At that realization, Gu Baiqing paused for a moment, then suddenly turned around and followed after Yu Chun.
“Master?” Three Bean looked confused.
Gu Baiqing wrote down the words: “Investigate” and “Rescue.”
In the original story, Mo Xuanli had a fierce battle here with the old monsters, and with how things were developing now, that fight was unavoidable—after all, they couldn’t just turn a blind eye to the evil happening here.
Moreover… Gu Baiqing inexplicably trusted Mo Xuanli—trusted that he could find him through their master-disciple bond. If he stayed close to where Fuye was, then in the best-case scenario, they might both make it out alive.
If he pretended not to have heard anything and kept running, then Fuye’s body would end up just like in the original text—appearing amid the ruins of Beast-Taming Manor.
Gu Baiqing knew his current strength was limited and wouldn’t act rashly, but to win, one had to know both oneself and the enemy.
If the opportunity presented itself, saving someone wouldn’t be impossible.
In a critical moment, he could always use a surge of spiritual power. In fact, he had already known that he could forcibly break the collar around his neck by releasing a large amount of spiritual energy, but he feared exhausting himself and fainting—then whatever happened afterward would be unpredictable. That was why he’d chosen a more cautious way to escape.
So, it could be said he still had a trump card.
Three Bean saw that Gu Baiqing’s mind was made up. Though anxious, he had no choice but to follow. He thought at least Ao Hang couldn’t come ashore—as long as he himself stayed away from the sea, it should be safe enough. So he went along with his master’s decision.
What he didn’t expect was that Ao Hang, Mo Xuanli, and Junhua had already arrived near the mountains surrounding Beast-Taming Manor.
Mo Xuanli had confirmed that Gu Baiqing was somewhere inside the mountain, but not knowing his condition, decided they should infiltrate quietly—he couldn’t let the enemy use his master and the others as hostages.
But just as they approached, Ao Hang suddenly stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Junhua asked anxiously.
“There’s a… disgusting stench. I can’t even describe it. Could there be a monster inside?” Ao Hang said.
“Everyone stay sharp. Let’s sneak in first and talk later.” Mo Xuanli had just finished speaking when a flash of golden light flared from Ao Hang’s body—and in the next instant, a small black dragon coiled itself around Mo Xuanli’s shoulder.
The two men and one dragon quickly found an entrance into the mountain and slipped inside.
As soon as they entered, Junhua felt the powerful and familiar aura of mermaid beads—it was like a counterfeit imitation of their sacred site. Their own sanctuary had been built from beads left behind by a pair of merfolk lovers, one who had passed away naturally. But here, the beads were stained with blood, making the spiritual energy far more impure, though abundant.
Faced with the vile actions of Beast-Taming Manor, Junhua could only suppress her fury and press forward.
The manor was in far less stable condition than it appeared—after all, they had just returned from battle, many were injured, and losses were heavy. The leaders were busy managing the aftermath, and guards were few.
For Yu Yingwan, this was the perfect time to sneak deeper inside.
Along the way, she passed many holding cells for captured merfolk. What she saw made her eyes widen in disbelief. She had never known Beast-Taming Manor imprisoned so many merfolk inside the mountain—some had clearly been held for years. She’d known they captured merfolk, but had thought it was mostly for revenge.
Her expression darkened as she finally reached a secret chamber—and there, she saw a familiar figure. Two strange disciples stood guard outside; Yu Yingwan had met their kind before and knew they couldn’t be reasoned with. So this time, she struck first and swiftly knocked them unconscious.
They clearly hadn’t expected anyone from the manor to attack them, so it was easy work.
But the moment she stepped through the door, she froze.
Inside the chamber, there was only one unconscious merfolk—Fuye.
He wore a collar around his neck, his hands and feet bound, his appearance wretched and bloodstained, bearing clear signs of torture. He looked as if he were already dead.
Yu Yingwan’s face tightened. She stepped forward and placed a hand under his nose—there was still a faint breath, so weak it could vanish at any moment. Turning toward the chains, she slowly drew her sword, ready to cut them.
But Fuye suddenly woke with a start—perhaps from the sound of the blade being unsheathed. His body trembled instinctively and curled up. The collar on his neck prevented him from speaking, so he could only open his eyes and look at her.
And in that instant, Yu Yingwan froze.
She remembered clearly that Fuye had once had eyes like a small rabbit’s—clear and pure, unlike anything she’d ever seen, as though the sky and sea were both reflected within them. When frightened, those eyes were filled with a helpless light that made people want to protect him.
But now—the left eye was dulled, its lid drooping as if covered by a film of gray. The right eye… was an empty hollow, oozing pus and blood that seeped out as he tried to open it.
The pain must have been unbearable—he only managed to open it once before shutting it again, staring at Yu Yingwan blankly with his remaining eye.
Yu Yingwan stared back at that eye in silence for a long moment, then wordlessly swung her sword and cut through the chains binding his limbs. Just as she reached to undo the collar around his neck, a sound came from behind her.
“What is Wan’er doing here?” Yu Chun stood at the doorway, smiling mockingly.
