Three li north of the city gate along the Yishui River, where the inner waterway looped around, stood an ancient willow.
Its sweeping canopy cast shade over half an acre, and its gnarled trunk resembled a coiled azure dragon. Its roots grew half on the bank and half submerged in the water. Because it had never withered or decayed through the passing years, the folk of the commandery all whispered that it was turning into a spirit.
The willow had attained such spirituality by straddling a water vein and siphoning some of its spiritual qi.
Consequently, the waters around its submerged roots teemed with life, attracting schools of fish and shrimp that darted and played among them.
In recent days, however, those creatures had either been frightened away or devoured.
A massive crab, its shell broad as a brass basin, had taken over the spot as a temporary manor.
As the sun climbed higher, the great crab lay motionless beneath the surface, slowly exhaling a thin trail of white froth from its mouthparts as it steadily refined the spiritual qi under the tree.
Suddenly, ripples spread across the water.
A brownish carp nearly three feet in length rose from the depths of the undercurrent, its gill covers flapping as it vented a breath of turbid qi.
The carp turned toward the great crab and spoke in human tongue: "Lord Gutless, you called for me. Have you caught wind of fresh news?"
The great crab blew a few bubbles and folded its massive pincers in front of its chest.
"I heard from an elder of Yuansong Temple that Guanjiang Mountain holds Qin Xuan in high regard. The General Manager ought to make a decisive move and eliminate him.
"If we do not strike now, once his wings are fully fledged, he will become a dreadful menace to our Lan River Water Palace!
"Sheng Hu of Poison Scorpion Valley has already failed, and not even Old Man Black Corpse could kill him. A powerful cultivator granted him a wisp of true fire for protection. If we want to deal with him now, we must either deny him the chance to ignite it or drain his magic power dry. At the same time, we must prevent him from sending messages with transmission talismans.
"Go tell the River God to prepare two measures.
"First, summon more demons with bounties on their heads from Prison City to assist me. Second, provide one evil banner and three water-god talisman streamers.
"I intend to lay down a Triple Water Prison Array, integrating the evil banner to sever talisman senses and using water to conquer fire. Even if we cannot extinguish his true fire, his magic power will not last a single breath."
The carp demon swam back and forth, feeling uneasy. "Isn't such a plan too reckless? The River God might not agree."
Recalling the indignities he had suffered of late, Lord Gutless wore a vicious scowl on his crab face.
"General Manager Black Catfish will certainly grant approval. Guanjiang Mountain is locked in a struggle against the demon sect right now and has no spare attention to direct elsewhere. If the River God misses this golden opportunity and the General Manager holds him to account later, it will have nothing to do with this young master."
Having heard that, the carp demon asked again, "And how will you escape afterward? If Guanjiang Mountain investigates, even the Lan River Water Palace will have no room for you."
Lord Gutless smiled slyly. "The General Manager has already promised that once this is accomplished, I can secure a status under Guangling Water Palace and journey to the North Sea."
The carp demon gasped, eyes gleaming with envy. No wonder Lord Gutless was acting so brazenly.
He was a crab demon.
If he could secure a place among the shrimp soldiers and crab generals in the North Sea, the difference from his current standing would be as vast as heaven and earth.
Looking at Lord Gutless again, the carp demon took on a flattering air and said with a smile, "I will head to the River God's manor at once, make the stakes clear to him, and help General Gutless see this through."
A hint of smugness flickered across the crab demon's features.
Among the demon clans, the dragons, phoenixes, and qilin possessed ancient heritages. The North Sea was revered as the ancestral court of the dragon clan and stood foremost among the Four Seas in might, harboring ambitions to swallow all the waters under heaven. Once inside the North Sea, whether as a common soldier or an officer, one's prospects were bound to be limitless.
Just as the carp demon was about to depart, it swung its tail and turned back.
"Oh, right. Last night, some riverfolk inquired about your whereabouts."
"From where?"
"Seemed to be from over by the Luo River."
Lord Gutless nodded and paid it no mind. The demons of the Luo River were a disorganized lot with countless petty factions. He had known a few small fry during his time there, so it was likely just someone looking to seek shelter under his wing.
