Fu Mingxu thought to himself: This feels just like being blown by a strong wind.
To stabilize himself, he unceremoniously wrapped his fish tail around one of Han Tao's thighs.
When the sea monster got closer, Fu Mingxu was able to see its full appearance.
This is a sea beast recorded in the "Records of the Azure Spirits", named Dragon Whale. It is one of the few ancient monsters that contains a trace of dragon blood.
Fu Mingxu looked at the creature in front of him, its back was jet black, its belly snow white, its oval flippers gliding in the seawater, its massive body trailing an exceptionally long and thin tail, and its rounded head, which gave it a rare kind of naivety among monsters.
It's hard to imagine how the dragon whale's ancestors came to have a romantic relationship with a certain dragon clan.
In the "Records of the Azure Spirits," dragon whales dwell in the deep sea. Because they are intelligent enough to cultivate, they do not need to surface to breathe. They are enormous in size but timid, and are easily bullied by other deep-sea monsters when they are young.
Therefore, most of the time, they stay around their gregarious nests.
“Your distant relative has arrived.” Fu Mingxu nudged his elbow, glancing at the dragon whale hovering not far from them. “Is it here to see you?”
This dragon whale is very timid; it's impossible for it to follow us without a reason.
It must have noticed that the two people had seen it. The oval flipper twitched twice, and the dragon whale swam forward a little further. Then it opened its mouth, and a blood coral fell out.
Fu Mingxu immediately recognized that the fallen coral was the largest one in the blood coral cluster.
The dragon whale's flippers pressed against the branches of the blood coral, deliberately pushing them forward.
Well, they must want something from me.
"Does it want our help?" Fu Mingxu looked at the generous gift in front of him and suddenly became interested in the dragon whale. "Anyway, it's still early. Why don't we ask it what it needs?"
Han Tao glanced at him, his gaze sweeping over the blood coral before returning to his own, and asked, "Aren't you in a hurry to go back and refine pills?"
The feeling of his thigh being entangled by a fish tail was chilling. The tail would unconsciously flick against his clothes with the movement of the water, forcing him to pay more attention.
The dragon whale on the other side understood their conversation and realized that he didn't intend to help. It hurriedly pushed the blood coral forward with its flippers, and the resulting water flow brought it to a stop right in front of Fu Mingxu.
“That pill isn’t difficult to make; I can refine it quickly.” He somehow sensed the anxiety in the dragon whale’s large head, and a thought crossed his mind. “We can ask what it is; if all else fails, then forget it.”
Han Tao pondered for a moment, then nodded with his chin.
Seeing that he agreed, Fu Mingxu was overjoyed and quickly urged him, "You are related by blood, you ask him."
“We can’t communicate. The deep-sea monsters have their own language system. Even the merfolk only learned the language of the mainland later.” Han Tao shook his head upon hearing this, his gaze lingering on the fish tail, and said calmly, “You are a merfolk now, you can try to communicate with it.”
Seemingly afraid that he would raise doubts about "blood ties" again, he said directly: "According to blood ties, we are distant relatives separated by time."
His words were a bit convoluted, but Fu Mingxu understood them quickly.
Oh, he can't, but I can.
Fu Mingxu didn't ask Han Tao how to do it. He first flicked his tail, and then the dragon whale's round eyes flashed with doubt, but it still followed his movements and flicked its tail.
He opened his mouth and cleared his throat with "ah ah ah," only to find embarrassingly that he didn't have the native language system of the merfolk at all.
The dragon whale opposite heard this and opened and closed its huge mouth as well.
Unfortunately, the man and the whale did not communicate verbally because of this action; instead, they looked like two mentally challenged people from different species.
"Use your divine sense." Han Tao, who had been unintentionally flung several times by the fish tail, finally couldn't stand it anymore and gave him an excuse, "You haven't become a true merman yet, so you can only communicate with it using your divine sense."
Realizing how stupid he had been, Fu Mingxu's face flushed rapidly. He choked back a sob and said, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"
When Han Tao met those slightly angry eyes, he subconsciously swallowed the words "I thought you knew."
