The Divine Nine-Dragon Cauldron

He was the leader of General Black Fish’s close guards and his trusted henchman.

With their backs covered and with the troops bringing up the rear in ambush, Su Yu and his companions managed to escape.

An hour later, the Garuda stopped above a dark area of debris.

From afar, a range of mountains that stretched countless miles could be seen submerged underwater, like a black dragon lying in wait for its prey.

“Those are the Celestial Crystal Mountains, the border between the mermaid tribe and the Yaksha tribe,” Lüzhu stated with mixed emotions.

Su Yu kept a tight grip on the Nine-Emperor Shroud and nodded lightly. “Keep moving.”

“Hold on, you want to enter the territory of the Yaksha tribe?” The scarred merman warrior who guarded them queried in shock.

Lüzhu shot a trusting look at Su Yu. “Yes, even with General Black Fish’s help we can only hold them off for a while. We plan to go into the water region of the Yaksha tribe.”

“So they may not come after us, due to the fear of entering enemy territory.”

The scarred merman pondered for a moment. “Your theory makes perfect sense, Eldest Princess. General Hu and General Li started the coup without warning, and General Black Fish could not stop it in time. Consequently, the losses were considerable.”

“Thus we could only hide in the Sacred Sky Warship with the soldiers who remained loyal. When we were told of your return, only then was General Black Fish able to strike.”

“Luckily we arrived in time, and our Eldest Princess escaped injury.”

Heartfelt tears were welling up in Lüzhu’s pretty eyes. “Lüzhu will always remember General Black Fish’s contribution to the royal house. When Father awakes, I will ask him to reward him generously. I’m just not sure how General Black Fish is doing now, or where he is.”

“No need to worry, Eldest Princess. Although General Black Fish can’t compete with the two traitors, he can easily escape.”

As he spoke, the scarred merman retrieved something from his pocket. “This is the item that General Black Fish prepared for Eldest Princess. You could use it for nearly a hundred years out there.”

Lüzhu looked ashamed. There was a time when she was almost convinced by Su Yu, almost convinced General Black Fish was not loyal.

“Thank you, that’s very thoughtful of General Black Fish.” Lüzhu accepted it and fell silent.

The scarred merman smiled tenderly. “No need for that, Eldest Princess. General Black Fish serves the royal house wholeheartedly. Even if he had to sacrifice his life, he would have no regrets.”

“Eldest Princess, take a look at this bag of holding and see if anything is lacking. If I have it, I could put it in for you.”

“There is no need.” The Eldest Princess became more apologetic. She simply opened the bag and took a glance.

However, something uncanny occurred without warning.

The second the bag was opened, a puff of pink mist gushed out.

Lüzhu was caught unawares and was assaulted by the mist, she felt her entire body go weak all of a sudden, and the Mortal Fairy’s Strength in her began to stagnate.

Although she was rather quick to respond by tossing the bag of holding away, the impact hit her still.

Trying to support herself, Lüzhu raised her head to look at the scarred mermaid, in an attempt to question him.

But the scarred merman who had been loyal a moment ago was sneering right now. With the knife scar on his face, he looked hideous and savage.

“What a naive, adorable princess! No wonder General Black Fish said it would only take a trivial trick to play you, two princesses, like toys. Even someone like me could earn your trust with just a few words, let alone General Black Fish, huh?”

Lüzhu was petrified, she couldn’t believe her ears. “General Black Fish made you do this?”

“Of course.” The scarred merman’s lips curled into a mocking smile.

Lüzhu felt blood trickling down her head, as the misery of being so cruelly deceived filled her heart.

It turned out that Su Yu’s speculation was completely right. A moment ago, she was still feeling remorseful for suspecting General Black Fish.

But the truth gave her a hard slap in the face.

“I suppose saving me was also part of his plan?” Lüzhu put on a calm look, a faint silver light was flickering in her sleeve.

The scarred merman nodded. “That’s right. Only by saving you and the Mermaid Emperor, would General Black Fish earn the trust and dependence of the people of the mermaid tribe!”

“Now, everyone knows that General Hu and General Li are hunting down the royal family, while General Black Fish saved them. Who do you think the mermaid tribe will support?”

