Chapter 83: The Fish in the Northern Sea (Part 1)

  The morning glow was like water, pouring in from the only small window in the house, sprinkling on the figure sitting upright beside the table. The sword box on the table was open, revealing several shining swords inside, and the watery morning glow flowed from the tip of the sword to the body of the sword, reflecting a dazzling light that made it hard for people to look directly at it.

  However, what was even more unbearable to look at was the person beside the table. Shen Bailian stared blankly, feeling that opening her eyes to such a scene was really hard to bear.

  The warm morning light was like silk and mist, gently covering the straight back that faced away from itself. Countless bright spots were lively jumping around in the room, lingering among the thousands of strands of hair that had been tied up, and even on the snow-white shirt, a layer of faint white light was reflected, as if it were radiating from within. In the quietness, there was only the soft sound of wiping the sword blade with a cloth. Under the dim light, the person's occasionally slightly tilted cheek seemed to be chiseled like a knife or an axe. Even without seeing his face, Shen Bailian could imagine the appearance of those cold and detached phoenix eyes filled with concentration at this moment, which was probably more moving than anything else...

  He was lost in thought, but the person holding a sword with their head bowed in the soft light seemed to have suddenly realized something. Shen Baiying only saw the blue and white sleeves lightly tremble, and then a pair of clear autumn water-like eyes met hers...

  It's really breathtakingly beautiful...

  He couldn't help but praise, until he noticed the slight discomfort on the person's face and was slightly stunned, realizing that he had spoken out of turn, making the young man somewhat embarrassed.

  "...now that you're awake, why aren't you saying anything?"

  As if to ease the awkwardness, Murong Ziyin coughed lightly and said with a faint expression.

  "I didn't want to disturb you, seeing how focused you were on cultivating your sword." Shen Bailian smiled slightly as she sat up with the quilt, her long hair scattered randomly over her shoulders and back. She simply reached out to grab her outer garment and put it on, "I didn't expect you to get up so early, Young Master."

  For a long time, the person opposite still didn't respond. When Shen Bailian turned around to look, she was taken aback. Murong Ziyin held a sword in one hand and a soft cloth in the other, but her hand stopped at the blade's edge, motionless, as if frozen. Only her cold eyes stared fixedly at this side, unable to discern any joy or anger. Following her gaze downward to her own body, she saw that it was a large expanse of white skin like jade, with delicate and fine-grained chest muscles...

  Shen Bailian suddenly came to, hastily closing the scattered collar of her sleepwear. Even glancing at the young man's face made her feel a bit embarrassed. She quickly put on her outer robe, tied her belt, and tidied herself up, feeling that she no longer had any disheveled appearance. Only then did she muster the courage to lift her eyes, but unexpectedly caught sight of Murong Ziyin already looking away, his gaze fixed on a corner of the room. The two ears visible through his hair, however, were unable to conceal a hint of pinkness. It seemed that this young man was even more embarrassed than herself, and Shen Bailian's mouth involuntarily curved upwards, her heart's shame dissipating by seven or eight parts.

  "Murong Shaoxia." As soon as he spoke, Murong Ziyin's gaze turned to him, but this time it was fixed on his face and eyes, not willing to move down at all. Shen Baiying forced down the corners of her lips and smiled: "Yesterday, in the chaos, I forgot to ask, I heard that the Qionghua Sect is far away in the northwest Kunlun, I don't know why you traveled thousands of miles across the ocean for what great matter?"

  "It's not a big deal anyway." After a moment, a clear and cold voice came from the opposite side, "It was just an accidental browsing of the notes left by my predecessors, I learned that in the far north there is a dark sea, where thousands of years of cold iron are hidden, which is an excellent material for refining and casting sword equipment, so I'm excited to hunt."

  "So that's how it is." Shen Bailian secretly sighed in admiration, indeed worthy of being a disciple of Zong Lianmen, even the obsession with sword casting was exactly the same as his own Shifu. Thinking that this young man was also going to Minghai, he couldn't help but have some intention to take care of him, so Shen Bailian invited him, "I don't dare to hide it from you, actually I'm looking for a certain adept who lives near Minghai. Since our routes are similar, why not travel together? What do you think, young hero?"

