Chapter 31

A Couple in Mianman

What had happened...

For a moment, time seemed to stand still. The embrace didn’t last long, and soon, he pushed me away and turned around, saying coldly, “I won’t mind your short life. But if you become a water demon, I won’t care about you no matter how long you live.”

In nearly forty years of knowing Master, this was the first time I had heard him speak like this. Sure enough, I had done something wrong again. Logically, I should have passed the most mischievous age, and I shouldn’t have annoyed him anymore. However, recently, I had always been unreasonable, making him unhappy, then blaming myself, and then doing even more foolish things, making him unhappy again, and then blaming myself again...

In fact, the thing I feared most was being disliked by him, but I always had a way of messing things up.

That night, the moon was bright and the winter was deep, with a cold wind blowing and fine snow falling like woven gray cloth. Looking out at the vast sea, I saw several water demons washing their scales.

I didn’t even bother to wipe my tears, letting them freeze into ice, and then I heard him say, “I have only one question: do you want to return to Tian Shi City with me? If you do, I’ll pretend nothing happened; if you don’t, our master-disciple relationship is over, and we’ll cut off all ties from now on.”

I looked up at him, struggled for a long time, and finally nodded, “Disciple will never do it again.”

“That’s good.”

I looked at the junction of the sky and the sea, “But Master, today is the sixth day of my transformation, and I’m afraid it’s too late now...”

He turned around and smiled faintly, “In all the heavens, what can be difficult for your Master?”

Then, he held a ball of light in his hand and threw it at me. I hardly felt any pain, and my body returned to its original form. However, because I had consumed too much energy as a demon, I felt exhausted. Yin Ze said, “Isn’t this much better? Why bother to go through all that trouble to become a demon?”

Before I could reply, a long white shadow swam out of the seaweed and turned into a human form. The snow serpent stood between us and said, “I have something to say to Divine Lord Yin Ze.”

The snow serpent’s request was as audacious as swatting a fly on a lion’s head. Yin Ze, who had probably never seen such a bold demon, glanced at him indifferently but didn’t reply.

The snow serpent seemed a little afraid and leaned towards me, whispering, “So, I helped Miss Luo Wei so much, and Miss Luo Wei is going back on her word like this?”

I apologized, “I’m sorry. I still don’t want to become a demon.”

The snow serpent said, “It doesn’t matter, if you really don’t want to, I won’t force you. However, according to the rules of our snake clan, if one party cannot keep their promise, the other party should do one thing for them.”

“Since I owe you a favor, I will naturally follow your rules.” I thought for a moment and said, “Just don’t make it too difficult, I have limited abilities.”

“Very well, that’s straightforward.” The snow serpent waved his fan, looking completely at ease, “I want to eat cold nine-colored clam for a drink.”

“Cold nine-colored clam? Why have I never heard of this dish...”

The snow serpent said, “Miss Luo Wei is a person from the upper realm, naturally you haven’t heard of this famous dish of the East Sea.”

Yin Ze said, “Simple. I’ll have the East Sea Dragon King send someone over with one.”

The snow serpent hurriedly said, “No, no, no, don’t alarm the East Sea Dragon King! I don’t want to offend the Dragon King for such a small matter. Even if he endures it today for the sake of the Divine Lord, he will come to trouble our snow serpent clan in the future. Besides, the clams in the Dragon King’s palace are not authentic.”

Yin Ze sneered, “You’re so picky about the food in the Dragon King’s palace, your tastes are really high.”

The snow serpent smacked his lips, “Not only that, I haven’t finished. If I’m drinking, I want the Flowing Cloud Fine Wine, otherwise the clam won’t be as delicious.”

“I think you’re tired of living.”

“Wow, that’s scary.” The snow serpent hid behind me and acted coquettishly, “Miss Luo Wei, you are a person of your word, but your Master wants to kill me, what should I do...”

I said, “Mas-Master...”

Yin Ze frowned, “Where to go to get this dish, tell me quickly, don’t waste time.”

This snow serpent was really a difficult guy to serve. It was bad enough that he liked to eat seafood, but he also had to eat such a difficult-to-prepare seafood.