Yu Yingwan frowned and rose to her feet. “What are you doing here?”
Yu Chun smiled. “I came to watch you complete the most crucial step in becoming the next young lord of the manor.”
Yu Yingwan froze. “What?”
Yu Chun feigned sudden realization. “Ah, so you haven’t heard from Uncle yet? Weren’t you here to kill this brat?”
He laughed, stepped closer to the dazed Fuye, and kicked him in the chest. Fuye, too weak to dodge, crumpled to the ground with just that one blow.
Yu Yingwan blocked Yu Chun with a cold expression. “None of your d*mn business. Get out.”
Yu Chun smiled faintly and said, “Of course it concerns me. Whether you kill him or not determines which of us will become the next young lord of the manor. Why don’t I do Uncle a favor and tell you the secret of this mountain—and why, until now, only I was qualified to inherit the position, while you were not. What’s the matter? Don’t you want to know?”
Yu Yingwan turned to look at him.
Yu Chun began to speak slowly. “Because of the mermaid bead.”
At those words, Fuye’s body trembled.
Yu Yingwan noticed his reaction and frowned slightly. “What is a mermaid bead?”
Yu Chun looked genuinely surprised. “You’ve already bound him with a blood pact, and you still don’t know? Don’t tell me you also don’t know how this brat kept you alive?”
That was indeed something Yu Yingwan had wanted to know. Ever since that day, her illness had never relapsed—but she hadn’t yet had the chance to ask him.
Yu Chun, quite pleased with himself, openly explained the origin of mermaid beads and the blood-binding ritual. Watching his usually cold cousin’s face gradually change, he nearly burst out laughing.
“Now you see? This boy fell in love with you. For your sake, he created a mermaid bead, willingly enduring the agony of having his heart cut open. Saving you meant giving his life entirely into your hands.”
Yu Yingwan lowered her gaze toward Fuye. Her eyes shimmered with disbelief. She had been loved… by a merfolk? Was it all because she had saved him as a child? Yu Yingwan did remember those childhood events—but she had forced herself to forget them.
Fuye kept his head bowed, motionless, showing no intention of denying or explaining.
Yu Yingwan’s face darkened. “You mean, if I stop feeding him blood, he’ll die?”
Yu Chun saw that this was what she focused on and laughed. “That’s right. But you don’t have to worry, Wan’er. You’ll soon be cutting open his chest to take out his mermaid bead and eat it. Once you do that, he’ll be dead anyway.”
“Eat it?” Yu Yingwan’s voice changed sharply.
“Our ancestor, your father, several elders—they all did it. That bead is a fine thing. A mermaid bead born from love for someone can break through one’s limits in cultivation. Otherwise, do you really think they reached their current power by talent alone? They all ate mermaid beads—and their cultivation soared within just a few years.”
Yu Yingwan’s eyes widened slowly. “So there were merfolk who… loved them?”
“Not exactly,” Yu Chun said lazily. “Remember those places you saw with illusion beasts? They used illusions to deceive captured female merfolk in recent years. It took quite some effort to make them produce usable pearls.”
Yu Yingwan’s voice turned cold. “So you captured all those merfolk—just for the beads?”
Yu Chun smiled faintly. “Of course. But that’s not all. How do you think our Beast-Taming Manor came to dominate Longan Port? It’s all thanks to those female merfolk. After all these years of capturing them, do you know what they’ve brought us?”
Yu Yingwan recalled the rooms she had just passed by. Her face turned slightly pale.
Meanwhile, Gu Baiqing had reached the area above them. Looking down at Fuye, he knew from the original story that Fuye had died miserably—but he hadn’t expected this.
The once pure, timid, intelligent, and resilient young merfolk now looked like a fish laid out on a butcher’s board, his body covered in wounds.
Still, seeing the tension between Yu Chun and Yu Yingwan, Gu Baiqing sensed a possible turning point.
In the original story, it was said that Fuye had come ashore seeking Yu Yingwan out of gratitude from childhood. Knowing Fu Junhua’s intentions, he had wanted to prevent conflict between merfolk and humans, hoping for peace instead. He hadn’t known the extent of Beast-Taming Manor’s crimes—only thinking they discriminated against merfolk and captured them if found.
Naively, he believed that finding his childhood benefactor might establish a friendly relationship to protect his kind.
He came with goodwill and gratitude—only for things to spiral out of control.
Even so, he never forgot his benefactor. Thus he formed a mermaid bead and saved Yu Yingwan, but in doing so, was captured and trapped, losing his life—and dragging his people into disaster.
Now, Fuye was tasting the bitter fruit of his naïveté. He hadn’t been wrong to save his benefactor, but it had led to the worst outcome. Even if others blamed him, he could only bear it. Still, when Gu Baiqing saw what he had become, he couldn’t help feeling deep sorrow—especially after what he’d seen on the way here. It was unbearable enough for him; if Fuye had seen it and realized the truth, he’d probably been crushed by remorse long before dying.
Yu Chun, meanwhile, went on mercilessly, painting the horrors in cruel detail.
