Chapter 1165: The Swallow Returns

"Woo— woo—"

The yak horn sounded to the heavens, and Heyuan Prefecture trembled amidst the blare. The morning drills had just concluded, and the soldiers, who had yet to eat or rest, donned their armor, remounted their horses, and grasped their long spears.

"Quick, quick, quick! Assemble at the drill ground, assemble at the drill ground! There's no time to eat; eat when you return! Awu, go notify the First Battalion immediately—assemble!" Yang Xu charged into the camp, striking a brass gong and interrupting one soldier after another as they sat down to eat.

Awu grabbed a mouthful of rice from the bucket and stood up.

"General, what has happened?"

"There is a change in the Southern Frontier. 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 Wu Sheng and the Wolf Lord have already begun fighting; the Shuo Wind, Spring King, Eagle Soar, and Celebration King have all joined the fray, and there are still more Martial Saints on the move behind them. The Eight Beasts have shifted. Quick, quick, quick! Put on your armor, put on your armor! Assemble everyone within ten breaths."

The crowd was struck with terror and dropped their bowls and chopsticks. Suddenly, a gale shrieked, and the tents fluttered violently.

Yang Xu exited the tent and looked up.

Meteors streaked across the sky from south to north, colliding and emitting brilliant sparks. Ripples expanded, and half the sky was dyed the color of a raging fire.

The crisscrossing wind-blades tore the firmament apart, 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!"

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

"Transmit my order: summon the Shuobei, Naiman..."

"Father, the great war the year before last left the various tribes exhausted and resentful. The internal chaos in the west has not yet been quelled. To rush into sending troops now—wouldn't that just be adding to the chaos for no reason?"

"Stupid! You incorrigible fool!" the Khan barked. "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 now, once they are thoroughly defeated and unable to recover for decades, that tiger—the 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 war of opportunity; it is a forced situation pushing from top to bottom, from south to north!"

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

"Merchants are treacherous, let alone demons. If they dare to go to the Southern Frontier today, they will dare to come to my Northern Court tomorrow. 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 contact. Those who violate this order will be beheaded—not even the Shark King or the Sea-Fang Master are exceptions!"

A great anchor smashed down, shattering a mountain peak. Rocks tumbled and fell, splashing up layers of massive waves.

Dust billowed, only to be pressed down by a torrential downpour.

A massive black shadow broke through the turbid water and descended upon the mountaintop. A robust, hulking frog with curved little horns on the back of its head and variegated red cloud patterns on its body flattened the peak, 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—

A black shadow stirred within the Lucang River. A dark tortoise shell surfaced, bulging like a mountain mound. Once it reached a height of ten feet, the surface tension could no longer hold; it broke open from the peak, water splashed, and a torrent rolled down, curling into layers of white foam.

The tortoise shell shone brightly, possessing the mysteries of Heaven, Earth, and Man.

The Frog King, the Tortoise King.

The two Jianghuai Kings had arrived together.

Heavenly thunder rumbled, and muffled thunder rolled.

The Southern Frontier Great Shamans and the Great Shun Martial Saints were locked in combat, weaving through one another, 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. Rashly making a move 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 flank, and the White Ape and Flood Dragon running amok in the rear... if this continued, they feared they wouldn't even be able to hold the Lucang River and Lao'ai Mountain, which had previously served as the boundary.

Great Shun also dared not actively invite disaster, lest they displease the Demon Kings and ruin the excellent 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 made its move, the Great Shun Martial Saints were worried, yet the Southern Frontier Great Shamans felt no joy.

A shadow surfaced in the Lucang River again, eight legs spread wide, its size infinite.

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

The East Sea Demon King!

"Sea-Fang Master!" The Centipede 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 an Eight-Clawed beast! After today, once my Lucang River Dragon King succeeds, my Southern Frontier will never trade with sea merchants for generations!"

The Sea-Fang Master felt ashamed.

She cast an apologetic glance at the Centipede, then immediately turned serious, her gaze fixed toward the south.

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

Circling the hinterlands of the Southern Frontier, the reborn White Ape dragged the Flood Dragon, suddenly appearing in the Lucang River.

Turbid waves were pushed aside, white steam billowed, and faint golden light flickered.

The Sea-Fang Master 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, diving from top to bottom into the blooming peony stamen.

Splash.

The White Ape sank, and the water rolled.

With eight tentacles entwined, the Sea-Fang Master completely wrapped around the White Ape's limbs, like a closing flower bud. Every muscle was writhing and changing, spreading out like liquid to reshape.

The two Kings moved left and right, gathering wind and thunder, advancing side by side with momentum.

Swish.

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

Anchor and shell struck out, and the water rose high.

The upstream and downstream were shaken simultaneously, exposing the mud and sand of the riverbed.

