The giant whale princess Guo Jing and her clansmen still blocked the path, with a group of muscular whale warriors standing firmly in the way. To any uninformed demon, this didn’t look like a marriage proposal—it looked like a robbery!
"Move aside, please."
The Heavenly Serpent Li Mo took a step to the left.
The whale demons followed suit.
He shifted to the right.
They mirrored him again.
Li Mo was speechless.
Just look at the wisdom shining in their eyes—their brains were probably packed with nothing but muscle. Was there any chance of reasoning with them?
"Fine, what do you want? Lay it out!"
Li Mo abandoned the "courtesy before force" approach.
After all, Aunt Wu was here, and they were beneath the Hanging Temple. Safety wasn’t a concern.
Princess Guo Jing raised a finger as thick as a rolling pin, pointing first at Li Mo, then at herself.
"You and me—a contest of strength! Whoever’s stronger calls the shots!"
Not wanting to drag this out, Li Mo agreed without hesitation.
The surrounding demons leaned back in shock.
Even Wu Qing and Murong Feng were taken aback.
Everyone knew the reputation of the whale clan’s strength among the Southern Border’s demon races.
Legends said that long before the Great Shang Dynasty, there were immortal islands beyond the southern seas, each as vast as a tenth of the Southern Border—and they could move freely.
Because they weren’t islands at all. They were landmasses carried on the backs of the whale clan’s ancestors!
Though Guo Jing was young, her bloodline had regressed to its ancestral purity, making her a prodigy among her peers.
But our Heavenly Serpent Li Mo was no pushover either, with a glorious record of smashing one of the Xiangliu young master’s heads!
"You’re the first of your generation to dare challenge me in strength," Guo Jing said solemnly.
Li Mo glanced at her flexing biceps and sighed.
"By the fairest and most honorable whale tradition—tug-of-war!"
Guo Jing’s face lit up with reverence as she spoke of her clan’s mighty ancestors.
Once, there was a river where a particularly delicious fish migrated to the sea. But the land the river flowed through straddled the territories of two fourth-rank whale demon kings.
So the two kings tied ropes around themselves, each pulling one side of the land.
They agreed: whoever could drag the river’s estuary into their domain would claim the fish forever.
"Later, the land split in two. That’s the lesson of ‘two whales with no fish,’ teaching us the importance of unity."
Li Mo fell silent for a moment, struck by the whale clan’s brutally straightforward wisdom.
Good thing he hadn’t tried reasoning with them.
"What are we using for the tug-of-war?"
"No need to worry about that."
Guo Jing waved, and several clansmen hauled out a deep-sea bronze cable as thick as a man’s wrist.
Li Mo gripped the cable—so thick he couldn’t fully wrap his fingers around it.
Then, a tremendous force yanked it taut.
Truthfully, Guo Jing didn’t believe Wu Mo could match her strength. After all, the Heavenly Serpent bloodline, no matter how mighty, wasn’t known for physical prowess. So she held back at first, not going all out.
But what stunned her even more was—
The Heavenly Serpent youth didn’t budge an inch.
Now she prepared to unleash her full power:
"Honestly, with strength like yours, we could always discuss things as equals."
"?? Wasn’t the deal that if I win, you and your clan step aside?"
"No? If I win, you come with me. If you win, I go with you. That’s always been the whale clan’s way, y’know… eep!"
A volcanic eruption of force erupted.
A dark, fissured leviathan phantom manifested behind Guo Jing, amplifying her strength to its limits. The bronze cable even began smoking from the strain.
But… what pulled back felt like an entire world.
Guo Jing felt weightless for an instant—
Then she went flying like a cannonball, shrinking into a tiny dot in the distance.
Her clansmen scrambled after her.
The Heavenly Serpent Li Mo shielded his eyes, watching until she was definitely not coming back anytime soon, then finally relaxed.
Not just the aquatic demons, but every onlooker gasped in unison, dropping the pier’s temperature sharply.
Not only did it surpass the whale princess—it was outright domination, hurling her away like a pebble!
They’d always known this Heavenly Serpent Wu Mo was extraordinary, but they’d assumed it was just his bloodline.
Yet even his physical power…
Wu Qing, Murong Feng, and the other Heavenly Serpent clansmen were dumbfounded, momentarily forgetting to hold back the surging crowd.
Not that they could’ve stopped it anyway.
"I told you—his true dragon bloodline isn’t just a trace!"
"A peerless Heavenly Serpent, worthy of the title!"
"He’s not just the future of our clan—he’s the future of all aquatic demons!"
"No wonder he dares claim he can surpass the Qingluan Goddess!"
"With the avians boasting their Qingluan Goddess, we thought we stood no chance. But fate works in mysterious ways—Wu Mo can truly rival her!"
The aquatic demons grew even more frenzied.
More excited. At his age, with such power—what heights could he reach with the celestial jade?
And given his strength, his odds of seizing it were sky-high!
"True dragon… impossible…"
"But if not that, how else could he achieve this?"
In Zhi Duoluo’s emotionless golden eyes, a violent greed flickered to life.
He wasn’t the only divine scion.
If he could devour Wu Mo…
Almost instinctively, he stepped in front of Li Mo.
At this sight, our peerless Heavenly Serpent Li Mo felt his scalp tingle, realizing the gravity of the situation.
Other aquatic demons blocking him for marriage proposals? Annoying, but understandable.
But a bird? A male bird, no less!
Couldn’t you at least match either species or gender?
Now it wasn’t just aquatic females swarming him—even avian males were joining the fray?
"I solemnly declare—I already have someone in mind! I’m a traditional serpent!"
Li Mo announced loudly.
The crowd fell dead silent.
But… probably not because of his words?
Because every demon was now looking up, their expressions ranging from shock to awe.
A winged shadow draped over someone.
Li Mo suddenly felt a chill down his spine—that familiar pressure…
A girl stood there, her ink-black hair cascading like a waterfall, her cyan feathers radiant, setting her apart from the surrounding Qingluan Clan.
Clad in a feathered dress, bathed in sunlight, her jade-like skin seemed to frost the very air. Her poise made "graceful as a startled swan" no longer poetry—but reality.
Her jade-like face was cold and aloof, standing out even among the renowned beauty of the Qingluan Clan. The faint flicker of a cyan divine mark between her brows exuded an aura of sacred nobility.
The young woman lowered her gaze expressionlessly, her shimmering eyes suddenly turning deep and serene.
What terrifying pressure!
It was enough to suffocate any demon!
Wait—who was she staring at?
The eyes of the aquatic beings gathered in one direction.