Yang Kai's face was grim as he stared at Zhu Yan. "And what if I refuse?"
Only two paths lay before him now. The first was to agree to Zhu Yan's proposal and accompany him — effectively placing himself under watch. The second was to fight Zhu Yan right here and resolve things by force.
But his chances of coming out of that unscathed were slim at best.
Even Fu Zhun had been more than he could handle, let alone Zhu Yan, who ranked even higher.
This was the Grand Elder of the Dragon Clan. Even if Yang Kai brought out everything he had, he likely wouldn't stand a chance.
Zhu Yan slowly shook his head. "I'd advise you to agree. I have no wish to bully the young."
Yang Kai's chest tightened, his mouth filled with bitterness.
Then again, Li Jiao was currently being held, and he couldn't very well abandon the man. Both by principle and by reason, he had to go along and see how things turned out.
"Young man, come along. Mo Huang will look after you."
Fu Xuan spoke suddenly, and the corner of Mo Huang's eye twitched.
With things said as plainly as that, Yang Kai had made up his mind. He gave a slight nod. "Thank you, Third Elder. Let's go take a look together."
Fu Xuan offered a faint smile.
Zhu Yan turned to look at Mo Huang. "Should we have them stop?"
Mo Huang said nothing. He simply threw a casual punch — silent, soundless. The void rippled outward like the rings spreading from a stone dropped in water.
In the next instant, a sound like something shattering rang out, and two figures materialized in midair: Li Wuyi and Zhu Kong. Neither seemed to have suffered any real damage. It was impossible to tell from their appearance what kind of clash had taken place between them, or who had held the upper hand.
With their spatial abilities broken, Li Wuyi and Zhu Kong both created distance between themselves, eyeing Mo Huang and Zhu Yan with wariness, unsure of what was happening outside.
"I'll explain on the way." Zhu Yan turned and flew off toward the Spirit Island. Zhu Kong frowned but hurried after him.
"Let's go," Mo Huang called out as well.
The entire group set off in a grand procession toward the Spirit Island.
Along the way, both Zhu Kong and Li Wuyi had apparently been filled in on what had transpired. Zhu Kong's expression turned ugly — he had never imagined that in the span of barely an hour, a member of the Dragon Clan would have fallen on Dragon Island itself, and that the incident was connected to none other than the infamous Devouring Emperor.
Li Wuyi looked equally stunned, huddled together with Jiu Feng and whispering constantly.
The Spirit Island was rich with spiritual energy.
Faint traces of battle remained, but all of them had been left by the fight between Li Jiao and Fu Chi.
By the time the group arrived, numerous members of the Dragon Clan were already investigating the scene. Li Jiao stood surrounded by several dragons, trembling visibly, his face a mask of misery.
"Any leads?" Zhu Yan descended from the sky and landed beside Fu Zhun.
"Fu Chi did die here."
"And Wu Kuang?"
"No trace of him."
Zhu Yan nodded. After slaughtering a dragon, Wu Kuang would hardly have stayed put. He had surely fled long ago, to who knew where.
"Find his location," Zhu Yan said coldly, his fury finally boiling over. When Yang Kai had disrupted the marriage ceremony and when Mo Huang had forced his way into the Dragon Tomb to bring out Fu Xuan, he had not been particularly angry. But what Wu Kuang had done had clearly struck at the very heart of the Dragon Clan.
The crime of dragon-slaying — blood must answer for blood!
Fu Zhun nodded. Her red lips moved as the intricate syllables of the Dragon Tongue rang out, while her hands rapidly formed a series of hand seals. She was clearly activating some secret technique to track Wu Kuang's whereabouts using the traces left behind.
Fu Chi had only recently fallen. No matter how powerful Wu Kuang's abilities, he could not have escaped Dragon Island. In other words, he was still somewhere on the island — he had merely gone into hiding.
While Fu Zhun worked to locate Wu Kuang, Mo Huang was not idle either.
Despite his tangled history with Dragon Island — and even a certain desire to see every last dragon dead — the matter involved the Devouring Emperor, and he could not afford to stand by.
If the Devouring Emperor escaped, the entire Star Boundary would be thrown into turmoil. Even the Spirit Beast Island, tucked away in its remote corner, could not remain untouched.
None of these Emperors understood Wu Kuang's terror as well as he did. His very existence was a blight upon the world.
A snow-white creature darted from Mo Huang's sleeve. It resembled something between a marten and a fox, a breed of unknown origin, roughly a foot in length, its fur a luminous pure white. Its two eyes darted about with strikingly human intelligence.
Once on the ground, it began to sniff the air ceaselessly.
Zhu Yan observed this without making any move to stop it, instead striking up a conversation with Mo Huang. "Brother Mo, what do you make of Wu Kuang's motives for infiltrating Dragon Island — and why he would go so far as to reveal his identity just to slaughter members of my clan?"