An unknown amount of time passed.

BOOM!!!

Xian Mei'er's eyes which had been closed for an undetermined amount of hours or even days opened abruptly as the thunderous sound of an explosion shook the walls of the cave she was resting in.

The first thing the new Queen of the Eastern Sea did was to look around her surroundings, but when she didn't find Xiao Xiao anywhere a bad premonition slowly flooded her heart.

Rumble...!

"Damn it!" She couldn't help but curse as she felt the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cave shake fiercely after being hit by something or someone.

'I'm still not even 70% recovered...' A flash of pain and hatred flashed in Xian Mei'er's eyes as she gritted her teeth and forced herself to get up. A grimace of pain immediately covered her beautiful face but this did not stop her, 'Have no choice.'

The battle against all the kingdoms that were part of the East Sea in the Chinese hinterland was over. Thanks to the efforts and sacrifices that the East Sea Kingdom made, all these kingdoms were now within Xian Mei'er's jurisdiction and the royalty of more than five kingdoms got decimated almost to the roots.

There were two reasons why Xian Mei'er did not dare to order her soldiers to advance and instead ordered everyone to hide and rest in this place.

The first reason was that she was seriously injured. Being the most powerful soul evolver in the allied army and the only one truly capable of facing other Kings, Xian Mei'er could only stop until her body allowed her to move without inconvenience; at the very least she needed to be able to cast magic without feeling difficulty.

As for the second reason...

'We are now at the edge of the Pacific Ocean; only a couple of kilometers away from getting there.' Xian Mei'er muttered as she hurriedly dashed towards the exit of the cave. A thin but long trail of dark blue blood with extremely few flashes of gold covered some of the water wherever she passed but she ignored it to continue her advance: 'If I'm not mistaken and according to the information from the last defeated kingdom, the kingdom that must be attacking this time is the Coral Kingdom... This is going to be a tough fight."

Unlike the kingdoms that Xian Mei'er had defeated in the past three months, the Coral Kingdom was tens or even hundreds of times more powerful in comparison. According to what Xian Mei'er knew about it, the Coral Kingdom was not only not weaker than her East Sea Kingdom but might even be a little stronger than them.

Xian Mei'er gritted her teeth ignoring the pain as she sped towards the exit, 'I hope the Coral Kingdom doesn't have soul evolvers beyond level 200 and into the Fourth Order. Else I'm afraid it will be difficult to survive past today.'

...

The cave was simply too big. Despite being severely injured, the speed at which Xian Mei'er cut through the waters and advanced was still tremendously fast but she still needed several minutes to reach the exit.

Although the sound of explosions and roars of war became heavier and louder for every ten meters she advanced, Xian Mei'er felt as if she was walking into a different world as she exited the cave.

The color of the water had turned almost completely blue over an area of at least two or three kilometers. In addition, broken limbs and incomplete body parts floated everywhere along with metal fragments of what were once magical weapons.At a distance of 600 to 700 meters from the cave, two armies were engaged in an extremely cruel war. Although they all belonged to the same species, they were clearly not part of the same team; swordfish killed each other in the same way that sharks used their mutant teeth and claws to tear apart those of the enemy army without any mercy whatsoever.

Moreover, it was evident that the army trying to defend what was behind them was at a total disadvantage as the attacking army did not stop pressing them back even for a second. It was no exaggeration to say that for every sea warrior of the attacking army that died four or five of the defending army met their creator after being overwhelmed by their numbers.

Xian Mei'er felt a stab of pain upon seeing this. This pain was not forged from seeing the East Sea army being pushed back and on the brink of destruction but was born due to the war between her own kind and blood. Nevertheless, Xian Mei'er's heart soon began to undergo a slight but noticeable change as she remembered something Bai Zemin said to her a long time ago.

'For something new to be born it is necessary for the old occupying that space to disappear.' It was only then that Xian Mei'er realized that while death and destruction were cruel, they were also medicine.

The royalty of all the kingdoms had different thoughts and only cared about themselves. None of them cared about the future of the sea race.

Just when Xian Mei'er felt much more at ease with her actions and her ideals were reaffirmed, a luminous explosion over 2000 meters away sent gusts of subway waves everywhere sending the sea warriors of both armies roaring in pain.

"That's...!" Xian Mei'er's pupils contracted as she saw Xiao Xiao's body in her spirit dolphin form being sent flying backward along with two triton warriors who kept coughing up blood before hitting the seabed hard.

Floating in the water thousands of meters deep, a beautiful silver-haired mermaid with a silver crown covered in multicolored jewels held a spear as white as milk as she gazed with indifferent eyes at the three enemies who had just been knocked down by her alone.

"Shui Meiying!" Xian Mei'er gritted her teeth as she recognized the enemy mermaid.

She was precisely the First Princess of the Coral Kingdom; someone who had been present during Xian Mei'er's coronation when she officially became Queen of the Eastern Sea!

Xian Mei'er could not believe her eyes... This was because the aura exuding from the body of the Coral Kingdom's First Princess was precisely the aura she least wanted to feel; the aura of someone who had broken into the Fourth Order!

"Eh?" As if sensing a pair of eyes different from the others focusing on her from afar, Shui Meiying looked slightly higher. Her eyes seemed to pierce through the blood-covered water and distance with ease to meet Xian Mei'er's deep blue eyes. A faint smile immediately peeked from the corner of her mouth, "Well, I thought you weren't coming out."

