Captain Zhuo and Long were heading towards the lands claimed by the Tiger clans after receiving a brief from Chief Razortalon. According to the Eagle lord, Tigers were naturally solitary and territorial. So each member would fight until they established a territory based on gender. The example given was that a mountain could be claimed by one male and several females, or the other way around.
The pair of captains were slightly relieved after hearing everything because they felt they had pulled the easier assignment compared to the Monkey or Horse stones. Captain Zhuo even personally felt like handling the Tiger and Snake Stones alone, and letting the other three ships handling the Horse and Monkey Stone, but orders from above were already given.
When she thought about the strengths of the Tiger clan, it almost gave her a headache. Tigers were well known for their strength, stealth, and power to intimidate.
"How do you propose we approach this situation, Captain Zhuo?", Captain Long asked.
"As fun as this trip has been, I'm ready to return home", Zhuo replied, "I think for these last three Stones, we locate with the formation first, locate visually second, and then fire the Gravitas from max effective range."
"What do you mean by three stones?", Long was confused, "Should not it be four?"
Zhuo laughed, "I see Captain Long has not checked the command chat room lately. Captains Deng and Tang just reported the capture of the Snake Stone just a few hours ago."
Captain Long's eyes slightly widen before opening a light screen to read. After a few minutes, he sighed after reading the contents.
"I feel I have been set up by Captain Deng", Long rested his head on his hand, "Yesterday, we made a bet on which team would capture the next stone first. Now the first round will be on me at the Jade Dragon."
"Is that where everyone goes before going to see the fireworks?", Zhuo teased.
Long cleared his throat, "Captain Zhuo, we have almost reached the suspected area of the target. Please standby while we perform the initial scan with the array."
Zhuo smiled before looking at her crew, and with a serious face, issued orders to be ready to visually identify the target.
As everyone watched the screen, Captain Long's ship pulsed as it activated the array. The response was immediate as a giant tiger with two tails, and a pair of long fangs appeared.
The tiger keep moving its head appearing as it was searching for something, and Zhuo grew nervous. With the different abilities the stones might grant it user, she had always been nervous that one would allow the holder to detect them. As she watched the tiger, she stayed on guard, but was somewhat relieved that it appeared it could not find them for now.
A message appeared from Captain Long, (Even if we fire from max distance, it will known).
She agreed with this and wrote back, (We need to maneuver the tiger into a position to safely fire the weapon).
(I have an idea), Long typed, (I will appear right above it, far enough away that it would have to leap to attack me. Once its airborne, time the shot to hit it right before it would hit the ground).
(Tigers can leap very far), Zhuo advised, (What if you get hit?)
(I believe the ship's shield formation can protect us), Long answered.
(Alright, I am getting in position), Zhuo replied before ordering the crew to move the ship.
Soon both ships were in position, and ready, so Captain Long order his gunners to fire a set of weaker lightning rounds on his command.
Both crews heard on the radio as Captain Long counted down, (5,4,3,2,1) and suddenly, several bolts of lightning appeared along, with his ship, as they approached the tiger. The tiger dodged the first couple bolts, but was still hit by others. It appeared that the lightning rounds did nothing to the target, but it did achieve its intended effect. The tiger leaped towards the ship faster than expected, and Captain Long order the ship to raise shields and move immediately. The ship sped away but there was a moment of silence as a couple of the tiger's claws raked against the ship's shields, causing them to diminish greatly.
The tiger reached the apex of its jump, and was starting its descent back to the ground. Zhuo could see it was already calculating its next move as soon as it landed, but she would not give it a chance. Using her best judgment, she ordered the Gravitas round fired, something that caught the attention of the tiger.
The tiger spun around in the air to prepare to land, but also took notice of the small talisman that was headed towards its landing zone. Just as the tiger's feet hit the ground, it felt the talisman hit its foot.
Captain Zhuo was relieved as she saw the familiar aftershocks from the talisman's impact before it transitioned into the gravity well. A few moments later, a new crater appeared in the middle of the jungle where a mountain used to be.
The two ships headed towards the newly formed compacted rock in the middle of the crater. Captain Zhuo looked over at the other ship, laughed, and sent an image, a smirking smiley face, and a message (You scratched the paint).
Underneath Sun & Moon island, where most the merfolk mainly lived was bustling. Zeng Meirong had eventually took the life realms to the merfolk ministers, and a huge celebration broke out. The minds of the merfolk as a whole had changed in the years they lived here. The ministers even believed if you surveyed every merfolk citizen about returning to the homeland or staying here, it would result in an even split.
The ministers praised Wei Huoran for returning their secret realms, although the merfolk would use the life realms available, they never felt comfortable inside them. Over the last few days, teams were sent in to check the condition, with the exception of the old king's and his brother's realms.
Quanliyuan had already scanned the realms, and discovered that with the exception of Huoran, only Meirong could enter. She took a couple days to prepare herself before entering both realms. Using instructions from Huoran, she took control of the realm, and made them available to everyone before giving them to the ministry as well. The only thing she took was her father's core, which she brought to her home and placed in a personal shrine.
