Lin Xiao now somewhat understood why, among all the profoundly cultivated members of the Spirit Saint Church, the Great Elder had specifically chosen him.
In the deep sea teeming with countless Sea Soul Beasts, the fact that the Mermaid Clan could settle here and still properly care for those children whose cultivation was only a hundred or a thousand years old relied not solely on the Sea Princess's six hundred thousand years of cultivation.
Just the barrier from earlier was something no ordinary person could withstand.
The sensation when passing through that barrier was very similar to the dream he had by the side of the Ice Sea back then. What the Great Elder valued was most likely his ability to break free from that dream.
As expected of the Mermaid Clan, who excelled in mental abilities, there were probably other arrangements inside the palace.
Lin Xiao glanced around. His appearance did not attract the attention of the other mermaids, so he secretly heightened his vigilance and cautiously headed toward the palace.
At this very moment, above the surface of the Ice Sea, the several-meter-thick layer of ice instantly shattered under immense water pressure. The ice fragments that were blasted into the air slowly drifted down, resembling a light snowfall.
Before the ice fragments could fully disperse, a vast expanse of deep blue rose from beneath the sea's surface, as though intending to connect the ocean and the sky.
The Great Elder stood atop the sea, allowing the waters of the Ice Sea to continuously crash against her body, her gaze fixed firmly on the depths below the surface.
"After all these years of not returning, you still refuse to show yourself and meet me?" The Great Elder's voice traveled far along the seawater. "Or is it that you plan to offer me as a gift to your new master?"
"No, you misunderstand. Both you and I are children of the Sea God. This is merely a matter between us." The voice of the Sea Princess came from beneath the sea.
Huge waves surged on the sea surface. As the seawater continuously fell, a figure gradually became clear.
It was a figure about three meters long; the upper body resembled a human woman, while the lower half was an enormous fish tail. She held a silver spear in her hand and wore a crown upon her head, her water-blue long hair fluttering upward.
"Hmph, do not lump me together with you who betrayed the Soul Beast race. I am different from you—I will never acknowledge a human as my master."
Upon hearing this, the Sea Princess lightly sighed. "Thirty thousand years ago, the Deep Sea Demon Whale King was already defeated in the battle against the Sea God and lost all possibility of becoming a god. It has been ten thousand years since the Demon Whale King perished. Do you still intend to give your life for him?"
The Great Elder's eyes flickered slightly. After a pause, she spoke in a deep voice, "If it weren't for the betrayal of those Soul Beasts back then—Soul Beasts who were willing to let humans command them—the Demon Whale King would never have been defeated."
"Have you truly forgotten how the Demon Whale King treated us?" The Sea Princess's voice was no longer calm. "He never regarded the Sea Soul Beasts as his people; to him, we were merely food. Had he become the Sea God, how could you and I have the lives we do today?"
"And now?" The Great Elder suddenly raised her arm and pointed toward the boundless sea in the distance. "Beneath the deep sea, slaughter continues. Weak Soul Beasts are still nothing more than sustenance for the strong."
"Sea Soul Beasts have always been this way, and they always will be. That is the law beneath the sea. You have merely found a human master to lord over you."
"What is even more laughable is that you keep calling him a god. If he truly were the god of the sea, the god of us Sea Soul Beasts, why must we still suffer the pain of heavenly tribulation?"
The Great Elder's voice grew increasingly agitated. "Those not of our kind will always have different hearts. The one you revere is not the god of us Sea Soul Beasts, but the god of humans."
"Back then, in the War of the Sea God, you betrayed the Demon Whale King and helped a human become a god, yet you did not even gain a moment of peace. Instead, you were restricted by him and dared not approach the coast even now."
At some unknown point, the sky had become covered with thick clouds. As the Great Elder's voice echoed over the sea, low rumbles of thunder also came from within the clouds.
The Sea Princess slightly raised her head and looked up. As a Soul Beast, she instinctively felt some fear toward this heavenly might. Seeing the flashes of lightning in the clouds, an uncomfortable feeling arose in her heart for some reason.
Looking back at the Great Elder, the Sea Princess's gaze gradually turned icy. "Thirty thousand years ago, how chaotic the sea was. If not for the Sea God, you and I would still be fighting desperately for survival."
"Although there are still Sea Soul Beasts that chase slaughter today, that is merely the survival instinct, not killing for the sake of killing. The fact that you and I can enjoy a place of peace—how is that not due to the Sea God's protection?"
"Indeed." The Great Elder gave a light laugh. "Under the Sea God's protection, you can live comfortably as the Mermaid Queen, but I can still smell the blood of those Sea Soul Beasts beneath the surface. Is that what you call the Sea God's protection?"
"You—"
"Enough talk!" The Great Elder cut off the Sea Princess with a low shout. "Whether this is a conflict between you and me, or the continuation of that unfinished War of the Sea God, today I have come only to execute a traitor personally."
As her words fell, the Great Elder's figure rapidly transformed. Her legs merged and elongated, instantly turning into a fish tail identical to the Sea Princess's.
The scales on her body became even denser; her forearms and waist were completely covered in fish scales, and her skin from fingertips to forearms had fully turned blue. From afar, she seemed to blend perfectly with the surrounding seawater.
With a low roar, the other mermaids who had appeared alongside the Sea Princess immediately swayed left and right, their eyes becoming dazed.
The Great Elder was also a mermaid. Although she carried a strong aura of death, her mental strength was equally formidable.
The Sea Princess glanced left and right, her eyes turning cold. She swung the silver spear in her hand, and countless streams of seawater condensed into water arrows that shot toward the Great Elder at high speed.
However, the sea surface was equally the Great Elder's domain. With a light flick of her fish tail, a massive spray of water rose, forming a curtain of water that completely blocked those water arrows.
Before the seawater could fall back, a pale blue arm had already pierced through the water curtain. Its fingertips gleamed with an icy light, carrying waves of deathly silence.
A bolt of lightning suddenly illuminated the sea surface, immediately followed by a tremendous boom. Under the cover of the thunder, the Great Elder's figure had already rushed to the Sea Princess's side. That hand radiating death intent was now only inches from the Sea Princess's neck.
Yet in a battle between experts of this level, mere inches might as well be an insurmountable chasm. The silver spear rose vertically, firmly blocking the Great Elder's palm in front of her. The next moment, a pale blue ripple spread out with the Sea Princess at its center.
Layer upon layer of waves exploded with this halo, raising a storm on the sea surface that sent the Great Elder's figure flying backward.
"Your cultivation is inferior to mine. Surrender." The Sea Princess gripped her spear once more. "After all, we are of the same race. I will not kill you. As long as you stay and reflect sincerely, that will be enough."
"Reflect?" The Great Elder stabilized herself, her tone laced with disdain. "You mean you want me to learn how to be as good a pet for a human as you are?"
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