She paused, "The Dragon Palace Sea Market?"
Before long, she regained her senses and anxiously asked, "Is there anyone else here besides me?"
The man shook his head, "No. The hurricane was a calamity of nature, and you were saved only because you happened to enter the domain of the Dragon Palace."
She stepped back half a pace, her expression clouded with sorrow. Under the hurricane, how could the villagers possibly survive?
Clenching her fists, she cried out in anger, "Since there exists a Dragon Palace Sea Market, then surely there is a Dragon King. We have offered prayers day and night, never lacking devotion, not for wealth, but for peace. And now, when calamity strikes, where is this deity?"
The man's expression remained unchanged, and he shook his head in response:
"There's no deity here, but the Crown Prince of the Dragon Clan. Although we bear the power to transform into dragons, we are not deities and cannot interfere with the will of heaven. Should we do so, our bodies would perish and souls be scattered, forbidden from reincarnation."
Only then did she understand: The tides surge year after year were but the natural order a ruthless cycle of weal and woe, heedless of human desire.
She bowed slightly, with a hint of apology.
"Forgive my offense. May I ask... is there any means to help the villagers resist the assaulting tides, making them no longer live in fear?"
The Crown Prince replied, "To defy the might of heaven, one must first possess great power. Our clan has no ties with humankind. If we resist heaven's will for the sake of humans, we cannot escape its judgment. We have no cultivation suited to humans, but I do hold a Dragon Pearl Embryo, which is of little use to our kind but can grant a human the form of a dragon. However, those who want to refine it must endure the pain of having their tendons torn, bones extracted, and body reshaped. Worse still, to challenge fate is to invite divine punishment. Under heaven's wrath, both their body and soul shall be annihilated, with no hope of reincarnation."
Resolutely, she said, "All whom I loved are surely gone, claimed by the flood. Now I'm all alone, unafraid of death."
"I fear not the loss of my body, nor the banishment from reincarnations. If I gain the strength to overturn the seas, even at the cost of my life, I shall protect the land that nurtured me."
"I beg you grant me the Dragon Pearl Embryo and the method of cultivation. Not for my own sake, but for the lives of countless people."
The Crown Prince was silent for a moment, then sighed.
"Do you know that the weal and woe are heaven's decree, tolerating no mortal control? That to rouse heaven's wrath is the end of your existence and the dissolution of your soul, leaving no future life?"
"I know. And I am willing. All I seek is to defy destiny, for the sake of people in this world."