Chapter 1231: A Surprisingly Useful Local Specialty

On the western edge of the landmass known as the “Aeo Continent,” the colossal immigrant starship Antavien lay stranded along the shoreline. Much of this staggering construct was submerged beneath the sea, its bow stretching along the continental shelf and slanting down into the ocean depths. The ship’s prow was deeply embedded in the seabed, having, over countless years, become an inseparable part of the underwater landscape.

At the ship’s bow impact zone, powerful floating illumination devices pierced the endless darkness of the deep sea. Their light spread through the water, revealing the scene below: the massive metal structure tilted and fused with the rocky seabed, while an extensive impact formation radiated outward from the Antavien’s prow into the shadowy ocean beyond. At the center of this impact zone’s flat area, thick energy and supply conduits extended from a fissure in the starship’s front, connecting to several supply stations and monitoring posts along the perimeter.

Here, at the heart of the bow impact zone, the mighty Tide Masters had gathered. They had installed large-scale stabilization devices where the Antavien’s prow met the seabed and were now reshaping an elemental gateway that had been sealed years ago. A vast pale blue vortex had formed on the ocean floor, nearly the size of a castle. Within its swirling currents shimmered brilliant energy—pure water elementals pushing away all “impurities” of the material world from the vortex’s domain. The Sea Witch Queen Petia floated silently before the whirlpool, her pale eyes reflecting the ceaselessly spinning waters.

She could already sense the breath of the elemental realm deep within the vortex. The gateway would open soon.

In a way, this portal represented the greatest—and most tragic—bond between the Sea Witch clan and the planet’s native water elementals.

The Antavien’s crash landing on this world had been cataclysmic. The devastating impact permanently altered the geology around the landing site, and the massive energy leakage from the ship tore through the boundary between the material and elemental planes. To put it plainly, the Antavien’s crash had shattered the “home dome” of the water elementals—and irreparably so. The epicenter of this destruction was the bow impact zone beneath the waves.

Petia still faintly remembered the horrors of that time. The boundary between the elemental and material worlds had been rent apart; the area around the ship’s prow became a vent for raging elemental forces. The seabed was riddled with elemental fissures, geological disasters raged day and night, and life in the deep sea was extinguished. The Sea Witches, who should have been the first to respond, were instead caught in a severe “world rejection” state, struggling even to maintain their physical forms for a long time.

When the Sea Witches finally recovered, they faced the wrath of the water elemental legions and the elemental lords demanding retribution. In truth, these lords had long noticed the massive starship that had fallen from the sky but were powerless against such a colossal interstellar colony vessel. Only when the Sea Witches reformed their bodies around the ship did the unfortunate native water elementals find an opportunity to come knocking for “compensation.” But this only sparked an even larger, more chaotic conflict.

The misunderstandings and clashes that followed dragged on intermittently for hundreds of thousands of years—such is the tragic nature of disputes among elemental beings.

Petia shook her head slightly, setting those distant memories aside for now. Regardless, the old misunderstandings had finally been resolved, at least to some extent. Though tensions and lingering hostility remained between the Sea Witches and the native water elementals, everyone had managed to coexist peacefully in recent years. This negotiation should go smoothly. Besides… she had brought a local specialty as a gift.

The deep-sea sovereign glanced back to see her entourage clustered around the enormous “local specialty”: a force field generator had created a nearly ten-meter cube of pure water, imprisoning within it a pristine “giant squid tentacle.” The dark brown tentacle was covered in mysterious, intricate patterns, and faint residual nerve impulses caused it to twitch occasionally within the field. Its cut surface was smooth and flawless, the overall shape complete and symmetrical. A long ribbon was tied near the severed end in a neat bow, with a small tag bearing a blessing hanging from it…

The sincerity practically overflowed from the containment field.

…

In the realm of the water elementals.

An endless expanse of water filled the entire world. The boundary between “sky” and “sea surface” blurred in the distance, as if a ceaseless downpour drenched the world, forming a dense curtain of rain so thick it could suffocate ordinary beings. Above this vast ocean, where the sky should have been, there was no sun, moon, or stars—only another shimmering sea, inverted and suspended above this world, endlessly pouring rain down onto this side. In this domain ruled by water elementals, an eternal cycle was maintained.

Suddenly, great waves surged through the boundless ocean. From the indistinct elemental sea, a form coalesced—a giant roughly humanoid in shape, its surface constantly shifting and flowing. This giant seemed the embodiment of the entire sea’s will. As it rose, the ocean instantly stilled; even the relentless downpour and the inverted sea above calmed. The giant scanned the surroundings, soon fixing its gaze on a vortex forming not far off. This whirlpool defied the giant’s dominion, appearing abruptly above the water and visibly expanding.

“What is happening?” the giant exclaimed in shock, its voice like a thousand crashing waves. “Why has this ancient gateway opened again?!”

Before the words faded, several massive high-ranking water elementals—the sentinels tasked with monitoring this region—materialized from the calm sea. One stepped forward, its bright elemental core glowing in the pure water as it addressed the giant standing in the ocean: “Great Lord, we have just received word from the material world. The ‘Great Devourer’ intends to reopen this ancient rift, and she says she wishes to speak with you.”

“The Great Devourer?!” The giant’s surface rippled, its movements slowing. “What does she want? We have a pact—elemental lords and the Devourers each rule their own domains, respecting each other’s boundaries. Why stir trouble now?”

