The fake prince was exposed at the beginning, and I took office as emperor on the spot

Chapter 247 Borrowing the Holy Maiden (Part 2)

Gu Fangchen narrowed her eyes upon hearing this and looked at the old merman who was nearing the end of his life in front of her.

In the original game storyline, the character "Ru Nu" never officially appeared. Like "Gu Fangchen," she was just a background character who was mentioned only briefly.

The old merman patriarch, whose life was already nearing its end at this point in time, died on an ordinary morning not long after the story began.

Afterwards, Sunaga supported a new high priest, while she herself, as the saintess, seized power and began a struggle against the Grand Elder's forces.

If players want to follow Sunaga's path, they will undoubtedly have to help her defeat the Grand Elder, and then deal with the "Four-Phase Calamity Lord" to prevent the Nine Nether Rift passage beneath the Dragon Soul Sea from opening.

By then, Ru Nu had long since become food for some unknown fish in the ocean.

The Merfolk worship the Dragon God and the "Snail Book." Although they admire human habits in their daily lives, imitating them in all aspects of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, they still follow nature when it comes to matters of life and death.

The merfolk live in water and choose to be buried at sea when they die.

The body was sunk into the sea, left to sink, and then devoured by everything in the sea, becoming part of the sea once more.

Now, from Ru Nu's words, we can see that as the patriarch of the merfolk, the old man who led the merfolk, who were born as slaves, to regain their freedom, must know something.

Or rather, people who live long enough in this world should know some of the secrets about this world.

The Merfolk and the Witch Clan have always lived in this isolated sea kingdom, and should therefore have preserved more ancient documents, unlike the Central Plains where the transmission of time was so completely interrupted.

But in fact, the Sea Kingdom has no record of the so-called "Great Age of the Furnace".

Seeing Ru Nu's reaction, Gu Fangchen roughly understood that there must be powerful cultivators in the Sea Kingdom who understood the secret about "transmitting the Dao" and then took the initiative to seal it off.

He made the same decision as Ying Baishou, Heng Changdao, and others.

Because Ru Nu lived long enough, he learned more information.

It's also possible that he learned something from the [Snail Book]... After all, the information on the [Snail Book] cannot be changed.

It records everything from the beginning of heaven and earth to the present day, both finite and infinite.

While it's difficult to find what you need from this massive amount of content, it's not impossible.

"No wonder our fleet, despite being perfectly disguised, still attracted the attention of Sunaga. I was wondering about that... It turns out it was because of the unusual activity of the [Snail Book]."

Gu Fangchen raised her head and glanced at the back of the main hall—this main hall was built at the foot of the [Snail Book], and what it leaned against was none other than the entrance of the [Snail Book].

That wall-like structure is part of the [Snail Book].

On the pale conch shell, endless golden patterns float, rising and falling like the tides; these are the messages recorded in the [Conch Book].

He walked up to Ru Nu and said calmly:
“I came to the Sea Kingdom for only two things. If I accomplish them, I will not kill you. From then on, the Witch Clan and the Merfolk will each rule their own territory, each as a province, and will be incorporated into the Qingman.”

Upon hearing this, Sunaga looked up angrily, her eyes filled with resentment.

How long did they, the merfolk, fight and pay the price to gain their freedom today? And yet, with just one sentence from Gu Fangchen, they want to give up territory to the witch clan again? On what grounds?
But before she could speak, Gu Fangchen tapped her on the head with her fan.

The young man looked down at them with a calm expression.
"This is a notification, not a discussion with you, Sunaga. The lives of all the merfolk in Tuoyin are now in my hands. Think it through before you speak."

He knew better than anyone how arrogant the merfolk, who had been isolating themselves for many years, were. It would be very difficult to make them realize the situation, and it would inevitably lead to a lot of bloodshed.

But dividing the contradictions is quite simple.

All they need to do is put their old enemies in front of them, and their attention will naturally turn to the witch clan.

The power to decide how much land they own is also in Gu Fangchen's hands. When they realize they can't do anything to the Wu Clan and want to make their enemies suffer, they need Gu Fangchen to give the order. Naturally, they will fawn over her in order to suppress the Wu Clan.

If there are no conflicts, create them; if there are no interests, create them.

Whether or not he belonged to the Qingman tribe, or whether or not he was enslaved by Gu Fangchen, became less important...

Sunaga's expression froze, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, extremely unwilling.

