That evening, they dined on a local specialty of Bamanboya—giant mussels measuring thirty centimeters in diameter (the version with hydrogen sulfide and methane removed). Fanli immediately noticed the difference between the food of the Dark Sea and the Light Sea. While Light Sea shellfish were springy and firm, these deep-sea mussels were soft and delicate, possessing a texture akin to freshly baked bread that melted the moment it touched the tongue. The chef’s skill was formidable; with a generous dusting of black pepper, savory sauces, and kelp, the giant mussels were transformed into a succulent, flavorful feast.
Afterward, they attended a concert featuring the works of the musician depicted on the 20-Red Credit note. The program included the symphonic poem *The Crimson King*, the oratorio *The Woman Beneath the Great Canyon*, the symphony *The Deep Sea Kingdom*, and film scores such as *The Seven Children* and *The Sea God’s Sin*.
At the night market across from the concert hall, the cries of a vendor from the Frilled Shark Tribe—boasting three hundred needle-like teeth—could be heard from afar: "Great news for everyone! The boss of the Longcheng Fin-guard Factory has run away with his sister-in-law! Fin-guards originally priced at 500 Red Credits are now on clearance! Only 100 a pair!"
Hearing this, Hage and Shasha grew excited. Mrs. Pu, however, maintained a look of Zen-like detachment. "Come back in fifty years and their lines will be exactly the same. The only thing that might change is the 100 becoming 50."
The night market also featured stalls selling "foragers." These so-called foragers were actually domesticated grenadiers infused with fel energy. Born with powerful foraging instincts, they used their sharp snouts to dig through the silt of the abyssal plains, efficiently locating small, edible benthic creatures. Grenadiers were also common in the Light Sea, known for their incredibly resilient vitality. Seeing them among so many alien species gave Fanli a strange sense of familiarity.
Once the day's activities concluded, the group returned for a good night's rest. The following morning, they boarded a submersible to head out of the city.
Throughout the journey, Fanli took every opportunity to talk with Mrs. Pu, asking for information about the Abyss Empire. While Mrs. Pu didn't know much about politics, economics, or the national system, she was well-versed in history and regaled Fanli with a stream of imperial anecdotes and curiosities.
Three hours later, they arrived at the City of Volcanoes.
As the name suggested, the City of Volcanoes was built near hydrothermal vents on the seabed. It was also the cradle of deep-sea life. The city's architecture consisted of pointed, spire-like towers with an average height of fifty-five meters. Originally, these spires were formed from condensed calcium carbonate deposits; over time, the material had hardened into something as tough as steel.
Initially an industrial hub, the city’s power plants utilized the heat from the volcanoes to generate electricity. Since the City of Volcanoes opened itself to tourism, the government had partitioned the high-temperature waters from the low-temperature zones, converting the spires into hotels, casinos, shopping malls, and entertainment venues to attract deep-sea tourists.
Mrs. Pu led the group of four onto a heat-resistant tour vessel to view the volcanic landscape outside the city.
Through the viewport, Fanli saw hydrothermal vents and "black smokers" dozens of meters high. Simultaneously, an automated narrator’s voice filled the cabin:
"We have now reached the submarine volcanic zone. Seawater is heated to 350 degrees Celsius by hot rocks within the Earth's crust, dissolving minerals—primarily sulfides—from the rock. This water seeps out through fissures in the central rift valley. Upon meeting the colder seawater, it cannot boil due to the immense pressure of the Dark Sea; instead, it cools rapidly. The chemicals solidify, turning black and accumulating over long periods to form 'black smokers.' Note that the primary component of this black smoke is calcium carbonate, which is acidic. The volcanic vents themselves are alkaline, with water temperatures ranging from forty to ninety degrees. The water is rich in methane and hydrogen, attracting vast colonies of organisms..."
Fanli had only ever seen deep-sea black smokers in books or on television. Seeing them in person sparked a small thrill of excitement. The temperatures were extreme; if she were to step outside now, she would be dead in seconds. Yet, it was precisely this—an ecological environment completely alien to the Light Sea—that possessed such a captivating aura.
