Along Luoyang Strand, the calm sea turned into an enraged prehistoric beast. White-maned waves battered the cliff walls, like the ocean pouring out her wrath.

By grace of skill and years at sea, Fan Chen’s grandfather escaped. He returned like an empty shell, his spirit swept away.

Spared by luck, he went mad, kneeling like a man under a spell to beg the sea god’s pardon. He didn’t even know why the god raged.

Days later, the water surged, and their high perch was about to drown. Grandfather refused to run; he fasted and prayed, like a candle burning to ash, and nothing changed.

The poor man sank beneath the waves, never grasping why the sea that had fed them now howled like a beast.

Fan Chen’s parents fled in tears with two ungrown children and an aging mother. In the end, they watched his last prayer and their home swallowed whole by a black wave.

But the story didn’t stop. The sea kept venting its fury, and the coasts bled. The high seats of every nation stayed silent, maybe because they were helpless.

The Fan family felt cursed; wherever they walked, the great waves stalked them like wolves. At first, no one noticed; with each flight and each planted rumor, they became targets. Under that pressure, Grandmother stepped into the sea like a stone and never rose.

They left the city under a leaden sky and headed for the deep mountains. On the road, Father caught a chill; a sturdy trunk turned frail as a reed. They kept walking, because if they stopped, the tide would catch them.

Back then, Fan Chen was only a small wild sprout.

At last, a hero chosen by the gods lifted a Divine Artifact and went alone to the shore. He faced the source of calamity like a lone blade against a storm.

The duel raged for three days and nights. Sky-piercing tornadoes coiled over the sea like dragons. Sheets of rain drowned the coasts, and the magic surges on that shore made ninth-rank Supremes shiver.

Then the rain broke, and the water stopped climbing. Yet the hero never returned, like a star swallowed by the deep.

When the sea calmed, nations claimed they had sent their finest to quell the disaster, and all had failed. Only those who lived through it knew the truth—the only one who stood against it was that hero.

The continent and the ocean split like estranged kin. One by one, coastal nations issued sea bans, afraid to provoke anything. The newborn Radiant Empire was among them.

After that, the Fan family left the mountains and came to a nearby town. To heal Father, Mother spent every coin, like pouring warmth into a broken jar. In the end, he clung to life.

The illness turned him from pillar to burden. Even so, for two underage children, he worked beside his wife, like a weary ox in the rain.

They had to leave; the old home sat on a sizable island. To escape the region, they had to cross a strait. After a brief talk, they decided to take a boat in a few days.

During the Radiant Empire’s rebuilding, the sea bans were loose, and many crossed in secret like shadows.

Days slipped by. They boarded and prepared to leave the land that had raised them.

But fate cracked its whip. Mid-crossing, a tsunami struck out of a shallow strait, waves that shouldn’t exist hammered like mountains. Their boat bobbed like a leaf about to drown.

A towering wave flipped the boat. The family went under; Father burned his last strength to shove his wife and two minors onto a lifeboat. Then a white crest swallowed him whole.

In that blue hell, for one heartbeat, Fan Chen saw a little girl’s head—and a pair of pale blue eyes he would never forget.

Others might call it an act of heaven. To Fan Chen, it was blood feud carved in salt.

The sea—he had thought she was their umbrella, a garden gifted by the sea god to faithful folk. Now she was a slaughterhouse, a butcher behind a veil. They had bowed and offered sacrifices at every festival, and in return the sea butchered the coastal people.

He was young, but his mind was tempered. No matter what came, he would make the sea pay. He would make that life-eating beast taste the pain of a family torn apart.

The three survivors reached a strange town. Mother forced herself to forget the bruises on her soul and pulled the two children along, like a lantern burning at noon. They settled there where no one knew them, where no eyes cut like knives. She worked twelve hours a day, and even then, it was only enough to keep rice warm.

When the siblings were grown enough to shoulder weight, Mother fell ill from overwork, like a rope frayed to snapping.

Luckily, the two were driven and gifted. Fan Chen made a name in newborn Starfate City, and his elder brother became a powerful adventurer. Mother’s later years were calmer, yet ten years of toil had planted deep roots of illness. In the end, her body dimmed and went out.

When Fan Chen’s talent won royal notice from the Radiant Empire, he began to hunt for old truths. With a knack for talk, he found threads in the dark—the only one who truly went to calm the sea was that hero. The matter tied to the Merfolk, maybe to a deep-sea wraith.

He told his brother at once. Hot-blooded, they chose to take the sea fiend’s head. They gathered kindred blades, made full preparations, and believed they could kill even a quasi-god.

So began a journey that smelled of despair. That monster was invincible on the open water. In the end, only Fan Chen came back alive; his brother and his friends remained beneath those waves.

He had never hated anyone or anything like this. People called him gentle and steady, and he treated everyone with that calm. Everyone—except the sea fiend.

If there’s a hell on earth, it’s blue. The sea fiend doesn’t deserve to breathe this world’s air.

“City Lord Fan Chen, how is it? Do you agree to my plan?” Edgar smiled with a cat’s ease; his mood was bright, his scheme sailing smooth for once.

“…Fine. I’ll work with you.” Fan Chen lowered his head. A black storm brewed in him; his brown bangs cast a shadow over eyes filled with fire.

“What, you won’t test if I’m lying? Vampires are slippery creatures—maybe I’m conning you.”

“…I’ll test it myself. Touch this scale to the original owner’s skin, and it melts into her body. I know how it works.” Fan Chen toyed with the fish scale, his voice flat as cold iron.

“Oh?” Edgar’s mouth curved. “In that case, I don’t need to explain a thing. Seems City Lord Fan Chen trusts me quite a bit—you agreed before you even tried me.”

“…”

Truth is, when Edgar produced the scale, Fan Chen was ninety percent sure. But for what came next, he needed a reason he couldn’t refuse. So he would test it himself.

Edgar watched the already-hooked city lord with a smile. He flicked him a badge. “When you decide, use this to reach me. I’ll wait outside the city.”

He gave a secretive smile and slipped out of the room like a shadow.

Fan Chen stared at the scale in his palm, stunned, like a man listening to winter wind.

In truth, the scale in Edgar’s hand didn’t belong to Qingsheng Tangxue. He likely didn’t even have the right to scratch her. That scale had come from the woman called the Flower of the Other Shore.

No one knew her aim, but she had indeed cleared away a great tangle for him. She had even handed him tools tailor-made to use against Qingsheng Tangxue. He hadn’t used them before because it wasn’t time. Next time they met, he was sure he’d take down that little minx.

For the Merfolk, scales carry a unique meaning. Between blood kin of the same clan, their scales can fuse. In ancient days, before they had other ways to test kinship, they used this.

But Tangxue herself didn’t know this, because Dreamsound had never taught her.