Union of Swords (Deep Water Bonus Update)

The female merfolk took one look at them and stumbled back in fear, but the pool was far too small; there was nowhere for her to retreat to. Though she had been imprisoned there for a long time, she had not yet lost her mind completely. “Immortal Lord... Immortal Lord, spare my life.”

Qi Xianqing narrowed her eyes slightly.

The merfolk race lived in the sea year-round, and their style of dress was very uninhibited.

The female merfolk in front of them had porcelain-white skin. She wore only a pale pink bellyband on her upper body, and her chest was very full.

Qi Xianqing stared for a moment, instantly flushed red, frowned, and turned her face away.

Yan Jue, standing behind her, froze for a moment, then immediately fought back the laughter that was about to burst out.

Hahaha.

So the heroine had such a thin skin.

After a few silent breaths, Qi Xianqing stepped forward and lifted the jade token at her waist.

It was the Five Dragons Sect’s identity token. Qi Xianqing’s Thunderflame Sect token was carved from dark red jade, and in the moonlight it gave off a deep, rich sheen.

The surrounding area fell silent.

The female merfolk looked at Yan Jue and Qi Xianqing, then at the dark red jade token hanging from Qi Xianqing’s waist. Realization suddenly dawned on her, and she cried out in a broken voice, “Five Dragons Sect Immortal Lord.”

Then she anxiously glanced around and lowered her voice. “You truly are a Five Dragons Sect Immortal Lord?”

Merfolk lived in the water year-round and rarely had contact with humans on land, so the female merfolk was a little unsure whether she had recognized them correctly.

Qi Xianqing gave a slight nod. The merfolk, however, said tearfully, “I have been trapped here for a very long time. At last, righteous immortal sects have come. Please, Immortal Lord, you must save me!”

They had come to Yuxu Sea for the merfolk pearl. Neither of them had expected this little accident.

Qi Xianqing’s gaze fell on the white scale mark on the merfolk’s forehead, and she frowned slightly.

Though merfolk also lived in water, they were fundamentally different from dragons.

The white scale on this female merfolk’s forehead had an uneven surface and a lustrous sheen; it was clearly a dragon scale.

They said that the merfolk royal family of Yuxu Sea all had a fraction of dragon blood in them. Could this person be...

Qi Xianqing: “Then tell me carefully.”

Time was tight, and the two of them listened quietly as the merfolk told her story.

The female merfolk met Qi Xianqing’s eyes, bit her lip, and said, “I am Hai Ying, the princess of the merfolk royal family of Yuxu Sea.”

Hai Ying had originally been a merfolk princess and had been doted on since childhood, which made her naturally innocent and lively.

From a young age, she had heard her father say that humans were good friends of the merfolk.

So Hai Ying had long harbored the idea that on the day she came of age, she would go to the shore and see what humans really looked like.

She had read the merfolk’s ancient books, which recorded the origins and end of the immortal-demon war.

The humans in those books were all graceful and heroic.

Were humans really as they were described in the books?

So on the day she came of age, Hai Ying secretly slipped away from her family, crossed the layered seas, and came to the shore.

That day happened to be storming hard.

At first Hai Ying had hidden behind a reef, but for some reason, thunder suddenly split the sky. A huge wave came crashing from behind and struck her directly, knocking Hai Ying unconscious.

When Hai Ying woke up, she was lying beached on the sand.

When she opened her eyes, she saw an exceptionally handsome man crouched beside her, looking at her with concern.

So humans... looked like this?

Hai Ying was taken home by the handsome man. At the time, she was badly injured all over, and the man was gentle and refined, carefully tending to the wounds on her arms.

As a princess, Hai Ying had read widely since childhood, and the man also had some literary knowledge.

In order to let Hai Ying rest and recover in peace, the man even specially built a pool for her in the back courtyard.

Hai Ying was very happy staying there.

