Chapter 124

Chapter 124: Burning the Merfolk Pavilion
Nanming City, Merfolk Pavilion.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Heavy, drumlike heartbeats echoed through the sealed space on the fifth floor. The pool water rippled with each tremor.

A blue heart kept leaping up from the pool to break the surface, then sinking back to the bottom, looking extremely restless.

Even Merfolk did not know what was wrong with him. More than ten days ago, he had suddenly started feeling a vague panic in his heart, and it had lasted until now.

Suddenly, he thought of a possibility.

Back then, when the Merfolk Clan was besieged by countless cultivators, in order to protect the last bloodline of the Merfolk race, his Grandpa had hidden in the Sea Palace under the cover of the Chieftain and many Clan Elders, escaping that disaster.

Could something have happened to Grandpa?

Merfolk panicked even more.

The descendants of the Merfolk race had not yet hatched. If anything happened to Grandpa, the Merfolk race would be completely wiped out.

He was anxious and afraid, yet completely helpless.

Splash, splash.

The pool water shook back and forth, splashing up higher waves.

Click.

The sound of a stone door moving came from outside.

Merfolk thought impatiently: [Another person courting death is here again.]

“Yiya ya… it is you?”

After humming a few casual notes, his song suddenly broke off. He rose from under the water in surprise.

“You are actually still alive? Teng Xiao did not find you?”

Merfolk did not believe Yu Zhao could keep her life in Teng Xiao’s hands. The only possibility was that she had been lucky enough not to be discovered by him.

Thinking of this, his voice could not help but grow more urgent: “Teng Xiao must be looking for you everywhere right now. Hurry and leave Nanming City, and do not ever come back.”

“Teng Xiao is dead.” Yu Zhao walked step by step to the edge of the pool and said in a deep voice.

“Impossible!” Merfolk denied it at once.

Teng Xiao was terrified of death. The slightest stir of trouble would scare him out of his wits, and he was a Nascent Soul Old Fiend on top of that. How could he possibly die?

“I watched with my own eyes as his Nascent Soul was dragged into the deep sea by Sea Beasts.”

Merfolk looked at Yu Zhao’s expression and saw that her face was solemn, not at all like she was joking. While he felt it was absurd, a secret joy also rose in his heart.

Teng Xiao was dead. Then the Merfolk Pavilion would no longer be able to hold him.

Was he free?

He had not had time to be happy for long before he heard Yu Zhao continue: “I am here to bring you back to the Sea Palace.”

Merfolk was greatly shocked. “How do you know about the Sea Palace? Grandpa! Did you do something to my Grandpa?”

Because of his anger, the blood flowing inside the heart turned a strange dark blue.

“So that Merfolk Senior was your Grandpa.”

The guilt in Yu Zhao’s eyes grew even deeper.

She took a deep breath and told Merfolk everything that had happened during this period of time, one thing after another.

After listening, Merfolk could not recover for a long time.

He wanted to hate Yu Zhao, because Grandpa had died to save her.

But the decision to Self-Detonate to save someone had been Grandpa’s own. Yu Zhao had not forced him. He had done it for the future of the Merfolk race.

“I do not know what I can do for the Merfolk race, but I, Yu Zhao, owe the Merfolk Clan a life, and I will do my best to repay it.”

Merfolk was silent for a long time. “Let us leave this place first.”

He did not want to stay another moment in this cage that had imprisoned him for hundreds of years.

“Alright.”

Yu Zhao took out a large glazed vessel and filled it with pool water. Merfolk leaped into it on his own.

Yu Zhao then laid a concealing Illusion Art over the glazed vessel before carrying Merfolk out.

When they reached the exit of the fifth floor, Merfolk suddenly spoke: “Wait.”

Yu Zhao looked at him.

Merfolk let out a cold laugh. “The Merfolk Pavilion was built on the bones of the merfolk. It should not have existed long ago. Lend me your hand.”

Yu Zhao stretched out her hand and immediately felt a scorching power moving through her palm.

She instinctively opened her hand. A streak of ice blue flame spat out from her palm, then quickly split into thin threads of fire that scattered to all parts of the Merfolk Pavilion.

Before long, panicked shouts came from downstairs.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the Merfolk Pavilion, Yu Zhao took Merfolk and left the pavilion smoothly.

At this time, quite a few cultivators were standing outside the Merfolk Pavilion, either here to watch the excitement or just having fled out from inside. They gathered together, curiously discussing the cause of the fire at the Merfolk Pavilion, and did not notice Yu Zhao’s appearance at all.

Yu Zhao and Merfolk stood in the crowd and watched with their own eyes as the ice blue flames gradually devoured the Merfolk Pavilion.

“Let us go.” Merfolk’s tone was cold.

Yu Zhao nodded and headed out of Nanming City. She had agreed to meet Ji Han Zhou outside the city.

“Senior! Senior!”

Just as Yu Zhao was about to leave the city, a delighted voice rang out behind her.

Yu Zhao turned her head, and her brows could not help but knit slightly.

“Senior, it really is you! I thought I had seen wrong!”

Little Red lifted her face, her pair of dark eyes staring up at Yu Zhao, her fingers nervously twisting the hem of her clothes.

In just over two months, the round little face she used to have had grown sharper, and a set of ill fitting clothes hung loosely on her body. She no longer had the lively energy she had back then.

“Little Red?”

Yu Zhao was very surprised. She remembered that when she left, she had given Little Red six High-grade Spirit Stones. By rights, her standard of living should have risen greatly. How had she ended up doing even worse?

“Senior, it is me, I am Little Red! You… you… have you been well lately?” Little Red stammered out her greeting.

“Little Red, is there something you want to say to me?”

After all, Little Red was still young, and all her thoughts were written on her face for anyone to see at a glance.

“I… I…”

Little Red’s face flushed red. Several times she wanted to speak but stopped.

“She is definitely trying to borrow Spirit Stones from you.” Merfolk, hidden at her side, said firmly.

Yu Zhao neither confirmed nor denied it.

In fact, she could also see that Little Red had something she wanted to ask her for help with.

But would Little Red really borrow Spirit Stones from someone she had only met once?

“Senior, the Spirit Stones you gave me before were accidentally lost. I still have three younger brothers to take care of at home, so I have to work three part time jobs every day. Could you lend me some Spirit Stones? When I grow up and can earn more Spirit Stones, I will pay you back.”

After hesitating for a long time, Little Red finally voiced her request to Yu Zhao.

She and her younger brothers had already moved back to the place they used to live. The people who came last time had collapsed their main house, so the four siblings could only squeeze into a narrow side room to sleep.

She herself did not mind, but her younger brothers were so young and already had to suffer so much. It was really too pitiful.

In order to let her younger brothers live a good life, she worked herself to the bone. But the Spirit Stones she earned were always just a drop in the bucket.

Today she had actually run into Senior on the street. She thought maybe Heaven also wanted to help her recover the loss of those six High-grade Spirit Stones.

Senior was not short of money and was kind hearted. She would definitely agree.

“No.”

“Thank you, Senior, thank you so m…”

Little Red’s words of thanks jammed in her throat. She stared at Yu Zhao in shock, as if she could not imagine that Yu Zhao would refuse her so cleanly and decisively.

After refusing, Yu Zhao did not give any explanation. She turned and walked toward the city gate.

Little Red froze for a moment, then anger rose straight to her head. She clenched her fists and rushed forward, spreading her arms to block Yu Zhao’s path and loudly demanded, “Why will you not lend to me? You clearly have so many Spirit Stones!”