  Murong Ziyin hesitated for a moment, then responded after a brief pause. After a while, he added: "You can just call me Murong Ziyin, I don't dare to be called 'young hero'."

  Facing the young man's gaze which seemed gentler than before, Shen Bailian smiled slightly: "Obedience is better than respect."

  The fleet sailed out of Qinglong Town for nearly half a month, and along the way, they experienced several storms. Shen Bailian witnessed the power of nature's creation and felt that he had made a wise decision in not sailing alone with his sword. The ocean was vast and endless, and as they headed north, there were fewer islands, but more floating ice on the surface, and the wind blowing towards them grew colder. Shen Bailian and Murong Ziyin saw this with their own eyes and knew in their hearts that the day of parting with this sea ship was approaching.

  As expected, on that day, the sea ship stopped at the edge of a large island half-covered in ice and snow. A man came to Shen Baiyun and Murong Ziyin's residence and said: "Brother Shen, Young Master Murong, our ship has arrived here and doesn't plan to go any further north. I advise you not to go any further north either. I've heard that there's nothing but ice and snow in that direction, and at night it can freeze your teeth off. Brother Shen looks so frail, I'm afraid he won't be able to withstand it."

  Shen Bailian shook his head and smiled, "Brother Xiang, there's no need to say more, my mind is made up. I've troubled you for this journey, thank you in advance." He bowed with a cupped fist.

  Qing waved his hand: "We're all brothers, and it's on the way anyway, thanks!" He paused for a moment and said, "Forget it, you want to go, I can't stop you. This ship still needs to replenish supplies on this island and buy some local goods to transport away, so we'll wait a few more days for you. However, if you haven't returned after five days, we'll set off first."

  Shen Bailian was even more surprised, although he had known that Xiang Qing was a straightforward person, but he didn't expect him to go this far for two people who had just met, it was truly rare, and he thanked him again and again.

  After bidding farewell to Xiang Qing and others, Shen Bailian and Murong Ziyin immediately rode their swords northward. Along the way, it was indeed as Xiang Qing said that there were countless large and small floating icebergs on the sea surface, and the sea wind in the high sky was even more biting like a knife, cutting the face very painfully. After traveling for about half a day, the wind suddenly subsided, and Shen Bailian finally felt relieved, but after flying forward for only a short while, he felt something was wrong. According to reason, the farther north they went, the colder it should be, and the sea wind should be even more violent, but when they arrived here, it turned out to be the opposite, not only did the wind stop, but also the waves below became calm, and for a while, there was no sign of any ripples.

  "There's something strange here." Murong Ziyin looked around and said, pausing for a moment before pointing forward, his voice filled with surprise, "That is..."

  Shen Bailian followed his gaze and was also shocked at once.

  All that can be seen is the end of the sea, which is a grayish line. Although there is no wind, a dark and mysterious patch of water can be faintly seen, which is quite different from the usual blue color of the waves. The contrast with the white sky above the sea is even more striking, making it look very oppressive and eerie.

  Shen Bailian's feet were still moving, and the sword under her feet was still in motion. As she moved forward, Muyong Ziyin naturally didn't fall behind. In an instant, that patch of dark ink arrived before their eyes. Upon closer inspection, this sea area appeared even more astonishing. The surface of the sea within a radius of hundreds of miles was as black as ink, and although there was no wind, it seemed to be boiling and churning ceaselessly. What's more, this vast expanse of waves seemed to be guided by an unknown force, moving in unison towards the center of the dark sea without pause. The waves that rose up were over a hundred feet high, like a flexible yet indestructible city wall surrounding the very center of this sea area.

  Shen Bailian's heart was filled with wonder, and she couldn't help but lower the Spring Water Sword at her feet slightly. Who would have thought that a blast of cold air would suddenly strike her face? Although this ink-black sea had neither wind nor floating ice, it was several times colder than the previous seas.

  He was astonished, and suddenly heard a clear and cold voice beside him: "I once read 'Journey to the West', which says that five thousand miles northeast of the East China Sea, there is a circular sea, with ink-black water, called the Dark Sea..." It was Murong Ziying who had also descended.

