Douluo Continent: I, Huo Yuhao, am the Master of Spirit

Chapter 329 The Mermaid Princess Liya
These tiny heads, so similar to humans, bobbed up and down in the icy seawater. A normal human would have died from hypothermia long ago in this situation.

However, they are mermaids, and mermaids have long been adapted to the extreme temperatures of the far north.

Although the merfolk are very resistant to cold, they do not possess the ice attribute themselves; the merfolk are rare pure spirit attribute soul beasts.

Wow! What a huge block of iron!

Why can a block of iron sail on the sea?

"Are those people up there?"

"I haven't seen any humans on the icy sea for a long time. Can we get a closer look?"

One of the mermaids, noticeably smaller, with azure hair and wearing a golden crown, rested her hands on the ice, trying to lift herself up to get a better view.

"Your Highness, I think it's best not to get too close, since they are from another race."

The mermaid guard beside them advised against getting close to humans, his voice clearly hesitant.

The mermaid, who was called a princess, puffed out her cheeks and said:

"Nothing will happen."

"I have saved many people who fell into the sea before, and they have all sincerely thanked me."

"Humans must be a kind race, just like us mermaids!"

"set off!"

The golden-crowned mermaid lifted her hands off the ice and her petite body darted into the sea, moving at an incredible speed beneath the thick ice, like a golden arrow released from a bow.

"Princess!"

The mermaid guards exchanged glances and immediately followed. However, they were not as fast as the mermaid princess and could only follow miserably behind her tail.

Even in terms of cultivation, they were far inferior to the mermaid princess, but this was the clan's rule that all mermaids must protect the golden bloodline at all costs.

Mermaids live in the icy sea, a place that is practically uninhabitable for humans. The extreme cold makes it unsuitable for human activity, so they rarely encounter humans.

The merfolk have great goodwill towards these creatures that resemble them, and often rescue humans who have fallen into the water near the Sun and Moon Empire.

As Xue Di once said, the mermaid race is a kind-hearted creature in the ocean. They seem to be born with a fairytale filter on the world. No sea spirit beast in the entire icy sea dislikes the mermaid race, just as no spirit beast in the Star Dou Great Forest dislikes the Emerald Swan.

In the icy sea, the sea princess, the leader of the mermaid clan, held far greater prestige than the snow emperor.

Even during the recent battle at Tianxing Port, no sea spirit beasts belonging to the Ice Sea were seen.

Compared to the Sea God family, they are more willing to obey the Sea Princess's orders; they will never participate in the war unless the Sea Princess gives the order.

The Sea Princess is known for her kindness and aversion to fighting, and she would never allow the sea spirit beasts of the Ice Sea to participate in this meaningless battle.

Of course, the Sea Princess's strength is also an important source of her prestige; her cultivation of 600,000 years is unparalleled in the Ice Sea.

According to the Snow Empress, even if the Evil Emperor came to the Ice Sea and fought a great battle with the Sea Princess, it was still hard to say who would win.

Both are spirit-attribute soul beasts, but with the help of the icy sea, the Sea Princess's strength will increase dramatically, as the ocean provides a significant boost to sea soul beasts.

The sea princess also harbored goodwill towards humans. After all, the icy sea was sparsely populated, and the sea spirit beasts formed their own lineage, so there were basically no humans who came to hunt spirit rings.

The reason why the sea princess in the original work was so irritable and hated humans was mainly because of the trouble caused by the humanoid evil spirit masters.

Taking advantage of the mermaids' kindness, the sea princess tricked thousands of mermaids into coming ashore. She was also very honest, even sending the little mermaid princess up with her.

The little princess of the mermaid clan possesses golden blood, making her the most noble being among the mermaids.

If something happens to her, the royal bloodline of the mermaids may be cut off directly, and evil spirit masters don't care about that.

They instantly refined the mermaid clan, including the mermaid princess, into vengeful spirits and collected them into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

The culprit was the Ten Thousand Souls Douluo, who was killed by Huo Yuhao a long time ago. In this timeline, this situation can never happen again.

Without the arrival of evil spirit masters, the Ice Sea is practically a baby bus-level dungeon, and the Ice Sea as a whole maintains a friendly attitude towards humans.

However, these mermaids seemed to have forgotten one thing: the rapid approach of a 100,000-year-old soul beast and several 10,000-year-old soul beasts would make any fleet with even a little detection capability extremely vigilant and even fearful.

"High-level soul power reaction detected!"

"Warning! Warning! The Seer has detected a high-level soul power reaction!"

"Immediately measure the energy level hierarchy and quantity!"

Roger waved his hand in the command room, instructing the monitoring personnel to quickly calculate the number and cultivation level of the incoming targets, in order to facilitate the subsequent planning.

The entire crew of the Seer were very nervous, knowing that they had encountered a high-energy reaction not long after setting sail, which was not a good sign.

"captain!"

"Detection complete. One hundred-thousand-year-old beast king and four ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts!"

"The Beast King is very fast and has a lot of energy; it must be the dominant race of the Ice Sea."

"Comparing the soul power reactions of known soul beasts in the Ice Sea, it is confirmed that they are mermaids!"

"The Tier 8 Disintegration Main Cannon and the Self-Locking Enemy Soul Guided Turret have locked onto their targets!"

"Ready to launch at any time!"

Roger stared intently at the rapidly approaching red dot on the large screen.

"Main gun charging!"

"Send it to me..."

"Stop first."

Huo Yuhao's voice suddenly reached Roger's ears, and Roger immediately stopped the launch order and looked respectfully at Huo Yuhao beside him.

"The merfolk are always kind; they would not attack human ships without a reason."

"These deep-sea singers are probably just curious about us."

"I'll handle it."