"Ugh, there are so many tube worms..." Hage’s lip twitched. "My trypophobia is about to kick in!"
The hydrothermal vents stretched for thousands of miles. Growing near them were not fish, but two-meter-long tube worms as thick as a human arm. They were a beautiful, vivid red due to their hemoglobin, packed together in dense clusters. Lacking mouths or internal organs, they looked like a forest of coral. They grew remarkably fast, reaching their current size in just a few years—the complete opposite of deep-sea corals.
The automated narration continued:
"The organisms at these hydrothermal vents do not rely on solar energy to survive. Like our friends from the Flame Demon Tribe, they possess extraordinary vitality and unique physiological structures. For instance, these tube worms—the sole species of their phylum—host bacteria that convert sulfur into organic matter, much like plants perform photosynthesis. Simultaneously, they emit the rotten-egg smell of hydrogen sulfide..."
Yujin pointed to the mussels and clams also growing at the vents. "Those are what we ate yesterday. They belong to the same biological system as the tube worms and the Flame Demon Tribe. They share the same chemosynthetic bacteria that can fix sulfur and oxygen. By binding them separately, they prevent the synthesis of highly toxic compounds. Ordinary organisms don't have such magnificent capabilities."
"Can tube worms be used to cultivate bacteria?" Fanli asked curiously.
"Theoretically, the Flame Demon Tribe could be used as well," Yujin replied.
"..."
"Stop it, I’m going to throw up." Hage covered her mouth, her acting more convincing than a pregnant woman’s.
"Thinking about it that way, the Flame Demon Tribe is a bit terrifying," Fanli breathed. "If we ever fought them in the deep sea, our chances of winning would be very low."
"Very low. Fortunately, the Flame Demon Tribe cannot adapt to the environment of the Light Sea. They won't be following the Abyss Empire's troops there."
"Look!" Fanli tapped the window excitedly. "There are Pompeii worms over there too!"
The high-temperature seawater here was a source of energy, but it could also be lethal. The Pompeii worms were biological contradictions; covered in silver-blue bristles like hedgehogs, they kept their heads tucked into calcium carbonate burrows at 20 degrees while their tails dangled in the 40-to-90-degree water. And yet, they thrived.
As a "rough man" with a girlish heart, Hage was already deeply uncomfortable. But Fanli, as she always did in new environments, couldn't help but get hyper-excited, her speech quickening. Yujin watched her profile, and for a moment, he felt as if he had been transported back to their school days four hundred years ago. Without even realizing it, the corners of his mouth curled upward.
"Hmm?" Fanli turned to look at him. "Yujin, why are you looking at me? Look at the worms."
"I was comparing who is cuter, you or the Pompeii worm." Yujin pondered seriously for a moment. "The answer is so obvious I don't think I need to say it."
"The Pompeii worm is cuter," Fanli replied with deadpan eyes.
Next, they visited the remains of victims.
Light Sea races lacked the heat and toxin resistance of the Deep Abyss dwellers. In the deep sea, some Light Sea explorers and deep-sea creatures had met their ends within the volcanoes. In a travel museum near the smokers, there were remains of an explorer who had suffocated, buried by smoke and volcanic ash. His body had been consumed by scavengers or primitive necrophages, leaving behind a hollow cavity. Deep Abyss artists had then filled the cavity with silt to create a humanoid cast.
Mrs. Pu introduced these exhibits with great solemnity. Fanli listened with rapt interest, but noticed Yujin’s face had gone pale. She glanced at him. "You... aren't scared, are you?"
"H-how is that possible?" Yujin’s eyes blinked rapidly, his lashes fluttering like tiny white brushes. "I’m a soldier."
As a result, poor Yujin was once again subjected to the teasing of his "older sisters."
Later, they went to the souvenir shops. They sold volcanic ash and chimney soot—bottled and sold as mementos, with the year of collection printed on the glass. The older the vintage, the more expensive the price. There were boxes of volcanic rock and calcium carbonate; hydrothermal organisms kept in special containers; and commemorative postcards. The images on the postcards varied: panoramic and night views of the City of Volcanoes, distant views of Bamanboya from the city, forests of grey spires, close-ups of tube worms, photos of the white giant mussel delicacies, Pompeii worms hiding in their burrows, a portrait of the founder and first mayor of the City of Volcanoes, and reproductions of landscape paintings from various eras. There were even carved postcards made from local rock.
