The Legend of the Underwater Palace and the Sea Dragon Prince

6. The ceremonial hunt, watching the crown prince get covered in blood

He Xuan had taken upon himself the task of dealing with Jun Wu, XianLe's chief councillor, showing him their products and negotiating trading deals, while Hua Cheng just spent time being entertained by His Highness. All the while, the pirates were being treated with the utmost courtesy, indeed esteemed and highly regarded visitors to that submerged kingdom.

While walking through the underwater palace's colourful gardens, Hua Cheng kept thinking of the past days: admiring the prince's armoury, reading scrolls at the royal library, leisure walks or games of polo, playing go. And every night dining at the royal table, with exquisite food and wine being served.

This life was unrivalled under Heavens – after taking over the palace, he wouldn't even need to go back to piracy. He could just live there as XianLe's ruler, and His Highness... he could remain his wife, why not? Enjoying the idea so very much, Hua Cheng flashed a smile.

"Good morning San Lang! What is it, you can't stop smiling to yourself?", the crown prince suddenly greeted him from the middle of some red algae bushes.

He had long chains of amber beads crossed over his torso, golden arm rings and long skirts of a gauzy fabric, orange and saffron yellow, with metallic speckles. His hair, tied up with a golden crown, floated around him reflecting the red-orangey algae around. He looked dazzling, as usual.

"Gege!", he replied, his smile widening, "Nothing can make me smile more than seeing you, every day. This outfit of yours... I like it", he concluded with a teasing wink.

The prince laughed heartily – either he was used to Hua Cheng's flirting by now, and didn't think anything of it, or was just too naïve. But Hua Cheng was enjoying this game, and didn't mind taking his time: he didn't want to be an impatient fisherman and lose this catch!

As he approached, Hua Cheng kept eyeing his body underneath his floating jewellery, his straight and slender legs showing through the fabric of his skirts. He cupped his hands in playful greetings.

The prince said, "Tomorrow we'll have the Bu Jing Festival, or Whale Hunt. You of course will be my honoured guest. But I can't entertain you, I hope you won't miss me too much!", he laughed softly.

Hua Cheng smiled, "Of course I will. I miss Gege all the time I'm not around him".

"It's a ceremonial hunt, symbolising the ancient times when the whale and the dragon gods contended, so I'll play the role of the hunter in my human form and – "

Hua Cheng's eyes widened in amazement: having of course crossed paths with many whales, he knew these monsters could swallow a whole junk ship! Why would he be in human form –

His Highness was probably thinking he was feeling bad for the whale, and hurriedly added, "It's a ceremonial hunt, all an illusion. I'm not going to actually kill – "

"Won't Gege be in any danger though?", Hua Cheng asked, his face the very image of concern.

Smiling fondly, the crown prince replied, "Of course not. Tomorrow you'll see..."

On the next day, XianLe woke up in a frenzy, as if the sea itself was boiling over with excitement: this Bu Jing Festival was a big deal indeed! Hua Cheng, escorted by the Guoshi, joined other dignitaries on an observation platform right in front of the Temple of the Sea Dragon of the Southern Seas, and it looked like the whole kingdom was swimming down below.

The temple stood on a purple coral reef, with golden roofs and columns, and precisely between wu and wei times, the sun rays shone through the waters vertically, the contrast of its colours looked truly dreamy, like a heavenly palace, holy and other-worldly.

In half an incense time, a huge whale swam by, circling it, giving what sounded like a long, mourning war cry, and the crowd gasped and screamed in horror at that gigantic creature; the temple doors suddenly opened, and the crowd cheered on in a nonstop frenzy: it was His Highness the Crown Prince Xie Lian, the sea dragon god himself!

His torso was fully exposed and he wore only a leather loincloth, bronze rings on his arms and ankles, hair woven in many braids, tied up with a bony hairclip. He had seal script characters drawn all over his body and was armed with a bronze harpoon, which he brandished deftly and fiercely when he walked out of the temple.

Hua Cheng's breath hitched: with that crude clothing and accessories, the crown prince was full of a raw and aggressive masculine beauty, and he couldn't take his eyes off him.

The hunt started, with His Highness swimming around the whale, piercing it tentatively a few times; as if sensing the approach of a deathly enemy no matter how small, the whale swung its tail fiercely, tossing him around easily – it was more than ten times bigger than a human body. The crown prince was courting death!

But he deftly dodged the tail swings, swirling around and getting back to an attack stance, piercing it again and again: they were as different as heaven and earth in speed and agility.

Hua Cheng was amazed by that display of underwater martial arts, as more and more blood started to float in the water. His Highness kept swimming swiftly and skilfully around the whale, piercing it a few more times, its high-pitched crier showing it was getting angrier and angrier.

It started swimming in a spiral around the prince, gaining speed, and suddenly opened its huge mouth, swallowing him whole! The crowd roared in anger, and Hua Cheng jolted at this unexpected turn of events, looking around him if anyone wouldn't do anything! Hand on his cutlass, he was ready to jump in, to fiercely cut that whale open –

But before he could do anything there was a new commotion, and he looked up: the whale was jerking uncontrollably, like having seizures, its cries even more desperate, long and mournful. With a piercing cry, it opened its mouth, with more and more blood gushing out, and the crown prince swam out of it, brandishing his bloody harpoon!

The whale kept convulsing and gushing more blood, like a kite with its string cut, then started to descend slowly, its huge body shaking heavens and earth when it touched the sea bed.

Hua Cheng kept looking at the prince, mesmerized: covered in blood and unscathed from a life-or-death hunt, an indomitable force of nature – powerful, beautiful, wild. Untamed, and untameable. Feeling an embarrassing reaction, Hua Cheng hurriedly left when no one was paying attention.

That night, somebody knocked on his cabin, and after a moment, opened the door. It was He Xuan.

"I saw you earlier at the hunt. So I knocked, just in case you were doing something, hum, private – "

"What do you want?", Hua Cheng asked rudely, while writing on Crimson Rain's deck log.

"I see all is well. Soon you'll be the sea dragon's lover", He Xuan said, smiling sarcastically as usual.

Hua Cheng didn't say anything, just tapped his brush impatiently for He Xuan to leave.

But He Xuan went on, ""That hunt today... that guy is fierce, I'm not sure you'll manage it with him", he chuckled, "If not, let me know. I can ask around the crew about some medicinal herbs that can sort a man out and – "

"GET LOST", Hua Cheng shouted.

Thank you for reading! The crown prince of XianLe is really a feast to the eyes, isn't he? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! 😍

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