Chapter 2121: Are You Trying to Take Advantage of Me?

“Hey, it’s your fault for coming at a bad time.” The turtle bartender didn’t back down, and immediately got up and explained, “The main reason for this is because everyone is searching for the queen’s whereabouts, so many of the ports’ ship travel routes have been stopped.

“Additionally, some of the Yaksha Ocean Patrol died yesterday and it was rumored to be the work of the queen, which is why more and more adventurers have been hurrying in this direction for the bounty. The Ocean races' government also sent many people over. If I'm not mistaken, this might be the last time our port can send a ship out. There will definitely be an official document tomorrow to close this route. Who knows when it’ll open up again? So of course it’s expensive.”

The turtle bartender sized up the two of them. His eyes landed on Shang Hongyu as she said, “I advise you not to move on your own anymore. Recently, all single women, regardless of what they look like, have been seized by adventurers and investigated so that the queen can’t get away with a disguise.”

Shang Hongyu asked with interest, “Are you not worried that I could be the queen then?”

The turtle bartender sneered. “Sorry for being direct, but the queen is far more beautiful than you are. She showed me tremendous favor in the past and already became someone special in my heart. Even if she was using a disguise, there's no way that her exceptional beauty could be concealed fully. These insightful eyes of mine would be able to recognize her instantly. Besides, with the queen’s sweet-tempered and virtuous nature, why would she ever be so close to another man and travel together with him?”

His eyes moved over to Shang Hongyu’s bloated waist and he almost blurted out, 'Why don’t you look in a mirror first before you speak?'

Shang Hongyu was speechless. She suddenly didn’t know whether to be angry or happy.

Zu An took out two heaven-grade ki stones and said, “We want two...”

Shang Hongyu removed one of the heaven-grade ki stones from his hand and said, “We want one room. Big brother, you need to save whenever possible when we go out, you know?”

Zu An couldn't really say much in response, so he used the chance to say, “That’s right, one room is enough. Your ticket is way too expensive.”

The turtle bartender looked at the ki stone in Shang Hongyu’s hand with regret.

Are these two still just in the talking phase and haven’t confirmed their relationship? This man is really a bit dumb. The woman already calculated everything.

Hmph, this brat has just made a life commitment for the sake of saving a single ki stone. He’s definitely losing out big.

In his opinion, even though both of them looked ordinary, the man was large and tall with a bit of an impressive temperament. This woman had a bucket for a waist and had a swollen figure. Of course it was the man who was losing out here!

He cursed while taking out a small, square shell token. Around it was a ring of coral that formed special runes, which had probably been put in place as a counterfeit-preventing measure. He said, “Here, this is your ship ticket. There’s no replacement if you lose it.”

Shang Hongyu reached over to take it. Just then, however, she cried out in alarm and the ship ticket fell behind the bar. The turtle bartender was speechless.

Shang Hongyu gave him an apologetic look and asked, “Sorry, can you help me pick it up?”

This was his his main job, after all, so even though the turtle bartender was unhappy, he still bent over and picked it up for her. He said, “Be careful, you might not be so lucky next time.”

“Thank you, thank you.” When Shang Hongyu put away the ship ticket, she tugged on Zu An and rushed straight to the port.

...

When they left the restaurant, Zu An asked with a smile, “What did you fish out from his shell just now?”

It turned out she had dropped the ship ticket on purpose, and then when the turtle bartender stooped down, she quickly got what she wanted. Shang Hongyu opened up her hand, revealing the heaven-grade ki stone inside.

Zu An was a bit speechless. He asked, “Even though this train ticket is expensive, there's a proper reason for it. We had a proper trade, so why did you have to steal it back?”

“What do you mean, I stole it? You make it sound so bad.” Shang Hongyu glared at him. “This isn’t the ki stone for the ship ticket, but rather the heaven-grade ki stone he used to trick you yesterday. He clearly didn’t know anything about the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine, and yet he still took your money. How despicable.”

Zu An couldn't help but smile, saying, “It’s just a heaven-grade ki stone, so why is the honorable Mermaid Queen being such a haggler? Moreover, that turtle seems to be your fan.”

“What fan? He screwed me over pretty badly yesterday. Someone with a slippery character like this might seem loyal when he speaks, but he’d be the first to tell all of my secrets as soon as he finds out who I really was.” Shang Hongyu harrumphed.

Zu An said impatiently, “Even if you’re right, shouldn’t you return that ki stone to me? Why did you put it away?”

“This heaven-grade ki stone is for obtaining information about the Divine Dragon Immortal Medicine. Didn’t I tell you the related information yesterday? So of course this ki stone should be mine.”

Zu An was speechless. He retorted, “And here I was thinking that you were doing this for my sake. So it was just because you felt that he went after your things.”

