Word Count: 4,240 Words
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"No, I can't… I will never betray the Sea God!"
The Sea Princess shook her head over and over. On one side stood her supreme faith, the Sea God himself. On the other were her two precious daughters. Whichever she lost, the price was more than she could bear.
"So you've chosen to sacrifice your daughters for your faith."
Ling Bai sounded almost regretful. The palm resting on the back of Silver Crown Mermaid Li Jing's head kindled with Angelic Holy Fire. Mermaids were spirit beasts of dual spiritual and water attributes, innately suppressed by Ultimate Fire from the moment they were born.
The instant the Angel Holy Fire flooded into her bloodline, Li Jing's delicate body snapped rigid. The scales along her tail burst outward one after another. Her eyes bulged so wide they looked ready to tear free of their sockets. Shrill screams ripped out of her throat and rolled across the frigid Extreme North ice plains, drowning even the howling wind.
Li Jing's wails were so wretched that the Ice Empress shrank back two involuntary steps, and a trace of fear flickered in the gaze she turned on Ling Bai. The Snow Empress and Ling Qiuxi, however, did not so much as blink.
Sea spirit beasts had attacked them first. Enemies deserved no sympathy, and the Snow Empress had already offered the Sea Princess one chance before the battle began. The Sea Princess had stubbornly chosen this road herself. Even if she had to crawl the rest of it on her knees, she would walk it to the end.
How could a 100,000-year spirit beast endure the torment of Angel Holy Fire? Li Jing's voice grew fainter and fainter. The light drained from her pupils, and her breathing thinned to a spider's thread.
"Big Sister!"
Li Ya's tears poured down like a summer downpour, each drop hardening into a golden pearl that scattered on the wind. The Sea Princess closed her eyes. She knew perfectly well that Ling Bai was using Li Jing to hammer through her defenses, but knowing did nothing to lighten the pain. If anything, it only heaped her guilt and heartache higher.
"Not very durable, is she…"
Ling Bai discarded the unconscious Li Jing. The Silver Crown Mermaid dropped into a snowdrift like a piece of broken refuse. Already his other hand was beginning to warm, and Li Ya was walking the same road her sister had walked.
Li Ya bit down on her lip and forced herself to swallow the pain, refusing to let a single cry slip out and disturb her mother. In the next breath, she heard Ling Bai order the Ice Empress to pry the Sea Princess's eyes open by force, so the mother would have to watch her youngest daughter suffer.
"Li Ya!!!"
Compared to her eldest, the Sea Princess clearly doted more on her younger daughter. Li Ya was the only mermaid who had inherited the Golden Bloodline, the next Sea Princess.
Angelic Holy Fire did not merely sear the bloodline. It also passed judgment on the sinner's soul. Li Ya could not endure the torture that reached down into her spirit, and one heart-rending scream after another tore from her throat.
Only now did true terror rise to the Sea Princess's face. She was not as unshakeable as she had imagined. The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them:
"I'll do it. I'll do anything you want. Please, spare Li Ya!"
Ling Qiuxi curled her lip. "How dull. I thought her bones would be harder than that. She caved anyway."
She flicked her long hair back and drifted off into the distance. Miss Destiny Beast had decided to survey the Extreme North for herself.
Because the Sea Princess had yielded, Li Ya was spared the fate of her sister. Ling Bai released the younger princess, and mother and daughter clung to each other like survivors pulled from a shipwreck.
"You'll be grateful for the choice you made today, because you have preserved the last strand of the mermaid race's bloodline. As for the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor, every drop of its blood will be put to the fullest possible use."
Ling Bai smiled as he stepped close, then plucked Li Ya from the Sea Princess's side and carried her off.
"You may take every living sea spirit beast captive with you. I'm giving you three years to conquer thirty sea regions. Each region must be ruled by a 100,000-year overlord, and at the center of each seabed, you'll raise a statue of me and see to it that the sea spirit beasts worship me."
The Sea Princess's face went ashen. He was pulling the firewood out from under the cauldron. Ling Bai's appetite was greedy, and his methods were ice-cold. The first-generation Sea God had won over most sea spirit beasts through a blend of martial strength and mercy. Ling Bai had thrown mercy aside altogether and would rely on nothing but overwhelming force.
Violent conquest, pure and simple!