The colorful clam was a specialty of the East Sea, very rare, with tender and juicy meat, and the more colors it had, the better. Initially, the seven-colored clam was the rarest kind, and only the dragon palace nobility could enjoy it daily. Until a hundred years ago, a mermaid discovered a cave in a small town in the East Sea. The geographical location of the cave was unique and strange, with colorful bands of light penetrating the seabed all year round. At the same time, they also found nine-colored clams in it. Since then, the nine-colored clam has replaced the seven-colored clam and become the most luxurious delicacy in the Dragon Palace. Because it had only appeared in the past hundred years, even Yin Ze knew little about it.

The snow serpent only gave us a tattered map, pointed to a small dot on it, and said that there was a small island there, where there was a mermaid chef who was the best at making this dish in the entire East Sea. The person we were looking for was her.

At this moment, we followed our usual routine: I pulled Master’s robe and flew with him to the small island indicated on the map. The island was only a few dozen meters in diameter, and there was no one on it except a kitchen made of red coral.

When we got closer, we saw two lines of words written on it. The first line was: “Those who wish to cook nine-colored clams must first obtain the ingredients. Without nine-colored clams, what kind of nine-colored dish can be made.”

The second line was: “The old woman only appears at midnight.”

We had come all this way for nothing. I was at a loss, but Yin Ze had already made a decision, “Let’s go find the nine-colored clams first.”

“Master knows where the nine-colored clams are?”

“I don’t know.”

I deflated, “The East Sea is so vast, where are we going to find...”

“Follow me to the seabed first, I have a way.”

“Under the sea?” I stretched out my hands and slapped my face, “Master, you should have changed me back later. Now I can’t move in the sea anymore...”

Not being able to go underwater was indeed a very tricky matter. But I forgot that Master had said that there was nothing in the world that could trouble his Master, and this was definitely a golden rule. I saw him wave his sleeve lightly, and although there was no change in my body, I no longer felt cold, and when I entered the water, I could breathe like a water demon. Under the sea, we found a palace that covered an area of hundreds of miles. He threw a few shiny shells to the gatekeeper crab and took me inside.

It turned out to be a library. The books under the sea were completely different from our books. The pages were made of huge, thin scallops strung together, and the covers were inlaid with pearls, with the titles and authors engraved on them. He stood in front of the cabinet labeled “Cooking”, stretched out his right hand, and with a light flick of his index finger wearing a green jade ring, all the books on the top shelf flew out and lined up in front of him.

With a flick of his index finger to the right, the pages flipped rapidly. In the blink of an eye, he had finished reading a book, and the book flew back into the cabinet and lined up behind the second one... While I was still amazed, he had finished reading a layer of books and pulled out the second layer to form a long line. At that moment, in the huge library, there was only the crisp sound of the shells flipping.

Until he pulled out the fourth layer, he found the recipe and the source of the ingredients for the cold nine-colored clam. He put all the books back in the cabinet and then went to the cabinet labeled “Geography”, flipped through the top layer, and stopped on a page. After a while, he put the book back in the cabinet and said, “Let’s go.”

“Oh, okay, okay.” Sure enough, gods were different from us mortals...

Half an hour later, we arrived at an underwater town. There was a winding path in front of the town, and there was a stone tablet in front of the path with the words “Mianman Town” written on it. The path was full of sea anemones of various colors, including crimson, purplish red, iris, peony, and vine purple. When we walked past, these sea anemones would also bloom and sway like willow catkins in the water.

But we were not the only ones who came here. There were mermaid couples, dressed in silk clothes, coming from all directions, heading towards the town. I stood there and watched for a while, then suddenly pulled on Yin Ze’s robe, “Master, it seems like they are celebrating a festival.”

“It seems so,” Yin Ze was the first to approach and asked a mermaid couple.

“Today is our Nixi Festival, and Mianman Town is always the place to celebrate. Only lovers can enter hand in hand.” The mermaid man smiled, “Foreigners can also participate, but your clothes are probably not suitable. Look, there are people from your upper realm.”

He pointed to a couple of immortals not far away. They were also wearing mermaid clothes and were holding hands as they walked into the town. There were so many rules to celebrate a mermaid festival. We found a tailor shop, bought a set of clothes, and went behind the curtain to change.

