Lord Xue Ying
chapter-528

Xue Ying and Jing Qiu were flying at high speed over the icy-cold Lake Heart Island all while carefully observing their surroundings. With how big the island was, there were bound to be many caverns around.

"We're quite some distance away from the region where father entered," Jing Qiu said. "Let's enter here and then make our way over to him."

"Alright." Xue Ying nodded when, all of a sudden, he turned toward a certain direction with a frown.

Two streams of light were flying rapidly over to his location.

"Hahaha."

"Isn't this His Highness, Dong Bo?"

The two figures followed an arc through the sky then landed on the ground. Both of them were well-known stage four World Deities. One was a plump man violet outer robes. He also had two antennas dangling from his head. The other was a seemingly ordinary World Deity carrying a huge black ruler on his back. His clothing was all-black, his expression cold and callous. He had taken on the appearance of a middle-aged man. The two of them took the initiative to approach the couple, and the violet-robed fatty said, "Your Highness, I've visited you some years ago. Do you still remember me?"

"Monarch Armadillo Jade?" Xue Ying laughed. "Who could have known we would meet here, at Lake Heart Island."

"Lake Heart Island is a truly large place; for us to have met means there must be some fate binding us. Fu Qiong and I both noticed Your Highness while you were quite some distance away, so we rushed over," the plump Monarch Armadillo Jade added.

The black-robed middle-aged man with a cold demeanour, King Fu Qiong, slightly cupped his hands in greeting. "Your Highness."

"King Fu Qiong. I've long since heard of your name," Xue Ying politely replied.

"And this is?" Monarch Armadillo Jade turned to face the masked girl with silver hair. She was emitting the aura of a stage four World Deity. There were only so many stage four World Deities throughout the Deity world and Dark Abyss, so most would recognize each other at a glance.

"This is my good friend, Empress Nine Swords," Xue Ying answered.

Hearing this, Jing Qiu shot Xue Ying a meaningful glance.

"Greetings, Nine Swords," the two said in unison. In spite of their polite greeting, they couldn't help but feel confused; from where did this Empress Nine Swords suddenly appear?

"Your Highness, are you two perhaps preparing to enter the inner section of Lake Heart Island?" Armadillo Jade asked.

"Indeed. By walking on the boundary of life and death, I hope to refine my Dao Heart," Xue Ying replied.

"If Your Highness doesn't mind, would you agree with the two of us joining in on your adventure?" Armadillo Jade and King Fu Qiong had clearly set up the stage for this very moment.

Xue Ying exchanged a glance with Jing Qiu.

They were about to go through a more unfamiliar cavern, and it was impossible to know how dangerous it would be. The two of them could be seen as weak, but Monarch Armadillo Jade and King Fu Qiong had much more experience than either of them. Monarch Armadillo Jade's combat power was especially deep and profound, likely comparable to Hui Ming's. Indeed, they would be of much help.

"Hahaha, I am truly happy that Brother Armadillo Jade is willing to join us," Xue Ying said. "The two of us are prepared to go through the cavern ahead of us, though. I do wonder, were you two also heading that way?"

"The cavern ahead of here?" Both Armadillo Jade and King Fu Qiong were startled as they turned to look at the cavern not too far from them.

King Fu Qiong couldn't help but put on a frown as he said, "Your Highness Dong Bo, not even powerful existences tend to enter from this cavern. I think it would be best that we entered through a more familiar cavern. That way, we'll be more certain of making it inside."

"That might be true, but opportunities will also be harder to come by if we go through a more familiar cavern." Xue Ying shook his head. "I've already decided to go through this cavern. Should the two of you not be willing to follow, we can only go our separate ways."

"This…"

King Fu Qiong and Monarch Armadillo Jade exchanged a momentary glance before quickly settling on a decision.

The two of them had already taken the initiative to join Xue Ying for the sake of befriending him. Friendships were easiest to develop by means of sharing life-or-death encounters, after all.

"Fu Qiong, let's just treat this as a chance encounter with His Highness and gamble away these avatars of ours. If we manage to develop a closer friendship with Dong Bo, who might become a powerful existence in the future, and immediately reach the power of a venerable existence. We'd be able to reap huge benefits from that," Monarch Armadillo Jade tried to persuade his companion. The power of a venerable was comparable to that of the three ancestors.

The three ancestors were known to be on the Bloodshed God Palace's side.

Meanwhile, other experts of that level, like Monarch Green, the Mysterious North Imperial Empress, and similar existences who were moving freely without joining any organizations were termed known as venerable existences.

"Alright." King Fu Qiong quickly decided without mulling over it for long. "I do feel that Dong Bo should be well-prepared since he dares take such a risk."