“Didn’t I also help you vent a bit?”

“Uh... Then shouldn’t we split the ship fare?”

“That was your own ship fare. I'm just freeloading off of you.”

“You're the honorable Mermaid Queen... You’ve really expanded my worldview today.”

“It can’t be helped. Even a phoenix is like a chicken when it falls to the ground. Right now, I'm just a wanted criminal. I left in a hurry and don’t have a thing on me. There's no way that you’ll continue to stay at my side, so of course I need to save up a bit.”

Zu An was stunned when he heard that. Only now did he realize that her current situation was really bad. After thinking to himself, he took out a bag of ki stones and handed it to her, saying, “Take this for now. Apart from heaven-grade ki stones, there are also some immortal-grade ki stones. It should last you for a bit.”

But Shang Hongyu didn’t even give it a look and tossed the bag right back, saying, “Tsk, what a boring man.”

Zu An was utterly full of confusion.

Didn’t she say it herself that she was lacking ki stones? Why is she unhappy that I'm giving them to her?

He'd thought that after all these years, he already understood women quite well, but in this moment, he really began to question life.

...

Soon after, the two of them arrived by the port. There was a large ship there that seemed to be around a kilometer long; it seemed to be made from the skeleton of a massive ocean beast. The deck and hull were made of a special kind of wood from the ocean floor, and its surface was decorated with shells, pearls, and coral.

With Zu An’s current cultivation, he could naturally tell that these things weren’t just for decoration; they ingeniously formed some formations. There were formations for increased water affinity, wind element acceleration formations, fortification formations, and balancing formations..

But what drew his attention even more was that there were quite a few massive catapults on the ship. Unlike the human race’s city siege catapults, they seemed to have incredibly sharp tridents mounted on them. Of course, there were also many magical catapults that seemed to be used to deal with creatures of different elements.

As if she could sense his confusion, Shang Hongyu spoke up. “Even though the ocean is the Ocean races’ world, there are many powerful beasts residing within. Even though these beasts have some intelligence, they can't change into human form and are naturally bloodthirsty. They don't belong to the Ocean races' society. Our two sides frequently fight. Their bodies are all incredibly massive, and they prey on isolated Ocean race individuals. The Ocean races also form armies to encircle and take down these ocean beasts.

“The further we get from shore, the deeper we go into the sea, the stronger these ocean beasts become. There are even some that even the Dragon King feels some apprehension toward. These powerful weapons are used to deal with attacking ocean beasts.”

Zu An was a bit surprised, saying, “And here I was thinking that your Ocean races lived really carefreely.”

“The weak are petty to the strong; that's really normal,” Shang Hongyu replied nonchalantly, as if she was already long since used to this. She quickly got onto the boat.

The staff checked their ticket before guiding them to their room.

When he saw the room that wasn’t all that bigger than the sleeper train rooms of his previous world, Zu An was a bit stunned. He couldn't help but curse, “That damned turtle! He took so much money from us, but we only have this tiny room?” After all, when he saw how large the ship was, forget about a presidential suite, it should at least have been quite large, right? How could he have expected such a narrow and cramped space?

Shang Hongyu chuckled. “You’re actually misunderstanding him here. The rooms in this ship are all quite small.”

Zu An was stunned.

Shang Hongyu explained, “That’s because there are many large-scale weapons to protect against the ocean beasts, and those weapons take up a lot of space. They also need a lot of large-scale formations as support. That's why, for the sake of safety, the rooms left for the guests aren’t too large.”

“Then I’ll look for the captain of the ship to see if I can buy another room.” Zu An was about to leave when Shang Hongyu stopped him.

“We can’t. We came here together. We’ll definitely draw suspicion if we split up and stay in separate rooms,” Shang Hongyu explained. “Also, did you forget what the turtle said? The various forces are all investigating women traveling alone. Do you want me to be caught?” As she said that, she had a pitiful look in her eyes.

Zu An felt rather helpless. “But this room is too small, so it’s inappropriate for us to stay together, right? Also... There’s only one bed.” Suddenly, he had a vigilant look on his face as he asked, “You wouldn’t try anything strange, would you?”

At first, he'd thought that it would be fine for them to stay together since the room would be large. After all, it wasn’t as if they hadn't stayed in the same cave earlier. But this was such a small place and there was only a single bed. How were they supposed to stay here?

Shang Hongyu’s eyes suddenly went red. Tears fell from her eyes like pearls... That wasn’t just flowery language, it was a realistic description. When her tears landed on the ground, they really did form pearls one after another!

In the past, Zu An had heard about the legends of mermaids, but seeing it for himself was still quite shocking.

“Could it be that I really am such a fickle woman, someone who doesn’t know honor and shame?” Shang Liuyu replied.