While the carp demon left for the River God's manor, Lord Gutless resumed refining the spiritual qi of the water vein.
The demonic power within him had long transformed from gas into liquid, closely resembling a Qi Refining cultivator's path of Jade Fluid Reverted Dan. Now his power was growing thicker by the day. Once he swallowed earth fiend qi, he could condense a demon core, matching the prowess of a Core Formation stage cultivator.
When the black catfish great demon dispatched him earlier, it had also been with the confidence that he possessed the ability to capture Qin Xuan without fail.
The cries of hawkers and murmurs of conversation along the riverbank drifted steadily into his crab ears.
Lurking in his true form beneath the water and cloaked by the aquatic energy around the willow roots, he was virtually impossible to detect, allowing him to glean news from within the city in complete silence.
Gradually, as the sun climbed high above,
a set of footsteps approached the embankment.
Then...
*Plink!*
Something broke the surface. Lord Gutless peered upward, and fury instantly flared within him.
It was a fishhook baited with chicken intestines, dangling diagonally right before his eyes, bobbing up and down, teasing and luring him back and forth.
Along the waterways of Pingyuan Commandery, he was always the one who ate men. Who dared fish for him?
Even if an elder from Yuansong Temple came, he would still fight them tooth and nail.
How could he tolerate such blatant provocation?
The insolence!
*Get down here!*
Lord Gutless thrust out a massive pincer, seized the chicken intestines, and channeled his demonic power downward to drag the angler into the water.
Never could he have imagined what followed.
A tremendous force surged down the line through the chicken intestines! Before he could let go, he was hauled clean out of the water!
*Splash!*
Water sprayed across the bank.
Only then did Lord Gutless realize his ears had deceived him. Where he had heard only one set of footsteps, three figures stood waiting.
The steps he had tracked had not belonged to the one holding the pole.
The person who had reeled him ashore was a gray-haired old man. Beside him stood another elder; both were dressed plainly, looking like ordinary townsfolk, their faces set in grim, sullen scowls.
Strangers. He had never laid eyes on them before.
Beside the two elders was a third person, who slowly tipped back his bamboo sun hat, revealing a familiar, handsome young face.
Disbelief flooded the crab's eyes.
"It has been a while, Lord Gutless. I heard you have gone to great lengths searching for me."
Qin Xuan smiled faintly. Perhaps because the two elders looked so stern, his smile seemed all the more radiant.
"Qin Xuan, what are you doing here?!"
"What am I doing? To capture you, of course."
The crab demon was no fool. His words were merely a ploy to buy time; his first instinct was to flee!
Yet the other elder's landing net was already descending over his head. The net was woven from ordinary hemp and should have had no hope of restraining a great demon on the verge of forming a core.
But the elder's magic power enveloped the net entirely.
With a single swoop, the crab demon was trapped tight.
Lord Gutless did not panic. He was a seasoned combatant; even if the opponent possessed superior magic power, a mere fishing net could hardly hold him.
He raised his giant pincers to snip through the cords.
Yet as an evil qi swept past, the water clinging to the net suddenly grew as heavy as a thousand weights, pressing down from all directions until his two massive pincers and six legs were pinned utterly rigid.
As an aquatic demon, he knew this kind of evil qi all too well.
"Heavy... Heavy Water Fiend!" he forced out through his teeth.
"Correct."
The Scripture Hall ascetic elder holding the landing net answered stiffly, a rare occurrence for him.
"This is One Origin Heavy Water Fiend, gathered by this old man from the Extreme Abyss Subterranean River. Soaked in this evil qi, a single drop of water weighs over a thousand jin. That you can still speak proves your cultivation is considerable; you must be close to condensing a core.
"Pity for you that without evil qi to counter it, you can forget about using even half a sliver of your water arts."
Hearing this, the crab demon marshaled his demonic power, but just as the elder said, he could not unleash a single water technique.
He was filled with both rage and terror.
Only a single realm separated them, but one was still accumulating foundation while the other had already manifested it. Without a powerful defensive magic treasure, victory or defeat in a magical duel was decided in the span of a single breath.
"Y-You... This young master belongs to Guangling Water Palace!"
"Spare us your chatter. Come with us."
Chapter 65