Chapter 156
Chapter 156
Memories and voices were always intermittent.
Sometimes it was unfamiliar yet familiar palaces, faces whose features couldn't be seen clearly, and many people's voices that gradually became indistinguishable to Mei Liangyu.
Finally, everything was submerged in the surging sound of waves. His consciousness that had been overlooking from above was suddenly swept down by the waves, sinking into the cold and dark deep sea.
Mei Liangyu once again saw the scene of his father standing at the center of the Sea Whirlpool.
The thing his father threw into the Sea Whirlpool was also so familiar.
Memory was so wondrous.
Even though he couldn't see those people's faces clearly, his brain knew they were his father, mother, and siblings.
Those memories carved deep in his soul had been cruelly severed and sealed.
At this moment, Mei Liangyu felt infinitely familiar with those memories and voices, yet couldn't remember them no matter what.
The emotions that had been suppressed in the deepest part of his heart all these years, were they anger or hatred?
He suddenly remembered what Yan Xiaochuan had said some time ago: "I thought you didn't want to recover your memories, chose to forget the past and start anew. Your current life... is better than before, isn't it?"
Those people and events, he absolutely could not forget.
Anger-filled hatred leaked a corner from the seal of reason. In the deep dark seabed, there seemed to be light flickering on and off. New whirlpools formed in the sea, wanting to stir up tremendous waves.
Memories of the past and future all flashed back in Mei Liangyu's mind.
From parting with Gao Tianhao in the suburbs of Yan Capital to meeting again under Taiyi Academy's Cloud Carriage Platform.
In the Five Elements Water Field at night, Gao Tianhao closed his eyes and bowed his head in final farewell to him. The fire that burned in that instant blurred his vision. In the scorching, distorted flames, Mei Liangyu saw Yu Sui standing at the other end of the Three Thousand Divergent Paths.
His Junior Sister at that time seemed to want to go to a very distant place.
She always stood alone in corners, wearing different smiles to deal with different people. When quiet, her gaze only looked toward distant places, sometimes thinking, sometimes yearning.
Previously, Mei Liangyu thought his Junior Sister's thoughts were easy to guess, but now he felt that no one had ever been able to guess what his Junior Sister really wanted.
She was Nangong Ming's daughter.
No one should underestimate Nangong Ming's daughter.
……
Leng Rouyin and Wu Huaiwei, standing on the cliff, suddenly discovered that the Sea Whirlpools in the ocean began to disappear. The terrifying vortexes began to shrink until they turned into thin streams of water that dissipated in the sea.
In the end, only the super-large Sea Whirlpools formed by the fusion of more than two Sea Whirlpools remained.
The Five Elements Energy gathered above the Abyss Sea was still in chaos, neither dispersing nor able to be controlled and subdued.
It was already deep night. Starlight could barely reach this place. What illuminated the sea surface were the lights from Mechanism School ships, like fallen stars dropped into the sea. The mad waves had been suppressed, and the sea surface was now calm and waveless, hiding all storms beneath the deep sea.
Wenyang Xiu stood on a ship looking down at the sea without turning back to ask: "Have the Number Mountains in the Underwater Mechanism City responded?"
The Mechanism School practitioner setting up small Number Mountains behind him answered: "No response at all. This situation is uncommon. I suspect the Number Mountains below are damaged, and it's three large Number Mountains that have been extensively damaged."
"The Communication Array is underground in the city. How could it be damaged?" Wenyang Xiu couldn't understand.
The Mechanism School practitioner responsible for setting up the Number Mountains could only try his best: "We'll try again."
After a while, the person responsible for contacting the Spirit Bird shouted to Wenyang Xiu: "There's news here!"
Wenyang Xiu stepped directly onto the neighboring ship. Just as he arrived and stood steady, he saw the calm sea surface ripple with circle after circle of waves. The ripples were dense and fast, large circles containing small circles.
The conch transmission from the deep sea was a type of Mechanism Arts. The water patterns reflected by sound waves contained encrypted messages.
Wenyang Xiu and other Mechanism School practitioners decrypted the water circle ripples from the sea, and the message they received was shocking.
A Sea Whirlpool fell from the sky onto Northern Kun City?
Was this possible?
Wouldn't that swallow the entire Northern Kun City?
