Feng Qixin was in a daze. She sat on her chair, holding her slightly swollen belly with both hands.
A few strong phenixes surrounded her, each with a bitter, sorrowful look, as if they had just been forced to eat a hundred kilograms of gall bladders, and the bitter gall was even oozing out of their pores. Their faces even turned green.
As the guards of the youngest phoenix princess, they escorted a little princess out of the family for a journey, and now, they had to escort a mother back to the family. Phoenixes had always been proud and unreasonable, based on which, one might easily imagine the terrifying punishment that they were going to face.
Unlike Feng Qinxin, Ao Li and the few dragons under his command had been circling quickly in the room in anxiety. Ao Li’s eyes were red, with two streams of tear spurting out of those eyes, dripping on the ground.
Dragon tears contained a magical power, that stimulated and improved water-kind bloodlines, and could even trigger an evolution of low-level water-kind creatures. Ao Li was crying, while a few little shrimps carried a jade bottle and followed behind him to cast a magic, collecting all his tears.
Ao Li cried widely, and the few little shrimps laughed so happily that they even started dancing.
‘Cry, cry, shed more tears!’ These few little shrimp fixed their eyes on Ao Li’s crying face. They even wanted to poke a knife into Ao Li’s butt to shed some dragon blood! This was a pure-blood true dragon. A single drop of his blood might turn a little shrimp directly into a flood dragon!
If Ao Li weren’t so strong, and if Ji Hao and Shermie weren’t watching, these greedy little shrimps might have rushed up and bitten Ao Li’s arm off already.
After crying for a long while, Ao Li started murmuring.
Feng Qinxin did nothing too bad but come home pregnant. She could still be counted as a victim. No matter how angry those phoenix elders could be, in the worst case, Feng Qinxin would be put under house arrest for about a hundred years, before she was set free again.
But Ao Li was different. He guided an evil being into the Dragon Palace and stole important treasures. As the ninth prince, losing a few treasures would bring him a terrible beating and about a hundred years of house arrest at most. To a dragon with a long lifespan, this kind of punishment was not even worth mentioning. Nevertheless, he lost the pair of dragon horn swords made from the horns of the dragon ancestor, and that pair of swords was the most sacred, inviolable totem in the heart of every dragon!
This sounded as bad as Ao Li colluding with outsiders and smashing the ancestral temple of the dragon-kind. He would be peeled and his tendons would be pulled out from his body, aside of which, his soul would be crushed. Ao Li tried, but he failed to picture a better end for himself!
"I’m dead, I’m dead…Hah, that Great Liberty is such a disaster….My good ancestors’ souls, if I knew this would happen, I should have spent a few more nights with little phoenix back in Pan Jia world!"
Ji Hao was taking a sip of the tea from the cup held in his hand. Hearing Ao Li, he choked on the tea and almost fainted. Coughing loudly, he dropped the teacup and threw Ao Li a sideways glance.
‘Alright, even now you still have the mood to think about these things, keep worrying then!’ thought Ji Hao.
Ji Hao would never, ever stand out to admit that he was the one who made the pair of dragon horn swords disappear. The Taiji divine sword had become Pan Gu Dragon Mark, and it was impossible for it to spit the pair of dragon horn swords out!
If those old dragons found out the pair of dragon horn swords disappeared because of him, they would send out all warriors to attack Yao Mountain City, wouldn’t they? Ji Hao dared not to imagine that terrifying scene, which might not be better than this flood raised by Gong Gong.
So…
Ji Hao sighed, brushed his long pair of feelers, and said slowly, "This, this is not entirely your fault! This should be Great Liberty’s fault. She stole that pair of treasure, and the treasures disappeared because of her!"
Narrowing his eyes, Ji Hao continued slowly, "Ao Li, if you return to the Dragon Palace just like this, you will be chopped into pieces for sure. But, it doesn’t mean that you’re doomed. If you can find someone strong enough to depend on, then put all the blame on Great Liberty, you won’t be held guilty, will you?"
Ao Li and Feng Qinxin looked at Ji Hao simultaneously. Ao Li raised his head, then sneered proudly as the tears flowing down his cheeks, and said, "Who in the world can be even stronger than our dragon-kind? I am dead…No one can protect me!"
Ji Hao dropped his face and said nothing.
This stupid dragon. Under the current situation, how could he still be so extremely arrogant?
‘Alright, keep worrying then.’ Thought Ji Hao. Ji Hao had known Ao Li for a while, and the pair of dragon horn swords disappeared because of him. Therefore, in the future, when dragon leaders truly decided to execute Ao Li, Ji Hao would beg Yu Yu to save him.
But, he couldn’t say it out now. Ao Li believed that the dragon-kind was the strongest force in the world, and no one was able to save him from his own family. In this case, Ji Hao decided to let him keep crying and worrying. He wouldn’t do anything about it for now.
Picking up the teacup, Ji Hao continued tasting the refreshing tea. He even narrowed his eyes and started humming a happy folk melody.
Ao Li was still circling in the room, while Feng Qinxin remained sitting in her chair, dazed.
They were both silly and proud. Ji Hao estimated that they might stay like this for quite a while. ‘The pressure from the dragon-kind and phoenix-kind’, Ji Hao clicked his tongue and thought, ‘I wonder how long they can hold up.’
A beautiful cyan-blue shrimp warrior with long and glowing silver feelers leaped into the room, bent its body, and thudded its knees on the ground. He kowtowed to Ji Hao and reported, "Great Ancestor, Great Ancestor, you told us to look for human beings, and we seemed to have found some!"
The shrimp warrior raised his head, pointed outside with his slim arm, and continued, "Just now, we were hanging out on the street, and a toad was taking a nap in a puddle of mud. The toad told us that he saw human beings passing by, faces covered with black clothes. He heard their conversations. One of them was named Wu Gu, and the toad sensed a scary power from him!"
Ji Hao instantly popped up his eyes in shock. Wu Gu? Was this a joke?
The leader of the group of Chu Wu people he met outside the Kui Gate, known as the top-ranked Gu artist in the world… Did he sneak into Kui Gate himself?
Dark Water Ao Ao’s information was true. The allied force gathered outside Kui Gate, were they really planning to break the gate from both outside and inside?
Narrowing his eyes and rubbing his chin, Ji Hao then waved his hand towards Shermie and said, "Shermie, go find White Feather to pick up our armors and weapons. Give those gears to our boys. By the way, go recruit as many shrimp and crab warriors as you can, and the other relatively weaker water-kind warriors. Tell everyone that I, King Summer, am recruiting, as many as possible! Everyone is welcomed!"
Holding his hands behind his body, Ji Hao stood up and said a few more words to Shermie. Then, he dragged the shrimp warrior, who brought Ji Hao the news, and flashed out of the room.
Ao Li paused for a second and burst with a growl, "Oi, oi, you said find someone to depend on, but you have to tell me who?"