The two giant black shadows retreated violently. The Frog King crashed into a mountain peak, and the Tortoise King sank into the riverbed. Each of the two Kings spat out a mouthful of blood. The Flood Dragon did not 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, reversed his tortoise claws smoothly, paused slightly, and paddled back. On the mountain, the monkeys clung to the rocks, jumping and stomping their feet, screaming incessantly.

The situation was critical.

"Combine forces!"

The roar rose again.

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

Light rippled on the Lucang River, and the golden eyes burned fiercely.

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

"ROAR!!!"

The White Ape descended from the heavens, its canine teeth protruding, and smashed down with both fists clasped together.

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.

Thud!

Ripples vibrated at the bottom of the water, and sand 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 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 performed a backward-pushing power-up, and catapulted forward. The Shou Mountain monkey troop, bathed in the storm, raised their monkey hands and cheered.

The Flood Dragon buried its head in the riverbed, spitting out a large amount 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 swinging a chain ball; the White Ape gripped the two dragon horns, its muscles knotted, its body stretched like a bow, violently lifting the dragon head.

The fragile lower jaw was exposed.

The tortoise shell smashed down, and the great anchor hooked upward.

"I am here!"

Shou Mountain crashed through the rain curtain. The monkey troop on the peak bathed in rain and beat their chests, looking up and howling. General Yuan's tortoise claws slapped the water surface. Separated by a hundred miles, General Yuan struck the dragon across the river, and a water pillar struck horizontally!

"Crack!"

The five Kings combined their strength to strike, and with the River Lord'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. Along with its thousand-foot dragon body, it flew out backward.

Boom, boom, boom.

The dragon body pushed across the surface of the earth, smashing through mountains.

While rolling.

Countless wild beasts exploded into blood foam, and the lush surface was wiped flat, revealing muddy red soil.

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

They were fighting. If they were fighting, it wasn't a bad thing. Acting together to trap the Southern Frontier was the real disaster. Compared to that, it was insignificant that the Demon Kings had chosen the Southern Frontier as the battlefield.

Who would win?

"Our combo skill is truly blood-boiling!"

General Yuan rode side-by-side, 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. Regardless of what hidden agendas they had, now that they stood together, everyone was in the same boat.

"Little Water, the Flood Dragon is very powerful; it hasn't suffered any major injuries." The Sea-Fang Master's voice rang in his ears.

"I know."

Having swallowed the body where he had buried the Dew Seed and the Seed of Creation, the Flood Dragon had 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 clenched his fists.

"I'm fine. When you turn into the White Ape, a 'water shell' gathers on the outside, and I am protected inside. Besides, my vital points can move. You focus on dealing with the Flood Dragon; don't worry about me."

"Take care of yourself."

"Mm, what do we do next?"

"Let's see the situation..."

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

The old Eight-Clawed King had the ability to change flesh and blood species. One tentacle could turn into various large fish, or even be grafted onto other demons to carry out surveillance, forcing the Sea-Fang Master to be unable to pass on information. This was the Dragon Creation practiced on the basis of the Eight-Clawed clan's talent. The Sea-Fang Master, being of the same clan, was no exception. When Long Eying pieced together his corpse, the Sea-Fang Master threw away a tentacle tip to act as a "flesh patch," healing 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-Fang Master merge with him, completely changing into a "flesh patch," thoroughly becoming a "solid White Ape."

The Eight-Clawed had no bones, and its 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 heavens and the earth.

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

Amidst the mountains, the Flood Dragon, covered in muddy red soil, slowly crawled up, shaking its head to throw off the mud. Its dragon claws crushed the mountain peak, its dragon whiskers fluttered, and it stared straight at the five Kings.

Practicing until now, the Flood Dragon's appearance was no different from a true dragon. Washed by the storm, the red soil was bright red, sticking to the scales like blood, its divine might unfathomable.

The previous combined attack, which was the fragile lower jaw, had only resulted in a few dragon scales cracking.

The dragon claws wiped the mud from its jaw.

The Flood Dragon didn't care at all. Its 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 clan's practice 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-Fang Master, 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 clan. 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, retreating half a body length in a snake-like motion, 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, acting exactly like an outsider dragon, staying out of it.

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

After speaking, the dragon head spun in the void, and the Flood Dragon suddenly soared into the nine heavens, raising half its body, looking down from a high position.

Lightning flashed, the Shou Mountain monkey troop was terrified and fled into the mountain caves.

"The demons of the world think I am insidious, but in truth, my capacity is no worse than the old Dragon Lord. Tortoise King, Peng Ze General Yuan, Sea-Fang Master, Frog King, before the outcome is decided today, regardless of who has the advantage, you can all leave at any time. I will let bygones be bygones. But after the outcome is decided, it will not be up to you or me."

