Chapter 2465: Aurora Poison Dragon

The Mermaid Queen was stunned. She had guessed that something had happened to the Ocean races, but she hadn’t expected it to be so huge.

The Ocean races have been destroyed? Including the Four Dragon Kings?

Zu An’s astonishment matched hers.

Mojard is formidable, but surely not to this extent? The Ocean races are a great power. Them being destroyed in a few days seems too much.

Sensing their doubt, the Peacock Princess quickly waved her hands and clarified, “They aren’t dead yet, though they aren’t far from that.”

The Mermaid Queen was getting confused, so she quickly asked, “What happened?”

The Peacock Princess realized there was a huge misunderstanding here and hurriedly explained the matter.

Soon, Zu An and the Mermaid Queen understood what was going on. An illness had been spreading within the Ocean races; those afflicted with it would suffer from nausea and severe diarrhea. The patients were so weakened that they could only lie in bed, looking as if they were about to breathe their last.

Zu An frowned. “That doesn’t sound like an illness so much as a poison.”

The Peacock Princess nodded. “Everyone initially thought nothing of it, but the illness quickly spread across the Dragon Palaces and the rest of the Ocean race territory. It finally dawned upon them that someone had poisoned them, but it was already too late. Most people had already collapsed by then, and the physicians in the Dragon Palace were too busy saving themselves to treat anyone. Only a few lucky ones, like us, escaped the ordeal.”

“Where are the Four Dragon Kings? Did they not step forward to control the situation?” the Mermaid Queen asked.

The Peacock Princess shook her head. “The North Sea Dragon King had fallen into an inexplicable coma, so the other three Dragon Kings visited him. They didn’t find anything amiss, but shortly after, they fell into a coma as well. Rumors began spreading in the Dragon Palaces that recent happenings have evoked the Ocean Deity’s wrath, so he brought divine punishment upon the Ocean races.

“Nonsense!” The Mermaid Queen was infuriated to hear those words. “We are the children protected by the Ocean Deity. Why would she bring such a vile punishment upon us? Someone must be scheming something by spreading these rumors!”

The few remaining Ocean race warriors around them also didn’t think the Ocean Deity would punish them like that.

“What brings you all here? And who repaired the sealing formation over the Eye of the Ocean?” Zu An asked. So many things had happened in his absence that everything felt like a mystery to him. He could only gather as much information as possible to figure the situation out.

“I was discussing an alliance with the Ocean races when something happened to the Dragon Kings and the mysterious illness struck. That delayed our alliance talk. I was planning to help them overcome their current crisis first,” the Peacock Princess said.

“But as more people collapsed, rumors began spreading that it was our alliance with the Ocean races that brought about these troubles. There were even speculations that big brother is the one who brought that illness here. I realized someone was behind all this, so I rushed here to inform you...

“But by the time I reached this place, the seal had already been mended. I had no choice but to return to the Dragon Palace to gather a group of formation masters to remove the seal. Little did I expect to bump into these assassins. They were secretly tailing me to massacre us here.” The Peacock Princess patted her chest. “If not for your timely appearance, we would have been dead.”

Zu An coldly eyed the assassins. “Speak! Who sent you here?”

“Kill us!” The assassins looked away.

Zu An’s golden sword ki had not only pinned them to the ground but also sealed off their ki. They couldn’t even commit suicide. Still, a group that could be dispatched to assassinate the Peacock Princess wouldn't be made up of pushovers.

Zu An frowned. He couldn’t use his powers as the underworld’s master in this world, so he couldn’t drag them down to hell to interrogate them. It would be difficult to force a confession out of them.

Just then, the Mermaid Queen stepped forward. “Hand them to me.”

Zu An was taken aback.

The Mermaid Queen strummed her harp and played a graceful melody. She smiled at the assassins and asked, “Were you trying to harm me?”

The assassins looked both dazed and mesmerized. They shook their heads vehemently as they said, “Of course not. We wouldn’t think of doing so.”

“Do you want to see me upset?” the Mermaid Queen gently asked, looking exceptionally pitiful.

“No, we want you to be happy.” The assassins expressed their love for her.

“But I have so many doubts in my mind that I can’t be happy. Can you answer them for me?” The Mermaid Queen’s beautiful eyes turned an even deeper blue, shimmering with a sapphire-like luster.

“Of course, of course! My queen, please ask us anything!” the assassins hurriedly replied.

“Who sent you here today?” the Mermaid Queen asked with a sweet smile.

...

Witnessing the assassins obediently answering her every question like a bunch of dazed penguins flabbergasted everyone else, including Zu An. It was rumored in the Ocean races that the Mermaid Queen had reached her level of popularity because she was adept at seduction.

There might be some credence to the rumors, after all.

The Peacock Princess looked at the Mermaid Queen with a bizarre expression.

I would have thought she was from the Fox race if I didn’t know better. What a femme fatale!

Zu An was amused.

She is usually noble and dignified. I didn’t expect such a side of her.

That being said, he was certain she had never employed such means on him, which showed that she was serious about getting to know him.

Soon, the Mermaid Queen received all her answers and turned to Zu An.

Zu An’s eyes glowed with intrigue as he heard a familiar name—the Aurora Poison Dragon!

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It turned out the Aurora Poison Dragon was behind all these events. Using his aptitude at poison, he'd secretly constructed a plague formation in the Dragon Palace. Everyone in the Dragon Palace had been caught off guard and fallen into his trap.

To make things worse, the East Sea Dragon King had summoned all the Ocean races’ upper echelons to the Dragon Palace to discuss the alliance with the Fiend races, allowing the Aurora Poison Dragon to crush them in a single fell swoop.

“Wait, this can’t be right. The Four Dragon Kings should be strong enough to deal with his plague formation. If he was that formidable, he should have long since risen above the Four Dragon Kings to become the ruler of the Ocean races, right?” Zu An asked.

The Mermaid Queen quickly relayed that question to the assassins.

One of the assassins’ leaders replied, “The Aurora Poison Dragon has defected to the Incestuous King, under the promise that he would be crowned the Ocean races’ new king. The Incestuous King gave him an artifact known as the Soulfall Bell that can put others into a coma. It is with this artifact that he controlled the Four Dragon Kings.”

The crowd widened their eyes in realization. That explained why the North Sea Dragon King was the first to meet with a mishap. The Aurora Poison King was the North Sea Dragon King’s subordinate, making him the easiest target. The unconscious North Sea Dragon King had thus become bait for the remaining three Dragon Kings.

Zu An was amazed by this generation’s Mojard.

He’s surprisingly competent.