Chapter 2212: Return

The Shadowhorror Devil laughed and said, “And here I was getting all scared, but it seems she’s being suppressed by this world too and isn’t at her strongest. If we work together and strike, they’ll be forced to protect the weaker liabilities!”

The Bloodthirst Crocodile wiped away the blood around his lips. “That’s what I was thinking too!”

If this newcomer was no weaker than them, it wouldn’t really be possible to win in a short amount of time. But it would be different if they had someone they needed to protect. Right now, Zu An was like a dead person, and Shang Liuyu was completely exhausted. With those two serving as baggage, there was no way they could attend to so many things at the same time.

Sure enough, the two monsters continued to attack Zu An and Shang Liuyu. Jing Teng had no choice but to protect them and was quickly placed at a disadvantage.

Shang Liuyu was full of gratitude. Even though this woman’s voice was icy cold, she moved to protect her several times. As such, she said, “You don’t need to pay any attention to me. It’s good enough as long as you protect Ah Zu.”

Jing Teng sneered. “They’re going to attack Zu An anyway, so protecting you as well isn’t going to make that much of a difference. Otherwise, if you really did die here, how would I ever explain things to big brother Zu?”

When she heard her call him 'big brother Zu' so naturally, Shang Liuyu knew that their relationship was close.

That’s right, if their relationship really wasn't special, why would he carry them with him wherever he went...

“Hmph, you want to protect both of them? I don’t think you have the ability.” The Bloodthirst Crocodile harrumphed. Then, he decided to not attack Jing Teng; instead, he aimed all of his attacks at Zu An and Shang Liuyu.

The Shadowhorror Devil also cooperated with a sinister grin. He was ready to deliver a fatal strike against Jing Teng as soon as she revealed an opening.

Just then, there was a light harrumph. Jing Teng’s hands produced afterimages as she formed different seals and chanted, “The valiant should join the ranks of war. The army is to the north; the black tortoise awaits its summons!”

As soon as she spoke, a holographic image of a turtle with the head of a snake appeared, protecting the three of them within. When they made contact with that image, the Bloodthirst Crocodile and Shadowhorror Devil’s attacks were sent right back.

“Where did this woman come from? She can actually summon the black tortoise image!” The Bloodthirst Crocodile stretched out his sore wrist. He looked quite alarmed.

The Shadowhorror Devil’s face darkened. “Regardless of where she’s from, we must kill that Zu bastard today. Otherwise, the ones who will die will be us.”

All of the monsters had been shocked when they heard that the War Priest was killed in this world. However, most of them had initially assumed that it was because the War Priest had been careless, or that he had fallen for some kind of scheme or trap. Later, however, after powerful monsters were killed by Zu An one after the other, no one thought of it as a fluke anymore. The one called Zu An was indeed formidable.

But the monsters still hadn't been too worried, because they were merely being suppressed by the laws of this world, which prevented them from displaying their true strength. If they were somewhere else, killing Zu An would be extremely easy. However, after interacting with Zu An up close, these two found that he had impersonated the Lord of Myriad Transformations and taken them for a ride, proving his cunning.

He wasn’t even here at the moment, and yet just some formations he had left behind with a weak woman were able to stall them for three days and three nights. On top of that, he had been hiding such a powerful and mysterious woman on him. The two monsters even sensed that her true strength wasn’t weaker than theirs, and that she was also being suppressed by the laws of this world. On top of that, there was some special aura unique to her that even made their souls tremble. It was as if she was their natural enemy.

If they waited until Zu An came back, the only thing awaiting them would be death.

Once he realized that, the Shadowhorror Devil roared and said, “Use everything! You’re still holding back. If you still don't go all in, there might not be another chance!”

As soon as he said that, he suddenly transformed into a hundred-meter-tall shadow. Everything in the vicinity immediately dimmed. The shadow stretched its body toward the three within the turtle from all different angles. The three of them were like a lonely skiff on a raging sea that could be completely swallowed up at any time.

The Bloodthirst Crocodile cursed, “F*ck! You already said not to hold anything back earlier, and yet you were still hiding this. So you were planning to scheme against me from the very beginning!”

But curses were curses; he still knew what was more important right now. With a roar, his entire body surged in size and he turned into a three-hundred-meter long crocodile. The shears actually merged with his own mouth. From the looks of it, even if there were a great dragon in front of him, the crocodile could be able to snap it in half with his jaws.

The two earth immortal monsters attacked without holding anything back, and yet the black tortoise image still remained completely solid.

