Chapter 124
True or False Mermaid (Arc 9.11)
Abby’s expression was as if he was a real pureblooded mermaid and thus was completely unafraid of seeing the mermaid king. Seeing him so confident, the king and Corey felt much steadier and also extremely happy, as if Reibar had already been disqualified from inheriting the throne.
In order to contact the mermaid king, the king on land must use a round stone plate. The red gemstone in the middle of the stone plate must be activated using the power from the mermaid king. As long as the king drips some blood onto the gem, the mermaid king would be able to sense it, and then he could apply magic power from his side to allow a projection to appear above the stone plate and talk to the king on land.
The king and Reibar, Abby and Corey, and several of the officials with highest position acting as witnesses entered the room where the stone plate was placed.
After entering the room, the king’s bodyguard walked down to the stone plate, but he immediately choked when he saw the gemstone in the middle of the plate.
The ruby that should have been blood-red was now dark and cracked.
“What’s going on here?!” The king stared in shock and yelled. “Guards!”
The guards outside the door ran in and saw the crack on the ruby. They looked at each other, but had no idea what was going on.
“Speak! What the hell is going on here?!” As soon as the king became agitated his breathing would become irregular. He covered his chest, questioning the guards.
“Your Majesty, we don’t know what’s going on, this, this…” The guard captain panicked and didn’t know how to explain. They really didn’t know why the gemstone was cracked.
“You are responsible for watching the door here, and you actually don’t know why the gem broke?!” The more the king spoke the darker his expression became. Not only because he missed a good opportunity to make Reibar directly give up the throne, but also because it took a considerable price to get such a good and complete ruby. This double hit nearly made the king faint directly.
Reibar glanced at Abby and smiled coldly. He said to the soldiers, “Who was the last person to come into the room before us?”
“Replying to Your Highness, the last people who came in were the prince and princess.” The guard captain replied.
The king also looked at Abby and Corey, waiting for their explanation.
“We did come in last time. I contacted the mermaid king and told him about the situation, and told him to tell my family that I was all right. When I left the room, the gem was clearly still fine.” Abby defended himself.
“Was the gem really intact when you left?” Reibar looked at Corey and asked.
“I…” Corey had no way to respond to Reibar, because to enter this room you had to go through two sets of doors. Abby had said that he wanted to contact the mermaid king so he had brought him, but he was waiting outside this last door. Only Abby was left alone inside, so when they left, he didn’t check if the gem was intact.
“Hmph.” Reibar looked at Corey and snorted coldly. “The answer is already very obvious, isn’t it? Whoever last showed up here is the one who made the gemstone crack.”
“Royal Uncle! It’s fine if you insulted me earlier, but now you’re going to slander me again?!” Abby had an expression of not being willing to be vilified, indignantly saying, “The gem contains the power of our mermaid king. Anyone who wants to destroy the gem will be subject to the rebound from the power, so even if I want to destroy the gem, I do not have the ability to destroy it!”
“The bead isn’t yours, so the person who had to suffer the rebound would obviously not be you!” Reibar gritted his teeth and spit out. He thought of that night when they were sleeping well but then Leann suddenly twitched violently and spit out blood. He had thought that it was the toxin that hadn’t been completely cleaned out, but Leann said that it wasn’t because of the poison, he had sensed that the bead had been attacked by magic power. Fortunately, after Leann cultivated for a couple days there were no problems, or else no matter what he would have killed Abby immediately.
Jing Yang’s injury at that time was actually very serious, but in order to not let Reibar worry, he used the system to quickly heal his internal injury so Reibar would think that he was all right after two days.
“Abby, was the gem really not destroyed by you?” The king looked at Abby and asked.
“I swear that it wasn’t me! Please trust me, Royal Father.” Abby sincerely assured him.
The gemstone was indeed destroyed by Abby. He knew that he would very likely be suspected, especially after Leann’s appearance. So he asked Corey to bring him to this room, destroyed the ruby, and prevented the king from contacting the mermaid king so that they could not confirm his identity. But he had long already thought about it, and he would never admit it no matter what.
“Now that the gemstone on the stone plate already has no way to contact the mermaid king, if we want to confirm whether or not Abby is a real pureblooded mermaid, we will have to wait for his fever to pass and then stop the rain.” The king saying this was expressing his willingness to believe that Abby had not broken the gemstone. In fact right now he simply could not care too much. Regardless of whether the gem was destroyed by Abby, and regardless of what his purpose of destroying the gem was, as long as he could summon the rain and let the rain stop and they could use this opportunity to make Reibar give up his succession to the throne, it was enough.
“I have already said. It doesn’t matter how long I wait, but the people outside can no longer wait. Let the princess stop the rain immediately. If he can’t, then we will have to use another method.” How could Reibar really let them delay any longer. Don’t mention that the people outside really couldn’t wait any longer, even if they could, he would never let Abby go today.
“What’s the method?” The king asked.