Huoran was sitting in his Simspace working as usual when a message notification caught his notice. It was from Assistant Su, and when he read it, he realized it was from Minister Zel. He was requesting a meeting, but what Huoran found odd was that he was asking for an in person meeting. Every since the introduction of mobile communications and virtual meeting rooms, it had become very rare to have physical meetings. Huoran reasoned that it must be important considering recent events, so he had his assistant reply that he would attend. A few days later, Huoran took the special taxi to the underwater city and was greeted by Minister Zel when he entered the territory.
"Greetings Minister Zel, It's a pleasure to see you in person after so long", Huoran smiled as he bowed.
Zel was also in a pleasant mood, "Daoist Wei, I'm sorry to disturb you. Thank you for coming."
The two made some small talk, but soon Huoran noticed that they were not heading to the city office.
"Minister Zel, I cannot help but notice that we passed the city office", he remarked.
"Yes, today's meeting is more of a personal affair than an administrative one after all", Zel responded.
Soon they reached their destination, Minister Zel home.
As the two men entered, Huoran commented, "Very impressive home you have."
Zel was about to reply when he saw his partner , "Daoist Wei, let me introduce you to my partner, Nixie Tidesong."
Huoran bowed, "Miss Tidesong, it's my pleasure to meet you."
Nixie gently laughed, "Daoist Wei, the pleasure is all mine, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for us."
Huoran felt odd at the moment, because he noticed that Miss Tidesong was dress very formally, and this feeling increased when they entered the next room. Several seats and couches of fine quality were in the room, and on one couch was two children, but they were also wearing very formal clothing.
"Pardon me Daoist Wei", Zel said, "I need to check on something, please excuse my failure as a host."
"Do not worry, Minister, take care of your business", Huoran assured Zel as the latter left the room.
"I was just telling your husband what a beautiful home you have", Huoran gave compliments to Miss Tidesong.
"Thank you very much", she replied, "But I believe that most of what you see came from your ideas. It's very impressive how you are able to think of all these things."
They continued to casually chat for a bit when Minister Zel finally returned. What made Huoran concerned was that Zel had changed to more formal clothing. But before he could voice any concerns, he was surprised as more people entered. It was all the Merfolk Ministers, their spouses, children, and most surprisingly Zeng Meirong, and everyone was dressed up. Huoran began to fill self conscious because he was wearing his normal robes.
Zel spoke first, "Daoist Wei, everyone here wants to thank you for your efforts. Not only did you take us in, but you have defended our people against our enemies, introduce us to all these wonderful things, and finally, returned our ancestors to us."
The room full of people bowed to him and then rose up.
"You might be curious why we are all here today, and I can assure you we didn't ask you here simply to thank you", Zel explained, "Something was suggested to us, and everyone here heard it and agreed. Daoist Wei Huoran, it would be a great honor if you would take Zeng Meirong as your wife."
Huoran nearly choked at Zel's last sentence, before looking at everyone in the room.
"You are proposing an engagement between Princess Zeng and me", Huoran said with a serious face.
"I am not a princess anymore", Meirong said in a soft whisper.
"Yes, precisely that", Zel replied, "She mentioned it to us, and after everything you have done, we also feel this is appropriate."
Huoran started to think hard, but with his perfect memory, a painful scene returned. He thought about that day many years ago when his mother had informed him of his arranged marriage. He still felt guilty about leaving that day, and never being able to speak with his parents again. He might have come from a past life, but he still credited his parents for their efforts.
Huoran also thought about Meirong as well, she was beautiful, hardworking, and smart. He had grown fond of the times he had spent with her previously.
"I accept", Huoran announced.
Everyone grew excited, and the room grew loud as everyone walked up to Huoran and Meirong to congratulate them. Meirong herself was blushing from all the attention, and the crowd sat the two next to each other as they proceeded to bring out food and drink to celebrate.
Huoran whispered to Meirong, "I am sorry I made you wait."
She smiled in returned, "I know you are doing important work, so I am used to it already."
The rest of the night was full of drinks, laughter, and the promise of arranging the details of the engagement later. The party ended, and everyone eventually made their way back home.
A couple days later, big news came out, Wei Huoran, the disciple of the Senior and manager of Sun & Moon island was engaged to Zeng Meirong, the former princess of the
Merfolk Clan. This was met with many cheers, but also some sadness as people who were wishing to have a relationship with Huoran or Meirong felt crushed by the news. This news spread through the Nanying continent quickly through the web, but it was soon overshadowed by the upcoming tournament.
Pod cafes across the continent were constantly full as everyone was doing their best to prepare for the grand event. Families, sects, independent cultivators, and companies did their best to support the members of their respective communities by purchasing extra pods, pills, food, drinks, and elixirs from Sun & Moon island over the web. The Golden Peony regretted they did not meet Wei Huoran sooner. Their business had quadrupled since signing the agreement with the Ministry of Sun & Moon island. One more interesting piece of news was that a ship arrived at Sun & Moon island, and this ship was owned by Merchant Chen.