Chapter 174: Reunion

Chapter 174: Chapter 174: Reunion

Jeremy initially thought this war erupted because he assassinated two Ice Dragon royal family members right on the night of the birthday celebration.

But after looking into it, he discovered it originated from something with a much longer history.

A ten-thousand-year covenant between the two races.

Whenever the deadline arrived, the two sides would have a decisive battle. The losing side would become slaves, puppets — and exactly according to the agreement, would become a source of nutrition for the winning side.

And the winning side would become the true overlord of this sea area.

His assassination merely accelerated it by a few days.

Standing from the stance of the Mermaid faction, Jeremy naturally wished for the Mermaids to win.

But if this was an illusion reconstructed from a scene in the past, then the ending had already been predetermined billions of years ago. Him interfering wouldn’t change anything.

And looking at the current state of the Wasteland out there — a murky gray sea area, a palace with only a headless statue remaining — that ending was perhaps not pleasant at all. For both sides.

Weighing the options back and forth, Jeremy decided: find Leon first, then adapt to the situation before considering intervention.

Fortunately, on the third day, he found him.

Or more accurately, they found each other — Leon was also groping along the boundary line to look for them.

Leon’s identity in the illusion this time was not a Mermaid, nor an Ice Dragon.

But a half-blood bearing the bloodline of both the Celestial race and the Mermaid race.

Behind his back was a pair of white wings — but only one side had full feathers, the other side was sparse, exposing even the wing bones. On his neck and arms were emerald green scales.

A body that neither bloodline fully accepted.

Although his totem task wasn’t to complete the coming-of-age ceremony of the Mermaid race, the core objective was exactly identical: hunt the Ice Dragon royal family.

When Jeremy and Evelyn found him, Leon was lying face down on a reef at the edge of the territorial waters, his entire body severely injured.

The sparsely feathered wing was broken in one section. The chest of his shirt was torn open, beneath it were three deep claw marks running diagonally from shoulder to ribs.

The two brought him back to the Mermaid royal palace for treatment.

Waiting until he woke up, they finally learned the cause: he was discovered while assassinating an Ice Dragon royal family member.

Although he ultimately succeeded in the assassination, he was also beaten black and blue by a mob of dragonkin on his retreat.

Furthermore, according to Leon’s account, he had also bumped into Phoenix and Lucius.

The reason for his severe injuries was also because there were acquaintances in the enemy camp, causing him to relax his vigilance for exactly one beat.

Exactly one beat was enough.

Regarding this experience, Jeremy felt extremely familiar with it. So familiar he couldn’t even be bothered to comment.

After exchanging information with him about what happened these past few days, he discovered another thing: not only him, but even Leon was occasionally interfered with by an unknown power in his consciousness.

There was a time when he intended to retreat, but his hand automatically drew his sword. Another time he wanted to ask a question, but his mouth said a different sentence.

And Evelyn, based on the accounts of the two, sat down to review her mood over the past few days.

Only then did she realize: she herself had also been controlled. Just that every time she felt a strange thought intrude her mind, she suppressed it out of habit, to the point that afterward she couldn’t feel anything anymore.

Having listened, Leon was silent for a moment before analyzing:

"If all three of us are being controlled, then Phoenix and Lucius are probably real too. It’s just that their personal consciousness has been completely swallowed by this unknown thing."

Jeremy could currently be certain Evelyn and Leon were not illusions.

But if those two were also real, then how to dispel that bizarre state?

He posed that question directly.

Leon also felt a headache. He rested his arm on his forehead, looking at the palace ceiling: "We can only take it one step at a time. Back when I was in Ice Dragon territory, I once saw a spatial rift — right in the middle of the sky, about two meters long, staying there for about half an hour before closing. Probably due to the power sustaining the illusion no longer being stable. This wretched place collapsing is only a matter of time."

That sentence could also be considered a dose of tranquilizer.

But Evelyn’s thoughts were more comprehensive:

"If being swept in here is exactly the ruin’s trial, then after failing, not only do we lose destiny with the treasure, but very likely we also have to bear the consequences of failing."

The three were silent for a beat.

That "consequence", in the ancient tome records, was written very succinctly: wiping memories clean, forever unable to return.

But no one in the room believed this illusion would only stop at that level.

Leon shrugged: "There’s no other way. Right now, we don’t even know what the content of the trial is. For now, we can only cling to the totem task and do it. Anyway, it also solved the mystery that has been tailing us for half a year..."

Leon hadn’t even finished his sentence when the sound of a knock abruptly rang out outside the door.

The three stopped their conversation.

Jeremy stood up and went to open the door. Evelyn and Leon followed right behind, a step away.

The newcomer was Lorelin — the Mermaid maid he had interacted with right on the first day he woke up here.

Jeremy had once instructed not to come bother him if there was nothing. Now she suddenly appeared, there was definitely a matter.