She chatted with the man, discussing poetry old and new as well as geography and astronomy. In her immersion, she forgot herself without realizing it.

It was not until half a month later, when she heard the sound of waves beyond the courtyard wall and felt a little homesick, that she told the man she wanted to go home and take a look. But the man refused, saying her injuries had not yet healed and he could not let her leave alone.

Hai Ying waited again, and then waited for more than a month.

The man still told her that she could not go back.

Hai Ying finally sensed that something was wrong.

The merfolk’s bodily structure was, in every way, similar to a human’s. One day, Hai Ying was lazily swimming around in the pool when she suddenly heard the man talking to someone else in the main room.

“Let her have children, and then she won’t want to go back.”

“If we want to produce offspring, we can only rely on these merfolk.”

Hai Ying was innocent, but she was not stupid. Hearing this, she vaguely felt that something was off.

What happened after that, Hai Ying did not want to say.

Several people sat in the courtyard, all silent.

Yan Jue frowned slightly.

Actually, the man had been a mortal to begin with; the merfolk were not so weak that they could not contend with him.

But someone was backing them from behind, and by exploiting the merfolk’s weakness of being unable to move easily on land, they were not hard to pin down.

Hai Ying could not go ashore and had remained in this back courtyard the entire time. She even did not know that her clan members had also all been brought back by other means.

The merfolk: “If the Immortal Lord can save me, I...”

Suddenly, a man walked in through the courtyard gate over there.

Yan Jue had been so absorbed in Hai Ying’s story that she did not notice footsteps approaching.

A man dressed in coarse linen with a black headscarf somehow appeared by the doorway and walked toward them.

Yan Jue was listening intently when Qi Xianqing beside her suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

Caught off guard, Yan Jue stumbled and was dragged onto the grass beside them to hide.

Only then did Yan Jue lift her head and notice the person over there.

In the dead of night, the two of them crouched in the grass, both sets of eyes fixed on the man who had entered.

Yan Jue realized that this man was the same one she had just seen outside the courtyard gate.

Now, by the light of the moon, she finally had time to study his face properly.

Perhaps because he had spent years under the sun by the sea, the man’s face had a bronze cast.

He looked very young, and he was handsome.

Yan Jue paused slightly.

Could this person be the one the merfolk princess had just described...

As the man drew closer, Hai Ying, who had been sitting upright in the middle of the pool, instantly changed expression, terror flooding her face.

The man came to the edge of the pool, slowly sat down, and gazed affectionately at the woman’s stunning face.

Under the moonlight, the handsome man and the beautiful woman made quite a scene, as though from a painting.

The man extended a hand, his rough fingertips slowly stroking the merfolk’s fair cheek. “Princess, if you behave a little and stop thinking about going home all the time, I can make your life a little better and even change the water in your pool more often.”

The water in the pool where Hai Ying was imprisoned was truly filthy.

Because it was stagnant, a layer of dust had already collected on the surface, and moss clung to parts of it.

Yan Jue looked at it and suddenly felt a surge of anger.

Merfolk had always loved cleanliness. This person had probably seized on that weakness to force her into living in such filthy water.

As long as she stopped shouting that she wanted to go home.

As long as she obediently listened.

She could live better on this tiny patch of land.

The princess bit her lip and said nothing.

The man rubbed her face for a while, then suddenly gripped her shoulder roughly and forcibly hauled the merfolk princess’s body out of the water, trying to press in violently.

A merfolk’s body structure was the same as a human’s.

Yan Jue had once seen merfolk mentioned in books in the Library Pavilion on Five Dragons Mountain.

It said that there were many bachelors and widows by the sea who liked to catch merfolk in the ocean.

When she read that passage back then, she had felt nothing at all.

But now that she had seen it with her own eyes, she finally understood just how disgusting this behavior was.

Hai Ying’s muffled crying echoed over the courtyard.

Yan Jue exchanged a look with Qi Xianqing, then suddenly thrust out a hand.