Wenyang Xiu felt the message transmitted back from the Spirit Bird was somewhat incomprehensible. Though his mind was thinking, he didn't delay matters and immediately went to find Wu Huaiwei and Leng Rouyin to inform them that they needed to invite people from the Water Vessel to go to the Underwater Mechanism City to investigate.
Wu Huaiwei and Leng Rouyin stood high on the cliff, in a state where neither paid attention to the other. Seeing Wenyang Xiu come, they both turned their gazes over together.
Wenyang Xiu told the two about the message Baili Mo had transmitted back. After hearing it, neither showed much surprise. Wu Huaiwei still wore her smiling expression: "So it was indeed because of a Sea Whirlpool attack that Northern Kun City lost contact. This matter of Sea Whirlpool anomalies requires consulting our esteemed Military School Saint Miss Leng."
Wu Huaiwei's sarcastic attitude wasn't new. Leng Rouyin had long learned to ignore it.
She didn't acknowledge Wu Huaiwei and looked at the sea surface before saying to Wenyang Xiu: "When will the second ship depart?"
Wenyang Xiu said: "It can leave at dawn."
Leng Rouyin nodded: "I'll personally go down to investigate then."
"Sister Rouyin," Wu Huaiwei asked, "can you handle it by yourself?"
Leng Rouyin glanced at her: "Your understanding of me has always been shallow."
Wu Huaiwei wasn't annoyed at all and laughed softly, covering her mouth with the back of her hand: "I'm worried about you, Sister Rouyin. What if that Sea Whirlpool spits out Strange Fire and burns you? Taiyi's seawater can't block such fierce and passionate flames."
Leng Rouyin frowned: "How do you know it's Strange Fire?"
"It devours Five Elements Energy and can't be extinguished, and it's not recorded on the continent. Calling it 'strange fire' seems appropriate, doesn't it?" As Wu Huaiwei spoke, she appeared behind Leng Rouyin in the blink of an eye, circling her neck with one arm and resting it on her shoulder, slightly leaning down close to Leng Rouyin's ear, bringing a fragrant breeze.
Wu Huaiwei's red lips parted slightly as she whispered in Leng Rouyin's ear: "Perhaps the more Strange Fire the Sea Whirlpool swallows, the more it spits out."
Leng Rouyin closed her eyes for an instant, resisting Wu Huaiwei's charm technique. When she opened them again, her sword was unsheathed. Wenyang Xiu beside them didn't even see her draw the sword, only seeing sword energy howling through the sky while Wu Huaiwei's figure flashed and retreated repeatedly.
The sword energy stirred up flying sand and rolling stones on the cliff. Wu Huaiwei retreated to the cliff edge behind and had just steadied herself when she saw the oncoming white sword energy suddenly explode and scatter, striking the cliff edge to pieces. Before the rubble collapsed, Wu Huaiwei laughed lightly and leaped into the air, disappearing into the star clouds.
One was on the ground, one in the sky.
Wu Huaiwei's voice came from above: "I was just worried about you, Sister Rouyin. Why are you angry and attacking me? This sword energy's wind made my face hurt."
Wenyang Xiu looked around in amazement but couldn't see where Wu Huaiwei was.
Leng Rouyin sheathed her sword with an indifferent expression and turned to Wenyang Xiu: "Watch the Heaven-Bathing Water Wall. As long as the Heaven-Bathing Water Wall remains, no Sea Whirlpools will approach the edge of Mechanism Island. I'm returning to the academy to discuss with the other Saints. I'll come early tomorrow morning."
Wenyang Xiu nodded after hearing this and watched Leng Rouyin leave.
After a while, a soft, boneless jade hand gently embraced Wenyang Xiu's shoulder from behind, scaring him just as he was about to act, but he was easily restrained by the other party: "I told you to watch the Heaven-Bathing Water Wall, why are you staring at her?"
"I'll go right now!" Wenyang Xiu had a quick wit, sank down and bent over to escape from the other's long arm's embrace, using Wind-Riding Techniques to flee.
Wu Huaiwei slowly withdrew her gaze, standing at the front of the cliff looking out at the sea, her expression somewhat thoughtful.
Among Taiyi's current 24 Saints, quite a few were working for the Water Vessel, busy researching Strange Fire to completely drive Strange Fire out of the Xuangu Continent.