Volcanic mud masks were also for sale here. Surprisingly, the price was exactly the same as in Bamanboya—a clear sign of high commercialization.
Among a pile of souvenirs, Fanli found a set of commemorative stamps of the Abyss Empire’s great figures. The first one was a profile sketch of Su Shiye. On the left, it read "Abyss Empire Postal Service," and in the bottom right corner, "500 Red Credits."
The stamps for other people were priced much lower. Their names were printed beside their portraits, but Su Shiye’s was not.
In that moment, Fanli felt just how far the Abyss Empire was from the Light Sea. Sperm whales, common in the Light Sea, could dive to 2,500 meters—making them champions among vertical migrators. But in the Abyss, there were only their bones.
As for the distance between Su Shiye and her... forget it. It didn't matter.
That night, they stayed at a hot spring resort on the outskirts of the city. There were vast pools of seawater heated by volcanic energy, where sea folk bathed and relaxed. The four women soaked to their hearts' content, while Yujin sat alone, as lonely as drifting snow.
On the morning of the third day, they returned to Bamanboya, planning to visit the largest marine life museum in the Dark Sea—the Endless Marine Life Museum—that afternoon.
It wasn't until she got home that Fanli remembered she hadn't finished reading the agreement. She scanned it quickly, marking the clauses that needed revision, and then hurried to the Fission Hall of the Endless Palace with Shasha.
She had intended to ask the Flame Demon guards to announce her to Su Shiye, but to her surprise, she saw him by a coral reef near the entrance, accompanied by the Flame Demon woman who had been flirting with him at the Well of Storms. They were sitting on a bench. Su Shiye was opening a beautifully packaged crimson box, taking out a pair of yellow sapphire earrings. He stared at them for a moment, lost in thought.
"Your Majesty Su Shiye, look at these. Do you like them?" the woman murmured, clinging to his arm with infinite tenderness. "I noticed that when you were in the Light Sea, you always liked wearing yellow sapphire earrings. My hometown happens to produce the best ones, so I chose the finest pair for you."
"Darling, these must have been very expensive."
"With your keen eyes, you can see the quality is superb, can't you?" The woman clasped her hands over her chest. Whether intentional or not, her low-cut dress emphasized a deep cleavage as she leaned in slightly, her gaze flirtatious and full of charm.
"Of course. I appreciate the effort you took to choose them. I like them very much. However, I like..."
Su Shiye leaned in and whispered something in her ear. She quickly lowered her head, her cheeks flushing a deep peach color. She cried out, "You're so wicked!" yet pressed her body even closer to his. Su Shiye, however, pulled back at the right moment with gentlemanly grace. He merely leaned down to kiss her forehead and then said, "Does the Great Oracle have business?"
This was, of course, the last scene Fanli wanted to witness. If Su Shiye hadn't called out to her, she might have been tempted to flee on the spot.
"I’m here to return the agreement. Seven clauses need to be modified." She handed the document to Shasha. Shasha swam forward a bit and used a weak arcane pulse—suppressed by the deep sea—to drift the agreement through the water toward Su Shiye.
"Please take a look. Just notify me when you're done. I’ll be going now."
As Fanli turned to leave, Su Shiye said, "No need. Don't waste time. I’ll have them prepare a revised version. Come inside with me to sign it."
But he hadn't even looked at it yet...
Still, if he was willing to sign blindly, she was certainly happy to oblige.
They entered the Fission Hall, waiting for the monarch's secretary to prepare the new contract.
The process was agonizing. After getting Su Shiye’s permission, Fanli began flipping through a volume titled *Bamanboya Urban Construction Records: Years 415–420* in a cabinet. Shasha stood behind her, dazed like a stone statue.
