Chapter 218: Prime Minister Turtle's Death

"Xiao Nanfeng, you've emerged from the rock!" Ao Zhou cried out in shock.

It was exhilarated that it had avoided certain death at Prime Minister Turtle's hands.

"Where's my half of the ancestral dragon's blood?" Xiao Nanfeng asked coldly.

Ao Zhou stiffened, then pointed at Prime Minister Turtle. "It stole it all!"

Prime Minister Turtle, the lower half of its body completely destroyed, was beyond angry. Upon hearing Ao Zhou besmirch its honor, it grew even more infuriated. "Nonsense! You've swallowed it all yourself. If I managed to obtain half of the ancestral dragon's blood, would I be in such a sorry state?!"

Xiao Nanfeng looked toward Ao Zhou again. It was obvious that it was lying.

Ao Zhou, knowing that it was in the wrong, nevertheless replied, "You can't blame me. That turtle was going to steal the ancestral dragon's blood. I was forced to swallow it all to protect it!"

Xiao Nanfeng narrowed his eyes at the shameless Ao Zhou. "You'll have to compensate me, then."

Ao Zhou pursed its lips. It had no intention of spitting out what it had already consumed.

"No one can manipulate this divine purple rock. How could you have done it, Xiao Nanfeng?!" Prime Minister Turtle cried out.

"Don't you have better things to worry about, Prime Minister Turtle? You're about to die. How did you manage to raise your cultivation to the peak of Wingform in such a short time?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

"Do you think I wanted to do it? If not for you twice destroying my physical body, how would the sea turtle spirits all have gone extinct?!" Prime Minister Turtle spat out.

"What does that have to do with me? You repaid my kindness with malice. If not for my people having saved you, you would still have been trapped on the Isle of Nalan. You've threatened and plotted against me multiple times—and now you're even besmirching my name."

"Your kindness? Nonsense! I was unfortunate enough to have been caught by Emperor Tianshu, but I would have been able to escape from the formation myself after some time. I didn't need your help! My physical body might have been weak while in its infancy, but it was specifically designed to be able to grow into strength by absorbing the draconic vein situated under the sea turtle spiritbeast lair. If I had been able to absorb it whole, I would have reached an apex—but you ruined my body! I was unable to devour the whole draconic vein by myself, so I had to sacrifice the other members of my race. You killed them all!" Prime Minister Turtle cried out.

Xiao Nanfeng's eyes twitched. "You excavated the draconic vein by the sea turtle spiritbeast lair, had all the sea turtles devour it together, and then devoured all the sea turtles?"

"It's all your fault!" Prime Minister Turtle roared.

Ao Zhou cried out, "What? You devoured your entire clan, and you're trying to blame it all on Xiao Nanfeng? You're shameless. Xiao Nanfeng, I'll help you take care of him!"

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Ao Zhou, having swallowed up all the ancestral dragon's blood, was trying to find a quick way to make it up to Xiao Nanfeng. Better yet, it was enemies with Prime Minister Turtle, and it would be able to take revenge and repay Xiao Nanfeng's favor in one fell swoop!

Prime Minister Turtle sneered. "Take care of me? I think not. I'll eat you all and use the ancestral dragon's blood to evolve into an ancestral dragon myself. I'll revive the draconic race!"

"Your physical body's already been destroyed. What makes you think you're able to do anything? I'll eat you whole!" Ao Zhou howled, biting at Prime Minister Turtle's head.

"It's too late. Xiao Nanfeng has moved the divine purple rock, freeing what it once sealed. You've all lost, haha!" Prime Minister Turtle roared.

"What?" Ao Zhou felt a flicker of unease.

It turned to see black smoke filling the hall. Flashes of red light were emitted from the smoke.

Suddenly, the red light illuminated the hall. Ao Zhou was sent flying. It smashed into the ground, then quickly scrambled back up.

"Ah? My tail's back to normal!" Ao Zhou cried out happily.

"We're in an illusion," Xiao Nanfeng warned from close by.

Ao Zhou turned to see fog rising into the air. Xiao Nanfeng was staring straight ahead, where thousands of sea turtle spirits were glaring fiercely at them. In the lead was the giant Prime Minister Turtle, with a pair of dragon's horns on its head. It looked particularly fearsome.

"Is this really an illusory realm? Where did all those sea turtles come from?" Ao Zhou gasped.

"They're the spirits of my clan. They donated their physical bodies to me, and I'm temporarily storing their souls on their behalf. I've promised to make them all dragons to establish the draconic race anew. Once I eat the two of you, I'll be able to fulfill that promise," Prime Minister Turtle laughed coldly.

"Prime Minister Turtle, you seem even weaker than you were before. Do you really think you can be my opponent?"Xiao Nanfeng replied disdainfully.

"You tricked me last time. This time, nothing will save you now—because I have your worst nightmare working with me!" Prime Minister Turtle boasted.

