Laaaaa—mi-so-laaaaa~!
Across the twilight waves east of Floating Island #1, a high, shimmering melody drifted out from the sea.
Sitting atop a cresting wave fifty yards from the boardwalk was Queen Shan Hu, the Rank 7 Early ruler of the five-hundred-thousand-strong Deep-Sea Merfolk Tribe. She had long silver-blue hair, a crown woven from pink deep-sea coral, and a shimmering sapphire fish-tail that glowed under the paper lanterns of the pier.
Behind her in the warm, crystal-clear water floated five hundred thousand Merfolk men, women, and wide-eyed Merfolk children.
For three thousand years, ever since the underwater volcanoes of Warm-Spring Star turned the upper ocean into boiling green sulfur-acid, the Merfolk Tribe had been trapped inside sealed air-bubble caves ten miles below the seabed, surviving on bitter cave-moss and tasteless blind shrimp.
Half an hour ago, when Pei Xuan’s golden fusion wave swept all the way down to the deepest ocean trenches and turned the corrosive acid sea into warm, sweet-smelling Medicinal Hot-Spring Water, the Merfolk had swum out of their dark caves for the first time in thirty centuries!
They had meant to stay hidden and observe the strange wooden islands from afar—until the wind blew the heavenly five-spice aroma of Old Guo’s Dragon-Breath Longevity Tea Eggs and Buttered Roast Squid right across their noses!
