CHAPTER 396: CHAPTER 387: PLEASE SAVE THEM, GENERAL XU!

Is it really as Xiang Tianyu said?

Doubts rose in Shen San’s heart. Visually, Xiang Tianyu, the only one who still retained a human form, theoretically should be the most trustworthy. But... if Xiang Tianyu was trustworthy, why did Duke of Wei choose to seal him in ice along with the others?

Ever since the Duke of Wei underwent Dragon Transformation and set out to sea, his goal had been very clear: a straight path of ice leading north, evidently to rescue someone. It was apparent he hadn’t turned into a demon after the transformation; his consciousness remained that of a human’s. So why would he seal Xiang Tianyu in ice as well? Was it a matter of being unable to control the situation?

Shen San didn’t think so. These ice sculptures were completely separated, clearly not frozen together. If he wasn’t mistaken, it meant that even the Duke of Wei couldn’t be certain which of them spoke the truth, so in the face of an emergency, he chose to freeze them all!

"The fire jade has arrived!"

On the other side, Xuu Hu, holding the fire jade, hastened back with two magicians from the earthly court.

"Let’s release General Xiang first. We have many questions to ask..."

"Wait a moment!" Shen San immediately interjected to stop them.

"What doubts does Third Master still have?" Xuu Hu asked with a frown.

At this point, time was of the essence. They needed to quickly ascertain the safety of their lord and the others inside the Dragon Palace!

Shen Lao San looked toward Xiang Tianyu: "General Xiang, I really want to know why the Duke of Wei would freeze you along with the others?"

The people of the Shen Family suddenly realized the implications. Why was Xiang Tianyu frozen as well? That made no sense!

With a furrowed brow, Xuu Hu said, "In his current ghastly state, how can he answer us?"

Second Elder Shen rose to his feet and said, "My Ghost King Arm can extract the spirit, but it’s easy to fail if the martial artist’s spirit resists. General Xiang, if you trust me, are you willing to give it a try?"

"General Xiang..." Shen San looked at him with a bemused smile. "If you trust us, blink your eyes. If you don’t, then we can only wait for the Duke of Wei to come back and try to unfreeze you."

Without any hesitation, Xiang Tianyu blinked his eyes.

This gesture gave everyone a bit of reassurance. The willingness to let his spirit emerge and place his safety in their hands likely meant he felt confident about it.

As for the risks, with several gods of the underworld present, even though this wasn’t their dominion, they were still within the Jiangnan region. Summoning or commanding spirits shouldn’t pose any problems.

After receiving his consent, Second Elder Shen didn’t waste any words. He raised his arm and a gigantic ghostly hand appeared above Xiang Tianyu: "Please relax, General, or you might get hurt."

Xiang Tianyu closed his eyes, and then they saw the enormous arm pluck his spirit straight out of his body.

Perhaps it was due to his first-ever spirit extraction or maybe because a warrior’s spiritual power wasn’t strong enough, but the spirit of Xiang Tianyu looked visibly numb.

"General Xiang, we do this as a precaution, please forgive any impropriety."

Xiang Tianyu nodded slightly, indicating his understanding.

"General, can you tell us now? What exactly happened?" Xuu Hu quickly asked.

Xiang Tianyu briefly explained the prior situation, and soon everyone grasped it.

So, the situation within the Dragon Palace was extremely perilous. The lord had sabotaged the revival of the Dragon Palace nobles during his time inside the Celestial Dragon Palace, a move truly befitting our lord. They had previously been concerned about how Jiangnan would counter the revival of the Dragon Palace, but it seemed the lord never intended to let those creatures awaken from the start!

According to Xiang Tianyu, due to a lack of blood essence, the Dragon Palace could only temporarily revive some guards like the sealed Yaksha. In order to expedite the revival of the Dragon Palace nobles, they began luring others into undergoing Dragon Transformation, planning to take control of them during their weakened phase and use the blood essence of the Dragon Transformation Object to directly revive the nobles.

This explanation seemed logically sound.

"But what happened after that?" Shen San asked, puzzled.

"I and the Yaksha escorting me reached another location of the Dragon Transformation Object. Before we started, we were attacked. The ones who attacked us were the second princely heir and General Bai Sang transformed into a Thousand-Legged Dragon."

"General Bai Sang?" Xuu Hu glared wide-eyed: "That strange dragon species is General Bai Sang?"

"Yes!" Xiang Tianyu nodded. "General Bai Sang naturally wouldn’t let a junior take such risks. He personally participated in the Dragon Transformation and succeeded. Moreover, General Bai Sang must be clever, having guessed the Yaksha’s plot and chosen the least risky Thousand-Legged Dragon, planning to burrow underground immediately after the transformation to avoid his vulnerable period. But unexpectedly, the moment he completed the transformation, he was attacked by his own people!"

"Ours?" Second Elder Shen squinted at the youth atop the head of the Thousand-Legged Dragon. "Are you saying that the Second Son attacked General Bai Sang?"

"I’ve had my suspicions before..." Xiang Tianyu nodded, "How could that creature in the Court not meddle in this ancient event at the Dragon Palace? In hindsight, there must have been a setup, with major families from the Northern Territory having hostages in the Capital City. The Second Son is the Duke of Wei’s hostage left in the Capital City, the most vulnerable target. If I’m not mistaken, these hostages might have had something planted inside their bodies even before the Duke of Wei escaped northward with all hostages..."