After changing, I turned around in front of the mirror and my eyes lit up with excitement: the person in the mirror was wearing wide-sleeved short skirts, silver-scaled short boots, and plain fish-wing shoulders. The whole outfit was made of light blue silk, with turquoise wings pinned to the temples and black hair hanging down. Both the hair and the gauze fluttered like sea anemones in the water. I held my face and shyly twisted in front of the mirror, pulling the skirt down a little.

The mermaid’s clothes were so beautiful, and I imagined that the mermaid women must be very beautiful. I wondered if Master would swim around the seabed and bring a mermaid back...

As I parted the curtain and poked my head out, I found many foreign visitors in the shop buying clothes, but I instantly caught sight of the most eye-catching figure. The man was standing in front of the shopkeeper, wearing the same clothes as me, but it looked more masculine: a narrow-sleeved silk shirt, black trousers, a more upright fish-wing shoulder, and silver-scaled long boots that reached the knee. His long black hair was scattered over his waist, and he wore mermaid turquoise wings above his ears.

What was most eye-catching were his silver long boots, how could they be so slender and so long!

However, he was also discussing the boots with the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper said, “Young master, this is already the longest pair in our shop, you can just make do with it.”

“Can’t you make a new pair? If it doesn’t cover my knees, it’s still a long boot.”

Hearing this voice, I almost fell to the ground—it was Master! I had always seen him wearing a long robe, and I knew he had a long and slender figure, but I didn’t expect his lower body to be so good.

Seeing that he was up to his old tricks again, I quickly ran over and grabbed his arm, dragging him away, “Master, we came here to find the nine-colored clams, since we won’t be wearing it for long, just don’t be picky, let’s go.”

Yin Ze looked down at me, and I looked up at him, and we both froze for a moment. After that, I jumped back as if I had touched a cactus, retreated quietly, and swam forward silently. I really didn’t understand why I was so nervous. These two sets of clothes were a pair, didn’t we know that before we bought them?

However, I wasn’t the only one who felt strange. Master’s eyes looking at me were also a little strange. Sure enough, seniority and age didn’t matter. I secretly vowed in my heart that as soon as we got out of the sea, I would immediately change out of this outfit.

We swam to the entrance of Mianman Town one after the other. Looking in from here, there were hundreds of houses, coral columns, jade towers, pearl platforms, snow-white fan covers, and giant fish and turtles everywhere, with grains growing in the sea palace.

I was so excited that I forgot to blink, and I turned around and said, “Master, Master, let’s go in quickly...”

Before I could finish speaking, he had come over and took my hand. I was stunned for a moment, and then all the blood in my body boiled, almost boiling the seawater. “Mas-Mas-Master...”

“Don’t you have to hold hands when you go in? Let’s go.” He seemed quite calm and pulled me into the town.

Mianman Town was truly a fairyland in the sea. We swam with the crowd of mermaids, and along the way, we saw countless splendid buildings. Precious fish turned over waves, jellyfish danced with their tentacles, just like dancers proudly shaking their skirts. Seeing a small red fish swim past me, I reached out and grabbed it in the water, but it swam away very quickly, darting far away.

I couldn’t help but chase after it with my claws, but my other hand was pulled back by a powerful force. Looking back, Yin Ze was looking at me indifferently, without saying a word, but his eyes clearly said “don’t run around”. I immediately restrained myself and stayed closer to him, but the distance between the two of us seemed a little too close. I wanted to swim farther away, but I was afraid he would scold me, so I could only hang my head and let him hold my hand tightly.

So, this is what Master’s fingers feel like. This is what it feels like to hold hands with him...

Not long after, we found the legendary cave. It had been converted into a nine-colored clam cultivation hall, and there were indeed colorful rays of light shining down from above. Yin Ze easily knocked out the guards with a spell and quickly took a pile of nine-colored clams. I was still shocked that Master was stealing in broad daylight, and he had already taken my hand again and swam out of Mianman Town.

