Chapter 244
Chapter 244
I had already known that someone Lord Xiao loved was trapped in the Linghai Forbidden Zone.
Her name was Zhong Susu.
Aside from the genuinely deep brotherly bond between them, Lord Xiao had only one request in return for all the help he had given Liu Junyan.
He wanted Liu Junyan to help him rescue Zhong Susu.
But the Forbidden Zone was fraught with danger. Liu Junyan had decided to move his Lifebound Artifact this time to cleave open a path through the water for me. Zhong Susu’s appearance had never been part of the plan.
Yet she had suddenly appeared.
Lying inside the bubble, I looked toward the young woman.
She looked like a flower imprisoned beneath the water, on the verge of wilting away.
Lord Xiao aside, even my heart ached at the sight of her.
The young woman slowly raised a hand toward Lord Xiao.
Heavy iron chains shackled her pale arms, which were covered in bruises so dark they looked like congealed ink. The chains clanked dully through the water. “Xiao, I waited so long for you. Why did you only come now? I thought you didn’t want me anymore…”
She struggled forward, keeping her hand stubbornly outstretched as she approached Lord Xiao one step at a time.
Lord Xiao swam forward in two unsteady strokes and reached for her. “Susu…”
As I watched their hands slowly draw closer, it felt as though the entire world had fallen still.
In fact, everything really had gone still.
From the moment Zhong Susu appeared, the guards who had been waiting for a chance to attack me had vanished without a trace.
The realization made my heart lurch.
Something was wrong!
I opened my mouth to warn Lord Xiao, only to see that he had already taken Zhong Susu’s hand.
The instant their hands met, Lord Xiao abruptly twisted his wrist, flipped Zhong Susu over his shoulder, and hurled her away!
The move was swift and ruthless.
The anguish in his eyes and the defeated air surrounding him when he first saw Zhong Susu had vanished completely.
I was stunned. Lord Xiao had realized long ago that something was wrong with the Zhong Susu before him.
He was frighteningly perceptive.
That level of perception was not something raw strength alone could grant.
After all, even the greatest heroes could be undone by a beauty, much less when she was the woman he loved most.
Lord Xiao could only have seen through the deception so quickly because he understood Zhong Susu that well.
After Zhong Susu was thrown away, her entire body dissolved into a string of bubbles.
The next moment, every bubble transformed into another Zhong Susu.
Countless Zhong Susu figures of every size surrounded Lord Xiao, their lips moving incessantly as they called, “Xiao…”
As they called his name, they poured out her fear and helplessness.
Every word bored straight into his ears, impossible to ignore.
I saw Lord Xiao clench his fists. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, struggling to keep those voices from affecting him.
He might have been perceptive enough to see through the illusion, but staying clearheaded under these circumstances was far too difficult.
She was the woman dearest to his heart!
I was deeply worried about Lord Xiao. The Water Ripple around my middle finger seemed to sense it too. It coiled around my finger, lifting its little head as it swam about restlessly. Several times, it tried to stretch outward and touch the enormous bubble surrounding me.
Just as I was hesitating over whether to reach out and puncture the bubble, Lord Xiao suddenly moved.
He abruptly tilted his head. His eyelids twitched slightly, and his ears pricked up. The next instant, his eyes flew open. With a sweep of his hand, he sent a Scale slicing toward one of the “Zhong Susu” figures to his right.
The Scale struck true. The moment that “Zhong Susu” was split into pieces, all the others around Lord Xiao vanished.
All that remained in the water was a vast cloud of pitch-black liquid.
The liquid rapidly gathered together, finally taking the shape of a gigantic black catfish.
The catfish was a full two meters long, and its barbels were almost as thick as my thumb. Its belly heaved constantly, while its gills bulged high.
Suddenly, its gill covers flared open. Inside those blood-red gills, countless fish lice writhed in a dense mass.
The instant its gills opened, the fish lice shot toward us like bullets from a loaded gun.
Lord Xiao immediately formed a hand seal. His powerful internal energy drove a wave forward to block them, but some still slipped through.
Dozens of fish lice pierced the huge bubble surrounding me.
The bubble burst, and seawater engulfed me in an instant.
I immediately bit my finger, formed a Sword Finger with my right hand, and pressed it to the base of my left middle finger. I traced it upward, then pointed my Sword Finger toward the black catfish.
The Water Ripple instantly transformed into the shape of a Dragon and charged straight at the black catfish. A Dragon’s roar shook the entire expanse of water.
The fish lice writhing in the sea were obliterated by the roar. Even the black catfish was shattered to pieces.
But the next moment, a dense black mass came hurtling toward us from dead ahead.
Lord Xiao, who had remained calm all this time, visibly tensed when he saw it.
He looked back and gestured urgently for me to leave, then swiftly formed another seal and erected a barrier in front of himself to stop the approaching mass.
Li Qingying had told me that Lord Xiao was highly favored within the Linghai Dragon Clan. He feared neither heaven nor earth.
If he hadn’t needed to protect me, he would never have been nervous.
Getting out of this dangerous place as quickly as possible was the greatest help I could give him.
I also understood that the waterway Liu Junyan and Lord Xiao had fought so hard to open for me led toward Cangwu Mountain.
Liu Junyan had said he would send me back to Cangwu Mountain tonight.
With that thought, I turned and swam forward.
But Linghai was vast, with nothing but endless seawater in every direction. Where was I supposed to swim? How much farther did I have to go?
I was a strong swimmer, had some cultivation, and could hold my breath for quite a while, but I didn’t have lungs of steel. I knew perfectly well that I couldn’t swim very far.
By then, the black mass had already begun slamming into the barrier.
I glanced back and saw a horned Snake.
No — that was a Black Flood Dragon!
Aside from Liu Junyan, this was the first Flood Dragon I had ever seen. Merely meeting his gaze filled me with such overwhelming dread that my heart trembled.
With Lord Xiao facing the Black Flood Dragon, how could he possibly spare any attention for me?
All I could do was swim faster.
But I hadn’t gone far before my lungs felt as though they were about to explode.
Just then, another tremor rose from the seabed.
Immediately afterward, a slash of Sword Qi even fiercer than the last erupted from the depths. The next moment, I was enveloped in Sword Qi once more.
There was no seawater in the passage carved open by the Sword Qi. I clutched my chest and gulped down air.
The moment I recovered, I took off running.
I had to hurry!
Liu Junyan had unleashed two successive strikes of Sword Qi to open a path for me. Even for him, that couldn’t have been easy.
Besides, the commotion was so great that even the Black Flood Dragon had appeared. Who knew how many other powerful figures from the Linghai Dragon Clan would be drawn here next?
For them, breaking through this Sword Qi would be a matter of moments.
As I ran, I realized that I wasn’t the only one moving. The Sword Qi itself was also surging forward at incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, Lord Xiao and the Black Flood Dragon had vanished from sight.
But I could still sense the battle raging behind me.
The Sword Qi grew fainter and fainter…
Just as it was about to disappear completely, a woman’s voice suddenly came from far behind me.
That voice… I had heard it in my dreams before…