The last time Goxi had seen Fanli, she hadn't observed her closely because Fanli had looked so weak. But this time, she stole several glances. She noticed Fanli was wearing a simple white tunic that only revealed a hint of her deep collarbones, as if she were stingy about showing off her rare, milk-white skin. Furthermore, the only jewelry Fanli wore was the Great Oracle’s armband bearing the Light of the Sea; she wasn't even wearing makeup.
Goxi used to be confident in her natural look, and with makeup, she knew she was breathtakingly beautiful. But seeing Fanli now, she couldn't help but imagine what they would both look like without any adornment, and the thought made her uncomfortable. It felt as if her only advantage was her designer low-cut black dress worth 900,000 Red Credits.
What frustrated her most was that Fanli didn't seem to care about her own beauty at all. She leaned her elbows on the cabinet, occasionally brushing her hair back or cracking her neck with a "click-clack" sound, facing them from angles that would be "death angles" for most girls.
In that moment, Goxi almost forgot about Su Shiye, her eyes constantly drifting to the profile of Fanli’s face as she read intently.
If Su Shiye weren't here, Goxi might have approached a beauty of Fanli’s caliber to strike up a friendship. But with Su Shiye present, a radar in her mind kept screaming "danger."
The more beautiful a woman was, the better she understood what kind of women men liked, and the more she knew that men who only looked at "inner substance" didn't exist. In the past, when encountering women less attractive than herself, Su Shiye would appreciate them openly and compliment their beauty. But toward Fanli, he had no reaction whatsoever—he didn't even give her a second glance.
"Darling, what are your plans for this afternoon?" He stood by the desk, casually flipping through a newspaper.
Su Shiye knew how to manage a woman’s emotions. Goxi knew he was trying to give her a sense of security. However, this only made her more uneasy. She swam directly to him, hugging him from the side, and said distractedly, "Do you have time to take me somewhere?"
"Anywhere you like. My afternoon belongs to you."
Hearing their conversation, Fanli looked up with a hint of surprise but said nothing.
Noticing Fanli’s gaze, Su Shiye smiled. "Right, Great Oracle Suyi, I forgot to introduce you. This is Goxi, my girlfriend."
"Goxi?" Fanli mused for a moment. "Goxi of the Kingdom of Naixi?"
She omitted the title; it should have been "Queen Goxi."
At that moment, the secretary delivered the new agreement to the desk and quickly retreated.
"You know of me?" Goxi was somewhat surprised and a little pleased. Naixi was a very small country in the Dark Sea, with a total population of only 2.85 million. Its industrial development was mediocre, and its resources were severely lacking. Before the Empire’s invasion, everyone except the nobility had lived in a state of chronic hunger, like many other deep-sea dwellers.
Fanli’s information about her had come entirely from Mrs. Pu. She looked at Su Shiye and sighed silently—what was this man thinking? He annexed their territory and then made off with their Queen?
Following diplomatic etiquette, Fanli only said something pleasant: "While traveling these past two days, our guide mentioned that the Kingdom of Naixi had a famous beauty."
Goxi grew even happier—yes, she was a famous beauty. Back in Naixi, when she was still a noble lady, the King had exhausted himself trying to woo her. Now that even the Emperor of the Red Moon liked her, could her beauty be questioned? Why had she felt so insecure in front of Suyi? It must be the honeymoon phase of the relationship, making her feel a bit oversensitive.
Thus, much of her lost confidence returned. "Suyi, you aren't bad yourself."
"Our Great Oracle doesn't need an 'also' before 'not bad,'" Shasha interjected before Fanli could speak. "She is the Great Oracle of the Light Sea, a Grand Alchemist, a Fellow of the Saint Yejana Arcane Academy, winner of the Elgrin Arcane Research Award, the one who abolished thirty million years of slavery in the Light Sea, and the architect of the four-hundred-year post-war economic recovery. And you are the former Queen of a tiny Dark Sea nation. Therefore, you should address her with a formal title."
"On what grounds?" Goxi’s eyes widened. "You don't actually think the Light Sea Federation is still more powerful than the Abyss Empire, do you?"
