Chapter 630

Hui Moqiong stood up and was about to leave, I grabbed him with one hand.

You stay behind to look after Li Qingying, I'll go.

Hui Moqiong may have become a gray immortal, but his Xiūwéi is inferior to mine; it's more suitable for me to go.

Hui Moqiong opened his mouth, wanting to stop me, but I had already made up my mind: "This battle is no trivial matter; although it's an evil jiao, who knows how many people covet its inner elixir, we took this inner elixir on someone else's turf; if we encounter unreasonable people, we'll surely stir up trouble."

Liu Junyan and I can withstand the scrutiny, but the gray immortal clan cannot; if they take out their anger on your clan, it would be a catastrophe for you, moreover, extracting the inner elixir is only the first step, escorting Li Qingying to Yumen Pass is also a major undertaking; you should lie low for now, later there will be many places where your strength will be needed.

Hui Moqiong was moved to tears.

I raised my hand and patted his shoulder, comforting him: "For us, whether it's dangerous or not isn't that important; what matters is that we've found a way to help Li Qingying, we have a direction to strive for, this is the most fortunate thing."

This matter should not be made public; I had Hui Moqiong guard the home, and I immediately set out for the South Sea.

At that time, Liu Junyan had already been staking out the South Sea for two or three days.

When we met, he was only slightly surprised, then said: "I knew Mo Qiong couldn't keep things hidden, but you arrived faster than I imagined."

I chided: "Since you knew you couldn't keep it hidden, why didn't you choose to tell me from the start?"

"Being able to hide it for a day is a day," Liu Junyan said, "after all, you're still pregnant."

I declared earnestly: "The child I'm carrying is the next phoenix lord; don't worry, our daughter isn't that fragile—first tell me what you've been doing these past two days."

"I investigated the identity of that evil jiao," Liu Junyan said, "I wanted to see if there was a possibility of courtesy before force."

This "courtesy before force" certainly doesn't refer to the evil jiao, but to the South Sea Dragon Clan.

If this evil jiao isn't closely related to the South Sea Dragon Clan itself, Liu Junyan could use the Linghai Dragon Clan's influence to first negotiate with the South Sea Dragon Clan, then act against the evil jiao, thus avoiding unnecessary later trouble.

Thinking of this, I asked: "What were the results of the investigation?"

Liu Junyan shook his head: "The identity of this evil jiao is sensitive; she is the illegitimate daughter of the South Sea Dragon King, because her bloodline isn't pure enough and her cultivation talent is also mediocre, she has never been accepted by the South Sea Dragon Clan; to prove herself, she took the heretical path, barely becoming a jiao after a hundred years."

No wonder the South Sea Dragon Clan can tolerate this evil jiao stirring up wind and waves at the sea outlet for a hundred years.

Even if she's an illegitimate daughter not recognized by the clan, she is still the illegitimate daughter of the South Sea Dragon King.

Unless the South Sea Dragon King hardens his heart and personally orders her slaughter, otherwise no one would dare to act against her lightly.

Even when beating a dog, you must look at its owner.

I said: "So courtesy before force is impossible; shall we just strike directly?"

Liu Junyan nodded: "Well, I plan to lure her out of the South Sea outlet, then hunt her in the outer sea; for her cultivation, she doesn't know how many coastal lives she's harmed—we are also carrying out heavenly justice."

In that case, slaying the evil jiao won't incur Heavenly Punishment; rather, it counts as a small Merit.

The biggest problem still lies with the South Sea Dragon Clan itself.

"The aftermath is also a major problem," I analyzed carefully, "After Qingying sister consumes the inner elixir, she needs a relatively quiet and safe secluded environment; if the South Sea Dragon Clan immediately launches an attack against us, we must first figure out how to respond."

Liu Junyan, however, had no worries: "At that time I'll ask Xiāo gē to step forward and talk to them."

Alright, Xiaoye can indeed do that.

After all, back then he alone had the guts to single-handedly challenge the entire East Sea Dragon Clan.

After everything was arranged, that night Liu Junyan went to the South Sea inlet and provoked that evil jiao.

The evil jiao had a violent and ferocious temperament, unable to withstand the provocation, and was easily lured by Liu Junyan into the outer sea.

I, meanwhile, stood guard at the junction between the outer sea and the South Sea outlet.

My swimming is pretty good, but underwater combat is not my strong suit.

After all, I'm still just a bird, aren't I?

Therefore, the main force for slaying the evil jiao is still Liu Junyan; my duty is to hold the junction, defending both sides.

To prevent the evil jiao from being unable to match Liu Junyan and retreating; also to prevent a fight from breaking out, causing a huge commotion that would attract the South Sea Dragon Clan.

Under a dark moon and high winds, we slew the evil jiao.

That evil jiao was larger than I imagined, with horns on its head and its body covered in dense scales.

Looking closely, those scales were too small, tightly packed together, not resembling dragon scales at all, but rather... fish scales.

Therefore, the mother clan of this evil jiao is likely also fish-like, which matches well with Li Qingying.

Her transformation into a jiao is incomplete, her scales not shed; in other words, she was destined to face this calamity.

If she passes this trial, after undergoing another metamorphosis she should become a true jiao.

But unfortunately, she encountered us, and is destined not to pass this trial.

After they exchanged dozens of blows underwater, Liu Junyan finally forced her to the surface; the Ancient Bronze Sword rose, red-white sword qi slicing through the darkness, he brought it down upon the evil jiao's head.

The evil jiao reacted just as quickly, twisting its body to barely dodge the Ancient Bronze Sword, but one of its horns was directly chopped off by the sword.

The evil jiao, having suffered a setback, immediately turned and rushed toward the South Sea outlet, roaring with its head raised as if calling for help.

Liu Junyan pursued relentlessly, continuously unleashing the Ancient Bronze Sword, chasing behind the evil jiao; sword qi stirred up vast waves, the waves stained red with blood, the evil jiao's cries were utterly miserable.

I had long since gripped the long bow in my hand, tightly fixing my gaze on the direction the evil jiao was charging from; at a distance of no more than two hundred meters from me, I had already drawn the bow to full, and released the arrow feather toward the evil jiao.

The evil jiao hadn't expected that someone would be waiting for her at the junction of the South Sea outlet and the outer sea; when the arrow feather carrying Nirvana fire shot toward her, she instinctively opened her mouth and spat out a water arrow, shooting it toward my arrow feather.

The water arrows she spat out were taken from the surroundings, as numerous as cow hairs; theoretically, as long as one of them struck my arrow feather, it could deliver a fatal blow to me.

I was about to repeatedly draw the bowstring to fire several more volleys of Nirvana fire to stabilize the situation, when an unbelievable scene occurred.

Those water arrows, at the moment they collided with my arrow feathers,... burst into flames.

When the light of the Nirvana fire illuminated the sea surface, I finally saw clearly: the water arrows shot from the evil jiao's mouth were not merely formed from seawater; they also contained a large amount of dark qi.

That was the resentful energy condensed from the souls of those she had killed, and she actually used it as a weapon!

And Nirvana fire is precisely the nemesis of soul resentment.

Upon contact with the water arrows, Nirvana fire spread like a prairie fire, continuously extending forward; in the blink of an eye it had already surged into the evil jiao's mouth.

A mournful, despairing howl echoed throughout the outer sea; the upper half of the evil jiao's body was soon burned by Nirvana fire until it glowed a fiery red.

I felt relieved in my heart; this is probably what people often say: evil doers will meet their heavenly retribution...