TYMIMA Chapter 104

Sandro quickly withdrew from his memories and glanced at the time.

 

The ceremonial robes he needed to wear for the engagement day were already laid out at his bedside, and several of Tasman’s major authoritative media outlets had been invited to stay temporarily at the underwater station.

 

This wasn’t the formal wedding yet—only Sandro and Selarl’s acquaintances and officials in important positions would attend.

 

So only a small number of photos and videos would be distributed through the media as an explanation to the people who were concerned about and anticipating this event.

 

Next month’s grand wedding ceremony would be broadcast nationally with great fanfare, with even more exquisite formal wear and more elaborate procedures.

 

Currently, Tasman’s ceremonial music and dance troupes were rehearsing intensively, hoping to offer sincere blessings to this heaven-made couple on their wedding day.

 

Thinking of this, Sandro’s double pupils contracted as he forcefully broke the golden brooch on his ceremonial robe.

 

He released his grip, and the brooch fragments fell to the floor.

 

Sandro ignored the pain in his palm, quickly dressed, stepped out of his bedchamber, and walked straight to the council hall.

 

The servant hadn’t expected the king to start working at only six in the morning. She yawned and hurried to follow.

 

Sandro sat upright in the square chair made of jade, lifted his eyelids, and said coldly: “Call Gudeshao here.”

 

The order was passed down layer by layer, but the result was that Gudeshao was now just a frozen-stiff corpse, and according to forensic examination, his cause of death was very complex with no leads on the killer.

 

Sandro knew Gudeshao’s death was connected to High Tower and Ghost Eye guilds, but hearing this, he still angrily slammed the table and shouted: “How many days has Gudeshao been dead? Tasman’s finance minister was murdered—such a major incident, and you didn’t inform me?”

 

The group of officials standing in the council hall looked at each other and unanimously lowered their heads, not daring to make a sound.

 

The radical faction officials knew full well that Gudeshao’s death must have been reported to the king by someone from the rational faction, so their silence didn’t prevent the king from knowing.

 

The rational faction understood even more clearly that the king was using this as an excuse to make a scene.

 

At this time, Selarl’s confidant, the anglerfish, stepped forward. His eyes darted around as he smoothly explained: “You’ve been busy with wedding preparations recently. Everyone didn’t want to add to your troubles. The guard will definitely investigate Gudeshao’s cause of death, and the bidding matter was handed over to Li Bang, which has now been successfully concluded.”

 

Sandro stared at him with cold eyes and rebuked: “Who authorized Li Bang, a guard captain, to interfere in financial matters?”

 

The anglerfish was stumped.

 

The king couldn’t be unaware that all personnel assignments now had Selarl’s hand in them, so today’s temper was probably directed at Selarl.

 

Though the anglerfish knew Selarl’s dark thoughts and knew the king was angry, he could only play dumb.

 

“Prince Selarl was also trying to share your burdens. He probably forgot to inform you because he saw you were tired.”

 

Sandro’s expression cleared slightly, looking as if he was giving face only because of Selarl: “Where is Li Bang? Doesn’t even he know to report to me?”

 

“It was just signed last night. You went to bed early, so he probably planned to report to you this morning.” The anglerfish answered flawlessly.

 

Sandro raised his chin slightly, scrutinizing this wretched yet smooth person.

 

He leaned back in his chair, his gaze becoming long and lazy, seemingly asking casually: “Which guild was signed?”

 

“I heard it was High Tower Guild, but it seems High Tower Guild currently can’t produce five hundred tons, so they have to purchase a batch from Ghost Eye Guild themselves.”

 

Hearing this, Sandro smiled meaningfully: “Li Bang didn’t have time to report to me, but he was quite diligent in reporting to you.”

 

The anglerfish’s expression changed slightly, suddenly somewhat speechless.

 

Fortunately, Sandro didn’t dwell on this point. He ignored the anglerfish’s embarrassed expression, lightly gripped the jade chair’s armrest, his slender knuckles tapping lightly: “These two guilds have cooperated before. The crystal ore quality is quite good, just their attitude is too arrogant. Go bring their people here. I want the Federation’s top guilds to witness the greatness of Tasman’s underwater empire.”

 

“Yes.” The anglerfish was still feeling guilty about Sandro’s earlier words. Seeing Sandro’s tone suddenly become gentle, he quickly agreed repeatedly.

 

In the time it took to turn around, the anglerfish suddenly pondered.

 

Arrogant.

 

To say Ghost Eye Guild was arrogant was barely understandable, but High Tower Guild?

