Underground Palace

"Intruder..." a low growl came from the darkness.

It was hard to hear clearly, like the wind blowing past my ear.

A huge beast rushed out of a door.

Unlike the wild beasts outside, this one was much larger and had no limbs. It swam in the air like an ichthyosaur, its long tail swaying behind it, and its body was over three meters long.

The hands have degenerated into short claws and are tucked under the head.

Han Jiang and the other two immediately fled into the door in the opposite direction.

Behind the door was a long corridor, the destination of which was unknown.

The wild beast roared and chased after them, pursuing the three like a madman.

Cang Jingqi threw out a folding fan, which grew to become a barrier blocking the corridor. The wild beast was blocked at the other end of the fan and frantically rammed against it.

"Your folding fan..." Han Jiang said.

Cang Jingqi grabbed Han Jiang and continued running: "Forget about the folding fan, let's escape first! I don't have much spiritual power left, the fan won't hold out for long!"

Before long, the sound of a folding fan breaking came from behind, followed by the roar of a wild beast.

"There's a room up ahead! There's light!" Hanqi ran ahead. "Let's go in and take shelter!"

The beast was just a few meters behind Han Jiang, almost catching up, but stopped abruptly as Han Jiang jumped into the room. It stared at the doorway with its enormous fish eyes.

"There wasn't even a door, yet he wouldn't come in," Han Qi said.

He opened his eyes wide as if startled, then bared his teeth in an attempt to intimidate him back, before finally turning away in frustration.

Han Jiang: "He's gone. Judging from his expression, it seems there's something in this room that terrifies him."

“Either there’s a more terrifying beast in this room, or there’s its nemesis,” Cang Jing said.

The room was divided into two floors by a wall.

The right side of the outer wall is inscribed with "East Room - My Beloved".

Entering from the side of the wall leads to the inner part of the room, where an altar made of sand and soil, with a white jade base, holds a pearl that shines brightly in the darkness.

The light that Hanqi saw in the corridor just now was emitted by this bead.

"The Tranquility Pearl," Han Jiang said.

Wherever the female lead goes, the plot unfolds.

You can find the Tranquility Bead anywhere you go.

"Senior sister, look." Following the direction Han Qi pointed, Han Jiang saw the person enshrined on the altar.

A young girl, dressed in gorgeous clothes and wearing a crown, holds a beam of light in her hands. The sun, moon and stars are painted on her head, and she is surrounded by flowers and birds. Her lower body is in the ocean, surrounded by schools of fish.

It seemed that all the beauty in the world was around her, but the girl kept her eyes tightly closed.

“It looks like a tomb,” Hanqi said, “but there’s no coffin.”

Cang Jingqi instinctively felt that this place was not a good place to stay: "Now that we have found the Tranquility Pearl, let's leave quickly."

"Wait!" Han Jiang said. Usually, in books, something bad happens after someone gets a treasure. Wen Xu seemed to have said that in the original story, the male and female protagonists faced death many times and formed a deep bond of friendship.

With the male lead absent, can the female lead alone turn misfortune into good fortune?

Cang Jingqi noticed Han Jiang's concerns. After inspecting the altar and confirming that there were no formations or mechanisms, he said, "It should be fine. Take it."

Hanqi stepped forward, intending to pick up the white jade and the Tranquilizing Pearl together.

A white halo emanated from the Tranquility Bead, and time stood still at that moment.

All three were unable to move.

Han Jiang watched as Han Qi's body turned into smoke and dust and was sucked into the Tranquilizing Pearl, followed by her and Cang Jingqi.

It felt like sinking into the sea; a sea breeze carrying a fishy smell swept over me, and seawater filled my nostrils, making it hard to breathe.

The cold snaps like a drowning person regaining air, and what comes into view is no longer a desolate castle, but a magnificent palace.

Story-driven instance. Han Jiang reacted immediately.

Retrace the memories of the palace.

"I have a story I want to tell you..." A weak female voice echoed in my mind.

Han Jiang: "Who are you?"

"I don't remember much, the story isn't long, but you from another world, I invite you to listen to my story..."

How do you know I'm not from this world?

The sound stopped.

Hanjiang turned around and saw a huge floor-to-ceiling window behind him, with schools of fish swimming outside.

She initially thought it was glass, but after touching it with her hand, she realized that she could reach her hand out of the window and touch the seawater.

It is a transparent barrier formed by spiritual energy, used to isolate water and air.

There were no lights inside; only the blue glow of the ocean shone in from outside.

A legendary kingdom beneath the ocean?

Mermaid Kingdom?

As the cold wind descended, I walked through the long corridor and pushed open the door.

Two children, a boy and a girl, were leaning against the bed, while a middle-aged woman sat beside the bed.

"Sorry." Han Jiang realized she had gone to the wrong place.

"It's alright!" the girl said. "Would you like to hear your mother tell a story too?"

"Come listen together," the middle-aged woman said, pointing to the seat next to her. "We've finished all our work for today."

Han Jiang sat down as instructed, awkwardly gathering her skirt and sleeves.

Long, long ago, the earth was a chaotic void—

"What is chaos!" the boy interjected.

"Don't interrupt!" the girl snapped.

The boy had no choice but to shut up.

The woman said, "There is no life, no sun or moon—"

"Aren't there any stars either?" the girl asked.

"No."

"What about the little birds? Aren't they here either?"

There's nothing there.

The boy retorted, "You interrupted me too, and now you're criticizing me!"

"Alright, from now on, we're not allowed to interrupt each other."

The woman patted the two children's heads: "Suddenly one day, a beam of light burst forth, and the world was filled with light..."