Ling Bai watched her at his leisure. Faith, stripped bare, was nothing more than obedience. Followers could be sorted by the depth of that obedience into ordinary believers, devout believers, and fanatics.
Angel Island was populated by ordinary believers. Once a year, they held a festival and offered a simple sacrifice, and that was the whole of it. Someone like 'Specter' Na Na was a genuine fanatic. If Ling Bai ordered her to cut her own throat, she wouldn't hesitate for so much as a heartbeat before drawing the blade across it.
Tang San was recovering from his injuries, not dead. Becoming a God was closing in fast. Ling Bai had no time to play slow-cook cultivation games with sea spirit beasts. Willing submission was submission. Submission beaten out under his fist was still submission. Ordinary believers were believers all the same.
There was no need to imagine spirit beasts as endlessly clever. At heart, they formed small societies orbiting a single powerful ruler. Conquer the 100,000-year overlord, and its entire following would naturally shift allegiance, chasing after the new king and worshipping Ling Bai in his place.
"As you command…"
The Sea Princess released a long, desolate sigh. She was about to become the butcher's blade in Ling Bai's hand.
There was nothing else to be done. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to watch her daughters die. Quietly, she found the excuse her heart needed. This Sea God was no longer the first-generation Sea God. She had never even met Tang San. In the Extreme North Ice Sea, she and her people had fought until they were nearly wiped from existence. She had more than fulfilled whatever duty she owed the Sea God.
"By the way," Ling Bai added, "since your cultivation stands at six hundred thousand years, then before you set out for the ocean, I'll take a 600,000-year sea spirit beast from you as a ransom fee."
The Sea Princess froze. Wasn't she already going to conquer the ocean on his behalf? She still had to buy herself back?!
The Ice and Snow Empresses drew in a sharp, cold breath. They saw it clearly now. Whether or not the Sea Princess could truly conquer thirty sea regions, Ling Bai had made certain he would come out ahead no matter what, and then he would squeeze the last drops of value from her, right down to the marrow!
Ling Bai chuckled softly. "I've heard that a certain sea region near the Dou Spirit Empire is home to a 600,000-year Dreamsea Divine Star. They say the first-generation Sea God regarded it as a jewel of the ocean. I'll remain in the Extreme North for three days. Go, catch it, and bring it back to me.
Consider it your pledge of allegiance, and the price of your eldest daughter's life…"
"Li Jing… Li Jing can still be saved?!"
The Sea Princess's voice trembled. The sweetness of regaining what she had already mourned as lost washed through her heart.
Ling Bai did not answer. He hauled the barely breathing Li Jing up out of the snowdrift. His fingertip drifted along her smooth cheek, traveled to her lips, and eased her mouth open until it closed softly around him.
The skin at his fingertip parted along a thin seam, and blood laden with vast vitality flowed into Li Jing's mouth, spreading warmth through her limbs and marrow.
"Mmm…"
Li Jing stirred back to consciousness and looked up into Ling Bai's devil-like face. After a heartbeat of stunned recognition, she realized with a jolt that it was his fingertip resting in her mouth, and fear and shame twisted together in her chest.
Her first instinct was to spit him out. But Ling Bai's blood carried a strange kind of magic, a subtle, uncanny sweetness that drew her in, and without meaning to, the mermaid princess found herself sucking at him greedily, wanting more.
When his fingertip finally withdrew, Li Jing gazed up at Ling Bai with pleading, ingratiating eyes, offering her submission through nothing more than that silent look.
"Big Sister, your head…" Li Ya suddenly gasped.
Somewhere along the way, Li Jing's silver crown had transformed into a shining golden one.
Golden Crown Mermaid!
"The power of Angelic Holy Fire is to purify every form of filth in the world," Ling Bai explained at just the right moment. "It burned the impurities out of your bloodline.
Sea Princess, serve me well, and I won't treat you unfairly."
In that moment, the bright, beautiful eyes of all three mermaids shimmered with gratitude. A villain only had to do one small good deed to earn a good name.
Kindness balanced with cruelty. A single sliver of gentleness toward Li Jing, and the Sea Princess's heart eased just enough that she would throw herself all the harder into conquering the seas.
…
Three days later, the Sea Princess presented the 600,000-year Dreamsea Divine Star with both hands. Its combat strength was nothing remarkable; it simply held a special standing.
