Chapter 1979

At a banquet in the Merman Imperial Court in Eastern Sea, its three mermaid leaders Lian Ke Xin, Yu Zi and Xie Ning Si entertain Ice Crystal Immortal Monarch, a rank eight snowman Gu Immortal from black heaven’s Ice Crystal grotto-heaven. Since the last black heaven meeting, Night Heavenly Wolf Lord has secretly contacted Heavenly Court and Lady Cold Ash has contacted human experts like Granny Skeleton. The monarch himself targets the five regions, so he approaches the mermen. ^{ch. 1979}

He mocks the dancers, saying that if they are the tribe’s hope it will soon be wiped out, and Lian Ke Xin answers that the mermen stay neutral and will join no outside conflict. He replies that peace is won only through war, that the mermen owe their way of life to Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable’s help, and that only they remain a variant human super force in the five regions. Citing the fate war, with fate destroyed and the five regions merged, he asks how much influence the dead venerable still has, and Lian Ke Xin cannot rebuke him. Yu Zi counters that more than ten Gu Immortals and Immortal Gu House Floating Reputation Boat are not completely the venerable’s credit. He dismisses the boat as a rank seven house. They have no rank eight Gu Immortal, he notes. ^{ch. 1979}

Xie Ning Si dares him to fight, but he says he came seeking a variant human alliance. He then threatens to spread word that the three invited him and lean toward joining black heaven’s variant humans against the humans. The humans would form an allied army and eliminate the court first, so the court could survive only by working with him or an equally powerful alliance. His objective is fulfilled, and the three, wanting only to preserve their members, do not want to antagonize him or join a war on the humans. He then proposes a bet of three rounds. If they defeat him in one round, he drops the alliance and leaves without exposing anything, and if he wins all three, they should work with him. ^{ch. 1979}

The mermaids agree. In the first round they gather the tribe’s Gu Immortals into the merman wave sacred spiritual formation, and he enters, attacks several times and escapes as the tides turn to ice and shatter. The merman Gu Immortals are lightly or heavily injured by backlash. In the second round they use Floating Reputation Boat, and he wins after a hundred rounds of fighting. ^{ch. 1979}

Xie Ning Si then suggests using that, but Lian Ke Xin and Yu Zi refuse, because its influence is too large and the tribe would be exterminated. They rule out Eastern Sea’s human forces, who are hit by the qi tides and would charge too large a price. Xie Ning Si proposes Gu tribe’s leader, but Lian Ke Xin refuses: he is a rank eight beastman in seclusion who might not defeat the monarch. Yu Zi brightens and names a great expert now at Gu tribe’s headquarters who might even win. Lian Ke Xin realizes who this is. Xie Ning Si hurries off to ask Gu tribe’s leader for the help of Lord Wu Shuai. ^{ch. 1979}