Lüzhu questioned coldly, “General Black Fish is making me and Father his puppets?”

“Exactly, only then can he take over the power and authority of the mermaid tribe!” The scarred mermaid chortled, as he walked towards Lüzhu.

Lüzhu put on a composed front. “I will submit to becoming a puppet to General Black Fish, but please do not harm my Father…”

“No way! The Mermaid Emperor must die!”

Lüzhu was stunned. Gritting her teeth, she said, “Will he be permitted to live if he continues in this comatose state…”

“No way!” The scarred merman had a ruthless look on his face. “The Mermaid Emperor is too big of a threat, there is no way he will be allowed to live.”

“Don’t try too hard to coerce me!!” With a swish, a blade of sharp knife glinting in silver light fell from Lüzhu’s sleeve.

The scarred merman teased. “You want to fight me? How hilarious! Hold on, what are you doing?”

The sharp blade in Lüzhu’s hand wasn’t aimed at the scarred merman but was held against her chest.

Despair was written all over her face. “Don’t you need a puppet? If I die, where else can you get one?”

The scarred merman’s smile faded, and he stared coldly at Lüzhu.

“Let them go, otherwise, don’t even think of getting anything from me!” Lüzhu screamed.

However, Lüzhu’s body became weak all of a sudden, as the effect of the pink mist was taking its toll on her. Loosening her grip, the sharp knife in her hand moved away from her chest.

Suddenly, the scarred merman’s eyes shone. His humongous tail struck forth, and with a blow that carried divine energy, Lüzhu was sent flying, blood spluttering from her mouth.

The sharp blade in her hand was easily cast aside.

Then, a fist punched her abdomen brutally, crushing the organs inside. Severely injured, she collapsed onto the ground, losing all of her strength so that she couldn’t move.

The scarred merman withdrew his fist, his eyes filled with disdain. “A moron that can’t tell bad from good!”

And then with a flash of his icy eyes, he looked over at Su Yu and the comatose Mermaid Emperor, with a cunning, horrendous smile on his lips.

His gaze ignored Su Yu completely and fell straight upon the Mermaid Emperor. “Haha, I never thought the day would come for me to slaughter the Mermaid Emperor with my own hands.”

“How pathetic, for someone like the Mermaid Emperor to die so tragically at the hands of someone like me.”

Swish!

With a flash of his figure, the scarred merman flew over. With a slam that was charged with his divine energy, he aimed straight for the godly spirit in the Mermaid Emperor’s abdomen.

However, right when he was about to land his blow, a hand stuck out and grasped his.

The scarred mermaid cast a glance at Su Yu with the corner of his eye, and a light snort came from his nostrils. Instead of retreating, he pressed on with his attack, trying to destroy Su Yu’s hand in the process.

As their palms came into contact, Su Yu immediately withdrew his hand.

The scarred merman froze all of a sudden. A mass of pitch-black fog appeared on his palm, giving off the scent of death.

The deathly energy slid up his arm in a meandering manner, and in the fraction of a second, it had covered his entire body.

Black-colored crusts began to peel off from the surface of his body, and his entire being was transforming into flaking ash and dust.

“You…” The scarred merman could not believe that Su Yu’s blow contained the horrifying power of death.

Pow!

Suddenly, a hand penetrated his abdomen, fishing out his godly spirit with a grasp.

“It’s precious, don’t waste it,” Su Yu said dispassionately, as he grasped the godly spirit with a straight face.

The scarred merman’s eyes wet dull, as his entire being turned into black dust.

Lüzhu, who had collapsed onto the ground severely wounded, was flabbergasted.

Su Yu had killed a late-stage Prospective Deity with a single strike!

Was there any limit to his power?

Su Yu walked over to her and with a gust of Power of Life surging at the tip of his finger, he tapped it on the spot between her brows, giving her a speedy recovery from her wounds.

In the meantime, he removed the toxins from her body with his right hand.

“As far as I’m concerned, you’re hopelessly stupid, but there are some things about you that make you worth saving,” Su Yu remarked nonchalantly.

She had sacrificed herself twice for the sake of her father’s well-being. That wasn’t something that any ordinary child would be willing to do.

