Interlude 3-G-Empress of the Sea

Biting my finger nail wasn't something I do often. At my age, you learn to deal with situations with extreme serenity. This was doubly so in the frankly, hectic life I live nowadays.

The violent ocean waves bounced off of the translucent colourless barrier millions of kilometres above me. Though the construct held firm and stable, I couldn't help but sigh.

I know I shouldn't be thinking this, but I'm beginning to think Zulong's ambition is cursed. It has been non stop, one thing after another. Incident after incident, basically days apart.

It took thousands of years for the Shenni war to reach a breaking point. It took thousands of years for wars to break out between opposing clans and kingdoms. But these past few years, the world has been thrown into turmoil.

Kailong Chen is lucky in that it was built to withstand these sorts of things. But the current turbulent primitive world has essentially cut off most forms of communications with other cities and bases.

Curse Zulin, I'd spit on his corpse if I could. Unfortunately, I had that damned head flayed and but on display on the palace walls.

I rubbed my nose bridge and groaned in annoyance. The stress was getting to me these days. We were both understaffed and stretched thin. My brothers in law were both oceans away holding the fort on the capitals of the north and south seas.

Grandfather Shark left with several others to man the West Sea after a number of the Great Principle experts perished. Damn that Zulin, my husband should've killed him far earlier.

Footsteps came into my hearing. I turned my head to see who came into the balcony. Hm, it's the first ascendant dragon Jian Koilong. The boy had grown up over the years. He had quickly reached the Heavenly Immortal realm at an unprecedented speed.

Standing this close to him I could sense the pulsing power of his first flower crown hidden within his inner cosmos. He'd long been placed as the poster boy for the Draconic Dao. It was just that the current environment had halted all kinds of development.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Your majesty. The scout team has returned," he said.

"What do they have to say?"

Yang Chen has remained in a stable position. Mian Hai and Liaoyang has suffered some breeches but otherwise remain stable," he reported. "Oh, and the storms around the void pit has nearly ceased. I wager his majesty is probably done with fixing the damage."

"Good, at least something's going right for once," I said.

It came so suddenly as well. One minute we were organising funerals for the deceased, the next minute the world turned upside down. It was simultaneously better and worse than the Sea Eye incident.

Now that Zulong and his team are done plugging the void, the hole excess void currents leaking into the east sea will be resolved. But we still hadn't received much news on the other ocean fronts.

I returned to managing the city in my husband's absence. I could only hope the trouble ended soon. I did not imagine my life turning out the way it has now. Ruling territory? Yes. But certainly didn't think I'd be dealing with world ending disasters one after another.

If I could go back in time, I'd strangle Zulong optimisitc ramblings from back before all this. Even the Eight Directions Suppression Lord had saw right to warn him.

Speaking of my father-in-law, we hadn't received any news from him. Non of my sister-in-laws had either. Yi Fei'e is the only one who maintains Yingzhou for the past few years since the Sea Eye.

…

Several weeks later, the weather has gotten worse. Storms of lightning, demonic winds, blizzards, firestorms, and falling chunks of stone and iron. It was like the apocalypse had come.

The courtyard of the palace had transformed into a gathering ground of powerful formation masters. Every moment they worked in unison to maintain the defensive formations, feeding their own energy into it.

The flowing power of so much Primordial Qi was one I had gotten used to over the years. My body still wasn't built for so much power and it was genuinely painful when I did so. But it was a feeling I had gotten used to.

My father was away defending other important supply depots and many of my relatives were also away defending smaller settlements. I sighed, it had been a trying time.

Intrinsically, all of us of sufficient power could sense to enraged might of the Heavenly Dao. Even when it was not directed at us, it was still a terrifying feeling.

My husband, Zulong had returned minutes ago. His tired look made him look more like a haggard bigger than a dignified sovereign. It made me just want to give him a comforting hug.

"Yu'er," he greeted me as we met in the palace hallways. I wasn't even aware Chaos Immortals could look so fatigued. I guess mental fatigue still affects superior beings even when they have attained the Dao.

"Husband," I greeted back sharply. I didn't mean to sound so angry, but the stress eked out of me beyond my control. 'Pull yourself together, you're not a little girl anymore,' I told myself.

Zulong withered at my accusing gaze. It was like his crowning had opened up a floodgate of disasters. So much for good fortune.

"I can take things from here," he offered. Nodding, I handed control over the city defence formation back to him. The instant relief from the pressure brought out a pleasurable sigh from my lips.

"It's been hard on you," he said.

"It's been hard on all of us. Has there been any word from your brothers?" I asked.

"They're alive and struggling. It's like the world is tearing itself apart," Zulong grunted. "I would love to know just what has happened for everything to go so wrong again."

My husband took a moment to recompose himself. I knew that look, he was about to go off into an emotion filled tangent but stopped himself as he was in public.

"I take solace in that the avians are suffering the same," he chuckled.

"It's not wise to wish harm upon others," I reminded him. His dislike of the avians are well known but truthfully, there wasn't much animosity between our two nations. We regularly traded and didn't clash much aside from some border struggles for some islands.

Most of those were resolved quickly by local lower level powers and us upper echelon leaders hardly ever got involved.

