Red King Makes His Move

"Who's there!" Lian Yi hadn't expected the attack to come from below. Caught off guard, she was bound by chains of flame and slammed heavily into the ground. Lian Yi noticed that this was the rooftop of a high-end residential complex. Across from it, Wanhe Residential Compound was faintly visible, and Ji Sen's home lay right within sight. She hit the ground. A shadow walked over and enveloped her. Lian Yi looked up and saw Red King holding a takeout box of Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles, slurping as he ate. Natural Disaster had good taste. These were delicious. The three of them had tracked Natural Disaster without pause, watching Ji Sen's home through binoculars without blinking, so they hadn't even had time to eat. Only after the matter ended and Lian Yi fled did Red King finally have time to eat some noodles. It was a pity the noodles had gone soggy. Nianshi and Lishi, serving as his Heng and Ha generals, stood one to each side, each holding a bowl of noodles. Red King crouched in front of Lian Yi, his expression cold. "Tell me. What happened just now?" Red King and the other two had picked a bad vantage point and couldn't see what had happened inside Ji Sen's home. It just so happened that Lian Yi had fled through a window, looking back again and again. She clearly had a guilty conscience and didn't seem like a good person. She wasn't allied with Natural Disaster, and Red King didn't need to worry that she would turn around and report to Natural Disaster. She was just right for grabbing and questioning about what had happened. Lian Yi's heart skipped a beat. They had come with bad intentions. Was this the "you can't escape" that Chu Xiaoyao had mentioned? Who were these people? They looked even less like good people than she did. Were they Chu Xiaoyao's Dao-protectors? Dao-protectors were elders in the cultivation world who worried that their chosen ones would die young, yet feared that meddling in their growth would force seedlings to grow by pulling on them. So they chose to watch over the chosen ones from the shadows. Elders who did so were called Dao-protectors. Chu Xiaoyao was just a mortal, yet she had a Dao-protector of this level? This was getting more and more interesting, but... "You think this can hold me?" Lian Yi looked up, her eyes full of mockery. Watery droplets rose from her body, thick and viscous. She slipped free with ease—a blatant provocation to Red King. "Looks like you're not planning to talk honestly." Red King's gaze sharpened, imposing even without anger. The temperature soared, space warped, and Red Yang qi churned. Seeing Red King make his move, Nianshi and Lishi hurriedly hid in a corner and poked their heads out to watch, eating their noodles as they did. "Don't block me so completely. Leave me some space." Lishi was pressed solidly in front of Nianshi like a wall. Nianshi shoved at him for a long while before Lishi reluctantly made room. "Don't push me. I almost spilled my soup." Slurp, slurp... Black flames suddenly appeared beneath Lian Yi's feet in ring after ring. They surged up and turned into wildly dancing fire snakes, licking at her clothes before weaving into a net that enveloped her. Lian Yi drew a soft sword from her waist. It had been wrapped around her waist, and no one could tell it was a weapon—useful at crucial moments. The soft sword was unrivaled in sharpness. It could easily cut through a sky full of fire, let alone a tiny flame cage. Lian Yi danced with the sword like an unparalleled ballet dancer, toes lightly touching the ground, waist bending as she spun with supreme grace. Wherever the tip passed, the flame cage shattered. Red King raised an eyebrow. Lian Yi's performance had slightly exceeded his expectations. "So you do have some skill." Lian Yi transformed with a shake, becoming a white snake as thick as a water bucket. It shimmered beneath the moonlight, sacred as light. The white snake coiled into a ball like a spring, then shot out with lightning speed. In the blink of an eye it was before Red King, opening its massive maw to swallow him whole and digest him completely. Her transformation art was superb; she could even replicate the abilities of whatever she became. This white snake was a descendant of the one cut down by Emperor Gaozu of Han. Nothing could survive more than a quarter of an hour in its belly before turning to pus. Lian Yi was not the type to swallow an insult. She had never forgotten how Red King's sneak attack had made her fall so disgracefully. "Seems to be an immortal cultivator skilled in transformation arts." Red King assessed coldly. Pitch-black flames appeared out of nowhere, dotted like starlight, deeper than darkness and full of ill omen. The white snake's scales were impervious to water and fire, immune to blades and bullets. Even missiles couldn't pierce her defenses. At