Amid the soft murmur of water, the seawater naturally parted.
Chongxuan Minghe, Fourth Master of the Chongxuan Family, one of Qi State's foremost great clans, and the man in charge of Wudong Island, stepped up from the seafloor along stairs of deep-blue current.
Of the four brothers of his generation, only he and his eldest brother remained.
As the youngest, he had been dearly doted upon since childhood.
His eldest brother was the typical wastrel. High-spirited as he was, Chongxuan Minghe had never thought much of him. There was affection, but no respect.
His second brother possessed peerless talent, dazzling and brilliant. Since childhood, he had admired him greatly and regarded him as his goal.
But the brother he had been closest to was still his third brother, Chongxuan Mingshan.
His eldest brother spent every day carousing amid flower streets and willow lanes, while his second brother spent every day cultivating, studying, and practicing martial arts. Neither had much time to keep him company. It was his third brother who had taken him through every street and alley.
Then the family's fortunes declined, their old father donned armor, and his third brother died in the first Qi-Xia War... The clan deeply hated Mingtu, and so did he.
But then his second brother went to sea alone, leaving behind only a Futu Pure Land.
The taste in his heart was beyond words.
Afterward, he left for the overseas lands. Never marrying, never fathering children, never contending for a title. Call it escape or call it remembrance—he never returned to Linzi.
Even when the old master passed away, he had merely paid his respects from afar on Wudong Island, keeping his promise to devote the rest of his life to maritime affairs.
Unlike Chongxuan Chuliang, who had established his own branch, he