Lüzhu’s face began to redden. Su Yu’s compliment sounded like mockery.

Su Yu had warned her that General Black Fish wasn’t reliable, but she was still fooled.

Compared to ordinary people, she was far from stupid. But from Su Yu’s point of view, Lüzhu couldn’t deny the fact that she had allowed herself to be duped, hook, line, and sinker.

“I had hoped that after some hardships, you would improve,” Su Yu said with indifference as he withdrew his hands.

He could have prevented the simple-minded, witless princess from opening the bag of holding, but he didn’t so that she might gain an experience that she could learn from.

Lüzhu scrambled to her feet. With her gorgeous looks, she was disheveled in front of Su Yu. Hanging her head low and in a disgruntled voice, she said, “I know now, I’ll listen to you from now on.”

“There is no from now on. Once I’m done treating the Mermaid Emperor and get the documents that I want, we will go our separate ways,” Su Yu stated calmly.

He leaped onto the Garuda and started it, and then pointed it in the direction of the Celestial Crystal Mountains.

Lüzhu laughed bitterly, he was still as cold and detached as ever. However, a slyness glinted in Lüzhu’s eyes. Raising her chin smugly, she thought to herself, “We shan’t part ways just because you say so.”

Half an hour later, as they arrived at the Celestial Crystal Mountains Su Yu withdrew his healing hand from the Mermaid Emperor.

“The acute poison in the Mermaid Emperor’s body has been removed, he’ll awake very soon.”

Lüzhu heaved a long sigh of relief. The fact that the Mermaid Emperor was going to wake had become a certainty, the disorder and havoc of the mermaid tribe was finally coming to an end.

Su Yu was only waiting for the Mermaid Emperor to wake. Once he got the documents he wanted, he would take off.

With that in mind, Su Yu took out the bright red, round pearl that Lüzhu gave him, and asked, “This is your Mermaid Emperor’s legacy, the Mermaid Emperor’s Blood Pearl?”

Lüzhu nodded. “Yes, having it is equivalent to accepting the Mermaid Emperor’s legacy. If the Mermaid Emperor awakes and sees this pearl, even if he wanted to breach the agreement, he would have to accept your status as the heir.”

“Is that so?” Su Yu seemed to be brooding.

Su Yu had attained the cultivation of a fourth-realm Mortal Fairy, it was time to prepare himself for his transition into the level of Prospective Deities.

Unlike the previous levels, this would happen naturally once he acquired adequate strength.

To rise to the level of Prospective Deities, a candidate had to be accomplished on his Divine Path.

A Prospective Deity could only rise as a deity once they had attained absolute enlightenment on a certain Divine Path.

Su Yu’s Divine Path was defiance, but the problem was that before Su Yu could attain his Divine Path, he must already possess two godly spirits.

Consequently, there was no one to whom he could refer to achieve a breakthrough to the Prospective Deities level.

Hence, Su Yu could only follow the example of the inheritance of deities’ Divine Paths. He had to pave his own way to becoming a deity based on their Divine Paths.

With a shift of thought, Su Yu tried to determine the Divine Path legacy within the Mermaid Emperor’s Blood Pearl.

Su Yu scowled the moment he began to understand and opened his eyes abruptly. Doubtful, he queried, “Lüzhu, has the Divine Path of all former Mermaid Emperors always been the Path of Thunder?”

Lüzhu blinked her beautiful emerald eyes. “Yes, mermaids are adept at navigating water-based Divine Paths. All former Mermaid Emperors belong to a kind of thunder, the Underwater Thunder.”

“How is that possible?” Su Yu turned around all of a sudden to look at the Mermaid Emperor behind him. His pupils flickered intensely.

To Su Yu’s amazement, the Mermaid Emperor’s body had gone!

“Oh no! I think we were wrong about something!” Su Yu stood up abruptly. His gaze turned leaden, and his face became solemn.

Lüzhu stared at the spot where the Mermaid Emperor’s body had been with a dumbfounded look on her face.

Suddenly, a soft sigh sounded in their ears like a rumble of distant thunder.

“So you finally figured it out. Initially, I was planning to let you go.”