Xian Mei'er said nothing. She took a moment to look at Xiao Xiao and the rest of her army, but upon seeing the little pink dolphin's body covered in bloody wounds her expression turned slightly fierce.

Ignoring her wound, as well as the poison that became more ferocious each time she forced the mana in her body to flow, Xian Mei'er tightly gripped her magic sword and dashed forward at the speed of a rocket. She slashed forward at the same time as the blade of her sword flashed, and at the same time as a large stream of blood spurted out from the wound on her abdomen she cried, "Flood Dragon!"

Shui Meiying calmly watched as the waters in front of her swirled fiercely, and in less than two seconds a huge flood dragon over 1000 meters long rushed towards her.

Just when Shui Meiying thought that was all the new Eastern Sea Queen had to offer despite having uttered extremely arrogant words three months ago, Xian Mei'er's voice thundered underwater again.

"Ancient Lightning Armor!"

"Power Booster!"

Shui Meiying's expression changed slightly as she felt the power of the water beast now wrapped in some sort of golden lightning armor. However, she remained calm as she advanced instead of backing away.

"Royal Sentence!" Shui Meiying's voice was as beautiful as Xian Mei'er's but the power behind her stab as she thrust her spear forward was simply overwhelming even compared to the giant flood dragon.

BOOOOOM!!!!

The cave where Xian Mei'er had been hiding while recovering from her injuries finally could not take it anymore and collapsed completely after being hit by a tidal wave caused by the collision of two tremendous attacks. In addition, more than 40.000 sea creatures mainly from the Coral Kingdom were slaughtered without a cemetery.

The flood dragon could only withstand the pressure of Shui Meiying and her attack for a few seconds before letting out a miserable roar just before exploding. Everything within 1500 meters turned into a sea of golden lightning as the armor covering the beast collapsed in the face of such attack power.

Xian Mei'er felt as if her body had been hit by a giant squid as she was sent flying backward with no control of herself. Her mouth involuntarily opened letting out a large gush of blood at the same time as the wound on her abdomen worsened again, thus discarding all the rest she had so far.

"Big sister!"

Xiao Xiao's anxious voice was transmitted directly into Xian Mei'er's mind, and amidst the anxious cries of her two triton bodyguards, as well as the furious roars of her troops, she finally felt as if the bones in her back were about to shatter into pieces after hitting a large rock of over 200 tons.

'Damn it...' Xian Mei'er could feel the world around her spinning. The exhaustion and pain as well as the torment of the poison in her body were dragging her deeper and deeper into the darkness but she knew she couldn't afford to faint at this moment.

"If you had been at your best maybe you could have fought me a little more. I concede that you are very powerful, and it's a pity that you and I have to be enemies but that's what you want after all." Shui Meiying's voice spread far and wide, reaching Xian Mei'er easily, "Yet, enemies are enemies. The winner is the king and the loser is the villain. Regardless of whether you were injured beforehand, I will show no mercy."

Although her vision had blurred to the point where it was difficult to discern what was what, Xian Mei'er could still see a flash of silver light in the distance growing larger and larger. The feeling of danger hit her harder than ever as the waters seemed to turn against her and pressed her harder and harder against the giant rock.

Xiao Xiao's screams and cries were somehow silenced as her consciousness began to fade. Even so, Xian Mei'er couldn't help but sigh in her heart: 'What a shame... Sorry.'

She might not care too much about her life, but Xian Mei'er couldn't help but feel like she failed. Not only could her goal not be achieved, but many more of those who had already died would die because of her weakness; including someone who to her was like a little sister rather than a subordinate.

Just a split second before everything around her turned dark, Xian Mei'er would swear she saw a flash of white light cutting through the waters from a distance. Unfortunately she didn't have the energy to think let alone stay awake any longer.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

"Eh?" Shui Meiying's eyes widened as she saw her spear, which she had thrown a second before, suddenly blocked by what seemed to be a magic arrow.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The arrow was finally shattered into pieces, but the white spear could not advance any further and was instead sent flying backwards into the turbulent waters.

Shui Meiying stretched out her right hand adorned with all kinds of jewels, taking back her spear without moving from her position. Her eyes, however, looked into the darkness in the distance as she could sense someone approaching.

"Human?" Shui Meiying muttered to herself. Her beautiful eyes shone with surprise as she saw the handsome human male holding a bow, "What is a human doing here?"

Xiao Xiao who felt as if her heart was about to break couldn't help but relax a little at the sight of this person's arrival. Although this person was not her big brother whom she loved so much, Xiao Xiao had seen him several times in the past and knew that he was a great figure in the Transcendent faction.

Chen He looked at the bloody mess and couldn't help but wince when he saw Xian Mei'er and Xiao Xiao's condition, 'A hair later and it would have been over for me.'

* * * * * * *

I'm sorry it took me half a month to get back, but it really was hard for me. Leaving aside the fact that I was sick for over a week I was also going through a lot of personal stuff that I'm still dealing with. I wish I could have given you advance notice but, unfortunately, like you, I can't see into the future and know when things will be difficult for me. Thank you for understanding, thank you for your support, thank you for your kind words, and expect daily chapters from now on.