Chapter 823, (2): Mutual Selfless Sacrifice

At that moment, a figure appeared in front of her. Compared to the massive serpent in the skies, that body looked extremely insignificant. However, at that moment, she felt as if his figure were extremely mighty and tall.

Zu An sighed. His tone was full of ridicule. “Ugly loach, not even a real dragon dares to brag in front of me. You actually want to use a breath attack?”

The Jade Moon Serpent was feeling cocky. A beast like it had intelligence that wasn’t lower than a human’s; perhaps it was even a bit smarter. It keenly sensed that Zu An wasn’t easy to catch, but his companions couldn’t escape. In that case, it would just use them as hostages to see if he would save them.

If he saved them, he would have to take this breath directly. The berserk water element would rip him to shreds. If he didn’t save them, the breath would wipe out his companions and save its puppets. At the same time, Zu An would lose all support. Regardless of which result it was, it would be good.

But it ended up hearing the other party’s ridicule while it was feeling all arrogant. It was furious. This lowly human was deliberately angering this king to get me to stop my breath attack!

You have successfully trolled the Jade Moon Serpent for +379 +379 +379…

Hmph, why would a proud serpent like me fall for such petty tactics? I want to see all of you struggle and cry out in agony once my breath attack is done! Then, I’ll properly take my time to laugh at all of you!

The Jade Moon Serpent finished its preparations. But when it was about to fire its attack, it suddenly heard a devil-like voice asking, “Why are your eyes wide open like that? What are you looking at?”

The Serpent was stunned. It knew it shouldn’t be replying right now, yet an uncontrollable urge surged through its entire body as it answered, “I’m looking at you, shithead!”

Because it spoke, all of the destructive energy that had gathered in that ball of water exploded in its mouth. No matter how tough its body was, and even despite the fact that it was a water element beast, the recoil made its head ring and blood trickle out from its eyes. A few of its fangs even fell off.

Forget about the Jade Moon Serpent, the entire group was stunned. They never would have thought that it would make such a rudimentary mistake! To think it would actually talk at such a time and hurt itself.

“Beasts are just beasts after all; their intelligence is too low!”

“We should’ve provoked it more if we knew that things would be like this! We shouldn’t have fought it from the front like this.”

“Are you stupid? Do you think you’re Sir Zu? There’s such a huge difference in strength; if we angered it, we’d only die even faster!”

…

Only Bi Linglong alone remained silent. She remembered that such a situation had happened before as well. Could it be that Zu An possesses an ability similar to Dragon Soulspeak?

The Jade Moon Serpent screamed and cursed bitterly in anger. Zu An didn’t know if it was serpent tongue, but even though he didn’t know the language it spoke, he could understand the meaning. After all, the Rage points he received from the system proved that these were probably curse words.

You have successfully trolled the Jade Moon Serpent for +999 +999 +999…

Zu An didn’t waste this rare chance. He used Grandgale to instantly move behind its back.

The Jade Moon Serpent also sensed danger. It continued to slam its body around to throw Zu An off. Unfortunately, Zu An grabbed onto its scales firmly, so it couldn’t throw him off at all.

The Serpent was starting to get nervous. It threw itself toward the pool, hoping to use the huge impact to throw Zu An off. Unfortunately, it didn’t know that Zu An’s body had experienced the tempering of the Primordial Origin Sutra, so it was just as tough as its own.

The Serpent was starting to get dizzy from all of its smashing around. Not only did it not manage to shake off Zu An, but he was also getting closer and closer to its reverse scale! It was now really panicking. It quickly dove toward the bottom of the pond to try and see if it could drown that hateful human. After all, there was also the tremendous water pressure below!

As if sensing their master’s fear, the puppets all turned around and charged towards the pool, as if they were going to head over to help.

“No!” Bi Linglong tried to stop them, but the puppets were made of the water element and had no real substance. If they wanted to run, the group couldn’t stop them at all. She quickly rushed over to the poolside. Unfortunately, the only thing she could see was the surging pool surface; she couldn’t see the situation inside at all.

Meng Pan moved over to her side and said urgently, “Crown princess, let’s hurry and retreat. Otherwise, it’ll be too late and we won’t be able to get away anymore.” The barrier that stopped them from leaving had also vanished along with the beast souls. It was as if the serpent didn’t want to waste even a bit of energy on them anymore. That was why they were no longer trapped and could now leave this place.

Zhao Xi rubbed the blood off his face. “Pah, bastard Meng, I knew you were no good from the start. If it weren’t because of Sir Zu, the two of us would already be in that serpent’s belly. Yet now, Sir Zu is still fighting for his life, but you already want to run?”

Meng Pan became anxious. “I’m not a heartless person, but you saw how fast that Jade Moon Serpent rushed into the water. Did you see that huge splash? Just the power that rippled out alone would be enough to destroy every bone in our bodies. Sir Zu suffered the brunt of the attack. I fear that…”

Bi Linglong’s complexion paled a bit when she heard what Meng Pan said. She replied, “Sir Zu’s cultivation is profound. Even though we’re no match, he might have been able to withstand it.” She didn’t know if she was saying such a thing for the sake of arguing against Meng Pan, or to console herself.

