Chapter 1165: The Swallow Returns

"Woo—woo—"

The yak-horn bugle pierced the sky. River Source Prefecture trembled amidst the sound. The soldiers, having finished their morning drills and yet to eat or rest, donned their armor, remounted their horses, and gripped their long spears.

"Quick, quick, quick! Assemble at the drill ground! Assemble at the drill ground! No time to eat, eat when you return! A-Wu, go notify the First Battalion immediately, assemble!" Yang Xu charged into the camp, striking a brass gong, interrupting officer after officer who had sat down to eat.

A-Wu grabbed a mouthful of rice from the bucket and stood up.

"General, what happened?"

"The Southern Frontier has changed. Martial Saints and Great Shamans are locked in a chaotic battle—no fewer than a dozen of them. The Northern Court is taking advantage of the situation to move south. The Dragon Elephant Martial Saint and the Wolf Lord have already begun fighting. Shuo Feng, Brother Quan Wang, Ying Yang, and Qing Wang have all joined the fray, and more Martial Saints are on the move behind them. The Eight Beasts have shifted. Quick, quick, put on your armor, put on your armor! Assemble everyone within ten breaths!"

Everyone was struck with terror, dropping their bowls and chopsticks. Suddenly, a gale shrieked, and the tents shook violently.

Yang Xu stepped out of the tent and looked up.

Meteors streaked across the sky from south to north, colliding in brilliant sparks. Ripples expanded, and half the sky glowed like a raging fire.

The crisscrossing gale winds tore the firmament asunder, like smashing the thick ice in a water vat with a stone in the morning.

This battle at the start of the year was even more chaotic and larger than the one in the middle of last year.

"Quick, quick, quick! Assemble!"

The high winds howled. Inside the Golden Tent, meteors shot into the sky, streaking straight toward the south. The Northern Court Khan gripped the Square Heaven Instrument tightly, and seeing the border generals responding in unison, he let out a long sigh of relief.

"Transmit my order: summon Shuo Bei, Naiman..."

"Father, after the great war the year before last, the various tribes have yet to recuperate and are full of complaints. The internal chaos in the west has not been quelled either. To rush to send troops now, wouldn't that just be adding to the chaos for no reason?"

"Stupid! You hopeless fool!" the Khan scolded. "The Great Shun people say that if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold. If we let the Southern Frontier fall into a bitter struggle alone, once they are thoroughly defeated and unable to recover for decades, that tiger of Great Shun can focus entirely on dealing with us! Our days will be ten, a hundred times harder than they are now! This is not a battle of opportunity, but a forced push from top to bottom, from south to north!"

"Great Khan, two of the Jianghuai Demon Kings have reached the Southern Frontier! The East Sea Sea-Hai Fangzhu has arrived as well!"

"Merchants are treacherous, let alone demons. Today they dare to go to the Southern Frontier, tomorrow they will dare to come to my Northern Court. Transmit my order: from now on, in all waters under my Northern Court, sea merchants are forbidden from trading, and the Eight Tribes are forbidden from private communication. Those who violate this order will be beheaded—not even the Twenty Jiaoren King or the Sea-Hai Fangzhu are exceptions!"

A great anchor crashed down, shattering a mountain peak. Rocks tumbled down in chunks, splashing up layers of massive waves.

Dust billowed, only to be suppressed by a torrential downpour.

A massive black shadow broke through the turbid waves and descended upon the mountaintop. A giant frog, robust and sturdy, with a pair of curved small horns on the back of its head and variegated red cloud patterns on its body, flattened the peak. It thrust out its belly, picked up the great anchor from the ground, and hoisted it onto its shoulder.

Before the Southern Frontier Great Shamans could observe closely:

Black shadows moved within the Deer Cang River. A dark tortoise shell surfaced, bulging like a small hill. After reaching a height of a zhang, the surface tension of the water could no longer hold, and it broke through from the peak. Water splashed, and torrents rolled down, curling into layers of white foam.

The tortoise shell was lustrous, possessing the mysteries of Heaven, Earth, and Man.

Frog King, Tortoise King.

The two Jianghuai Kings had arrived together.

Heavenly thunder rumbled, muffled thunder rolled.

The Southern Frontier Great Shamans and the Great Shun Martial Saints were locked in combat, weaving and intersecting, collectively ignoring the arrival of the Demon Kings.