  "'No wind, yet waves a hundred feet high, impossible to come and go'... The ancients did not deceive me." Murong Ziyin said this, naturally evoking Shen Baiyun's memories of his youth. He murmured the texts he had read before, gazing at the magnificent scene in front of him, his eyes filled with emotion.

  Murong Ziyin looked around, her brow furrowing: "This place is quite large, but there's no place to land. The person you're looking for won't be like a thousand-year-old cold iron at the bottom of the sea, will they?"

  Shen Bailian was taken aback, the Mr. Kun she had been searching for was indeed living in the depths of the Underworld Sea, where fish lived on land? However, this conversation couldn't be told to Murong Ziyin truthfully, as he had spent some time with the young man and naturally knew about the deep-seated prejudice against demons in his mind. So, she evaded the topic for now and secretly thought of how to reason with him.

  Just as they were in a difficult situation, the surface of the sea below suddenly transmitted a loud and chaotic noise. Amidst the splashing sounds, several waves had already risen high and were rushing towards them.

  Murong Ziyin didn't have time to listen to Shen Bailian's explanation, and the two of them were busy dodging the waves that kept rising up, unknowingly drifting further and further apart.

  Shen Bailian raised her head, only to find that Murong Ziyin had flown to the opposite side of her, separated by several waves. The blue and white figure was still standing upright on the sword, occasionally waving its sleeves to disperse the surrounding seawater with a flash of lightning. Although she couldn't see his expression clearly, his posture seemed calm and unharmed.

  He secretly let out a sigh of relief and lowered his head to look at the seawater, suddenly opening his eyes wide.

  The surging seawater suddenly parted to both sides, and in the rolling ink-blackness, points of bright blue light flickered, those points of bright blue gradually gathered more and more, becoming clearer. Shen Bailian only then saw that something at the bottom of the sea was rapidly approaching the surface. Suddenly, a loud splashing sound was heard, followed by the emergence of a fan-shaped bright blue fish tail!

  That fish tail was thousands of times larger than ordinary sea fish, bringing with it a sharp whistling wind and waves of cold air, which surged towards Shen Baiying with great momentum. The splashing water droplets in the air instantly froze into ice beads as soon as they touched the fish tail, pattering down into the dark black seawater.

  Shen Bailian only felt that the fish tail had not yet reached him, and the cold air rushing towards him was about to scrape off a layer of skin from his face. How could he dare to resist directly with his body? He hastily grasped the hand seal and pulled it to the side, and the Spring Water Sword let out a clear hum as it carried him in a spinning motion, lightly flashing to one side.

  "You demon, how dare you commit evil here!"

  On the other side, Murong Ziyin naturally saw Shen Bailian's predicament clearly. With a stern expression, she flipped out a white palm from her flying sleeve, with her palm facing upwards and five fingers slightly curved in a virtual grasp, and began to recite an incantation in a low voice from afar.

  In an instant, the sky turned dark and gloomy, with grey clouds gathering and pressing down lower and lower, as if they were about to merge with the surging waves. Gradually, a rumbling sound began to emanate from within the clouds, and suddenly, flashes of lightning illuminated the sky one, two, three times. Several bolts of purple lightning darted back and forth through the clouds like snakes, gradually entwining together. Suddenly, a loud explosion shook the air, and several intertwined bolts of purple lightning shot straight down from the clouds towards the surface of the sea, landing squarely on Murong Ziyu's body.

  "Violet!"

  Shen Bailian was shocked and just about to rush up, but saw the young man in the electric light gently shaking his head at him.

  Murong Ziyin was shrouded in a layer of purple light, with a few more ferocious glints between his eyebrows and eyes. His usually cold and stern face now looked even more menacing. His gaze shot out like lightning, coldly piercing the turquoise giant fish that was still churning up waves in the sea water. "Monster, accept your death!" he said icily, his fingers already pointing like a sword at it.

  In an instant, a huge purple lightning bolt, accompanied by a loud crackling sound, split down into the sea.