"So that’s it..." Xuu Hu nodded. That’s why there was such a strange phenomenon, with the Second Son, a living human, merging with the Thousand-Legged Dragon transformed by Bai Sang in such a weird way!

"The Second Son somehow managed, not only to help General Bai Sang over his weak phase forcibly, but also to control him, slaughtering our men, even the Yaksha accompanying me then did not escape his toxic reach!"

With these words spoken, the Second Son sitting atop the dragon’s head inside the ice seemed to have his eyes split open, his features twisted with ferocity, indeed resembling a demon.

And the Yaksha beside him had his eyes reddened with rage.

But Shen San saw something puzzling, that Yaksha... the hostility, it didn’t seem directed at Xiang Tianyu’s mentioned Bai Sang and the Second Son, the murderers, but rather...

"Then why did the Duke of Wei freeze you as well?"

"That brat bit back at me!" Xiang Tianyu said coldly, "Thanks to Mr. Guijing’s secret technique, the Duke of Wei narrowly escaped the Yakshas’ schemes and successfully achieved Dragon Transformation. But just as he was rushing over here, that brat claimed I had poisoned him, turning him into this ghostly form. The Duke of Wei, in a moment of urgency and unable to discern the truth, plus being told so by his own son, froze all of us together!"

The Shen Family members exchanged glances. Put that way, it seemed quite plausible...

Second Elder Shen looked towards the Yaksha and the Duke of Wei’s second son, Wang Shijie.

He also felt somewhat perplexed. If possible, he wished to pull out the souls of everyone involved and question them, but clearly, that was unfeasible. The Ghost King Arm’s method required the cooperation of the Warrior. It could target ordinary people, but if a strong Warrior resisted, bursting with Qi and blood, it could injure him in return, given his usage of Yin Ghost techniques.

Wang Shijie, now merged with the giant dragon, probably had tremendous strength, and the Yaksha was terrifying too. He dared not act rashly, even if they were willing, he would remain cautious...

"If you have doubts, you need not help with the unfreezing now!" Xiang Tianyu hurriedly said, "The pressing matter at hand is to rescue the Northern Territory. The situation there has already been relayed—Myriad Serpent Valley has been unleashed; the natural disaster the Northern Territory is facing might be even more terrifying than the zombie plague Jiangnan experienced. I plead everyone to offer assistance, work with the Duke of Wei to save the countless lives in the Northern Territory from fire and water!"

Xuu Hu immediately stood up, "What should we do?"

"If I’m correct, by now, Mother Earth might have already been unfrozen in the Northern Territory. That creature... I had seen it once with my father during a northern campaign thirty years ago. It was immense, truly a terror capable of wiping out mankind. If it wasn’t for the King of Qin’s intervention that year, the Northern Territory could have fallen then and there. Currently, the Duke of Wei has just tapped into the power of Dragon Transformation, perhaps not his match, and even if he were, for one to face Mother Earth, thousands of Earth Serpents, as well as hidden forces from the Lu Family and those monsters from the Southern Barbarians..."

"It’s extremely risky!"

"The Duke of Wei braves danger alone, which is admirable, but now we..."

Xuu Hu hesitated.

"General!" Xiang Tianyu grew anxious, "The message passed down by Mr. Guijing’s secret technique: our Northern Territory, within just a few days, has seen billions of our citizens fall prey to the Serpents. Those trapped now are the last survivors. General, can you bear to witness no more Northern bloodlines left in this world?"

Shaken, Xuu Hu, who had served in the Northern Territory for many years and was fond of its soldiers, thought of the Northern People—warlike but with a straightforward and generous nature. The thought of billions of his compatriots consumed by those monsters filled him with an intolerable indignation, both in his heart and his Divine Power!

But then... their sovereign needed someone to provide support from behind...

Third Elder Shen gave Xiang Tianyu a deep look. To his memory, the Xiang Family... didn’t seem to be such a passionate family...

As he was thinking, suddenly, a thunderous dragon’s roar sounded from outside. Everyone was startled and hurriedly left the cabin to look.

They saw a dragon, drenched in blood, its once majestic scales nearly half bitten away. In the dragon’s mouth was an enormous serpent’s head, many times larger than the dragon itself, like an ant hoisting a whale.

With a booming crash, the giant serpent’s head turned into an ice sculpture and was cast into the distant sea, stirring monstrous waves. The dragon descended from the sky and landed on the ice surface.

With a loud thud, the sturdy ice somehow stayed intact, only cracking like a spiderweb.

"Father, Father!!"

A familiar voice made Xuu Hu shiver, and he quickly leaped towards it, "Princely Heir?"

"General Xuu!" The Princely Heir’s eyes filled with tears as he rushed to say, "My father has slain Mother Earth; the Northern Territory is saved. I implore General Xuu to deploy troops to save our Northern people from the demon’s clutches!"

"This..." Xuu Hu clenched his teeth, his face twisted with struggle.

"It might be impossible..." came the solemn voice of Shen Lao San from behind...