“I’ve heard that the bead can sense the owner’s blood. When the blood drops onto the bead, the bead will shine. Let the princess, in front of all of the ministers, drop his blood on top of the bead and see if it will emit a bright light. If he can, I will admit that he is a real pureblooded mermaid.”
“Abby, can you do this?” The king looked at Abby and asked.
“I can!” Abby didn’t dare to show the least bit of hesitation. Even if he felt very flustered in his heart, he absolutely could not show it. He had a lot of Leann’s blood, so making the bead glow wasn’t difficult. It was just that if he had to do it in front of everyone, he had to make some preparations. “But the bead is not on me right now, allow me to go get it.”
“Go ahead.” The king said.
Everyone returned to the hall. The other ministers didn’t dare to make a noise, only using their eyes to question the officials who had entered the room with the king. Those officials all shook their heads.
The king asked an attendant to place a little round table in front of all of the officials with a cotton mat on it. This was for Abby to place his bead on later.
Abby walked out, both his hands held into fists. He glanced around at all of the officials standing in the hall and then looked at the king.
“Let’s start.” The king said.
“Yes.” Abby placed the bead on the cotton pad and pulled a knife out of his sleeve.
“Wait.” Reibar looked at the other hand Abby had kept clenched. “Open your hands.”
Abby’s body seemed frozen. He stood there motionless, his expression ugly.
“Abby?” Corey whispered.
Abby slowly opened his fist and stretched out his fingers. His hands were dry and clean, nothing there.
“Is Royal Uncle satisfied?” Abby’s face was full of grievance but forbearance.
Reibar pulled a corner of his mouth upward. “Go ahead.”
Abby pulled the knife out and slightly opened his palm. He scratched his palm hard with the knife, and a blood stain immediately appeared on his palm. The blood slowly dripped onto the bead, one drop, two drops, three drops…
Abby kept praying in his heart, please, help me again, please!
Everyone’s eyes were focused on the bead. After waiting for a long time, the bead was still just quietly lying there, no reaction at all.
Abby nervously swallowed. His hand holding the knife began to tremble slightly, and he cried out in his heart, quickly brighten! Quickly light up! Why is it not lighting up?! The blood he dripped on it was clearly the blood he had hidden in the knife, he had not even cut his own palm. But why didn’t the bead react at all?! Why the hell did this happen?!
A gust of wind blew into the hall, and the bead suddenly floated up. All the ministers looked up at the bead, not knowing what was going on.
The king and Corey also looked up at the bead. They were also only doubtful and not happy, because they didn’t know whether or not this counted as the bead having a reaction. Didn’t they just say earlier that the reaction was that the bead was going to shine?
The bead floated over the ministers’ heads toward the door. All of them turned in that direction, looking toward the seats near the door, only to find Jing Yang, who had started standing there at some unknown time.
“No!” Abby yelled. “Don’t let him near the bead!”
As soon as he saw Jing Yang, Abby knew why he would appear here. He must have come to grab the bead back, he absolutely could not let him take the bead back.
Abby tried to rush over to grab the bead. Reibar stretched out his foot, knocking him to the ground, and then he stepped on his back so that he couldn’t get up.
Right now no one was paying attention to Abby, because everyone had their eyes on Jing Yang near the door. He was wearing a long white cape, and just standing there he made everyone exclaim involuntarily in their hearts, how could there be such a good-looking person in this world.
Jing Yang raised his head, slightly opening his mouth. The bead entered his mouth and then slipped into his stomach.
“No!!” Abby looked up and saw this scene, letting out a heart-wrenching cry. He knew it was over, he was over, there was no hope left.
After swallowing the bead, Jing Yang’s body began to shine. His hair and cape seemed to be blown by the wind, making him seem like a fluttering fairy, causing people to stare fixedly.
The light emanating from Jing Yang became brighter and brighter, dazzling people’s eyes so that the people looking couldn’t help but close their eyes.
When the light slowly faded until it disappeared, the people in the hall found that he had become even better-looking than before. He simply did not look like he was a creature of the human world.
“This…, this is…” The king was too excited, actually standing up using his own strength. He looked in disbelief toward Jing Yang. “…what’s going on?”
Jing Yang glanced at the king and then at Abby, who had been trampled to the ground by Reibar. Then he turned and walked out into the heavy rain.
He spread out his arms, slowly raised them, and sent two columns of light from his hands into the sky.
The rain soon became lighter, and then it completely stopped. The thick clouds began to disperse, bright light reappearing in the sky. The blue sky was clear, as if the stormy weather just a second earlier had never existed.
The king fell back onto his throne. He had seemed to understand something, but he was unwilling to think deeper.
Corey’s eyes were constantly following Jing Yang. He didn’t even find that Abby had been trampled onto the ground by Reibar for a long time, and an idea also appeared in his brain, but he didn’t know whether it was good or bad. He didn’t know if his idea was true, whether he should be happy or unhappy.
Jing Yang took back his power and turned to walk back into the great hall.