Chapter 316: Profit from Disaster

From her perch on top of a tree, Zheng Dan looked towards the boats that were gathered along the river’s shore. She sighed. “Seems like we have to go back.”

Zu An nodded. Even though the men were still some distance away, it would only be a matter of time before they found this place. “Do you know if they are from the Whale Gang, or people from Brightmoon City?”

Zheng Dan shook her head. “They aren’t from the Whale Gang. The Whale Gang don’t wear this sort of attire. They should be…”

She was the Whale Gang’s boss, so she naturally knew about these things.

Seeing her speak but then break off, Zu An said with a smile, “Is it Sang Qian’s River Patrol Army?”

Zheng Dan nodded with a gloomy expression.

“This guy seems to care quite a lot about you,” Zu An said with a sigh.

Zheng Dan had a complicated expression on her face. “He has always treated me quite well.”

Zu An wasn’t expecting that. 

“Why do I feel like we are the adulterers here?”

“Pui!” Zheng Dan spat out. She blushed at once. “Who talks about themselves like that?”

Zu An laughed. “Okay, okay, let’s pack up and head back.”

He had disappeared for so long. The academy and the Chu clan were sure to be worried.

There wasn’t that much to pack. They had been chased here in the first place, so they hadn’t brought anything with them.

The only thing they had to bring with them was the red dragon’s pile of treasure.

“How do we bring all of this back?” Zheng Dan stared at the piles of treasure in front of her with a worried expression.

Zu An smiled. “Don’t worry.”

He walked up to the treasure and exerted some metal strength. With a single, concentrated thought, all the sparkling treasures vanished without a trace.

“A spatial artifact!” Zheng Dan was shocked. Her face immediately grew red. “No wonder I couldn’t find that promissory note on you! You had such a thing with you! I wasted so much…”

Zu An wrapped his arms around her willowy waist and gave her a firm kiss on the mouth. “Without all that, we would never have been brought together. This truly was the workings of fate.”

“Fate is truly unkind!” Zheng Dan scoffed. She couldn’t stand what he was doing and turned away, her face burning.

Zu An laughed loudly and followed her out.

“That’s right, I’ve heard that dragons carry grudges. Won’t it come after you once it finds out that you’ve stolen all of its treasures?” Zheng Dan said when they left the cave.

“Don’t worry, that dragon won’t be back.” Zu An smiled.

Zheng Dan was surprised. “It seems like you really do have a powerful expert at your side.”

The Sang clan had assigned her the task, but she never expected to find out the truth in such a manner. The price she paid for it had been too steep!

“What if I was the one who killed it?” Zu An couldn’t resist saying.

“You really love to brag,” Zheng Dan scoffed. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell the Sang clan.”

She obviously didn’t believe that Zu An had the strength to kill a giant dragon as terrifying as that one. Besides, the dragon’s corpse had vanished as well, and it was probably the expert backing him that took it away.

Just how strong was that expert? He could even defeat such a terrifying creature!

She always had confidence in the Zheng clan overtaking the Chu clan, especially since the Chu clan was desperately trying to hold back the inevitable. However, if they had the help of a top-level expert, then it was hard to say who would come out ahead.

She even subconsciously thought about bringing Zu An into the Zheng clan. However, there was the issue of her current engagement to Sang Qian. She sighed heavily, and let go of the thought without saying anything.

“What’s wrong?” Zu An held her hand when he sensed the change in her mood.

“It’s nothing.” Zheng Dan forced a smile. She suddenly thought of something and hurriedly asked, “If there is an expert at your side, then these few days… the two of us… didn’t he see all of that?”

She was thoroughly embarrassed by how the two of them had completely abandoned all restraint while they were in the cave. She didn’t mind showing Zu An this side of her, but she would be too ashamed if anyone else had seen it too.

“Don’t worry, no one saw anything.” Zu An reassured her while feeling guilty inside. Big sis empress was a woman, after all, and it was fine if she had seen them.

That Mi Li really is two-faced! She said she was going to sleep, and yet she still stayed up to peep on them.

Only after Zu An comforted her repeatedly did Zheng Dan finally calm down.

The two of them made it a short distance before Zheng Dan cried out, “Wait!” She whipped around and ran back to the cave.

Zu An was puzzled. He didn’t know what she was doing, but followed her anyway. He saw that she was cleaning up the places where the two of them had slept together.

The messy straw was sorted neatly, and then she even summoned her water element powers to give it everything a thorough washing.

Zu An stood staring, his mouth slightly agape.

Zheng Dan pinched the corners of her dress in embarrassment. “It seems a little shameful if someone else found out about this.”

Zu An really couldn’t associate this bashful young lady with that fierce and bold figure from a few days ago.

The two of them headed down the mountain together. When they were still a hundred meters from the search party, Zheng Dan suddenly stopped Zu An. “Ah Zu, don’t follow me.”

“Are you worried about your fiancé finding out?” Zu An laughed.

