NOVPUB
Chapter 2550: Slave
Zu An raised his eyebrows upon hearing the name ‘Gonggong’. He had met Gonggong the last time he was here, and the other party’s major boss vibe had left him with a deep impression. no𝚟𝚙u𝚋.c𝚘m
A figure with a human face and a snake body stood above a whirlpool, his red hair fluttering with the wind; he had an open and carefree air.
Zu An frowned. This wasn't the Gonggong he had met the last time. He belatedly recalled Gonggong’s subordinate, Xiang Liu, telling him that Gonggong was a position, so there had been many Gonggongs over the generations.
Given how the shamans addressed the current Gonggong as an Ancestral Shaman, could he be the very first Gonggong?
But what’s with the Shaman races? Why do so many of them have human faces and snake bodies?
With Gonggong taking the lead, more figures emerged from the mountains, each of them emanating powerful auras. They were powerhouses of the Shaman races. They hadn’t dared to step forward and backed down because they were intimidated by the Celestial Emperor’s aura, but with Gonggong taking the lead, they decided to join him.
They weren’t close with Bao Jiang, and they didn’t care about the details of this matter either. What they were concerned about was the Shaman races’ reputation. They felt that the Celestial Emperor had gone overboard by intruding on Ancestral Shaman Zhulong’s territory and publicly sentencing his son to death. Zhulong, for some reason, had chosen to tolerate it, but that didn’t mean that the others would take it lying down!
Over the years, there had been too many conflicts between the Celestial Court’s Fiend races and the Shaman races to determine who had done what wrong first. The accumulated grudges had grown so great that both sides viewed each other as an eyesore.
The Celestial Emperor coldly glanced at Gonggong. “Gonggong, what do you want?”
As he rode on a huge wave, Gonggong’s red hair fluttered. His aura was no weaker than the Celestial Emperor’s golden avatar. “Gu is a shaman. Even if he deserves to be punished, you should have let us deal with him internally. You’re undermining our agreement by executing him publicly.”
“Since Gu took on a position in the Celestial Court, he was obligated to follow celestial laws. It is within the scope of our agreement to punish him,” the Celestial Emperor calmly pointed out.
A shaman powerhouse exclaimed, “Hah! I was wondering why the Celestial Court was conferring us with titles. Turns out it was a trap all along! Since that’s the case, there’s no reason for us to continue holding onto those positions!”
Many shaman powerhouses voiced their agreement. “Indeed! So many of our people fought with each other to get positions in the Celestial Court. Little did they know that they were just shackling themselves.”
“I don’t need a post if it means that the Celestial Court can arbitrarily sentence me to death!”
...
Those words riled up the crowd.
Zu An was surprised. The Celestial Emperor must be disturbed that so many people are outright defying him. Looks like the conflict between the Fiend races and the Shaman races is creeping toward its climax.
He turned to Xingtian and Kuafu. “You also witnessed the events. What do you make of this matter?”
Kuafu replied, “Gu deserves to be punished, but their words make sense too. The one to punish Gu should have been Lady Houtu and not the Celestial Emperor.”
Xingtian scraped his axe against his shield. “Fight, fight! My axe thirsts for blood!”
Zu An was at a loss for words. This fellow doesn’t care about the truth at all. He just wants to fight.
He turned to the Goddess of Wu Mountain. He naturally felt goodwill toward her because she resembled Pei Mianman. Ah, our Manman is so beautiful!
“Is there something on my face? Why are you looking at me?” the Goddess of Wu Mountain calmly asked, but her eyes remained fixated on the distant Zhong Mountain.
Yumen Beiqing sneered. This man is a breeding horse. His mind is filled with nothing but filth.
The Mermaid Queen frowned as well. Big brother Zu is too lustful! But she quickly remembered how he'd initially kept his distance from her despite his nature, and that made her feel that he was a gentleman instead.
Feeling the two ladies’ sharp gaze, Zu An’s face heated up. “I was wondering about the Goddess’ take on this matter.”
“What can you see?” the Goddess of Wu Mountain calmly asked.
Zu An had to concede that despite their identical appearances, their personalities were vastly different. One was passionate and seductive, whereas the other was as cold as ice. The Goddess of Wu Mountain’s personality was closer to Chu Chuyan’s instead.
Remembering Chuyan made Zu An’s heart hurt. He said solemnly, “It doesn’t look as if you care about how this matter unfolds.”
Sensing the change in his mood, the Goddess of Wu Mountain looked at him before answering, “Yes, I have nothing to do with this matter.”
She had only intervened because Bao Jiang was her friend. Now that the culprit had been punished, she couldn’t care less about what happened afterward.
Zu An was surprised. Even though the Goddess of Wu Mountain lives on Spirit Mountain, she's more aligned with the Celestial Court than the Shaman races. Is she not worried that if she maintains a nonchalant attitude, the Celestial Court might suffer a setback here?
In a cavern amid the mountain range, the Lord of Slaughter and Salamay stood respectfully behind a black-robed man. “Master is indeed wise! You were able to turn the fiends against the shamans with just a little ploy!”
It felt as if many things had happened since they arrived in this world.
One morning, they'd woken up to find Mojard missing. This came as a huge shock to them, as Mojard was no weakling, and he had rested alongside them that night. And yet, he'd disappeared without them noticing, leaving not a trace behind. The person behind it had to have been terrifyingly powerful for neither the Lord of Slaughter nor Salamay to have noticed a thing.
Salamay had wanted to search for the missing Mojard, but the Lord of Slaughter had dragged her elsewhere. They'd begun making their way toward the towering Kunlun Mountain, which could be seen from all parts of this world.
Be it Kunlun Mountain’s towering peak that pierced through the clouds, or the words of the indigenous population, the Lord of Slaughter had become convinced that Kunlun Mountain was linked to the Celestial Court. He wanted to find the Celestial Court’s secret and awaken his bloodline, so he could return to his world and exact vengeance on the Monster Lord.
Along the way, they'd encountered a mysterious man. The latter had spent a long time sizing them up, occasionally murmuring words like ‘slave’ and ‘pet’.
The Lord of Slaughter, being the hot-tempered man he was, couldn’t tolerate such an insult and decided to kill the other party to vent his anger.
Howevver, what happened next had driven him to despair. He'd been defeated before he could touch the other party. It was a completely one-sided battle.
He could still remember the other party looking down on him while saying, “I never expected to stumble upon such a rare spirit beast. I happen to be lacking underlings. Are you willing to be my mount?”
The humiliation he'd felt then permeated his entire being. To think that he, the Lord of Slaughter, was only worthy of being a mount to the other party!
Even so, he had no choice but to submit. The other party was so strong that when going up against him, the Lord of Slaughter was completely helpless. Furthermore, the other party’s words suggested that he knew about the Lord of Slaughter's bloodline origin. That sparked the Lord of Slaughter’s hopes of becoming stronger. So, he'd decided to accept the offer. Naturally, Salamay had no choice but to follow her father too.
As a result, both the father and the daughter had become the mysterious man’s mounts.
Over time, the Lord of Slaughter witnessed the mysterious man’s methods of wreaking havoc in the world. That reduced the indignation he felt, and he thought that he'd likely made the correct decision then.
“The fiends and the shamans have been fighting for a long time now. I am merely giving them a push. Besides,” the black-robed man said with a chuckle, “I’m not the only one fanning this conflict.”