Zu An was a bit apologetic. “I was joking just now. Even though your highness isn’t quite the same as the rumors, you're just a bit more lively and passionate. You aren’t that type of woman.”

In reality, even though she found a lot of joy in teasing him, whenever he really did pretend to do something, she was more alarmed than anyone else.

Shang Hongyu rubbed her teary eyes and asked, “Do you know what the hardest part is for you to impersonate the Dragon King?”

Zu An replied seriously, “My words and bearing don’t match the Dragon King?”

Shang Hongyu shook her head. “That’s not it. Even though that’s difficult, I believe that you’re smart and capable. You’ll be able to learn quickly while traveling together.”

“Then what is it?” Zu An asked, stunned.

Shang Hongyu gave him a deep look before slowly saying, “It’s your relationship with me, of course.”

Zu An was stunned. Then, he began to think to himself. He understood what she was trying to say.

Shang Hongyu continued, “The Dragon King and I are husband and wife, so a lot of the interaction between us happens naturally. However, what we have is fake. Even if we just touch each other slightly, we might inadvertently slip up. At that time, how could we fool those sharp individuals in the Dragon Palace? How could we make them stand at our side? On top of that, you'd have no way of succeeding in your plans at the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons.”

Zu An sighed and said, “What you’re saying makes sense. But how do I imitate the feeling of being husband and wife with you?”

“That’s why I wanted us to stay in the same room. This trip to Jadewave Ocean Region will take roughly half a month. In that time, we’ll be around each other all the time and foster that intimacy. At the very least, you can’t become so nervous just because I touch your arm, right?” Shang Hongyu looked at him with a firm expression. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I'll definitely uncover that fake Dragon King’s conspiracy. For the sake of the Dragon King, for the sake of the Ocean races, this sacrifice isn’t a big deal at all.”

When he sensed that awe-inspiring bearing coming out from her, Zu An started to blush with shame.

What she carries is a great love for the Ocean races, and yet what am I randomly thinking about here?

As such, he said with a serious tone, “I was the one who was too inflexible. I'll do my best to cooperate and learn, to the point that there are no mistakes.”

Shang Hongyu's reaction finally turned from tears to laughter. She raised her hand and said, “Then I will first teach you the Dragon Palace’s etiquette. Hold my hand.”

Zu An walked over. As soon as he reached out his hand, Shang Hongyu frowned and said, “Your mask is really ugly. You should just restore your real appearance.”

Zu An figured that made sense. Normal women didn’t like strange men touching their bodies to begin with, let alone a noble queen.

When she saw him recover his original appearance, Shang Hongyu removed her mask as well, revealing her beautiful oval-shaped face. Then, she took out the two buns around her waist and tossed them aside. “You have no idea how stuffy these were! They kept poking me and it was really uncomfortable.”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Zu An chuckled and said, “You need to get used to this outfit too. We’re going to be on this ship for a while.”

“How about we just don’t leave this room?” As she spoke, Shang Hongyu grabbed his arm naturally, continuing, “We’ll start with the basics. This is the way that the Dragon King and I walk when there is an important ceremony in the Dragon Palace...”

The two of them leaned against each other intimately. A light blush inadvertently appeared on Shang Hongyu’s neck.

Zu An couldn't help but feel alarmed when she held his hand. He could feel an astonishingly soft sensation.

This Mermaid Queen’s body really is amazing...

But he quickly focused. She was shouldering such a grand mission, so how could he ruin her noble goal? As such, he focused on listening to her explanation, fixing all sorts of mistakes as she instructed him step by step.

A while later, Shang Hongyu said with surprise, “Your talent is exceptional after all; you were able to learn properly so quickly! There are only a few more details regarding this etiquette that you need to pay attention to. We’ll practice it often, and then you should be able to master it fully.”

“That’s good.” Zu An wiped away the fine sweat on his forehead. They had only covered some walking just now, and yet he felt even more tired than after hours of swordplay.

Of course, it was mainly because he was trying to control his thoughts. After all, such a beautiful woman was sticking to him warmly, and she had a special status. Not only was she the Ocean races’ queen, she was also Shang Liuyu’s older sister. Regardless of which identity she had, he absolutely couldn't allow himself to have any bad thoughts.

But sometimes, the more one thought that way, the more one tried to control it, the more often it would have the opposite effects. Only someone like Zu An, whose cultivation was high enough and who already trained his will to be incredibly strong, could barely resist this temptation.

“Then let’s study the next thing. Come here and hold my waist.” While Shang Hongyu spoke, her heart started beating really fast. However, she kept her tone calm as if it was completely fine.

“Huh?” Zu An was stunned. He hadn’t expected there to be something like this too.

“What's that 'huh' about? Didn’t you hold me really easily yesterday at the restaurant?” Shang Hongyu glared at him in annoyance.