Zheng Dan grew flustered, and hurriedly explained, “That’s not it! It’s just that Sang Qian is a bit narrow-minded, and he doesn’t like you at all. We’re in the wilderness right now, and there isn’t anyone else around but his own people. I’m worried that he might suddenly attack you.”

Her words made sense to Zu An. Only Sang Qian’s River Patrol Army soldiers were here, and this area was completely desolate and uninhabited. That fella might really give in to his killing intent.

“All right then. Take care of yourself.” Zu An bid her goodbye reluctantly.

Zheng Dan suddenly threw herself into his arms. She rose on her tiptoes and gave him a deep, long kiss, before reluctantly parting from him.

“Dan’er, are you there?” Sang Qian’s call came from a distance away.

Zu An hid behind a large tree so that the commander couldn’t see him.

Zheng Dan’s face was slightly flushed as she pushed him away. She secretly waved goodbye to him, and then walked out into the open. “Commander Sang, I am over here.”

Sang Qian was shocked and overjoyed. He quickly rushed to her side. “Dan’er, it really is you!”

Zheng Dan felt a twinge of remorse when she heard the concern in his voice. “I’ve troubled Commander Sang.”

“Not at all, not at all!” Sang Qian laughed loudly. He was clearly extremely happy to see his fiancée fine and well. Suddenly, his eyes froze. “Are your legs injured?”

Zheng Dan was taken aback. “No. Why would you ask that?”

“You seem to be walking differently from how you usually do, although I can’t really tell what’s different about it.” Sang Qian scratched his head. He stared at her legs with a perplexed expression.

Zheng Dan’s face reddened immediately. She thought about how, day after day, she had let Zu An’s preposterous…

Her heart began to pound, and she quickly changed the topic. “By the way, how did you manage to find this place?”

Sang Qian also snapped out of his daze. “A spy from the Whale Gang relayed a message, saying that something had happened on the island. I was concerned, so I brought some men along with me. Hmph, to think that Chen Xuan would be so brazen as to go after the Whale Gang! I would never have sucked up to the Shi clan if I knew that things would turn out this way.”

Only then did Zheng Dan feel relief. The Sang clan was not the only one with spies on Whale Island, even the Zheng clan had their own. However, she never expected Chen Xuan to incite all of those higher-level figures against her.

Things had happened so abruptly that she had no chance to react properly.

However, now that the Sang and Zheng clans had been informed, there was no way either of them would sit idly by. 

“I heard that Chen Xuan and Liu Chan’s band of conspirators were chasing you. They… didn’t do anything to you, did they?” Sang Qian asked nervously. As a man, there were some things he was most worried about. Many terrible scenarios appeared in his head.

Zheng Dan’s face reddened slightly, and she quickly shook her head. “Of course not!”

She felt rather guilty. Even though Chen Xuan’s group had not touched her, Zu An…

Sang Qian sighed in relief when he heard her reply. “Where are they? Don’t worry, I will make sure anyone who bullies you will have their corpses hacked to pieces!”

Zu An, who was currently hiding on a tree while under the effects of Mirror Mirage, had a strange expression on his face. Could what he had done during this period of time be considered as bullying Zheng Dan?

She seemed pretty happy through all of it though, so I’m probably in the clear, right? I’m definitely not one of those people Sang Qian is talking about.

“All of them are dead,” Zheng Dan replied.

“Dead?” Sang Qian didn’t dare believe what he was hearing. Liu Chan and the others were one thing, but Chen Xuan had managed to evade the efforts of the Chu clan and the city lord to capture him for all these years. Did he really die here?

“I fled into the depths of Hidden Dragon Mountain. In the end, we accidentally stumbled into a dragon’s territory. All of them were killed by the furious dragon. I used the chance to get away,” Zheng Dan explained, leaving out some parts of what happened.

She had spent these past few days thinking about how to explain what had happened to anyone who asked, and she replied without any hesitation.

“A dragon!” Not just Sang Qian, but even the surrounding soldiers were shocked. “There really is a dragon in Hidden Dragon Mountain?”

Zheng Dan nodded. “That dragon is extremely formidable. It uses the fire element. It burned Liu Chan and the others to ashes with a single breath.”

These were things Zu An had told her. She retold everything in a vivid manner, and even described the dragon’s appearance in great detail.

Sang Qian was satisfied. He roared with laughter. “Who would’ve thought that we would profit from this disaster? I will bring some troops over to hunt down this dragon. We’ve struck it big this time! This is a legendary dragon we are talking about! Every single part of its body is a treasure!”

Zu An had a very different thought in mind. I feel like your fiancée—not the dragon—is the one whose entire body is a treasure.

If he had spoken this out loud, the reaction it drew would have been second only to ‘your wife was so wonderful’. He would’ve surely raked in a ton of Rage points.

However, out of consideration for Zheng Dan’s circumstances, he held his tongue.