Meng Pan continued, “But even if Sir Zu could handle it, he’s been dragged to the bottom of the pool by that Jade Moon Serpent. That’s its home field, a place where we humans can’t even breathe, let alone fight against a ninth ranked beast.”

Bi Linglong bit her lip. She knew Meng Pan spoke the truth. Even though high level cultivators could use their ki to provide themselves with a bit of air, and they could use ki to breathe for a while, that was only enough to swim stealthily underwater. This kind of intense battle underwater would quickly make one suffocate.

Seeing that she remained silent, Meng Pan cried out in concern, “Crown princess, if we don’t leave now, we won’t be able to once that Jade Moon Serpent catches up! We can’t let Sir Zu’s sacrifice be in vain. Furthermore, we have no idea where the crown prince is right now. The mountains are full of danger; we need to find him as quickly as possible.”

As for killing the Jade Moon Serpent, he didn’t even dare to think about it. But since it was at the ninth rank, they would have a justifiable reason to give the emperor once they left. It wouldn’t be a complete failure.

Zhao Xi wanted to say something, but when the crown prince’s safety was mentioned, he swallowed his words. The crown prince was just too important! If they stayed behind to help Zu An, and yet something happened to the crown prince, King Liang Manor wouldn’t be able to bear the consequences!

Bi Linglong was biting down on her lip so hard that blood was almost about to come out. “You all leave to look for the crown prince. I’ll head down to take a look!”

Meng Pan and Zhao Xi exchanged a look. Both of them saw shock in the other’s eyes. The crown princess seemed to care a bit too much about Zu An. When they associated that with the scandal that happened previously, could it be that it had been real? They felt chills run down their backs. They didn’t dare to voice these thoughts and quickly snapped out of their daze.

“Crown princess, you must reconsider! You won’t be of help even if you stay behind.”

“Exactly! We should reunite with the crown prince and the others first, and then we’ll think over what to do together.”

Losing the crown prince was a huge crime; losing the crown princess would similarly be a crime punishable by death!

“Who says I won’t be of any help?” Bi Linglong touched the flower diagram on her forehead, a poignant smile on her face. Then, she jumped toward the pool.

Meng Pan and Zhao Xi had thought that she was just going to make a gesture; how could they have expected that she would really jump? She was also just a sixth rank cultivator, and they were caught off guard. It was already too late for them to stop it. They could only watch as she jumped into the water.

But a second later, the incredibly deep waters suddenly surged powerfully. Then, a striking trace of red shot out, gradually dyeing the waters red. The warriors who were near the pool were all horrified. Had something happened to the crown princess?

“The Jade Moon Serpent is about to come out! Everyone, run!” Meng Pan screamed in panic and ran outward.

The others seemed to have been infected by his mood. The same people who had been willing to fight dauntlessly with Bi Linglong as their leader all subconsciously ran away too with the terrified Meng Pan in charge.

The waters split open a second later, and a massive body flew out. The group was overwhelmed with despair when they saw that it was the Jade Moon Serpent.

But a strange voice suddenly began to speak just then. “What are you all running for?”

“Sir… Sir Zu? Is that you?” Zhao Xi turned around. His voice was full of uncertainty.

“Who else could it be?” Zu An asked with a smile.

Only now did Zhao Xi see that the Jade Moon Serpent’s eyes were already completely dark. Its massive body was also limp. There was a massive wound by its neck, and blood continued to pour out from the opening.

Meanwhile, Zu An was below that serpent. He had carried the Jade Moon Serpent’s corpse and flown out!

The group had been so scared, they hadn’t looked carefully. They had thought that it was the Jade Moon Serpent that had come back out to hunt the rest of them down.

“It’s Sir Zu! Sir Zu killed the Jade Moon Serpent!” Zhao Xi shouted joyfully.

Meng Pan cursed, “Bastard Zhao, look at what kind of situation we are in, yet you’re still busy kissing up to him? Do you want the rest of us to die?”

But he suddenly discovered that everyone else had stopped, and they were all cheering as well. He turned around in shock and saw that the Jade Moon Serpent’s corpse had been tossed onto the ground. A huge crater had formed from the impact.

“He actually killed a ninth ranked Jade Moon Serpent?” Meng Pan was incredibly shocked. He also unconsciously followed everyone else.

“Sir Zu is unrivaled!”

“Long live Sir Zu!”

…

There were some who even shouted some disgraceful things. However, no one thought that those words were inappropriate. Instead, they felt that only these words could fully express what they were feeling right now.

Zu An looked all around him and asked, “Huh? Where is the crown princess?”

Only now did Zhao Xi and Meng Pan realize that she was missing. “Sir Zu, you didn’t see the crown princess? She jumped into the water after you, saying that she was going to save you.”

Zu An’s expression changed. This pool wasn’t an ordinary, harmless pool. The giant waterfall caused all sorts of vortexes and undercurrents, and he had just fought intensely against the Jade Moon Serpent, so the waters were in even greater chaos. The water streams were comparable to a frenzied sea.

He jumped back in without a moment of hesitation.