Chapter 1732: Cooperation

“I wonder.”

Feng Qingyou smiled brilliantly at the young girl. “If this was any other time, then you would be right. It would be difficult for us to track down the Heavenly Feather City. But it’s different now.”

Feng Qingyou’s smile made the girl feel nervous for some reason. “What... What do you mean?”

“You went missing, remember?” Feng Qingyou answered. “Your parents must be searching all over the world for you right now. In fact, I dare say that the guardians searching for you are very close by. If we meet up with them, we’ll naturally get to enter the Heavenly Feather City and find your parents. Don’t you agree?”

The young girl’s eyes widened in shock and panic. “You... you...”

“Of course, it is possible that your guardians may not be in this region.”

Feng Qingyou added, and the girl’s eyes lit up with hope. However, Feng Qingyou mercilessly snuffed it out the next second, “But don’t forget, we are all Sages. It is all too easy for us to track down who we want, especially since they’re hardly trying to hide themselves.”

“You... You...!”

The girl stared at the beautiful woman before her like she was a demon.

“But of course, we’re not at that point yet.” Feng Qingyou leisurely continued her persuasion, “You still have time to make the right choice. You can still choose to cooperate with us. After all, we don’t want to waste our time if possible.”

This time, the girl nodded like a parrot. “I agree! I’ll cooperate with you!”

Dignity? Pride? The heck is that? She wasn’t done playing yet. No way she was going home until then!

The trio exchanged knowing smiles with each other. “Our condition hasn’t changed. As long as you tell us everything you know about Dong Ji, we promise to take you to Dong Ji and protect you to the best of our abilities.”

“Okay. I promise.” The girl nodded without hesitation before blinking innocently. “But promise me that you won’t lie to me!”

Ye Qing chuckled. “Do I look like that kind of person?”

The girl nodded honestly. “You don’t look like one, you

are

one!”

Ye Qing rubbed his nose. Well, there was nothing he could say against that.

Feng Qingyou smiled. “You may not believe him, but you can believe me. I’ve never lied to you, have I?”

Looking at Feng Qingyou’s brilliant smile, the girl’s wariness and anxiety slowly disappeared. “Okay. I believe you.”

Feng Qingyou held out her hand and said, “A pleasure to work with you.”

The girl grabbed it and shook it. “A pleasure to work with you.”

Now that they had arrived at a consensus, the tension in the air loosened, and Ye Qing asked, “Oh right, we haven’t gotten your name yet.”

“I’m Lingyu[1]. Just call me Little Yu,” The girl answered. “That’s how my parents call me as well.”

“Got it.”

After the trio responded affirmatively, Old Man Turtle asked urgently, “You mentioned that all we need to do to counteract the effects of the Remnant Scent is to obtain the Forever Stink Fruit. Is that true?”

“Of course it’s true.” Lingyu side-eyed Ye Qing and said in an aggrieved tone, “I’m not like a certain liar.”

Ye Qing automatically filtered her gaze and her words out of his mind, unmoved.

Old Man Turtle asked, “Does that mean I can retrieve my memories then?”

Lingyu answered honestly, “No. The Forever Stink Fruit can shield you and counteract the effects of the Remnant Scent, but once you’ve lost your memories, then it’s too late. It cannot restore what is already lost.”

Old Man Turtle felt a bit disappointed, but he kept asking, “Is there a way to restore my memories then?”

Ling Yu thought for a moment before answering, “There is, but it will be troublesome.”

Old Man Turtle’s eyes lit up. “Tell me.”

Ling Yu answered, “You’ll need a Merfolk Pearl, a Phoenix Bull Tear, and a Seastone Stamen. You must mix them with the blood of the Nine Glory Spirit Fish before swallowing it. Only then can you retrieve the memories you’ve lost due to the Remnant Scent.”

“Merfolk Pearl, Phoenix Bull Tear, Seastone Stamen, Nine Glory Spirit Fish?”

The trio exchanged somewhat serious glances with each other. It probably did not need to be said, but none of the items she mentioned were ordinary or easy to obtain.

Everyone knew that a merfolk’s tears could turn into priceless pearls. However, there was something even more valuable than a merfolk’s tear: the Merfolk Pearl.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The Merfolk Pearl was the origin of life of the merfolk. The equivalent of a human heart, each merman or mermaid only possessed one merfolk pearl. If they lost it, then they would lose their origin of life and perish instantly.

In other words, every Merfolk Pearl represented a merfolk’s life.

There was a time where humans massacred many merfolk to obtain the Merfolk Pearl and drastically reduced their population. Although such activities had ceased a long time ago, their population remained small, and the large majority of them chose to hid themselves in the deep sea. For obvious reasons, they rarely appeared before humans.

This should explain why finding a merfolk and obtaining a Merfolk Pearl was not going to be easy.

A Phoenix Bull Tear was the tear of a Phoenix Bull. A Disaster-class Stranger, a Phoenix Bull was a bull with fish scales and phoenix wings. In the sea, it could stir up waves and boil the water. In the sky, it inhaled and exhaled clouds and soared the skies freely.

Of course, it wasn’t a Phoenix Bull’s strength that presented a problem. It was the fact that they were even rarer and more mysterious than the merfolk. Finding it would be no less difficult than finding the merfolk.

If a Merfolk Pearl and a Phoenix Bull Tear was difficult to procure because the creatures who possessed them were difficult to locate, then the Seastone Stamen was difficult to procure because it was powerful and deadly.

The Seastone Stamen was the stamen of a Seastone Flower. An Ancient-class Anomaly, the Seastone Flower grew tens of thousands of meters below the sea surface at the bottom of the sea. It was shaped like a rock and big like a hill. It spanned dozens of kilometers beneath the sea.

The stamen of a Seastone Flower was shaped like a vine and exceedingly tough. Few things could damage it, and any flesh-and-blood being that got close to it would be caught and devoured.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Seastone Flower contained a deadly poison that could threaten even a Sage. If they were caught by its vines, they would fall asleep in just a short moment and become completely helpless.

But of course, anything that could be resolved with their fists wasn’t really a problem to the group. Besides, the Seastone Flower wasn’t difficult to find. For them, it was the easiest item to obtain of the four.

The most troublesome item to obtain wasn’t the Merfolk Pearl, Phoenix Bull Tear, or the Seastone Stamen though. It was the normal-sounding Nine Glory Spirit Fish.

It was because the Nine Glory Spirit Fish possessed the “positive qualities” of the other three items. To put it simply, it was both rare and deadly.

Although it was called a fish, the Nine Glory Spirit Fish did not live in the sea. It lived in the space beyond the nine heavens.

Born from the spiritual qi of the celestial bodies, the Nine Glory Spirit Fish was a natural spirit creature. That was why it was exceedingly rare and profound. Only the exceedingly fortunate could see it, much less obtain it.

Not only that, the Nine Glory Spirit Fish was an Ancient-class Stranger. It could change its size at will, becoming as small as a mustard sea or as big as a dragon. In space, it could endlessly draw power from the surrounding celestial bodies. It was extraordinarily powerful to say the least.

This was why the Nine Glory Spirit Fish was the hardest item to obtain of the four.

Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou looked at Old Man Turtle. This was his decision to make.

1. Spirit Feather lol. ☜