“Don’t worry, I understand the fake Dragon King’s intentions well. That kind of situation won’t happen,” Shang Hongyu said with confidence.
Zu An acknowledged her conclusion too, asking, “Do we really not have to capture that fake Dragon King alive? Who knows, we might be able to obtain some useful intelligence from questioning him.”
“Absolutely not!” Shang Hongyu immediately said with a stern and firm expression. “That fake Dragon King is an imposter, but his cultivation can only be stronger than the real Dragon King’s. It was only because I understood the formations and mechanisms of the Dragon Palace well, and also because I sacrificed a lot of immortal-grade treasures, that I was able to just barely escape from his clutches. Even so, I was still seriously injured. Your cultivation is extremely high, but silently restraining him would still be extremely difficult. If we ended up alerting other people, all of our following plans will be done for.”
“Fine, we’ll follow your plans then,” Zu An replied. According to what Shang Hongyu was saying, apart from that fake Dragon King, there were some trusted aides in the palace that were also this imposter’s men. He didn’t have to worry about not having people to question.
After discussing some details, the two chased after the ship to board it again. However, Shang Hongyu refused Zu An’s proposal to take her by air and instead chose to swim by sea.
Zu An let her do what she wanted to. Along the way, he maintained the barrier to prevent her aura from leaking out and being detected by the outside world. Watching that wonderful figure swim through the waters was quite the pleasing sight.
Soon after, the two of them quickly caught up to the ship. Shang Hongyu suddenly realized what was going on and she looked at the man in the sky apologetically, saying, “Sorry, I was a bit too stubborn and forgot that you had to maintain the barrier to protect me. You probably exhausted a lot of energy along the way, right?”
Zu An smiled. “This bit isn’t too big of a deal. Being able to see you happily swim through the sea made it worth it.”
Shang Hongyu was briefly stunned. She looked at him quietly for a long time, and after a while, she said with a sigh, “Ever since my father passed away, there has never been someone else who doted on me so much.”
On the contrary, she had been made to bear the weight of the entire Mermaid race with her delicate shoulders. Her little sister had still been young back then, so she'd had to take care of her too. After she became the queen of the Ocean races, she had then needed to become the mother of the seas. As such, her real self could only be hidden away. In all these years, only recently could that part of her start to surface a bit again.
Zu An said with a smile, “It’s fine, you can just call me daddy in the future. I’ll continue to dote on you.”
Shang Hongyu was dumbstruck. Furious and embarrassed, she grabbed a handful of seawater and threw it at him. “Go to hell!”
...
As they teased each other back and forth, time passed quickly on the journey. The biggest change was that the two of them grew to be on better and better terms with each other, and they also became more and more familiar with each other. On the first night, they had still been a bit embarrassed when they slept together, but later, they eventually started to get out of bed and turn in for rest naturally. Each time, Shang Hongyu curled up into his arms, and she even proactively tugged on his hand to hold her, and she didn’t even mind at all if his itchy hands gave her a squeeze from time to time.
The two of them were as intimate as a real husband and wife. Of course, they knew to strictly adhere to their bottom line.
“We’re going to arrive at the Jadewave Region tomorrow. I’m a bit nervous,” Shang Hongyu said quietly while huddled up against Zu An’s chest. She stared at the stars in the night sky.
“Don’t worry, you have me next to you. I will protect you.” Zu An tightened his arm that was wrapped around her, bringing her a bit closer.
“It’s so strange, but now that I hear you say that, I feel calmer just like that.” Shang Hongyu leaned her head against his arm. She twisted her body around to get into a more comfortable position.
“I’ve said the exact same thing before. What’s the difference?” Zu An even helped her move the long hair around her shoulder naturally so that he wouldn’t crush her hair.
“Of course it’s different.” Shang Hongyu smiled and didn’t explain further.
Just then, she moved her body around a bit, but that place still seemed a bit uncomfortable. She turned around and raised her head to look at him. There was a strange smile on her face as she asked, “Should I help you? You look pretty uncomfortable being like this all the time.”
Zu An replied in annoyance, “How would you help me with that?”
“With my hands, of course.” Shang Hongyu sat up straight. She moved closer to his ear and blew gently. “Otherwise, what would you want me to use?”
Zu An immediately became a bit flustered. “Stop causing trouble and go to sleep already. We still have things to take care of tomorrow.”
He suddenly remembered the famous mermaid joke from his previous world. ‘Hy? Ho?’ Of course, there was no way he could ever tell her about that.
“Hahahah~” Shang Hongyu giggled. “You’re even more of a gentleman than I thought. I didn’t judge you incorrectly after all. If you really agreed, I would’ve made sure to teach you a lesson!” After saying that, she waved her fist around a bit to intimidate him, then continued to sleep in his arms in peace.
