"A fish that spoke human language?"
"It was a little silver-white fish, no more than three feet long, with a faint blue glow radiating from its entire body."
Chijin recalled, "It swam here from the deep sea and entered my territory alone, showing no fear whatsoever before hundreds of my kin. It called itself the 'Emissary of the Abyssal Depths.'"
"The Abyssal Depths?"
Questions churned in Li Bufan's mind. "...What is that place?"
Chijin shook its head. "I don't know either, but it said the place lies in the deepest reaches of the Eastern Sea, a bottomless forbidden domain beneath the waves."
"It said its master was a mighty being beneath the Abyssal Depths, suppressed in the depths of the seabed thousands of years ago. Now the seal is weakening, and that mighty being will soon break free. But first, it needs to eliminate several major human strongholds on land that pose the greatest threat to it. Stilltide City is first in the line of fire."
Li Bufan's heart sank.
Chijin continued, "That fish beast said its master could help me reclaim the golden crystal stone vein, even wipe all of Stilltide City from the face of the earth, allowing my kin and me to return to our life beneath the island."
"In exchange, my kin were to provide underground passages and help it establish a foothold beneath Stilltide City. Once the time was ripe, we would strike together from within and without."
"You agreed?"
"Of course. For a hundred years, my kin have been digging passages between the seabed and Stilltide City. Meanwhile, that fish beast brought several treasures from the Abyssal Depths that could temporarily suppress the Sea-Calming Earth-Origin Formation's ability to detect metal-aspected demonic power."
"I thought that in another two or three years, I would be