Chapter 119

Chapter 119: A Lifeline for the Merfolk Clan
Yu Zhao smiled and used her Spirit Power to push the Heaven Divining Shell over to the old merman.

The Great Dao was heartless, and all beings were equal. Every race had its reason to exist. She did not want to see a race wiped out because of human greed.

Yu Zhao waited for a while. When she saw the old merman just staring at the Heaven Divining Shell without moving, she kindly reminded him: “Sovereign Senior, do you not know how to use it? Just hold it with both hands, then in your heart…”

“I know!”

The old merman snatched up the Heaven Divining Shell, took a deep breath, and began to shake it between his hands while muttering under his breath.

After repeating this six times, he stopped, lifted his eyelids to glance at Yu Zhao, then pushed the Heaven Divining Shell back in front of her.

Yu Zhao took the Heaven Divining Shell, placed her palm on it, and her eyes slowly went blank.

The old merman clenched his fists and stared fixedly at Yu Zhao, not missing a single change on her face.

Crack!

Another crack ran across the Heaven Divining Shell in Yu Zhao’s hands, cutting straight through it. The burn marks on the belly spread out, almost covering the whole lower shell.

The heavy stone in the old merman’s heart finally dropped.

[It worked!]

After accepting the information passed on by the Heaven Divining Shell, Yu Zhao’s expression turned a bit complicated.

She put the Heaven Divining Shell back into her Storage Space. Under the old merman’s tense and hopeful gaze, she opened her mouth and then closed it again.

The old merman had once been a Clan Elder of the Merfolk Clan. He had a fiery temper, but in order to learn the future of the Merfolk Clan, he forcibly held it back and squeezed out a smile. His voice was as gentle as it could be: “Ahem, what did the Heaven Divining Shell tell you?”

“Hmm…” Yu Zhao fell silent, thinking.

The old merman was so anxious he almost jumped off his shell. In his heart, he cursed Yu Zhao a thousand times.

“Sovereign Senior, it’s not that I don’t want to say it,” Yu Zhao explained helplessly, her ears turning hot. “I’m just afraid you won’t believe it.”

The old merman urged her: “Just say it. I can handle it.”

Yu Zhao said: “The hexagram from the Heaven Divining Shell shows that the Merfolk Clan is in decline right now, but there is still a single thread of hope. As long as that thread is held on to, there is a chance for you to rise again after your fall and return to your peak.”

Yu Zhao’s words were like feeding the old merman a pill that extended his life. He instantly became energetic and swept away all his earlier fatigue.

“Where is the Merfolk Clan’s lifeline?” he asked.

Yu Zhao was silent for a moment, then raised her hand and pointed at herself.

The old merman stared at her blankly for quite a while before he understood that Yu Zhao was saying the Merfolk Clan’s lifeline was her.

He almost laughed from sheer anger.

[Nonsense, complete nonsense!]

[How could the future of the Merfolk Clan be tied to a Human Cultivator!]

Yu Zhao let out a sigh.

She had known that once she said it out loud, the old merman would not want to believe it.

In fact, when she first heard the result of the Divination, she was also shocked.

The responsibility was too heavy. Her shoulders suddenly felt weighed down by an invisible pressure.

“Sovereign Senior, I already let you use the Heaven Divining Shell. There is no reason for me to lie to you. As for why it is me, I don’t know either,” Yu Zhao said.

Yu Zhao and the old merman stared at each other, both at a loss for words.

After a long time, the old merman suddenly asked: “What is your name?”

“Yu Zhao.”

“Can I trust you?”

Yu Zhao said: “Sovereign Senior, I, Yu Zhao, am not a purely good person, but I am definitely not some great villain, either. As for whether you trust me or not, that is for you to decide.”

Yu Zhao never promised things lightly, unless she was absolutely sure she could do them.

But she had no clue what to do about the Merfolk Clan, and she could not think of any reason it would be related to her.

After leaving the Sea Palace, she would not come back to the Nanming Sea for a long time. How was she supposed to help the Merfolk Clan grow strong again?

“I don’t dare trust you, but I trust the Heaven Divining Shell,” the old merman finally said after thinking for a long time.

In truth, this was his way of saying he was willing to trust Yu Zhao.

“Come with me.”

The old merman and his shell mount led the way ahead, moving as slowly as ever. Yu Zhao did not rush them. She followed behind at the same slow pace, now and then glancing at the lavish decorations of the palace.

After the time it took an incense stick to burn, they stopped in front of a room in the palace.

The old merman rose from the shell and slowly swam up to the door. He flicked his tail across it.

The door opened on its own.

Brilliant light from many treasures spilled out.

The old merman moved to the side and said: “Inside are the treasures my Merfolk Clan has saved up over many generations. You can go in and pick whatever you like. Even if you empty it all out, I will not complain. But before you go in, you must agree to one condition.”

Standing at the door, Yu Zhao could already feel the active Spirit Power surging inside.

She gave a wry smile and said: “Sovereign Senior, my strength is limited. Please don’t make it too hard for me.”

“I will not ask you to save the imprisoned clansman for me, nor will I ask you to stay in the Sea Palace,” the old merman said. “All I ask is that if you ever meet any Merfolk in trouble in the future, you save them once. Please.”

Looking at the old merman’s earnest eyes, Yu Zhao understood that this elder of the Merfolk Clan had placed all his hopes on her.

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said: “I promise you.”

The old merman let out a long breath of relief. “Go in.”

As soon as Yu Zhao stepped into the room, the treasures inside shone so brightly that she could not open her eyes.

Blood-red jade coral, nourishing sea lingzhi mushrooms larger than a human face, Demon Cores of Beast King Rank Sea Beasts… the dazzling array of treasures made it hard to even look through them all.

She stayed inside for almost half an hour before reluctantly coming out.

The old merman stared at her in confusion and doubt. “Why did you come out empty-handed?”

“Because I am… noble and upright?” Yu Zhao answered, unsure.

The old merman choked, then grew anxious. “Are you trying to go back on your word again?”

“I’m not going back on it. I just don’t want to take the things inside. I already took my payment in advance,” Yu Zhao said.

By “payment,” she meant the gemstones and inner cores she had taken from the passage earlier.

The old merman’s face hardened. “Those things are worth nothing! No, you must take something with you!”

When he first let Yu Zhao in, his heart had hurt. He felt that the Merfolk Clan’s savings of thousands of years were about to be ruined in one go. Who knew she would come out with empty hands instead, which made him even angrier.

He used his tail to push Yu Zhao back into the room, then grabbed a thumb-sized piece of iron from a shell-made container and stuffed it into her arms.

“Take it!”

Though the iron piece looked small, it was as heavy as a mountain. Yu Zhao almost dropped it.

It was a piece of profound magnetite, filled with magnetic force, a nemesis to all metal Magical Artifacts.

Then the old merman turned around again and handed Yu Zhao a clear Jade Communication Stone. In the center of the jade was a single milky white drop of liquid.

“Ten-Thousand-Year Jade Marrow,” he said. “One drop is worth ten thousand Spirit Stones in Spirit Power.”

Yu Zhao did not even have time to say thank you before a broken length of wood, taller than she was, suddenly appeared in her arms as well.

It was swimming dragon wood, a strange type of timber that grew on the sea floor. It was extremely tough, would not rot, and would not decay.

Treasure after treasure flowed into Yu Zhao’s arms. Every time she tried to refuse, the old merman became unhappy.

By the time they left the treasure room, Yu Zhao was smiling and the old merman was on the verge of tears.

[What kind of spell did I fall under, to send my own clan’s treasures into someone else’s arms!]

Oh, his heart hurt so much!