Though the shell draped in red gauze looked close, it took them nearly an hour to reach it.
Before they had even found their footing, the enormous shell slowly opened.
A blade seemed to flash through Su Jiu's gaze. Whoever was inside had likely noticed their arrival long ago and made preparations.
The man who emerged from the shell was middle-aged and looked refined and upright, hardly a vicious villain. It was difficult to imagine that anyone's disappearance had anything to do with him.
Of all the merfolk she had seen so far, this middle-aged man was easily the most handsome. His bearing was gentle, his features exquisite, and his long, water-blue robe fluttered in the sea breeze. He looked like an immortal who had stepped out of a painting.
Fortunately, Su Jiu had grown up on Ice Veil Peak. Merely looking at her martial uncle's face had built up her immunity, let alone a merman whose looks fell short of his.
Yet the instant the middle-aged man saw Su Jiu, a flash of admiration crossed his eyes.
He lightly straightened his collar, his gaze exceptionally gentle as he looked at Su Jiu. "I had no idea honored guests would be visiting. What brings you here?"
Yun Huanling pursed his lips and transmitted his voice to Su Jiu. "The spiritual qi around him is incredibly dense. His cultivation is probably far above ours. I suggest we act as circumstances dictate. Taking them back by force would be unwise."
Su Jiu was thinking much the same thing. This village struck her as deeply strange. Its merfolk were either villagers without a trace of cultivation or a chief with an extraordinarily high cultivation level. Even she could discern neither the cultivation nor the true form of the merman before her.
For some