This so-called Xuan Yuan did not take long to appear in front of the group of four.

To no one's surprise, Xuan Yuan was a tall merman of about two meters. Even more surprising, his body was as bulky as a small truck and his muscles gave the impression that a single punch from him was more than enough to tear a hole in the sky.

"Surface creatures?" Xuan Yuan's eyes flashed with a tinge of coldness as his straight pupils swept over the bodies of Bai Zemin and the two human females beside him. Sensing that neither of them was in the Fourth Order, a glint of contempt flashed in his eyes before his gaze settled on the clearly worried Shui Meiying.

"Your Highness Eldest Princess, what is the meaning of this?"

Although Xuan Yuan was using honorifics to address Shui Meiying, his voice was not particularly respectful but sounded judgmental. Bai Zemin could even hear some cruelty; it was as if Shui Meiying's answer would be what would decide the future of the First Princess of the Coral Kingdom.

Shui Meiying took a deep breath and was about to speak when a voice interrupted her.

"Princess, could you tell me if the place we are heading to is near any city?"

Except for Shangguan Bing Xue and Feng Tian Wu who looked indifferent as if the appearance of the powerful triton man was nothing in their eyes, Shui Meiying and Xuan Yuan himself were surprised to see that Bai Zemin actually dared to speak up in such an important moment; even ignoring the existence of a powerful soul evolver whose level was probably above 250 and whose strength could rival the King of the Coral Kingdom.

Suddenly, Xuan Yuan's expression changed. He quickly thought of something after hearing the human male's question and a glint of disbelief flashed in his eyes as he shot a gaze at Shui Meiying: "Shui Meiying, what's the meaning of this?! Are you betraying our Coral Kingdom?!"

Shui Meiying's face paled even more as the aura of her father's right hand covered her in an instant. She knew that the question Bai Zemin had just asked literally exposed their plans.

It was just that Shui Meiying really couldn't understand why a person like Bai Zemin who was clearly very smart and astute would ask such a question at such a critical time like this!

She forced herself to calm down, and with her face still pale she softly answered, "That place is about two kilometers away from the capital city."

At the same time as Bai Zemin nodded after hearing her answer, he also saw how in the middle of the dark ocean the golden pupils of the merman named Xuan Yuan contracted fiercely as Shui Meiying's words floated in the surroundings.

"You dare?!" Xuan Yuan immediately activated a skill as he roared furiously. A blue light bow that seemed to be covered in scales of some kind of creature appeared in his hand and a water arrow swirled on the string, "Shui Meiying, you come with me this very instant! How dare you bring surface dogs into our Coral Kingdom and even want to take them to the forbidden area of our kingdom! The crime of betrayal is too small for you!"Shui Meiying said nothing but looked at Bai Zemin in silence.

She knew that the string had already left the bow so it was impossible to get it back. With her strength, she would definitely not be able to fight Xuan Yuan.

At this point she knew that it would be up to Bai Zemin. If she misjudged him and he turned out to be not that powerful, then Shui Meiying knew that she would most likely not survive beyond today. Although she was a princess highly esteemed for her talent and gifted intelligence, she was more than clear that her family would mercilessly behead her once they knew what she was doing behind their backs.

In reality, Shui Meiying knew that this was a very, very risky gamble. Particularly since she could sense that the human male she had bet on wasn't even a Third Order soul evolver. She was simply trusting her instincts more than anything else, this time even pushing her rationality back.

Just as Shui Meiying paled even more at not only the situation itself but at being branded as a traitor, a voice thick with contempt sounded from beside her.

"Betrayal? In my eyes, the only traitor here is you, old thing."

A flash of brutality glimmered in Xuan Yuan's eyes. His lightning-like gaze swept over Bai Zemin, and in a contemptuous but fury-filled voice, he thundered, "You dare to speak even though you're just such a filthy weak earth creature? You really have balls to dare to plot against the Coral Kingdom!"