"No, this has nothing to do with the Light Sea or the Dark Sea. My point is: she is the Great Oracle of the Light Sea, a Grand Alchemist, a Fellow of the Saint Yejana Arcane Academy, winner of the Elgrin Arcane Research Award, the one who abolished thirty million years of slavery in the Light Sea, and the architect of the four-hundred-year post-war economic recovery. And you are the former Queen of a tiny Dark Sea nation. Therefore, you should address her with a formal title."
"What do you mean by that?" Goxi was beginning to get angry, but she glanced at Su Shiye and suppressed her temper, speaking in a hurt tone. "What’s wrong with being the former Queen of a small nation? I married my ex-husband for love. And I am with His Majesty Su Shiye now for love. Marrying for love does not make me lowly."
She repeated the word "love" several times, heavily implying that Fanli’s marriage was a mere political union, yet doing so in a way that left no trace for accusation. Fanli thought to herself that this "tea-master" skill was truly peak. If Feng Jin were here, she wondered which of them would win.
"Your country was destroyed, and you immediately ran off with the Red Moon Emperor. What a 'great' love indeed," Shasha remarked.
Fanli hadn't realized it before, but Shasha, who usually seemed so detached, actually had quite a temper. She truly was the sister Yejana had spoiled.
"Alright, alright, Shasha, be quiet for a moment. I need to read the contract." Fanli mouthed to her, *There's no need to argue over this,* then swam to the desk to quickly scan the new agreement for errors.
"Bukeshasha, you’re being a bit out of line." Su Shiye pulled Goxi by the waist. Seeing tears welling in her eyes, he reached out to brush them away. "My poor darling, you’ve been wronged."
"Is it my fault that two monarchs loved me?" Goxi sobbed even more piteously, looking exceptionally beautiful in her silent grief. "I didn't want the war to happen, I didn't want to become your trophy, I didn't want to depend on you..."
"Hush, you aren't a trophy. Even if you were, you’d be the most beautiful trophy in the entire Dark Sea."
The more Su Shiye coaxed her, the more emboldened Goxi became. The resentment from Shasha’s humiliation came pouring out: "But I just can't learn how to do a political marriage. Otherwise, I’d want to be as strong as Great Oracle Suyi too..."
"No, I like your simplicity." Much of the tenderness in Su Shiye’s eyes vanished. "If you were truly that complicated, I wouldn't have made you my girlfriend."
"Su Shiye, I suggest you two stop commenting on other people's relationships." Fanli finished signing and slapped the pen down on the desk. "How do you know mine was a political marriage? There are marriages that are both mutually beneficial and full of affection. How do you know Heiqiao and I aren't such a pair? You and Miss Goxi are still in your honeymoon phase, yet you mock a marriage of several hundred years. Don't you think you're being a bit bigoted?"
Su Shiye closed his eyes. His mind was filled with images from Light Sea news of Mo'er Heiqiao constantly saying, "My wife and I did this" or "My wife and I did that." He felt as if his chest were about to explode with rage and pain. Forcing his emotions down, he turned to her with a slight smile. "A woman who treats marriage so flippantly cannot convince me. Besides, whether you married Mo'er Heiqiao or the Mo'er Group, you know the truth in your heart."
If this were anyone else, Fanli could have used a hundred different retorts to make them cough up blood. But because it was Su Shiye, she was powerless.
*—Yes, I married the Mo'er Group. It was a political marriage.*
*—It’s because I can't forget you, because I’m keeping your child, that I’ve turned my emotional life into this mess. And now, I have to watch you hold your new girlfriend while you mock how much of a failure my life is.*
But she couldn't say it.
She was the one who had failed him. No matter what he said now, she had no right to take offense.
"Say whatever you like." Fanli gave a small smile. "I don't care anymore. Shasha, let's go."
"Emperor of the Red Moon, if I may be blunt, you’re acting exactly like a scumbag who got rejected after proposing to her." After Fanli left, Shasha coldly dropped those words and swam out after her.
"His Majesty Su Shiye would propose to her? You two Light Sea beauties should indulge in fewer delusions and see clearly that he has a girlfriend now," Goxi called out behind them, displeased. Shasha didn't even look back.
***
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Her 4.3 Billion Years | Chapter 98 | The Heart's Deepest Vents | Novela.app | Novela.app