The two Kings did not move, the Mountain Dragon did not move, and the Southern Frontier Great Shamans did not move either.

On the surface, the two Demon Kings had come for the White Ape and the Flood Dragon. To strike rashly would only drag them into a vortex of opposition. The situation would become even more unfavorable, and the battle would tilt entirely to one side!

With Great Shun Martial Saints in front, Demon Kings descending on the side, and the White Ape and Flood Dragon running amok in the back... if this continued, they feared they wouldn't even be able to hold the Deer Cang River and the Lao Ai Mountain that had previously divided the territory.

Great Shun also dared not actively invite disaster, lest they displease the Demon Kings and ruin the favorable situation.

However, no matter how much they ignored it, what was meant to come would come, and what shouldn't come would come as well.

The Northern Court moved, the Great Shun Martial Saints worried, yet the Southern Frontier Great Shamans felt no joy.

Another shadow surfaced in the Deer Cang River, eight legs spread wide, its size boundless.

Following the Tortoise and Frog Kings, the third King appeared.

The East Sea Demon King!

"Sea-Hai Fangzhu!" The Hundred-Legged creature spat and cursed. "You are a mere sea merchant, and a water beast at that. You should be neutral between the two races, and neutral between the two nations! Your actions today are unworthy of the Eight-Clawed race! After today, when my Deer Cang River Dragon King succeeds, my Southern Frontier will never trade with sea merchants for generations!"

The Sea-Hai Fangzhu felt ashamed.

She cast an apologetic glance at the Hundred-Legged creature, then immediately turned serious, her gaze fixed to the south.

Two "mountain peaks" followed the river, flashing and shifting horizontally.

Circling the hinterland of the Southern Frontier, the reborn White Ape dragged the Flood Dragon and suddenly appeared in the Deer Cang River.

Turbid waves were pushed aside, white steam rose in abundance, and faint golden light flickered.

The Sea-Hai Fangzhu collected her thoughts and opened her eight tentacles, like a peony in full bloom.

"Tortoise King, Frog King!"

Two points of golden light shot out. The White Ape leaped out of the great river, but did not stop, lunging straight forward, from top to bottom, diving into the blooming peony stamens.

Splash.

The White Ape sank, and the water churned.

With eight legs entwined, the Sea-Hai Fangzhu wrapped tightly around the White Ape's limbs, like a closing flower bud. Every muscle was writhing and changing, spreading and reshaping like liquid.

The two Kings moved left and right in unison, gathering wind and thunder, shoulder to shoulder with momentum.

Swish.

The Flood Dragon emerged closely behind the White Ape. White steam clung to its dragon scales, flowing in threads like long ribbons. Its sun-like vertical pupils faced the combined force of the two Kings, its expression unchanged.

Anchor and shell struck out, water waves rose high.

Upstream and downstream surged simultaneously, exposing the mud and sand of the riverbed.

The two giant black shadows retreated violently. The Frog King crashed into a mountain peak, the Tortoise King sank into the riverbed. Both Kings spat out a mouthful of blood. The Flood Dragon didn't lose a single scale, its figure paused slightly, staring fixedly at the White Ape, flicking its dragon tail, and continuing forward.

At the river exit, crossing the vortex path, General Yuan, who was flying to support, had his tortoise claws smoothly reversed. He paused slightly, paddled back, while the monkeys on the mountain clung to the rocks, jumping and stomping their feet, screaming incessantly.

The situation was critical.

"Join forces!"

The roar rose again.

The snow-white great ape burned with golden eyes, bathed in water splashes, and leaped out with a boom.

Light rippled on the Deer Cang River, golden eyes burning fiercely.

Within his field of vision, Liang Qu, through the suspended water droplets, no longer saw himself, but a "solid" White Ape. Unprecedented power erupted from his body.

"ROAR!!!"

The White Ape descended from the sky, canine teeth protruding, fists clasped together and smashed down.

The Tortoise and Frog Kings broke free from the mire, threw away their anchors and shells, and attacked again.

Shell! Anchor! Fist!

The Flood Dragon wanted to raise its head to resist, but upon meeting the golden eyes, it suddenly felt weak and sore.

Boom!

Ripples vibrated at the bottom of the river, and dust rose for a hundred miles.

The cannon fist smashed down. The Flood Dragon's skull felt the pain. The dragon head could not bear the combined attack of the three Kings and was smashed into the riverbed, leaving only the dragon body outside, thrashing about.