She then took away every sea spirit beast captive below one hundred thousand years. The two Golden Crown Mermaid Princesses, Li Jing and Li Ya, followed Ling Bai back to the human world. They were hostages meant to keep the Sea Princess in line, and there was no question of releasing them yet.
Ling Bai turned it over in his mind for a while, then recalled the Death Abyss Demon Scythe and dispatched his Rank 96 Spectral Bone Dragon to join the sea-conquering army.
The bone dragon had followed him through countless campaigns north and south, winning merit upon merit. But men were creatures who tired of the old and loved the new. Ever since the Limit Bone Dragon King had joined him, Ling Bai's interest in the Spectral Bone Dragon had slowly cooled.
Rank 96 could no longer keep pace. The Death Abyss Demon Scythe was capable of transforming the Bone Dragon King into a Death Abyss Bone Dragon King. The Spectral Bone Dragon would serve better shining in the depths of the ocean, an eye kept fixed on the Sea Princess while she worked.
…
In the Extreme North, sheets of white snow blanketed unbroken ranges of mountains, like nature's finest sculpture. Beneath the sunlight, they seemed draped in a veil of white gold.
The Snow Empress stood at the summit of an ice peak, gazing out across the vast, boundless northern ice plain. Her stunning face was cold as frost, nearly devoid of expression. One always had the feeling she might, in the next breath, tell you flatly to get lost, and yet people willingly drew close all the same, for the sake of that breathtaking beauty.
The wind keened past. The Snow Empress lightly brushed aside a strand of snow-white hair and spoke in a quiet, distant voice. "What do you think of the scenery of the Extreme North?"
"Grey mountains bearing snow, bright as a candle lighting the southern sky. Few sights in this world can match it."
Ling Bai's voice was clear and mellow. He studied her profile. Wrapped in a long white dress, she called to mind a rose of the same color in full bloom, thorns and petals layered around a soft heart within.
"Even the loveliest scenery grows tiresome in the end. Let's go. It's time to leave the Extreme North."
Ling Bai nodded. The Snow Empress tucked the wind-loosened strands behind her ear and dissolved into a scatter of snowflakes, sinking into his Spiritual Sea.
In the Ice Jade Scorpion territory, Ling Bai found Ling Qiuxi. The Ice Jade Scorpion clan reluctantly bid farewell to the Emperor Destiny Beast.
Under normal circumstances, spirit beasts could not tell that Ling Qiuxi was the Emperor Destiny Beast. Only those with special faculties, like the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger or the Sea-Swallowing Evil Dragon Whale, could perceive the truth.
But the day before, an Ice Jade Scorpion King had faced its second great tribulation. The odds of success had been under fifty percent, and yet it had passed through with hardly any struggle at all.
The Ice Empress, shocked, launched an investigation of her own, only to discover that the Emperor Destiny Beast's protective ability had activated. A swift process of elimination pointed her straight to Ling Qiuxi, and she all but hauled the girl back to the Ice Jade Scorpion territory to 'leave a little of her scent behind.'
Farewells said to the spirit beasts of the Extreme North, Ling Bai, Ling Qiuxi, and Li Jing and Li Ya set out straight for Nine Treasure City. The two mermaid princesses' attitudes toward Ling Bai stood at opposite poles. The younger, Li Ya, was caught between terror and awe, too shaken to try speaking to him at all. Li Jing, on the other hand, often let her gaze rest on him with a bold, feverish hunger, as though savoring some strange sweetness she could still taste each time their eyes met.
Two days later they reached Nine Treasure City, to universal delight. Ning Fengya swept her hand grandly and ordered a banquet to celebrate their safe return. Over the feast she asked how the mermaid princesses should be handled. Ling Bai said lightly that they could simply be treated as two more maids.
Those words did nothing for the mood of Na Na, Yu Mengdi, and the Dragonwoman. The maid post had just gained two more contenders, and formidable ones at that. 100,000-year mermaid princesses brimming with exotic allure!
…
Ling Bai had promised Ning Tian that once he returned to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, the two of them would be engaged.
All of Ning Tian's family lived within the clan, while Ling Bai stood alone in the world without a single relative. They needed only to choose an auspicious date and hold the engagement ceremony there in Nine Treasure City.
