By midnight, Zhang Jiuxuan stood at the bow of a small fast boat, cutting silently through the black waters of the Malacca Strait.
Sultan Ahmad had sent two elite naval escorts, but Zhang Jiuxuan waved them back before they drew near the target zone.
“Stay here,” he said.
“What lies below does not distinguish between friend and foe.
I go alone.” He kicked off his flip-flops, tucked the jade seal tight against his chest, and dove straight into the sea.
No splash marked his entry—he moved as light as a falling leaf, golden light wrapping around his body to let him breathe and see clearly in the dark depths.
Dozens of fathoms down, the water grew cold and still.
Ahead rose the jagged spires of the sunken port: stone docks, broken temple pillars, and the hulls of ships that had rested here since the Ming Dynasty.
All were wrapped in thick, pulsing black chains that coiled like living snakes.
In the center of the ruins, a massive platform of coral and bone had been built.
Standing atop it was a towering figure wrapped in seaweed and rusted armor, his face hidden behind a helm carved in the shape of a shark’s head.
In his left hand, he held the second fragment of the Celestial Master’s Seal; in his right, a trident that crackled with blue-black lightning.
“So the little priest dares to descend,” the Duke of the Tides boomed, his voice shaking the water.
“You hold half the key.
I hold the other.
Surrender, and I will let you drown quickly.” Zhang Jiuxuan drifted to a halt a dozen paces away, the golden light around him burning brighter.
“You are no duke,” he said calmly.
“You are a failed sea spirit, twisted by Black Cross magic into a weapon.
You don’t command the tides—you are dragged by them.” The duke roared and thrust his trident forward.
Bolts of foul lightning shot through the water, boiling the sea where they passed.
Zhang Jiuxuan didn’t dodge; he raised the jade seal, and every bolt shattered harmlessly against a golden shield.
“Worthless!” the duke snarled.
He slammed his trident into the platform.
The black chains snapped tight, and hundreds of water wraiths surged from the ruins—sailors, merchants, soldiers, all trapped here for centuries, now forced to fight.
Zhang Jiuxuan sighed.
“Again with the puppets.” He pressed his thumb to the seal and spoke a single word that rang through the deep like a bell.
“Return.” Golden threads shot from the seal, wrapping around every wraith.
The black chains dissolved instantly.
The trapped spirits paused, looked at their own translucent hands, then bowed to Zhang Jiuxuan one last time before drifting upward, dissolving into gentle light as they rose toward the surface.
The duke froze, stunned.
“How… how do you break the binding of the Order?” “Because their chains were never meant to hold,” Zhang Jiuxuan said.
“Only people who have forgotten what freedom feels like can be enslaved so easily.” He kicked forward, closing the distance in an instant.
The duke swung his trident in a deadly arc—Zhang Jiuxuan caught the shaft with one bare hand.
The metal hissed and melted where it touched his skin.
“Give me the fragment,” Zhang Jiuxuan said.
“Or I will melt the curse right out of your bones, even if it tears you apart.” The duke howled in rage and charged, drawing every drop of dark power from the ruins.
The water turned black, and the pressure grew so great it would have crushed steel like paper.
Zhang Jiuxuan planted his feet, raised the jade seal high, and called down power that shook the seabed itself.
“Spirit of Heaven, descend!
Divine Thunder, pierce the deep!” Azure lightning burst from the seal, tearing through the dark water as if it were air.
It struck the duke square in the chest, blasting apart his armor and burning away every trace of the Black Cross’s corruption.
The shark helm fell away, revealing not a monster, but the sorrowful face of an ancient guardian who had once sworn to protect these waters.
He sank to his knees, the second seal fragment slipping from his grasp.
Zhang Jiuxuan caught it gently.
“I… I lost my way,” the guardian whispered, his voice fading.
“They promised me the power to stop the land from swallowing the sea… instead they turned me into a weapon.” “Rest now,” Zhang Jiuxuan said softly.
“The sea is safe.
The seal is whole again.” The guardian smiled, then dissolved into clear, glowing water that seeped into the broken stones, healing the cracks as it went.
Zhang Jiuxuan pressed the two fragments together.
They fused instantly, becoming one complete Celestial Master’s Seal, glowing so bright it lit the entire strait like daylight.
He rose slowly toward the surface.
Above, the sky was clearing, and the sea lay calm once more.
But as he looked north toward Kuala Lumpur, his expression turned grave.
Three pieces of the Black Cross’s key remained.
And the place they would use to open the final gate was the heart of the peninsula itself.