt her head throb. What was Yu Jin doing? Shouldn't the standard response be "You’re welcome to visit the Light Sea as a guest"? Why was he bullying a little girl?
Though the Princess was undeniably arrogant, she was still just a child. Fanli quickly grabbed Mise Hege and Buke Shasha, who had just arrived, and boarded the vessel, urging Yu Jin to leave.
Su Li was clearly upset. With a sudden flash of red light, she vanished without a trace—some deep-sea races possessed bioluminescence and short-term invisibility. Blue light was the most common, while red was the rarest, as it was the hardest spectrum to penetrate the depths.
They headed directly for the residential district near the "Eye of the Abyss."
The government had arranged an "air-pocket house" for them. This meant that once they were inside, they could maintain their land-dwelling forms indefinitely without needing pressure-resistant suits, making movement far more convenient.
The primary energy source in the Abyss was Fel energy. Because it was so abundant, its price was more than fifty times cheaper than the arcane energy of the Light Sea. In the past, the Abyssal tribes struggled even to meet basic needs, so they hadn't seen much use for such vast energy. They had habitually lived in waters near the Twilight Zone, occasionally venturing into the Light Sea for a "grand feast."
Since the establishment of the Abyssal Empire, Su Shiye had utilized Fel energy efficiently. He had constructed numerous air-pocket greenhouses on the seabed to simulate land-based agriculture, cultivating plants that normally only grew on the surface, such as wheat. By adjusting water pressure, they could even raise shallow-water marine life, effectively solving the problem of hunger. However, no matter how advanced the technology, the cost of obtaining food in the Abyss remained high compared to the Light Sea, where nature produced tons of resources effortlessly. Thus, they still advocated for fish and meat trade with the Light Sea.
The air-energy industry in the Abyssal Empire was highly developed, with factories mass-producing air pockets. These pockets were filled with various gases: oxygen, nitrogen, methane, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen, and more. Higher gas concentrations were more expensive, and different types of air canisters featured distinct packaging and brands.
Air-pocket houses were operated by air-energy companies that provided gas to the property management. Most residents were Abyssals from depths above three thousand meters who couldn't adapt to Bamanboya’s crushing pressure, along with a few Flame Demons who preferred dry methane and hydrogen sulfide. These houses weren't more expensive than standard commercial housing, but the monthly management fees were often higher than the mortgage or rent.
After listening to the landlord’s introduction, Fanli asked, "What if the machinery malfunctions and the energy supply stops? Wouldn't we die instantly?"
"Rest assured, the situation you fear will not happen." With that, the landlord swam to a corner of the wall and shut off the main air valve. Suddenly, the indoor lights turned a flickering dark red, and a piercing alarm blared from the ceiling: *Beep! Beep!* Simultaneously, a mechanical female voice announced: "Your main air supply has been shut off. Please don your pressure-resistant suits within thirty minutes and prepare for evacuation. Your main air supply has been shut off..."
"Thirty minutes? It can last that long?"
"Yes. And there’s also this." The landlord pulled a red tube from beside the main valve and inserted it into a small hole near the switch.
The female voice spoke again: "Your main air supply has been shut off. A temporary power supply system has been connected. Please contact us within 24 hours to repair your air-energy system. If you do not contact us within 24 hours, a fee of 2,000 Red Credits per hour will be charged and deducted directly from your bank account..."
"I see. That makes me feel much better." Fanli found such a sophisticated automated system incredible. She then realized the exchange rate between the Light Sea and the Dark Sea hadn't been established yet. "So, what does two thousand Red Credits represent, exactly?"
"My daughter works in clothing sales," the landlord replied. "Her monthly salary is 55,000 Red Credits."
*Why work in clothing sales when you could own an air-energy company and experience the joy of overnight wealth?*
With the help of her two assistants, Fanli settled into her new home and then went to report to the research institute. There, she encountered an old acquaintance.
The person greeting her was a former classmate.
She still wore round-rimmed glasses and remained as reserved and soft-spoken as she had been during their university days. However, her appearance had become much more feminine. Her snow-white curly hair reached her waist, styled with straight bangs. She was exceptionally well-endowed, and her smile remained gentle and fragile. She spoke in a soft, airy voice that lacked any hint of aggression. "Fanli, it’s been many years."