Jianmu Douluo and Ning Fengya took the high seats, attending as Ling Bai's teacher and Ning Tian's mother respectively. Ning Fengyu volunteered to serve as host.
Exquisite crystal chandeliers shed a soft, brilliant light across the hall. The main stage was strewn with plush white petals, and a heart-shaped path of rose petals guided the couple slowly toward one another.
A violin rose in a long, gentle strain. Under a soft beam of light, Ling Bai stood in a custom-tailored suit and drew Ning Tian's jade-like hand from behind the curtain. Her gown floated about her like cloud and mist, its inlaid diamonds glittering with every step, framing the shy, blissful curve of her smile.
They exchanged the engagement rings they had chosen with care. Ning Tian's was a Nine-Colored Exquisite Diamond, emblem of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. Ling Bai produced an Ocean Blue Heart Diamond drawn from the deep sea. The 600,000-year Dreamsea Divine Star was also presented as part of Ning Tian's engagement gifts.
The wedding was set for the day Ning Tian broke through to Titled Douluo. When that day came, the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan would invite the great names of the continent to attend the formal ceremony.
…
The engagement banquet ended, and those who had celebrated through the day returned to their rooms to rest.
Ning Tian sat before her dressing table, working the finishing touches into her appearance. Ling Bai had drifted at sea for two months, and today, at last, this ceremony had untied the deepest knot in her heart. Tonight was not a night for sleep. It was a night for a long, willing labor. She held to a private rule of her own. No matter the time, no matter the place, she would present nothing less than her most perfect self to him.
On the bed behind her, Wu Feng lay flat on her back like a corpse, utterly devoid of the poise expected of a noble young lady. No one had warned her that attending a banquet could be this exhausting!
"Xiao Feng."
Ning Tian's voice was soft, and yet it carried a subtle weight that made Wu Feng stiffen at once.
"Eh!"
Wu Feng snapped upright in a kip-up so fast it might as well have been teleportation, and appeared before Ning Tian at attention.
"I'm going to Bai-ge's room." Ning Tian did not lift her eyes from the mirror. "Are you coming?"
"Ah… well… eh… it probably wouldn't be right for me to go, would it?"
Wu Feng's gaze slid away in guilty haste. Her legs pressed so tightly together they might have been fused, a small betraying motion that gave away the desperate, throbbing impatience coiled inside her. Ling Bai had become a quiet addiction of hers, and two months of withdrawal had left her tossing through the nights, sheets tangled by morning, her cheeks flushed at the thought of him. But going tonight… that hardly seemed proper.
In the mirror, Ning Tian's reflection cut her a sidelong glance. Her tone dropped, suddenly severe. "Go change. That black one you keep hidden at the bottom of your chest. Then come with me."
"Eh, yes!"
A shiver ran through Wu Feng from head to toe. That was her secret. How had Ning Tian known about it? And besides, black was quite plainly meant for—
…
Dong dong dong!
Ling Bai opened the door, and what waited on the other side nearly undid him where he stood.
Ning Tian stood in the doorway in a slip of pink silk so thin it barely deserved the name of nightdress. The fabric clung to her like morning mist, catching where her body curved and slipping loose where it hollowed. Every unsteady breath drew the silk tight across the soft rise of her chest, then released it in a small, whispering shift. The hem stopped high on her thighs and left the pale length of her legs bare. One careless movement and the flimsy thing would fail the only duty it had. The loose neckline had slid to one side, baring the elegant line of her collarbone and the shadow that pooled beneath it.
Under his gaze, warmth bloomed across her skin, as pink as the silk, spreading from her chest up along the graceful column of her throat.
Wu Feng stood half a step behind her, and she had given up on pretense entirely. Sheer black gauze wrapped her voluptuous figure, faithful to every curve, and beneath it her skin glowed warm and golden in the lamplight. Her waist nipped in before flaring to hips that strained the limits of the fabric with each breath. Black fishnet stockings sheathed her supple thighs, the diamond weave pressing gently into yielding flesh and drawing the eye upward in a slow, inevitable climb that made looking away feel like an act of will.
One thought rose unbidden in Ling Bai's mind. The little head has seized total command!
"Xiao Tian, the two of you..."
Perhaps she couldn't bear the scorching weight of his stare. Ning Tian's lashes dipped as she glanced down at herself, and her breath caught. Her thighs pressed together in a small, unconscious motion that only drew the eye along the long lines of her legs. Color crept from the tips of her ears down the slope of her neck and spilled over her collarbones like wine soaking into white linen.