After trying for half an hour, Fu Mingxu finally connected with the dragon whale through his divine sense. Fearing that Han Tao would be anxious because he couldn't understand, he specially opened his divine sense to him.
So he began to converse with the dragon whale as if no one else was around, and Han Tao naturally understood what they were saying.
Although the dragon whale was timid, it had excellent storytelling abilities, and Fu Mingxu quickly understood what it was seeking help for.
The sequence of events is not complicated. This dragon whale's family has a total of eight members. One day, a group of men in black suddenly appeared and captured seven of them. When the little eight, who was playing outside, returned, only he was left in the entire family.
Everything that happened in the nest was unintentionally recorded by the photo stone it used to record its life. At the last moment, its family conveyed a message to save its life. It was timid to begin with, and in its grief, it hurriedly took the photo stone and then hid in the blood coral bush, too afraid to go out.
A month ago, it sensed that its family members were dying, and in an extremely painful way.
Now, only its brother Xiaoqi is still alive.
"How did you come to us?" Fu Mingxu didn't take the largest blood coral, his tone somewhat suspicious. "We scared you away before."
The little eight dragon whale's divine sense transmitted over: "He is very strong, and he is a dragon."
“I sense that Xiao Qi is among the Merfolk.” Xiao Ba looked at him with her round eyes. “Although you are a Merfolk, you are not entirely one; you also have dragon energy within you.”
"You two are a couple."
Fu Mingxu didn't expect that although the little dragon whale was timid and looked simple-minded, it actually had sharp eyesight.
"I can help." A hint of pleasure flashed in Han Tao's eyes as he turned to look at Fu Mingxu. "What do you think?"
Fu Mingxu frowned slightly, but instead of directly refusing, he said, "I feel like your agreement came a little suddenly."
Han Tao said confidently, "We're relatives from afar, so we'll help if we can."
Fu Mingxu glanced at him suspiciously, then met the expectant look in the round eyes of the orca Xiao Ba. Recalling the latter part of the description of the dragon whale clan in "The Record of the Living Spirits", his heart softened and he nodded in agreement.
Dragon Whale Xiao Ba happily circled around the two of them several times, making Fu Mingxu dizzy before he could barely express his joy and gratitude.
The two watched the dragon whale Xiao Ba depart. The largest blood coral lay in front of Fu Mingxu. He thought for a moment and put it into the Heaven and Earth Mystic Mirror. He sighed and said, "I think I know where the fake merman king's skin came from, and the origin of those lamps."
Han Tao met his gaze, his expression unchanged, and said, "We took away the fake Merman King's skin. He will definitely need a new skin if he wants to appear in front of everyone."
"As long as we follow him, we will definitely find the dragon whale that is still alive."
Fu Mingxu immediately understood, grabbed his hand, and said urgently, "Quick, go save your distant relative."
Upon hearing this, Han Tao twitched the corner of his mouth and led him back to the Floating City.
...
The two returned by sheer coincidence. Meng Lian had been searching for them in a sweat, and they happened to run into each other as soon as he left the palace.
Fu Mingxu immediately found his persona, leaning softly against Han Tao, his voice as if it contained water: "City Lord, I want to go see the glowing jellyfish again next time."
So the two of them went on a date?
Meng Lian's gaze swept over Fu Mingxu's delicate eyebrows and eyes, then turned to him as he instinctively hooked his fish tail around Han Tao's calf. She felt glad that she had given him a mermaid pill back then.
"What is it?" Han Tao lowered her eyes, her gaze filled with tenderness, but when she met his gaze, she appeared indifferent and aloof.
Meng Lian was startled by that cold and fierce gaze. The deep blue scales at her temples trembled, and it took her a long time to find her voice: "Where is our king looking for you two?"
Could it be that the fake Merman King has already acquired a new appearance? Fu Mingxu's heart skipped a beat, thinking that they had arrived too late and that the Dragon Whale Xiao Qi had already met with a terrible fate.