Fanli opened her mouth, intending to call her by name, but in her memory storage, this face was only labeled with one tag: "Quinti’s younger sister." It was awkward. The woman seemed accustomed to such treatment and merely adjusted the name tag on her collar—Sephi Shami.
Fanli knew that after Su Shiye’s "Whale Fall," Sephi Quinti had been incredibly fierce and brave. At her father’s command, she had taken Alan and the illegitimate child born to the Quinti housekeeper’s daughter and leapt into the Meteor Trench. She hadn't expected the younger sister to follow as well.
"It really has been over four hundred years," Fanli said with a smile. "I didn't expect you to be working here. Does this mean we’ll be colleagues for a while?"
"Yes, it does." Shami swam toward the inner room. "Come, let me introduce you to the equipment in the laboratory."
Outside the lab, a television was on, broadcasting political news:
"...The Light Sea Federation ignores the basic codes of the ocean, forcibly occupying the Twilight Zone and implementing a logic of power and hegemony. They have become the destroyers of tens of millions of years of peace in the ocean, despising the existence of the Dark Sea tribes and blatantly practicing racial discrimination. The entire Dark Sea society sees this clearly. As an extraterritorial government, the St. Yegana government, out of its own selfish interests, fears that the Well of Storms will not be chaotic enough. They stir up trouble in the Twilight Zone and do everything possible to harass the Shadow Tribes, seriously interfering with the stability of the sea..."
Fanli nearly fainted.
Indeed, when abroad, one should never listen to foreign media reporting on their homeland, or they might just die of pure frustration.
Shami heard the news as well and swam over to switch the channel to the Fel Potion Channel:
"We have just received notice from the Imperial Government that the Abyssal Empire will undergo a major reform of potion bureaus nationwide. All potions with non-standard instructions will be classified as counterfeit, and pharmaceutical factories must revise them entirely. This plan will be officially implemented in Bamanboya this December..."
Fanli’s ears perked up. This was too much of a coincidence. She had only recently submitted a proposal for this exact policy to the Light Sea through the Arcane Academy, and it had just hit the news. Was the Abyss doing the same thing?
Just then, a young male voice rang out: "Aunt Shami, have you received the Great Oracle?"
As the words fell, a boy swam out of the laboratory. His eyes met Fanli’s, and he gasped in admiration. "It really is the Great Oracle Su Yi herself. Hello."
The boy before her made Fanli feel the power of genetics once again. She almost blurted out the name "Alan."
"Fanli, this is Qiong, Alan’s son." Shami gestured toward Auda Qiong.
"Hello," Fanli said with a smile.
Although Qiong shared Alan’s spirited brow and a face handsome enough to cause a stir, he bowed to Fanli with perfect decorum. He was incredibly polite, nothing like his father.
Auda Qiong was one in ten thousand—a lucky survivor. Many Light Sea citizens who entered the Abyss died due to failed mutations or inability to adapt to the environment. But he had been just an infant then, and he had stubbornly survived, growing up healthy and strong.
Regrettably, his Aunt Quinti disliked him intensely.
Quinti had adopted him and then married a Flame Demon. The marriage was unhappy; the husband claimed his wife had a terrible temper, but Quinti always blamed Qiong. She subjected him to a constant cycle of verbal abuse:
"It’s because of you that I married poorly."
"It’s because of you that my husband and I always fight."
"If it weren't for a burden like you, I could have lived a much better life."
Consequently, Qiong had grown up cautious and well-behaved, though his politeness never spared him from Quinti’s wrath. Every time he was scolded, he would go to Shami to cry, saying he wanted to live with her. Shami, who doted on him, would make the request to Quinti, only to be met with another barrage of insults: "I knew you were helping that slut Sephi Qing! She was shameless enough to steal your brother-in-law, and now you’re doting on her son? You heartless thing!"
Yet, Quinti refused to let anyone else raise him. She paid for his expensive tuition and provided the best material life while simultaneously loathing him. Unintentionally, she had raised a boy who was excellent in both character and academics, and very popular with the opposite sex.