"These small turtles? How would they become our nightmare?" Ao Zhou taunted.

"Not my turtles, but those!" Prime Minister Turtle pointed behind itself.

From the thick fog, countless dots of red light appeared. One dot swam forward and revealed itself to be a length of red rope the size of a python.

There were thousands of lengths of red rope, each filled with killing intent.

"Cursed effigies? Three thousand of them?!" Ao Zhou cried out in shock.

Prime Minister Turtle turned toward the red rope. "Honored cursed effigies, the seal is gone. You are all free. This man and dragon are my enemies. I ask that you help me kill them both."

The lengths of red rope stared at Prime Minister Turtle, then at their surroundings.

"Eat!" one length of red rope commanded.

"Eat!" the other lengths of red rope echoed.

The red rope swarmed toward the sea turtles and began to feast on them.

"Save us, King!"

"Don't eat me! Don't eat me!"

"King, didn't you say you were going to transform us into dragons? Why are we getting eaten? No!"

The sea turtle spirits shrieked as they fled, but they were surrounded by red rope and unable to escape. The red rope quickly devoured them.

"No, no, you're all mistaken! Please, honored effigies, those are my subordinates! I'm Prime Minister Turtle, and I've forged an alliance with your cursed king. We're allies! You can't eat them!" Prime Minister Turtle cried out.

"Allies? Who do you think you are? We were just taking advantage of you. Now that we're free, you're useless to us. We were sealed away for two centuries and have exhausted most of our cursed spiritual power. We'll reclaim some with these subordinates of yours right now!" the leader of the red rope shouted. It bit Prime Minister Turtle.

"No! You can't eat me. The red rope cursed king promised to aid in my draconic transformation, to take over the world with me! You can't eat me!" Prime Minister Turtle shouted.

However, the lengths of red rope boasted overwhelming strength. They swarmed its body as it attempted to retaliate, but to no avail. It was taken down in no time.

"No!" Prime Minister Turtle screamed.

Within moments, the red rope, working together, tore the turtle's spiritual avatar into shreds, then devoured it all. Even to its death, it couldn't believe that this was how it would die after scheming for all these years.

The death of Prime Minister Turtle likewise spelled doom for the sea turtle spirits that it harbored. All of them became fodder for the red rope.

From afar, Ao Zhou cried out in shock. "What are we going to do? All this red rope—we're done for!"

"Silence!" Xiao Nanfeng hissed.

Ao Zhou was just about to run when it suddenly turned to find a skeleton standing right beside it, none other than Madam Rouge.

"It's you!" Ao Zhou exclaimed.

It still remembered when Xiao Nanfeng was challenging the Plaza Stairway. This skeleton had almost torn its spiritual avatar in half! It jumped back in shock upon seeing Madam Rouge.

"Madam Rouge, can you handle this red rope?" Xiao Nanfeng asked with some worry.

There were far too many lengths of red rope, after all. Would Madam Rouge be able to handle it if they swarmed her?

"What do you think?"

Xiao Nanfeng: ... There was no need to think; Madam Rouge's tone was proof enough!

"Madam Rouge, let me help you suppress them, then! We're friends, and we can help each other," Xiao Nanfeng immediately volunteered.

The red rope weren't fools; they wouldn't only attack Madam Rouge. Rather than wait passively as the red rope attacked him, why not take the initiative and have Madam Rouge owe him a favor?

Madam Rouge was silent for a moment. It naturally saw through Xiao Nanfeng's plan, and it certainly didn't want to owe Xiao Nanfeng a favor. As Xiao Nanfeng charged forward, she followed suit.

"Xiao Nanfeng, are you crazy? The red rope's probably at Lunar Deluge already! Do you want to die?!" Ao Zhou cried out.

The gigantic length of red rope in the lead was already shooting forward. As Xiao Nanfeng punched forth, it glowed with red light.

With a boom, however, it was sent flying. In mid-air, it exploded into a dozen or more fragments.

"What? How could your spiritual power be so strong?!" Ao Zhou widened its eyes in disbelief.

Madam Rouge did the same, shattering another length of red rope.

"This cursed skeleton, too? Could it be the elder of spacetime? No, the elder of spacetime can reach into the river of time itself! It has to be stronger than this—but surely it's one of the other elders of the Qitian Alliance?" Ao Zhou murmured.

Xiao Nanfeng and Madam Rouge destroyed red rope after red rope as she absorbed them all.

"Skeletal Elder, Xiao Nanfeng, save me!" Ao Zhou shrieked, fleeing toward the two of them.

"You're dead! We'll charge together!" one length of red rope commanded.

"Charge!" all the other lengths of red rope echoed.

Xiao Nanfeng punched forward with Hegemon's Fist, blocking the red ropes' combined assault. Although he could hold his own, he still couldn't compare to Madam Rouge. She was able to destroy a length of red rope with every punch, then absorb its fragments to grow even stronger. Her aura was such that the red rope even began to quail from her.