A white soft cord flew out from her sleeve.

Soulbinding Cord.

The soft cord arced gracefully through the air and landed squarely on the man.

In an instant, the cord exuded dense, sticky spider silk.

The spider silk was thick and dense, and it carried a faint poison.

Before the man could even cry out, he was already tightly wrapped up.

Hai Ying braced both hands on the ground, still somewhat disheveled. She stared at Yan Jue, then suddenly realized how embarrassing her current appearance was. She hurriedly straightened her clothes and lowered her head. “Thank you, Immortal Lord, for saving me.”

But she was only wearing a bellyband, so no matter how she tried to arrange it, she could not hide the springtime view before her chest.

Tap—

With an extremely light sound, Qi Xianqing landed softly behind Yan Jue and threw something to Hai Ying.

It was a black outer robe.

Yan Jue was trying her hardest not to laugh when suddenly her eyes darkened.

A cold palm covered her vision, pressing over her eyes.

Qi Xianqing raised a hand to shield her eyes, signaling for Hai Ying to put on the clothes.

Yan Jue: “...”

Hai Ying held the outer robe Qi Xianqing had thrown to her and looked a little dazed.

The merfolk’s style was bold and uninhibited; women in the sea usually wore only bellybands, and some men even went bare-chested. But such clothing was indeed somewhat inappropriate among humans.

Hai Ying quickly put on the black robe Qi Xianqing had given her and said softly, head lowered, “Thank you, Immortal Lord.”

Yan Jue was displeased. She immediately pulled Qi Xianqing’s hand away. “We can take you back to the sea.”

Although their main purpose this time had been to find the merfolk pearl, now that they had run into something like this, there was no way they could stand by and do nothing.

They could only rescue this merfolk princess first.

They could deal with the merfolk pearl later.

These men were clearly mortals, so how had they set up such a complex illusion array in their own courtyard?

And who exactly was that black-clad man Yan Jue had seen at the village head’s house?

In short, everything around them reeked of strangeness. It would be best to get this merfolk princess out of here as soon as possible.

Yan Jue had originally thought Hai Ying would be reluctant, but unexpectedly, the merfolk princess looked overjoyed. “Thank you, Immortal Lord, for saving me. Then shall we set off now?”

Yan Jue turned and looked at Qi Xianqing.

Qi Xianqing lowered her gaze and stepped forward, asking softly, “Does the princess wish for her children to come with you?”

This merfolk princess had been locked in the back courtyard for so long.

From what the man had just done to her, there was no way she and this handsome man did not already have offspring.

Hai Ying shook her head. “I was bearing his offspring; it was not of my own free will.”

Merfolk were open-minded. Within their clan, it was very common for women to remarry.

Having already borne offspring would not cost Hai Ying her life, especially since she was a princess of noble status.

This was somewhat cruel, but Yan Jue and Qi Xianqing still respected Hai Ying’s choice.

Yan Jue formed hand seals with both hands and silently recited the heart mantra.

Her mastery of ice- and water-based divine arts was already extremely skilled. A huge water sphere instantly condensed in her palm, and under the moonlight it gave off rippling glimmers, with the faint sound of flowing water within.

The water sphere gradually enveloped Hai Ying.

Hai Ying curled up and was wrapped inside the sphere like a baby.

Yan Jue swept both hands, and the water sphere slowly moved outward.

The fishing village was not far from the sea to begin with. It took the group about the time it takes to burn an incense stick before they reached the shore.

Yan Jue had just taken a few steps forward when her sleeve was suddenly tugged.

She froze, turned back, and saw Qi Xianqing lower her voice. “I’ll look behind us.”

Yan Jue stared at Qi Xianqing for a moment and immediately understood what she meant.

There might be an ambush.

...

Yan Jue raised both hands, supporting the water sphere as it grew larger and denser in the air, and stopped at the beach. Then she hurled it hard.