"I'm happy today, so I'll reward you just this once." Her voice was soft, but a faint tremor moved beneath it, a current under still water. "Start with Xiao Feng. I want to see exactly how the two of you have been playing behind my back."
Impulse was the devil, and tonight the devil was starving!
…
Two months of pent-up longing had drawn Wu Feng tight as a bowstring, and knowing Ning Tian watched from barely an arm's length away burned through whatever scraps of restraint she had left. She threw herself at Ling Bai without any care for grace. Heated breath, grasping hands, half-gasped words all spilled out of her at once as she tried to devour him whole. Before he had even finished closing the door her body was flush against his, her lips finding his with desperate hunger, her fingers already clawing at his clothes.
Her nails raked down his back while her teeth caught his lower lip. One leg hooked behind his knee, her hips grinding shamelessly forward, her body winding around him in an eager tangle. But she had forgotten one crucial thing. He was the hunter here.
Ling Bai caught both her wrists in one hand and turned her with effortless strength. Wu Feng barely had time to gasp before her back met the mattress with a muffled thump. His shadow fell across her, and the black gauze surrendered under his fingers with a sharp, satisfying rip. Pale skin flashed through the widening tears like moonlight breaking through storm clouds.
From there it was no longer a contest. The room filled with heavy breathing and the rhythmic creak of the bed protesting beneath them. Wu Feng's boldness crumbled with embarrassing speed and shattered into gasps, half-formed words, and shameless pleas that would have mortified even her if she had possessed any presence of mind. Her back arched off the sheets. Her toes curled. Wave after wave of release crashed through her, each one blurring the edges of her thoughts until coherent speech became a distant memory.
By the time the storm finally eased, she couldn't lift so much as a finger. She lay sprawled across the bed in a graceless spread-eagle, chest rising and falling in shallow, rapid pulls, eyes glassy and unfocused. She sucked in air like a landed fish, thoroughly and completely conquered.
Then it was Ning Tian's turn.
Her breathing had already grown labored long before Ling Bai turned his attention to her. Every moment of the scene before her had branded itself into her mind, from the first torn scrap of black gauze to Wu Feng's last pathetic whimper. She had pressed her thighs together, and the dampness spreading beneath the thin pink silk left no room for denial.
Ling Bai's gaze dropped to the darkening patch on the fabric. A knowing smile curved his lips. He crossed the distance between them in two strides. His hands found her hips and slid lower to cup the soft curves of her rear through the silk. Ning Tian's breath caught as he pulled her flush against him and kissed her deeply.
He didn't let her remove the nightdress. The refined noble lady who always held herself so perfectly, the way her composure crumbled by slow degrees from poised to desperate, the contrast was far too delicious to give up. There was no need for preamble. She was already slick and wanting. He took her without ceremony, and she welcomed him like rainfall after drought. Her soft cry muffled itself against his shoulder.
Ning Tian clung to awareness with every ounce of willpower she had. Her body rocked beneath him like a small vessel caught in a storm, rising and falling with each powerful movement. Pleasure crested and broke over her in relentless waves, each one threatening to drag her under. She fought to stay present, to feel every moment for as long as her body could endure it.
When the storm finally broke, her strength deserted her all at once. She collapsed into his arms, boneless and spent. Her pink silk was hopelessly rumpled, one strap slipped down to bare the curve of her shoulder. Her mind was a blank canvas, her body utterly pliant. A deep, heavy satisfaction settled in her core, warm and full as sunlight pooling in an empty room. Together they sank into a sweet, drowsy silence, heartbeats slowing in tandem.
Wu Feng, still sprawled in her graceless heap, finally stirred. Her lashes fluttered. She blinked her way back to awareness and found the two of them tangled together, spent and glowing with quiet contentment. Pure, unadulterated adoration filled her gaze.
Ignoring the soreness screaming from every muscle, she dragged herself across the rumpled sheets on hands and knees. Inch by inch she squeezed into the narrow space between them and pressed herself into the warmth of their bodies. One arm looped around Ling Bai, the other around Ning Tian, and she pulled them both tight against her. A small, blissfully content smile curved her lips.
Bai on the Left, Tian on the Right, No Regrets in Life!