Huangfu Jun watched Bai Lin go through several movements in that one second, along with that affected sigh. Even his handsome face seemed a bit speechless. She barely suppressed the overwhelming urge to retort and cast a cold sidelong glance at Bai Lin. For a moment, neither of them spoke. They floated silently in the deep, icy water, the atmosphere strange. Bai Lin's feelings were completely different; he was delighted to finally see her not so sharp-tongued. He turned his head and gazed into the deep seabed. The surrounding currents seemed to have a life of their own, sometimes brushing gently past their bodies, sometimes surging urgently, pushing them to drift and sway. Huangfu Jun hovered in the still seawater, watching Bai Lin's passive-aggressive demeanor, growing increasingly irritated. With a cold face and gritting her teeth, she said, "Are you mocking me? If so, I might start cursing." Seeing her adorable little face full of anger, with absolutely no respect for him, Bai Lin's lips curled up slightly. This barely perceptible smile was like a provocation in Huangfu Jun's eyes; the little flames in her eyes grew and blazed. Her hand at her side unconsciously clenched into a fist, as if about to swing at that handsome face. Bai Lin, still smiling, gently took hold of Huangfu Jun's fist, gently straightened her fingers, and then led her to swim upward. The gesture seemed to soothe a child throwing a minor tantrum, yet carried a unique tenderness. Tenderness? Huangfu Jun was startled by the thought that popped into her head. Seeing Bai Lin leading her upward without a word, her anger still stuck in her chest, she tried to pull her hand back twice but failed. Bai Lin soothed her by rubbing her wrist. Huangfu Jun's movements stiffened, and then she went rigid as a board, letting Bai Lin lead her, her eyes fixed hotly on the back of his head. They rose slowly, the surrounding light gradually brightening. Sensing Huangfu Jun's mood, Bai Lin showed rare patience, his voice calm and gentle: "Juanjuan is not Jiangxue's daughter. She is actually Dragon King Jiangxue's wife." Bai Lin spoke slowly, his gaze fixed into the distance, as if traversing time back to that shocking disaster. "In the distant past, a terrible catastrophe suddenly struck. Dragon King Jiangxue, as the powerful guardian of this sea, stepped forward without hesitation. With unparalleled courage and strength, he shouldered everything alone. His wife, another red dragon, also possessed extraordinary abilities." "At the final moment of that fierce battle, the North Sea dragon clan suffered a great defeat. Dragon King Jiangxue and his wife faced an overwhelming disaster." "At the critical juncture, Dragon King Jiangxue sealed his wife inside a dugong's body. It was not an abandonment but a form of protection. In a sense, his wife had never truly died. In her own way, she tenaciously lived on within the dugong's body." "However, the brutality of war far exceeded imagination. The immense impact and the prolonged expenditure of demonic energy to sustain her husband's last shred of consciousness caused Juanjuan's body to suffer severe damage. The life that had been gestating in her womb regretfully perished in that endless suffering." "This huge blow shattered her last mental defenses. Gradually, her consciousness became blurred. In the end, she could not resist the erosion of the dugong's original soul and merged with it. From then on, neither the dugong nor the red dragon existed in a strict sense. They became a special entity—a strange dugong-type monster possessing the Jiangxue Flame of the red dragon, which is the Juanjuan we see now." "Time flowed, years passed. This special dugong met the octopus monster Zhang Yu in the vast sea. Zhang Yu was gentle and kind by nature, and they quickly became very good monster friends. Slowly, Zhang Yu discovered that Juanjuan had a secret even she didn't know. Every ten years, she would lose consciousness and become an ordinary dugong. But miraculously, when she woke up again, her demonic power would become exceptionally strong." "So they agreed to meet every ten years. Each time they met, Juanjuan was at her peak demonic power. They would spar with each other using their abilities, a magnificent sight. Not only that, but Juanjuan could also summon the most beautiful auroras, their colorful light illuminating the entire sea." "Thus, no one knows how many decades passed. When Zhang Yu came to this familiar sea again, he found that Juanjuan, who should have regained her demonic power, was still in dugong form, with a huge steel harpoon piercing her chest." Huangfu Jun stood quietly, everything around her seeming to fall silent. She lifted her head slightly, gazing at the faint barrier in the distance, a trace of unutterable bitterness in her eyes. Slowly, she spoke: "Juanjuan was ambushed by humans when she was weakest, wasn't she? When she was most vulnerable and defenseless, humans took the opportunity to kill her. Although she escaped with her tenacious vitality, she was nonetheless on the verge of death." Bai Lin stood quietly beside her, nodding slightly, his eyes shifting sideways toward the mysterious barrier. His gaze was deep and distant, as if through that barrier, he could see many hidden secrets. After a moment of silence, he said softly, "Zhang Yu tried desperately to save Juanjuan. He was frantic, exhausting every method, but he was not skilled in resurrection sorcery. In desperation, all he could do was carefully keep Juanjuan's body from decaying. Perhaps it was due to the special demonic power within Juanjuan, or perhaps the protection sorcery of Dragon King Jiangxue for his wife had activated again. Even though her body was dead, Juanjuan still retained a last shred of consciousness energy." "Zhang Yu had lived long enough in the ocean and had many, many friends. But after Juanjuan, one after another, friends died at human hands. Some, like Juanjuan, were hybrid offspring of animals and monsters—coral monsters, shark monsters—and some were ordinary sea creatures with no special abilities. Because of this, Zhang Yu developed a deep hatred for humans, even going so far as to do things that harmed humans." Huangfu Jun listened quietly, her lips pressed together, images involuntarily surfacing in her mind. She seemed to see Zhang Yu's lonely and helpless figure in the ocean, surrounded by his friends who had passed away one after another. Among those friends, some, like Juanjuan, were hybrid offspring of animals and monsters, who should have lived freely in this vast ocean. The colorful bodies of coral monsters turned cold and stiff; the once powerful eyes of shark monsters lost their luster. Their lives had been extinguished at human hands. Huangfu Jun couldn't help but think of scenes from movies: on stormy nights, enormous sea monsters emerging from the dark deep sea, attacking human fishing boats ferociously. The terrified eyes of the sailors, their desperate cries, and the monsters' furious attacks all made her heart pound. A sense of oppression filled her chest. As a former human, she could understand the fear humans felt when monsters' sparring caused tsunamis and tremors, and she could understand humanity's ambitious drive to develop the ocean—the tremendous destructive power came with enormous profit. That was technological progress, mankind's groundbreaking exploration of the unknown. But as a half-demon new to the world of monsters, she also understood the anger of sea monsters whose homes were increasingly encroached upon and whose friends were constantly being harmed. From each side's standpoint, both behaviors were justified; they were for the development of their own kind. But she, caught between humans and monsters, couldn't avoid the tug-of-war of her dual identity. After a long while, she slowly exhaled and said, "So Director Zhang got noticed by the Monster Bureau?" Bai Lin nodded slightly.
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