first, Lian Yi did not take the black flames seriously. But when they touched the white snake's scales, they behaved like fire on dry hay. They blazed up instantly, and in moments fierce flames covered her whole body. "Ah—what is this!" The black flames burned through her organs. Inside her body, it felt like boiling water, everything bubbling and searing her insides. The white snake writhed and rolled on the ground, roaring in agony. Her aura was weakening; she looked close to death. Just when Nianshi and Lishi thought the battle was over and came out to congratulate Red King, a shadow drilled out from inside the white snake and lunged at Red King. Nianshi got a clear look at the shadow. Its body was long and sinuous, its head and horns imposing. It was unmistakably a flood dragon! The white snake shed its skin and became a flood dragon! It was a venom flood dragon. Even a Foundation Establishment expert with an innate body would die instantly upon contact with its venom! The venom flood dragon bit Red King's shoulder! It bit down! "My lord!" "Lord Red King!" Nianshi and Lishi were caught off guard by the transformation. Their noodles fell to the ground and spilled everywhere. It wasn't that they cared so much about Red King. The main thing was that if Red King lost, they would be the next ones in trouble. A dark monster like Lian Yi, who could keep transforming like that, was definitely not something they could handle. Lian Yi felt uneasy. She was extremely sensitive to emotional shifts, and Red King had shown no emotional fluctuation from start to finish. He was exactly like that Chu Xiaoyao, lofty and condescending, not taking anyone seriously! How arrogant. Strange. Why didn't it feel as if she had bitten into flesh? "Is that all you've got?" Red King tilted his head and looked at the bitten shoulder. He let the venom spread throughout his body and met the flood dragon's eyes coldly. His gaze was so icy that Lian Yi wondered which of them was the cold-blooded one. "Another outfit wasted." Red King was naturally arrogant. With the previous generation of the Seven Kings gone, his seniority in the Organization was second only to the Professor. Before he had encountered a freak like Natural Disaster, back when the previous Seven Kings were all present, he had once believed himself the strongest of the Seven Kings, arrogant and submitting to no one. It was only after meeting Natural Disaster that he put away his arrogance. But he only put away his arrogance before Natural Disaster. Red King's skin split and burned inch by inch. His clothes instantly turned to ash. Endless waves of flame surged and rolled, transforming him into a body of fire—searing hot, brimming with yang qi, making all evil retreat. The venom covering his whole body burned to ash as well. This time he had only brought one change of clothes. It seemed he would have to buy another set. "I rather liked this outfit." Lian Yi's scalp went numb. She felt she had provoked an opponent she should never have provoked. The body of flame spread along the flood dragon's head. The venom flood dragon didn't even have a chance to scream before it was consumed by merciless flames. Red King frowned. The burning sensation felt off. The flames withdrew into Red King's body. What was revealed was not the flood dragon, but an empty husk. "My lord, what is this?" Nianshi and Lishi could tell the battle was truly over, but they didn't understand what was going on. Red King gave a derisive laugh. "Immortal cultivators really do have many escape methods." The flood dragon shed its skin again and slipped away. ... After Lian Yi left, the atmosphere inside the room became deathly silent. Zhou You was the first to break the silence. "What was that 'You think you can run?' line supposed to be?" "Hey, don't you think that was cool?" Chu Xiaoyao thought that line had been absolutely cool, even more imposing than Lian Yi. If she had to reflect on it, maybe the action could have been even cooler—like the angle of her smirk was too high. Perhaps it could have been pressed down two degrees? "Don't you think that Lian Yi was putting on too much of a spooky charlatan act?" Zhou You nodded. The more accurate description would be unfathomable and mysterious, but saying she was putting on a spooky charlatan act wasn't wrong either. "When dealing with a spooky charlatan like that, you have to shove it right back with an even more impressive pose. Don't worry about what comes after. Scare them first and deal with the rest later." Chu Xiaoyao tucked her hands inside her sleeves and spoke with great assurance, looking every bit experienced. Chu Xiaoyao had always hated it most when people acted all mystical and cryptic in front of her, pretending to be profound and inscrutable. Zhou You strongly agreed with Chu Xiaoyao. He didn't like Lian Yi either. So he bought something for Lian Yi.