Zu An was speechless. In the end, this woman had actually been testing him again.
Another night passed just like that.
...
The next day, the ship stopped at a small island. Zu An looked out and saw that the sea was a beautiful jade green. It really was clear and stunning.
They were now in the deep ocean, so in theory, the ocean water should have been darker. However, the water's color was still so pretty.
“This is the Jadewave Region. There are islands like this spread all throughout that serve as the Dragon Palace’s outpost stations; they receive human and fiend guests, as well as guests from other areas of the sea,” Shang Hongyu said to Zu An secretly through a ki transmission. She explained all sorts of things along the way.
Normally, once one left the ship, one would head over to Snail Palace to carry out transferring procedures, and then the island would activate a special transport formation to send them to the ocean depths’ Dragon Palace. But with Shang Hongyu here, the two of them naturally wouldn’t take an ordinary path. They found a chance to quietly separate from the other guests of the ship and enter a small alley.
They snaked left and right through the island. Zu An noticed that there were strangely-shaped creatures everywhere on it. Some were human-shaped, some were half-human and half-beast, but they all shared certain special characteristics. After all, the Ocean races, especially those that were found deeper down, had more unique features.
There were some Ocean race individuals on the island who were going around doing their business, and some who were lying by the beach and chatting idly. From time to time, some people jumped into the water for a swim, then returned ashore. That seemed to be their instinct, as they didn’t like to leave the water for too long.
From time to time, some soldiers patrolled around. Judging from their pointy hats and tail wings, Zu An could tell that they were shrimp soldiers even without any introduction from Shang Hongyu. There were also some higher-ranking military officers that occasionally passed by. They had heavy armor on their backs and sinister pincers in their hands; they were probably crabs.
“They really are shrimp soldiers and crab generals.” Zu An chuckled.[1]
“Don’t look down on them. The sea has a huge number of shrimps and crabs. Of course, there are some species that are more numerous, but they're too weak. When the Shrimp and Crab races join together, they become the best soldiers. They adhere to strict obedience, and their individual strength isn’t too weak either. If not for the fact that our Ocean races prefer the sea much more than land, even the humans and fiends’ soldiers added together wouldn’t compare to us.” Shang Hongyu couldn't help but feel a bit proud when she spoke about these things.
Zu An immediately exposed her and said, “Stop bragging. Not even someone as strong as you can leave the water for a long time. If you really tried to send this shrimp and crab army ashore, we wouldn’t even need to do a thing before they dried up and died.”
Shang Hongyu was still a bit unconvinced. “If you have the skills, why don’t you come over to defeat our Ocean races?!”
“Didn’t I come personally?” Zu An chuckled. “Now that we’re on the topic, your Ocean races have already acknowledged allegiance to the Fiend races, and I'm the Fiend races’ regent. Even your Dragon King needs to greet me respectfully if he sees me.”
“Hmph, what do you mean, acknowledge allegiance? We’re only paying allegiance because we don’t want any meaningless trouble.” Shang Hongyu harrumphed. “Even if your late Fiend Emperor were here, he wouldn’t dare to behave disrespectfully in front of our Dragon King.”
“That's why the late Fiend Emperor was inferior to me. I can even get the Dragon King’s wife to warm my bed every night.” Zu An had a proud smile.
“Do you want to die right now?!” Shang Hongyu immediately became really embarrassed. She gave him a vicious pinch in the side.
...
They continued to move as they chatted. Under Shang Hongyu’s guidance, they turned left and right through the island and eventually arrived at a remote cliff by the edge of the sea.
With Zu An’s current knowledge in formations, he could tell that they had made a detour around many defensive formations. If any outsiders who didn’t know tried to barge in, they would be quickly discovered by the guards. Forget about the attacks of these defensive formations, they would immediately be surrounded by endless Ocean race reinforcements. Even though Zu An didn’t fear such a situation, it would still be really annoying to deal with.
Shang Hongyu pointed into the distance. “Eight hundred li out is a remote and unmanned island. That place is really barren, and not even the Ocean races have anyone who would go there. It’s perfect for us to use as our base of operations.”
“Sounds good!” Zu An held her waist and flew straight in that direction.
They were deep in the Ocean races’ territory, so Shang Hongyu didn’t stubbornly insist on turning into her original form to swim in the sea. Instead, she cautiously reminded him about which areas in the air had defensive formations. Zu An was good at formations to begin with, so after she reminded him, he was even more sensitive to these formations. Sometimes he flew lower, and other times he rose into the clouds; sometimes he entered deep into the sea to avoid the mechanisms and formations one after another.