 

Wasn’t this guild consistently dirty in methods and big in smiles from top to bottom?

 

On the Manxing Sea, the cruise ship announced a warm reminder—

 

【Tourists who signed up for underwater walking please immediately gather in the main hall and find your group leader according to your assigned number.】

 

This was an activity to experience roaming the seabed using kelp tree bubbles, but the project had extremely few sign-ups.

 

For Federation tourists, believing that a single bubble could achieve effects far superior to diving suits and perform deep dives hundreds of meters underwater still required overcoming significant psychological barriers.

 

However, Chen Shun’an had previously explained that kelp tree bubbles were actually a type of mucus wrapped around gas. When this mucus encountered seawater, it would transform into an extremely elastic membrane that wouldn’t break even when stabbed or slashed by extremely sharp blades.

 

A single person-sized bubble was sufficient for humans to breathe underwater for three hours. Even if the oxygen inside the bubble was exhausted, there was no need to worry—one simply needed to find a kelp tree charging station along the way and take another bubble, because when bubbles encountered each other, they would quickly fuse into a single entity.

 

Coming back up was even simpler. Once these bubbles surfaced and contacted air, they would automatically burst and disappear, as if they were specially prepared for human survival on the seabed.

 

Lance woke up early and ate delicious scrambled egg sandwiches with Zhan Pingchuan in the buffet restaurant.

 

The gentle morning sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling onto the pristine white tablecloth. Lance swallowed his last bite of buffalo cheese, the milky white cheese ball puffing out his left cheek. While chewing, he casually said, “Hubby, I want more.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan stopped his knife and fork, looked up, his gaze shifting from surprise to intense heat.

 

It seemed like just the night before last they had gone at it intensely in the Spirit Realm system, with the little fox crying until his tears dripped into the crimson sea.

 

But it wasn’t impossible…

 

Lance noticed Zhan Pingchuan’s gradually burning gaze, looked up, gulped down the cheese, and slowly said, “…one piece of cheese.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan: “.” His mind had wandered.

 

Lance: “.” He knew his mind had wandered, so inevitably, his own mind wandered too.

 

Dream Witch had received quite a few friend requests from enthusiastic Omegas these past few days. She politely declined several each day, and an hour or two would pass. Today she rarely woke up early to eat in the restaurant. Yawning as she looked up, she saw her only younger brother and future son-in-law gazing deeply into each other’s eyes.

 

Dream Witch: “……”

 

This was the drawback of fathers not allowing early romance—once certain little O’s started dating, they had a beautiful disregard for their family’s well-being.

 

She walked past the two without looking sideways, mischievously extended two fingers to cut through their sticky gazes, then calmly took a plate and picked up some bacon.

 

Zhan Pingchuan coughed lightly, forked up the cheese from his own bowl, fed it to Lance’s mouth, and teased, “It’s fine, we can cleverly yet awkwardly skip over that topic from just now.”

 

Lance smiled, his eyes curved like crescents filled with morning light.

 

He discovered that since meeting Zhan Pingchuan, he had smiled more than in all his previous ten-plus years combined, even during times when missions pressed and situations were urgent.

 

He was naturally heavy-minded and suspicious by nature. It was hard to imagine why someone could be so happy.

 

Fortunately, this person was now his.

 

“After we rescue the king.” I want to take you back to High Tower Guild and reintroduce your identity to them—you’re the little wolf cub that White Pharaoh holds dear to his heart.

 

Zhan Pingchuan deliberately leaned close to his ear: “Speak clearly, baby. What happens after we rescue him?”

 

Lance bit off Zhan Pingchuan’s portion of cheese in one bite and mumbled indistinctly, “We’ll talk about it then.”

 

“Alright, let’s get serious. Want to look at Li Bang’s movement trajectory?” Zhan Pingchuan straightened his expression, took out his phone, tapped it a few times, and the map displayed a red action route.

 

Lance leaned over to look.

 

Yesterday, when Selarl suddenly called Li Bang, Dream Witch and Adrian quickly acted, planning to send Li Bang back to his room.

 

But Lance stared at that phone call, always feeling something stuck in his heart.

 

He instinctively tapped the micro earpiece hidden in his ear, wanting Mad Clown to somehow teleport over a tracking device, but for a long time, there was no response from the other side.

 

Sea signals were always intermittent, and Mad Clown might also be resting, but they really couldn’t wait any longer at the moment.

 

Adrian was already planning to leap from the balcony. Lance looked at his back and murmured softly, “If only we had a tracker, then we wouldn’t have to worry about him eavesdropping.”

