Chapter 679: More questions, more cliffhangers
“Don’t worry about me, just go with the others, Zhen Yue!”
“They’re already safe and you just woke up! Get your ass back here!”
“No!”
“Argh!”
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<
Shortly after Zhen Hai regained consciousness, the First Master of the branch clan decided it would be a good idea to separate himself from the rest of the group to go and do…something.
To be completely honest, not even Zhen Hai knew why he was running, but it didn’t stop him from thinking this was the right course of action.
Out of worry for her older cousin, Zhen Yue decided to chase after him while the rest of their cousins made sure everyone else got to safety.
That being said, Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue ended up running into even more Fallen Clan warriors while running about. Thankfully, the warriors they ran into were bottom of the barrel grunts at this point.
Most of the stronger warriors had already been defeated, as evident by the corpses, or had disappeared entirely.
Nobody knew where those guys went, and frankly, not a lot of people wanted to.
[Shark Strike!]
[Moon Totem: Jaguar Claw!]
<
After defeating their latest batch of mooks, Zhen Yue and Zhen Hai paused to catch their breaths.
This gave Zhen Yue an opportunity to get answers…ideally.
“Zhen Hai…why the hell did you-”
*Pop*
“-huh?”
*Pop, pop!*
“What the…”
*Pop, pop, pop!*
“What the fuck…?”
One by one, all around Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue, the Fallen Clan warriors, unconscious or dead, began to disappear like bubbles being popped by the wind.
“Are…are they getting obliterated?,” Zhen Hai asked.
“It doesn’t feel like it…,” Zhen Yue answered, “I…think they’re being teleported away.”
“Huh…”
The feelings in Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue at this moment were rather…mixed.
On the one hand, they were happy that the Fallen Clan warriors were disappearing, meaning that this entire ordeal could finally come to an end. After all, this had been a hell of a trip for the branch clan and at this point, they just wanted to be done with all of this shit and go home.
On the other hand, neither of them had any idea whether or not that this teleportation was a sign that the Fallen had been defeated and were now retreating like the cowardly dogs they were back to parts unknown, or this was a sign that they had achieved their objectives and were just making an exit in case enemy reinforcements arrived. The other alternative was that the Fallen were evacuating in preparation for some super weapon that would annihilate everyone out of petty revenge.
Whatever the reason might’ve been, Zhen Hai didn’t seem to care as he began to walk pass the disappearing Fallen Warriors and went deeper into the arena’s halls.
“Tsk! Got no time for lollygagging!”
“What are you-hey!”
Before Zhen Yue could even ask her question, Zhen Hai had already bolted off.
“What the fuck, Zhen Hai?!,” Zhen Yue asked in an exasperated tone. “At least tell me why you’re heading deeper into the arena!”
“Gut instinct that I need to be involved with something.”
“Involved with what?!’
“Don’t know!”
With those final words, Zhen Hai disappeared from Zhen Yue’s field of view.
A part of Zhen Yue at this moment wanted to give chase and try to convince her cousin to stop whatever reckless action he was planning, but stopped herself from doing so. She knew damn well how Zhen Hai would get when he smelled blood in the water, and she learned that it was probably best to just leave the man be while he did…whatever he wanted to do. The only feasible things she could do right now was to head back and make sure the others were okay.
“Motherfucker, you better not die before my wedding day…,” Zhen Yue muttered as she off ran in the opposite direction.
Spoiler alert, Zhen Hai wasn’t going to die before his cousin’s wedding day. But that aforementioned wedding was going to get delayed due to…unusual circumstances.
On the plus side, the wedding gifts were going to be absolutely insane.
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“Alright, if Jin Fang is my predecessor’s daughter…maybe…is there a possibility that-”
“Oh thank fuck.”
As soon as Zhen Liu made that mental comment, the shadowy form of the Storm Queen disappeared, leaving behind a dazed looking Jin Fang.
