owlsbooks Chapter 62 A Search That Never Ends
Chapter 62 A Search That Never Ends
In the dense forest.
The snake demon licked its chapped lips, its eyes fixed on the broad back of the figure on the riverbank, and said in a low voice, "This meat looks firm. Should we steam it, boil it, or stir-fry it?"
The leopard demon swallowed hard, his gaze lingering on the figure's bronze calves for a moment before settling on them again. "Steamed," he said, "the meat's tender. Look at his arms, they're thicker than my waist. Stir-frying them would be too oily; how long has it been since we've had anything oily?"
The snake demon's tail flicked restlessly in the grass, then hesitated, "Steaming would make it tender, but we don't even have a pot. What are we going to use to steam it?"
The leopard demon slapped his snake head impatiently with its paw: "Fool! Kill him first, then figure out how to eat him. If you really can't, you can eat him raw!"
"That's right, Brother Leopard, let's go!"
"Go!" The leopard demon lagged half a step behind, letting the snake demon go first.
The snake demon took two steps and then suddenly stopped.
"Brother Leopard, is there any danger?" he suddenly asked, a hint of worry in his voice.
"What danger could there be? He's just a mortal."
"Do you think there might be local deities or city gods protecting us? If we get caught, we're doomed." Although the snake demon was starving and his stomach was cramping, reason prevailed at the crucial moment.
The leopard demon slapped the snake demon on the forehead again, and the snake demon, who was flicking its tongue at the time, almost bit off its own tongue.
"I'm telling you, you cowardly piece of trash, you can't even get your food warm before it's gone."
The snake demon turned around upon hearing this, her face filled with disbelief: "Leopard... Brother Leopard... you've eaten it while it's still hot?"
"Smack!" Another smack. "I was just using a metaphor, you know? A metaphor!"
The leopard demon decided to go himself; after all, this was a snake demon.
"Stay close to me!"
"Eh?"
The leopard spirit crouched low, using the cover of the grass to silently make its way towards the riverbank.
The snake demon followed behind, its tail dragging across the grass, leaving a winding trail.
The two demons' four eyes were fixed on the approaching figure ahead.
Five zhang, three zhang, one zhang...
The leopard spirit extended its two front paws, the sharp tips gleaming coldly, its legs slightly bent, ready to pounce at any moment.
But at that moment, the fisherman's neck suddenly turned half a circle.
It wasn't just turned around, it was turned a full 180 degrees.
The straw hat remained firmly on the back of his head, but the face beneath it was facing the two demons, his eyes fixed on the leopard spirit.
In an instant, the face twisted and changed, and the eyes turned into blue vertical pupils.
Its mouth and nose lengthened, becoming long and pointed, and patches of blue scales grew on its face, quickly covering the entire face, revealing a ferocious blue dragon face.
With a clenched jaws, a chilling dragon breath condensed between its interlocking fangs, and a muffled thud from its throat sent ripples through the air.
The snake demon and the leopard demon collapsed to the ground, their bodies trembling so badly that even their bones were shaking.
A foul stench emanated from between the two demons' trousers. The snake demon's scales bristled, and the leopard demon's tail was tucked between his legs. Only primal fear remained in their eyes.
"I never imagined that some little demon would dare to plot against me, Ao Qing." The Azure Dragon spoke in human language.
Ao Qing slowly stood up, placed the fishing rod steadily on the bluestone, and took off his straw hat and threw it aside.
He glanced coldly at the two demons, and with the opening and closing of his right hand, he condensed two balls of emerald-green water magic, about to slap them on the heads of the two demons.
The snake demon was too frightened to speak, but the leopard demon suddenly cried out, "Your Majesty, spare me! Your Majesty, spare me!"
"Give me a reason, and I'll spare your lives." Ao Qing's tone was icy, completely different from how he spoke to the Dragon King and Princess Wansheng.
"We...we are subordinates of the Great Sage Who Guards the Mountain! We did not recognize Your Majesty's true form, please forgive us!"
Upon hearing this, Ao Qing paused for a moment, his hand hovering in mid-air. A subtle curve appeared in his eyebrows as his gaze swept over the two demons' faces.
He pulled his hand back behind his back, squatted down, and slightly softened the fierce look on his face as he asked, "The Great Sage Who Guards the Mountain? Is that the Great Sage Who Guards the Mountain from the Xie Zhi Cave?"
The leopard demon, sensing a glimmer of hope in the tone, assumed the other party knew his king. Without further hesitation, he nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, yes! He's the Great Sage Guardian of the Xie Zhi Cave. We've served under him for over a hundred years! If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, you can go find my king!"
The snake demon quickly stretched its neck forward, afraid that Ao Qing might not hear it clearly, and blurted out in a rapid-fire manner: "We were originally patrolling demons of the Xie Zhi Cave, but a while ago something happened on the mountain, and even the Great King was..."
The leopard spirit slapped him on the back of the head with its tail and quickly interrupted, "Everything has changed, and we escaped in the chaos. Your Majesty, you don't know, we don't live in the Xie Zhi Cave anymore. The new place we went to is neither well-fed nor warm, and Your Majesty has a terrible temper. You take your anger out on us at the slightest provocation. We couldn't take it anymore, so we escaped!"
We were so hungry today that we couldn't bear it any longer, so we offended the king. We beg the king to spare our lives for the sake of the mountain demon king!
"An unexpected turn of events?" Ao Qing, unaware of what had happened, continued to ask, "Do you know a young man with red hair? Someone who uses water manipulation techniques and possesses the cultivation of human form?"
The snake demon and the leopard demon exchanged a glance, and both of their heads tilted down at the same time.
The snake demon blurted out, "Great King! That's our Great King! The Great King's Great King! He's the one who made us move out of the Xie Zhi Cave! He even took our Great King under his command!"
"Oh? Tell me more about it."
Ao Qing was immediately intrigued. He had searched high and low without finding anything, but unexpectedly, fishing yielded a great harvest!
The leopard demon and the snake demon immediately spilled everything they knew, one after the other.
"...That's him! He calls himself the Taoist of Yangquan. He's in Pansiling, about 500 li southeast of here, in the area with the most pine and cypress trees on the mountain!"
After listening, Ao Qing nodded thoughtfully. That wild Taoist must be a spirit of a spring, no wonder he could hide his figure and quickly learn the Nine Folds of the Azure Waves.
No matter how Ren Aoqing thought about it, he could never have imagined that Lu Changgeng would have the ability to nourish female cultivators by bathing in hot springs.
Seeing that Ao Qing had no more questions, the two demons cautiously asked, "Great...Your Majesty, is there anything else you wish to ask? If not...may we be leaving now?"
Ao Qing paused for a moment, then nodded and casually said, "Alright, you can set off now."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
The snake spirit's expression shifted from worry to joy, and she grabbed the leopard spirit, saying, "Let's go... let's go..."
The leopard demon watched as Ao Qing's face suddenly turned deathly pale, and his whole body trembled...
The snake spirit looked over curiously, when a cold glint flashed past, and she suddenly felt a chill on her neck...
The viewpoint leaped and flipped uncontrollably, yet one could clearly see that their body remained standing upright in the same spot, without moving an inch...
A fountain of blood gushed from the shoulder and neck area, and the head that had been on top was nowhere to be seen...