“The message was vague,” the sentinel replied, a rumbling sound emanating from within, “only that she wants to establish a watch station on our side to monitor this planet’s energy cycles…”

“Preposterous!” The giant’s tone grew sharp with anger. “She’s clearly preparing an excuse to break the pact—these beings who live in the material world are utterly untrustworthy!”

“Well…” The sentinels hesitated. Another spoke up, “Should we forcibly close the rift? It’s not fully open yet; we still can—”

“No. Let it open,” the giant interrupted, calming down. After a moment’s thought, it rumbled, “The Great Devourer has prepared a reason. I want to see what other excuses she has lined up. These material-world dwellers always act strangely. I’m curious now.”

As they spoke, the whirlpool on the sea surface expanded again, beginning to take on a more solid form. The giant and the sentinels fell silent, watching the ancient rift connecting the material and elemental worlds, waiting for the “guest” on the other side to step through.

The sentinels grew alert, crystalline spears forged entirely from elemental energy appearing in their hands. Deep beneath the giant, countless elemental shadows gathered.

The Great Devourers were immortal—though most elemental beings were hard to kill outright, these mysterious entities were even harder to destroy than the native elementals of this world. Their leader, especially, was invincible and wielded power rivaling that of an elemental sovereign. Under any circumstances, she was an extremely dangerous adversary.

Still, the giant had made up its mind: if she intended to break the ancient pact here, it would pay any price to show these invaders their place.

As these thoughts passed, the massive elemental vortex finally solidified into a gateway, standing like a door on the calm sea surface. The swirling light within formed a stable passage. The giant fixed its gaze on the depths of the portal, and soon, a figure emerged—one it hadn’t seen in many years but would recognize instantly.

Sea Witch Queen Petia, leader of the Devourers.

Following her, more than a dozen Sea Witch attendants slipped through the elemental rift in single file.

They carried no strange weapons and showed no hostility, seeming genuinely not here to fight. The giant and sentinels thought this, yet they remained on high alert, wary of these unexpected visitors reopening the rift.

Petia glided a few steps across the mirror-like sea surface, her long serpentine tail moving as if crawling over solid ground. She hadn’t been here in many years, but the place was unchanged—those nervous native water elementals and their leader looked just as before.

She lifted her head to meet the giant standing on the sea. At the same moment, the giant lowered its gaze to her. Its voice, like thunderous waves crashing between two seas, boomed: “Great Devourer, long time no see—why do you suddenly break the pact?”

“Hello, Gruguno,” Petia smiled gently, using as friendly a tone as she could with this ever-tense elemental sovereign. “We’re not breaking the pact. The agreement only said the Sea Witches and native water elementals would not attack each other and would peacefully coexist, respecting each other’s survival. It never said we couldn’t visit each other peacefully. I’m just here to check in—and to discuss something with you.”

“My name is Gruguno!” The giant snapped angrily. “Cut the beating around the bush. Be straightforward like an elemental. What exactly are you here for?”

“Ah… sorry, I think I got your name wrong,” Petia said, startled at first, then quickly apologized. She straightened up, her expression serious. “We want to establish an outpost here—rest assured, it’s purely for peaceful purposes, and we have very important reasons…”

“An outpost? Reasons? Do you even know what you’re saying?!” Overlord Gruguno shouted, while the water element sentinels nearby immediately stepped forward, their crystalline spears at the ready. “Sometimes I really don’t understand how you ‘sea witches’ pick your leaders… sense of humor, maybe?”

“Wait, wait, don’t be so tense,” Petia said, reading their reaction exactly as she expected. She quickly glanced back toward the elemental rift. “We really do come in peace. Look, I even brought you some local specialties… uh, where did my gift go?”

She stared dumbfounded in the direction they had come from, only to see the area around the elemental rift completely empty. The accompanying sea witches exchanged uneasy looks. After a long pause, one finally spoke up: “Your Majesty, it seems the force field boundary was too wide, and the gift got stuck passing through the rift…”

“Stuck?” Petia blinked in disbelief, but quickly recovered. “No problem. I’ll personally widen the passage. It should be easier to manage from this side.”

As she spoke, the deep-sea sovereign raised a hand and pointed toward the swirling vortex. In an instant, immense elemental power slipped from the sea’s control under her will, becoming part of the whirlpool itself to expand the internal passage. The roaring waves echoed from the vortex’s depths. The already tense water elementals immediately raised their weapons. Seeing this, Overlord Gruguno stepped forward, and a towering tidal wave gathered behind him. “Stop! What are you doing—”

His words cut off abruptly. Petia was only widening the elemental passage deep within the vortex—she wasn’t summoning a million-strong army. What emerged from the channel was a single ancient god’s severed limb, still twitching faintly, trapped inside a cube of pure water. The limb was tied with a ribbon bow and had a note attached…

Gruguno’s gaze locked onto the twitching “squid tentacle.” Recognition dawned on him instantly. For the first time, a flicker of human-like shock and panic crossed the ever-shifting, vague face of the elemental overlord. His voice thundered across the sea: “Damn it… what did you bring here?! Get it away—now!!”

Petia smiled warmly. “Hey, don’t be so nervous, Guluulu. This thing’s no threat to you… want to try a little taste?”

“That’s enough! Don’t come any closer! Put that thing back where it came from! The Elemental World doesn’t need this kind of ‘contamination’!”

“But—”

“I believe you, Petia! I believe you!”

(End of chapter)