Within the fragrant cloud spreading for miles, beautiful Merfolk men and women in jeweled hair ornaments and splendid robes rode rolling waves, holding colorful caskets.
Several thousand tall aquatic warriors held spears and halberds, clad in water-rhinoceros armor and phoenix-wing helmets. Their ranks were imposing, their brilliant radiance soaring into the sky.
Among them were some with beastlike bodies and others with birdlike beaks, their forms bizarre and varied. They made no deliberate effort to assume flawless human shapes.
Their awe-inspiring might, their drifting murderous aura-
Their imposing presence shook the wilds. It was an impressive spectacle indeed!
Yet Chen Heng's gaze rested on a short old man seated upright in a carriage beneath a gauze canopy, a purple-gold jade token hanging at his waist.
The old man made no attempt to conceal his unusual features, allowing anyone to recognize him at a glance as a spirit of the Demon Race. His forehead was bright and full, and his long beard drifted down to his knees, nearly touching the ground.
His back was slightly hunched beneath a large turtle shell, giving him a rather comical appearance that made it hard to suppress a smile.
"..."
Chen Heng's gaze lingered briefly on that turtle shell before shifting away without betraying anything, though inwardly he marveled.
Because he practiced the divination art known as the Zhouyuan Secret Manual of Turtle Divination.
He was not entirely ignorant of the quality of tortoiseshells and possessed some understanding of them.
The old man's shell was a lustrous yellowish white, neither dull nor dark. Its color outshone colored glaze, its radiance rivaled gold and jade; he was clearly a true spirit turtle.
But aside from color, tortoiseshell quality was further divided into four grades: king, marquis, general, and judge.
Near the head beneath the shell, two