General Yuan, who was halfway there, reversed his tortoise claws again, as if he had just done a backward-pushing power storage, and shot forward. The Shou Mountain monkey troop, bathed in the gale and rain, raised their monkey hands and cheered.

The Flood Dragon buried its head in the riverbed, spitting out large amounts of white steam, and then heard the roar vibrating above its head.

"Come again!"

The Tortoise King rotated with its shell, surrounded by clear wind; the Frog King hugged its anchor and twisted its body, like throwing a hammer; the White Ape gripped the two dragon horns, muscles knotted, body arched like a bow, violently lifting the dragon head.

The fragile lower jaw was exposed.

The tortoise shell smashed down, the great anchor hooked up.

"I am coming!"

Shou Mountain crashed through the rain curtain, the monkey troop on the peak beat their chests in the rain, looked up and howled. General Yuan's tortoise claws slapped the water surface. A hundred miles away, across the river, he struck the dragon, and a water column hit horizontally!

"Crack!"

Five Kings joined forces to strike, and with the River Master's water beast showing its might, the scales on the Flood Dragon's lower jaw cracked, seeping out drops of blood, which sprinkled into the great river, and along with the thousand-zhang dragon body, it flew out backward.

Boom, boom, boom.

The dragon body pushed horizontally across the surface, smashing mountains.

While rolling.

Countless wild beasts exploded into blood foam, the verdant surface was leveled, revealing muddy red soil.

Meng Yi, who had been retreating all the way to this point, secretly cheered.

If they fought, it wasn't bad. Acting together to pit the Southern Frontier was the real disaster. Compared to that, even if the Demon Kings chose the Southern Frontier as the battlefield, it was insignificant.

Who would win?

"Our combo skill is truly blood-boiling!"

General Yuan rode alongside, arriving among the three Kings, showing no awkwardness.

Ignoring General Yuan's little tricks, Liang Qu's golden eyes locked onto the great dragon in the mountains. No matter what hidden thoughts they had, now that they stood out to join forces, everyone was in the same boat.

"Little Water, the Flood Dragon is very powerful, it didn't suffer any major injuries." The Sea-Hai Fangzhu's voice sounded in his ear.

"I know."

Having swallowed the body where he had buried the Dew Seed and the Seed of Creation, the Flood Dragon indirectly received the gift of the Water Essence. Influenced by the golden eyes' 【Divine Might】, whenever it attacked, it felt weak and powerless, but that was a significant weakening in attack, not meaning it had become fragile.

"Are you alright?" Liang Qu gripped his fists.

"I'm fine. You turned into a White Ape, and a 'water shell' gathered on the outside. I was also protected inside, and my vital points can move. You focus on dealing with the Flood Dragon, don't worry about me."

"Take care of yourself."

"Mm, what now?"

"Let's see..."

The two demons whispered to each other, not for outsiders to hear.

The old Eight-Clawed King of the past had the ability to change species with flesh and blood. One tentacle could turn into various large fish, and even be grafted onto other demons to carry out surveillance, forcing the Sea-Hai Fangzhu to be unable to pass messages. This was the Dragon Creation practiced on the basis of the Eight-Clawed race's talent. The Sea-Hai Fangzhu of the same race was no exception. When Long Long Eying pieced together his corpse, the Sea-Hai Fangzhu threw away a tentacle tip to act as a "flesh supplement" to heal the wounds.

With this function, as a newly promoted Demon King, it was too dangerous to participate in the battle directly, and she had no lethal means. Liang Qu simply discussed it and let the Sea-Hai Fangzhu merge with him, completely changing into a "flesh supplement," thoroughly becoming a "solid White Ape."

The Eight-Clawed race had no bones, and their whole body was strong muscle, stronger than a python. The two Demon Kings merged into one, and the power exerted was more than doubled, and it didn't even affect the use of 【Water Travel a Thousand Miles】.

White light flashed, illuminating the world.

The clouds accumulated in the sky shattered, and thunder and fire crisscrossed.

Among the mountains, the Flood Dragon wrapped in a layer of muddy red soil, slowly crawled up, shook its head to shake off the soil paste, dragon claws crushed the mountain peak, dragon whiskers fluttered, staring straight at the five Kings.

Cultivating to this day, the Flood Dragon's appearance was no different from a true dragon. Washed by the rain, the red soil was bright red, sticking to the scales like blood, its divine might unfathomable.