"Whether I have balls or not is something only my woman knows, you damn old fart." Bai Zemin waved his hand as if shooing away flies and didn't even look at him.

"Hahahaha!" Xuan Yuan laughed out loud and his bowstring tightened, "I hope your strength is at least half strong as your mouth!"

After saying this, he was about to release the water arrow when he suddenly realized that his fingers had frozen directly on the arrow so he couldn't release it.

"What?!"

Xuan Yuan's voice was filled with disbelief. His eyes widened in shock as he finally realized that something wasn't right, and as he looked at his surroundings his expression became quite shocked.

Four ice chains had silently appeared without anyone noticing. These four ice chains were pinned from one end to four different magic circles while the other end of each chain had coiled like flood dragons around Xuan Yuan's limbs.

'How could this be possible!' Xuan Yuan wanted to roar but the sense of crisis in his heart warned him that his best option at this point was to break the ice chains.

To Xuan Yuan's dismay, while his power was enough to break the ice chains he soon realized that the ice mage who was restraining him was clearly using the mana-filled water to repair the cracks he opened in the chains.

"You're just a little insect but you dare to speak to him with that tone?"

Xuan Yuan suddenly looked up and his eyes immediately focused on the fire-red-haired human female who looked at him with pure undisguised disdain.

Feng Tian Wu raised her small white hand and her fingers spread as she said in a cold voice, "Ignorance sure is bliss for frogs in a pit like you."

A crimson-colored magic circle with golden runes glowed beneath Xuan Yuan's body. The ocean itself for over 1000 meters around immediately overheated as if a volcano was about to explode and from a distance any sea creature looking in that direction could see a small burning sun amidst the blinding darkness of the depths.

Xuan Yuan didn't even have time to scream when a four-meter-high whirlwind of flames engulfed him. The whirlwind of fire burned even underwater and seemed to ignore the pressure of being more than 10 kilometers deep, spinning at astonishing speeds and evaporating all the water within half a kilometer.

Except for the ice chains, the surrounding water disappeared in a flash and what replaced it was extremely hot steam. Approximately 40 seconds later, however, the four ice chains finally melted in half and hung helplessly in front of the fierce power of the fire whirlwind.

From inside the water bubble formed by the gravitational power under Bai Zemin's control, Shui Meiying watched in shock at the whirling fire tornado beyond the hot steam.

Although she knew that these two human women together with Bai Zemin were certainly powerful, Shui Meiying did not expect them to be so powerful. Shangguan Bing Xue was still fine since she was currently a level 200 soul evolver even if she hadn't broken through that barrier... But Shui Meiying could tell that the red-haired woman clearly hadn't reached level 200 yet!

Shui Meiying looked at Feng Tian Wu with a surprised expression on her face.

About a minute later, Feng Tian Wu waved her hand and the fire whirlwind disappeared without a trace.

pàπdá-ňᴏνêι.ｃóΜ Bai Zemin noticed that beyond the hot vapor there was nothing left of the triton man who until a minute ago roared and spoke arrogantly. Not even a scale was left behind as Feng Tian Wu's flame swallowed him whole.

He looked at Feng Tian Wu and seeing that she seemed to be covertly looking at him out of the corner of her eye he didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he understood what was going on.

Was she a little girl looking for her father's approval or something?

Yet, Bai Zemin praised her softly which made the girl nod seemingly indifferent.

Small explosions echoed underwater as the ocean moved to cover the empty gap and the contact of the hot steam with the cold water shook the area quite fiercely once the fire whirlwind disappeared.

Shangguan Bing Xue reached out and retrieved the skill scroll that fell with Xuan Yuan's death. She didn't even look at it and directly put it away in her storage ring so that they could look at it later since time was pressing.

"Let's go." Bai Zemin snapped Shui Meiying out of her shock as he said in a serious voice, "We need to hurry. I'm afraid your father will soon notice the death of this subordinate of his and things won't be as smooth as we would like then."

* * * * * * *action

Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3