Eliminating Strange Fire from the Xuangu Continent was naturally a good thing.
It was just that these people's hatred wasn't limited to Strange Fire.
At least Leng Rouyin wasn't. She wished all World Destroyers carrying Strange Fire would die.
Wu Huaiwei played with her red silk ribbon, looking down at the sea below. She didn't care whether Taiyi's people wanted to research Strange Fire or wanted the Floating Pagoda. At this moment, she only cared about one thing: sending the person she had brought into Taiyi back out.
……
Inside Northern Kun City.
After Baili Mo rang the bell, the locations of both Wenyang Xiu and the Situ family were exposed.
The fire phoenix's red light guided the direction. Situ Ling Kui gave orders that all Situ family Mechanism School practitioners must drop their current work and prioritize rescuing Situ Jin.
The most people went toward Situ Jin's location.
Lin Chenghai's side came second.
Yu Sui heard Lin Chenghai say: "That's a Sound-Seeking Golden Bell, used to detect human Five Elements Energy. As long as the person is alive, they can definitely be found."
"How does this work?" Yu Sui was puzzled. "Just ring the bell?"
Lin Chenghai waved his hand: "It's not that simple. You need to record this person's Five Elements Energy. The principle is very complex to explain. You might as well not listen."
Yu Sui said: "I can listen."
"Have your Senior Brother tell you." Lin Chenghai pointed in a direction for Yu Sui. "Our cooperation ends here. We'll act separately from now on."
Yu Sui looked at him with expectant eyes without speaking.
Lin Chenghai glared: "Looking at me like that won't help. Didn't you say we should split up on the ship? Now when I tell you to leave, you're reluctant. How can this child be so lacking in sense?"
"I don't know which way to go." Yu Sui said with a bitter face. "Senior, you seem very familiar with this place, but this is my first time here. I can't tell east from west!"
Lin Chenghai pointed to another place: "That way is east. Can you figure out the rest?"
Yu Sui shook her head.
Lin Chenghai didn't care. He pointed at the red light illuminating himself: "When fighting starts later, I won't hold back. I might even hit you. You're a student of Taiyi Academy, so Taiyi's people won't do anything to you."
"Don't worry about your companion. Even if she chased after them, that person won't kill a little girl who doesn't understand anything."
"What about Wenyang Xiu?" Yu Sui looked at him with worried eyes. "Can Senior guarantee he won't die?"
"Of course not." Lin Chenghai couldn't delay any longer. What he had to do wasn't convenient to do with someone along, so they had to part here. "When we came up, I calculated for you. Your Senior Brother probably fell somewhere in Northern Kun City. If you go underground, you might be able to find him."
Yu Sui asked in surprise: "You can also divine? Wait, the Buddhist School can divine too?"
Lin Chenghai was already walking forward: "Everyone knows Eight Trigrams Living Arts. What's the big deal about divination? Which Nine Schools practitioner can't divine?"
Yu Sui said: "But most are just street charlatans!"
Lin Chenghai, who had already walked far away, couldn't help but turn around to glare at her: "It's divination arts, alright?!"
Yu Sui obediently stood in place without trying to keep him, watching Lin Chenghai quickly disappear from view.
Through her Five Elements Light Cores, she could see that Lin Chenghai was indeed very familiar with Northern Kun City, freely navigating through various alleys and corners, seemingly heading toward the First Generation Golden Crow.
Yu Sui stood in place for quite a while, then looked down thoughtfully.
Go underground?
Yu Sui was initially somewhat hesitant. She wasn't sure if Lin Chenghai was telling the truth or trying to lead her away. It wasn't until she saw through her Five Elements Light Cores that Baili Mo had gone to the center of the thick smoke, and saw the flames burning at the edges of those collapsed areas, that her eyelid twitched.
There had been a Sea Whirlpool attack on Northern Kun City, swallowing a large hole in Northern Kun City.
Soul Control allowed her to simultaneously receive and observe information from different Five Elements Light Cores, like one person having five brains and 10 eyes. She also saw through the cores the scene of Nian Qiuyan divining Mei Liangyu's whereabouts.
Only then did Yu Sui believe Lin Chenghai's words and find a way to go underground.