However, she has now personally experienced the power of the "Dragon Trapping Formation," and even she was forced to kneel down. One can only imagine the current situation of the other merfolk.

Her chest heaved violently a few times, but finally, following the force of Gu Fangchen's fan, she slowly lowered her head and gritted her teeth, saying:

"I, I know..."

Ru sighed and asked:

"what are you up to?"

Gu Fangchen said:

"First, I must destroy the seal beneath the Dragon Soul Sea and open the passage to the Underworld."

Ru Nu and Sunaga were both startled. The latter's pupils constricted, and she immediately said:
"Isn't the seal beneath the Dragon Soul Sea the remains of the Dragon God? If you want to destroy the seal, aren't you just destroying the remains of the Dragon God?"

This is tantamount to destroying the ancestral graves of the merfolk!

Sunaga was about to say "impossible" on her own, but then she remembered that Gu Fangchen held the lives of their entire merman race in his hands, so she swallowed her words and could only curse him as a bastard in her heart.

But judging from her expression, she was also unconvinced.

Ru Nu hadn't expected the first thing to be so unreasonable, and she struggled to speak:

“This… Merfolk have worshipped the Dragon God for thousands of years… If it’s destroyed…”

"Dragon God?"

Gu Fangchen sneered:

"You keep brainwashing yourselves, embellishing your origins, and you've actually convinced yourselves?"

"It's one thing for ordinary merfolk to believe it, but do you also think you are a noble race born under the glorious protection of the Dragon God?"

"Or should I, an outsider, remind you that your ancestors were not dragon gods, but sea beasts that fed on the remains of dragon gods, which were then used by the witch clan to mate with human slaves, thus giving birth to the so-called merfolk."

Sunaga's face turned pale.

The merfolk were enslaved by the witch tribe in the past, and after overthrowing the witch tribe's regime, they naturally tried their best to cover up their humiliating history.

Their approach is to start from their very origins and exaggerate the origins of their race.

Sea beasts were considered too low-class, so the merfolk used the trace of true dragon blood they had stolen from the sea beasts as a basis for claiming themselves as "descendants of the true dragon."

In this way, the Merfolk are inherently noble and should never be enslaved by the Witch Clan.

Such actions by the Wu tribe are utterly rebellious.

Later, they even regarded the remains of the real dragon below as the "Dragon God" and worshipped them. They also specially designated that area of ​​the sea as the Dragon Soul Sea and regarded it as a sacred sea.

These are actually all later fabricated merman traditions.

Their true origins, just as Gu Fangchen said...

Ru Nu hadn't expected that Gu Fangchen knew the history of merfolk like the back of her hand, even better than the average merfolk.

He was speechless and unable to refute, and could only say:
"But in doing so, the people below will surely be filled with resentment... Since you are working for the Qingman and want to expand their territory, you should not want to leave any seeds of trouble behind."

Ru Nu also realized that Gu Fangchen was indeed open and honest, and did not intend to exterminate their merfolk race.

Otherwise, they wouldn't speak so directly.

In this situation, all that Nu could do was reduce the potential unnecessary sacrifices of his people.

If there are any potential problems, it's better to point them out now than to let them surface later and anger this person...

Gu Fangchen raised an eyebrow and said:

"That's easy. Just set up another illusion array to replace the original remains."

He continued:
"As for the Nine Nether Rift, rest assured, I will not allow the evil spirits and monsters within to actually escape and wreak havoc on the human world."

Since he said so, Ru Nu and Sunaga had no choice but to believe him.

As for whether the illusion array could deceive the merfolk, they weren't worried. After all, Gu Fangchen and the others were able to infiltrate the Sea Kingdom with their disguises and even wander around in front of them without being detected at all.

The level of that illusion array must have been incredibly high.

With the first matter resolved, Ru Nu then asked:

"And what is the second thing you wish to do, Your Excellency?"

Gu Fangchen smiled:

"The second thing is too simple."

His gaze shifted to Sunaga's face, and the fan in his hand moved down, gliding across the little dragon girl's beautiful face, lifting her chin.

"We need to borrow the Holy Maiden for a while."

Upon hearing this, Sunaga pursed her lips, her face suddenly turned cold, and her gaze became disgusted, yet her expression became somewhat unpredictable.

The meaning behind Gu Fangchen's actions seemed self-evident.

Sunaga's first reaction was naturally extreme disgust and anger. If she were the only one being threatened, she would definitely refuse to comply and fight to the death.