Watching him swim with his long legs and agile figure, his long hair swaying with the deep blue seawater, and the bridge of his nose on his side profile as straight as a snow peak, I once again sincerely felt in my heart that Master was really beautiful. However, it was rare for Master to make a mistake. In fact, he could have simply swum to the surface, but why did he have to hold my hand and swim out of Mianman Town?

However, as soon as we left Mianman Town, he let go of my hand and changed it to me holding his robe, and he led the way. While swimming from Mianman Town to the small island, I kept wondering about one thing: being dragged around like this by Master, I didn’t feel annoyed at all, on the contrary, I wished it could continue like this. Why was that? It seemed that I really liked Master very much, and I was a good disciple.

However, Master was not a good master. Before I surfaced, he canceled the spell on me, and I happened to be inhaling and took a big gulp of seawater, coughing and splashing out of the water.

He didn’t regret it at all, but instead said disdainfully, “You’re too slow.”

By now, it was already dark. Leaving the seawater, I was cold and uncomfortable, shivering and coughing as I walked towards the shore. But as soon as I got behind Yin Ze, I tripped over a stone, lost my footing, and fell straight into his arms. He quickly reached out to catch me, and we almost embraced each other.

“Be careful.” His voice sounded in my ear, so deep and youthful, not at all like Master’s voice, which made my heart flutter for a moment. Compared to this, the sound of the waves crashing on the shore seemed to be ten thousand miles away.

I nodded vigorously, and as soon as I stood up, I tried to hurry away from him, but something grabbed my clothes, preventing me from escaping. Looking down, I found that the ornament on his mermaid clothing had hooked onto my chest and had torn a long gash. At this moment, the moon was over the sea, washing the land for thousands of miles, the waves lapping against the shore, and the soft sand grinding against the stones, illuminating both of us in silver light.

Because of the backlight, I couldn’t see clearly, so I deliberately adjusted our positions so that I was facing the moonlight. Who would have thought that as soon as I did, I wanted to die: my clothes were made of light gauze, and after being soaked in seawater, they had lost all shape. They were wet and thin, clinging to my body, and the only difference between it and being naked was the slight difference in color between the clothes and my skin.

I heard my heart lurch and looked up at Yin Ze, only to find that he was as dumbfounded as I was by this situation.

Seeing me looking at him, he averted his gaze and ordered, “Untie it.”

I felt my ears burn instantly, and I quickly reached out to untie the ornament, but I didn’t expect my fingers to be so cold that they couldn’t move normally, and they trembled all the time. With a “sizzling” sound, the original tear was pulled even wider.

Seeing a large expanse of white skin exposed to the moonlight, I felt like my face was whiter than the moon.

“…What are you doing?”

Yin Ze pushed my hand away and untied the ornament himself. This short period of time felt incredibly long. He was very careful not to touch my skin, but I could hear his breathing heavier than usual. At this moment, even the slightest movement of the clothes made my whole body extremely sensitive.

If it were any other time, if other men looked at me a few more times, I would feel deeply offended and want to punch them hard. But at this moment, with Master so close to me, I didn’t feel the slightest bit displeased.

On the contrary, deep down, there was a kind of expectation, a hope that he would do something more. As for what, I dared not think about it.

Just having such a thought made me feel guilty and uncomfortable for a long time.

“Alright.”

His voice was hoarse, as if the words were coming straight from his throat. After he finished speaking, his Adam’s apple bobbed, but the movement was not very obvious. However, my heart was about to explode... No, even if you gave me ten more hearts, I couldn’t take it.

He threw my previous clothes to me, “Put this on.”

Finally, he let go of me and turned around, as if looking at me any longer would shorten his life. I took the clothes and hid behind a rock. Changing clothes and washing was a daily routine, but when I took off that layer of gauze, knelt on the beach, and washed the sand off my body with seawater, I felt stiff all over and my head was buzzing, as if the person changing clothes was not me.

At this moment, the sea was as dark as night, and the blue waves stretched for thousands of miles. I dared not look at Master’s back for a moment.

I thought that the situation couldn’t be more embarrassing. Unexpectedly, in the dead of night, a young lady laughed and said, “What an unromantic man, the little girl’s face is so red, even I can’t help but feel lustful, and you’re still sitting there like a piece of wood?”