"Either way, the peacock proved herself useful for once," Zulong said. "One of her minions, that Chongming bird arrived to lend aid to us when we were plugging that hole in the east continent shore, or at least what's left of it."

"The avians have been facing equally as many disasters and if their information is right, the devils on the west continent as well. Many of their devil overlords had already made themselves known fighting against more holes tat's been opening," he said.

"Really? Well it's no surprise. The devils have existed for far longer than us. Their foundation is much deeper," I told him.

"Hai, if we didn't take so much casualties against the damnable qilin, we would've at least been able to compete," Zulong sighed. "But as things are, their Chaos Immortal experts outnumber us three to one."

"Quality over quantity," I snorted. "Our immortals are all battle hardened across the seas. We're the only ones who's had experience in slaying other Chaos Immortals. We'll go over and teach them a lesson if they try anything."

My brash words brought a smile to my husband's face. Seemed his mood was raised from my words. In truth, while I held confidence in our men, I also knew we couldn't be brash in fighting the devils. It was better to leave them be than force the issues.

ChaosGolden Immortals are so powerful, so connected to nature, that the deaths of each and every single one can be felt across the world. The dissipation of their respective Daos are something we could all feel.

As such, I know for a fact that non of the devil Chaos Immortals had ever had to battle to the death. Though that wasn't to say they were weak. We've just never been able to get an accurate measure of the other superpower of the world.

We are very dependent on Zulong in that regard. He is the primary deterrent for foreign enemies as of this moment. Though we worship him, the Heavenly Lord as it turns out, wasn't that well known. His name can't overturn decisions like the Devil Ancestor's can.

Idly, the rest of the day passed. With Zulong back in Kailong Chen, the city's support structure held better against the storm. For the first time, I could go back to contemplating on my Dao. But before that, I decided to take a well earned visit to my child.

"By the way Yu'er, how is the egg?" Zulong, who was following me, asked as we walked down the secured hallways.

"No new signs of hatching," I admitted. Eggs normally shouldn't take this long to hatch. My own turtle eggs usually took a few years of incubation, no more than five.

Of course, dragons usually took ten years at least and could go to a hundred as was the case with Leishen. The upside was that the dragons are generally born stronger than other races. Furthermore, they all turned out to be very hardworking in upping their population.

"Shame, I starting to get very impatient," my husband grumbled. Not to lie, but I'm feeling much the same.

"We're only a few decades in," I mused. "You dragons do take a little longer than the rest of us."

Zulong conceded to my point. When we reached the incubation chamber, my husband opened the doors allowing us to view our child in our private leisure.

The egg was magnificent to behold. Yellow in colour with patterns resembling clouds. There was a constant harmonious sound emanating from it resembling music played at festivals along with dancers.

It had only started recently, but the music was a welcomed change. It signified our son may have powers relating to sound or some sort. It was always cathartic to spend time here these days.

Even Zulong was stupefied as well. He had not been here when the music first started.

"It startled only a few months ago," I told him.

"Impressive," Zulong sai nodding his head. "My son looks to be gaining his own unique bloodline. A welcome surprise."

"Mmh, a connate lifeform like you have never bred with a postnatal lifeforms like me. This is a first for history. Who knows what might happen," I said. "Have you thought of a name?"

"Hm?...Ah no, not yet," Zulong said sheepishly. "I haven't had a chance to think about it since we've all been. You know."

"Me neither," I admitted. "I don't know what to name him either. I was named for black jade that my mother had as a childhood heirloom. But I'm clueless on what to do for my own."

"I'm sure we'll think of something," he reassured me. "There's still plenty of time to decide."

We left the chamber after enjoying the music for several minutes. We couldn't stay here too long after all. I still had much more administrative duties to accomplish.

It was several weeks after that we suffered the worse earthquake we've had in years. In a sudden turn of events, it felt as if the world had literally turned upside down.

Zulong's true form wrapped around Kailong Chen while my own form hovered over the main palace. More elders appeared to hold the fort while Zulong fought back any torrents that came our way.

Underwater mountains collapsed and erupted all around the east sea.

Thankfully, the shaking on lasted for several hours. Several hours of hell but still a short time compared to previous storms.

Thankfully though, it had also seemed to be the end of it. After that world shaking event, the waters finally began to calm down. We were finally able to stabilise and communicate with other parts of the empire.

For some months, we worked tirelessly to reestablish settlements tied to key recourse locations. Mines and fields had to be restored and missing persons needed to be tracked.

The Sea Eye had thankfully resisted the disasters with little issue. It was after all, under constant watch by teams of Great Unity Golden Immortals and a single Great Principle Chaos Immortal elder.

Yinglong and Qinglong had also left their respective generals in charge and were well on their way to returning to the east sea. Zulong wanted his brothers close to investigate the root cause of the ongoings.

It was an organised effort that the entire empire was coordinated in doing. If news were accurate, the avians were much the same. If we could discover the root cause and resolve the issue, it could provide many benefits for the empire and restore much of the karmic luck we'd lost.

But it was during one of those days that Yi Fei'e arrived in Kailong Chen.

The albino woman carried a grave look on her face when she met both myself and Zulong.

"Junior sister, what's happened," Zulong immediately said.

"It's master," Yi Fei'e said gravely. "He's been gravely wounded."

I swear that crown is cursed.