Chapter 216 Little Bird, Human World, Little Bitter Gourd
Where did you go?
As soon as Huali returned, she saw Liyuan looking at her with a furrowed brow and a worried expression. "I've been looking for you for so long."
“I saw you were asleep in the seaweed, so I continued looking for people,” Huali said without hesitation. “I even put a protective barrier around you.”
Li Yuan knew this, of course. His expression softened slightly. "There was a disturbance at the altar today. Hua Li should not go there again in the future."
His anger came and went quickly, and he took Huali's hand again, "Let's continue our story about land today."
Huali was exhausted both physically and mentally in just a few hours, yet Liyuan looked at her with anticipation.
Living under someone else's roof, what a miserable life!
She thought for a moment, "How about this, let's play a different game, rock-paper-scissors, and whoever wins has to answer a question for the other person."
Li Yuan's eyes lit up. "You want to play with me?"
Huali nodded, "Best of five."
In the first round, as expected, Karin won. "What is the reason you built this altar?"
Li Yuan paused for a moment, "Was this the question you wanted to ask me from the beginning?"
Unexpectedly, he was so perceptive. Huali was about to explain when Liyuan spoke up.
"The Cangming Sea has had a rule for tens of thousands of years: the first child of each Sea King and Sea Queen must be offered up at the altar to become a sacrifice to suppress the sea monsters. That altar was originally built for me."
Huali frowned. "Haven't you ever thought about changing this rule?"
“With the witness of Heaven, it naturally cannot be changed at will.” Li Yuan shook his head. “Let’s continue.”
Without holding back, Huali continued, "What about the offerings that the maid named Pearl mentioned last time?"
Li Yuan, who had lost two games in a row, puffed out his cheeks and said, "That was meant to replace me."
His expression was exactly the same as when he mentioned the lower-class merfolk before, with an air of matter-of-fact, "My father and mother were married for a thousand years before they had me. Unfortunately, I was born weak, and they couldn't bear to part with me, so they found a merfolk whose soul aura was similar to mine."
“I don’t need to go to the altar anymore, and Huali can stay with me all the time.” Li Yuan smiled shyly, “Huali is my first good friend.”
Will Karin always stay with me?
Ao Bai hissed.
Before Karin could speak, the little mermaid in front of her spoke first, "Never mind, Karin, you don't need to answer. I'm leaving now."
Before she could reply, Li Yuan had already run out with a flushed face.
Huali "..."
After watching Li Yuan leave, she didn't immediately go looking for the little bird, but instead swam towards the Sea King's Palace.
If what Li Yuan said is true, then the barrier around the little bird must have been the work of the Sea King.
*
The journey was smooth and unobstructed.
The Palace of the Sea King was not as magnificent as one might imagine; instead, it exuded a profound and somber atmosphere unique to the deep sea.
The dome is high and wide, inlaid with countless huge luminous pearls.
The merman's figure was reflected on the smooth obsidian floor.
Although this "Sea King" is a real Sea King, all of his attendants are male merfolk.
They were tall and slender, with silver or blue hair that floated like seaweed. They all carried files as they moved about, their expressions respectful.
The hall was filled with the faint, fishy smell of deep-sea algae, mixed with a cool fragrance.
Neptune sat on his throne, his face vaguely resembling Li Yuan's.
"Guanlan, how are the offerings arranged?"
A burly merman stepped forward from outside the door. "It has been placed inside a barrier and no one is allowed to visit it at the moment."
A pang of pity crossed Guanlan's brow. "But the sacrificial ceremony is still three hundred years away. Are we really going to keep him locked up there indefinitely..."
Aquaman nodded.
"If you want a thoughtful person with feelings to willingly walk into the darkness of eternal confinement..."
He tapped the table lightly, a faint, cruel smile curving his lips. "The secret is—from the very beginning, you can't treat him like a human being."
A young merman immediately stepped forward and placed the teacup carved from the translucent white sea jade over to him.
Aquaman picked up his teacup and said coldly, "You need to make the world around him silently tell him that his only value is as a sacrifice. Everything is preparing for this moment."
Huali's hands clenched tightly.
Ao Bai immediately launched into a tirade, "What kind of top-tier PUA is this? This playboy is definitely no good! He's so wicked!"
“Day after day, year after year, in that dark and silent place, he will forget what it looks like to be human. When he truly accepts himself as a ‘sacrifice,’ everything will fall into place.”
As Huali turned to leave, Haiwang's last words drifted down with the current.
"Guanlan, the most skillful way to tame someone in this world is to let them put on their own shackles and regard them as a crown."
*
The small palace was silent.
The little mermaid clutched the luminous pearl in her hand, her body pressed tightly against the cold stone wall, stubbornly clinging to the hole.
He tried to brush away the water around him, again and again. The cold water brushed against his fingers, but there was no longer that warm, pulling force.
He couldn't express his disappointment, but stared intently at the darkness outside the hole until a tiny, extremely faint silver light sparingly seeped in through the crack.
The light, which did not belong to the deep sea, was the only thing that could fill the emptiness for him.
...
Then, a familiar dried fish was handed to me.
The little mermaid's eyes lit up, and she immediately tried to look outside.
Immediately afterwards, a white piece of paper was handed over from the other side.
The little mermaid looked at it by the faint light of the luminous pearl and found that there were no words on it, but rather circles drawn with something dark that she couldn't understand.
Several crooked circles were stacked together, and you could barely make out that it was a small fish.
There was a huge rock on the little fish's head, and a hammer was smashing the rock.
At the bottom of the image is a crooked seashell, inside which a small circular fish is huddled.
Wait a minute? Smash it?!
The thought had barely crossed Yan Xi's mind when a violent burst of energy suddenly erupted from outside the hole!
"Crimson Lotus Blaze, explode!!"
"Echoes from the deep sea, emptiness!!"
After unleashing a series of powerful attacks fueled by rage, rocks shattered and water surged!
The hole in the fist finally grew to the size of a watermelon! In an instant, the blinding light dispelled the faint glow of the luminous pearl and brutally tore apart the dark and sunless cage.
The light shone on the two of them without reservation.
The little mermaid instinctively looked up to block the overly bright light, her deep blue pupils contracting rapidly as she adjusted.
In the interplay of light and shadow, he saw—
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