The previous combined strike, which was the fragile lower jaw, only had a few dragon scales cracked.

Dragon claws wiped away the mud and water on its chin.

The Flood Dragon didn't care at all, golden eyes swept over the Frog King, then looked at the two Tortoise Kings and the White Ape.

"Tortoise King, Peng Ze General Yuan, the Tortoise race's cultivation is not easy, and the 'Twenty-Four Solar Terms' is even harder. I am the leader of the water beasts. If you retreat now, it will be as if nothing happened. Sea-Hai Fangzhu, you retreat too. From now on, sea merchants will still be able to travel unimpeded in the Jianghuai Great Marsh."

Silence.

The Flood Dragon looked at the Mountain Dragon again: "You can also be considered of the same race. If you help me today, I will help you succeed in the future."

The Mountain Dragon looked at the Flood Dragon, then at the White Ape, swaying its body, snake-crawling back half a body length, giving up the battlefield on the river. From the beginning, the Southern Frontier pseudo-dragon had not moved, even when facing the Great Shun Martial Saints pressing hard on the Southern Frontier Great Shamans, it had not acted, looking exactly like an outsider dragon, staying out of the matter.

"Neither side helps? That's fine too."

After speaking, the dragon head swirled in the void, the Flood Dragon suddenly soared into the nine heavens, raising half its body, looking down from above.

Thunder and lightning flashed, the Shou Mountain monkey troop was terrified, fleeing into the cave.

"The demons of the world think I am insidious, but in fact, my capacity is no worse than the old Dragon Lord. Tortoise King, Peng Ze General Yuan, Sea-Hai Fangzhu, Frog King, before the outcome is decided today, regardless of who is superior or inferior, you can leave at any time. I will not hold it against you. But after the outcome, it will not be up to you or me."

"CHARGE!"

Cutting off the conversation, the White Ape grabbed with five fingers, hugged the water dragon pillar, and tore through the rain curtain.

The Frog King kicked the ground and jumped, the Tortoise King shrank into its shell and rotated, General Yuan circled and waited for an opportunity.

Four paths charged together.

Branch-shaped lightning grew in the firmament, the Flood Dragon raised its head, its head and tail split into two, swimming to the left and right!

Bang!

The water column left a residual image. One Flood Dragon was topped and flown by the White Ape's dragon pillar, sticking to the river surface, colliding and sliding, splashing up great waves. The other one entangled the two Tortoises and the Frog, three Kings, in a dragon-tiger fight.

"Little Water, it's that move from the middle of the year!"

"I know, it's just what I wanted!"

The White Ape roared, rotated the water dragon pillar, slashed down in the air. Wherever the stick tip reached, the colors dimmed, and the black lines broke.

The "half" Flood Dragon turned sideways, dodged the dragon pillar, coiled its body and jumped, taking the opportunity to entangle the dragon pillar and rotate, revealing the poisonous fangs in its mouth, biting toward the exposed neck.

The right hand grabbed, the dragon pillar collapsed. The White Ape's left hand grabbed another long river, gathered it into a water stick, violently extended, and pointed at the Flood Dragon.

The Flood Dragon lowered its body, avoided the dragon horn stick tip, circled without needing to borrow the force of the dragon pillar, and hung in mid-air, also rising in the void. Unexpectedly, the straight stick tip in the air turned a corner, the stick turned into a gun, the gun turned into a dragon, the dragon opened its teeth and claws, and hit it flying again.

The Flood Dragon flying horizontally on the river pointed its dragon tail at the water, its thousand-zhang figure flashed, and it jumped straight behind the White Ape. The White Ape also 【Water Travel a Thousand Miles】, flashing back behind the Flood Dragon.

The two Demon Kings took turns rotating close to each other.

Meng Yi climbed up the mountain peak. With his eyesight, he couldn't see how the two Demon Kings were fighting at all. He looked to the other side.

Great waves surged, the Deer Cang River was in chaos.

Without the White Ape's 【Divine Might】 suppression, the Tortoise King, Frog King, and General Yuan fell into a bitter battle. The Frog King fought hard with its head down, the great anchor was fierce; the Tortoise King topped the front, bearing the Flood Dragon's attack, occasionally angrily scolding General Yuan for paddling, not using his true skills, breaking his promise, unworthy of the Tortoise race.