But now, the fate of the Merfolk rests on the decision of this young man before her, and she must consider the future of the entire clan.

If she were to sacrifice herself, tens of millions of merfolk could be saved...

Xiaolongnu's expression became very shaken.

Gu Fangchen didn't want to make her intentions too clear, so she raised an eyebrow, teasing her with a half-smile, and then said meaningfully:

"Sunaga, you wouldn't want such a beautiful place like Tuoyin to be littered with corpses, would you?"

He deliberately pulled the fan back, opened it, and fanned himself, displaying the four characters "人有所操" (meaning "people have something to do") prominently.

He even said in a serious and gentle voice:
"I've always been a refined person and I don't like to force beautiful women. It has to be their own willingness, gentleness and tenderness, for that's what makes it fun."

Knowing full well about this person's bad record, Prajna Lian Yue glanced at him from the side, remaining noncommittal about Gu Fang Chen's serious nonsense.

She knew in her heart that Gu Fangchen wanted Su Naga to use the [Snail Book] to find out her true origins, which meant she was simply teasing her.

However, given Gu Fangchen's nature, she might not be interested in this Su Naga, but it's unlikely that she wouldn't be interested...

Prajna Lotus Moon glanced at Sunaga's face and snorted inwardly.

Strangely, she no longer had the same complex and chaotic thoughts she had when she accidentally witnessed Gu Fangchen weighing Xu Fu...

Prajna Lotus Moon couldn't help but think, "Sure enough, I must have just been reading too many storybooks."

Sunaga struggled internally for only a few breaths before resigning herself to her fate.

In the current situation, she has no chance to struggle at all...

However, in front of the grandfather who raised her from childhood, she had to compromise and bow down to this evil person, which filled her with shame and indignation, and sorrow welled up in her heart.

The beautiful mermaid with white hair and golden scales lowered her head, not daring to look at Ru Nu's angry expression. She closed her eyes, bit her lower lip, and said unwillingly:
"I...I'm willing...I'll do anything you need me to do."

Upon hearing this, she seemed to lose all her strength, her shoulders slumped, and she collapsed to the ground.

Behind them, the elderly Ru Nu also let out a long sigh, filled with deep sorrow:

"Alas, Naga, you..."

Seeing this heartwarming scene of grandmother and granddaughter affection, Gu Fangchen once again played the villain and interrupted:
"Alright, since that's the case, come with me into the [Snail Book]."

Sunaga was already mentally prepared, but upon hearing this, she still abruptly raised her head, and angrily exclaimed in disbelief:

"You...you actually want to be in this sacred land of the [Snail Book]..."

How dare he commit such blasphemy?!

To perform such acts inside the "Snail Book," which the merfolk have worshipped for so many years, is even more blasphemous than destroying the merfolk's ancestral graves!

Unfortunately, at this point, it was no longer up to Sunaga to say what she wanted.

Gu Fangchen closed her fan, walked over, picked up the golden-scaled mermaid from the ground, and strode towards the entrance of the [Snail Book] without the slightest hesitation.

They weren't even given a chance to refute it.

Ru Nu could only watch helplessly as Gu Fangchen took her granddaughter away, while she herself was old and frail, struggling even to lift her hand...

No matter how easygoing he was, a surge of anger welled up within him at that moment, but unfortunately, his anger was utterly powerless.

Ru Nu, he originally chose this name for himself, taking the imagery of "waves raging" from a poem from the Central Plains.

But now, the Sea Kingdom is at the mercy of others, and its waves are hard to stir up; his anger is insignificant.

The high priest could only pound his chair in frustration and close his eyes.

Prajna Lotus Moon watched this scene with a strange expression, deeply feeling Gu Fangchen's perverse sense of humor.

Back then, I was probably just as easily manipulated by him...

This person is truly consistent throughout.

……

Gu Fangchen carried Su Najia inside the [Snail Book].

He lowered his head, looking at Sunaga, whose eyes were tightly closed and whose head was turned away in humiliation, and put her down. Then he released the power of suppression and said:

"Alright, help me find all the information about me in this [Snail Book]."

Sunaga: "...?"

She thought she had misheard, opened her eyes, and was stunned:
"what?"

Gu Fangchen blinked and pointed to herself:

“I said, help me look through this ‘snail book’ and find all the information about me.”

He said with a half-smile:
"What do you think I need you for?"

Sunaga: "..."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

P.S.: Post first, then edit. Please refresh if there are any errors or omissions.

(End of this chapter)