But It Was Real

"Gulp—"

At the bottom of the vast Abyssal Ruins, a sound like rolling thunder suddenly rang out. The Abyssal Ruins were enormous, and the sea demons living there were relatively few and scattered, so naturally, no sea demon heard it.

But the merfolk were exceedingly sensitive to this cry. Before long, a merfolk singer arrived and saw the spirit beast that had produced that thunderous sound.

It was a golden toad standing upright atop a high platform.

This platform had been built specifically for rituals. Whenever the Divine Mother issued a decree, the golden toad would descend here.

"Golden Toad Envoy!" the merfolk girl cried out. She immediately began to sing. This was what every merfolk did upon seeing an envoy of the Divine Mother.

The merfolk song was piercing enough to penetrate the clouds and sea. Before long, it drew a great number of sea demons from the Abyssal Ruins here. A gathering unfolded around the golden toad at the center.

Just as the merfolk girl prepared to receive the Divine Mother's decree, she suddenly heard a shout from nearby. "This golden toad is fake!"

The girl turned around and cried, "Princess?"

Indeed, the newcomer was the merfolk princess, Baozhu Lian Ge.

"Just moments ago, the real golden toad arrived at Merfolk Island and told me of how it had been trapped." Princess Lian Ge stepped onto the platform and shouted, "The Abyssal Ruins Divine Cult captured the real golden toad and fabricated this fake one, using it to deliver a false decree of war and send so many of our sea demon kin to their deaths for nothing! This was all the Sea Master's scheme!"

While the sea demon crowd below was still bewildered, a gust of wind rose. Then a gigantic golden toad crashed down from the