And how could she have perfectly arranged all of this so that a pursuit took place right in front of me?
In that instant, too many possibilities appeared in his mind. Even though he was someone who had been through his fair share of frightening events, he still broke out in cold sweat.
Just then, the Dragon King said with an awe-inspiring smile, “She is our Ocean races' queen, after all. I wonder just what you did to her exactly?”
Zu An could feel the real killing intent behind his words.
Could he really be worried that I did something to his wife?
His thoughts were too messy right now and he couldn't really figure out which side was wrong. For now, he didn’t want to antagonize either side. He said, “I didn’t do anything. I just happened to encounter a seriously wounded queen, and then I trapped her with a formation. After that, I came here to make a report. Everything I’ve done is clearly in line with the arrest warrant. Could it be that the Ocean races are people who go back on their word?”
“Impudent!” Many Ocean race ministers were furious. They glowered at him angrily.
Zu An wasn’t even in the mood to pay attention to the Rage points he was receiving. Instead, he continued to think about what had happened as of late.
All of Shang Hongyu’s behavior had been normal. If it was all just acting, her acting skills were just too incredible. After all, with his current experience, fooling him really was difficult. Furthermore, they had interacted with each other day after day, and they had even held each other when they slept. He hadn’t sensed the slightest bit of black miasma from her body.
Wait... There were, but it was from her injuries.
What if she was just hiding it through the pretext of the injury?
The Dragon King raised his hand to stop the criticisms of his subjects. “What this human says is within reason. We do not see others as members of our Ocean races.” Then, he looked at Zu An and said, “You actually captured the Mermaid Queen. This truly is a bit unexpected. Where is she right now?”
“Where is the reward I was promised?” Zu An replied, showing a greedy and longing expression. In terms of acting, he wasn’t any worse off himself.
With a wave of the Dragon King’s hands, a group of guards carried over more than ten chests. With another wave, all of the chests were opened. They shone with brilliant light. They contained the highest-quality ki stones, jewelry, and magic treasures.
“Tell me where the queen is, and these will all be yours. Also, I will fulfill the promise and receive you as my disciple. In the future, no one in this Dragon Palace or the Ocean races will dare to mistreat you.” The Dragon King stared straight at Zu An with his large eyes.
When he saw the copious amounts of riches, Zu An thought to himself, Shang Hongyu is indeed worth quite a bit. He suddenly asked, “May I ask why the Dragon King wishes to arrest the queen?”
He needed more information to make the correct decision.
“Audacious!” the turtle with the small beard next to the Dragon King snapped.
The Dragon King looked at Zu An and asked, “Why do you concern yourself with this question?” There was a faint killing intent in his eyes, as if a single wrong word would cause him give the order for Zu An’s death.
“I just want to know if this reward comes without any dangers to my life. After all, the order is to arrest the Mermaid Queen. If I accidentally ended up getting involved in the secrets of your relationship as husband and wife, I could well be killed off to preserve them,” Zu An replied.
Laughter resounded through the palace. The atmosphere was no longer as grave as before.
“This human is surprisingly cowardly.”
“It’s not really his fault. It’s only natural that he's worried about such things.”
...
Sure enough, the Dragon King’s expression eased up a little. He said, “That’s not something you need to worry about. Could it be that I’d go back on my word in front of so many of our important subjects? What dignity would I have left in the Ocean races in the future? You can hand over the queen now, right?”