Chapter 130: The Male Turtle and the Female Loach

Xuanwu had discerned Zhou Qing’s true intentions, and from his words and actions, sensed no malice or threat to his own life. Therefore, after a brief conversation at the forest’s edge, they returned together to the lake.

As they descended into the water, a grey loach nearly a foot long was about to slip into the bottomless hole.

“Where have you been, looking half-dead?” The loach, upon seeing Xuanwu and Zhou Qing, swished its tail and swam over.

“It was nothing, I simply had business on shore with this fellow cultivator, Zhou,” Xuanwu replied, then turned to introduce Zhou Qing. “Fellow Daoist Zhou, this is my betrothed, the fairy Nana. Her brother is none other than the Great Sage of the Water Palace.”

At this, Zhou Qing struggled to contain his amusement. He could never have imagined that an old male turtle would fall in love with a female loach, let alone one with such a flamboyant name.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou? You never mentioned you had such a friend before!” The grey loach flicked its tail and swam to Xuanwu’s side, bumping her head affectionately against his. The two little demons whispered to each other, a scene of clear devotion that Zhou Qing could not help but notice.

After a brief moment of intimacy beneath Zhou Qing’s feet, Xuanwu seemed to remember something. He stretched out his limbs and swam over to the bottomless hole.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou, allow me to lead you down to the Water Palace.”

Seeing this, Zhou Qing followed in a blur, drifting alongside the old turtle into the depths. As for the large loach named Fairy Nana waiting outside the hole, Zhou Qing paid her no mind. Xuanwu had whispered to her just now, likely explaining everything, so she did not accompany them below as she had originally intended.

The underwater cavern at the lake’s center was exceedingly deep. With Xuanwu leading the way, Zhou Qing descended nearly a hundred fathoms before finally reaching the bottom.

Once there, he beheld a magnificent sight. The space below the cavern was not dark but as bright as day, and remarkably spacious.

They hovered over a patch of water, but not far ahead was a colossal bubble, and within that bubble stood an imposing palace.

To compare, the palace inside the bubble was at least ten times larger than the house Zhou Qing once lived in back in Jinling County.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou, that is the Water Palace. I won’t be going in with you; please make yourself at home.”

Having led Zhou Qing this far, Xuanwu pointed to the bubble and spoke.

“Since you’ve brought me this far, see me into the palace before you leave,” Zhou Qing replied.

“Very well, follow me,” Xuanwu answered, leading Zhou Qing into the bubble.

Zhou Qing had expected there to be some resistance passing through the bubble, but to his surprise, he felt nothing at all.

Inside, the environment was much like the world above. There was an open space planted with trees, a stone path winding twenty yards to the front gates of the Water Palace.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou, just enter through that door. I’ll take my leave!” Xuanwu said. Since his purpose was only to guide Zhou Qing, and that was now accomplished, Zhou Qing nodded in agreement and the old turtle slipped away outside the bubble.

Once Xuanwu had departed, Zhou Qing secured his still-unusable left arm behind his back and, gripping his Phantom Twin in his right hand, stepped onto the stone path leading into the palace.

The palace doors stood slightly ajar. Zhou Qing strode up and gave them a kick; they swung open with a resounding noise, revealing a vast courtyard.

Beyond the doors was a flagstone path, more than a yard wide, flanked on each side by pools thick with round, green lotus leaves—some large, some small, with pink blossoms nestled among them.

The stone path was short; at its end stood the grand hall. As Zhou Qing walked, he could faintly hear laughter drifting from within.

At first, no one noticed him when he entered the front yard, but as he made his way along the stone path, a creature inside caught sight of him.

“Who’s that?” asked a half-demon with a shrimp’s head and human legs, mid-bite into a dead snake with its pincers. It glanced up at the red-robed Zhou Qing in puzzlement.

The shrimp-headed demon's words drew the attention of two others—half-man, half-crab monsters—who turned their gaze outside as well.

At the same time, a young man in a dazzling golden robe rose to look out, flanked by a humanoid demon, swathed in black cloth, armless.

As the few demons in the great hall sized up Zhou Qing, he too cast his gaze within.

Of the five monsters present, aside from the Black Loach, the Great Sage, the other four had all met Zhou Qing before. Only the golden-robed figure knew why he had come; the rest did not.

On either side of the hall’s entrance hung long strips of red cloth, each adorned with a lantern bearing the character for “double happiness.” Zhou Qing could not fathom how, in this primeval forest, such festive decorations had been acquired. Seeing them, however, a trace of displeasure flickered in his heart.

“Hand her over!”

Under the watchful eyes of the little demons, Zhou Qing strode up to the steps of the grand hall, brandished his Phantom Twin, and with a single sweep, tore down the red banners and lanterns.

“Insolence! Today is my master’s wedding feast—how dare you make trouble here!” the Great Sage cried, charging from the hall and ramming straight at Zhou Qing.

Yet Zhou Qing did not strike to kill. If he wished, he could have turned the Phantom Twin into a deadly blade and ended the little demon’s life with a single blow.

As the Great Sage lunged, Zhou Qing’s form shifted, dodging back a couple of steps. When the demon landed, Zhou Qing stepped forward and pressed his foot down on the creature’s head.

With a yelp of pain, black smoke billowed from the demon as it transformed back into a thick, foot-long black loach, darting into the lotus pond beside the path.

Zhou Qing ignored the Great Sage now hiding in the pool and fixed his gaze on the golden-robed figure in the hall, shouting, “I’ll say it one last time—hand her over, or I’ll kill you where you stand!”

“You—!”

Zhou Qing’s threat echoed into the hall. Fear flickered across the face of the golden-robed youth, and not just him—the Red Dragon Immortal and the Celestial Daoist couple beside him all trembled.

These weaklings had lived in this wild lake for many years without incident, but Zhou Qing’s arrival had brought with it a chilling sense of dread.