But Quinti’s demonic attacks were suffocating. As soon as Qiong reached adulthood, he fled from his terrifying aunt. He moved out on his own and worked to send her living expenses, but he refused to live with her.
Aside from hanging out with friends, he spent most of his time with Shami.
After Fanli left, Shami was organizing test tubes in the lab when Qiong rushed over to help her eagerly. After she thanked him softly, she opened the window to let in some seawater. The red light of the Fel Valley illuminated the water like flames, and the dark gold beauty of the Endless Palace lay just across the canyon. She turned back and saw the interlacing gold and red light falling on Qiong, making him look as though he were bathed in a sunset.
She stood by, watching him quietly. In the silent laboratory, his snow-white eyelashes tinged with red, his emerald eyes, his mountain-peak nose, and his slightly coarse short hair... except for his personality, which favored his mother Sephi Qing, every detail of him was cast from the same mold as his father.
Alan. He had been gone from this world for four hundred and forty-two years...
That war had been more than just a nightmare for him and His Majesty Su Shiye; it was her own heartbreak.
Fortunately, Qing had given him a beautiful son. Unlike her sister, Shami was grateful to Qing. Because Qing had given birth to Qiong, Alan’s life continued.
*Alan, are you doing well in the other world?*
*You and Qing must be very happy...*
*You probably often think of the fiancée who drove you mad, but you have likely forgotten that there was once a girl who followed behind you, invisible and silent, watching you in secret...*
Shami was lost in thought while looking at Qiong when he suddenly looked up. "Aunt Shami, this test tube is..." Before he could finish, their eyes met. He stopped speaking, put down the test tube, and gazed at her openly and gently, with a hint of submissiveness.
No, this wasn't Alan. Alan would never look at her like this. Alan’s gaze always skipped over her, either looking at her sister with hatred or at Qing with flirtation.
Shami patted her face to stay clear-headed. *This child is Qiong. What am I thinking...*
She swam over, took the test tube, opened a cabinet, and placed it in a box inside. "This one goes here."
"Okay," Qiong’s voice sounded from behind and above her, soft and deep in the water, as if he were whispering right into her ear. "I’ll do whatever Aunt Shami says."
Shami closed her eyes, shook her head slightly, and shut the cabinet. "Thank you for coming to help me today. I have some other things to attend to. You should head back first."
Fanli had left early because she received a phone call.
The communication device had been provided by the government, pre-loaded with many professional names and numbers, but the incoming call was from an unfamiliar number pulsing with Fel light.
"Hello."
"Hey."
This "Hey" was spoken in the Abyssal tongue, which was much harder and crisper than the Light Sea dialect. But what made her heart race even faster was the owner of that voice.
"...Your Majesty Su Shiye?"
"Come to the Endless Palace. Sign the agreement."
"Oh, right. I’ll be there immediately."
"Efficiency. Good."
It was madness. They had only met and spoken the day before, yet just hearing his voice now made her tremble with nerves. Efficiency was a lie; her true desire was simply to see him. But she didn't want to hang up yet, so she coughed twice. "By the way, I just saw a news report..." She proceeded to tell Su Shiye about the potion bureau reforms.
"What about it?"
"Is this what they call 'two hearts beating as one'? I only just proposed the same reforms."
"It isn't," Su Shiye said without missing a beat. "I simply copied your idea."
"Huh? Who could be so shameless!"
"Me."
"..." She was truly speechless. Was being able to admit it so openly a form of shamelessness in itself?
"Come quickly. I’ll have someone meet you outside the hall." Su Shiye paused. "I have things to do later. Move fast."
"Understood."
After hanging up, Fanli accelerated her pace toward the Endless Palace. Along the way, she saw many passersby, but every time she saw Predator or Flame Demon women, she found it rather eye-searing. They were free to go topless, and those two mounds were constantly swaying in front of her, drawing the eyes of men up and down. The Flame Demons, in particular, always had exquisite figures and remained in land-dwelling form. Their bodies were like burning flames, leaving trails of Fel light as they swam. Consequently, even their chests left shimmering silhouettes in the water.