As soon as Huo Yuhao finished speaking, all the crew members on the deck witnessed a sight they would never forget. A massive amount of seawater shot into the sky, thick ice layers cracked extensively, and seawater swept into the air, turning into ice powder. A giant hand made entirely of seawater slammed down in the direction from which the mermaids were attacking.

Even the Seer seemed tiny in front of that giant hand.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The sound of seawater crashing against the ice resounded across the vast sea, and huge waves surged and crashed against the soul guidance barrier surrounding the Seer, but had no effect on the Seer.

"well?!!!"

A gasp came from the giant hand of the sea, accompanied by the sound of crashing waves. Five figures appeared in the sky. Five mermaids were firmly held by the giant hand, and no matter how much they struggled, they could not break free.

A mere 100,000-year-old mermaid and four 10,000-year-old mermaids are no match for Huo Yuhao, especially since these five guys' attributes overlap with Huo Yuhao's.

Huo Yuhao appeared on the deck at some unknown time. He had his hands in his pockets. The sea breeze was strong on the deck, and his black trench coat fluttered in the wind, leaving a black trail in the air.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are the little princess of the mermaid clan, the inheritor of the golden bloodline."

Why are you getting so close to my ship?

"Why go at such a fast pace? Is life too boring for you and you want to take a shortcut?"

Huo Yuhao was not joking. If he hadn't stopped Roger from firing, these mermaids would have already become spirit rings and spirit bones.

The mermaid princess, with her 100,000 years of cultivation, was indeed quite powerful, but she was no different from a speed bump in front of an eighth-level disintegration cannon.

Apart from soul beasts like the Golden Tortoise Shell, which excel in defense, virtually no 100,000-year-old soul beast can withstand the Level 8 Disintegration Cannon, which is the strongest single-target attack soul tool.

Kong Deming's Level 9 Disintegration Cannon was so powerful that even the Sea God Douluo Chen Hanhai dared not withstand it head-on.

The golden-crowned mermaid in the very center of the palm struggled a few times, and after using its mental power to clearly see Huo Yuhao's appearance, it immediately shouted excitedly:

"You, you are the Lord of the Far North?! The only sun in the Far North?"

"I am Liya from the Mermaid Clan. I never expected this to be your vehicle!"

"Hehe, as expected of the Lord of the Far North, even his vehicle is so unique."

Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow and looked at the grinning mermaid above him, saying:
"Oh?"

"You actually recognize me? Sea spirit beasts actually acknowledge the Lord of the Far North?"

Liya immediately nodded her little head and said seriously:

"Of course we know! When the Snow Empress announced the change of the ruler of the far north, we in the Ice Sea also received the message!"

"It's only because the sea spirit beasts can't go ashore that we can't cross over."

"The Ice Sea has always been part of the far north, even Mother acknowledges that."

Huo Yuhao waved his hand and said:
"Isn't your faith in the sea god?"

"You actually acknowledge the Lord of the Far North? Doesn't that conflict with your beliefs?"

Liya pondered for a moment, then mimicked her mother's tone and said:
"Faith is something that exists if you believe in it, and doesn't exist if you don't."

"In a sense, faith stems from self-interest, and is a desire to satisfy something in life that cannot be fulfilled by oneself."

“Life on land cannot quell the blizzard, so they worship the ice god.”

"Life cannot escape storms and thunder, so we believe in the god of thunder."

"From this perspective, faith also stems from fear."

"We are the same. Long ago, Poseidon, the god of the sea, defeated us with the power of the ocean, so we worship the sea."

"But ultimately, faith comes from within. If you deeply believe that something can help you survive, then that is faith."

"We mermaids worship the sea god for the sake of community and for the sake of face, and we worship the ice god for the sake of life and for the sake of continuation, because the icy sea has always been a part of the far north."

"Our bloodline traces back to the ancient Ice God."

"The Golden Bloodline is essentially the Ice God Bloodline."

"Yes, that should be it. I don't quite understand what it means, but the merfolk always believe whoever is useful."

"The sea god hasn't appeared for a long time, and when he does, he just wants us to fight. I don't like him at all."

"A while ago, the Sea God family wanted us to go and support the ocean. Who would go?"

"They used to bully our mermaid race all the time, which is why the mermaid race hasn't left the icy sea for a long time."

Because the mermaid's tears are a treasure of the ocean, possessing not only terrifying healing effects but also the ability to permanently enhance mental strength, the Sea God's family covets them and often secretly hunts and kills lone mermaids in the open sea.

The Sea Princess had no choice but to have her merfolk retreat to the icy sea, where even the Sea God Douluo would have to consider whether he could withstand the fury of the far north.

Hearing Liya's words, Huo Yuhao smiled and said:

"I see, you guys are still pragmatists."

“That’s a good point. I like it. It reminds me of my hometown. People in my hometown have similar ideas to you.”

"I won't blame you this time, but next time you see a human ship, try to stay as far away as possible. Humans aren't as kind as you think."

"By the way, any news from the high seas lately?"

"After all, you are sea spirit beasts, so you should be quite well-informed about the ocean."

The mermaid's tail immediately drooped, gently swaying and stirring the water. After a moment's thought, her large, azure eyes lit up, and she said:
"Ok!"

"A few days ago, the Sea God family started calling on the Sea Spirit Beasts again! I heard they suffered a great loss on land, with many powerful members dying."

"Many of the sea spirit beasts that went to provide support also suffered heavy losses, and many tribes even lost their beast kings in battle."

"This time, the call to action has once again provoked resentment from all the races across the ocean."

"But there's nothing we can do. They have the token of the Sea God, so we can only continue to send sea spirit beasts to follow the God's will."

"Hehe, luckily my mother won't let everyone from Binghai go there, I don't want to lose my family."

(End of this chapter)