Underwater Ruins

The moment Lu Changsheng walked out of the forbidden gorge, the gray-blue mist closed again, like a silent giant maw swallowing that jade plaza back into endless gloom. He threaded step by step through the jagged reefs, his back drawn long and lonely in the faint flicker of phosphorescence beneath the sea.

Though the matter had been forcibly suppressed by Patriarch Xuan Ming, the uproar over "a human trespassing in the forbidden ground" had already spread rapidly through the Spirit Trout Race like an undercurrent. Between the corridors of the Crystal Palace and along the coral streets, Spirit Trout tribesmen could be seen everywhere in groups of three or five, heads together, whispering among themselves. The half-human, half-fish maids, the guards clad in scale armor, even a number of commanders who held considerable status in the race—all of them looked toward the temporary human quarters with thick vigilance and rejection in their eyes.

"Humans really can't be trusted! They'd only been living in the palace for a few days, and they already dared set their sights on the forbidden ground!"

"Hmph, if the little princess hadn't pleaded for them, how could the patriarch have let them live until today? If you ask me, that human brat should have been torn apart on the spot and fed to the fish!"

"I heard he offered a divine weapon in apology, and only then did the patriarch spare him... But the forbidden ground is where our race's ancestor slumbers. How could one weapon make up for that?"

All kinds of criticism bred in every corner of the palace like maggots clinging to bone. There were even two fiery-tempered elders of the race who jointly submitted a petition, demanding that Patriarch Xuan Ming abolish the protection granted to the humans and expel Lu Changsheng's