The Abyssals were truly uninhibited.
But compared to the person she saw in front of the Endless Palace, the chests of those women were far from "shocking."
From a distance, she saw a tall, large young man swimming toward her, waving his hand. "Su Yi, over here!"
Hardly believing her own eyes, Fanli rubbed them. The person speaking to her was... was Qiu Sha!
She rubbed her eyes again until they hurt, and only when he quickly arrived in front of her did she confirm it wasn't a hallucination.
But something was wrong.
This young man had flame-like Fel energy flowing from him, and his red hair drifted up and down in the seawater. He looked just like the Qiu Sha from the surface, but he wasn't of the Flame Tribe. This man was a Flame Demon.
"Who are you..." Fanli looked him up and down.
"You don't even recognize me? I’m your ex-husband." The young man scratched his head and laughed heartily, revealing a row of snow-white teeth. "Even if we weren't a couple in fact, we were still a couple in name. You’re being a bit cold-hearted, aren't you!"
"...Qiu Sha? For real..." Fanli clasped her hands in front of her chest and pinched herself hard several times. "Is this real? Am I dreaming?"
"You bad girl. You stole the 'Eye of Flame' without my permission back then; I haven't even settled that debt with you yet. If His Majesty Su Shiye hadn't saved us, our race would have truly gone extinct."
The Flame Tribe and the Flame Demon Race were originally kindred races created by the elemental Lord of Flame. The Flame Tribe were natural beings born in volcanoes, while the Flame Demons were born from the crimson Fel energy. After the bones of the Flame Tribe sank into the sea, as long as they were exposed to massive amounts of Fel energy and the restorative power of an Ancient God, they could be resurrected like an Aetherial Body, becoming Flame Demons capable of living in the deep sea.
After Su Shiye sank into the ocean, he had ordered all the remains from Hot Sand Island to be moved to the source of deep-sea Fel energy. Using the power of the Lord of Aether, he had transformed them all into their current forms.
Since then, Qiu Sha and the people of Hot Sand Island had formed a military unit loyal to the Abyssal Empire, becoming Su Shiye’s right-hand men in expanding his territory. Now, Qiu Sha was the Grand Marshal of the Empire’s First Legion.
Once Qiu Sha finished his explanation, Fanli didn't say a word. She transformed into her land-dwelling form and knelt abruptly before him, kowtowing. "I’m sorry, Qiu Sha. I’m so sorry! It was all my fault. I’m the one who harmed you all!"
"Hey, don't do that. I didn't mean for you to apologize."
Qiu Sha hurried to help her up, but she refused to rise, kowtowing even harder. "I’ve owed you this apology for hundreds of years. I finally have the chance to say it! You all welcomed me with such warmth, yet for my own interests, I caused your extinction. That isn't a fact that changes just because you’ve been resurrected. Please, give me a chance to make it up to you!"
Qiu Sha eventually forced her to stand, then pulled her into a hug, patting her back. "There’s no need for reparations. I know the whole story now. You did it to save His Majesty, didn't you? If it were for anyone else, I would definitely be furious. But since that man is Su Shiye, I’m not angry at all. Really."
Fanli could not be consoled. She hugged Qiu Sha tightly, weeping in his arms like a three-year-old child.
"It seems an ex-wife isn't necessarily just an ex-wife..." Qiu Sha suddenly showed a hint of a tough man’s tenderness. "How about you marry me for real this time? I’m still single, you know. If you’ve divorced More Heqiao, I wouldn't mind marrying you again."
Fanli was considering whether to reveal that she had indeed already divorced when she heard a voice from behind them: "Qiu Sha?"
The two of them turned around. Su Shiye was standing on the steps, arms crossed, looking at them with a cold, indifferent expression.
"Oh, cough." Qiu Sha rubbed his neck and placed an arm around Fanli’s waist, guiding her toward the steps. "Let’s go inside first."
Su Shiye’s gaze swept over Qiu Sha’s hand, then he raised an eyebrow at him. Qiu Sha coughed again and withdrew his hand. "Business first. Business first."
