“Ding! You completed Flood Dragon’s Warm Greeting. Reward: 30,000 spiritual knowledge, 5,000 fame, 30 drops of Soul Returning Water, and one drop of dragon blood essence(fake). Please inspect your reward.”

Chen Ming saw his rewards and taking advantage of the four dealing with the aftermath, he sneaked over to Flood Dragon’s corpse. But luck played a trick on him, bumping into Fairy Zi Xia, “Your Eminence, have you come to inspect our work?”

Chen Ming gave a forced laughter, “Ha-ha-ha, yep, yep! I wasn’t at ease letting you guys handle these matters.”

Fairy Zi Xia said, “Inside the Flood Dragon’s skull we found seventy drops of Soul Returning Water. Each of us four took ten. Cough, and here are your thirty drops. There was also an unknown drop of blood, and we thought you could have.”

Chen Ming received it all with a laugh. This must be that dragon blood essence(fake). Despite no coming from a true dragon, its effect must be quite good for Zhuo Qingyao.

After the four dealt with the aftermath, they found this event strange. Su Qingyang said, “Don’t you all find it peculiar?”

Liu Mang said, “There has never been a beast tide here, yet we just went through a large scale invasion of savage beasts. That’s not normal.”

Xue Ziyu said, “Someone must be behind this!”

Fairy Zi Xia said, “We should report this to his Eminence, to let him come to a decision.”

The others didn’t refute. They were the closest to Sovereign rank, yes, but not true Sovereigns after all.

While Chen Ming seemed to posses a Sovereign’s power.

They soon found him and expressed their doubts. Chen Ming’s reply, “Based on the frequency of beast tides, a small one should appear now and then. But in truth, there wasn’t any, and the first beast tide was especially large. How about this, I will divine for each of you and see what it unfolds!”

Chen Ming’s eyes wondered over them, “Fairy Zi Xia, I’m more familiar with you.”

Chen Ming spread his arms, ten copper coins flashing in his hand while he muttered, “Impart your wealth and glory onto me, and I shall impart the will of heaven onto you. With the Yin and Yang as support from this boundless universe, the sides of the coins shall lead the way!”

The ten coins flew and when they landed on the ground Chen Ming looked to see them split in half.

Su Qingyang asked, “His Eminence can also divine?”

Fairy Zi Xia said, “Seems so. Last time he accurately divined and we found six drops of Soul Returning Water!”

Xue Ziyu gasped in amazement, “That accurate?”

Then the four heard Chen Ming as he inspected the coins, “Great misfortune!”

Xue Ziyu, Liu Mang, Su Qingyang all stared at Fairy Zi Xia’s chest suffering upheavals, then said in unison, “Truly accurate?!”

Fairy Zi Xia blushed and cursed, “How many times has your Eminence divined such an outcome?”

Chen Ming saw their faces, They must have misunderstood my meaning. Then stressed, “I said it’s an omen of great misfortune!”

Su Qingyang, Liu Mang, Xue Ziyu looked up in sync, and whistled, “It is indeed a bountiful covered bosom!(1)”

“Your Eminence’s divination is so accurate!”

“I wonder if his Eminence can also divine the color.”

“Perhaps even the shape!”

Fairy Zi Xia stamped her feet, her cheeks red, “Enough with this, your Eminence!”

Chen Ming cursed, “Three perverts and a narcissist make a perfect team! I said misfortune as in bad luck. It’s not the same character for chest!”

The three deviants and a narcissist were put in their place. Su Qingyang asked, “I wonder how serious is his Eminence’s divination of omen of great misfortune?”

Chen Ming picked a broken coin, “If my divination is right, not one of us will leave this place alive.”

Xue Ziyu smiled, “Impossible, we are in the Nine Frozen Springs. It’s fairly easy to get out, isn’t it there only one entrance?”

Chen Ming, Fairy Zi Xia, Liu Mang, Su Qingyang turned to Xue Ziyu, with a queer expression. Xue Ziyu said, “Why are you all looking at me like that? The only power daring to move against all of us is the demonic sect. You’re trying to say that a dozen King Corps, that can hold their own against more than a thousand demonic Kings, won’t manage to defend the exit? Even if they have King Corps they can still send a report. Unless there’s a Sovereign, in which case it’s impossible!”

Xue Ziyu continued, “The Nine Frozen Springs is difficult to enter. You’re saying that they hid an array master way before inside it that set up a teleportation array so they can bring so many people?”

Then Xue Ziyu saw the other four’s eyes turn weirder. Chen Ming asked, “Who among you knows a stealth art?”

Xue Ziyu, Liu Mang, Su Qingyang lifted their heads, smugness plastered on their faces, and they all took a step back.

Why the hell are you all smug for!?

Xue Ziyu said, “A man of great character cannot use stealth!”

Liu Mang slapped his great pecs, “A true man fights head-on!”

Su Qingyang’s nose reached the sky, I don’t know, but there’s no way I can say that. “That is only a method for the weak. How can we need stealth with our strength?”

The three guys knew Chen Ming was stronger and refrained from assuming an air befitting their rank on the Dao Comprehending Board. Nope, they couldn’t help it.

If you don’t know then you don’t know. Why the f*ck are you bragging around for? You’re still geniuses!

Chen Ming shifted to Fairy Zi Xia, “Do you know a stealth cultivation method?”

Fairy Zi Xia said, “I learned a bit when I sneaked out of the sect and killed the Demonic Defender.”

Slipping out of the sect to kill the Demonic Defender gives you away right there. The ancient immortal sects still needed to slip away to kill Demonic Defender?

Chen Ming wasn’t bored enough to expose Fairy Zi Xia that the sect new stealth arts. He took to his crow form and landed on her shoulder, “Use the stealth art. We shall go an inspect the exit.”

Fairy Zi Xia asked, “Is your true body a crow or a turtle?”

“That’s not important, go.”

After making sure the two left, Xue Ziyu asked, “Seriously now, is his Eminence’s true body that of a crow or a turtle?”

Liu Mang said, “Why waste time on this? Crow, turtle, don’t they have the same family name of ‘wu'(乌)?”

Xue Ziyu and Su Qingyang stared oddly at Liu Mang, “And you’re thinking of that?”

(1)    Pun with the previous line. ‘Omen of great misfortune’ is homophone with ‘covered great chest’.

(2)    乌龟 = turtle，乌鸦= crow. They have the same first character, meaning crow/black.