She practically used all her strength. The water sphere was thrown far away before finally crashing into the sea.

A round moon hung over the water.

The moment the water sphere hit the sea, the merfolk inside suddenly leapt out and braved the waves forward.

The waves crashed down, wetting the merfolk princess’s golden hair. The wind swept across her face, blowing her hair wildly about.

Yan Jue could not help but think: this was how a merfolk should truly look.

Suddenly, a chill ran over the back of her neck.

Tied behind her, the immortal sword Drifting Ice began to vibrate violently.

Thread upon thread of spiritual energy poured out of Drifting Ice. Yan Jue only felt as though her whole body was about to freeze stiff.

Drifting Ice’s state... was a little off...

Yan Jue whirled around abruptly, only to collide head-on with a ferocious pair of eyes.

Somehow, a man in a black cloak had appeared behind her. He stretched out a withered hand, fingers hooked like claws, and swiped at her fiercely.

Yan Jue reacted extremely quickly, flipping several zhang through the air and retreating before landing on the ground, where sand instantly kicked up beneath her feet.

“Heh.” The man gave a cold laugh and slowly walked toward her.

Yan Jue paused slightly and quickly recognized him.

This was the mysterious black-clad man she had seen at the village head’s house.

The black-clad man’s voice was old and hoarse. “I noticed something strange a long time ago...”

As he spoke, he formed hand seals.

In an instant, a bizarre thing appeared above him.

Summoning art!

He was summoning a vengeful ghost.

The vengeful ghost he summoned hovered above him, its face ghastly white as it stared fixedly at Yan Jue.

A chill instantly surged through Yan Jue’s heart.

The vengeful ghost summoned by the black-clad man was a merfolk.

The female merfolk’s long straight hair hung over her shoulders, and her eyes, with no whites at all, were wide open as she stared at Yan Jue with hollow, lifeless intensity.

Then she suddenly opened her mouth, revealing a row of fierce, terrifying fangs.

The ghost gradually drew nearer; the stench of blood hit her nose. In that instant, Yan Jue relied on the fox demon’s special instinct and sensed a towering wave of resentment.

The black-clad man muttered, “I’ve been lying in wait in this fishing village for a long time. The secret art is just about complete...”

The Drifting Ice behind her was shaking wildly in an abnormal manner, and the burst of spiritual light was almost bright enough to illuminate the sky.

Yan Jue grasped Drifting Ice and could not help feeling a little surprised.

Qi Xianqing’s Zhuying had never seemed this excited when facing enemies.

“So you really did abduct merfolk...” The black-clad man shouted harshly. “Speak! Are you a member of the immortal sect?”

Boom.

Yan Jue pinched a spell with her right hand and instantly summoned the immortal sword Drifting Ice.

Drifting Ice had already been churning in excitement for quite some time. Hearing Yan Jue’s call, it immediately shot into the sky and swelled to the height of two people in the air.

Since being taught a lesson by Qi Xianqing a few days ago, it had become much more obedient; it could almost fully understand Yan Jue’s intentions. The ice-blue figure appeared in the air in an instant and slashed down at once.

Like Zhuying, Drifting Ice was also a righteous sword that countered evil in the world. Its mighty sword qi swept outward in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, it severed the female ghost’s head.

Crack.

The merfolk ghost’s horrifying head instantly turned into a wisp of gray ash in the night sky and slowly scattered with the wind.

Drifting Ice let out a clear phoenix cry in the air, darting left and right, eager for more.

Yan Jue had never before cooperated with it in real combat. She immediately stamped her right foot and stepped back. “Myriad Sword Art!”

Drifting Ice froze in the air, then instantly shattered into hundreds of smaller swords. Yan Jue swept her right hand, and the little ice-blue swords shot forward like swimming dragons.

Sword light fell like a rain of stars.

The man looked coldly at Yan Jue and swept a hand. A huge protective barrier instantly appeared before him.