“Our manor uses injured merfolk to lure other female merfolk. If the capture doesn’t harm them, we use illusions to deceive them into producing mermaid beads. Once the beads mature, we cut them out. Of course, only our elders are worthy of enjoying a personal bead—the rest are used to strengthen the spiritual veins of our manor.”
Only then did Yu Yingwan understand why the mountain beneath Beast-Taming Manor suddenly possessed a spiritual vein—it had been formed by the gathered mermaid beads.
From above, Gu Baiqing suddenly realized the spiritual energy he’d been absorbing reeked of blood. He frowned, unable to bear it. The bodies of those merfolk whose beads were taken—some must have been the ones Three Bean saw, dumped into the sea to replace the missing merfolk. That way, the ones captured later could continue secretly producing pearls without raising suspicion.
Beasts, Gu Baiqing cursed inwardly.
Yu Yingwan, too, seemed unable to stomach the truth. Her expression grew ugly.
“And the wounded ones?” she asked coldly. “The beautiful ones are sold as playthings, and the others—killed, their bodies sold like the rest? Is that why Longan Port trades in pearls and merfolk flesh?”
Gu Baiqing thought the same. Those who weren’t dumped into the sea likely met an even worse fate—used and discarded until nothing remained.
And before leaving this place, those captured female merfolk must have endured the same torment as those in the auction house’s secret chambers. That explained the rooms with nothing but beds and chains. Beside each of those rooms were cells—cells holding silent, curled-up merfolk women, hidden in darkness. Gu Baiqing couldn’t rescue them yet, but he marked every location in his mind.
But when Yu Chun said this, he suddenly laughed — a strange, eerie laugh that made Gu Baiqing’s hair stand on end.
“You only guessed half right,” Yu Chun said. “Because you left out one step. Between the birth of a mermaid bead and it being sold — there’s one more stage.”
“Being… used by you people?” Yu Yingwan asked hoarsely. She had seen those rooms too. Though she was of a different race, as a woman she still felt utterly sickened.
“Maybe some did it for pleasure,” Yu Chun said with a sneer. “But it was your father’s order. It was for the development of our Beast-Taming Manor — to increase our strength.”
Gu Baiqing froze, stunned. Yu Yingwan frowned slightly, and Yu Chun pointed toward the two disciples she had just knocked unconscious.
At first Yu Yingwan didn’t understand, but her expression slowly changed.
“You… what did you do?” she rasped. “What are they?”
“Children of unknown fathers—human-merfolk hybrids.”
The words struck like a thunderclap, roaring in Gu Baiqing’s ears.
Those youths of varying ages — all young, all unnaturally strong, with the power to summon beasts — the ones the old monsters used as shields… they were hybrids?
“What do you mean? What do you mean!” Yu Yingwan suddenly grew agitated. “You’re saying they were born from people of Beast-Taming Manor and—”
“No one knows who first discovered it,” Yu Chun said, grinning. “But human-merfolk hybrids possess tremendous power. So your father decided long ago to create such a force — obedient, incapable of rebellion, mindless. Hahaha… From birth they were controlled by illusion beasts, brainwashed and trained to become the perfect weapons. In the end, they would slaughter their own mothers’ kind and help us establish dominance in the cultivation world! As for those female merfolk — they kept breeding until they couldn’t anymore, then were sold off. The ones who were injured and couldn’t bear children anymore were sold directly. Pretty ones could fetch a fine price.”
Yu Chun had barely finished speaking when Fu Ye suddenly lunged at him, a blur of motion.
He could make no sound — only trembling grief, and eyes streaming blood.
But Yu Chun kicked him hard, sending him flying.
“What’s the fuss? Your kind were wiped out by these hybrids. You played no small part in that — wasn’t it your eyes that opened the Weak Water, helping us attack? If I were you,” Yu Chun said with perverse satisfaction, “I’d just die.”
The words made Fu Ye’s whole body shudder. Perhaps he truly could no longer bear it — he turned and hurled himself toward the wall, but Yu Yingwan caught him in time.
Only then did Gu Baiqing emerge from the shock of it all.
Watching Fu Ye’s breakdown, his violent struggle, Gu Baiqing couldn’t help but think — perhaps Fu Junhua had discovered the truth behind the mountain, had learned what her brother and her people had suffered. Perhaps that was why, even knowing Mo Xuanli’s identity was dubious, she had willingly led the merfolk to follow him.
Even when Mo Xuanli later left the Immortal Sect and returned to the demon race, the merfolk followed close behind — becoming one of the great powers under the new Demon Lord’s command.
Because they had been utterly disgusted by the cruelty of humans.
Even if they knew not all humans were evil — they no longer wished to be among them.
And Mo Xuanli’s destruction of Beast-Taming Manor — perhaps it wasn’t madness at all, but vengeance.
He must have known the truth. Known that these people deserved to die.
Even those within the Manor who were “ignorant” — they too were unworthy of life, for they enjoyed the benefits born of others’ suffering, and thus had to bear the retribution.
It hadn’t been an uncontrolled massacre.
It was… retribution.