Zhen Liu was just about to rush over and stop her from falling, but it appeared that she had regained her consciousness part way through and corrected herself. He did not release a sigh of relief yet though, because he had a feeling that he was going to be cursing the heavens soon.
That reason was delivered by Logos.
=Milord, you should probably be aware. I’m detecting the ripples of a spatial type aether treasure activating. I think the Fallen Clan is evacuating its forces.=
“FUC-wait….that’s actually a good thing…that means this battle is over and we can all just-”
=And something else is being teleported in. It feels volatile.=
“FUCK! Volatile how?!”
<=Well...=>
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‘Huh? What happened? Wasn’t I in the middle of being held like a rescued princess?’
Jin Fang was incredibly confused as she felt as if she had just woken up from a very abrupt, almost instantaneous nap.
One minute, she was standing next to Zhen Liu after he had saved her in a rather dashing manner, in full [Regalia] no less. The next minute, she was standing before a pair of kneeling kaijin that she had [never] seen before.
…
Hold up…
‘What the…who the fuck are these guys?!,’ Jin Fang asked herself as she looked over the two mysterious[/familiar] kaijin. The two kaijin were visually distinct from one another, but the both of them were wearing(?) blue and silver armor that reminded Jin Fang of waves at a beach, granted the amount of armor they were wearing was radically different from one another.
[The one unifying factor between all of my kaijin. That and one other thing…]
The kaijin kneeling to her left looked like a squid-human hybrid, but with a heavier emphasis on the squid, and his armor amounted to a pair of pauldrons, a metal plate that appeared to be screwed into his arrow-shaped head and a pair of pants. Decorating the squid man’s body were tribal tattoos that seemed to move and rearrange themselves as quickly as the tide.
[Not exactly vain, but still loves to show off, I see].
The kaijin on Jin Fang’s right however was completely covered in armor, which was rather impressive due to the kaijin on her right being a blue whale man that made Frosttusk look tiny in comparison. Jin Fang wasn’t entirely sure, but she felt that any weapon directed at this guy would just bounce off of his armor.
[Not as good as a certain crotchety turtle, but still pretty good.]
‘Wait a minute…I don’t know any turtle kaijin, so why would I-‘
But before Jin Fang could finish her thought as to why she felt as if she was hearing another person in her head, two actually foreign voices popped into hers. Evidently, she didn’t know what to make of this development.
[My lady.]
[My lady.]
“OH SHIT, THEY’RE TALKING IN MY HEAD!,”Jin Fang yelped, not expecting to be on the receiving end of a kaijin mental communication. “Wait…is this how Zhen Liu’s feel on the regular? Huh…”
Ignoring her outburst, the kaijin continued to talk.
[I, Ikairo of the Painted Fists,] the squid kaijin introduced himself, [humbly beseech thee to forgive my failure.]
“Failure? What failure are you-”
[As well as I, Grand Blue of the Crushing Wave, humbly beseech thee to forgive my failure,] the whale kaijin followed up.
At this point, the two kaijin sea creature knights bowed their heads even lower to Jin Fang.
“Wait, are you guys asking me to forgive you two over f-”
[Please,] the two kaijin said in almost perfect unison with one another,[forgive us for failing to keep you, our home and your mother safe all those years ago. We would die a thousand deaths in compensation if we could.]
“-ucking what?!”
Jin Fang had initially thought that finding out that Zhen Liu had somehow come back from the dead with the ability to cultivate via kaijin was going to be the biggest shock in her life. As such, she had no idea how to react to this particular bombshell being dropped on her head out of fucking nowhere…other than becoming faint and almost collapsing to the ground.
“Whoa there, babe. I got you.”
“Xiao Liu…”
Thankfully for her, Zhen Liu was there to catch her falling…again.
“Jin Fang, are you okay?”
“What? Oh, yeah, just… I’m starting to think that you and I are more connected than we thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…”