The Shou Mountain monkey troop waved the stones on the mountain. Whenever there was an opportunity, they threw them at the Flood Dragon. Unfortunately, the monkeys were weak and light, and the Flood Dragon didn't notice at all that there were monkeys on the mountain throwing stones at it, until the monkey king ran into the monkey troop latrine in the back mountain, raised a stick, and threw it with force.

Red soil mixed with wooden sticks fell.

The Flood Dragon's golden eyes turned, and it shifted its spearhead.

General Yuan shouted that it was bitter, forced to replace the West Water Tortoise King, becoming the vanguard of the attack.

The riverbed was exposed and covered again.

Tortoise-Frog battlefield, the Flood Dragon looked like a dragon, not a snake.

White Ape battlefield, the Flood Dragon looked like a snake, not a dragon.

The Flood Dragon swept with cold eyes, using its heart for two purposes, looking after the head and tail, fighting with both sides at the same time.

The White Ape was strange. Once it faced it, its whole body was inexplicably weak. Five Kings joined forces, continuous, only passively beaten. Since it was like this, it was better to actively divide the battlefield, separate one body, without suppression, fully drag the Tortoise and Frog two Kings, avoid stirring the situation, and let General Yuan hesitate, then separate another body, and deal with the White Ape alone!

Incarnation supernatural power, born from snake molting creation, was not splitting into two, each leaving five percent strength, or even lower, but each remaining more than seven percent.

If the White Ape could not suppress the strength, then use the snake state.

Snake, fangs not faded, poison sac still there, best at winning by weakness, one strike to decide victory.

Dragon, go against the way, force pressure on the three Kings.

"Must not let them merge."

"Can we bypass Jianghuai?"

The White Ape and Flood Dragon flashed extremely fast, each harboring their own thoughts, in front of the Great Shamans and Martial Saints, rushed out of the Deer Cang River, turned into meteors again, and rushed into the hinterland of the Southern Frontier.

Except for the Sea-Hai Fangzhu added to the body, the Flood Dragon's clone was three percent weaker, as if nothing had changed, and it returned to before.

The Southern Frontier battlefield was like a puddle of mud, everyone came to stir a foot, and there were Flood Dragon and White Ape rushing around, ignoring everyone.

The Nine Village leader Tusi couldn't stay in front of the star disk anymore, stepped into the mountains and fields, found an old man fishing with a bamboo hat, and knelt on the ground.

Waterfall washed, fish schools swam around.

Rainwater dripped along the bamboo hat, and the silver thread on the rod swayed.

"It's just the fall of one person in Pan Dong. Throughout history, there have been more difficult situations. Why disturb me because of this little thing."

"Today it seems like one person fell, but it is actually my Southern Frontier's opportunity swaying in the wind and rain. The Nine Villages are loose, and I can't hold them tight. If we lose the trend, and don't take the opportunity to rise, in the future we can only watch that Great Shun grow big for a thousand years."

"I will not make a move."

"Why?" Tusi choked, "I am your eighteenth-generation grandson."

The bamboo hat old man shook the rod: "Many things are too long ago, you don't understand. I don't move, the Whale Emperor is also hard to move. If I move, the Whale Emperor will have an excuse to intervene. Let's see again."

Whale Emperor?

Tusi's thoughts stagnated.

The battle line was stretched, two Flood Dragons, each walking on one side.

Leaving the Deer Cang River, the White Ape and the Flood Dragon no longer simply fled, but fought, draining rivers, sweeping mountains, flickering like dragonflies in rape flowers, sometimes hovering, sometimes turning. Without the assistance of the three great Demon Kings, only relying on the Sea-Hai Fangzhu attached, Liang Qu fought more and more arduously, only feeling that the Flood Dragon's means and supernatural powers were endless.

"Did Little Water see the situation?"

"There are discrepancies, but not many."

"Can we win?"

Grabbing the Flood Dragon's dragon horn, the White Ape turned over and hugged, the Flood Dragon turned in the air, unscathed, turned its head to bite back, two water dragons entangled its arms, pulling the White Ape away. The White Ape and the Flood Dragon disappeared from the spot one after another.

"Can! I said, it's just what I wanted, Frog Duke! Shake it off!"

Old Toad pulled his long beard.

"Backwards!"

In the perception of the Southern Frontier Great Shamans, the White Ape jumping into the hinterland made a turn, shook off the Flood Dragon, and went north for the second time! ===== CHAPTER 1166 =====