"True. He might have some secret treasure map," Monarch Armadillo Jade sent back.

The two of them had decided so quickly that they startled Xue Ying and Jing Qiu. Despite their surprise, they were inwardly happy to know that two people who were more experienced than them would be helping out, greatly increasing their chances of success. They had come at this time purely because they wished to help Monarch Mo Xue. But in reality, the ruins of Lake Heart Island were so dangerous that they probably could not even hope at a 10% success rate.

However, their chances could have been even lower and they still would have come. They knew how likely they were to fail before even setting off.

"I'll be in the vanguard, scouting the route ahead. I've cultivated a secret technique that gives my eyes an ability to see through any illusions" Monarch Armadillo Jade explained while his eyes became incomparably deep; vague maelstroms could be seen within them.

"Alright."

Xue Ying, Jing Qiu, Monarch Armadillo Jade, and King Fu Qiong all had their own profound combat skills, and they would naturally be able to coordinate well with one another.

The four carefully entered the cavern.

...

The cave turned out to be truly deep, such that the end was impossible to see with the naked eye.

Xue Ying and the other three proceeded carefully along. As they walked, they would spot a fork in the road every now and then.

"Mn, be careful. Some sort of terrifying existence seems to be hiding along this side path," Monarch Armadillo Jade transmitted to the others. All four experts had brought along treasures meant for isolating them from scouting technique, seeking to prevent their enemies from discovering them. However, the degree of danger inside Lake Heart Island far surpassed their imagination. Even if they tried avoiding every place that seemed dangerous, it would still probe difficult to not stumble into one accidentally.

"Oh?" As Xue Ying and the others walked past that specific side road, they couldn't help but look more carefully inside.

Deep into that path was an ice sculpture, its scarlet-red eyes were staring straight toward Xue Ying and the others. It could also be said that the ice sculpture was set to look straight at where the road split into two.

Xue Ying and the others could feel their hearts palpitating at the sight of this statue.

"Let's hurry out of here." They immediately began to feel that something was amiss.

As soon as the group departed, signs of cracks began appearing on the surface of the ice sculpture, sending out sounds of ka ka ka. Soon, fragments of the ice began to shatter, revealing a tall, sturdy warrior wearing black armor with a single horn that seemed to reach the sky. His face was shrouded by yellow hair, and his eyes were scarlet-red. As he stared toward the source of the side path, the corners of his mouth curled upwards. It's been a long time, but some outsiders have finally crossed through my place again. Hehehe, I've only just woken up, so I'm in no rush to kill you. I'll take my time and kill them at the very last moment. I hope you all will be able to hold on for as long as possible.

Hu.

The body of this black-armored warrior smashed into the icy-cold rock wall to his side, melding in and disappearing inside it.

...

"I've got this strange feeling that something amiss." In the frontmost position, Monarch Armadillo Jade's vision darted all over the place and his expression was ugly. "Your Highness, are we truly making our way forward? We've no experience with this cavern, and neither do we know what's ahead."

"Just continue along this path," Xue Ying replied.

There was a safer road, but it was being watched by Old Mother Withered Tree and the others!

Monarch Armadillo Jade began muttering to himself. I've already discovered three dangerous routes, yet neither Dong Bo, nor that Empress Nine Swords managed to detect any dangers! Do they actually have nothing to count on on their trip through this cavern? Ai, what a blunder.

Due to his secret technique, Monarch Armadillo Jade could specialize in discovering dangers ahead of time. His vision was always shifting to observe his surroundings, and the Profound Mysteries the laws of the world appeared in his eyes as they operated in the surroundings. Any minute change in the distance would lead to a small change in the world which he could then discover.

"Careful! There's a powerful being moving closer to us. We have to flee." Monarch Armadillo Jade quickened his pace. At the same time, invisible World Deity energy spread to sweep Xue Ying and the others along, allowing their flying speed to explode to about 300,000 kilometers per second. Such speed left Xue Ying and Jing Qiu tongue-tied. Their normal speed could never hope to reach such a level, but Monarch Armadillo Jade could maintain it while bringing three more people along.

It seemed that Monarch Armadillo Jade's reputation was not without reason.

Hong.

The figure following them tore through the ice, rushing into the passage of the cavern. Looking closer, the two could see that the figure rushing toward them actually belonged to a four-legged black-armored creature. Before long, however, it disappeared by tunneling into cavern's wall.

"It's approaching at truly too fast a speed." The group moved very quickly after Monarch Armadillo Jade increased their pace, but even he was feeling anxiety mount at the moment. "It can move along a straight line through the body of the mountain, so it's nearing us very, very quickly. It'll most likely reach us within a breath's worth of time. Prepare for battle!"

**