The rest of the story becomes blurry, only these few sentences remain clear.

Han Jiang guessed that the owner of the memory only remembered these few sentences, so she could only hear these few sentences clearly.

The girl grew increasingly sleepy as she listened, and fell asleep halfway through the story.

It's a boring story, but how else would a child fall asleep if it weren't boring?

A childhood memory was inserted, introducing three characters: a girl who was the kingdom's princess, a boy who was her younger brother, and a woman who was the queen.

After introducing the characters, the memories quickly shift to their adulthood.

The princess was in poor health and had been bedridden for many years due to illness.

Han Jiang's role is that of her maid.

"Pfft!" Han Jiang stood guard outside the princess's room, mocking the guards who were also outside—Cang Jingqi, dressed in guard uniform, looked completely different from usual.

Perhaps it's because Cang Jingqi usually wears loose and flowing clothes, giving off the air of a wandering immortal, but now Cang Jingqi is wearing a bodyguard's tight-fitting clothes and armor.

"What are you laughing at, Han Xiaoman? You're not much better than me!"

"I didn't realize you had such a good figure," Han Jiang said, suppressing a laugh.

"It's alright, I haven't practiced much." He said modestly, but unconsciously straightened his body and puffed out his chest.

Cang Jingqi didn't experience the scene of the princess's childhood, so it seems that it was specifically meant for people from "another world" like Han Jiang.

A summons was made from inside the room, instructing Han Jiang to bring in the medicine.

The one lying on the bed is Hanqi.

Unlike Han Jiang and Cang Jingqi, Han Qi retained her self-awareness; instead, she possessed the core of a princess.

The owner of the memories is probably the princess. She changed her face to Han Qi's and had Han Jiang and Cang Jingqi play the roles of her two closest people.

Before Han Jiang could even put the medicine to the princess's lips, a man rushed in, pounced on the princess's bedside, and nearly knocked the medicine over.

"Didn't you leave?" the princess asked.

"I'll come see you one last time before I leave, sister. Focus on getting better, we'll definitely win!" It turned out to be the prince who had grown up.

"You're back safe and sound." The princess and prince embraced briefly.

"I'm going up there!" the prince said goodbye to the princess.

Before Han Jiang could ask what had happened, the princess said, "I hope that Father and my brother will be safe during this foreign invasion."

The castle has two levels, with the lower half in the sea and the upper half on land.

It's not the mermaid kingdom that Han Jiang imagined; after all, it's a cultivation novel, not a Western fantasy novel.

The country was too small, and its land territory was constantly being invaded, so it had no choice but to move its cities underwater.

Although this country is very powerful, with almost everyone capable of cultivating spiritual energy, it has always valued peace and made concessions to foreign powers, unwilling to engage in war.

In the past two years, the invasion of foreign enemies has become increasingly serious, leaving them with nowhere to go.

Living in the ocean doesn't mean they can breathe underwater; they only managed to build their lives by using spiritual energy to shield themselves from the seawater.

Even so, the weak-willed queen still wanted to avoid the situation.

The ministers argued for many days, and finally the king decided to retaliate.

The battle lasted for several days, and not only was the enemy defeated, but a portion of the land territory was also recaptured.

A grand banquet was held in the palace, and the king, having tasted the sweetness of victory in the war, declared that he would press on and reclaim even more territory.

Rumors circulated in the palace that the king and queen had a major argument. The queen felt it was unnecessary, arguing that war only brought pain, while the king was determined to reclaim his territory.

For hundreds of years, several kings have failed to reclaim the territory.

This victory allowed the king to witness the powerful spiritual energy possessed by his people, whose spiritual energy, nurtured by the ocean, far surpassed that of other nations on land.

The queen later sought out the princess, and the mother and daughter tried together to persuade the king, but they failed.

Han Jiang saw that the princess always stayed up late at night, sitting in the corridor, looking at the ocean outside through the spiritual barrier.

News of great victories kept arriving, and the kingdom gradually prospered.

In less than a year, it had almost annexed all the surrounding small countries, acquired a large amount of resources, and rapidly accumulated wealth and manpower.

The kingdom is more powerful than ever before.

One day, the prince came to the princess with a book, saying that he had a way to cure the princess's illness.

The princess's spiritual energy was weak, and the doctors all said she wouldn't live long.

The king built a castle for the princess on land and granted her a fiefdom.

"Sister, Father said that this city will be under your jurisdiction from now on," the prince said excitedly.

Cang Jingqi stopped the carriage, and Han Jiang helped the princess down from the carriage.

In fact, the city gates were magnificent, the city was prosperous, and everyone lined the streets to welcome their new leaders.

Han Jiang immediately recognized the city as the ancient city they had entered in the desert.

She turned to look at Cang Jingqi, who nodded slightly to her.

Both of them understood that the story was about to begin.

"I want to go back to the seabed," the princess coughed.

The prince held the princess's hand: "Sister, we can't get any sunshine at the bottom of the sea, but now that we're on land, we can get sunshine every day, and your illness will definitely get better."

There is indeed such a saying. Chicheng once told Hanjiang that staying indoors all day would deplete one's spiritual energy, while going out to bask in the sun would allow one to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

It seems that people practiced cultivation in this way many years ago.

Cang Jingqi was assigned to organize the luggage brought from underwater, while Han Jiang accompanied the princess into the palace through the main gate.

The prince skillfully led the way.

The siblings had a very good relationship. When the palace was being built, the prince heard that it was for the princess and came to supervise the construction himself.

"I've never seen this palace style before..." the princess wondered.