Chapter 396

Chapter 396: Don’t Mess This Up!

Ao Jin paused for a moment, then chuckled, “I didn’t expect such a trivial matter would disturb your esteemed tower.”

“Don’t spout useless nonsense! I ask, you answer!” The woman wearing a cat mask stepped forward and said coldly, “We already have His Majesty’s permission to act against you whenever we want. Don’t think we’re afraid to take your life.”

Ao Jin: “…”

If this were anywhere else, Ao Jin wouldn’t be afraid at all.

After all, he had the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace behind him, and as the Prince of the Eastern Sea, anyone who dared move against him would have to consider the power backing him.

Because of his status, in most places, he could pretty much do whatever he wanted.

But things were different in the Northern Sea.

There was a very real chance he could die here.

That Dragon Empress, in some ways, was completely insane. She cared nothing about diplomatic factors.

Once she had her reasons, no one would be spared by the Dragon Empress.

He clearly remembered that a thousand years ago, an ill-fated prince from the Southern Sea came to the Northern Sea talking nonsense about marrying the Dragon Empress. The next day, he was dead at her hands.

The old Dragon King of the South didn’t dare utter a single word of protest, nor did he dare retrieve his son’s remains.

It seemed the Dragon Empress fed him to the fish.

“For the last time, what exactly were you fishing for in Coral Sea’s Ten Thousand Fish Lake?” The woman with the cat mask asked coldly.

Ao Jin shook his head, “I wasn’t fishing for anything special, just a rare fish called the Ink-Golden Fish. It’s quite expensive and can only be caught using scholarly essence as bait.

At the time, I happened upon some scholars from the White Deer Academy and thought to secretly siphon their scholarly essence to lure out the fish.

This method might not be entirely ethical, but for an opportunity like this, there’s little choice. Besides, they’d only lose a bit of scholarly essence which they could recover within days.

Unfortunately, it failed, and now I’ve disturbed all of you.”

The two masked women glanced at each other.

“You’d better be telling the truth,” the woman with the fox mask warned before turning away with her companion.

Since the explanation was given, they needed to investigate further and report back to the Dragon Empress.

Despite not being afraid to kill him, it was best to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. After all, he was still the son of the Eastern Sea Dragon King.

Further interrogations weren’t necessary either.

If he refused to say more, sticking to this story would leave them powerless unless they found evidence against him.

As the two women disappeared into the night,

Ao Jin returned to his seat and continued drinking.

Half an hour later, a shadow appeared in the courtyard.

Ao Jin sighed, picked up another cup, and poured himself a drink:

“You really arrived at the right time. If you had come any later, you’d have run into those two Dragon Palace ladies.

Not only would I have been unable to explain myself, but my life might have been forfeit here.”

The shadow dissipated, revealing a man who sat down beside Ao Jin: “Heaven seems to be protecting you, making sure you don’t die so easily.” “What about the fish?” the shadow asked.

Ao Jin laughed and shook his head, “Fish? Gone!”

Thinking about it, Ao Jin felt extremely frustrated: “The Dragon Palace doesn’t know about our plan; otherwise, they would have come for us by now. But unexpectedly, someone from the Wu Kingdom named Ming discovered my scheme.

He kept ruining things for me, and there was no way to catch the fish.”

The dark figure stroked his fingers: “Who is this Ming?”

Ao Jin: “Who else? He’s the Zhuangyuan Scholar of the Wu Kingdom, the one who wrote ‘Red Lips Leave Mirrors, Flowers Part From Trees.'”

The dark figure: “How could he know about our plan?”

Ao Jin smiled, “I’m not sure. Logically, Ming shouldn’t have known. Even if an insider leaked our plan, why target someone from the Wu Kingdom?”

The dark figure nodded, “Rest assured. Very few people know about this plan, and it’s classified. There couldn’t possibly be a leak. What does the Dragon Palace say?”

Ao Jin shook his head, “What can they say? Even if the Dragon Empress is crazy, without evidence, she can’t just kill me. I told them I wanted the Ink-Golden Fish, and even if they investigate and find the fish, it won’t change anything.

As for the real fish we’re after, they probably won’t find it unless the Dragon Empress goes herself.

But with her personality, aside from that long-lost lover from ten thousand years ago, what else does she care about? Our plan is complicated now. Without that fish, we can’t accomplish anything.”

“It’s not necessarily hopeless.” The dark figure smiled and pulled something from his sleeve, placing it on the table.

Ao Jin looked at it and narrowed his eyes, “What is this?”

“The scale of the Ink-Heaven Fish,” the dark figure replied.

Ao Jin stared at the dark figure in shock, “How did you get it?”

“Ho ho ho,” the dark figure chuckled, “Though the Ink-Heaven Fish is precious, it’s not exclusive to the Northern Sea.”

Ao Jin looked at him suspiciously, guessing something, “You… did you go to the Endless Mountain in the Demon Realm?”

“Exactly.”

The dark figure nodded.

“We can’t put all our eggs in one basket, so we sent someone secretly to the Demon Realm’s Endless Mountain long ago.”

Ao Jin frowned, “Are you insane? Making deals with the Endless Mountain!”

“Calm down, many things require sacrifice to gain. Trust me, this deal with the Endless Mountain is mutually beneficial for both sides.”

The dark figure’s gaze locked onto Ao Jin, “We’ve prepared everything for you. Don’t mess this up!”