 

But neither guild had expected that what was originally an ordinary bidding competition would develop into the current situation, so no one had brought such professional equipment.

 

Just then, Zhan Pingchuan suddenly said, “We don’t necessarily need a tracker.”

 

Lance: “Hmm?”

 

“What brand is this guy’s phone?” Zhan Pingchuan suddenly asked.

 

Adrian stopped, took out Li Bang’s phone, frowned at Zhan Pingchuan: “iPear28.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan: “Who has the same brand?”

 

Adrian: “I don’t use this model, the functions are too flashy.”

 

Fulunla: “I have iBanana.”

 

Mudeli: “Who uses iPear nowadays—such expensive and retro models? Everyone uses iBanana.”

 

Abaddon nodded.

 

So Zhan Pingchuan, with a sullen face and extreme displeasure, pulled out his new iPear and bound it in close relationship with Li Bang’s account.

 

Damn, the first time was actually binding with this guy.

 

The reason he could think of this method was because during their long-distance relationship, he had been scratching his heart and liver thinking about the little fox every day, planning to do this for a long time.

 

Unfortunately, Lance also used iBanana, so the plan had never succeeded.

 

But fortunately, they now had Li Bang’s movement trajectory.

 

Lance discovered that after Li Bang left the cruise ship yesterday, he went about ten nautical miles southwest, then walked another ten nautical miles west.

 

The position stopped there and hadn’t changed until now.

 

Lance had no concept of the underwater architecture of Tasman Pirate Nation, so just looking at Li Bang’s trajectory, he couldn’t discover any problems.

 

“Take it to Chen Shun’an to see what kind of place this area is.”

 

So Dream Witch, who had just sat down and eaten two bites of bacon, was also dragged away by the two of them.

 

The three found the obvious and hidden surveillance on Chen Shun’an. Zhan Pingchuan struck with his hand like a blade, directly knocking them unconscious, then brazenly met with Chen Shun’an.

 

Dream Witch was responsible for handling the memories of several people after the meeting.

 

Chen Shun’an put on his reading glasses, looked at the map, carefully distinguishing directions. As he looked, he frowned and made a “tsk” sound.

 

“What is it?” Lance asked.

 

“This isn’t the direction of the king’s palace at all. This is… this is close to Wonderland Trench. Strictly speaking, this area counts as the remote suburbs of the seabed. We basically never go there normally.”

 

“Wonderland Trench?”

 

Chen Shun’an explained: “Oh, the Tasman sea area is actually an underwater platform surrounded by four major trenches. The trenches have strong winds and waves, many large fish, and few fishing boats or cruise ships visit, so our country can maintain long-term peace and tranquility. Wonderland Trench is the deepest of them. The year the king disappeared, he fled to an underground city there. Precisely because that place was remote, even when Selarl dug three feet into the ground, he couldn’t find the king.”

 

Lance’s heart stirred: “You’re saying the king stayed in an underground city for a year?”

 

Chen Shun’an looked puzzled: “Is there some problem?”

 

Zhan Pingchuan chuckled lightly: “Underground cities are full of crises, with harsh environments and countless strange mutant beasts. You have to sleep with one eye open in there. Your king is quite capable.”

 

Chen Shun’an: “The king must have suffered greatly, but he’s unwilling to speak of it, and we don’t feel comfortable asking.”

 

Lance lowered his eyes in thought.

 

Zhan Pingchuan continued: “Setting aside the king, with the engagement imminent, Li Bang as Selarl’s capable assistant, instead of rushing back to the palace to help, is running off to some remote backwater—did he go on vacation?”

 

This was the strange part. Moreover, Li Bang had set off not long after they sent him back, making it hard not to suspect he had received some order from Selarl.

 

The close relationship binding was just Zhan Pingchuan’s whim, but unexpectedly it actually led to a discovery.

 

Chen Shun’an: “But this suburban area really doesn’t have anything.”

 

“What about the southwest? What trench is this area?” Zhan Pingchuan pointed and asked.

 

Chen Shun’an enlarged the map: “Oh, this is an area with small wind and waves, relatively gentle currents, not prone to major accidents. Our cruise ship also passed through here.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan: “I don’t understand ocean currents. To reach Li Bang’s intended destination, did he have to make a detour through this place?”

 

Chen Shun’an: “Of course not. For marine life Awakened ones, wind, waves, and currents aren’t problems.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan raised an eyebrow: “So he deliberately detoured here, then turned toward the suburbs.”

 

Chen Shun’an nodded.

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)