At the same time, his lips moved slightly as if silently reciting some heart mantra.

Above his head, the headless female ghost’s body shook violently. With a boom, another head actually emerged from the bare neck!

Immortal Art: Head-Regrowth Technique.

The man swept his right hand again, and the merfolk female ghost let out a shriek as she rushed forward, using her head to block Yan Jue’s Myriad Sword Art.

Countless icy-blue blades, each carrying sharp sword qi, directly pierced through the ghost’s shapeless head.

The ghost’s head was severed again.

The man formed a seal. With a light tap of his right index finger, the ghost’s head reappeared once more.

Yan Jue: “...” So it was an infinite loop, was it.

The black-clad man’s figure flashed through the air without warning; in the blink of an eye, he appeared before Yan Jue. He extended both hands, and waves of black qi poured from his palms.

Two small green ghost heads actually emerged from his palms.

Yan Jue swiftly sidestepped and summoned an immortal sword to block.

Clang—

The small ghosts in the man’s palms opened their mouths, revealing rows of fangs, and lunged directly at the immortal sword Drifting Ice.

Along with a piercing screech, that bite did not let them taste the human blood they had longed for.

What they got instead was the taste of their own souls.

The instant they bit into Drifting Ice, Drifting Ice’s sharp blade had already pierced straight through their bodies.

The black-clad man’s expression sharpened. He had not expected this trash, who looked to be only at the Foundation Establishment Realm, to be so troublesome.

But he only glanced indifferently at Yan Jue and raised his hand again with calm confidence to strike.

After all, he had long since reached the sixth realm. In this impoverished backwater, he refused to believe there was a seventh-realm powerhouse who would deign to come here!

The black-clad man formed seals again, and a streak of blood-red yin energy rose from nowhere, stabbing straight at Yan Jue.

Suddenly, baleful energy surged beneath his feet.

The black-clad man’s pupils contracted violently.

There was an ambush!

He immediately stepped back, but before he could dodge again, the sand beneath his feet suddenly exploded.

A fierce current of electricity burst outward in all directions, condensing into a gale in the air. Green light flashed; a vast sword intent rose from beneath his feet and scraped across half his body.

Just now, while the black-clad man was fighting Yan Jue, Qi Xianqing had already silently circled around behind him.

This was Zhuying’s full-force strike, and it sent the black-clad man staggering backward several steps.

By rights, an attack from a fourth-realm cultivator should not have made a sixth-realm cultivator look so miserable. But just as his body was forced back, another blinding ice-blue sword light came after him.

Spiritual power exploded in the air, and Yan Jue looked at the scene, momentarily stunned.

Drifting Ice’s strike was terrifyingly powerful.

The mighty sword qi swept over; green light and blue light intertwined in the air and struck the black-clad man’s right arm.

The next instant, the man’s arm turned directly into a mass of thick blood water.

If blame was to be assigned, it could only be on the fact that he had killed too much in his life and was steeped in sin; his entire body was wrapped in blood aura, which was why he feared the righteous sword’s full-force strike so much.

Suddenly, another flash of cold light appeared before her.

The black-clad man’s eyes widened.

In that instant, he saw the long sword of emerald green and the ice-blue sword before him actually intersect in midair, their radiance surging wildly as fierce sword qi condensed into gusts of wind.

He saw a huge semicircular sword glow; he saw... death.

The immortal sword Drifting Ice’s icy, ancient charm had actually merged with Zhuying’s vast and upright sword qi in the sky to form a shockwave far beyond their own strength, turning the entire beach blinding white.

Zhuying and Drifting Ice... had unexpectedly fused their swords together.

The black-clad man’s pupils contracted sharply.

These two were Daoist partners? He had actually stumbled into an ambush set by this pair of Daoist partners!

Daoist partners in dual cultivation were the most terrifying things in this world... and he had run straight into them!