Walking all the way to the main hall of the Dragon Palace, Chen Zhou gave orders immediately to avoid the grand welcome feast.
"Cangming, take Cangche and arrange the settlement of our kin; the return of the low-level Sea Race is also a major matter."
"Yes, Dragon Ancestor," Cangming replied, bowing as he took the order, a trace of gloom flashing in his eyes as he watched Chen Zhou depart.
He knew where the Dragon Ancestor was going.
That was the sea eye, the lifeblood of the Eastern Region, and the final resting place of his father, the Sea Emperor.
After sending the others away, Chen Zhou led Jian Huaishuang toward the forbidden area in the deepest part of the Dragon Palace with practiced ease.
The deeper they went, the lower the temperature of the seawater became.
Eventually, even the surrounding water condensed into hard black ice, and atop the piercing cold sat a solitary figure.
It was an aged merfolk.
His body was haggard, his head covered in white hair, and the fish tail of his lower body had already completely crystallized into ice, merging seamlessly with the frozen ground.
The Sea Emperor was maintaining his last breath, sleeping there, stubbornly refusing to let go.
He was waiting.
He was waiting for the Dragon Ancestor.
Sensing a familiar presence approaching, the ice sculpture trembled slightly.
Cang Yu opened his eyes with great difficulty, and the moment he saw Chen Zhou, an incredible radiance erupted within them.
"Dragon... Lord Dragon Ancestor..."
He wanted to move.
He wanted to prostrate himself on the ground and give several heavy kowtows, just as he had during their last meeting.
But his body no longer obeyed him.
His tail was fused with the ice, his arms were covered in frost, and even turning his neck was an immense struggle.
He could only sit there stiffly, using every ounce of his strength to slightly lower his head.
It was both the audience of a subject before a monarch and the kowtow of a descendant to an ancestor.
"Your servant... Cang Yu..."
He spoke haltingly, each word costing him tremendous effort.
"Welcomes... Lord Dragon Ancestor..."
Chen Zhou looked at the elder before him who was about to burn out.
"No need for formalities."
He stepped forward, coming directly before Cang Yu.
Under the scrutiny of his divine sense, Cang Yu's life force was clear to the point of being cruel.
His body was riddled with holes from within.
His heart meridians were severed, his channels were withered, and his internal organs had all been corroded by the power of the cold spring, transforming into a translucent, crystalline ice.
Cang Yu twitched the corners of his mouth, trying to force a smile.
"Your servant..."
"Your servant... has no regrets in this life..."
Chen Zhou lowered his gaze.
"Why must you suffer so?" Chen Zhou sighed softly, feeding him a Flesh-Reconstitution Pill in an attempt to alleviate his pain.
But the moment that flesh-and-blood energy entered his body, it was instantly frozen by the cold.
"It is not suffering... cough, not suffering at all."
"This old servant... this old servant's life has actually been quite useless."
Cang Yu looked at Chen Zhou, his eyes filled with guilt.
"This old servant could not hold the Eastern Region, could not defeat the black spots, and could not even protect his own subjects, only being able to drive them onto the land... I have failed my ancestors and the trust of Lord Dragon Ancestor."
"But this old servant thought... at least, at least I must endure until I can return the Eastern Region to you in one piece, and personally explain the burden of this sea eye to you."
"If I did not see you one last time, this old servant... would not be able to die in peace."
By the end, tears were shimmering in the Sea Emperor's eyes, reflecting both the sorrow of a hero in his twilight years and the heat of a sincere heart.
Chen Zhou crouched down, bringing his line of sight level with Cang Yu's.
"In this millennium, if you, Cang Yu, had not guarded the Eastern Region, the Sea Race would have long since disintegrated."
"If you had not acted decisively to disperse your kin, the sparks of the Eastern Region would have long since been extinguished."
"You suppressed the black spots within the cold spring for a thousand years, buying me the time to return."
"Cang Yu, you are a qualified emperor, and even more so, a great warrior."
Upon hearing this affirmation, two trails of hot tears rolled down Cang Yu's face, instantly hardening into two crystal-clear beads of ice.