"Attack!"

Cutting off the conversation, the White Ape gripped 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, and General Yuan circled to wait for an opportunity.

All four sides attacked together.

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

Bang!

The water pillar left a residual image. One Flood Dragon was knocked flying by the White Ape's dragon pillar, sliding along the river surface, splashing up great waves. The other one entangled the two Tortoises and the Frog, the three Kings, in a dragon-and-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, rotating the water dragon pillar, smashing down in the air. Wherever the pillar tip reached, the colors dimmed, and the black lines snapped.

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

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

The Flood Dragon lowered its body, avoided the dragon-horn stick head, didn't need to borrow force from the dragon pillar to circle, stood in mid-air, and also rose in the void. Unexpectedly, the straight stick head above its head turned in mid-air, the stick turned into a spear, the spear turned into a dragon, the dragon opened its teeth and claws, and knocked it flying again.

The Flood Dragon flying across the river pointed its dragon tail at the water, its thousand-foot 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 circling closely.

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 at the other side.

Great waves surged, and the Lucang River was in chaos.

Without the White Ape's 【Divine Might】 suppression, the Tortoise King, Frog King, and General Yuan fell into a bitter struggle. The Frog King buried its head and fought hard, the great anchor whistling with wind; the Tortoise King stood at the very front, bearing the Flood Dragon's attack, occasionally scolding General Yuan for paddling, not using his true ability, being untrustworthy, and being unworthy of the tortoise clan.

The Shou Mountain monkey troop waved the stones on the mountain. Whenever they had a chance, they threw them at the Flood Dragon. However, the monkeys were small and weak, and the Flood Dragon didn't even notice that there were monkeys on the mountain throwing stones at it, until the Monkey King ran into the monkey troop's 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 target.

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

The riverbed was exposed and covered again.

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

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

The Flood Dragon swept its cold eyes, multitasking, looking after both head and tail, fighting with both sides at the same time.

The White Ape was strange. Once it faced it, its whole body felt inexplicably weak. The five Kings combined their strength, continuous and endless, only to be passively beaten. Rather than that, it was better to actively split the battlefield, separate one body, without suppression, fully drag down the Tortoise and Frog Kings, avoid interference, let General Yuan hesitate, and then separate another body to deal with the White Ape alone!

The incarnation supernatural power, the creation of shedding the snake's skin, was not splitting into two, each leaving 50% strength, or even lower, but each having more than 70% left.

If the White Ape couldn't suppress its strength, then use the snake state.

Snake, fangs not faded, poison sac still there, best at winning against the strong with the weak, deciding victory in one blow.

Dragon, doing the opposite, pressing three Kings with momentum.

"Must not let them merge."

"Can we go around to Jianghuai?"

The White Ape and Flood Dragon flashed extremely fast, each with their own thoughts. In front of the Great Shamans and Martial Saints, they rushed out of the Lucang River, turned into meteors again, and rushed into the hinterlands of the Southern Frontier.

Except for the Sea-Fang Master added to its body, the Flood Dragon's avatar was 30% weaker, as if nothing had changed, and it was back to before.

The Southern Frontier battlefield was like a puddle of mud, everyone came to mix in two feet, and there were even the Flood Dragon and White Ape running amok, as if no one was there.

The leader of the Nine Villages, the Tusi, could no longer stay in front of the star disk, stepped into the mountains and fields, found an old fisherman wearing a bamboo hat, and knelt on the ground.

The waterfall washed down, and schools of fish swam around.

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

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

"Today it seems like the fall of one person, but in reality, it is an opportunity for my Southern Frontier, 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?" The Tusi choked up. "I am your eighteenth-generation grandson."

The old man in the bamboo hat shook the rod: "Many things are too far away, you don't understand. If I don't move, the Whale Emperor can't move either. If I move, the Whale Emperor will have an excuse to intervene. Let's wait and see."

Whale Emperor?

The Tusi's thoughts stagnated.

The battle line was stretched, two Flood Dragons, each going one way.

Leaving the Lucang River, the White Ape and Flood Dragon no longer simply fled, but fought, draining rivers at every turn, sweeping through mountains, flickering like dragonflies in rape flowers, sometimes hovering, sometimes turning. Without the assistance of the three Demon Kings, with only the Sea-Fang Master attached, Liang Qu fought more and more arduously, only feeling that the Flood Dragon's methods 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 horns, the White Ape turned over and hugged it, the Flood Dragon soared and turned, unscathed, turned its head to bite back, two water dragons entangled its arms, pulling the White Ape away. The White Ape and Flood Dragon disappeared from the spot one after another.

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

The old toad pulled its long beard.

"Backwards!"

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