Han Tao, unaware of his inner worries, didn't even lift his eyelids: "Tell your king that we are currently unavailable."
"Huh?" Meng Lian had prepared many excuses, but she never expected Han Tao to refuse directly, and she was caught off guard.
He was only half a step slower, and by the time he came to his senses, the two of them had already disappeared from the spot, and a golden light landed in the Luoguang Palace.
"That dragon whale is still here." Han Tao set up a defensive array for him, his voice deep. "You refine the pills first, I'll go rescue that dragon whale."
Upon hearing this, Fu Mingxu felt relieved, assuming that he had a blood connection with the "distant relative." He nodded and simply said, "Be careful in everything."
He always carried the Fire Furnace with him, and the Dragon Flame in his dantian was also there. All the materials were ready, so refining the Shark-Breaking Pill was a natural outcome.
He spent only an hour refining the blood coral, along with other spiritual herbs, into pills. Then, he calmly left the Falling Light Palace and handed them to Zhang Anran.
After doing all this, he didn't wander off, but returned to the Luoguang Palace.
A white pill wrapped in red rolled in his palm. Just as Fu Mingxu was about to swallow it, he inexplicably thought of the legend of the ancient mermaids.
Beautiful and fierce, with immense strength, she was once the overlord of the abyss.
At that moment, he hesitated, staring at the pill in his palm.
A note from the author:
Xiao Ba: One sentence will get the dragon to help me. (You two are a couple.)
Fu Mingxu: He really is a warm-hearted dragon.
Chapter 74
Fu Mingxu frowned and stared at the pill in his hand for a long time. His lips were slightly pursed, and his expression was quite complicated.
Ancient mermaids...
He does need powerful attack capabilities right now, but transforming into a merman would definitely affect the inheritance in his bloodline.
Although he didn't know what the impact would be, compared to his deep love for alchemy and medicine making, the powerful attack of the ancient merfolk was nothing to worry about.
Thinking of this, he stopped hesitating, but he didn't immediately take the Shark-Breaking Pill. Instead, he used his chaotic energy to divide the pill in his hand in two, took one half along with the other pills, and then smiled.
This way, she can ensure that she is not transformed into a merman, and can continue to maintain her merman form so that the mermen will not notice her.
Inside the Luoguang Palace, the palace lanterns flickered. He sat alone on the bed, his azure tail shimmering with a hazy light as he flicked it.
The chaotic energy circulated throughout his body, and the effects of the half-eaten Shark Pill were fully realized.
Fu Mingxu waited for an hour before Zhang Anran finally delivered the news that the pills had been delivered to the humans or demons who had been transformed into merfolk.
"Okay, you don't need to worry about the rest. Just pretend you didn't do anything," he instructed, then ended the communication with Zhang Anran.
To convince the newly born merfolk, he deliberately added a Gu-breaking herb to the pill. This herb does not affect the formation or effect of the Gu-breaking pill, but it can make those who come into contact with the pill clear-headed and make more accurate judgments.
With the situation unclear, this was all he could do.
Just fifteen minutes after he ended his communication with Zhang Anran, a commotion arose outside Luoguang Palace, and there was a knocking sound coming from outside the closed palace door.
"Meng Xu, the king is looking for you." It was the voice of a merman serving outside.
Fu Mingxu's heart tightened suddenly. He stood up, knowing that the fact that the two had returned to the palace earlier could no longer be hidden. He took a few steps slowly, opened the palace door, and asked the merman outside the door curiously, "Is the King looking for me?"
Even though he had seen her before, Mengxin was still struck by her beautiful face.
Seeing Fu Mingxu's confused look, his tone softened considerably: "Yes, come with me now."
Fu Mingxu did not refuse. He stepped out of the palace without hesitation, while his mind was quickly recalling the events of the past two days.
The one who summoned him was definitely not the real Merman King.
It's unclear whether he became suspicious because of the fake merman king's lost skin, or because the two of them went to find the blood coral earlier.
Or perhaps, the matter of the broken Shark Pill has been leaked?