"With those words from you... this old servant... it was all worth it."
Cang Yu seemed to have shed a weight of a thousand jin, and his entire person relaxed.
"Lord Dragon Ancestor, this old servant does not have much time left."
"To see my Lord one last time at the final moment, to see that you are safe and sound and that there is hope for the Eastern Region, my wish is fulfilled."
He turned his eyes with difficulty toward the direction of the Dragon Palace's main hall.
"My eldest son, Cangming, is steady in nature and benevolent in heart; he is a steady ruler."
"My second son, Cangche, is ambitious and enterprising, brave and decisive, but he is young and aggressive and needs his elder brother's restraint."
"Your servant..."
He raised his head, his eyes filled with entreaty.
"Humbly requests Lord Dragon Ancestor to crown Cangming."
"If he can receive the blessing of the Dragon Ancestor, then surely... he will be a good emperor."
Having finished speaking, Cang Yu looked at Chen Zhou quietly.
He did not say any more empty words about being willing to die ten thousand deaths.
His life had reached its end; he no longer had the chance for ten thousand deaths.
Chen Zhou met his gaze.
After a long silence.
"I shall."
An incredible radiance erupted in Cang Yu's eyes.
"Your servant... thanks the Dragon Ancestor..."
The moment the words fell, Chen Zhou saw through his Law-Evaluating Eye that brilliant bursts of golden light of merit suddenly lit up upon the body of the Sea Emperor, Cang Yu.
"Roar—!"
The Golden Dragon of Fortune within Chen Zhou's body seemed to feel the call; completely out of control, it suddenly surged out from behind him!
A golden dragon phantom a hundred zhang long circled within the narrow sea eye space.
The dragon might was vast, and golden light filled the sky.
The originally dark and cold sea eye was now illuminated with such splendor that it looked like a divine domain.
Countless points of light flew out.
Those points of light were faint at first, like plankton in the deep sea, scattered like stars, appearing and disappearing.
But as the roar of the golden dragon of merit continued, those points of light grew brighter and denser.
They emerged from the ice layers in the depths of the sea eye.
They emerged from the recently established clothing tombs.
They emerged from the burial sites of Chiwei, Black Shark, and the countless soldiers who had died for the maritime territory.
They were all the souls of the Sea Race who had been buried at the sea border over the past millennium but refused to leave because of their lingering attachments.
They were countless warriors who, like Chiwei, had filled the black spots with their lives and stained the black tide with their blood.
They stood silently upon the ice, at the edge of the abyss, and amidst the ruins of the defense lines they had once sworn to protect until death.
Across the chasm of life and death, across a millennium of time, and across the sea currents they could never again traverse, they looked toward their emperor.
Cang Yu stared blankly at it all.
His lips trembled, but he could not say a single word.
Among those souls were his comrades from his youth.
There were generals he had personally decorated.
There were juniors he had watched grow up.
There were kin he thought had long since had their souls scattered.
None of them had left.
For a thousand years, they had been guarding this place.
Guarding the sea eye.
Guarding the defense lines.
Guarding every corner of the Eastern Region.
Just as they had when they were alive.
"We..."
"Send off His Majesty."
It was unclear which soul spoke first.
The voice was like an echo traveling through a thousand years of ocean currents.
Immediately following, all the souls responded in unison.
"We send off His Majesty—!"
"We send off His Majesty—!"
"We send off His Majesty—!"
Countless souls were summoned by the golden dragon, all kneeling upon the ice.
With the most standard military salute from their past lives, they bid farewell to the Sea Emperor they had served all their lives.
Cang Yu finally could not hold back.
He closed his eyes tight, letting the hot liquid slide from the corners of his eyes and freeze into strings of ice beads on his frost-covered cheeks.
"What have I... what have I done to deserve this..."
His voice was choked with sobs, his words incoherent.
Chen Zhou watched it all.
He watched the golden dragon circling in the air, watched the thousands of souls kneeling on the ice, and watched the Sea Emperor who had guarded the sea eye for a millennium and was now completely exhausted.
Chen Zhou suddenly understood.
What the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm had taken an interest in was Cang Yu.
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