Near the shipping lane between the Kingdom of Summer and Ender, on an uninhabited deserted island.
The King leaned against a tree, looking at the drenched Soldiers around him, feeling as if everything that had just happened was a dream.
The monarch of the Kingdom of Summer could not even believe that he was still alive.
The howling gale, the icy rain, the deafening thunder, all the terrifying sights seemed not to have gone far, appearing repeatedly in his memory.
"I never thought that a group of merfolk would save us. It seems merfolk are indeed not the evil creatures said in legends to bring disaster."
The Sea King and the other merfolk rescued the King and everyone else on the ship. Everyone survived, no one perished in this terrifying storm.
They brought the King and his party to the shore and naturally began to converse with them.
The merfolk told stories of the sea, and curiously asked the humans about affairs on land.
This sounded very interesting.
An astonishing scene appeared on the shore of this deserted island—
Hundreds of humans gathered on the beach, while in the sea in front, there were hundreds of merfolk, exchanging stories of the scenery on land and in the sea.
In the history of the Sea Kingdom, such a scene had never occurred.
Many humans only learned today that they had too many misconceptions about the merfolk of the deep sea.
Beneath that deep blue sea, there was a magnificent, fantastical, and beautiful kingdom that they did not understand.
Those merfolk were similar creatures to them; they had similar emotions, they would love, hate, be sad, suffer, and also have moments of joy.
Except for their legs and fish tails, and the difference in their homes, land and sea. How much difference was there between merfolk and humans?
The Sea King told the Human King his next plan:
"We can drive giant sea beasts. In the sea, they are like… uh, what is that animal called on land, a horse, right? But they are much bigger than horses!
"After some time, my servants will summon those big fish and sea snakes from the Sea Country, and you can ride on the backs of those sea beasts and let them drag you back to your country!"
The King was overjoyed when he heard this:
"The natives of the great sea are truly wondrous. This is much more convenient than human ships!"
During this recent period, the King felt that chatting with this monarch of the sea was a very pleasant experience. This monarch of the sea was not like those kings on land who liked to put on airs and always had many hypocritical thoughts.
"By the way, it will take some time to mobilize that batch of large sea beasts," the Sea King added.
"It's rare to have such an opportunity to meet a large group of humans, O King of the land, how about coming to my palace as a guest?"
The Sea King's palace?
The deep-sea palace beneath sea?
The King almost thought he had misheard, then heard the Sea King say:
"We have a way here to allow humans from land to go into the sea, though it is limited to only a dozen or so people. Your Majesty can choose your most loyal attendants to come to my palace as guests."
Suddenly, a large fish surfaced on the sea, its belly as transparent as pure glass.
—This was an idea the Sea King had after Rhine and Aurora's visit to the deep-sea palace.
He searched the deep sea for various strange and bizarre fish that humans on land had never seen, and finally found a type of fish suitable for transportation that could allow humans to travel to the Sea Kingdom.
"Thank you for your invitation, esteemed Monarch of the Sea!" The King's face lit up with joy.
He had been to many places on land, to snowy glaciers and verdant forests, climbed to the tops of mountains, watching layers of clouds flow beneath his feet, but had never seen a kingdom in the sea!
The King then selected a dozen loyal attendants and Soldiers and entered the belly of the large fish serving as transportation.
The large fish slowly submerged into the sea.
…
"Ah!"
A painful scream echoed from a street in the Ender Imperial City.
The Old Witch's final desperate counterattack was suppressed, and she was bitten in half at the waist by a giant dog, completely dying.
Rhine watched the two severed halves of the corpse fall to the ground one after another.
The next moment, the Little Magician felt that some magic in the city was being mobilized, and strange magical fluctuations appeared nearby.
A contingency plan that a certain Old Witch had set up in this city beforehand was triggered.
From the upper half of the corpse, a translucent, ethereal figure emerged, precisely in the image of the Old Witch.
"Although I am dead, I will not let you go! Just you wait, I have become an evil spirit, a vengeful ghost, but I will still kill all of you. Including that Ender Emperor who abandoned me, I will not let him go either!"
The Old Witch shrieked.
She was now a wandering ghost, most of her memories and human emotions had dissipated, leaving only her obsession from life and an unquenchable resentment.
"Is it a bit annoying? Who made human souls immortal in this world?" Rhine said, hands in his pockets, looking at the Old Witch who had become a vengeful spirit.
The other party had clearly activated a corresponding arrangement at the moment of death, so that after death, her immortal soul did not lose all its memories and travel to other worlds or reincarnate.
Her soul would continue to wander in the present world.
"I have read about similar necromancy in books," Rhine said calmly, "Do you think you still exist like this?"
"You are already dead. Your current wandering form is just an embodiment of resentment, an obsession that still drifts in the human world. You can never generate new goals, nor possess emotions other than hatred."
The Old Witch, who had become a vengeful spirit and lost most of her human thoughts, could not even ponder the questions Rhine posed. She was already filled with pure hatred, and opened her mouth to curse Rhine in front of her.
Suddenly, a dark vortex appeared on the Old Witch's corpse. The vortex did not bring substantial wind pressure, but it seemed to have a peculiar attraction for souls.
The Old Witch's vengeful spirit screamed and was sucked into the vortex, disappearing without a trace.
Rhine slowly approached the Old Witch's corpse.
"After death, her soul was sent to who knows where by a pre-arranged spell…"
Rhine calmly watched the Old Witch's disappearance, not feeling any pity that she still existed in some form after death. He had not yet mastered the magic of imprisoning souls, and indeed could do nothing about it.
In any case, after becoming a vengeful spirit, the Old Witch lost most of her magic from life and could not possess clear thoughts. It was impossible for her to weave any more conspiracies, and she could not have much impact on reality, only able to wander the world by instinct, following her last shred of obsession.
Rhine directed the smallest of the three dogs to search the Old Witch's corpse and retrieve a mirror.
For a Magician, mirrors are usually tools for communicating over long distances, often hiding great secrets.
"It's like checking communication records…"
Rhine recalled some things from his past life and couldn't help but smile. He gently stroked the mirror's surface, activating divination and prophecy magic, and whispered:
"The content of the last image contacted through this mirror."
On the mirror's surface, a tall woman dressed in a black-purple robe appeared.
Although the forcibly reproduced image was extremely blurry, Rhine recognized her cold face at a glance.
Black Witch Maleficent!
Rhine took out a crystal ball and injected more prophetic magic into the mirror.
Maleficent in the image began to move, and past conversations appeared one after another in the mirror.
"What is it again? Didn't you just look for me yesterday? I said, once you achieve your goal, I will allow you to join us…"
"I was just discussing with my sisters what method would be most spectacular and interesting to kill that Sea Hag who is about to be kicked out of our Witch Society…"
"Esteemed Maleficent, I wanted to remind you something about the Magicians of the Rose Kingdom and their warriors. I think they must also be thinking of finding you and killing you to lift the kingdom's curse…"
"…"