Chapter 645: Fated Yet Unmatched

"Undead Yuchou creature?"

Liszt heard yet another new term: "Is, could you tell me what this Undead Yuchou is like?"

"Do you know about the undead?"

"I know about wraiths and liches."

He’d met two liches—Curtis Truth and the Bull Marquis.

As for wraiths, Virginia Truth... She usually stayed in the soul container within his gemstone space, only let out occasionally for a chat.

"I’ve heard of liches—a dark transformation that channels soul power. The undead are somewhat like liches, but instead of soul power, they use remnants of their souls to control the physical strength they had in life. I suspect the Undead Yuchou was Archmage-level in life."

"An Archmage?" Liszt’s eyes widened. An Archmage was a being capable of fighting a dragon one-on-one. The idea of an Undead Yuchou having that power seemed absurd.

"It’s just my suspicion, and that was its strength in life. Now, it might only have the power of a great magician, but its body is formidable. I discovered the Yuchou Shrine when I was young and always wanted to enter, but it kept blocking me at the entrance. Time hasn’t worn it down."

Hearing that it was only at the level of a great magician, Liszt finally relaxed.

Archmages hadn’t been seen in ages. If someone suddenly told him that a ruin thousands of years old housed an Archmage, he wouldn’t believe it. Time corrodes everything—even dragons, the pinnacle of power, eventually die, much less other creatures.

Liszt then asked Is for more details about the Undead Yuchou.

According to Is, the Undead Yuchou was a powerful member of the Yuchou race, imprisoned in the Yuchou Shrine as a guardian. It was ten meters tall, like a giant standing frog but with the upper body of a fish-like head and torso. It wielded a strange trident capable of casting powerful water magic.

One spell, called "Waterflow Shackles" by Is, was an advanced magic that could manipulate water to bind an opponent's body and then tear them apart.

Is had been caught in it once as a girl and almost ripped apart.

After hearing this, Liszt turned to ask, "Acheronides, do you think you can defeat this Undead Yuchou underwater?" A hundred meters down, his combat ability would severely decline, making it unclear if he could easily beat an opponent with home-field advantage at the level of a great magician.

Acheronides nodded seriously. "Don’t worry, brother. The Undead Yuchou Is described doesn’t seem very strong. I’ve mastered many advanced spells—Hydrofusion Vortex will blast it to bits!"

"Still, be cautious."

Liszt ruffled Acheronides’ hair. In a fight, she was fierce—her original spells like Hydrofusion Vortex packed tremendous power.

When they finished talking, night had fallen.

He decided to rest on the coral reef overnight and search for the Yuchou Shrine the next day. Meanwhile, he planned to spend the evening chatting with Is, hoping to tap into her four centuries of wisdom and perhaps even persuade her to return to Black Horse Island as his personal Counselor.

For now, conversation was key.

"Is, why is it that while Acheronides was nurtured in a seashell, you were nurtured in a conch?" He pointed at the massive conch Is was sitting on—white with brown patterns, even larger than Acheronides' shell and covered in spines.

"A conch is also a type of seashell. Every siren is born in a shell—there’s no particular reason. Shells vary wildly, so our nurturing does too. Just as humans vary in height and build, sirens have different shells and appearances."

"When did you grow legs?"

"I reached adulthood at fifty-five, completely leaving the growth fluid of my conch shell and gaining independent legs." She wiggled her fair feet, her toes strikingly elegant.

Though no foot fanatic, Liszt nearly lost focus.

But with his vast experience, he showed no outward reaction, his gaze remaining clear. "Fifty-five? So Acheronides is forty-two now—thirteen more years until adulthood?" Thirteen years was longer than Liszt had expected, which grated on him.

Listening in, Acheronides couldn’t help but feel dejected. Though youth was every woman’s desire, the wish to grow up was also innate for the young.

Is, however, smiled. "Who knows what the future holds? Before growing legs, you long for them, but once you have them, you might miss the days without."

"You always speak so philosophically."

"Maybe I've just lived through a lot."

"Have you encountered many humans in your life?" Liszt asked.

Is's gaze momentarily went distant.

She shook her head. "I once set foot on land and sought love, but in the end, the sea is where I belong... Still, I would recommend young humans and young small mermaids to seek love. Only by loving can one understand the depth of affection, and only by being hurt can one realize the value of innocence."

At that moment,

Liszt sensed a romantic, poetic air emanating from Is.

Perhaps she was not just a siren of the sea but also a seafaring bard.

"Then, could you tell me about your life on land? Though I am a knight, I am also a historian. I am compiling an ambitious work documenting the historical changes of the continent—*Dragons Battling in the Wilderness*—and I hope to uncover forgotten history from you."

To bolster his credibility, he directly retrieved the weighty tome, *Dragons Battling in the Wilderness*, from his gem storage space—a book he had started but long abandoned after writing only a few chapters—and handed it to Is for her to peruse.

Is took the volume, flipped through a couple of pages casually, and returned it: "I don’t understand Serpent Tongue. All my interactions with humans took place in the Kingdom of the Eagle."

Just as well she didn’t look further.

Because the rest of the pages were blank.

Liszt put the book away and said, "Then tell me your story."

...

Like most naive, dreamy young girls,

after growing legs, Is couldn’t help but become deeply fascinated with humans. She would sneak close to the shore at night to listen in on human lives.

Eventually, during one such eavesdropping attempt, she was discovered by villagers.

The villagers, surprisingly shrewd, did not expose or chase her away immediately. Instead, they coaxed her into staying in one of their homes and then reported her to their lord.

He was a handsome young noble who fell instantly in love with Is’s dazzling beauty upon seeing her. Is, too, was quickly enchanted by the young noble’s sweet words, and for a time, they enjoyed a blissful mermaid-human romance. But in the end, the noble abandoned her to marry a noblewoman.

And she, after weeping, returned to the sea.

Decades later, upon hearing of the noble’s death, she returned to land and secretly attended his funeral. The funeral scene helped her release the pain she had once endured. She began studying human magic and attempted to travel the continent to experience more of its customs.

"But it only lasted half a year. The inland environment was just too harsh—my skin got drier every day. So I gave up my travels and returned to the sea," Is said with a sigh. "After that, I occasionally ventured to other seas, but no matter where I wandered, I always ended up back in these waters where I was born and raised."

Such was Is’s life.

No terrible hardships, no life-and-death partings. Even her only heartbreak was merely being abandoned by a noble—who, in truth, still loved her. But his noble status demanded he marry a human wife and sire heirs to continue his lineage. Thus, he cast aside the mermaid.

The mermaid’s otherworldly beauty and her inability to bear children

fated their love to remain star-crossed.