"What is it?"

Lorelin’s gaze cautiously glanced towards Leon, then looked back down at the floor. She didn’t say anything, but her meaning was too clear.

Jeremy understood: "He’s family. Just speak directly."

Hearing this, Lorelin still hesitated for another two seconds before reporting:

"His Majesty ordered me to invite the two Highnesses to the underground palace. The other Highnesses have all arrived."

Suddenly holding a family meeting?

The three looked at each other.

Jeremy spoke first: "Understood. We’ll be right there. You may step down first."

Lorelin nodded, curtsied, and left the palace, standing waiting at the main gate.

Jeremy had been in this royal palace for nearly a month, but had never once met the leader of the Mermaid race.

Even during the send-off ceremony for him to go undergo his coming-of-age ceremony, the person who appeared was merely a high minister.

Furthermore, rumor had it the underground palace of the Mermaid race was very rarely opened. Now that leader suddenly summoned all his children, it was likely related to the great war with the Ice Dragons.

Jeremy looked at Leon: "You rest here first. After handling it, we’ll come back."

"Alright." Leon dragged himself to the long chair, collapsing onto it, his left wing hanging down the edge of the chair. "If there’s an anomaly, send a signal."

"Alright."

After separating from Leon, Jeremy and Evelyn followed Lorelin into the underground palace.

The path was not short at all. They passed through seven teleportation magic arrays consecutively, every time they stepped out it was another stone corridor, deeper and colder each time.

Reaching the final magic array, Lorelin stopped, not going further.

She stepped aside, making a gesture of invitation: "Reporting to the two Highnesses, from here onwards only royal bloodlines are permitted to enter. The blood of you two is the key to open the door. I request to step down first." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Jeremy nodded to signal.

Waiting until Lorelin disappeared from sight, he finally looked up at the tightly shut door about ten steps away.

It was carved from a solid block of Black Obsidian Star ore, pitch black, the surface sparkling with tiny specks of light like a starry sky.

On the door’s body were carved countless complex patterns. And right in the middle was a totem.

It bore similarities to the Ashbloom Flower totem on the back of his hand. But more detailed, more exquisite, and dozens of times larger.

The moment he saw it, Jeremy suddenly realized something.

The ring of patterns coiling around the six-pointed star — the thing he had firmly believed to be dragon patterns all this time, since the first day it appeared in the undersea tower — turned out not to be dragon patterns.

It was the water caltrop wave pattern of the Mermaid race.

At first glance, those two things were seventy to eighty percent identical. The same rolling curves, the same way they coiled around each other.

But on this door, the tiny specks of light within the pattern lines radiated a pale blue glow, accompanied by that holy light and invisible coercive pressure belonging exclusively to Mermaids.

Jeremy instinctively raised the back of his hand, bringing it up to eye level to compare.

The totem on his hand looked like a black-and-white drawing that had lost all its color.

Previously, when it flashed with fragmented rays of light, it had never brought about that holy feeling like the thing carved on that Obsidian Star door.

But when placing the two side by side, comparing them stroke by stroke, he could still trace out a few minor differences between it and real dragon patterns.

In dragon patterns, the scales were carved into sharp-edged patches. While here, those patches curved into wave shapes.

Evelyn standing beside him also realized it.

She sent a voice transmission, her voice flat: "It seems the array caster in the undersea tower was truly a person of the Mermaid race when they were alive."

Jeremy had had that speculation from before. Now it was almost certain.

"Let’s go in and take a look first."

Evelyn nodded.

The two followed exactly the method Lorelin instructed — drawing blood from their fingertips, smearing it onto the gray crystal embedded right in the middle of the door.

The crystal sucked the blood in. Its gray color gradually shifted to red, then to blue.

The tightly shut door rumbled with a dull, deep sound. Stone scraping against stone. Very quickly, a passageway opened.

Jeremy and Evelyn stepped inside shoulder to shoulder.

The entrance was dark. There were no lamps, no luminous pearls, only a faint phosphorescent light casting out from the very pattern lines on the walls.

Following that underground path for about ten minutes, taking a few turns according to the directions carved on the stone markers, they finally reached their destination.

But they didn’t see anyone else.

No Highnesses. No leader. Only an empty expanse, the ceiling soaring high, pitch black.

Jeremy tried again, using magic power to light a flame for illumination.

Failed. The flame had just kindled before it extinguished instantly, as if blown out by something.

Right at that moment, a blinding light abruptly bloomed from overhead.

Jeremy and Evelyn were forced to shut their eyes tight, raising their hands to shield them.

Waiting until the stinging sensation passed, the moment the two opened their eyes, they were sucked straight into another space by a teleportation portal at the endpoint.

The light dispersed.

And what hit their eyes was a scene that struck terror into people.