Shang Liuyu couldn't help but feel admiration. “Young miss, you really are amazing. Your defensive image actually hasn’t weakened at all even in the face of such powerful attacks.”

Earlier, when she was borrowing the power of the Human Emperor Seal and defensive formations, she had always been on the verge of collapse from the monsters’ attacks. It was nothing like right now, where she felt a mysterious sense of safety.

But to her surprise, Jing Teng suddenly said coldly, “I can’t hold on for much longer.”

Shang Liuyu had just released a sigh of relief, but the smile on her face instantly froze.

Jing Teng looked at the monsters’ attacks and said, “I was injured badly. I need to... sleep to recover my power.”

Her face suddenly turned red. There was actually another kind of method that could aid in her recovery, but there was naturally no need to talk about that.

“A few days ago, I woke up once, and ended up using up almost all of my strength then. If it wasn’t because Zu... ahem, I might not have even woken up this time.” As she spoke, Jing Teng couldn't help but give Zu An a look. “Did I owe him something in my past life or something? I’m always completely emptied out as soon as I recover just a bit.”

“Make him keep us company, make him keep us company!” Dark Jing Teng cried excitedly.

“Shut up!” White Jing Teng’s expression changed. She was worried that her little sister would accidentally reveal what 'keeping them company' meant. Even though she did like that too, if the other women found out, she definitely couldn't remain as thick-skinned as her little sister.

Sure enough, Shang Liuyu looked at her curiously.

How do they want Zu An to keep them company?

But she naturally knew that this wasn’t the time to ask such questions. She quickly asked about something even more important. “How much longer can this projection last for?”

Jing Teng looked at the two malicious monsters with her hands behind her back, looking at how they ruthlessly attacked the image with their massive bodies. Her expression was extremely calm. “Ten...”

When she saw how calm Jing Teng was, Shang Liuyu immediately sighed in relief, asking, “Are there still ten hours left?”

She naturally wouldn’t think that there would be ten days left. After all, the two monsters’ attacks were too horrifying. If they could last ten days, she wouldn’t have said those earlier words.

“Nine!”

“Eight!”

...

Jing Teng didn’t reply, and only continued to count down.

Shang Liuyu was stunned.

Big sis, are you cracking a joke right now?

Why are you acting so calm when there’s so little time left?

When the countdown finished, the black tortoise image exploded to pieces with a loud noise.

The Shadowhorror Devil and Bloodthirst Crocodile charged over with evil grins. Jing Teng took a deep breath and said, “I might not be able to stop them for much longer. Take Zu An and run as far away as you can.”

The Bloodthirst Crocodile roared with laughter. “Run? Not a single one of you will be able to get away today!”

Shang Liuyu gave Zu An a look and said with a bitter smile, “You should take Ah Zu and run. I can’t move anymore.”

Protecting Zu An had already exhausted the very last bit of her strength. How could she still run?

Jing Teng frowned. “Then, apologies!” She could only do her best to bring Zu An away, and even then, she wouldn't necessarily be able to.

Shang Liuyu chuckled when she saw them leave, but she didn’t feel any fear. She only gave Zu An a reluctant look. She took out her ocarina to play ‘Scenery of Home’, the song Zu An had given to her as a gift, calmly welcoming her death. She hoped that once she died, her spirit could return home as well...

However, she knew how bitter these two monsters were, and that she would soon wish she were dead. As such, she played the final song of her life while standing on the edge of the cliff. She fell backward.

The pitch-black abyss was a place of absolute death. No matter how powerful those two monsters were, they still wouldn’t dare to descend.

I hope that lady will be able to escape with Ah Zu.

She didn’t have the strength to play the entire song, so she decided to close her eyes and wait for the moment she fell into the abyss of death.

But a while later, she felt a bit strange. She didn’t enter the endless abyss; instead, she stopped falling. She found herself lying down on solid ground. Even so, there was no pain. Instead, there was endless warmth and ease.

She opened her eyes in confusion. What entered her view was a pair of familiar eyes and a familiar face. She asked absent-mindedly, “Ah Zu, did we meet again in the underworld?”

Zu An helped her sort out her slightly messy hair. “Big sis Shang, I’ve returned.”

He had actually already sensed that something had gone wrong here some time ago, but for certain reasons, he'd had no choice but to silently watch things play out from the side. Only now did he appear. When he saw how bad of a condition she was in, he immediately felt endless pity and remorse.