A useless person with five spiritual roots? I sacrificed the proud daughter of heaven.

With each bolt of heavenly lightning she withstood, the illusory golden core in her dantian became more solid. Sheng He kept reassuring herself, "Just a little longer, just a little longer. The more stable the golden core becomes, the stronger I will be."

After an unknown amount of time, the thunder gradually stopped, and the dark clouds on the horizon gradually dispersed. Sheng He's robes were torn to shreds by the lightning, and his face was covered in black soot.

But as she felt the lustrous golden core in her dantian, despite her disheveled state, she inexplicably felt full of power.

Sheng He wiped the blood from her lips, stood up and looked around. The group of men in black lay sprawled on the ground, foaming at the mouth, as if they had fainted.

Chen Yuanhua was still conscious. His body was charred black from being hacked, and he stared blankly at the sky. His silver-white spear was lying to one side.

"Don't hit me."

"Don't hit me."

Chen Yuanhua kept repeating to himself that he had also experienced lightning tribulation, but perhaps because his Golden Core cultivation was built up with medicine, his lightning tribulation was all white lightning, with at most two or three purple lightning bolts mixed in.

But the lightning tribulation of this woman surnamed Sheng was entirely purple lightning. He had already dodged far away, but he was still struck by the purple lightning four or five times, damaging all his meridians and making it impossible for him to even pick up a gun.

Wasn't she just a lowly Foundation Establishment cultivator? That little brat Chen Zichuan actually dared to lie to him!

When he gets back, he'll definitely teach that little brat a lesson!

Chen Yuanhua kept vomiting blood. He had a lot of pills in his storage bag, but he couldn't find it anywhere.

"Are you looking for this?"

Sheng He tossed the storage bag in his hand and looked at Chen Yuanhua with a mocking expression.

"You! What are you still doing here?"

"Didn't you say you'd consider sparing my life?"

Chen Yuanhua looked at Sheng He in horror, but tried his best to remain calm: "I...I'll let you go right now, you should leave now!"

Sheng He stopped laughing, took out an iron sword from her storage bag, and slashed hard at Chen Yuanhua's eyes.

"what!"

Chen Yuanhua covered his eyes and screamed, but the expected pain did not come. After a while, he opened his eyes a crack and saw that the sharp blade was less than half an inch away from his eyeballs.

Chen Yuanhua was terrified and begged for mercy, "Spare me, fairy! I didn't mean it! I was just following orders! Go find them, don't look for me! I'm innocent!"

Sheng He asked coldly, "Are you from the Jiang family or the city lord's family?"

"I'm from the city lord's family! I'm the city lord's own brother! It was the city lord's son who ordered me to do this!"

"He said you have a mermaid, and that the mermaid is beautiful. He said he would make me a furnace if I could get my hands on the mermaid... Fairy, have mercy! It was all Chen Zichuan's idea. He sent me here, and those people were all found by Chen Zichuan!"

"Ah!"

Sheng He sheathed his sword, and Chen Yuanhua had just breathed a sigh of relief when the cold blade pierced his heart.

"You despicable and shameless people are all the same; you all like to ask your own uncles for help."

Zhao Yanran: ?

Chen Yuanhua stared wide-eyed at Sheng He: "You...you..."

Before he finished speaking, Sheng He drew the iron sword, and warm blood splattered all over the ground. Fortunately, Sheng He ran fast, and the blood did not stain her clothes.

Ao Shuang had returned with A Yuan at some point. A Yuan witnessed Chen Yuanhua's death and took a few steps back in fear.

Sheng He glanced at her sideways, then carried Ao Shuang back on his back and took out the mermaid from his sleeve.

A Yuan immediately stepped forward excitedly, trying to snatch the mermaid away, but Sheng He quickly dodged to the side.

"I...I will give you spirit stones. Don't worry, I won't steal them, I won't steal them."

As A Yuan spoke, he awkwardly withdrew his hand, but his eyes kept glancing at the mermaid.

"How are you going to raise 200,000 spirit stones?"

A Yuan touched his thigh again, forcing a smile: "I... I can always raise the money, Miss Sheng, don't worry."

"But I don't need spirit stones."

“I can give you this mermaid, and I can even send you and her back to the sea.”

"You know that, right? Even if I give you the mermaid now, you won't get very far."

Sheng He pressed closer and closer, and A Yuan, clutching the hem of his clothes, kept retreating until his body hit the tree trunk, at which point A Yuan finally stopped.

"what do you want?"

Sheng He placed the mermaid in A Yuan's arms, then suddenly laughed and patted A Yuan's shoulder: "Don't be afraid, I only need one of your tears."

"A single...tear?"

Sheng He nodded, then pointed to the mermaid in A Yuan's arms: "Whether it's yours or hers, it's fine."

A Yuan's pupils constricted sharply: "You! You recognized me!"

"Legend has it that mermaid scales are impervious to water and fire and are worth a fortune. Besides that, I really can't think of any other way you could raise 200,000 spirit stones in two days."

As Sheng He spoke, she gently lifted A Yuan's trouser leg and saw that her leg was covered in blood and gore. Sheng He frowned and tossed A Yuan a bottle of pills.

"Healers, don't pluck your own scales next time."

A Yuan hesitated before accepting the pill. Sheng He was right; she was indeed a mermaid.

This mermaid is her younger sister.

Half a year ago, a cultivator broke into the Eastern Sea. He was no ordinary cultivator. Mermaids have boundless power in the sea, yet they were unable to harm him in the slightest.

She and her clan were relentlessly pursued. In the end, her mother was captured by the monk while trying to protect her and her sister. The two sisters were also seriously injured and fell into a coma, and were washed ashore by the waves.

She was luckier; she woke up to an uninhabited group of reefs. But her sister was found by nearby fishermen and was supposed to be sold to a wealthy merchant in the city.

Left with no other choice, she had to risk going ashore.

Mermaids are powerful in the water, but once they come ashore, their spiritual power dissipates completely, making them no different from ordinary people.

She originally intended to buy her younger sister with two pieces of gold, but news of the mermaid spread, and a group of cultivators came and forcibly took her sister away.

Knowing she was powerless to resist, and hearing the monks mention the auction, she had no choice but to pluck out her own scales to sell.

Now, she was well aware that their whereabouts had been exposed, and the city was full of people who wanted them dead. She knew she couldn't possibly bring her sister back safely to the Eastern Sea on her own.

She raised her head and looked intently at Sheng He.

Do you only want our tears?

"Yes, I only want mermaid tears."

A Yuan pursed her lips, and after a long while, she seemed to have come to a sense of relief, and nodded gently.

“We mermaids keep our promises. If you send me and Ling’er back to the sea, I will give you mermaid tears.”